visitors this year: 3 A collection of things I’ve used a microwave for plus others found on t’internet. The cooking times stated are reliable – they will be affected by using a container or...
visitors this year: 67 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: 313 a tank level sensor that’s more useful than anything you can buy. This post shows my housing for a sensor that measures oil and water levels. The sensor is a...
visitors this year: 10 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: 824 make a heating oil tank level sensor that’s more useful than anything you can buy can measure oil level in any unit – litres, kWh, gallons or days until I...
visitors this year: 81 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....
handling data from experiments / home & garden / monitoring at home
by roger · Published Mar 2022 · Last modified Mar 2023
visitors this year: 796 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: 1,169 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: 88
visitors this year: 376 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: 13 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: 1,468 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. Finding an easy-on, easy-off...
visitors this year: 671 when you want an e-bike and you don’t want another bike:
visitors this year: 155 , 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: 518 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: 142 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: 6,822 … 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: 195 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: 155 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: 163 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...
visitors this year: 333 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...
visitors this year: 357 … 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...
visitors this year: 910 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,...
visitors this year: 154 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...
visitors this year: 266 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....
visitors this year: 705 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...
visitors this year: 469 If you need to know when a device, like a dryer or washing machine has finished working, get a ‘smart plug with energy monitoring‘. Amazon list many of them but...
visitors this year: 3,168 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...
visitors this year: 672 Ovens may have digital controllers or analogue temperature controllers and cooks seem to have blind faith in their settings. In this household the cooks were burning food so I checked...
visitors this year: 2,664 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...
visitors this year: 249 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...
visitors this year: 644 I discover my bicycle headlamp wasn’t working because some 18650 batteries have a button top. Oh my, that was embarrassing to admit The 18650 ‘battery’, like many batteries, is named...
visitors this year: 395 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...
visitors this year: 492 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...
visitors this year: 1,422 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...
visitors this year: 638 If you could look inside an old replaceable laptop battery pack like this you’d find 4 or 6 cells. Usually the cells are 18mm diameter, 65mm long and are called...
visitors this year: 2,552 Sometimes a laptop goes into a comatose state that no amount of charging or on-offing can end. The solution might be to try the following. If you’re desperate do them...
visitors this year: 510 ‘Smart meters’ and metering devices usually measure the electricity used by the whole house*. However I prefer to pay attention to the electricity used by individual devices, such as a...
visitors this year: 137 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...
visitors this year: 630 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...
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, gadgets and sensors to monitor, or understand, what’s going on around us.
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Roger Frost has been writing since 1988 and this web includes his published articles about the use of the Internet; the work of scientists and how technology is useful at home or school.
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