A few very cool open sourced hardware projects in the Internet of Things space this week. The Chrome Web Lab exhibition at the London Science Museum concluded yesterday, but Google have released the plans for a couple of the projects: the Universal Orchestra and Sketchbots. The first, Web Lab Orchestra, allows multiple users to control hardware that plays physical instruments, collaboratively and in real time, using a… Read more →
Category: homehacking
Smart Pump – Warm House – Less Power
when our central heating pump went a bit feral, I grabbed the opportunity unleash my inner geek, and build some intelligence into the central heating system,to drop its energy consumption…. …The house already has thermostatic valves (TRVs) on all the radiators, which is great from an efficiency point of view, but the water pump wasn’t joining in the game. Read more →
Monkey Power
Ok, powermonkey actually. You see it’s become a bit of a standing joke: I call back to base at the end of the day and say “hello, need to update you. Can’t talk for long, battery is flat.” Sometimes my Nokia N95 battery seems to last forever, other times it just dies – it depends on coverage, what Gravity is… Read more →
Getting the Wardrobe Organised – With a Little Help From My Friends
That “end of summer” vibe has started to kick in. The air is getting colder, and I sense autumn around the corner. That means digging out some warmer clothes and retire some of the thinner summer wear. As I looked at my clothes, in their cupboards and drawers, I realised I have always stored them the same way. My productivity… Read more →
Saving on Standby Power
I’ve been out buying gadgets to save on standby power. The exciting one mentioned in the video is this fellow: It is a Standby Saver Energy Saving Unit – as seen on Dragon’s Den, apparently. As explained in the video, it shuts off the power to all of the sockets when the computer powers down. There is a version for for AV… Read more →
Summer Pudding Twitter Competition
Ah, the wild things that happen via Twitter… Only on Twitter could a few tweets turn into an international “cooktweetoff” as people from both sides of the Atlantic joined in a mission to prepare the ultimate summer pudding – all under the hash tag #summerpudding, of course. I think the trouble started with @Andyqsmith, @Maggiephilbin and @NickiePhilbin. I couldn’t begin to cover all of… Read more →