Author: admin

  • A New Outlook

    A New Outlook

    19th Feb 2024 – this morning Microsoft finally forced its “New Outlook” onto my Windows desktop. And now, it’s broken. I don’t mean “bugs” broken. I mean “they want more money” broken: Exactly one year and one day ago, I posted a favourable review of Windows Mail, the little desktop app built-in to Windows that […]

  • Why Windows Mail is actually good

    Why Windows Mail is actually good

    I know, I know. People actually use Windows Mail? Let’s face it. Most of what Microsoft bundles with their Windows operating system is junk. But especially email clients: you have been conditioned for decades into thinking there were two types of mail client: the proper one (Outlook) and the laughably bad one (Outlook Express). I […]

  • Shelly EM – Power Monitoring in Grafana / Influx

    Shelly EM – Power Monitoring in Grafana / Influx

    New Youtube vid – see below for code! The Youtube vid covers general concepts, and below I’ve listed the basic steps to getting this working, plus posted some code samples you can use. Buy your Shelly EM with one or two current clamp sensors. Shelly make a 50A and a 120A sensor for the same […]

  • DIY Multisensors – what are the options?

    DIY Multisensors – what are the options?

    Preamble Let’s get one thing out of the way. Wireless vs. wired? One of my favourite YouTubers Andreas Spiess released a vid this week about PoE on the ESP32. Andreas touched on the discussion of Wireless vs Wired for IoT devices and I agree with his comments. I’ll leave this here: wireless is fantastic but […]

  • Flashing the BlitzWolf BW-RC1 Infrared Blaster with Tasmota

    Flashing the BlitzWolf BW-RC1 Infrared Blaster with Tasmota

    I’m going to cover exactly how I flashed my BW-RC1 IR blaster. My reference was this article by Matthew Harrold, which pretty much says the same thing as I’ll write about here, but I’ll try to (a) include some more photos, (b) more specific instructions, (c) cover the process of flashing, and (c) how to […]

  • Mat’s Mega 2560 Pro Breakout Board

    Mat’s Mega 2560 Pro Breakout Board

    Here’s a new breakout board I have designed and built. If you are interested in any of the following, then read on: 8x IO ports via ethernet jacks (6 IO each, plus selectable 5V or 3.3V power) Vin up to 24V, with double pole galvanic isolation on the input (to allow e.g. quickly plugging into […]

  • We finished our first bonded screed

    We finished our first bonded screed

    How did you spend your Christmas 2018? We spent it finishing our bonded screed. One electrical explosion (and a shipment of a £70 capacitor from the US), one broken wrist, a small amount of blood, a tonne of sweat, and many tears later, our rear basement bonded screed is finished. Actually the process was spread […]

  • Self Build – Basement waterproofing with the Delta Cavity Drain Membrane system

    Firstly – thanks to Liam from Ardex. Great advice – stretching far beyond product advice. Bought my second mixer (Baron forced action) after a conversation with him! Alba from Prime Construction, our Building Inspector. Yes, seriously. They have been amazing with us, not complaining when our 6 month project turned into a 3+ year one. […]

  • The MatDuino – project ideas

    Hmm, maybe I shouldn’t call it the MatDuino. But I need a name for this project. It stems from my recent musings about how wireless devices in the home, specifically #IoT devices, are subject to so many more potential problems than wired devices. Things that got me thinking recently: Numerous comments on my YouTube videos […]

  • Review of Crunch Accounting

    Crunch Accounting provides me with an amazing accountancy service and superb web app for me to manage my everyday business accounts. Yesterday I went on one of my regular “diversions” down an online rabbit hole, and ended up on the website of accountingreviews.co.uk who seem to provide detailed reviews of accountancy software and services. I […]