Articles

Is it sensible to buy a touchscreen monitor for the workshop? What is the configuration of a touchscreen monitor? How much power does such a 15.6" monitor consume? Is Windows able to support an additional touch monitor when the main screen has no touch support? I will try to check... [Read more]

Today we're testing the W300 dual inspection camera/endoscope offering an IP67 rating, a two-metre cable, two viewing angles (side/front) and Wi-Fi connectivity. I'll also be checking to see if it can actually record video in the promised 1080p full HD quality. Let's start with the... [Read more]

Do IoT manufacturers want to help us change firmware? The Refoss Switch R10 is a single relay module capable of controlling both a classic switch and from the Refoss mobile app. The device is based on the ESP8266 chip and is distinguished by an easily accessible programming connector... [Read more]

I've been trying to figure out why we cannot decrypt the key vault on some Tuya flash backups and why this seems to be the case for certain, typically older, platforms. BK7252U, TR6260, W800 to name a few. The decryption method for BK7231N/T (and some RTLs) is known , though the Tuya... [Read more]

How to flash the RTL8710CM (Ameba Z2) with our Tasmota/ESPHome-style multiplatform firmware? Welcome to this step-by-step guide for the Meross MSS810 Apple Home smart switch. With this guide, you will be able to regain your privacy and run the device independently of the manufacturer’s... [Read more]

Hello to all the skinny roosters :) I bought on AliExpress and on Allegro CH341 programmers for my rooster so that it would lather well :) and it turned out that they required modifications. I will therefore describe what I reworked and how. The first one from AliExpress did not feed... [Read more]

From Display to Complete System: How the Solution Team Creates Value at Unisystem At Unisystem, a “solution” is not just a catchy slogan, but a concrete approach to creating complete modules in which the display becomes the starting point for building a fully integrated solution.... [Read more]

The Sonoff MINIR4M is a small, in-box relay that allows you to easily turn a simple lighting or electrical device into a Wi-Fi-controlled building automation component. With Matter support, it can work with different ecosystems (Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa) without being locked... [Read more]

After designing two power supplies - the first of which was not entirely successful and the second of which proved to be of little use - I decided to design a third. This is because, as it turned out, in my practice there is no need for current limitation, especially as in the previous... [Read more]

I invite you to a short presentation showing the process of creating a simple 3D printable item. I will design and print a lamp-mounted phone holder that allows you to use your phone vertically. I will show the step by step design process along with test prints. In a way, this topic... [Read more]

I would like to invite you to a destructive demonstration of a powerful outdoor LED lamp with a PIR motion sensor. The equipment came to me completely inoperable, so I decided to check its construction for teaching purposes. I was mainly puzzled by what was broken, and how the LED... [Read more]

Nothing special to brag about. However, here is a project I made. The device moves to the right by 5 pixels every 1 minute, then back by 5 pixels. Written in Arduino for a Raspberry Pi Zero (RP2040) board. You may ask, why make this when you can buy something like this? And this is... [Read more]

DIY Kiosk - or electronics magazine During the construction phase... Hello esteemed forumers. The year 2025 is upon us and, as is customary, it is good to have some New Year's resolutions. I decided that I would start the new year by putting my studio, and workshop, in order. What... [Read more]

Here is a comparison, current measurements and a presentation of the interiors of the two displays - the first is the older LCD 8" TV Tevision MD30108K offering antenna and AV input, and the second is the slightly newer EM713/SX-LCD-7CAL 7" 1024x600 IPS/PLS, already compatible with... [Read more]

Eightree ET31 Smart Plug with Energy Monitoring 13A (BK7238 T1) Note: loads of editing and moving parts here and there, so things might not be exactly spot on - if anything appears non-sensical, you will have to trust that it made sense before I cut/pasted the paragraph higher/lower.... [Read more]

I bought a couple of these and managed to get it working with OpenBeken: Some info: -  Webshop link - Datasheet - Product code: 3208075 - CBLC5 module with BK7231N - LED driver (U2) is a SM2185N - The 3v3 for the CBLC5 module is provided by a BP2571 buck converter. This post has a... [Read more]

I’d like to share an early prototype of a Python app designed for remote access to Fluke meters using RS232. At the moment, it supports basic communication and data retrieval. It's using CPL protocol over RS232 connection to send commands and receive information from scopemeter. So... [Read more]

Is a catalogue note in a foreign language a problem in 2026? Today I will test whether artificial intelligence can replace a translator and translate subtitles from electronic parts specifications into English. Importantly, the whole experiment will be based on screenshots (bitmaps)... [Read more]

Hello This is my first teardown article so please for understanding. Introduction I bought water leakage sensor DYGSM DY-SQ400B from  Aliexpress  for 1$. I wanted to connect it directly to my HA instance (bypass Internet connection requirement, which could be a bottleneck during critical... [Read more]

For several years, Elektroda has been developing universal, open-source software for various types of Wi-Fi-controlled building automation devices, such as relays, LED lamp and LED strip controllers (including WS2812), thermostats, energy meters, or there temperature, humidity, motion... [Read more]

Some time ago I presented how reverse geocoding (converting geographic coordinates into address data) can be run locally based on the Nominatim service from OpenStreetMap. Here I will show a similar system, this time realised manually in Python based on ready-made libraries and ready-made... [Read more]

I would like to invite you to a demonstration of the interior and software changes of the Tuya universal IR remote control. The device shown here is capable of receiving and transmitting infrared signals in various remote control standards such as RC5, RC6, NEC, etc. The whole thing... [Read more]

In this topic I will show how anyone can run the Nemotron 3 Nano on their own computer and then test it with all sorts of electronics and programming tasks. The Nemotron 3 Nano is a new thinking LLM model based on a Mixture-of-Experts architecture with a Mamba-2 + Transformer hybrid.... [Read more]

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]

Do you like old video games? The console presented here allows you to run many titles from different platforms such as Atari, NES, PlayStation or Game Boy, all in one handy device. With an open system and a large number of emulated platforms, the possibilities are truly great - let's... [Read more]

Here I will present the WEP 8858 portable hot air, also often advertised as a 'plastic welder' or as a '100-650W digital soldering station'. I will check how it handles the soldering of components from the motherboard and then try to measure its power consumption and the temperature... [Read more]

Good morning. I would like to show you my mini hauler, which is powered by an engine from a petrol scythe. The 3hp internal combustion engine comes from a NAC scythe and is connected to a 60:1 worm gearbox. The gearbox drives the differential from the mower tractor, on which the 18-8.00x8... [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]