Even though my instance of the Domoticz home automation system has been running for several years now, I only ever used its dashboard occasionally to check on the power consumption of my electrical appliances. The recent addition of a Z-Wave reed contact to my bedroom window, however, made it possible to notify me when the room needed ventilation. And when the window has been open for long enough.
#Software
In the early days of the WWW, any modest webpage had a counter showing how many visitors it had attracted so far. Not for tracking customer journeys or ad revenues, but rather just for fun.
#Software
Several years ago, I had purchased a one-off licence to use the Pushover push notification service, so a home automation suite based on Domoticz could inform me of unexpected events. Digging a bit deeper into the API, I found that it can be readily used to notify me of (important) system events on Linux hosts.
#Software
On the search for a simple way to flash microcontroller development boards from hosts with USB-C ports only, I came across an adapter cable that sold for less than a dollar. Would I recommend you getting one as well? No. Because the cable didn't work at all.
#Hardware
I purchased a pre-owned GW Instek GPD-3303S three-channel power supply. Its output voltages were close enough to the true value, but the currents were off by a few percent. Locating the service manual on the web was not a big problem, but the instructions did not really line up with my unit. Click here to find out how I managed to tune its settings.
#Hardware
Here's another episode of my quest for a decent DAB+ receiver, this time checking out a Hama PDR20. I was (and still am) quite impressed by the fact that it comes with a single piece of wire attached to a female SMB connector as its antenna, and still yields a fairly good signal strength. So what's the problem? Well the device features two 3.5mm output connectors, both of which are outputting a nasty noise signal. Here's how to tame the beast...
#Hardware