Articles

. The BME280 is an enhanced version of the BMP280, which is capable of measuring humidity in addition to pressure and temperature. OBK allows you to easily add BME/BMP sensors to any smart device, the measurements from which can then be sent to Home Assistant or to our HTTP server... [Read more]

. Here I will test a 'smart' light switch based on the Zigbee wireless protocol. After pairing it with Home Assistant, it will show how to configure it, turn off its backlight, set the initial state of the relays, etc. But first - the purchase and the price. We paid PLN80 per unit.... [Read more]

. What does the inside of a TV set flooded look like? Is it still possible to get such a television working? How much work does it take to clean it, how deep is the water able to reach inside? Will a flooded Samsung still work? Let's find out! In this topic, I will just deal with... [Read more]

. My father has recently started using a Libre 2 sensor to continuously monitor his blood glucose levels. A cursory browse of the internet results in the belief that it's a sensor for sticking on the skin, but something kept me guessing: how does it measure? Is there a way to measure... [Read more]

. I would like to invite you to a gallery of photos of the inside of HDD drives from different periods, starting from 1994 and ending after 2010. By the way, we will see if flood water is able to get inside such a drive, because all the copies presented here are after flooding. The... [Read more]

. Today we are going to look at the topic of entering text through a touchscreen display in LVGL. With older displays, without the "touch" option, you had to have a separate keyboard to enter anything at all. This was quite problematic. With a touch display, on the other hand, we... [Read more]

. I will test here a wireless video intercom (battery powered) based on WiFi communication. All compatible with the Tuya app, so allowing us to talk to our visitor from anywhere in the world. All you need is an internet connection. The whole thing can be bought for around PLN170 and... [Read more]

Main board designation: SY-GU10-5L-WIFI-BL LED board designation: XB-05257 I was really surprised to receive this bulb with a WiFi module, instead of a bluetooth one (and i ordered the bluetooth version specifically). The only difference between them, as far as i have seen, is that... [Read more]

Dreame V9 cordless hoover as pictured. . After a couple of years of brave work, the operating time was significantly reduced. The conclusion was obvious, the battery is coming to the end of its life, you have to think about buying a new one (a considerable expense) or buying a used... [Read more]

. What can a hobbyst recover from an old computer motherboard? Where to get good MOSFETs to drive from 5V, from an Arduino, preferably ones for higher currents, with low resistance in the open state? They can be just recovered from such a motherboard - here I will show how and briefly... [Read more]

Sometimes I like a short look in the logs of an OpenBeken device without starting the web app and open the "logs" menu. Or I like to save or filter the logs over a longer period. This can be easily achieved by the connecting to port 9000 of the device. I learned about this feature... [Read more]

Today we are testing a tiny 0.91-inch OLED display based on the SSD1306 controller and offering control via I2C. The module discussed here offers a rather low resolution, at a mere 128x32, but this can easily be justified by its small price (around PLN5) and, of course, its small... [Read more]

Be Part of the PCBWay 7th Project Design Contest! . PCBWay 7th Project Design Contest has arrived. Prior to this, PCBWay successfully held six design contests. In each contest, we saw many eye-catching projects shared by outstanding and creative electronic engineers and enthusiasts.... [Read more]

. We bought some Modee LED 24W RGBCW lamps in order to realise lighting in the corridor based on them. Here I will show the inside of one of these lamps and the procedure for changing its firmware to free it from the manufacturer's cloud. Then we will also pair it with Home Assistant... [Read more]

. Today we will take a look inside another IoT gadget, but this time working with the Polish Supla system. We will see how it is built, how the power path is realised, what WiFi module is inside and, in addition, we will try to pair it with the Supla cloud and maybe back up its firmware... [Read more]

. Today I'm testing a classic, budget 858 hot air soldering iron possible to buy for as little as PLN25-30 often appearing under different versions and names, such as DexXer 700W, or 858D, 858A, etc. I will check if this station is able to solder components from the motherboard at... [Read more]

. Some time ago I showed how tightly Tuya packs two relays using the example of the AVATTO WSM16-W2 after-box module for PLN56. Here I will show how Tuya "repainted" this product as a roller shutter controller, i.e. the interior will be similar, but the function quite different....... [Read more]

. Here I will test a cheap Chinese Mustool G700 microscope available to buy for less than $50. I'll compare it with other solutions I've featured before and consider what's best for soldering and what's best for board inspection. The topic will be rather unusual, as I got a microscope... [Read more]

OpenBeken now features a scriptable charts driver that allows you to display an arbitrary number of variables with an arbitrary number of axes. This means you can, for example, show your temperature and humidity history, or a voltage or power, or practically any variable you want.... [Read more]

. I will present here the insides of several old computer mice. Some of these mice are only two-button and do not even have a wheel. Here we will see how they are built and what circuits they are based on, we will also look at their communication protocol. What does the ball mouse... [Read more]

. My colleague @DeDaMrAz and I bought some Tuya LED strip controllers to convert them to work with Home Assistant. Here I will show how to change their batch, configure their GPIO and also how to handle IR (remote control) events in OpenBeken . In addition, we'll also take a look... [Read more]

Dear Forum Members, I have decided to make something for myself. As I'm not happy with the market offerings (reasonably priced and accessible to me) of devices called streaming players, I decided to make something that would satisfy me. The basic premise was to design an audio track... [Read more]

. Today I'm testing whether a custom cooling pad for a laptop can lower its temperatures. Actually it will be a table conversion, so more of a "cooling table". Measurements will be taken on the CPU and on the SSD. I will show the whole thing on the graphs - I will contrast the operation... [Read more]

Solderless adapters for boards like ESP12/TYWE3S seem to be widely available, but we haven't seen any for devices in TYWE2S/ESP-02S form. That's why we've designed our own WB2S/CB2S to CB3S/WB3S form converter that can be used alongside the commercial modules. Our converter has been... [Read more]

. Today we are creating another mini project - this time it will be a touchscreen RGB lamp controller. The controller itself will be based on the ESP32 board + ESP32-2432S028R touch display, while it will control any Tasmota/OpenBeken device via Tasmota's HTTP interface. Commands... [Read more]

. The RoomLux B15515 A60 is another WiFi-controlled 'bulb' offering dual-mode operation - RGB (colours) and CW (shades of white). Here I'll show the inside of it, check out what controls the LEDs and convert it to free it from the Tuya app and connect it locally to Home Assistant.... [Read more]

Many shutter controllers come with RF remotes but without WiFi connectivity, so they cannot be easily paired with Home Assistant. Luckily, it's always possible to simply inject remote button presses and intercept LED states with a simple WiFi module addon modification. Here I will... [Read more]

. Welcome, Today I will give a description of a simple repair of this multimeter. The equipment is popular enough that maybe someone less familiar with the subject will find this description useful and save his instrument ;) The meter on the ohmmeter range indicated all sorts of silly... [Read more]

PCBWay Launches Matt Red and Matt Blue Soldermasks Alongside Enhanced UV Printing Service PCBWay, a leader in PCB prototyping and manufacturing, proudly announces the introduction of two new soldermask colors: Matt Red and Matt Blue. These additions offer customers greater flexibility... [Read more]

. Hello, I'm going to present here a little DIY project that I did over the weekend. My project is based on a WB2S WiFi module (BK7231T), a MAX7219 matrix LED display, a DHT11 thermometer/hygrometer, an IR receiver, a photoresistor and a housing from a 3D printer. The gadget described... [Read more]