This project took me a year to finish but finally it’s done. What I wanted is to build an automatic IoT sprinkler controller from cheap parts. This is my story.
Category Archives: Projects
$2 USB crypto token for use with GPG and SSH
If you are interrested in security devices this post may be for you. Recently I’ve found a software which makes a GPG security device out of a STM32. It’s called Gnuk. You just need a compatible board, programmer, flash the firmware and you are ready to go. I was just hoping to find some cheap device to flash to play with it.
Continue reading $2 USB crypto token for use with GPG and SSH
OrangePI: H264 HW encoding with ffmpeg
New version of Lenkeng HDMI over IP extender – LKV373A (Update 6. sep 2019)
Last week I’ve got the new version of Lenkeng HDMI extender – LKV373A. This version states incompatibility with previous version and usage of new HDbitT protocol so I was wondering what did Chinese engineers invent this time.
This blog is a log of my findings as they went through time. If you want a short review of the device watch this video from OpenTechLab (thank you!):
If you want to know more, just read the blog.
Continue reading New version of Lenkeng HDMI over IP extender – LKV373A (Update 6. sep 2019)Multicast over “stupid” networks
IP multicast is an interesting technology. It’s main purpose is to
save network bandwidth as much as possible – traffic is sent to hosts
which asked for it only (as opposed to broadcast). On the other
hand, you need smarter (manageable) switches and specific
non-trivial configuration on both routers and switches. Even more
complicated it is when you try to make it work over VPN. Continue reading Multicast over “stupid” networks
Yet another IoT thermostat
Hi all,
this post will be about my homemade IoT thermostat. 
The goal was to not install any cables (because I live in a rented flat), to go really cheap and to be able to set the temperature from anywhere. I’ll also give you some tips you should think about when building your own. Let’s get started.
OrangePi: Installing OpenELEC chroot into Armbian (Updated 15. Jul 2017)
Hi all,
since I found, that Debian chroot on OpenELEC is not the best solution, I tried to do it vice-versa. This is what I needed to do.
Continue reading OrangePi: Installing OpenELEC chroot into Armbian (Updated 15. Jul 2017)
Statistics of a typical Christmas fairy-tale from youtube
CarWatch: My homemade car tracking platform
Hi all,
few months ago, I was thinking about having my car tracked over GPS to make sure it is where I left it and to have some records how much I drive etc. There are commercial systems available for this but they cost some money and I wanted to have it customizable, under own control and to implement a few own ideas so I designed and implemented the system by myself. This is how CarWatch was born. Continue reading CarWatch: My homemade car tracking platform
Fixing non-working WiFi on RT5350
I have a favorite cheap chinese router based on RT5350 (running OpenWRT).
Recently, I was wondering, why I can’t get WiFi on a few of them working. I have one piece running quite old (4xxx svn) OpenWRT where the WiFi works OK. So I tried to compile exactly the same version and install it on the non working piece. I also put the same wifi config there but nothing. It didn’t work. Continue reading Fixing non-working WiFi on RT5350