My current favorite relay board.
There is a host of small inexpensive microcontrollers available such as the Raspberry Pi's, Arduinos, and ESP32, and they are great for controlling stuff. But many things we want to control require more power than …
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Confronted with a QR Code on a Windows desktop and a desire to get that text without using a phone camera, what do you do?
"Scan this QR Code with your device." Obviously the developer thinks I want the code's information on my …
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My new shop ceiling fan. Doing what a fan is supposed to do. Fanning.
One of my favorite things is making a thing to meet a need out of stuff I already have. The fact that I do this time …
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I recently did a four-day trip to South Georgia and back. Spent three nights in The Bug. It was wonderful.
We have been very fortunate thus far. Our few real uses of The Bug have been pretty bug-free. Insects have pretty much left us alone. But …
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We traveled to Mississippi and did an overnighter at a KOA campground 150 miles away. It was a good test of The Bug's systems.
This project has FINALLY reached its end. We just wrapped up a 300 mile round-trip overnight shakedown test of The Bug …
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Clipped from the Legrand website, this is the Wiremold 500/700 Small Raceway we've all come to know and love.
You've seen it. You probably just didn't notice. It's ubiquitous like walls and floors.
Wiremold has been around a long time, and is a very useful product. In my …
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Does this look like a project to you? It does to me.
It's one thing to read about recycling on the Internet, or to see kids shows promote the ideals of good stewardship of resources. It's another thing altogether to actually make something useful out of junk. I maintain the …
read moreSurely, among the MILLIONS of people who are regularly devouring every word I write here on this blog, someone has asked the question, "Why go to all the trouble of building your own bespoke home automation system when there are great open source offerings like OpenHAB and Home Assistant out …
read moreI like knowing what the temperature is in my back yard.
And the rainfall amount when it's raining. And the wind speed and direction. That's why I've had a weather station in my backyard for several years now.
We had two Accurite stations in two years. Both crapped out after …
read moreWhen my wife's in-ground pool was completed, it quickly became apparent the controls for the pump and lights were designed in a tech vacuum.
The control head (receiver, and manual buttons) was attached to the power panel through a knockout on top. It looked like …
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