tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80779913038416668142024-03-14T07:33:55.569+01:00Gadget reviews and tipsA collection of tips, useful information and reviews from my own experience with different gadgets - unbiased by retailer's restrictions.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger74125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-69524528367678634132017-12-28T13:56:00.000+01:002018-01-02T13:16:42.219+01:00HP Color LaserJet MFP M277dw - first impressionsHere we are. I got tired of buying ink for my MFP InkJet printer to find it dried out or unusable some time later. So, went for Laser printer - HP Color LaserJet MFP M277dw.
What I was looking for:
Low cost per page for infrequent use - mostly BW. Speed is not critical.
Multi-Function Printer (MFP) i.e. printing and scanning, preferably with Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), I don't Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-7775158955358749092017-08-09T14:11:00.000+02:002017-12-28T14:12:00.699+01:00Renault Clio III 1.2 TCE100 SportTourer - 5 years laterI just decided to summarize the experience with the car and perhaps to revisit my first impression observations. I will mention the positives and negatives with the car in random order with some sort of comments about the seriousness of the issues.
In general, the car is reflects the purchase price in the positive context. The interior is rather simple with no fancy lights or smart devices - Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-35320269622541717782017-05-20T12:53:00.002+02:002017-05-22T16:23:28.844+02:00GY-MCU90614-BCC Serial IR Non-contact Module: Python code
It seems that this variant of the module, with serial interface, is not that popular or at least I could not find code that I can easily port to Raspberry Pi. One can find a Windows program that prints the values from the serial port but that is all.
Anyway, I found description of the protocol on several pages, and it looked doable. Later, I found an Arduino example code, which could have Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-38913357115268301432017-02-04T10:36:00.000+01:002017-02-04T10:36:13.728+01:00BroadLink SP3 SPcc Contros Mini WiFi Smart Home SocketOk, this guy has enough reviews and videos on the Net and pretty much all of them are positive.
And these are my few lines of wisdom on the subject.
Pros:
Good build quality, size, look, and feel.
Relatively easy to configure and upgrade the firmware with the Android app.
Two-way communication - you get the current state of the switch even after manual toggle.
Fast to connect to WiFi and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-36823770528166248202017-01-21T12:25:00.001+01:002017-01-21T15:01:03.328+01:00LTS-86 Kitchen Bathroom Faucet Water Filter 2 Pcs Ceramic Cartridge Tap Water PurifierHere we go again...
Some three months ago I bought "LTS-86 Kitchen Bathroom Faucet Water Filter 2 Pcs Ceramic Cartridge Tap Water Purifier" with the Lettoos barnd on it from Banggood.
Just to be clear - it is not Banggood's fault.
Anyway, the reason I post here is the same. Last time I wrote a negative review on the product page, Banggood did not publish it or acknowledge at all. No further Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-44039922238966041372017-01-13T19:12:00.000+01:002017-01-13T19:12:58.790+01:00Svensk Bilvård i Uppsala, Karoj Invest AB - personal experienceI will use my blog to publish my experience from "Svensk Bilvård i Uppsala, Karoj Invest AB".
Discalmer:
This post does not contains comments from the author and does not take any particular side.
Only facts that can be proven (official documents or physical evidences) are presented.
This post describes my personal experience and at no point tries to generalize it.
Background of the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-70486131531123862052016-10-22T10:49:00.000+02:002016-10-22T10:49:15.504+02:00rtl_433: simple daemon and tools
Last time I wrote about simple awk script that prints the latest values collected from rtl_433 application. I was pretty much satisfied with this "quick and dirty" solution until recently, when I needed to use the data from two different projects...
Right. It is time for simple daemon solution that will collect the data in format that makes it easy to be used from different clients. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-52160041703600203542016-05-20T13:40:00.000+02:002016-09-24T18:00:04.981+02:00Synology DS216j + DSM6.0 - first impression
Finally! I bought myself a NAS.
