Internet of House

I’ve been putting off home automation for a long time, but recently the planets aligned and I’ve built something. The main ingredients are Raspberry Pi 3B, Arduino Mega, MQTT and OpenHAB. RPi because WiFi, huge software support, Linux, file system, etc. Arduino Mega because low power, many, many libraries, huge I/O and cheap. Continue reading “Internet of House”

Xiaomi XiaoYi “Ants” WiFi IP Camera – HowTo

If you frequent Banggood, AliExpress, etc. you have probably come across the very reasonably-priced Xiaomi  XiaoYi “Ants” IP cameras that come in at around €25-30 delivered depending on the model. However, they’re not without their snags. I’ve compiled some notes on making best of these cheap Nest clones.

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Continue reading “Xiaomi XiaoYi “Ants” WiFi IP Camera – HowTo”

DHL ‘Remote Areas’ – A GIS Project

A short while ago I ordered some stuff from China. The site offered free delivery via DHL. Cool! I was later contacted by the seller to say that I lived in a ‘remote area’ – the DHL delivery cost would be double. What. The. Heck? I live within the municipal boundaries of a mainland city with about half a million inhabitants in Western Europe. Not Afghanistan. This week I heard the same story from a colleague trying to send me an urgent parcel from London via DHL. OK, that’s it, GIS project o-clock! Continue reading “DHL ‘Remote Areas’ – A GIS Project”