The First World War, that began in 1914, put chemists to work. Their chemicals could harm as well as heal … but on balance the outcome was … horrific. As the author of two...
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Here are pictures of labs, data loggers, sensors and experiments from the 1990’s to the 2000’s. You’ll see different solutions to computers in a lab and for example, different colorimeters and different ways to...
When it is icy they put salt onto the roads to melt the ice. What the salt does is to depress, or reduce, the freezing point of water. The result is that the ice...
Batteries are a handy source of power. You’ll know that there are different kinds of batteries, and maybe that some are good for some jobs, and some for others. But battery power is expensive. It...
Radioactive materials decay, or lose their radioactivity, in a predictable way. If you have a fast decaying source, such as Protactinium with a half life of just 72 seconds, you can take a series...
You can use a temperature sensor to study the conduction of heat through materials. Two temperature sensors allow you to compare different materials at the same time. In this example, you heat strips of...
You can use a temperature sensor to study the insulating properties of materials. Two temperature sensors allow you to compare different materials at the same time. In this example two beakers of hot water...
Measuring the appearance of cloudy sulfur when we mix acid and sodium thiosulfate is a popular science teaching activity. We can change the temperature or concentration of the reagents, and see whether the mixture...
A lot of people use science at work and more so here in Cambridge, England. We started interviewing them for our radio show from 2011 up until 2014 and here they are. While the interviewers...
We’ve recorded dozens of scientists and entrepreneurs talking about what their work involves. We hear from experts in Cambridge, England as they talk about their inventions, discoveries and interests. We shout to twitter @105science.
The Home Assistant dashboard (aka ‘Lovelace’) is very good at displaying live sensor data and sensor data from the last several days. As you can see below you can display a ‘just now’ reading...
This page is about integrating older stuff with newer stuff – or how to upcycle old wireless gadgets for home automation. 433MHz sensors are more plentiful than wifi sensors and they are inexpensive too....
smart sockets have uses. A smart socket adds a little cleverness to a table lamp or electric heater. The printer upstairs takes five minutes to warm up so switching it on by remote control...
How does one house an electronics project? Is there a neat way to house a smart doorbell and camera? I don’t relish the effort to design a 3D model. Maybe I was looking for...
they work together but not everything is possible As an early adopter I’ve come to feel that Philips Hue lighting system gains more praise than it needs as I find a dozen other makers...
see also more about 433MHz devices The letterbox is five doors and fifty metres from my desk. The uncertainty of the post lady arriving in the afternoon means that I make wasted journeys to...
This quick post is for anybody wondering how much money they need to put aside for energy. If you don’t use electricity for keeping warm, your summer and winter electricity bills will be similar....
smart bulbs and sockets have select uses. A smart socket adds a little on/off cleverness to a table lamp, electric heater or the printer upstairs that takes five minutes before it’s warm and useful....
When you look for home automation equipment you find many systems. They turn on lights and plug sockets; water the garden; unlock a door, turn up the heating; record a security camera, open the...
Even if you’ve no need for as much as a smart bulb, you do need to be impressed or surprised by the variety of smart gadgets on sale. There are smart door locks, garage...
… and see how to add features to the Home Assistant display An interest in solar energy is a possible reason to record the sun’s azimuth and the time of sunset. Home Assistant can track...
The Google nest thermostat or its Hive equivalent are items which I’d be happy to pay for rather than make. A first reason is that we rely too much on warmth, and a second...
When you set up a gadget or device you’ll sometimes be asked what its IP address is – and gosh – becoming at ease with that question is good for you. Every gadget connected...
If you want to make your own smart measuring device or presence detector or dog watching camera or tea bag lifting robot, the ESP32 and Arduino circuit boards make the gadget you need. A...
what you need to run your own home automation server Raspberry Pi – a kit with Raspberry Pi 3+ or later with the recommended power supply, 32Gb SD card, heatsinks and/or cooling fan. A...