How, did I end up with it since I consider 2-bay NAS as pointless exercise? (I thing that RAID0 is just looking for trouble and RAID1 is too inefficient with respect to provided redundant storage)
So, I was looking for something that is at least 4-bay version (so I can use RAID5 on it)... and they are, of course, considerably more expensive. Looking around, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-599381520384368482016-03-19T09:31:00.002+01:002016-05-18T17:29:10.630+02:00NITECORE Digicharger D4 LCD Display Universal Smart Charger
Ok, let me have my say about this battery charger. Pretty much all reviews are more than positive and yes - it is a good charger (with some concerns). But is it really "the most advanced" charger as it states in its own manual?
Let me start with the overwhelming advantages:
It charges almost any usual battery on the market (I will exclude NiZn batteries since they are rather unusual Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-80125884141152022262016-03-07T10:47:00.001+01:002016-03-07T14:06:34.537+01:00rtl_433: simple text monitoring panel
There is this really nice rtl_433 "application using librtlsdr to decode the temperature from a wireless temperature sensor (433.92MHz)" https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433 which does exactly what is says.
I just thought that I can write a simple script that will keep showing only the latest decoded data.
As one can see in the example output, further below, some of the sensors sendsUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-72139220186226196432016-01-23T10:56:00.000+01:002016-01-23T10:56:00.665+01:00BTY AAA1350, rechargeable NiMH batteries - first and last impressionRight, since they were not that expensive, I somehow did not make the effort to search on the net for reviews, so I ended up with a pack of BTY AAA1350 rechargeable batteries. From the packaging, they went straight in the charger for evaluation - first discharge with 100 mA, then fully charging them with 200 mA current.
The results are more than disappointing. I should have run the TEST mode of Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-64134982805411475802015-09-17T09:43:00.003+02:002015-09-17T09:46:57.012+02:00Weather station Prologue IW006-DCF (Clas Ohlson 36-5364)Well... on this one. Let's start with the good.
Advantages:
Very nice weather station with color display that does not need Internet to show the weather! Everything else I found wanted to show me some nice pictures, temperature and forecast from some weather service. I can easily use my 3 years old tablet for this, if I wanted.
Indoors and outdoors temperature and humidity readings. It has Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-9924562109411094542015-06-13T11:10:00.000+02:002017-10-31T09:30:36.711+01:00Eaton 3S 550 and Raspberry Pi
Briefly about the setup: Eaton 3S 550 powers a constantly running Raspberry Pi (RPi), wireless router, ADSL modem, cordless phone, wireless energy monitor (Eliq) and home automation device (Tellstick Net). All in all they are 10% of the UPS capacity which gives me about 30 minutes safety window before the RPi will shut down (shut down is triggered when battery is below 20%).
The RaspberryUnknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-60923472301030687922015-05-01T11:24:00.001+02:002016-01-16T12:28:02.815+01:00Tellstick Duo revisitedFor one or another reason I have replaced/upgraded my first Raspberry Pi (RPi) /256MB RAM/ with the latest RPi2 - the advantages are kind of obvious. I used to run the old telldus-core and now it was perfect time to upgrade it and rewrite my programs written in python with bash script using the new features in telldus-core-2.1.2.
I have tried before but failed with the device recognition and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-12057097440341448872015-03-22T10:44:00.000+01:002015-03-25T07:01:24.140+01:00Universal thermostat CE UT-200There is not much to write about it. It is an digital thermostat that one can easily use to maintain temperature below or above certain value. Conveniently enough, depending on the "on" and "off" setting you can set the thermostat in heating or cooling mode.
We have small room attached to the house that is not centrally heated and during the winter gets easily quite cold. We use it as gym, soUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-78049557090135840142015-02-07T12:34:00.004+01:002015-03-27T09:31:52.458+01:00Raspberry Pi 2: tigervnc - the easy wayFor a long time I wanted to use a Raspberry Pi (RPi) as a VNC client to my linux machines. The first RPi was a bit too slow for all the tests I have done, so I simply gave up on it.
