convert a bicycle to an ‘e-bike’ or electric powered bike
when you want an e-bike and you don’t want another bike:
set up rflink to respond to 433MHz devices and then integrate them with Home Assistant
In this project we integrate inexpensive 433MHz RF devices with modern smart devices see also: 433MHz smarter letterbox how to set up RFlink so that it will read your RF sensors The easiest ready-to-roll...
project: plot the temperature of your fridge-freezer, pet home or fermenting wine on a history graph in Home Assistant
In a previous project I set up temperature sensors in my room and sent the data via Bluetooth to Home Assistant, the home automation platform. Home Assistant is software that can record measurements and...
control a sonoff switch using eWelink and Home Assistant – without IFTTT or firmware flashing
In this project I control a Sonoff light switch using Home Assistant. You can do the same with other Sonoffs. The switch shown here is the T4EU1C wall plate switch. It works over wifi...
433MHz smarter letterbox – for when you don’t want to walk to the letter box
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...
start using home assistant
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...
project: oil tank level sensor
Make 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...
how much heating oil does the boiler use?
The simple answer for a domestic central central heating boiler is two to three litres an hour if it’s continuously alive and burning oil. In reality it’s half of this because when you turn...
scientist 69: the science author – Michael Freemantle says WW1 was the chemists war (2014)
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...
Podcast: Play in new window
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museum of data logging
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...
latent heat – salty ice
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...
types of battery
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 half-life
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...
heat conduction
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...
insulation
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 visible change in liquids
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...
scientist 0: the list of scientists at work interviews
A lot of people use science at work here in Cambridge, England. We started finding and interviewing them for our radio show from 2011 up until 2014. And here they are. Our scientists are professional...
the Science Show on Cambridge 105 radio featuring scientist at work
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.
iPad LCD magnifier or microscope for SMD soldering or other close work
, If you’re a casual electronics hobbyist like me, the idea of using a LCD magnifier or microscope may seem attractive. For example this music spectrum display kit requires soldering 240 SMD LEDs, with...
record runs, sleep, cycling, calories with a phone app – plus an introduction to Google Fit
topics on this page: what do I eat? how does my weight change? do I get enough sleep? where did I go today? how does my body react to exercise? introducing Google Fit You...
Huawei Watch and Huawei Band 6 – useful, affordable smartwatches of 2021/2
If you’re looking for a smartwatch consider the Huawei Watch / Huawei Band / family of wearables If you’ve yet to get yourself a smartwatch I’ll have a guess at the reason. One negative...
sync Huawei Health watch data into Google Fit; Google Drive or fitness tracker apps like Strava
see the list of ways to sync all your Huawei watch data to other fitness apps SUPPORTED APPS as of 2022 SOURCES: you can send your health data starting from Coros, Diabetes:M, Fitbit, Garmin,...
connect remotely to your home network using the WireGuard add-on in Home Assistant
Why do this? At an early point on the journey to network heaven you may have a need to connect from some holiday location say, to a camera, your computer, a home automation setup...
how to stop a (hue) light and switch state getting out of sync
how a light can be on when its switch is off I’ve a number of smart light bulbs that, in addition to a wall switch, can be turned on or off either by say,...
Robot arms reach out to the Raspberry Pi: this is art
What’s going on? Hec, I’m in a room with robot arms and fingers twitching as they respond to social media. THIS can only be art but it’s art powered by makers. Tucked away is...
Upgrade your router firmware to ‘FreshTomato’
The Netgear Nighthawk r7000 is a router, switch and powerful Wi-fi access point in one unit and even in 2021, years on from when it was made it still offers your network a boost...
addressable LED light strips put to use
There are LED strip lights where every LED can be doing something different with the result that you can create peculiar effects. You can start with a commercially available kit but after a while...
access your Home Assistant remotely using DuckDNS, Letsencrypt and the nginx SSL proxy
The Home Assistant home automation hub is more useful if you can access it remotely. In addition to having anywhere access with a browser URL, there’s an excellent phone app to access Home Assistant....
use nginx proxy manager with home assistant to access many network devices
If you need to access Home Assistant remotely away from home, skip this page and instead go to access your Home Assistant remotely using DuckDNS, Letsencrypt and the nginx SSL proxy. This page is...
addressable LED light projects
There are ‘analogue’ LED lights on a tape that do a fine job of creating interesting lighting. All the LED lights on the strip usually do the same brightness or colour. There are also...
use the smart device app even if you use an automation platform
Your smart bulbs, switches and door bell all come with a useful manufacturer’s app – over time you’ll accumulate many such apps. While Home Assistant might make them redundant, here are couple of tips...
