Feed

  • Peter Scargill The LattePanda IOTA SBC by Peter Scargill: Thanks MArco. HAH, thanks for that. I’m dreading packing up my office with my countless samples and half-finished projects for the move. Dec 12, 13:47
  • The LattePanda IOTA SBC by Marco A A de Oliveira: Greetings! From your fourth photograph, the POE hat kit comes with eight standoffs, and as there are only four holes in the LattePanda, the four extra may be (diverted) for the UPS hat. I hope you complete a successful move. Dec 12, 13:42
  • Sonoff Dongle Plus MG24 and Dongle Max by Johnny: Thanks. Some googling revealed that the Dongle Max only supports being a WireGuard client. So doesn’t exactly meet my needs. I’ve tried what seems to be every flavor of VPN *except* for Tailscale. Will have to check it out. Cheers! Dec 2, 23:21
  • Peter Scargill Sonoff Dongle Plus MG24 and Dongle Max by Peter Scargill: I used Tailscale only on one machine in each of two properties – also on my phone – that gives me access to absolutely everything whether I’m in one of the properties or out on the road. Dec 2, 19:41
  • Sonoff Dongle Plus MG24 and Dongle Max by Johnny: Amazing site! Does the VPN feature provide both WireGuard server *and* client modes? As a Wireguard server, would it be possible to access my internal network? Or does the Dongle Max only permit access to it’s own management console? Inquiring minds want to know! Would love to retire my collection of R-Pi’s running ZeroTier. Thanks again… -J Dec 1, 20:48
  • Peter Scargill Christmas Time Again – Which ESP? by Peter Scargill: I’ve reserved the last half dozen or so lights for white glitter… Done. Last video.. Dec 1, 16:31
  • Peter Scargill Christmas Time Again – Which ESP? by Peter Scargill: My wife absolutely loves TwinkleFox. Dec 1, 16:19
  • Christmas Time Again – Which ESP? by purwokerto telU: Loved this! Amazing how the old ESP8266 still ends up saving Christmas every year 😂. WLED + WS2812 is hard to beat, and TwinkleFox is one of my favourite presets. Thanks for the tip on power draw — easy to forget how quickly LEDs add up. Dec 1, 14:23
  • DrFragle and MrShark Nous AZ7 Smart Zigbee Socket by DrFragle and MrShark: the countdown is there in case you want to do “inching”, like turning something on and off rapidly, like a gate opener (not that i know any needing 16A…), and having it locally makes it work even if ha is unavailable, the same way as you do with tasmota rules Dec 1, 11:16
  • Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition vs Google by MR STUART NAYLOR: The get out clause for selling what is subpar e-waste is that its a PE aka preview edition. Its not good and if you have followed opensource voice tech the same actors keep turning be it Mycroft, Rhasspy or HA and the same far below consumer levels of expectations are on show again. Much is that permissive opensource is just being refactored and rebranded as own into supposed systems and the packaging of python is good code but the ML and audio processing is poor as that wasn’t developed merely taken. Nov 24, 16:44
  • Peter Scargill Text Adventure – Only 40 Years Too Late by Peter Scargill: The more I look at that cat above, the more haunting it gets, Antonio. It absolutely looks straight out of an adventure game. Nov 5, 20:11
  • Peter Scargill Text Adventure – Only 40 Years Too Late by Peter Scargill: I have to tell you, Garry, I am having so much fun with this stuff it’s a good job I’m retired because I wouldn’t have the time to hold down a job and play with all this tech at the same time. I’m just about to put up a short blog entry on something new I’ve just discovered at random called Wispr Flow. Now I’d really love feedback. Does it look like rubbish? Does it look dangerous? Or is anybody actually going to try this on my recommendation? Which, incidentally, I must clarify I’m not taking responsibility for anyone clicking on a link. One thing’s for sure: if there is such a thing still as a typing pool, well, guys, your time’s up. When I’m writing these blog entries and replying to people, I make so many mistakes that I spend more time correcting the mistakes than actually writing. So, hopefully, for the first time ever, this response will not have involved any typing at all. Wish me luck. Peach – No, not perfect, my name is Pete, not Peach 🙂 Nov 5, 20:09
  • Text Adventure – Only 40 Years Too Late by Garry: That’s really interesting. I used to play text adventures too and even had a go at writing one using Excel and VBA. Gemini really nailed the style, particularly the description. Nov 1, 05:42
  • Peter Scargill For Drone Owners Only – Waypoints and Elevation by Peter Scargill: I’m not an expert but as far as I’m aware, under 250gm you’re OK. Over 250gm you need a licence. Usual restrictions around airports and public parks… I tend to stay away from people with the drone – just to be safe. The description of crowded spaces is a bit vague. Oct 31, 14:46