With the new version, I thought this might work... Unfortunately, the VNC clients packed with the Raspbian image repositories are performing poorly, with one exception - ssvnc (after some tweaking), but the programs Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-85674146453689151222015-01-31T12:09:00.004+01:002015-03-09T21:03:30.220+01:00WiFog: what is worth forBriefly on the service http://wifog.com/
the company offers free mobile Internet and some free time calls within Sweden to any phone, in exchange of watching commercials. It is difficult to argue about what you get since is sort of free, but here is my experience with the service that could give you more on what to expect and is it really worth it.
Yes, it fits perfectly on my old spareUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-71689779241461135022015-01-25T18:36:00.000+01:002020-05-02T14:17:59.489+02:00D-Link DCS-935L: first impression
Well, I had ideas of utilizing some of my old stuff as wireless camera like Raspberry Pi (RPi) with an USB camera and WiFi. Or an old Eee PC netbook. The problem with the Eee PC was that is old, slow and a bit noisy. The RPi is also slow, with plenty of cables etc... An old Android phone comes closer for the purpose but... all would have had the very same problem - no real use in dark Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-29760701542583894502014-11-16T17:17:00.000+01:002016-02-08T11:05:13.046+01:00ELIQ Energy Online: first impressionsSince we moved in a house, the electricity bill became something unpleasant that appears to worsen during the winter... The electricity company we have signed with, does not provide any detailed information about the consumption (except of a printed graph with the bill for the monthly consumption compared to the previous year) and the uncertainty to plan is a bit too sour to my inexperienced Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-58050119981274723172014-09-04T13:11:00.002+02:002014-09-09T21:18:26.473+02:00NFC tags - are they really worth it?Let me say this immediately - I really like the idea. And how it works... ...almost...
So, recently I got Nexus 5 replacement for my old Android phone and it comes with NFC capabilities. I thought that this is great idea and almost immediately bought four NFC stickers to play with. And everything was so exciting until I realized that to read the NFC tag the phone needs to be Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-63357428581952822162014-04-07T11:33:00.002+02:002014-04-07T20:06:51.768+02:00Battery maintenance - Lenovo
Proper battery maintenance is still an issue nowadays and I am still not completely sure what is the best practice. I know how to properly store the battery (point 3 below) but what about the one I use...? Well, most of the time I have my laptop on AC power...
Recently I got a new laptop Lenovo T440s that has an internal battery that makes everything a bit more complicated. So, I sat down and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-24030887684641011432014-03-29T21:09:00.000+01:002017-07-09T09:40:17.165+02:00Voltcraft charge manager 410
CM-410 on the left and IPC-1L on the right
Well, as usually, I will only add my personal opinion and the information that usually is not provided.
Some time ago, I bought Voltcraft IPC-1L and wrote about it. Since then (about 3.5 years) I remain more than satisfied from the product.
Recently, I bough some cheap rechargeable batteries (not the ones shown on the picture) that for some reason Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-70680299561495599932014-01-19T10:56:00.000+01:002014-01-26T10:51:40.792+01:00Raspberry Pi and IR remote control with LIRCI have been planing for a while to add an IR remote control to my RPi and the day came with the discovery of a IR set with remote control sold by Kjell&Company for a symbolic price.
First step first. I have added the receiver part since it does not require soldering at all. I have followed this manual to set and test LIRC on RPi with one exception - I use GPIO 18 as input from the IR Unknownnoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-38612161628941684822013-12-26T14:40:00.000+01:002014-02-21T23:18:42.752+01:00ASUS Wireless Router RT-N56U
I got the router more than half an year ago, to replace my old D-Link DIR-655 which was really good router but had ridiculously weak signal (I had problems to connect my mobile devices in the other rooms. Later, I also found that the weak signal was the reason for my wireless printer to malfunction).
As usual, I am not going to write a complete review but only to add my personal opinion and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8077991303841666814.post-2591338830630140542013-10-28T17:38:00.000+01:002014-01-26T10:53:35.277+01:00Home automation: second roundSome time ago I briefly mentioned here the main concepts behind the project. Nothing has changed dramatically, except that I realized that my SMSgate solution was outdated. The phone battery was seriously deteriorated and I also realized that it is not that easy to just replace the phone anymore.
Well, I had an old Android phone (HTC Wildfire) that was essentially lying unused for quite some Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0