Headworx

It has been surprising to me how many field issues people have in the connected lighting world.... just because products simply stop working. I also start understanding why so many people hate DALI (the Digital Addressable Lighting Interface). DALI definitely added complexity to the basic "dimming" lighting interface. Analog dimming (also known as 0-10V) is simple. One low voltage control line. 0V means lights off. 10V means full power. Something in between - lights are proportionally dimmed. May not be super precise, but generally works. Now enter the digital world. The DALI protocol not only precisely sets dim levels, but also is capable of bi-directional data exchange, so the LED driver can signal out variety of data points such as energy consumption or real-time maintenance data. DALI also allows, among other things. trigger equipment tests such as emergency lighting functional/duration tests and retrieve the test results. This digital evolution looks great, but - as I sa...

During the COVID-19 time, stuck at home with no travel, I upgraded my home automation sensors with photovoltaic energy harvesting . After five years now, I can definitely say this has been working. Practically I'm left with just one battery-powered sensor: it is in a bathroom, and the photovoltaic energy budget there is close to zero (no windows, lit by two dim lightbulbs only very occasionally). All others have been "just running", doing their daily jobs. But this application (pushbutton wireless switches and occupancy sensors) has very low energy requirements. This summer I was attracted by the concept of solar-powered wireless cameras. I have a couple of PoE cameras made by Reolink (they are good and do not require any subscription). I was skeptical about a solar panel ability to power a device like a WiFi camera, but - surprisingly - it works. The camera has been strapped to a tree and overlooks part of my property and the bundled 3W solar panel has so far proven to ...

Several months ago I pulled a trigger on a 2004 2005 Subaru Impreza Outback. Yes, such car exists, despite the confusing name. It was more popular in North America, with under 1000 made for the European market. It was always a head turner for me - as compact as the Impreza, with Outback-style higher clearance and bodywork. It is in a good shape and financially costed less than a pair of brake discs for a BMW (that is what the mechanic in a BMW service shop told me). And it is a dream to drive.  It was missing a radio and I have gone full-in, soundproofing the cabin and installing a 2-DIN head unit (Alpine iLX-705D) combined with the Audiotec Fisher Match UP 6DSP amplifier. The DSP makes the real difference, the clarity of the music scene is unbelievable. Especially when a high resolution audio is played - the Alpine unit supports up to 24-bit/192 kHz FLAC files. The head unit also has several modern convenience features, wireless CarPlay being one of them. I have wireless Car...

The Starlink WiFi network is not that easy and straightforward as it may seem to be. Afterall you would think - WiFi is a 20+ year old technology and should be mature enough o be just plug-and-forget. But it is not. The first issue I encountered was very unstable connection when I powered the Starlink antenna with a (dedicated) 3rd party USB-C cable. The network was repeatedly on and off. After some experiments I narrowed the issue down to the power supply . Not that the adapter I used was not powerful enough. It was a 100W brick I used regularly to charge my 16" MacBook. But there must have been something different. Either some voltage noise or incorrect selection of voltage (via the USB-PD protocol). Nevertheless switching to another adapter solved this problem. Then at one location I could not find a good location for the Starlink antenna to have a decent view of the sky. Remember - this is a line-of-sight satellite-based system. It will not work through a window - must see the...

I've had a chance to test Starlink (the "mini" variant) over the last week during the trip to Cabo Verde - a remote archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. This was originally planned as a remote work week (no, AI does not make us less busy). And for that, Internet connectivity is fundamental. Before the trip we checked various internet forums for the quality of WiFi (and cellular) services there, and the opinions were very mixed. The first location we stayed at (close to Porto Novo) actually had upgraded to their own Starlink, and in our hut there was even the Starlink Mini Router Node installed. In the other location (the Paul valley) there was LTE coverage (not very fast), and the house had WiFi at around 4Mb down / 0.5Mb up - fine for basic browsing but not for video conferencing. I ordered the Starlink Mini dish via the Starlink.com site before the trip. It comes with a 30-day return policy. Probably I will keep it though, as generally it worked and it may j...

Finally. Digital cryptography has been applied to a civil satellite positioning system. Satellite positioning is one of the technologies that deeply influence our daily lives. Thousands of services rely on the fact that a mobile phone can instantly figure out where on Earth it is. Mobile maps are the first obvious example.  But there are other less obvious. Time stamping voltage and current samples in power distribution grids to synchronize them. Arbitrage of high frequency trading on stock exchanges. Maintaining microsecond time slots in 5G networks. Weather forecasting. Seismic monitoring. Tracking and recovery of items that broadcast Bluetooth signals. Photo tagging. Drones. City rentals of electric scooters and bikes. And many more... Then of course we have aircraft navigation, ship navigation, and many high value services. Disruption of satellite signals has been an easy target. There are several methods to do this. Brute-force jamming is the most straightforward. But there ar...

The shoemaker's children go barefoot. And so they do in the AI era. I plan to spend a week on Cabo Verde, most of the days working remotely from there. Quick survey of internet forums and cellular coverage maps hint at poor internet access there, so it seemed like a good excuse to try Starlink. Especially as the prices have fallen and the Starlink Mini Kit sells now for under $200. And then you can suspend the subscription at any time (so they say). There is also the 30-day free return period in case I don't like it. So I tried to more or less precisely time ordering the kit, so it arrives about a week before my trip.  The Starlink website was saying that I needed 1 to 2 weeks for the kit to be delivered. So I pulled the trigger on September 15. Then they sent me an email with the "updated" delivery estimate, which was between September 28 and October 6. So rather 2-3 weeks, not 1-2. Which would be a bummer as we leave for Cabo Verde on October 3. But there was nothin...