Arduino IDE is software that lets us develop code for a writing on a chip. Explore its menu and we soon see it’s made to transfer a great many capabilities to a great many...
When a ESP32 device has been flashed and powered, it will use the password you added to the code to connect to your wifi. The ESPhome interface in Home Assistant (pic below) will show...
Software which allows you to ‘own’ your devices ESPhome can be used to reprogram a ESP chip so that Home Assistant can control it. I use it to re-program a Sonoff S20 smart plug...
ESPhome is software that can program (or flash) an ESP chip. This chip is at the core of many automation projects. The software works inside Home Assistant running on a Raspberry Pi. The instructions...
I am the person who wants to know if using an electric fan heater in one room costs less than heating the whole house using gas*. At parties I can keep a sofa to...
The Sonoff POWR2 can be used as the timer on a hot water immersion heater. This model also measures electricity as volts, amps and current. I’ve flashed its wifi chip with different firmware so...
Dupont leads connect up projects. They come as male to male pin / female to female / male pin to female types. You can solder the male ends to a headless board to make...
Domestic hot water can be heated by a gas / oil central heating boiler or by an electrical immersion heater. I choose to take advantage of half-price nighttime electricity and use an immersion heater....
ready dec 2020
A Raspberry Pi is a small inexpensive low power computer that has numerous uses and hopefully there’s one that chimes for you. I don’t think you’d want to use a Pi for emails and...
“… It’s an ESP32. Yes but which?” ESPRESSIF is the company that markets chips such as the ESP8266 and ESP32 and ESP32-CAM. Other companies buy those chips and fit them inside their smart plugs,...
There are a variety of camera types to help monitor the drive, a pet, a baby, a device, a bird feeder – whatever. You might want to know what’s eating the rabbit’s food or...
Here’s how to add a little functionality to Home Assistant, the automation platform. Do try this especially if you’re just starting to add features to Home Assistant. speedtestdotnet: scan_interval: hours: 4 Go to the...
Travel information can be one of the things you need easy access to. If you have Google Home or Alexa you’ll find it helpful to recall the exact way to ask for the info....
There’s less value in having a camera pointed at the front door if I need to click too many things to see it. The home automation platform Home Assistant lets me fill a screen...
The Xiaomi Mijia sensor runs for ages on a AAA battery and it can be stuck to a wall to show the temperature and humidity. It’s an attractive Bluetooth Low Energy device that beams...
The LED striplights in a kitchen use 12v transformers and they are powered through smart plugs / sockets. The sockets are by TP-link – and they remember their on-off state if ever there’s a...
fit a sensor to the electricity meter for a minute by minute readout The UK electricity meter has a display showing electricity use in kWatt, and every few months someone pops by to read...
A heating oil tank level sensor that’s more useful than anything you can buy. Measures oil level in any unit – litres, gallons or days until I need to refill the tank Displays readings...
The Home Assistant sensor graph offers painless autoscaling with options to set detail and timespan. But how do I alter the data itself? A car fuel tank measures in gallons but it’s more useful...
The need was to meter the use of oil for billing purposes. I solved it easily and inexpensively. This was before the days of home automation – but it nevertheless meets a need inexpensively....
A volume control near the mouse and ready to turn. Bash the top and the video or track pauses. Double bash to skip to the next track. It’s plug and play, requires no app...
How writing, communicating or presenting science can be helped by using a word processor or Powerpoint.
rogerfrost.com is a compendium of ideas for using technology. It mostly shows how technology helps find answers to science questions. A home automation section for makers asks those questions around the house. Those who teach science will find every idea here indexed to save your time.
Roger Frost was a copywriter from 1988 to 2016 and this web includes many of his articles. They tell how the early Internet developed; how real scientists work and how real people, like you might use science & technology at home or school. Send a hi via the social links or add a comment to an article. Please use this content freely and link back here if you can.
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