I’ve been meaning to write this down for some time. Has anyone else noticed similar issues with Alexa? I just said “Alexa, turn on, erm, mancave” – where “mancave” is a group of lights. The “erm” threw Alexa off-course as you’d expect. “What would you like me to turn on?”…
PiVPN, Pi-hole and ZeroTier
This blog entry started off back in 2019 as a simple comment on the amazingly useful PiVPN and has branched out a lot since then – now covering ZeroTier. I’ve no association with any of these companies. Before we start, here is a link to the various sites for PiVPN,…
New Blitzwolf Lights from Banggood
The first of the two new lights I’ve just received is the Blitzwolf BW-LT21 Smart LED Light Bulb. Ok, so its a bulb… so what? Well, not only is the white very bright, the colours are bright, too. All too often with RGB bulbs, the individual colours are pathetic –…
Argon ONE Case for Raspberry Pi 4 Updated
The Argon ONE case is very pretty (but then it is not cheap so you’d expect that). It has variable control over the built-in fan and I had to ramp up the settings as the fan was initially off even though the case was very warm – now the whole…
SSD Cloning on Raspberry Pi 4
Preface: The subject of this blog entry is, in the main, about cloning (for backup mainly) from one Solid State Drive (SSD) on the Raspberry Pi 4 (RPi4) to another SSD. Why SSD? They can be only a little more expensive than SDs – are supposedly much more reliable and…
Sinilink XY-WFMS ESP8266 Board with MOSFET
I have a couple of cheap Sinilink 30mm by 46mm boards based on ESP-12 modules which take variable voltage ranging 5v-36v DC and can supply several amps out. Now if you are wondering what a “Sinilink” board is – I urge you to take a look at this earlier blog…
More Blitzwolf Goodness
In the mailbag I have two USB goodies from Blitzwolf – a Blitzwolf® BW-AC1 3A 90°Right Angle USB A to Type-C Data Cable and a BlitzWolf® BW-TH5 7 in 1 USB-C Data Hub Firstly I needed the cable as I’ve just thrown away a black type C cable that was…
USB Charged Electrolytic Disinfectant Generator
Something new! To give this gasdget its full title: 84 Disinfection Water Maker Electrolytic Generator Sodium Hypochlorite Disinfectant Liquid Making Machine USB Charging Phone Sterilizer this product from Banggood generates disinfectant liquid from nothing more than common salt and water using a process called electrochlorination. Given the rather unique circumstances…
Blitzwolf BW-SS5 1-Gang Relay
With so many smart switches and sockets out there, how do you differentiate your product? It looks like Blitzwolf have done just that. Small enough to fit inside a back-box and comes complete with a detachable clip–on bracket – the BlitzWolf BW-SS5 1 Gang/2 Gang Two Way 10A 2300W WIFI…
PC Security and Gatekeeper
Not something you’d really expect to see on my blog, I’m writing this short piece on the Gatekeeper product by Untethered Labs as I spend more time than I like to think about, keeping my equipment safe from outside intrusion and when GKChain offered to send a sample of their…
Solar HD1080P IP67 Camera
This device was installed way back to summer 2019 – the Solar powered HD 1080p Wireless PIR waterproof security outdoor IP67 camera from Banggood. I’ve resurrected this article as I originally gave it a bad review as I felt it was unreliable – now I’m pretty certain my issue was…
ESCAM PVR008 Auto-Tracking H265 IP Camera
No, this is not new. Back in October last year, Banggood sent this little, inexpensive WiFi Escam auto-tracking PTZ pan-and-tilt 1080p night vision camera to me and for reasons beyond me I did nothing with it. I’m sorting my stuff to take away with me this summer and I was…
RX-3 Lite V2 Body-worn CCTV Camera
ReWire Security recently sent me their model RX-3 Lite V2 Body-worn CCTV Camera. In case you’re wondering what that is – it’s a small body-worn audio-video-recording camera weighing less than 150g (plus harness) – offering 11 hours of HD video recording on a single charge. Yes you could record yourself…
Eachine E520S GPS WIFI Quadcoptor
Let me tell you a little about the nice-looking Eachine E520S GPS WIFI FPV With 4K/1080P HD Camera Quadcopter which recently arrived for me from Banggood – I WAS going to save this for the summer in Spain but as Banggood have a sale on right now I figured you…
Perfect Prime IR0005 IR Camera
The left photo below is what my IR0005 camera thinks of EU Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier on TV – not a lot it would seem. Below-right is the camera itself in it’s case along with USB lead, manual and strap. I received my (not inexpensive) IR0005 camera from Perfect Prime…
AWOW A60 E27 9W RGBW lights and Tasmota
Setting up RGB lights to work with Tasmota is not always as smooth as it might possibly be. Check here and you will see in this Tasmota template, a clear reference to the AWOW A60 E27 9W RGBW light So, simple enough, apply the template? {“NAME”:”AWOW 9W RGBW”,”GPIO”:[0,0,0,0,37,40,0,0,38,0,39,0,0],”FLAG”:0,”BASE”:18} Well, yes…
A Better Raspberry Pi Case?
Over the years I must’ve had every cheap plastic case going for my various Raspberry Pis, from clear cases through bright red expensive looking perspex, black, orange, you name it. Until now, sizes were pretty much universal and would even fit some of the Not-Raspberry PIs. But now, all change.…
More Zigbee Learning (or not)
Elsewhere I’ve just started to write about Zigbee – the low-energy RF communication alternative to WiFi and 433Mhz radio control of various smart devices. To make a start, I’m using my normal Raspberry Pi arrangement with the addition of a small pre-programmed dongle from Itead which works with the widely…
GL-iNet Spitz 4G LTE Smart Router
I’m impressed already – as a long-term occasional user of the GL-iNet Mango travel router, I thought I’d give their upmarket products a look. The Spitz is, to LOVELY at least to look at. Check pricing in your area. Tiny and open-source, the Spitz arrived in up-market packaging, complete with…
Blitzwolf BW-SS4 1-2-way Smart Switch
Maybe I’m just fascinated with the name Blitzwolf but here I am with another gadget from the company – I use lots of Blitzwolf gadgets – I didn’t even bother with the Blitzwolf APP which will do exactly what you expect of a smart controller, Instead I took a chance…