Tag: light

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Electric cars are like economic lights

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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

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Solar panels for sensor nodes

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Intro For a while now, I started replacing the dead AA(A) batteries in my sensor nodes with rechargeable NiMH ones. So, since these batteries are rechargeable, I thought, why not trying adding small solar panels for sensor nodes, where light is abundant. Node 27: outside sensor Purpose: outside temperature, humidity, light, pressure sensor. Powered by 2 x AAA 500mAh from Ikea. The solar cell is rated 3V, 125mA and is pointing vertically south and costs… Continue reading

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Another two torches with self dimming

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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

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Asus G14 – super short review

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I finally got one! I wanted a new laptop around the end of 2019, but decided to wait till CES announcements to see if something nice was coming out. And I did really like the Asus G14. But the pandemic came, the G14 was nowhere available so I tried my luck with an MSI GS66 which I did not like and returned. Finally, in 2021 I managed to get a G14 2021 model and have… Continue reading

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The stupidity of thin laptops

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Disclaimer: don’t take this article too seriously, it’s a rant. But it does highlight the problems in the industry. The need My 7 year old laptop needs replacement and I thought I would go for a more powerful, thin, beautiful new one. Most of the use is still going to be light: web browsing, document work, video watching, some CAD design, some coding and the occasional data analysis (CPU/GPU intensive) and .. not going to lie… Continue reading

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TP-Link KL50 smart light bulb teardown

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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

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10002 I2C connectors

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Intro In my first iteration of sensors I relied on wire connections between sensors and the actual node board. The result for a motion sensor and a temperature and humidity sensor looks like this The problem with that is that during sensor modules assembly run I spend quite a bit of time on the wiring. On top of that, the result is a mess of small wires inside a box. It makes it hard to… Continue reading

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The coolness of RGB LEDs

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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

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Wine lamp

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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