Tag: battery

One Comment

Electric cars are like economic lights

  By

Intro We are now living in a world where incandescent light bulbs are almost completely replaced with LED lamps. LED lighting is everywhere, and delivers good results: good light quality, good price, excellent energy efficiency and pretty much 100% compatible with existing fixtures. But things were not always this great, the journey between now and the old incandescent bulbs is quite a bumpy one. And speaking of a bumpy journey, this journey is a good… Continue reading

No comments

Simple LED strip UPS – closed.

  By , ,

Update after 3 months The UPS is functioning as it should, and I think the solution is viable as a simple, low cost UPS where it is needed. It was a good mind and build exercise, but there are two reasons why I am not keeping it: First – realistically speaking, electricity fails way too seldom to actually use it.  Second, unless I build one of these for each room, I will always have to… Continue reading

5 Comments

Another two torches with self dimming

  By ,

Intro When using my new Energizer pivot torch i noticed that it dims itself slowly over 15 minutes from the start, reaching 1/10 of the maximum intensity. The torch does this on purpose and can be reset by turning it off and on again. The HD vision headlamp This lamp is probably my most used torch in my life. Even though I got it about 8 years ago for caving, it saw most action as… Continue reading

One Comment

Notes on Nikon USB-PD charging

  By ,

Intro I currently use aNikon Z5 camera. The Z5 is interesting in one aspect, it finally has USB charging using USB-PD. In my opinion, USB charging should have been present in all cameras since they started having a USB port, even if charging with the limited 2.5W will take a long time. But, nowhere in the manual or the specifications does Nikon say what parameters the USB PD charger is working at, so I decided… Continue reading

No comments

ESP-NOW

  By ,

Intro The wireless sensor modules I built for my smart home are doing fine in terms of battery life without much effort. Typical life is 1-1.5 years for AAA powered and more than double that for AA powered nodes. So I thought I would have a better look at ESP-NOW. That’s because an ideea popped up during discussion with a friend: can he build a simple sensor network, quick and easy, with off the shelf… Continue reading

17 Comments

The basil speaks to me

  By , , ,

Check out part 2, where the basil is watered automatically. Intro Part of my home automation system is monitoring the well-being of various other non-human species around the house. So i started with the plants. Since they are mostly fixed creatures and generally require only water input from humans, monitoring the soil humidity is a good start. How There are quite a few ways to measure how much water is in the soil, some of… Continue reading

13 Comments

Bosch glue pen teardown

  By

Intro My cheap plug in hot glue gun died and looking for a replacement I found this: the Bosch GluePen What does it do? it’s a hot glue gun for 7 mm glue sticks that warms up in 15 seconds. Charges via micro USB. Much better than my old one that needed ~5 minutes to warm up for probably half a minute of gluing. I am very happy because of the fast warm up, wireless operation… Continue reading