Wurkkos HD15 flashlight review

TL;DR It’s a good flashlight with a lot of features, but it overestimates the battery life by 2-3 times and the user interface is horrible, as there are more than 20 functions accessible through a single button. Intro A friend of mine showed me the Wurkkos HD20, so I immediately ordered the HD15, as the smaller version with 18650 sounded more fit. Seemed like the exact thing to have around the house or when travelling… Continue reading

Simple LED strip UPS – closed.

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

Another two torches with self dimming

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

An odd torch – Energizer Pivot

Intro I have used 2 types of LED torches: regulated and unregulated. The unregulated ones are the most common and they use some simple circuits for the LEDs, which means that as the battery discharges the light output gets lower. The regulated ones use some circuit to maintain a constant current flow as the battery discharges, for as much as possible. What about the Energizer hard case pro pivot plus? This is an odd one.… Continue reading

TP-Link KL50 smart light bulb teardown

Intro When I saw this KL50 wifi light bulb on sale, I thought I want to grab one and see what is inside. A quick search revealed no details about the insides of filament WiFi light bulbs. Short review The light worked well from the start, discovering and connecting it through the WiFi was straight up. It does what it promises, quite a nice diffuse and rather warm light. I have slightly colder lights in… Continue reading

The coolness of RGB LEDs

Intro Ahhhh LEDs….don’t we love them? Today there is a huge variety of them. But there is one type I particularly like. These 5 mm RGB diffused LEDs, easily available from various sources and quite cheap (amazon.de, aliexpress, ebay etc). Here’s why I like them They are super bright. According to some datasheet which may or may not be what you are buying from less reputable sources, the green LED peaks at 5000 mcd at… Continue reading

Wine lamp

Intro My old Ikea GRÖNÖ lamp was long due for an upgrade to LED, but I wanted to use a strip not just buy a bulb. That is because I wanted the light controllable through my 1000² home automation system. Now, the cool thing about building my own dimmers is that I could dim the light down to very low duty factors, which is pretty good considering the way human eye responds to light levels. As a… Continue reading

Cheap China

My experiences and recommendations for cheap electronic modules from China. Continue reading