Elvin Luff How does this timeless orange juicer from 1992 actually work? How does this orange juicer work? You'd think it's just a simple motor and a switch, and you'd be right, but the design of that motor and switch is what allowed Braun to sell millions of the MPZ-6 at ... 17 Sept 2026
Elvin Luff How does the CTRL ONE's add-on system work? What if you want your CTRL ONE to do more? The add-on slot was originally meant to support multiple thermostat types, but I realised it could also add more functionality for when it's sitting on your ... 15 Sept 2026
Elvin Luff Hard drives are expensive now - how do you get them cheaper? What's a guy to do if your data is on the line when you can least afford it? Hard drives are expensive now, so here's a some ways you can get them cheaper. My home server runs not just my house, but m... 10 Sept 2026
Elvin Luff What's that ePaper display in the CTRL ONE? How it works A few viewers were asking about the display that I use in the CTRL ONE, so here you go! The TL;DR is that they're manufactured by Dalian Good Display in China, and the CTRL ONE is entirely built aroun... 8 Sept 2026
Elvin Luff How to get 3D printable or laser cuttable PCB mockups from KiCad Before Computer Aided Design, there was CAD, Cardboard Aided Design. I present to you: Computer Aided Cardboard Aided Design, where we use CAD to design it, CAD to test fit it, and finally CAD again t... 3 Sept 2026
Elvin Luff Turn your 2-stage laser filter into a 3-stage for FREE!! My patent-pending lung to 100mm duct adapter makes an excellent pre-filter, absorbing large particulates into your bloodstream before passing on the excess to my cludgy filter box I made a few months ... 27 Aug 2026
Elvin Luff Hacking my rental apartment's ventilation to be smart - Orcon 15RF remote I want to bring the control of my apartment's ventilation system into Home Assistant, so I can automate it using the CO2 and humidity sensors in my CTRL ONE ePaper smart room controllers. But how do y... 20 Aug 2026
Elvin Luff Launching the CTRL ONE Time to put myself out there and see what the internet thinks! Hi all, my name's Elvin, and I left my job at the start of this year to try something new. I've been making blog posts and videos on elec... 20 Aug 2026
Elvin Luff Retrofitting an old lamp in hard mode - custom lighting PCBs Custom lighting PCB design frees you from many things - space constraints, creative limitations, all your free time and a large chunk of change. I wanted to do my grandmother's old incandescent floor ... 13 Aug 2026
Elvin Luff This restored 24 year old lamp connects to Home Assistant I restored this almost-quarter-century old standing floor lamp, and upgraded it with LEDs and an ESP32. Here's to the next 24 years. I glossed over the whole part of making custom PCBs and electronics... 6 Aug 2026
Elvin Luff Thread on ESPHome needs more time to cook - Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 This week I'm experimenting with the Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 and OpenThread, getting my battery-powered smart cat bowl running ESPHome to play nicely. The results were... underwhelming. There's a... 30 Jul 2026
Elvin Luff Cloud? Here's how you can have the cloud at home. Self-hosting, with Cloudflare Self-hosting doesn't need a rack full of servers. You only need one, and it can even just be a Raspberry Pi. High Availability is for suckers. Here's how I use my home server to power not just my home... 23 Jul 2026
