Tag: security

  • What are we buying? A wifi baby camera. Will it be secure?

    What are we buying? A wifi baby camera. Will it be secure?

    Armed with $20 and an interest in learninghacking, I visited Canada Computers today to see what ‘extended boxing week sale’ they had. And lo and behold, it was this. A Trendnet WiFi HD Baby Cam TV-IP745SIC. $19. Sweet. Since this is designed to be in your home, monitoring your baby, with bidirectional audio, and cloud…

  • The brave new world of car charger virus: my prediction for 2018

    The brave new world of car charger virus: my prediction for 2018

    The electric car charging cable standard that is going to win is called Combined Charging System. Given Tesla’ scale, they may continue for a while with their proprietary one, but eventually it will phase out somehow. Who wants an appliance that only plugs into its own manufacturer’s power system, can you imagine a GE kettle…

  • New product idea: add wire adapter

    New product idea: add wire adapter

    So the original home automation is the thermostat. And many of us will have grown up with the Honeywell T87.  This will have been mounted to that lovely faux wood panelling in your house :). It worked in a very simple model: there was 2 wires that came from your furnace. One had 24VAC, and…

  • Ceiling fan update: capacitor fixed the motor, working on zigbee for lights

    Ceiling fan update: capacitor fixed the motor, working on zigbee for lights

    So I obtained a replacement capacitor. The old one (Yuhchang, top) and the new one (Cornell, bottom) are pictured. A quick snip with the soldering iron, and it has proven to fix the motor: no more buzzing after a few minutes of operation. Good! Now, back to the automation part. I’m still mulling over whether…

  • Robot vacuums: maps, security

    Robot vacuums: maps, security

    So the vac was let loose in a few rooms on the main floor. It uses a laser-ranging dome augmented with sonar. You can see its estimation of my livingroom and kitchen below. The obstacles are things like couches, tables, stairs, fireplaces, etc. its actually quite accurate, the long thin bit is the hall down…