visitors this year: 3,675 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: 1,213 when you want an e-bike and you don’t want another bike:
visitors this year: 328 , 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: 1,112 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: 295 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: 15,794 … 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: 359 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: 351 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: 357 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: 1,417 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: 1,193 … how to service or replace the brewing unit on a Jura coffee machine and many other fixes. It might be assumed that if you can afford the BMW of...
visitors this year: 8,654 Some cheesecakes are set with gelatin and have a smooth, jelly-like texture. This cheesecake is baked and sets due to its whipped egg. When chilled it has an appealing dry,...
visitors this year: 384 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: 740 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: 2,750 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 – cog not engaging to...
visitors this year: 889 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: 8,283 This ceiling ‘coffer’ is lit by four 5m LED strips – each is cut to fit the space. When my kitchen lights turn on they fade up in a few...
visitors this year: 1,224 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: 6,260 A home automation platform, such as Home Assistant, allows you to monitor temperature on graphs using sensors placed around the home. Monitoring temperatures allowed me to turn on/off my heating...
visitors this year: 407 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: 2,273 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: 715 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: 839 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: 1,898 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: 1,243 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: 4,215 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: 804 ‘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: 266 smart sockets have uses. A smart socket adds a little cleverness to a table lamp or electric heater. They connect to your Internet wifi though some work on local 433MHz...
visitors this year: 1,242 see also more about 433MHz devices The letterbox is five doors and fifty metres from my desk. The uncertainty of the postie arriving in the afternoon means that I make...
visitors this year: 105 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...
visitors this year: 162 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...
visitors this year: 1,533 … 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...
visitors this year: 1,976 The Google nest thermostat (or its Hive equivalent) are devices which I’d be happy to pay for and recommend. A DIY person could make a thing to turn on the...
visitors this year: 1,693 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...
visitors this year: 1,200 Domestic hot water can be heated by a gas or oil central heating boiler or by an electrical immersion heater. I take advantage of half-price nighttime electricity and use an...
visitors this year: 52 ready dec 2020
visitors this year: 348 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...
visitors this year: 161 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:...
visitors this year: 1,245 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...
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, its coverage now extends to gadgets, home automation, home living and sensors to help understand what’s going on around the house.
It’s fully indexed so you can use keywords and the search box above to find content.
Please enjoy and share this spam and advert free content. To say hi – hit the ‘leave a reply’ button on this page – the message goes only to me in Cambridge, UK.
Roger Frost (his cv) has been writing about technology since 1988 and this web includes his articles; tutorials, lesson outlines and radio interviews.
HOME AUTOMATION:
