Life Is a Project

Life Is a Project

SparkFun ESP32 Thing - bad Wifi?

If you are facing poor Wifi capabilities (e.g. slow to dish out IP addresses via DHCP in AP mode or unreliable connection in STA mode) with your SparkFun ESP32 Thing, it might be that there is an easy fix: Solder on capacitor C28 (2.4pF) This goes on the

Unihertz Titan Pocket Review

So when my BlackBerry Key2 started acting up, i was happy that someone took on the matter of physical keyboard cellphones, namely Unihertz with the Titan Pocket, funded on Kickstarter. Since there are not many alternatives (yes im looking at you, OnwardMobility), i decided to give it a try. I

Lenovo i3 multiscreen xrandr

So i wanted to to get a multiscreen setup to work with a lenovo laptop in a dockingstation (one external monitor connected via HDMI $EXT2 and one via VGA $EXT), so there is a total of three monitors (including the internal one $INT). When changing the configuration via xrandr (e.

Reciva == EOL -> Reviva!

So when i turned on my internet enabled Radio Okano Tr2608i (rebranded Sanyo R227), nothing played. It normally takes a while to boot, but even after waiting for a couple of minutes, there was no music. When i checked the display, it said there was a network problem and if

Custom OpenWRT FW for AP with 4MB

So you have an Access Point that supported OpenWRT but now the official builds of OpenWRT dont support it anymore because of 4MB memory/32MB ram limitations? There are some options how to continue using this device, especially if you only need some AP to extend your wifi coverage, but

Howto fix low internal memory issue on BlackBerry OS 10

So after using BlackBerry OS 10 for a while, you might get a notification that the internal memory is full. You can delete some unwanted apps and data or move pictures and music to the external card but it will happen again. The internal memory usage just creeps back up.

Seamless Wifi handover with OpenWRT

When there are more than one wifi access points covering an area, the mobile clients need to perform a handover while translocating between the access points (roaming). This should be as smooth as possible (no dropped connections while e.g. on a video call) and the mobile client should always

Amazfit BIP Lite customizing

The Amazfit BIP Lite [https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07TXC119Y/ref=sr_1_3?linkCode=w13&tag=monstec-21] (*) (Huami) is a simple and cheap smartwatch (kind of like the Amazfit BIP without GPS) with basic functionality like display of notifications, alarms, fitness (steps) and pulse tracking and such. The hardware

Aten CS1734b Audio noise from USB

As i wrote in this article i had issues with an high pitch audio noise on the microphone line of my Aten CS1734b KVM switch. After quick debugging it was clear that it was induced by the optical mouse attached to the KVM USB port. It was not the mouse

Aten CS1734b KVM Switch FW Upgrade

So i wanted to upgrade the firmware of an Aten CS1734b KVM switch but the device needs a "special cable". Luckily, there is somebody on Ebay producing them, alternatively one can easily solder one with the information below. Because the cable didnt work, i took apart the cable and found

How to compile cryptsetup on Ubuntu 18.04

Since i didnt find any official instructions (the INSTALL [https://gitlab.com/cryptsetup/cryptsetup/-/blob/master/INSTALL] is a generic one) on how to compile cryptsetup on Ubuntu 18.04 (server) and it has some dependencies, this might be handy for anybody $ git clone https://gitlab.com/cryptsetup/cryptsetup.

New life for LG G Watch

The LG G Watch (Codename dory) has been around for a while and being always on the hunt for a great new companion (great battery life, notifications, water-proof or resistant, not asking for much), i thought it'd try out current options. First contestant is AsteroidOS [https://asteroidos.org/install/dory/

Airquality Sensor

There are many reasons why one might want to measure the quality of air at a specific location, e.g. to see the impact of nearby environment like streets or factories, to improve factors of health, to regulate for conservation or sustaining a certain status or just to have even

Apache reverse proxy for Homegear Node-BLUE

To be able to set up a reverse proxy for Node-BLUE (the Node-RED fork contained in the Homegear software), you have to set up a websocket proxy as well. To do this, the proxy_wstunnel module has to be activated. This can be done with # a2enmod proxy_wstunnel After restarting

Booten eines ODROID-N2 von USB

Um einen ODROID-N2 von USB zu booten kann man petitboot benutzen, welches automatisch bootbare Partitionen auf SD, eMMC und USB erkennt und auflistet. Allerdings muss petitboot zuerst in den SPI Speicher auf dem ODROID installiert werden. Die schnellere Variante ist folgende, benötigt allerdings eine SD Karte als Hilfsmittel: 1. Flashen

Scanse.io LiDAR Scanner Software

Scanse.io LiDAR Scanner Software

Unfortunately, the company behind the Kickstarter backed [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scanse/sweep-scanning-lidar] LiDAR scanner "sweep" went out of business mid May 2018, according to this reddit thread [https://www.reddit.com/r/robotics/comments/8fjpql/what_happen_to_the_scanse_lidar/] . Their website now hosts Amazon affiliate links,

(Temporary) Recovery from Red LED of death for Nexus 5

Finally, it hit me too: I already heard from three friends that their Nexus 5 died because of the well known "red LED of death" hardware-bug. All three of them were able to exchange their phones within the warranty of the device. But for me, unfortunately, the warranty is over

Vintage Toshiba Laptop T1000SE Refurbishment - Part 1

Vintage Toshiba Laptop T1000SE Refurbishment - Part 1

Beim stöbern im Dachboden bei meinen Eltern (ich war auf der Suche nach etwas komplett anderem, welches ich natürlich nicht gefunden habe), habe ich meinen ersten Laptop wieder gefunden. Kurzer Rückblick Ich hatte den TS1000SE irgendwann in den 90ern günstig auf einem Flohmarkt erstanden. Fasziniert zum Einen von der Möglichkeit

Robotronic TB250 - FPV Nachrüstung

Robotronic TB250 - FPV Nachrüstung

Die TB250 ist eine Racingdrohne aus dem Einstiegssegment, die Ready-to-Fly erhältlich ist. Out of the box verfügt sie über eine FPV-Kamera, welche gerade nach vorne aus der Drohne herausfilmt. Gerade im Racingbereich ist allerdings ein gerader Kamerawinkel nicht sonderlich hilfreich, da bei höheren Geschwindigkeiten der Neigungswinkel der Drohne zu groß