visitors this year: 18 This tutorial serves as an introduction to Home Assistant ‘automations’ where smart devices often find their best uses. What follows can also be done in most other ‘smart home hubs’...
visitors this year: 24 why the Creality K1C impressed can’t you think of any any negatives? For a critical reviewer, bringing more experience I’d point you to Daniel’s ‘CROSSLINK’ channel on YouTube. This is...
visitors this year: 23 The situation: in addition to the router that serves your home with internet you’ve another router that could perhaps improve your wireless or wired coverage. The extra router could be...
visitors this year: 40 This page records my notes on a jura E8 (eg 2024 model 15662 / 15661). If you’re repairing a jura machine these notes on the jura F90 may to be...
visitors this year: 100 Houses and farms in remote places pump their water from an underground source. I don’t have a choice in the matter – a borehole comes with costs in maintenance and...
visitors this year: 166 Remote homes and farms can get their water from a borehole – years ago the owner of my house drilled the garden until they found a water source. Today I...
visitors this year: 369 why a server? what can I use a home server for? a vpn, a router, an ad-blocker, storage for backups, a photo library, a music server, a printer server, a...
visitors this year: 188 Growing up in Whitechapel, London in the 1950’s there were several Jewish bakeries – Rinkoffs and Kosoffs and another were yards away but today there’s that many in all of...
visitors this year: 472 TLDR: one morning too often I’ve woken to find that my ‘smart’ things has gone stupid and they haven’t turned on because the Raspberry Pi running Home Assistant has gone...
visitors this year: 264 With today’s energy issues it feels unnecessary to heat rooms we aren’t using. Back in the day we fitted thermostatic radiator valves (TRV) to radiators in central heating systems. We...
visitors this year: 90 what’s the best way to eat panettone? By mouth. Or face first. does panettone come from Germany? No. It comes from Tesco, Aldi, Lidl and if you have money, Waitrose...
visitors this year: 463 My boiler burns heating oil from a tank and unlike the ‘gas’ that most homes burn it’s finite – so when it’s gone I’m cold. Ordering heating oil is tricky...
visitors this year: 299 WS2812B strip – INMP441 microphone – WLED SR software – ESP32 board shopping list for these motion activated stairway lights – see photos wiring diagram for a microphone controlled LED...
visitors this year: 47 Krispy Kreme doughnuts are meant to be eaten fresh at room temperature within 12 hours. It’s no surprise that I cannot find any official advice on keeping Krispy Kreme doughnuts...
visitors this year: 52 I bought a packet of rice paper and was surprised at how doable it was to use it to make spring rolls. This lazy version is inspired by a few...
visitors this year: 142 These walking boots were so exceedingly comfortable and waterproof that more was the disappointment when a wet walk ended with wet socks. In their one year of life these ‘waterproof’...
visitors this year: 20 weirdly crunchy, rather hot but not as hot as it might be crispy chilli avocado on toast + crispy chilli mash an avocado over two pieces of toast, add crispy...
visitors this year: 79 A collection of time-saving uses for a microwave for food preparation Tip: when you have more stuff to heat, or the food is on a plate, give it a further...
visitors this year: 245 This smoke alarm piqued my interest as a way to create an smoke/fire alert when I might be elsewhere. It’s unbranded and labelled as “C50D/W (1527, can skip code)” which...
visitors this year: 1,857 Here is a tank level sensor that’s more useful than anything you can buy. This post focuses on my housing and the calibration for a basic sensor to measure oil...
visitors this year: 34 No munchies for tonight’s telly watching? This recipe makes 16 biscuits. Do in two batches if you’ve no self control Set the oven to 180°C In a small bowl melt...
visitors this year: 3,281 how to make a heating oil tank level sensor that’s more useful than anything you can buy. This sensor… Background: homes like mine use diesel oil as a fuel to...
visitors this year: 2,141 how to make a heating oil tank level sensor that’s more useful than anything you can buy. This sensor… Background: homes like mine use oil as a fuel to keep...
visitors this year: 383 tips on choosing cameras and using POE / passive POE and waterproofing the connection. how do I record activity from cameras? Buying a security camera system isn’t just for professionals....
visitors this year: 153 If you’re as puzzled as I was about upgrading to the latest (2013) Brompton brake levers, this post aims to unconfuse. My cost, using Brompton clone parts was £17 plus...
handling data from experiments / home & garden / monitoring at home
by roger · Published Mar 2022 · Last modified Mar 2023
visitors this year: 1,498 I know that I ought not leave things powered on. Knowing that is easier than remembering that an e-bike or drone or laptop battery is still connected. Below I show...
visitors this year: 2,828 The very popular, but hardly-known Xiaomi nightlight, which lights up a dark space when you pass, now has a ‘smart’ version. A night light is nice on a dark stairway...
visitors this year: 136 places to drink and snack places to park Cambs & Herts council public rights of way maps
visitors this year: 985 see version 2 of this project here My initial want was for the stairs to have soft glow lighting … but what the hec, LED strip lights do more than...
visitors this year: 799 A ‘smart scale’ that records my weight to a phone might be seen as ‘gadgety’ and unnecessary but I’m now many months into this and think it’s fabulous. Almost fact:...
visitors this year: 168 GoPro, microphone and camera fittings are so ridiculously different, so here are some pointers to help buy the right bits to mount them. In all cases, even a GoPro (below)...
visitors this year: 2,821 The good idea to mount a Swytch electric kit battery on the Brompton front luggage block had consequences. I’d lost a bestest way of carrying a bag. Searching for an easy-on,...
visitors this year: 1,059 when you want an e-bike and you don’t want another bike:
visitors this year: 254 , 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...
visitors this year: 843 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?...
visitors this year: 233 If you’re looking for a smartwatch, look at the Huawei Watch / Huawei Band 6 / Huawei Watch Fit New wearables If you’ve yet to get yourself a smartwatch I’ll...
visitors this year: 13,268 … I can now see my Huawei health data in Google Fit and Google Drive. The Health Sync app acts as a go-between, and connects Huawei health to several other...
visitors this year: 275 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...
visitors this year: 262 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...
visitors this year: 289 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...
Roger Frost has been writing about technology since 1988 and this web includes articles; radio interviews with scientists and tutorials to use technology at home and the classroom.
rogerfrost.com is a compendium of ideas for using technology with sciencey questions in mind. Started in 1995 to offer ideas to school science teachers, Roger Frost expanded the coverage to home automation, lifestyle topics, handy gadgets and smarthome sensors to measure, or understand, what’s going on around him.
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