My experience with a grown man Electric Scooter - the Chinese 5600 Watt Laotie Ti30 - Part 2

Moving along with the range of improvements that this scooter requires - of which some are practically essential, the parts I needed for doing a few more improvements have conveniently arrived.

My experience with a grown man Electric Scooter - the Chinese 5600 Watt Laotie Ti30 - Part 1

For a couple of years I have been playing around with the popular Xiaomi M365 which I bought back then. In spite of a few nitpicks it is an okay scooter, and good value for money for those looking for a small vehicle that can cover moderate distances (about 20 km per charge) while still being carriable (it only weights about 12.5 Kg). 

Going after radiosondes with a Portapack H2 / HackRF

For those who know me, it is nothing new that among other things I am somewhat of a radio technologies enthusiast as well.

In the current state of affairs, it is an even more interesting field, considering how much it can be done without a significant financial investment. Radio technologies have evolved tremendously in a short time span. Some of that evolution can be directly attributed to the large demand caused by the mobile communications industry, but also by the computer and digital broadcast industry. All of these called for the development of highly integrated semiconductors capable of many functions, from the analog frontend and digital processing, to applications.

Reverse engineering and "unlocking extras" in a Hantek 1832C LCR meter

For some time I've felt the need to have a piece of equipment allowing me to measure inductance, impedance and a broader range of capacitance values. For the rest of the relevant types of measurements I've already had a digital multimeter and an oscilloscope, which have proven sufficient so far.

Reverse engineering of an Aircraft Transponder

Some time ago I obtained from eBay a transponder control head. You may start asking what is such thing, and what does it have to do with a blog where most frequently, home automation topics are discussed.

Redundant Internet access for your mission critical Home Automation setup

Introduction

When you decide to setup your own infrastructure in order to depend less on cloud providers, whether it be for saving money (depending on what you will be doing) or just for the sake of improving the technical knowledge, having more control, or both, you know you will be flying solo, at least to some extent. 

Turning a doorbell switch into a home security camera...and still retain its original function

Today there is an off-the-shelf solution for practically every average-Joe-grade idea one may have. There is always the chance that when one thinks of something that could have a practical purpose and cover a specific need, that there is already a product in the market that will do that function.

Even though home automation may still be in its infancy, today we see a market practically flooded of solutions that one way or another aim to respond in terms of comfort, or to help improve the home experience, or even to enhance the safety and security of its occupants.

Reducing the bill of materials of my Hardware Watchdog timer

One nuance of the first few iterations of any new design is that rarely comes optimized in every important aspect from scratch.

It is very difficult to cover everything, when we are creating something new from the ground up. The creation process is by itself a very good sink of our cognitive energy and focus, leaving little room for a more pedantic mode of thought.

Continuing with the Kiosk project

It is fairly interesting that just as with other "things" that I have equipped my house with, this Kiosk and other IoT gadgetry proved to be of relevance not just for my geek person, but for my family as well. For example my wife likes to keep track of the vacuum cleaner progress. Having its map and progress show up automatically when it starts cleaning, proved to be quite useful in this sense:

Attempting to repair a Vorwerk TM31 Bimby / Thermomix

At the beginning, when in my house we decided to purchase this kitchen food processor/blender almost 10 years ago, I considered it to be somewhat of an overpriced consumer asset in spite of the multiple features that it enclosed. Still I went with the hype and gave some credit to how much it could make life easier, in particular when it came to cooking meals and otherwise more complicated recipes.

Configuring Home Assistant to run off of a USB drive in a incompatible Raspberry Pi

 A problem with the earlier generations of Raspberry Pi's, especially the Pi 1 and the Pi 2 up to version 1.1, is that these cannot be configured to boot from an external USB storage device.

This is a particular relevant limitation for a number of reasons, including the fact that relying on an SD card for most of the storage needs is a solution that may have limited endurance.

The later versions of the Raspberry Pi (RPi 2 v1.2 and upwards), already offer some form of allowing external USB media to boot the operating system.