Power a Laptop without a Dedicated Power Adapter

I am often given laptops for repair/cleanup. However, not everybody brings the power adapter along. Anyone who has ever dealt with laptops knows from experience that pretty much every make/model has a different kind of power socket, even though they pretty much have the same power requirements. In this quick …

Custom Development Boards To Speed up Development

(This article is updated regularly as I create new development boards. The new ones are towards the bottom of this page.) Over the years I have created several development boards and breakout boards. Despite their cost (time, effort, money) they are invaluable investments for development. They simplify and speed up …

WiFi – IR Gateway a.k.a. Give your Dumb (Old) Devices the Smarts!

Some time ago I also completed this project that I never got around to publish. This project is a WiFi-Infrared gateway. I am aware that such commercial products exist, but at the time I needed one for my home the available options all suffered from one or more shortcomings, such …

Mirror LED Clock

I must have thought there were not enough kinds/shapes/etc clocks in the world. Or maybe I thought: “I made one in the eighties, one about 10 years ago, so it is time for another one.” I’m not sure at this stage. What I do know is that I wanted to …

Tutorial: How to Install Home Assistant on a Generic Linux System

Are you as baffled as I am about Home Assistant installation? Got a generic Linux system and are not sure where to begin? Well, look no further, as i am setting out here the necessary steps, as i identified them through my recent research. Home Assistant is one of the …