Articles

. Various types of plugs, modules and sockets that offer energy measurement and normally work with the manufacturer's cloud can be bought cheaply on the web. Here I will show how such a socket can be freed from the cloud and configured independently, including how events can be triggered... [Read more]

PCBWay at Electronica 2024 in Munich From 12-15 November 2024, Munich will become the world centre of electronic innovation with the trade fair Electronica 2024 . This is one of the industry's most prestigious events, celebrating its 60th anniversary this year , brought together 3,480... [Read more]

I've recently stumbled upon interesting TuyaMCU device which was not sending all dpIDs despite me setting 0x04 WiFi state in autoexec.bat. Following the communication captured from original firmware also didn't trigger the dpID publish. It wasn't even replying to the TuyaMCU state... [Read more]

. I will show here the interior of the Gas Leak detector, model: TX-E Gas leak detector with gas shut-off valve control. edit: I have highlighted the used pins on the CB3S, you can see that all the communication goes through the UART, there is no peripheral support through the CB3S.... [Read more]

. Here I will show step by step how an advanced energy meter/thermostat with LCD screen can be converted so that it can operate 100% locally, without the cloud and without the manufacturer's servers. I'll be converting the S1TW-FR discussed earlier here, to do this I'll upload OpenBeken... [Read more]

. I will show here the inside of another roller shutter controller, this time with a PCB dated 2023.04.13. This will be a newer version of the RTX WCM1MR controller shown some time ago, dated 2022.12.26. I will upload open firmware to it so as to free it from the cloud and allow further... [Read more]

In this tutorial we will show you how to simulate a short button press on non-smart device with a WiFi module addon. We'll use it to control the Ugreen 30346 USB switch remotely via Home Assistant. For this purpose, we'll use an OBK-compatible WiFi module (could be a Beken chip, or... [Read more]

Action sells these in Germany, there are several versions of them, they started with ESP826x-based plugs and switched to Beken-chips at some point. The early ones had screws to open, the cases of the later ones like this here are just clicked together. Here is a detailed teardown... [Read more]

. I hope I don't bore you, with my next headphone amplifier. But somehow it just so happened that I've had the verve for such projects lately. This headphone amplifier was created to be used with a phone or laptop. Hence my decision to power it from the built-in batteries (for easier... [Read more]

A few months ago, at the request of readers, I published an article about the Soviet computer [https://www.elektroda.pl/rtvforum/viewtopic.php?p=21109811]Agat , which was allegedly developed as a clone of the American Apple. No less interesting were the original Soviet and Russian... [Read more]

. I built a welding machine a few years ago, it was mainly to be used to weld cells into packages. I have a lot of cast-off components, so I'm trying to put at least some of them to some use. Unfortunately this is going with increasing resistance, but that's another topic. So the... [Read more]

. Is the Yato YT-82457 750W hot air soldering station capable of desoldering components from a computer motherboard? Is its performance comparable to that of more expensive stations available for 100-250$? How is such a station constructed inside? I will try to check this here and... [Read more]

. The design of this headphone amplifier, is actually an update of my earlier design presented here ( Link ). Compared to the original version, a few things have been changed. The one that is immediately apparent is the casing. The new housing is slightly larger. Its internal dimensions... [Read more]

. Today I'm going to show the project on a tiny eight-pin PIC microcontroller in a DIP8 case offering a modest 3.5kB of Flash memory. What's more, I will use only two pins to communicate with the peripherals - the whole thing will be based on I2C. Based on these I will run a display/keyboard... [Read more]

Here is a look inside a generic 20A Tuya BSD29 UK smart plug with energy metering capabilities. I will unsolder the main PCB, the module and then flash it to run OpenBeken, cutting it off from all Tuya cloud services. I'll also add a DS18B20 temperature sensor so the temperature inside... [Read more]

Test of eurorack power supplies (and not only, because plug-in ones too!) . . Need, as they say, is the mother of invention. As I am working with a modular eurorack system, and wanted to build myself an efficient power supply for the modular system in the box of a broken ATX power... [Read more]

. How does the shift register work? How can shift registers be cascaded so that you can run 48 LEDs using just two lines - clock and data? Here I will try to demonstrate this using an example of a junk board, which I will also analyse first. The scouting begins. There are six HC164A... [Read more]

In previous articles I have already mentioned the possibility of receiving interesting parametric information from aircraft, an air-band receiver for listening to conversations between pilots and traffic controllers. No less interesting may be the data on marine vessels, transmitted... [Read more]

. How do I replace the battery on my iPhone? How do I remove the screen? How much does such a replacement cost if we do it ourselves? Can a complete layman (me) handle it? Here I will try to answer these questions, as circumstances forced me to perform this replacement. After many... [Read more]

For some time now I have been developing a certain system, which I have tentatively named Virtual Machine for 8-bit systems. The name seems to me, at least for now, to reflect well what it is intended to be used for. ;) . . The project is based on the STM32H750, although in principle... [Read more]

Welcome, I wanted to show you my irrigation controller that I built based on ESP8266 has a clone of the WemosD1 board. It is interfaced with the home automation using the MySensors library [ref 3]. In a nutshell, the idea is to have all devices managed from one application (doesn't... [Read more]

Home on laptop batteries 🙂 . Usability testing of the eperimental-experimental 48V energy storage on 18650 cells completed. As an answer to the eternal question "what else would you build ?", I built a "Paragon" class energy storage inspired by Leszek Kwitek After 3 months of testing... [Read more]

. Here is another product which turned out to be a repainted relay from Sonoff - the WS-04H1 from elHome. Here I show its interior and the procedure for changing the ESP8266 firmware to Tasmota, for example. I bought the WS-04H1 for 12$ along with similar products in the series when... [Read more]

For the most common devices based on platforms supported by OpenBeken, the general firmware releases cater to most users' needs. Occasionally a device comes up that can only be partially made working with the standard firmware. Devices like the TH03 temperature and humidity sensor... [Read more]

. I've already shown some older radio receivers, so this time it's time for something more contemporary. Here's a simple budget allotment from Eltra, a portable radio receiver with a long wave and UKF range. Powered by 230V or three LR14 batteries, plus offering a 3.5mm jack headphone... [Read more]

. RF controllers for RGB LED strips can be an interesting alternative to WiFi and Zigbee-based solutions. Unlike more 'advanced' technologies, they don't often require pairing (i.e. the remote control is already paired when you buy it), don't require an app or even require a router.... [Read more]

. How do I upgrade to the latest version of macOS? What if an upgrade to Ventura, Sonoma or Sequoia is not available? Does an old Mac have to have an old operating system? Well, no - the OpenCore Legacy Patcher will allow you to upload the latest system even to a ten-year-old Apple... [Read more]

. It took me a long time to decide whether to publish this post, it also took me a little while to prepare it, so I don't know if I've drawn up everything exactly according to the "what you need" recipe. However, I decided to post it, maybe it will inspire someone or I will learn... [Read more]

. The Sonoff ZBMini is a tiny, in-box relay controlled via the Zigbee protocol. These models are characterised by their small dimensions of 42.6*42.6*20 mm and their ability to work with a light switch from an existing installation (bistable). As usually, I will present here connecting... [Read more]

Hello. A few days ago a colleague sent me a link to a well-known auction site leading to a welding machine for less than PLN90. I don't think anyone with a bit of technical imagination could be so naive as to believe in the miraculous performance of the device. However, I decided... [Read more]