  • Text Adventure – Only 40 Years Too Late by Tony: There was a project that took the output from the original Adventure game as it was being played and created the image in realtime…… Incredible age to be in! Oct 31, 12:48
  • Peter Scargill Text Adventure – Only 40 Years Too Late by Peter Scargill: Yup – good Antonio – but the face does not quite match that of a Bengal cat. Well lit however…. I love the wet floor tiling… all subtle and good… I also just completed giving Gemini my own description and having it create an image… quite pleased… here’s what I put in… “Create an image, using a night-time dark garden as a base – and show a Bengal cat staring at something it thinks is mysterious – the image should offer clues as to possible exits out of the garden without being too obvious – and should convey the excitement of a 1980s style adventure while remaining realistic in the image depiction.” and it’s image it created…. This is SO much fun – if only the world wasn’t full of asses who will abuse this tech. I think I’m going to deliberately start marking any images or text I find useful to make it blatantly clear it’s AI. Someone has to make a start. In the image above I left in the Gemini marker bottom left. Oct 31, 01:19
  • DrFragle and MrShark Text Adventure – Only 40 Years Too Late by DrFragle and MrShark: asked to make it photorealistic, and flipped vertically so cat looks the same way as your photo… Oct 31, 00:00
  • DrFragle and MrShark Text Adventure – Only 40 Years Too Late by DrFragle and MrShark: took your description and pasted as is in chatgpt, asking to create an image… here it is… Oct 30, 23:57
  • For Drone Owners Only – Waypoints and Elevation by Andrew HUSSEY: Ah…I too am in Spain, a little south of you about 40Km from Almeria at the moment. I have my drone with me and wondered if you could offer any pointers on using drones in Spain? I’m all legal and registered in France but not looked at what I can and can’t do here yet. Oct 29, 13:39
  • Peter Scargill Home Assistant to NAS to Mini PC – The Sequel by Peter Scargill: Thanks for that. As it is onky running HAOS and related, 256GB is more than enough. 100% up to now… best decision of the year. Oct 22, 05:53
  • Home Assistant to NAS to Mini PC – The Sequel by Richard Baker: Have the identical unit, purchased to use while my BOSGAME P3, Ryzen 9 is being restored by the insurance I bought with it. So far and 6 months later it is a real worker. Good Luck and if you figure out how to increase the 256GB SSD please post. Best Regards Richard Baker a liberal in the hell of Texas Oct 21, 22:54
  • Peter Scargill Just a Quick Reminder – Wemos D1 Mini and WLED by Peter Scargill: Some of mine are many years old and running fine – the point is – the ESP8266 is readily available and even cheaper than the ESP32 – and you can do lots with it as long as you don’t need BT. In the majority of cases – for commercial products such as smart switches and smart bulbs etc, the BT is only used in initial setup anyway to make setup marginally easier. Oct 20, 17:48
  • Just a Quick Reminder – Wemos D1 Mini and WLED by tim Rowledge: My suite of 8266s with SHT31s are still doing sterling service after 8?9?10? years. Oct 16, 20:06
  • ESP32-C3 and LD2450 – A Quick Look by Phil: I recently watched a YouTube video that uses the Bluetooth version of this sensor to integrate into Home Assistant without the need for an ESP32 https://youtu.be/Rkb0EYSYpUg Oct 4, 14:17
  • Peter Scargill Rpi5 and the Transition from The Script to Docker by Peter Scargill: I’ve changed that line slightly to make it clear that /usr/local/bin is a folder – and the last code block in the blog entry is my CLS command – probably not the best name for it – it clears the screen and shows a load of status into. It’s a python file. Sep 30, 18:58
  • Rpi5 and the Transition from The Script to Docker by NewGuy: I got completely lost at this step “Finally, insert the code for my cls command at /usr/local/bin using mcedit… then give the everyone full access to the file including execute.” I am a strict windows user and have no idea what Im creating here. Am I creating a file? It says to insert the code as if a flie already exist but I can’t see any files in the bin folder. Sep 30, 18:32
  • Surface Pro 4 – Windows 11 or NOT? by Richard Boot: Have Win 11 (24H2) running fine on mine (i7, 500GB, 16Gb) – although installing the latest intel 540 graphics driver was a challenge! Mine suffers from the dreaded battery drain when powered off – which kind of ruins the experience. Has anyone found a ‘cure’ for this? Like you I purchased my SP4 used – so considering what I paid I’m still happy. Fixing the battery drain would be the icing on the cake. Sep 28, 18:42
  • Peter Scargill A New Year’s AI Treat + September Updates by Peter Scargill: The people who understand that probably don’t need AI. The ones who haven’t a clue form the vast majority, sadly. And many of them will be told by bosses who don’t have a clue, to use the AI in their work. I wonder from where Trump got the idea that Paracetamol causes autism… Sep 27, 09:52
