I have a problem. I keep buying mechanical keyboards. I only have one set of hands, and I don’t type with my feet, so why do I keep buying new ones? Partially because I’m hard on my keyboards. I gave up on non-mechanical keyboards years ago, but I didn’t buy really expensive ones. I bought a moderately priced ones. And I keep looking for new options in that. The pictures you see are the Keychron C3 Pro Keyboard. This particular model, an Amazon exclusive, retails for more, but I was able to get it for $29.99 on sale, which made it worth a try. I’m typing this post on it right now.
The keyboard comes in two switch varieties, red and brown. It offers a red backlight. The keycaps are replaceable, but the switches are not. Keychron makes plenty of keyboards that allow you to swap the switches as well. It is well-built for a budget keyboard, and neither version is overly loud, something people tend to comment on with these keyboards. It has many of the features a more expensive keyboard would.
I’m clearly not a keyboard aficionado, despite my keyboard purchases. I have generally bought budget mechanical keyboards, there are too many color switches I don’t have an opinion on…I don’t know the lingo. The feature that interested me particularly is something called QMK/VIA. The feature allows reprogramming the mapping of the keyboard. Never use your Scroll Lock key? Turn it into a Mute button for Zoom. Build macros into the keyboard instead of software. Certainly an interesting thing to play with. With a few custom keycaps…you can repurpose keys you barely use.
There are upgraded models from Keychron, and competing models from other companies, but for the price and features, I doubt they can beat it…especially if you get it at $30.
Update: April 2024 – Keychron is now offering the C3 Pro in an RGB hot swappable variation for only $10 more than the regular price of the variation they originally released.
In a previous post, I discussed digital locks. Digital locks are locks that can be opened with a keypad over a key, and are either electronic or mechanical. There are other types of non-keyed locks. Increasingly, the market is filled with smart locks. Smart locks are ones that can be operated remotely and cover a broad range of options. This consists of a few different options:
Complete replacement – this removes the entire lock mechanism and replaces it with the completely new mechanism. There are both deadbolt and knob replacement options here.
Retrofit deadbolt – This replaces the thumb turn of your deadbolt. The exterior appearance of the door, and the locking mechanism remain the same
Renter Options – These options attach on top of the thumb turn of deadbolts to allow for easy removal.
There are a few different interface options as well. And some have combinations of these
Key – Just because it is a smartlock doesn’t mean it can’t have a physical key as well
Keypad – Not only do some models offer built in keypads, some offer it as a separate unit you can attach to the doorframe, leaving no built in lock interface
Fingerprint – Biometric sensors
Bluetooth – These locks usually allow you to open/close with your phone only, or have a gateway/hub that allows you to do so over a network connection. These hubs, as well as the phone app to control the lock over bluetooth are usually proprietary to the manufacturer.
Zigbee/Z-Wave – Zigbee and Z-Wave are two established home automation wireless protocols. They both require a hub/gateway. But unlike Bluetooth, there are a variety of devices with support for one or both of these protocols.
Matter over Thread – This is the new hot home automation standard, but the first lock supporting it was only released at CES 2024, so stay tuned. Like Zigbee and Z-Wave, it would require a hub/gateway.
Wi-Fi – Wi-Fi smart devices are problematic, because wi-fi can be rather battery intensive and smart locks are usually battery powered. The other negative for Wi-Fi is proprietary software.
You might note that a recurring issue for bluetooth and Wi-Fi locks, which you might initially prefer because you don’t have to add a gateway or a hub to connect it to your existing devices. The problem is support. You are relying on those manufacturers and their app. It could be argued you are relying on them anyway, because they made the device, but the biggest risk of smart devices in general is, if they rely wholly on a manufacturer app or a manufacturer cloud service, that it will eventually be discontinued, making your device useless. The local control options have issues of their own. Some manufacturers don’t implement the Zigbee or Z-Wave protocol consistently, which could create some issues depending on your hub/gateway’s support. We will write a bit about these protocols and gateways in future.
Disney’s introduction of MagicBand technology was a massive change for the theme park. The overall system began development in 2008, with the idea of reducing friction in the park, and the over $1 billion dollar project to integrate technology at Disney parks culminated with a rollout a decade ago in 2013.
