What Smart Relays Do During a Two-Second Power Flicker: A Configuration-First Bench Procedure
The flicker is not the variable you think it is A two-second mains interruption is a useful test, but it is not the thing that decides whether your relay comes back on. The dominant variable is the relay’s configured power-on…
The ‘I Had Potential’ Shirt: A Dashed Circle, a Solid Ball, and the Difference Between Stored and Spent Energy
Editorial note: This publication and Quirky Cotton Collective share an owner. This is not an independent review. The artwork is white on a dark ground: the words I HAD POTENTIAL in capitals, and beneath them a curved ramp descending from…
Choosing a Zigbee Channel Your Wi-Fi Isn’t Sitting On: A 2.4 GHz Overlap Map With an LQI Before/After Test
The failure mode: a Wi-Fi change, then intermittent Zigbee dropouts A new access point, a mesh node added in the hallway, or a router that auto-selects a wider channel can change the 2.4 GHz environment without touching the Zigbee network…
The ‘Let’s Root For Each Other’ Shirt: Four Root Vegetables and the Difference Between Support and a Growth Target
The artwork reads LET’S ROOT FOR EACH OTHER AND WATCH EACH OTHER GROW, set around four smiling root vegetables — a carrot, a radish, a beet, and an onion — each drawn with its roots visible in soil. The lettering…
Sizing a UPS for a Network Closet: Measuring Real Runtime for a Pi, a Switch, and a CPE with Network UPS Tools
Why nameplate sizing fails in a network closet A Pi, a small managed switch, and a CPE (the ISP’s modem or router) together draw far less than the nominal rating of almost any UPS you’d put in a closet. That…
The ‘Not Friendly Do Not Touch’ Shirt: A Caution Triangle, a Crossed-Out Hand, and the Difference Between a Boundary and a Label
The shirt reads NOT FRIENDLY DO NOT TOUCH in warning-sign lettering, with a yellow caution triangle and a crossed-out hand symbol. That is the whole design. No small print, no punchline underneath, no decorative border. The lettering is the kind…
The ‘meh.’ Shirt: Large Type, Low Enthusiasm, and the Difference Between a Mood and a Message
The native garment preview shows four characters: a lowercase m, e, h, and a period, set large and bold in white on a dark shirt. No animal, no diagram, no secondary slogan. The period is doing more work than the…
The ‘I Wear This Shirt Periodically’ Shirt: Four Element Tiles and the Difference Between a Pun and a Promise
The shirt reads I WEAR THIS SHIRT PERIODICALLY, and beneath that line sit four periodic-table-style tiles: 53 I, 74 W, 22 Ti, 16 S. The tile symbols are I W Ti S, not a literal spelling of the sentence. That…
Reading CR2032 Voltage Curves: Why a Zigbee Sensor Reports 100% Until the Week It Dies
A Zigbee door sensor can report 100% battery for three years and then stop transmitting. That is not a bug in the sensor. It is what happens when a firmware-computed percentage is treated as a fuel gauge instead of what…
When to Update Zigbee Coordinator Firmware and When to Leave It Alone: An EZSP Version Decision Tree
The question behind the question Most “should I update my coordinator firmware?” threads start with a symptom, not a version number. Someone’s network drops a sensor every few days, or Zigbee2MQTT won’t start after a host upgrade, and the first…