  • A New Year’s AI Treat + September Updates by Ciubotaru Ion: As long as people understand that artificial intelligence is just a search engine on steroids, it’s fine. When they start attributing it superior human qualities like emotions, empathy, and understanding, that’s problematic. Sep 27, 07:39
  • Reolink WiFi Video Doorbell – It’s a winner! by DorbellS: Really helpful write up. I like that Reolink still allows SD card and FTP storage instead of pushing only cloud subscriptions. The customization options like voice messages and siren sounds make it stand out from cheaper models. Looks like a solid long term pick. Sep 24, 07:47
  • Peter Scargill Switchbot S20 Lidar + AI Vacuum and Wet Cleaner by Peter Scargill: Wow. I just saw the sale, but then I am in Spain… sorry – it seems you are getting ripped.. 599 Euros with voucher on Amazon.es I’m in the UK tomorrow – I’ll check… Sep 21, 19:51
  • Paul smyth Switchbot S20 Lidar + AI Vacuum and Wet Cleaner by Paul smyth: It’s currently £800 gbp (UK pounds sterling) on switchbot website. Sep 21, 15:50
  • Peter Scargill Switchbot S20 Lidar + AI Vacuum and Wet Cleaner by Peter Scargill: First things first – 800 Euros not £800 and in reality with sales more like 600 and I think they’ll likely adjust prices in time – our original Xiaomi dropped a lot in 4 years. I’m retired so no… but when running businesses – sure. We got the Xiaomi in 2021 and it is as new even now.. apart from a few scuffs thanks to banging into walls and furniture. I look after the brushes etc and spares if needed (we didn’t thanks to regular maintenance). I’ve no reason to believe the Switchbot unit will be any different. I’ve lots of Switchbot stuff and what I have is high quality. Sep 21, 11:55
  • Paul smyth Switchbot S20 Lidar + AI Vacuum and Wet Cleaner by Paul smyth: Question is, at £800, would you have paid your own money for it? Time will tell if it lasts longer than a couple years. Sep 21, 11:26
  • Switchbot S20 Lidar + AI Vacuum and Wet Cleaner by Digi: Good review. Thank you. However, there are a couple spelling mistakes. “Car scratching post”? 🤣 Sep 19, 13:15
  • Peter Scargill Seeed 7.5″ ePaper Display – Learn with Peter 🙂 by Peter Scargill: Ok, more updates – that last writing when I had to charge the battery was September 9 – I left the battery on charge ALL DAY… just looked now, the display stopped on September 11. I’ve just checked now… Obviously the display is still on – but reset and boot separately failed to provoke an update so I guess the battery is flat again. Plug into power – the display refreshed at January 1 – just under a minute later updated correctly to September 14 – i.e. today – SO – all works well but forget about long battery charge life with refreshes every minute. That’s a shame. Sep 14, 15:33
  • ChrisTian . New Sonoff Goodies – Plug and Thermometers by ChrisTian .: There are not many Zigbee temperature sensors with a cable probe, so this is quite useful. However I cannot access my Home Assistant system via WireGuard from my employer’s network for security reasons. So I went for Shellys for switching the heating and pump on. Shellys just tunnel through most firewalls I know, so I could access the my office desk lamp from everywhere. Or any device connected to my Shelly plug. I wish Shelly would make a temperature sensor like the SNZB-02LD. Sep 12, 20:02
  • Peter Scargill New Sonoff Goodies – Plug and Thermometers by Peter Scargill: Oh, see that nice right justified text in the orange display – well that’s Home Assistant Mushroom template card – guess what – as of the latest update they had the bright idea of no longer supporting that part of card-mod – am I the only person in the world that wants their text right-justified? Thankfully for now the mushroom-card author(s) are supporting a legacy version… claiming that standard Home Assistant card features are all you need – sorry guy(s) – standard HA tiles don’t do right-justified text properly either. Sep 11, 23:58
  • Peter Scargill New Sonoff Goodies – Plug and Thermometers by Peter Scargill: My sensor on the side of the water tank here in Spain has proven very useful – and no matter where we are I can quickly check if the hot water is working – no problem. I need one of those on the tank back in the UK as I can currently turn on the power to the HW tank via a Sonoff phone-home eWeLink smartplugs when we go back in winter – great but can’t actually tell if the oil water heater is on for sure… makes the difference between getting there after a long flight to a nice hot bath – or freezing to death with a cold water wash…:-) Sep 11, 23:54