I remember the first experience with the MagicBands, and an experience with family members where the Disney staff just couldn’t fix the problems and kept giving old school paper documents. But, most of those sorts of issues were resolved.
Until the
MagicBand+
beginning of 2021, MagicBands were free to all Disney Resort guests….they’d even send you one with your name on it with advance reservations. But, in 2023, we have cell phones that can perform the same function and Disney added NFC support so you could use your phone in lieu. So, MagicBand became more of a collector’s item, or for children or other people without phone. Other guests can receive an RFID-enabled Key to the World card free of charge, and some people just put this in a lanyard in order to get the same utility of scanning as a MagicBand.
So, this brings us to MagicBand+, launched in 2022. It supports bluetooth pairing to your phone, software updates, and a bunch of ‘smart’ features. Disney compares MagicBand+ to MagicBand and to their MagicMobile Service(the phone apps). It’s waterproof, rechargeable, and unique to this device it ‘unlocks enchanting interactions’, in addition to what all of the choices do….unlock your room(if you have one), act as your ticket, check-in for virtual queues and lightning lanes, charge items to your account on file, link photos at rides.
So, I charged the thing up, linked it to the phone app via bluetooth, updated it, wore it for a whole day at Disneyland, and…well, it lit up once for five seconds. So…I was not enchanted. And I was not enchanted for $34.99. Reviews were equally mixed from others at both Disneyland and Disney World. You can’t seem to get original MagicBand anymore. So, the only use for this is so you don’t have to pull your phone out of your pocket to access things.
There are two types of scanners in a Disney park. The built-in ones you just run your hand over, and the mobile ones that ticket takers and others were using for other things, where they actually had to fiddle with it to put it into scan mode…so not much faster.
The MagicBand+ supports NFC, RFID, and BLE(for interactive experiences). It has 5 RGB LEDs as well as vibration ability. So, it is a nice little notification device. So, if you want, you could use an NFC/RFID scanner and use it to trigger events at home. There are some people trying to figure out how to connect to it over BLE and trigger the vibration and lighting system. I hope someone does the work on this, because it would allow me to recoup my investment more fully.
In researching this, the only device outside a theme park that can pair with it is an Amazon echo device, probably because of a partnership with Disney to allow certain experiences. People reported that they could pair the band and it would vibrate and light up in response to notifications. So, whatever custom pairing that requires a Disney app installed on your phone should be reproduceable. Other people reported that once paired, they were able to resend commands they monitored to trigger the device.
If not, there are other options for this that would be less expensive…the home options.
The idea Disney offered was interesting, but after all the money they spent on linking their experiences together, the band didn’t allow them to send me captured ride photos as promised, it didn’t present custom experiences, change screens in the park once it knew who I was…so, as a way of Disney customizing its experience..it was useless. But, now that I own it, I probably will reuse it just for the ability to wave myself into things over fumbling and unlocking my devices.
The Itead Sonoff line of products are inexpensive wifi controlled Smart Home devices that use a common chip, the ESP8266, which is popular amongst hobbyists for their own projects.
Continuing my goal of avoiding building my own hardware, I’ve focused on adaptive reuse. In order to use a Sonoff in its default configuration, you need their app, which routes information through their server in China.
I’m not that worried about the Chinese being able to control my humidifier, but I find it completely unnecessary. But, being as it uses a common chip, it can be reprogrammed.
The recommended and guaranteed way to do this is to solder connections onto the board and flash the chip with new firmware. However, one developer has worked to hijack the Sonoff’s over the air firmware update process to add custom firmware. You can find the work on Github along with custom firmware to install.
The custom firmware allows the device to be controlled by HTTP or MQTT control, which can then be tripped manually or by Home Automation software.
I have been using the Sonoff Socket S20, which is their remote controlled outlet. However, the same hardware is available as a wire-in power control module, as well as switches, temperature sensors, etc.
The control of these sockets has been reliable and without issue.
Liz: Today we’ve got a guest post from the terrifyingly hirsute Pete Stevens. Pete’s from Mythic Beasts, our web hosts; and he’s the reason this website stands up to the absurd amounts of traffic you throw at it. (Yesterday we saw about a quarter of a million sessions – that goes up WAY above a million …
Nathan Smith knew that Wink would have to go. It was early in 2015, and the smart home company he'd started less than a year earlier was being held back by the very thing that brought it into…
