Colorize back and white photo with Adobe Photoshop

Finally I got a moment to work on my photo archive. I always wondered if I can colorize some black and white photos and how time consuming it will be. Luckily, I have my Adobe subscription with Adobe Photoshop included. I started to google and…

How to re-set ZigBee devices

How to reset and connect ZigBee devices to Phoscon-GW with HomeAssitant.

Current version: 2.14.01 / 2/6/2022

Firmware: 26720700

Home Assistant Sensors for 2022

This year I plan to add more sensors to my Home Assistant system. The idea is to work on thermostat automation and add some protection against water leaks. Since I use Deconz Conbee with HA integration let’s see if those devices can be integrate. I’d update this post based on results.

Ok, don’t like Xiaomi Roborock S7

So, I’ve been using Xiaomi Roborock S7 for two weeks… and keep constantly comparing it with my old Xiaomi Roborock S6 is a total disaster. Don’t get me wrong the performance is absolutely the same between these two but the amount of time you need to spend on maintaining S7 is waaaay bigger. Why?

Xiaomi Roborock S7 vs Roborock S6?

As a part of my daily home automation routine, I have Xiaomi Roborock S6 doing the vacuum cleaning every time I go out for a walk with the dog. Does not replace the regular floor mopping but helps a lot to keep the house clean for a longer time. Last year I thought that I do need a second device for a second floor and decided to go with the newer version of Xiaomi Roborock.

Why I keep replying on Xiaomi? Simply put – it’s the best model in terms of price vs performance and according to multiple independent researchers it beats the crap out of the Roomba devices. Check vacuum wars channel – these guys are awesome 🙂

Is there any difference? Yup, unfortunately…

Arduino Nano & 28BYJ-48 (5V): The Setup

So… I’ve decided to add some action my Lego Harry Potter show case. I could go to Lego Power UP / Lego Functions but it costs waaay to much and you likely will be limited to this eco system (meaning if there is no longer connection cable or you need bulky controllers – live with it)

Second idea was to use Arduino and somewhat step motor. I’ll be honest with you guys – Arduino is cool but it’s super random: you may have the same code working or not working on same board, you may get (by accident) non original board, you definitely will have some issues installing the IDE on Windows 10 (have not heard about Windows 11 yet).

Below some configuration notes, so lets consider this post as a part 1

Finally nailed it: how fix google photos background sync

The deal was – my google photos stopped syncing and it literary worked only when I opened the app. In my case the issue was related to Samsung power saving mode.

Traveling by car with the dog from Czech Republic to Italy and back in 2021

Hi guys,

We’ve just returned from vacation in Italy and here are some notes that may help planning your travels. Season is not over yet 😉

The idea was to go by car from Prague, Czech Republic to Lido di Jesolo, Italy and back with few stops in Austria.

From QNAP storage and back to QNAP storage

Recently I’ve planned to migrate all my media data from QNAP to a PC hard drive. For that I’ve got 8TB of WD Red storage. The goal was to download all the data from QNAP, to check all QNAP hard drives, format those, make clean installation of QNAP OS and then upload the data back. Below are some really funny observations.

Windows 10 1052 brings News and Interests. Here is how to disable it.

The first thing you notice after installing new 1052 update to Windows 10 is… drum roll new weather widget on your taskbar. Don’t be fooled – it can show not only weather but provide quick access to the latest news! What we need is another widget for weather they said. You are not really focused on the news, they said…

First problem – I never ever used Bing, so all suggestions are random, and won’t ever work for me. Even if it allows Google integration, I am not going to try it (already don’t like this widget, so the only thought – how to remove it). To make it really cool probably you should out of the box integrate it with my default browser and search (yes, all is set in the Windows properties)

Second problem – I really need more weather information pinned to the taskbar, Outlook is not enough, Google Chrome is not enough, my phone is not enough. Anyhow… that could work, but that sun icon was really ugly…

Third problem – you all do remember People icon, right? How useful it was 😉

To disable News and Interests right click the taskbar, select New and interests and check the box Turn off. Hopefully no Windows notifications will appear as well (will see that later)

BTW labels in the menu are really inconsistent – some features are capitalize, while others not

At the end let me quote really great mspowerusers comment:

It’s weird to me that there’s so many productivity features that have been requested in the Feedback Hub, but this new feature that no one asked for got recently introduced, rushed through the Insider rings, and already publicly available.

Arun Topez