  • ChrisTian . New Sonoff Goodies – Plug and Thermometers by ChrisTian .: I have an SNZB-02LD sitting on the edge of my swimming pool. After a few rainfalls it showed water drops on the inside of the display glass. I took it apart, dried it and reassembled it with a layer of (poorly attached) clear tape around the edge. This helped for some longer time, but now water is back inside. Maybe this is caused by the “breathing” from the temperature difference when it rains. I will build a proper vertical mount for it, because I like this display. Sep 11, 20:30
  • Peter Scargill Seeed 7.5″ ePaper Display – Learn with Peter 🙂 by Peter Scargill: Update guys – battery voltage not included as standard. Adding a little YAML to the file puts it that facility in but you also have to add a pair of resistors…(bit messy unless you’re good with a soldering iron) See here.. https://forum.seeedstudio.com/t/seeed-studio-xiao-7-5-epaper-panel-battery-status/292932/2 Sep 9, 10:59
  • Peter Scargill Seeed 7.5″ ePaper Display – Learn with Peter 🙂 by Peter Scargill: See above – the answer is going to take some time – I’ve just put the unit on USB charge right now after realising it stopped updating on September 5 and a reset made no difference – I’ll leave it on charge for the rest of the morning/afternoon then put it back on the wall. Hmm, I wonder if there is a way to see battery charge state – I’ll go look. Sep 9, 10:56
  • Peter Scargill Seeed 7.5″ ePaper Display – Learn with Peter 🙂 by Peter Scargill: Ok, some initial answers for you perhaps. I last updated this display on September 4 and left it on the wall in our hallway displaying various data. I’ve been busy and not noticed that although the display is still white and looks good – it’s not actuallyt doing anything. Whether this is down to a Home Assistant update or flat battery… anyway the date is stuck on September 5. I hot reset and nothing happened.. So now for USB. Ok, 01:00 Jan 01… OH… it is now up to date. I guess I’ll leave it on USB charge for several hours – I never did give it a full charge so the definitive answer will have to wait I’m afraid. Sep 9, 10:54
  • Seeed 7.5″ ePaper Display – Learn with Peter 🙂 by selene veyra: Really interesting to see how the Seeed 7.5″ ePaper Display combines clarity with low power consumption, making it ideal for modern IoT projects. Displays like these show how hardware is getting smarter and more efficient. On the software side, the gcmob apk 2025 update continues the trend by offering smoother performance and new features for Android users. Together, they represent the balance between efficient hardware and powerful apps. Sep 9, 06:10
  • Peter Scargill Sonoff Zigbee Smart Water Valve (SWV) by Peter Scargill: It has little impact on the water flow rate but then our water flow rate is very low – not at all typical. I have the unit permanently attached to the outside hose (well to the metal tap on the wall that feeds the hosepipe) and we’ve not had a dope of leakage. The Sonoff unit gets exposed to vicious summer sun in the mornings – doesn’t seem to be doing any damage. It has been in place since last winter. Sep 4, 18:21
  • Sonoff Zigbee Smart Water Valve (SWV) by faizal: Does it slow the flow rate down at all or no impact on flow rate? Wanted to put it onto my incoming main feed to monitor water usage and allow a remote shutoff if ever I’m away and there is a leak – think that would work ok? Sep 4, 16:27
  • Peter Scargill Sonoff Dongle Plus MG24 and Dongle Max by Peter Scargill: Fixed thanks. I don’t know what happened to that sentence originally 🙂 Sep 4, 13:24
  • Sonoff Dongle Plus MG24 and Dongle Max by carlos: ” I was fortunate enough to get xxx” placeholder for ?? Sep 4, 12:35
  • Sonoff Dongle Plus MG24 and Dongle Max by Carlos Pereira: Hi, ” I was fortunate enough to get xxx” placeholder for some device name? Sep 4, 12:34
  • Peter Scargill Seeed 7.5″ ePaper Display – Learn with Peter 🙂 by Peter Scargill: Not yet, had to make room for a life after spending hours getting this far – but I will do a full charge and long term test – it’s on the wall already but I’ve a few more sensors to add in tiny print. However, as the claim is 3 months max in deep sleep – it’s clearly going to be well below 3 months between charges – and I’m doing the default refresh around 30 seconds.. right now I’m doing regular updates as I think of more things to add (plenty of RAM and storage left). Sep 3, 16:14
  • Seeed 7.5″ ePaper Display – Learn with Peter 🙂 by Felix: Can you already see how much energy is consumed with a 30s update interval? And how long this display would last before a recharge is in order? Sep 3, 14:24
