visitors this year: 1,384 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...
visitors this year: 912 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: 649 ‘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: 5,328 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....
visitors this year: 942 The regular way to switch a Sonoff relay is to use the official ewelink app. Other ways require you to ‘flash’ the Sonoff device with Tasmota or ESPHome software and...
visitors this year: 3,979 BELOW YOU’LL FIND: 1. Get IFTTT to put the data I send into a Google sheet Go to IFTTT, sign in and add the Webhooks service and the Google Sheets...
visitors this year: 2,368 How to make inexpensive, ‘old’ technology, 433MHz devices work with today’s smart devices see also: 433MHz smarter letterbox RF sensors and receivers If you’ve used any of the following examples...
visitors this year: 182 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: 2,768 How do I safely house an electronics project? Is there a better way to mount a ESP-CAM camera? I’d been looking for boxes in the wrong shop so I found...
visitors this year: 2,788 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. Dozens of other...
visitors this year: 865 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: 73 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: 115 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: 304 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...
visitors this year: 408 In the beginning there was the smart bulb that changed colour and convinced me that here was something trivial and fanciful. Today I’m surprised by the usefulness of the smart...
visitors this year: 1,019 … 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: 1,483 The Google nest thermostat (or its Hive equivalent) are devices which I’d be happy to pay for and recommend. I could easily make something that turned on the heating with...
visitors this year: 210 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...
visitors this year: 1,184 what’s needed to start using ESPhome? option 1: an ESP32 development board with a micro-USB socket option 2: an ESP8266 development board – less power use, but no Bluetooth option...
visitors this year: 9,052 Home Assistant is software that connects smart devices. It enables them to have a useful life outside of the app that they come with. You will gain unusual flexibility where...
visitors this year: 15,842 These instructions may help you upload a fireware.bin file to an ESP32 dev board. You are not alone if you meet a problem uploading a firmware bin file to an...
visitors this year: 1,918 When a ESP32 device, such as a development board like the wemos D1 mini or ESP32-CAM, has been flashed and powered, it will use the password you added to the...
visitors this year: 812 ‘own’ your own devices THE FOLLOWING PROCESS IS STILL USEFUL – HOWEVER SONOFF DEVICES CAN WORK WITHOUT MODIFICATION IN HOME ASSISTANT (SEE HERE) AND THE EWElink app. THE ADVANTAGE OF...
visitors this year: 19,728 Costing less than £10 or $10, the ESP32-CAM board comes equipped with WiFi, a camera and a micro SD-card slot. It needs a little work to turn this ‘development board’...
visitors this year: 1,365 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: 597 The Sonoff POWR2 can replace the timer on a hot water immersion heater. This model also measures electricity as volts, amps and current. This feature provides the key to saving...
visitors this year: 565 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...
visitors this year: 898 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: 38 ready dec 2020
visitors this year: 436 A Raspberry Pi is a small low power computer that hopefully has a use that chimes for you. I don’t think you’d want to use a Pi for emails and...
visitors this year: 236 “… 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...
visitors this year: 247 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: 114 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: 924 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...
visitors this year: 354 When you have a few smart devices you meet a need to be able to see them easily. We might have a camera pointed at the front door but it’s...
visitors this year: 1,117 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...
visitors this year: 644 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...
visitors this year: 3,707 fit a sensor to the electricity meter for a minute by minute readout The UK electricity meter shows electricity use in kWatt hours, and a human sometimes pops by to...
visitors this year: 76
visitors this year: 5,564 make a heating oil tank level sensor that’s more useful than anything you can buy Some homes use oil as a fuel to keep warm in winter. Over the course...
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 measure, or understand, what’s going on around him.
To find things the search box, the menu and the keywords work perfectly (and we’re totally free as in advert free).
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.
Please enjoy and share this content. To say hi – there’s a reply button on each page that goes straight to me in Cambridge, UK. Send a private message on this page.
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