I don't think the people who sent me this touchscreen are going to be very happy with this review. But that's the peril of asking bloggers to assess your kit, isn't it? The good folks at Sonoff have sent me a review unit of their "7.0" Nextion Enhanced HMI Capacitive Touch Display with Enclosure". A USB powered touchscreen - with a range of hackable goodies. It's a device which sadly fails…
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I've been sent a couple of Sonoff smarthome gadgets. You can read my review of the S20 WiFi plug socket and the POW in line power controller. Here's a video of me controlling them from my Amazon Alexa: The latency seems a little slow - hard to tell if that's Amazon only relying on US data centres for Alexa skills, or the connection to my home. Once set up, it works well. Oh... but…
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The good folks at Sonoff have sent me a bunch of kit to review. See my previous review of the S20 WiFi plug. This is the Sonoff Pow - a WiFi enabled in-line power switch. Set Up Wiring up the Pow is relatively easy. The cover to the terminal block is secured with a simple screw. I found the opening a little cramped - but it's easy to open up the entire unit. Which gives us a full view of …
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The good folks at Sonoff have sent me a bunch of kit to review. First up, the S20 WiFi Plug - an easy way to retrofit IoT smarts to your existing appliances. This fills the same niche as the Belkin WeMo but with one crucial difference - it's about half the price. Direct from Sonoff it's US$13 - from Amazon UK the smartplug is £15. The cost of the WeMo is £40. How does it compare to the B…
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Regular readers will remember that I have had a disastrous experience with WiFi light switches. I've had pretty good results with LIFX bulbs - but I really wanted something which can control my lights' switches. Enter the new WisQo smart lightswitches. The company claims that they'll work with the UK's "unique" wiring designs. They've kindly sent me a set to review - adjust your bias filters…
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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. …
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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…
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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 …
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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…
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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…
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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. …
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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…
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