  • BigTimer by Laurens: I found a way that works for me. I want the lights on at 06:30 and off at 22:30 and had the same problem that when sunrise is befor 06:30 or sunset is afte 22:30 the lights stay on all day and night. While thinking, trying and reading it suddenly clicked: I can use boolean logic. I want the light on when both of these conditions are true: – the sun is below horizon (or between dusk and dawn) – it is between 06:30 and 22:30 So that is what I made and it works. My configuration looks like this: Sun rise /set (node-red-node-suncalc): outputs o for night and 1 for day change: change 1 to false and o to true to output true for night Big Timer: On at 6:30 and Off at 22:30 (for both sets) Gate (node-red-contrib-boolean-logic-ultimate): inputs count: 2. This will now output true when light should be on and false when lights should be off. Switch: When input is true send to output 1. When input is false send to output 2 Aug 28, 07:19
  • Cheap AliExpress Zigbee SmartPlugs by Quebrantahuesos: I’ve got quite a lot of cheap AliExpress Zigbee devices (I come out in a sweat when I see the price of Innr, Philips, even Aqara…) and on the whole they do work but sometimes don’t and sometimes they fail after a while. I’m currently waiting for a replacement for a plug – not your orange band one, but similar – which stopped connecting to Zigbee2MQTT after about a year’s use. The mechanical switch still works but no ‘smarts’. You also have to look out for Zigbee spamming, where the device reports its status much too often and unnecessarily, thereby flooding the network. You can sometimes look up the exact model number for reviews, although Ali often doesn’t include that useful piece of information (!) or you can just cross your fingers and test it once it arrives and put it down to experience if reporting more than, for example, once a second. On the whole they’ve made my smart home possible by being 4 times cheaper! Aug 25, 12:37
  • ESPresence for Home Assistant Presence Monitoring by rofam: Im a little late to this conversation, but are you still using these USB Dongles? And if so, are you using them for presence detection or zigbee repeaters? Im curious what everyone is using now for their presence detection as I have started setting mine up in my home Aug 23, 21:47
  • Cheap AliExpress Zigbee SmartPlugs by Jack Hoffman: Thank you for giving me the courage to buy “Cheap AliExpress Zigbee Smart Plugs” on Aliexpress for Australian mains outlets. Thanks to your post I found exactly the Zigbee Smart Plug I was looking for. The Aliexpress seller was very wise to prove on his Aliexpress listing that this “Tuya Zigbee Device” would also work with Home Assistant by including a video clip demonstration proving that his “Tuya Zigbee Device” works with Home Assistant. So it was a “no brainer” and so I ordered 8 of them. Here is the link for anyone from Australia, New Zealand, Argentinia, etc who is interested. http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009214185222.html Like I said in the beginning… your post pointed me in the right direction and gave me the courage to buy 8 of these Zigbee Smart Plugs. Thanks !!! Aug 12, 02:10
  • Home Assistant – Synology DS720+ The Story So Far by Alexander Nagy: Yep i am from Hungary, and Allegro is a Poland based marketplace like Aliexpress. I guess there are some HP Thin Clients on ebay also. HP T520 has similar performance as a Raspberry Pi 4, but with an x86 architecture, not ARM. Not so powerful as a Pi5, but for this price it is unbeateable. 🙂 The Turewall you wrote is a nice one, but i prefer low budget solutions. I’ve got the idea from reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1c4auw3/thoughts_on_this_hp_thin_client_as_a_ha_server/ https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/lscz7t/psa_cheap_thin_clients_for_a_ha_box/ Aug 7, 17:02
  • Peter Scargill Home Assistant – Synology DS720+ The Story So Far by Peter Scargill: I’m assuming from your email HUNGARY? No way you can get anything like a thin client even second hand at 12Euros in Spain or UK I generally compare solutions to Raspberry Pi which is where I started befire trying other solutions mentioned in the blog post. The Turewell I ended up with is silent, low power and up to now reliable, just like the RPI5 but considerably more powerful. I actually started my Home Automation journey with RPi2, then RPi3, then RPi4 but for Home Assistant HASS I first used RPi5. Aug 7, 14:49
  • Home Assistant – Synology DS720+ The Story So Far by Alexander Nagy: HP T520 is manufactured at 2014, so its not new, but still the best i’ve found for a small system. It is low power and has no noise at all. 🙂 Not exactly a mini-pc, its a thin client, with an x86-64 CPU. 12EUR at Allegro (but it varies whether the seller includes a power supply or if you have to buy one separately) https://allegro.pl/oferta/terminal-hp-t520-thin-client-gx-212jc-4gb-ddr3-32gb-ssd-karta-wi-fi-17698185490 Aug 7, 14:40
  • Peter Scargill Home Assistant – Synology DS720+ The Story So Far by Peter Scargill: I went down the Synology NAS route – all blogged – not good. I think you meant 120 Euros? I got a new mini-PC for less than that and finally went down that route. Just over-wrote Windows with HAOS. Been working reliably for months now. See the blog update here.. https://techfindstoday.store/home-assistant-to-nas-to-mini-pc-the-sequel/%3C/span%3E Aug 6, 21:51
