Notes on electronics, repairs, software tools, and maker projects.
Background Almost every device in a typical living room — air conditioners, soundbars, TVs, Blu-ray players, projectors — speaks IR. That’s great until you want to fold them into a home automation setup, at which point you hit a wall: how do you send an IR command from software? The KS019 solves that. It’s an […]
ABOUT The KS043 StanLink is a multi-purpose tool with the following features: USB-CAN adapter, supporting firmware based on the slcan normaldotcom/canable-fw: Firmware for the CANable USB to CAN adapter (github.com) STLink-V2 compatible programmer (SWCLK, SWDIO) USB-Serial adapter (CH340, TX/RX/RTS/CTS/DTR, RS485 or 5V TTL) Downstream USB-A port Upstream USB-C port 3.5VDC – 28VDC input, provided by […]
ESP32/8266 devices have a cool feature where firmware can be programmed into it through a web interface. This post shows steps performed to learn how this is done. Currently this has some limitations on browser compatibility, with anything running on Android not supported yet. This can be seen in some of the documentation, such as: […]
Gitlab CE can be installed in a TrueNAS jail. In addition to the redundancy provided by the NAS pools, the Gitlab server can also be backed up. This can be useful when we need to reinstall a new instance of Gitlab and wish to restore the repositories. Creating a Backup A backup of a git […]
I have a dehumidifier in my workshop, set to 50% humidity. With the doors and windows closed, this can maintain the humidity at 50% very well. Although it will fill its reservoir every day or 2 depending on the local weather. Once this occurs, the dehumidifier automatically turns off and workshop humidity increases to match […]
Summary Asus 27” VP276H monitor had no power. Report of the fault was that it was working fine, and then suddenly without other symptoms the power turned off. The fix involved replacing the 2.5A PCB mount fuse and KBP208G-C bridge rectifier, both on the AC input circuit of the power supply. Safety Note This is […]
Summary Benq GL2460B (front marked with GL2440) monitor powering itself off after running for 5-10 seconds. TOP267KG IC on the power supply board was overheating to > 118C and shutting itself off. Replaced this IC with https://sg.element14.com/power-integrations/top267kg-tl/ac-dc-conv-flyback-40-to-150deg/dp/3126288 and monitor remained powered. In an open case, the IC temperature remained around 60C-61C Background I received a […]
Description: This is a project reads some environmental sensors (temperature, humidity, CO2), sends the data to a home automation server, and displays info on a 8×32 dot matrix display. Home automation Main parts used: 1 x NodeMCU v3 ESP8266 dev board 1 x CJMCU-811 CO2 sensor (a CCS811 mounted on a PCB) 1 x MAX7219 […]
VS Code can be used free for commercial projects. It is a great IDE for software development and is my preferred IDE, even for embedded projects (STM32, Rasp Pi, etc). I previously used #Develop but this is no longer updated, and Visual Studio is not free for commercial use. This page shows how to use […]
I previously had 3 servers running in my network: I’ve consolidated these 3 onto the J4105. This reduces the network complexity, provide better backups, makes maintenance easier, and reduce electricity requirements. The MoveIn general, the steps performed are: Install TrueNAS Configure TrueNAS Installing Plex Media Server From the TrueNAS web interface, enter the SHELL […]