The Internet Fridge is a standing joke among technologists. I was writing about them in 2002, and they still haven't appeared! So I'm going to show you how I built one. Stop giggling at the back! All I want is for my fridge to notify me if the door has been left over for more than a minute. I'm building this with an Onion Omega2 - but you could just as easily use a Pi Zero or any other board. Design This should be simple (as all complicated stories start): When the fridge door is…
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I've been sent an Omega2 Plus from Onion.io - it is a $9 Linux computer with built in Wi-Fi, Made for IoT. The obvious comparison is with the Raspberry Pi - and the ultra-cheap Pi-Zero. The Omega2 has a few advantages. It has a (small) amount of built in memory - so even if you don't have an SD card to hand it is still usable. WiFi is also built in - only 2.4GHz, but good enough for most purposes. Arduino compatible. A whole range of expansion boards. It runs Linux Embedded Development…
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After hearing my interview on Radio 4, the Jeremy Vine show asked me to talk about my smart home tech for Radio 2. BBC Radio 2 @BBCRadio2 BBC We discuss controlling all the devices in your home with your mobile phone. #r2vine pic.x.com/O9hx7aTFpp ❤️ 6 💬 8 🔁 0 …
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In September 2016, I was delighted to deliver this talk to ThingMonk 2016. This is the 20 minute distilation of my adventures Singing to my lightbulbs, hacking my vacuum cleaner, finding my car's source code, hacking my electric car, getting hacked by my light switches, securing my security cameras, and a whole host of other IoT nonsense. Huge thanks to Bennycrime for filming, and the whole ThingMonk team. If you'd like me to speak at your conference, please get in touch. A selection of …
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I never tire of telling people how bad my Nest Protect smoke alarm is. It is a buggy box which requires magic batteries and doesn't support some of its advertised features. Still, I've drilled it on to my ceiling now, so have to put up with it. This morning, I glanced bleary-eyed at my phone. OH FUCK! THE HOUSE IS ON FUCKING FIRE AND MY FUCKING NEST ISN'T WORKING! I sniffed the air. I couldn't smell anything strange. Perhaps it is deadly Carbon Monoxide. I frantically clicked the email…
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Because I'm an idiot, I've decided that what my life needs is voice activated lightbulbs. But voice control is so 2015. Let's make these bulbs react to SINGING! Here's a demo - fair warning, my vocal prowess is "limited". https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Voice-Controlled-Lifx.mp4 OK, here's how to do this. I recently got a bunch of Lfix bulbs as part of a bug bounty. There's a full API for the Lifx bulbs. My mate Ruth has written a great demo on the Chome…
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I love my Lifx Bulbs. They're a quick and easy way to retrofit Internet connected goodies into a smart-home. One of the best things about them is their open API. Sure, you can use IFTTT if you want something easy - but us 1337 hax0rs want an API and Lifx provides it. The API is pretty secure - good use of OAuth and tokens to make sure whatever you're building is resistant to infiltration. I mean, imagine if someone hacked your lightbulbs and ... err... switched off the light while you were …
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I've written before about just how many Internet connected gadgets I have. I've also blogged about my dodgy WiFi lightswitches which send data back to China. Every IoT device you put in your home brings a certain level of risk to the other devices in your network. For example, my Smart TV and my Lifx don't require a password to access. Any device on my network can control them. That's extremely convenient - but it's a security nightmare. Consider, for a moment, my WiFi Smoke Alarm. It…
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Even in the depths of British winter my solar panels'll still happily convert what little sunlight we get into delicious, free-range, organic electrons. Nice! Most of our domestic energy use is in the evening. So, when I'm out at work I can schedule the tumble dryer, robot vacuum cleaner, and WiFi rice-cooker to consume energy when the sun is shining. The rest is sold back into the grid for my neighbours to use. Wouldn't it be great to capture that energy and use it to power my lights and…
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I've got three Raspberry Pis around my house. Well... at least... I think I do. I can certainly ping three of them. I know the physical location of two of them... It's a testament to the success of the Raspberry Pi. Anyone with £30 to spare can pick one up and start hacking. Want to build an IoT fishtank? Start with a Pi. Need to monitor air pollution? Start with a Pi. Have a vague idea...? You get the picture. The only problem with the Pi is the age-old complaint about just how …
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I've just got a WiFi light switch. As I've explained previously, swapping out all my existing light bulbs with Smart Bulbs would be hugely expensive and has the disadvantage of not working when the switches are off at the wall. A WiFi light switch (theoretically) allows me to control the lights from my phone - and anyone else to use the physical buttons on the wall. That helps avoid this scenario: Cate@c8tersWhen you're house sitting for millennials and ask how the lights work…
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In the glorious future, every device you own will have WiFi connectivity. With a tap on your app, you'll be able to switch on your TV, dim your lights, and set the air-conditioner to "frosty". We're not quite there yet - we live in a world where even the newest fangled kit relies on technology from the 1970. Yes, I'm talking about Infra-Red. Good old IR has been around for ages - you're bound to have a few devices which rely on it. The folks at Gearbest have sent me an Orvibo WiFi Smart…
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