  • Peter Scargill Reolink Elite WiFi Dual-Lens Camera by Peter Scargill: For my purposes I prefer the look of the Elite. By comparison, the previous model looks a little cumbersome – but they are both great cameras. Aug 6, 21:04
  • Reolink Elite WiFi Dual-Lens Camera by Ryan Nielsen: How does this compare to the Duo wifi 3? I know that the Duo 3 wifi has 2 8MP cameras, but did you like the elite wifi better? Aug 6, 19:55
  • Home Assistant – Synology DS720+ The Story So Far by Alexander Nagy: I think the cheapest and lowest power consumption solution to run a HA server 24/7 is a used HP Thin Client T520. I bought one for ~12EUR and i am very pleased with it. 🙂 (Of course, if you have a NAS device that is already turned on, also a solution – i do not have one) https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/hp/t520/ https://www.tpcdb.com/product.php?id=7692 Aug 5, 14:58
  • Beryl-AX (GL-MT3000) WiFi 6 Router and MORE by John N: The latest firmware has a Camouflage mode which I haven’t tried yet. But some instructions for using on a cruise are are here at : https://forum.gl-inet.com/t/using-glinet-opal-on-msc-cruise/39814/51 But I agree the Beryl needs to have a simple portal or easier a simple pass thru so that On a switch setting all port 80 is transferred to anther Port to get past login needs. Jul 2, 00:10
  • Peter Scargill Beryl-AX (GL-MT3000) WiFi 6 Router and MORE by Peter Scargill: I believe glinet stopped the captive portal sone time ago. I griped at the time to no avail. Jul 1, 20:09
  • Beryl-AX (GL-MT3000) WiFi 6 Router and MORE by Paul Chalson-WA2FOF: Thanks John, just bought the MT3000 for the same reason, captive portals in hotels and cruise ships. Getting ready to venture out with it for the first time. I also have the OpenSpot 4 Pro and now the M1KE. Any further info on how you needed to finesse the captive portal to provide the additional login information? Jul 1, 17:35
  • ESP8266, Tasmota and a Cautionary Tale about AI by Ian Sexton: Hi Antonio, this is odd. My original attempt looked rather like your script & didn’t work. As you suggest, and as I indicated in my post, I sought advice. I was advised that the comparison was a string & not a 24 bit number which my RF device provides. Tasmota likes this for me: on rfreceived#data=0x0000000000DBE012 do power1 toggle endon It does NOT like: on rfreceived#data=0xDBE012 do power1 toggle endon How does this work for you but not me? Why is my data 64 bit? Tasmota tells me it’s 24 bit but reports it as a 64 bit number in string format. Thanks for your input. Jun 19, 16:05
  • DrFragle and MrShark ESP8266, Tasmota and a Cautionary Tale about AI by DrFragle and MrShark: it’s perfectly working on a daily basis on my rfbridge, directly copied from there… if you don’t believe me, I suggest you address any issue you’re having to tasmota discord servers, where well proven tasmota experts will help you solve them… Jun 19, 11:16
  • ESP8266, Tasmota and a Cautionary Tale about AI by Ian Sexton: Have you checked this? I’m fairly sure it doesn’t work. Try it & let me know how you get on. Jun 18, 22:06
  • Surface Pro 4 – Windows 11 or NOT? by Miguel: Well, I tried upgrading my Surface Pro 4 to Win 11 24H2. Everything works perfectly, and fast, except the type cover keyboard and touchpad. There are no issues in the device manager, and both worked fine when I was running Windows 10. Uninstalling keyboard and mouse drivers completely, and reinstalling, didn’t help. Detaching and reattaching the keyboard didn’t fix it. Now I’m going to look for firmware updates… Just trying to keep this perfectly fine tablet running past September of 2025… Jun 3, 23:16
  • DrFragle and MrShark ESP8266, Tasmota and a Cautionary Tale about AI by DrFragle and MrShark: try something like this (and learn how to use raw rf data on tasmota, if you want better results): rule1 on RfReceived#Data=86CE92 do publish cmnd/comodino/power1 toggle endon on RfReceived#Data=86CE94 do publish zigbee/3tasti/porta toggle endon on RfReceived#Data=86CE91 do websend [192.168.1.114] power2 toggle endon it uses mqtt publish to send data elsewhere, and power toggle the second relay of an other tasmota device, by ip Jun 3, 21:50
  • Peter Scargill ESP8266, Tasmota and a Cautionary Tale about AI by Peter Scargill: TRy sending me an email and I can get the code into a block for you. I use Wordpress…. Github isn’t the easiest place to get accurate code either. the email I got from you shows on rfreceived#data do endon -ie nothing between do and endon – which incidentally is not case sensitive – I’ve done a lot of rules in the past week 🙂 Jun 3, 15:33
  • ESP8266, Tasmota and a Cautionary Tale about AI by Ian Sexton19: ON RfReceived#Data= DO ENDON Your blog doesn’t like angle brackets? Clearly not. This isn’t what I sent. Jun 3, 15:05
