Tasmota and Autonomous Turn-off Thoughts Right now I’m in the process of rewview writing some of which can’t be released until product launch dates – meantime – one of the main features of the free, open-source Tasmota device control firmware is it’s ability to control various devices and monitor various sensors internally without resorting to “the cloud” – or “someone else’s server” for the cynical. Tasmota comes in rather handy if you don’t 100% trust your external provider Internet connection (something I’ve come to realise is very sensible here in rural Spain). So while I like to use Googl ..read more

This new Reolink solar IP WiFi pan/tilt camera features 2 lenses. One normal, one 2 optical telephoto. The website claims “4K 8MPX, pan-tilt and 6* hybrid zoom”. I took the Argus Track out of the box, plugged in the supplied solar panel (in the house so no actual sun) waited 5 minutes then turned on the camera with the on/off switch located alongside a microsd slot (for storage) under a small twin screw panel at the back of the camera. It turns out that the camera was 56% charged already. As you can see in the feature image – 2 warm and 2 cold lights. The camera also has IR lights and a blue i ..read more

I LOVE getting new stuff from Gl-iNet – I’ve been writing about them since the original OpenWrt-based MANGO router (which recently gave up on me after being dragged from house to house, country to country over the years). Foir years I was a Draytek fan but once Gl-iNet started to move upmarket from their cheap and cheerful travel router, I fell in love with their consistent interface and in the process dug into “advanced” and discovered the underlying OpenWrt with which I’ve since become very familiar and from which would now be loathed to switch. Thankfully that’s not a worry with the new Ma ..read more

With help from the Tasmota forums and my Italian friend Antonio, I’ve learned some very useful stuff in the last couple of days. Automatic router re-booter using Tasmota and Sonoff BASIC or Similar I have a 4G router which then feeds a normal router (we have no fibre option where we live but a good 4G signal). The 4G router is, say, 95% reliable… the main router higher – but from time to time, usually when I’m away from home – something goes wrong and I can no longer access stuff at home. I WAS getting the odd mains breaker issue but it turned out that our 2-year-old hot water tank had an inte ..read more

Back in early March 2023 I wrote about the Shelly Door/Window sensor and remarked on it’s use of twin CR123A batteries – I remember commenting about the size of them. At the same time I BRIEFLY mentioned the Shelley H&T – a pretty-looking but otherwise non-descript temperature and humidity sensor. I did nothing with it as I generally use Zigbee sensors around the house. Today I happened see a phone notification that the Shelly H&T has a low battery – so here goes… the H&T uses a single Lithium CR123 battery, the price of which seems to centre around €2 per battery depending on buy ..read more

Updated February 2024 This original article has been followed in here by many other articles on Sonoff devices and is preceeded by original Sonoff BASIC and other Sonoff articles again on this blog – but I’ve just learned something (new to me) so I’ll refer to it here – 12v operation (not on originl Sonoff but on the Tuta look-alikes I’ve received: Two things: Point 1: AliExpress in 2024 have Sonoff Basic rip-offs which mirror the bargains in the article below – I picked up some VERY cheap TUYA devices which look and function exactly like the original Sonoff BASICs but running under TUYA (Smar ..read more

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below: Password: The post Protected: SONOFF POW RING – What’s THAT? appeared first on Scargill's Tech Blog ..read more

Don’t worry this will be short. Like many of you, I have countless USB leads of various types – and more and more USB-C leads (USB-A at one end, USB-C at the other). This is not new but I’m getting increasingly annoyed with two things: (a) discovering – despite using a fast charger on my Samsung S22 Ultra phone (ie variable voltage, so voltage drops in the lead should not be a issue) that some combos won’t fast charge. This may or may not be the same root cause as my second pet peeve – USB leads which won’t transfer data. I’m seeing no correlation between lead thickness and these issues. We ha ..read more

I recently bought the above-named PC from Amazon.es (I see they are currently out of stock) to replace my Mini PC which has performed well but not a lot of use for games. The TOPGRO machine cost me €969 (no screen or keyboard, just the base unit) and came complete with 32GB of DDR4 RAM and 1TB of solid-state storage. For spec, it has WiFi6E, BT 5.3, 1Gbps LAN, 2*standard-size HDMI, 1* USB-C and 6 general USB outputs. It came complete with Windows 11 Pro. I’ve since added a 2GB SSD internally for game and media storage and up to now can’t fault it. The device came complete with impressive colou ..read more

I just received my first packages of the new year, a duff screen protector from AliExpress, some USB shelf-lamps from the same (more on that later, from Aqara, my eagerly-awaited Aqara G4 Smart video doorbell and FP2 Presense sensor products. The G4 Video Doorbell After recovering from the shock of reading the headline box instructions which suggested to me that the G4 video doorbell was an APPLE Homekit-only product (I don’t do Apple) I rushed off an email to Aqara to say a terrible mistake had been made. Minutes later I got a reply to say that this was not the case and that it WOULD work on ..read more