Articles

NextPCB offers free HQDFM DFM webinars for PCB designers and maker groups Anyone who has sent Gerbers to a fab knows the feeling: you wait for the boards and hope no hidden manufacturability issue shows up. That “hope” phase is exactly what Design for Manufacturability (DFM) is meant... [Read more]

Are 'smart' LED lights designed to overheat? What temperature will such a "led" light reach after a quarter of an hour of operation? Is it somehow possible to reduce its heating and prolong its life? I invite you to a presentation of the interior, measurements, and firmware changes... [Read more]

Recently time code from OBK was changed to allow for more time sources (beside the well known NTP). The possibly simplest method is setting the OpenBeken time to the time of the device you are using to access the GUI (this is allready in OBK code, just not enabled): Setting device... [Read more]

Can the tiny eight-bit PIC12F683 microcontroller handle the dynamic colour animation on the WS2812 LEDs? The MCU used here has just 2048 bytes of Flash memory, 128 bytes of RAM and is clocked at up to 20 MHz (8 MHz for the internal oscillator). Is this enough? Let's find out! The... [Read more]

This is a teardown and modding guide to OpenBeken of the Smart Plug Sonoff S61TPF which is available at Amazon for 10,99 € in December 2025. The device looks as follows Before starting the teardown: The procedure requires experience in opening plastic housings, soldering, especially... [Read more]

Here is a short presentation of the inside of the Blaupunkt model MS8BK microwave with CD and USB player. I will check here how it is built, try to analyse its firmware from an unknown microprocessor and determine its architecture in Ghidra, and then run its display with Arduino.... [Read more]

ESPConnect is an advanced tool for managing ESP family microcontrollers without having to install desktop applications. It allows you to read and upload the contents of the chip's Flash memory. It allows you to view detailed device information such as chip family, MAC, Flash size... [Read more]

How to flash and configure RF remote receiver with open source firmware? How to use it to control relays and external devices, with and without Home Assistant? How to add custom remotes? Here's a short guide to RC (Radio Control) driver in OpenBeken, all basics covered. With this... [Read more]

Here we will present a DIY remote RF controller for Dooya shutters made with a CC1101 transceiver and ESP-S3 Super Mini and a 3D-printed case. The controller is running ESPHome firmware and allows us to control Dooya shutters from Home Assistant. Full YAML script source and SKP enclosure... [Read more]

Do you like touch buttons? They are very easy to find in all sorts of modern devices today - including building automation systems. However, I myself am not a fan of them, which is why in this topic I will be showing a Wi-Fi enabled programmable switch based on classic, clickable... [Read more]

Recently, when building a controller for my cooker, I decided to experiment with something simpler. Admittedly, I'm not keen on Wi-Fi control, but I was curious to see how low the current consumption could currently be. In the off-the-shelf solutions I tested, the consumption ranged... [Read more]

Upgrade Your PCB Design Workflow with JLCPCB’s Layout Services and One-Stop Manufacturing JLCPCB: Professional PCB Layout Services Backed by Full One-Stop Manufacturing Introduction The progress of modern electronics has been a nightmare of disrupted workflow for engineers. After... [Read more]

NE555 astable circuit - How to create a flashing LED The NE555 chip is one of the most popular and widely used integrated circuits in electronics. Due to its simplicity, versatility and low cost, it is used in many projects such as pulse generators, clocks, timers and flashing LEDs.... [Read more]

Good morning. Socket smart from Ali cheap (£9.5) and a great mine, but probably the latest :) Under the T34 chip the TX1/RX1 signals are not routed anywhere, no approach from the side. Only pulling off the circuit or scraping. With the previous WB2S there was no problem. It's impossible... [Read more]

I will show here the first attempts and a simple "Hello world" for the ALI M3801 processor on the example of an old Comsat TE 1050 HD tuner based on the project ali_sdk from GitHub. I will then try to add new functionality to it - GPIO support. The project shown here is not a full... [Read more]

Today I'm going to present an interesting free solution to connect externally to our local network - for example IoT devices. You won't need a public IP here - everything will work even if we are behind NAT and don't have port forwarding. What's more, there will only be two devices... [Read more]

Hi, here's a peak at a tiny little Beken BK7252N 'Xiaomi' '4k' Rear View Car IP camera bought from Ali Express. It's far from a full rear-view camera car kit, more like another cheap Chinese mini cam packaged with standard micro USB cable. No mounting options are supplied. The case... [Read more]

:smile: Over 10 years ago Gerhard Schmidt DG4FAC on avr asm tutorial.net (site already not exists) :cry: presented such a circuit :idea: LED effect based on ATtiny13 ; ; *********************************** ; * Ledlight with an ATtiny13 * ; * (C)2012 by avr-asm-tutorial.net... [Read more]

I invite you to another analysis of an older terrestrial TV receiver. In this topic I'll show its interior, view its board with a thermal camera, download the contents of its Flash memory and try to decode the partitions there myself in my own C++ program. At the end I will present... [Read more]

I would like to invite you to a presentation of a compact thermal imaging camera with a resolution of 256×192 and a frame rate of 25 Hz, with a measurement range of -20°C to +600°C. The device works directly with a phone and requires no external power supply. The low power consumption... [Read more]

This time a description of the GNCC GC2 camera. The camera version on the ak3918ev300 chip is not supported by either Thingino or OpenIPC. In order to run RTSP streaming, I had to use the manufacturer's SDK and write my own software. While there is an example with RTSP, it does not... [Read more]

The OP-WF-A3 is a three-channel RGB LED colour strip controller offering control in two ways - via Wi-Fi from the Tuya app, or via the included remote control. Here I'll show the inside of it, then I'll change its software so that it can be programmed a bit like an Arduino, and finally... [Read more]

NextPCB Launches Free PCBA Accelerator for RP2040 Projects NextPCB announces a new round of its Accelerator program focused on the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller, offering two fully assembled PCB prototypes (PCBA) free of charge to approved RP2040-based designs. The sponsorship... [Read more]

I invite you to a presentation of images generated by two models - the Nano Banana and the Nano Banana Pro. Here I will try to generate diagrams, infographics and various unusual images - it will be really interesting. It's not those days anymore when AI couldn't apply text to an... [Read more]

Recently I reactivated the project of a network synchronised clock based on the MAX7219 display and additional sensors, but the work was effectively slowed down by the lack of free space on the table and the long time waiting for compilation and uploading firmware to the board. For... [Read more]

Renovation of vintage Rochar A.1335 digital voltmeter Good afternoon, some time ago I received a vintage voltmeter handmade in the early 1960s from a friend in France. I have restored this instrument, I invite you to report on the repair of this vintage device. Perhaps a few words... [Read more]

How do the brushes look after 10 years of use? Today I will present a simple washing machine repair, a process that anyone can do at home. The patient is a Samsung Diamond WF8502NMW, which occasionally shows code 3E and usually just doesn't start at all. When the spinning alone is... [Read more]

Hi, under this unusual topic name I present a project of a small automatic music player to make sitting on the toilet more pleasant. Of course this is one application, in other situations it could probably be useful too ;) The main considerations were low complexity, a trivial interface,... [Read more]

Here I will present a tool that allows you to "rotate" a given photo, or more precisely to generate a perspective view inverted by a given angle or a top or bottom view. The full name of the model tested is dx8152/Qwen-Edit-2509-Multiple-angles and it is available to run and download... [Read more]

It has been a long time since I presented a device realised on the BL602. It is time to change that. The BL602 is a microcontroller offering 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE 5.0 connectivity based on a 32-bit RISC-V core clocked at up to 192 MHz. It also has on-board Flash memory, generally... [Read more]