  • ESP8266, Tasmota and a Cautionary Tale about AI by Ian Sexton: Hi Peter I have several of those 4 channel relay boards. I bought the first to switch my garden pond electrics and was so impressed I bought a few more – just in case! Even at their current price of £10 (Ebay) they’re a real bargain, I couldn’t build something for less! I’m currently doing some renovation work on my house and a recent challenge was to revamp my kitchen lighting. My kitchen has one central light which I’m replacing with three lights, actually three groups of six mains powered LED downlighters but that’s not really relevant. My house has solid brick walls and I know from bitter experience that chasing them to install new wiring isn’t fun so I was very keen to avoid this! Besides, this is 2025! I wanted something smart! To cut a long story short I already had most of the bits I needed, the relay card & a 433MHz three gang switch: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275762015793?var=577337063088 The switch is powered by a 23A 12v battery which is easily changed when the need arises. It’s a little ‘cheap’ in construction but it’s not bad! Has excellent range! And it cost a fiver! I originally thought I’d write the code myself but as a recent ‘convert’ to Tasmota I thought I’d give it a try: Tasmota supports 433MHz devices using the RCSwitch library. BUT you NEED the ‘Tasmota sensors’ variant. Lesson one! There is a very terse example of using a 433MHz receiver rule in the Tasmota documentation: ON RfReceived#Data= DO ENDON Easy? No! It’s easy to catch the codes from the switches in the Tasmota console. Implementing a suitable rule took hours! Like you, I find the rules slightly less than obvious! Thankfully there are people out there fluent in Tasmota! So, an actual (working!) rule looks like this: on rfreceived#data=0x0000000000DBE012 do power1 toggle endon My switches use a 24 bit code (the DBE012 part) BUT apparently this is a STRING comparison which expects a 64 bit number as the string. Don’t ask me! I think it’s bizarre! I was meant to guess this?:) I’m not about to moan about Tasmota. It’s really good, and it’s free, but not perfect! Conclusion: This works perfectly on my living room floor! I’m fitting it very soon. Using Tasmota provides a web interface as well as MQTT. As a complete aside, my fingers were quite sore from twisting wires for choc blocks so I bought a ferrule crimper. It’s great! Jun 3, 14:57
  • Super Mini ESP32-S3, Broadband Testing and more by Chris Harting: Yeah, now you’ve got me going! I started with an ESP8266 that already had an SSD1306 attached, then moved on to an ESP32-C3/SSD1306. I want to experiment with a color display as well, add some flashy visuals (especially since I can’t find my jumbo NeoPixels or NeoPixel ring…) To save some rule space, use an ESP8266 w/ 4MB of flash (the ESP32 should be good to go) and use the filesystem to store the display info (file: display.ini) May 31, 22:47
  • Easy Home Assistant Random Timer by Tony Neal: There is a very nice Home Assistant integration that makes this very simple (in HACS): Presence Simulation. https://github.com/slashback100/presence_simulation May 29, 01:21
  • UGREEN USB3.0 to Giganet Ethernet Adaptor and GL-iNET by Lukas: I had this adapter too and the chip was ASIX AX88179A. These are very unreliable (https://forum.openwrt.org/t/need-help-openwrt-usb-lan-asix-ax88179-ugreen-50922-crashes-continuously-has-to-reboot-constantly/113668/16). Would not recommend. May 22, 18:18
  • Tasmota Smartplugs by Aiden: Athom Tech has changed its brand and is now IoTorero May 22, 11:52
  • Peter Scargill TOMLOV HDMI Digital Microscope Model DM9 MAX by Peter Scargill: Suggest you contact Tomlov… This is the contact info in their email to me… Branding Email: Branding@tomlov.com Support Email: Support@tomlov.com Facebook: @Tomlov | Facebook group: TOMLOV Microscope Users Group Instagram: @tomlov_official Tiktok: @tomlovmicroscope Websites: tomlov.com | tomlovmicroscope.com WhatsApp: +86 181 2371 6479 May 14, 17:32
  • TOMLOV HDMI Digital Microscope Model DM9 MAX by Norman: I am trying to charge the Tomlov model DM9 Max using the cable and an adapter but I see no indication it is charging? May 14, 15:35
  • Peter Scargill New Sonoff Goodies – Plug and Thermometers by Peter Scargill: You’re right. Well, as they’ve yet yet fully upddated the Zigbee2MQTT version, probably as well to wait. May 13, 14:31
  • New Sonoff Goodies – Plug and Thermometers by Carlos: That’s the wifi version. I will wait.. it’s not urgent May 13, 14:14
  • Peter Scargill New Sonoff Goodies – Plug and Thermometers by Peter Scargill: S60ZBTPF – it SEEMS that AliExpress have them at 12.79 Euros – at least from here in Spain – all inclusive inc post.. just tried that link and it works. https://shorturl.at/ugHLN May 13, 13:49
  • Peter Scargill Compact PowerVision S1 Gimbal for Smartphones – Update by Peter Scargill: The blog is now updated – thanks for the feedback – way back in 2023 I commented in my video that the product had an “end of days” feel. The website is now completely defunct – something I’ve clarified in the blog and associated videos. May 8, 07:35