Dim display problem on large LED digital clock
The digits at one end of a large LED clock displayed much more dimly than they ought. I’d say they were about half the brightness – and it was quite a puzzle. The clock...
Jura coffee machine repairs
… how to service or replace the brewing unit on a Jura coffee machine and other fixes. It might be assumed that if you can afford the BMW of coffee machines, you can afford...
Cheesecake – Jewish style
Some cheesecakes are set with gelatin and have smooth, jelly-like texture. This cheesecake is baked and sets due to its whipped egg. When chilled it has an appealing dry, soft, crumbly texture. I use...
owning a marquee – garden tent
A garden marquee is quite the thing in times not only when only outdoor mixing is allowed but also when you live in a climate with rainy summers. This page collects my experience of...
Sandstone patio – install, seal and maintain
Here is advice to save money without affecting what you end up with. In short: your patio is going to end up looking like it was going to end up. Many tradespeople have a...
Countax mower repairs – C600 – year 2008
A page where I record successful repairs as they happen. The parts list on my 2008 C-series is downloadable below. Steering Problem – can’t steer The Countax steering mechanism is surprisingly simple – a...
how to know when the washing machine has finished
If you need to know when a device, like a dryer or washing machine has completed its work, get a ‘smart plug with energy monitoring‘. Amazon list many of them but whichever brand you...
automated fade up dimmer for analogue LED Strips – using a MOSFET and ESPhome
This ceiling ‘coffer’ is lit by four 5m LED strips cut down to size fitted in 2017. If you wanted really, really bright light, these analogue white LED strips were the thing to get....
see your sensor readings on a TTGO T-display ST7789V TFT LCD
If you use Home Assistant you can show temperature, time and other sensor entities on this cute display. The inspiration for this mini-project came from a need to display my oven temperature in a...
send a screenshot to your phone, instant message or email using cloud storage such as Google Photos – this really is the best workflow
Without copying a screenshot to or using a USB stick (no!) All the day I capture useful or interesting images from facebook, instagram, desktop apps and web pages. I copy bits of images to...
what is the actual temperature of your oven? how to cook reliably with an expensive but inaccurate oven
My household can’t be the only one that burns the food. The dial on this shiny, expensive Smeg oven not only gives a wrong temperature, the temperature varies over a wide range. I replaced...
how much oil / electricity do I use in a day – Home Assistant or espHome
The measurements that I take around the home provide two things: – a picture of a moment in time – a room temperature for example. – how something changes over the course of a...
how to integrate 433MHz temperature & humidity sensors with Home Assistant
A home automation platform, such as Home Assistant, allows you to make temperature v time graphs using sensors that you might place around the home. Monitoring temperatures allowed me to get my heating devices...
can I integrate ‘HomeEasy’ 433MHz devices with Home Assistant?
Yes. Below you’ll see how to control HomeEasy devices through Home Assistant and the RFlink receiver/transmitter. (This also controls other manufacturers’ wireless sockets). You’ll be able to create timers and automation to turn things...
XANES 2606-8 headlamp review and instructions
This insanely bright headlamp / flashlight is excellent for hobbies, camping and cycling. Here are a few instructions to use it well This flashlight (aka torch) requires 2 x 18650 Lithium cells which have...
use GitHub and Arduino IDE to create an ESP32 web camera
If you want to use a GitHub project with Arduino software follow this step-by-step guide. We’ll make an ESP32 camera web server using the Github code from ‘easytarget’. An ESP32-CAM module consists of a...
coping with 18650 batteries with and without button tops
Just when I thought I knew enough … I discover why a bicycle headlamp wasn’t working. It was because some 18650 batteries have a button top … The 18650 battery, like many batteries, is...
use Google lens to search the Internet using a picture or photo
Here’s what to do when a restaurant asks you to scan a QR code for their track and trace (written in 2020). And here’s how to identify a plant, an animal and lots more....
use one switch to turn on two lights – in any combination
The need: you use a table light for watching TV and a main (wall) light at other times and you want a coffee table button to switch between one or the other or have...
T4EU1C and Home Assistant
a 3-gang wall switch for your home automation – using eWelink, T4EU1C and Home Assistant I got to a point where I had plenty of ‘smart’ lights and gadgets but few switches. But then...
how to toggle the state of a light or switch for Alexa in Home Assistant
Toggling a light switch means that a press of the switch will turn the light off or on depending it what it was last doing. There is nothing clever about that but if I...
take your D-Link DCS-D150 out of the cloud and into Home Assistant
I wouldn’t especially recommend the D-Link DCS-D150 motion sensor but it does have some features that had me buy it. Firstly it plugs into a wall socket above a worktop so it can sense...
