Category: Computers

Put Your Technical Skills To The Test With These Home Automation Tasks

Are you searching for more ways to turn your house into a true smart home? There are a great many hacks that you can implement in order to accomplish this goal. Here is a handy list of some of the most popular improvements that you can make. When you’re done, you’ll be the proud owner of a fully automated smart home.

Control the Lights in Your Home with a Raspberry Pi

One of the most common complaints that people have is regarding the lights in their home. If you can’t be there to turn them on and off yourself, you risk using up a great deal of energy. This lack of energy conservation soon translates into a hefty figure on your next utility bill.

Of course, if you are at home, you now have the privilege of going around to every light in your house in order to turn it off by hand. Is there an easier way that doesn’t involve a half mile hike every night?

It will take a bit of doing and some solid soldering skills to combine your Pi with a remote control device that can control your lighting system from the web. But once you are done, you will be able to turn all of your lights on and off from a laptop, PC, or phone.

Open Up Your Curtains with a Remote Controlled Timer

One of the most interesting things you can do with the new smart tech is to open and close your curtains on a remote controlled timer. First you’ll have to attach a few pulleys and a counterweight to the curtains. Once the hardware is in place, there are a number of kits that you can buy in order to send the signal to open and close from your smartphone, laptop, or PC. It’s an open and shut case with smart tech!

Control Your AC Unit from Your Phone

Did you know that you can control your AC unit from your phone? You can buy any number of new intelligent devices, such as a Sensibo, to attach to the unit. From there, you simply coordinate the add-on device with your smartphone. This will enable you to turn your AC on and off, even if you aren’t actually in the home itself.

Using a smart remote device will also control when the unit is set to heat or cool the home as well as how long each session lasts. As noted above, you can buy a ready made remote unit to do the job. You can also purchase several DIY kits that will enable you to achieve the same purpose. This is an excellent way to regulate your energy usage and cut down on your monthly utility bills.

Open Your Garage Door Using Your Smartphone

One of the best things you can do with the new technology is to use your smartphone as a garage door opener. Don’t wedge the phone literally under your door! You can instead use your smartphone as a remote control to open the garage door safely from your car. This is one of the finest uses you can make of this amazing smart tech and it won’t cost you a massive amount to implement it. You can buy several ready made apps right off the web that will let you perform this feat.

If you prefer to make your own mod, you can do so very easily. All you have to do is go to your local electronic parts outlet and buy a simple transistor. This shouldn’t cost you more than a dollar. If you already own a Bluetooth, you’re in business. From there, all you need to do is wire the transistor into your Bluetooth using the soldering iron.

The ultimate idea is to send a signal from the audio amplifier in your Bluetooth headset to your garage door opener. It’s a quick and simple process that will save you a great deal of time and trouble in the long run. Meanwhile, there are plenty more of these simple automating hacks that can be found on the web. It’s up to you to find and make use of them in order to make your life even more easy and convenient.

How to Clean Your Computer Hardware

Routine maintenance is an essential task to help maintain the cleanliness of your computer. Hence this article is about using an air compressor to clean your pc or laptop. As a note, a can of compressed air is a fine alternative to using an air compressor to clean your computer. However, using an air compressor is a single time investment and may be appealing for this reason. Thus, before we dive into a discussion about air compressors, you may want to know when is it time for you to clean your pc?

Here are a few warning signs that it is time for you to clean your PC:

USB devices don’t work in a specific port: Your USB devices can have a lousy connection due to dirt and dust accumulated in the port

Frequent computer crashes: If your computer randomly crashes continuously, it may be due to over-heating. Dust can collect in your pc disrupting the ventilation of the fans in your computer. If this happens your computer may crash or restart frequently and present you with errors at start-up.

Your computer is louder than when you bought it: An increase in noise from your computer can indicate that your computer parts are clogged and therefore are working harder to achieve efficiency. Thus, if this occurs for you, it is usually a sign that dust is stressing your computer’s fans and processors.

Now let’s talk about choosing the right air compressor for this job. Purchasing an air compressor can be a daunting task especially in the event you don’t understand what things to search for. Also, as an added note, most air compressors are too powerful to use for computers and can end up damaging your equipment. Therefore, for our purposes, we want an air compressor with excellent functionality and is inexpensive (if you pay more than $100 you are spending too much). Hence, the best portable air compressor is an affordable option that is versatile enough to use in many applications where highly pressurized air is necessary.

Once you select the right air compressor, here is how you can dust off your computer. Also, if you are not a fan of having dust spray all over the room you can always take your computer outside to perform this task. Also, make sure that you give your computer enough time to cool off once you turn it off and before you begin using an air compressor. You will want to dust off each hardware piece at a time so use your compressor for a minute and wait for the dust to settle again. When you get started cleaning, the dust will fly everywhere. Finally, inspect the computer to be sure the dust is out of a hardware component before moving on to the next part.