  • Compact PowerVision S1 Gimbal for Smartphones – Update by Frustrated: You can buy this PowerVision S1 for cheaper everywhere. I didn’t know why till I tried to get the App for Android phones. Forget about it… you’ll just be on wild goose chases forever. I’ve bought two from different sellers. Both telling app was available for it. But where? Not in Play Store and the 3rd Party App Stores give you junk wear that’s not for the PowerVision S1! Most likely the company is out of business. DON’T BUY IT… as you’ll regret it. Buy a Hohem instead…. at least they have Apps available on Google Play Store! May 8, 03:18
  • An Orange Pi Week by mark dunn: Awesome write up. Waiting for my RV2 to arrive this afternoon. Going to use the Ubuntu server image on a 256 NVME. I’ve also been playing around with the RV, but no official Ubuntu release for that board yet that i know of. According to the RV2 manual, only the NVME on the backside is bootable. I did order these standoffs, and this fan and heatsink kit to try to get temps down under 50c. With a heatsink only my RV is running at around 54c with room temps at a normal 73f. Just found your blog and hope to read more!!! Have a great day! May 6, 22:53
  • Peter Scargill An Orange Pi Week by Peter Scargill: Well, I grabbed the OpenWrt image, put it on SD – nothing – just booted Ubuntu off the eMMC – I was sure it would prefer SD if available… I’ve asked… Apr 29, 16:49
  • Peter Scargill An Orange Pi Week by Peter Scargill: Hadn’t thought of it but if I can put it on SD and not interfere with my eMMC setup – sure, why not. That’s if the power holds out – you may be aware that spain’s been in a blackout for the past day or so. Apr 29, 13:00
  • An Orange Pi Week by Petri: Hi, could you test Openwrt image for rv2? It’s located RV2 downloads page. Apr 28, 18:29
  • Peter Scargill Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition vs Google by Peter Scargill: Not gotten that far. Once I realised it wasn’t as good as Google at listening – I put it on the back burner. Yes having local voice control is the future – but being impatient wife-proof is more important. I only use voice as a convenience. Virtually all my home automation has alternatives… Rotating light would be nice, though 🙂 Apr 27, 00:39
  • Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition vs Google by W2K: Have you figured out how to control the voice preview LED ring? I can get node-red to change the color, but I can’t simulate any kind of LED effects yet (flashing, pulsing, rotating, etc). Apr 25, 16:28
  • Peter Scargill Seeed Studio 60Ghz mmWave Sensor by Peter Scargill: The link I provided for updating under paragraph entitled DAY 3 is how I updated mine. Section in that Seeed page – Module firmware upgrade: MR60BHA2 Firmware upgrade tool: MR60BHA2_OTA.zip MR60BHA2 Firmware v1.6.5: MR60BHA2_eeprom_1.6.5.bin Looking at the board in Home Assistant… I can see that it continues to run perfectly.. Apr 22, 11:44
  • Automatic DHCP and Home Automation by Mike: Thanks, Pete. As you say, obvious once you realise it, but so irritating when you’ve forgotten from long ago!! Apr 22, 08:48
  • Seeed Studio 60Ghz mmWave Sensor by Eduardo Soberanis: Hi, I have the same problem with this sensor, it works fine, then I leave and when coming back freeze, I reset it and the same, works fine and freeze later. How did your overcome this? My sensor is not recognized by my PC and I do not know hot to upgrade the firmware. Thanks Apr 21, 21:05
  • Automatic DHCP and Home Automation by Jason: Another good practice is, if your router supports it, to provide DNS entries for your devices so you can access them by names. That way if you do have to change the IP address at some point, you don’t have to go dig through every configuration that references the device. You just update the DNS entry at the router. Apr 21, 17:03
  • New Sonoff Goodies – Plug and Thermometers by Carlos: ” the device is reasonably priced – fair enough” product isn’t available yet.. you have some inside info of the price? Apr 20, 13:41
  • Peter Scargill Sonoff Zigbee Smart Water Valve (SWV) by Peter Scargill: Well, I can’t really help on either front except to say that I’ve had mine up and running permanently on he garden tap since mid-2024 with a hose on the other end – and the battery is still pretty full according to the sensor – it’s been sitting there all over the winter 24/7 and if my wife wants to water plants or hose the path etc, she has the manual override button on the side to use – the real tap is permanently on… not a single failure. If and when the batteries fail, I’ll update this blog – of course, I get low battery warnings from Home Assistant so I SHOULD know about it long before the batteries become useless. Apr 14, 15:41