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  • TAPO C230 Testing

    Introduction

    After a lot of research, I finally settled on my first two test cameras to replace two Arlo Pro units that have become basically unusable, the TP-Link Tapo C230. This is how it went.

    I originally planned to replace the Living Room and Family Room Arlo cameras with TP-Link Tapo C230 units. But I ran into a problem. Moving the Living Room camera to the extension would place it on a different Arlo base station. Arlo dropped support for the Pro 1 and Pro 2 cameras, so if I disconnect them, they won’t reconnect.

    (more…)

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  • Living in the Philippines – Power Issues

    Introduction

    Like most other countries, the power coming out on the wall-outlet in the Philippines is significantly different than what comes out of a wall-outlet in the United States. I hope in this day and age, no one is really surprised about that. What is interesting is that depending on what the power company provides to your house, you can, if needed make a wall-outlet compatible with the Untied States. And I am no talking about a step down transformer, though that is another solution. Let me explain.

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  • Basic Alternating Current (AC) Circuit

    What is Alternating Current, and why do we need it?

    Lets discuss some of the fundamentals of Alternating Current or AC. Historically Electrical usage was originally all Direct Current or DC. In fact most of our devices still use DC internally. However AC is much more efficient than DC for transmitting power over great distances. This is why we get AC delivered to an outlet and our device converts it to DC.

    DC, in general is much easier, and less complex to use than AC, as alternating the flow of current can change the characteristics of even simple circuits. I want to look at some of the basic fundamentals of AC as they apply to a simple electric circuits.

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  • Basic Electrical Circuit Analysis

    Back to my Roots

    I am going back to my roots. This is where I started back in the late 1960’s. Computers really were not a thing back then, at least for the hobbyist. Instead I had a box of electrical components and parts, a few of those plastic breadboards, and a really cheap multi meter to play with.

    Besides bread boarding simple circuits, I used to also get the old Radio Shack P-Box kits which let one build some more complex items.

    Eventually you move on to designing your own circuits. You don’t know what you are missing until you spend the day in a public library poring over parts specifications (no internet back then). Photo copiers were expensive, so you always brought along a couple of those black composition books and few trusty Number 2 Pencils.

    It was always a rush when I got something I had designed to work the way I wanted it too.

    (more…)

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