Net Work April 2024

Our column covering Internet-related trends, and more besides, bags a label printer from China at a bargain price, and some current and new smarthome products by TP-Link’s Tapo are examined as well. There’s news on the SMR power generation front as well.

It’s now second nature for electronics hobbyists to source materials, tools, components or printed circuit boards directly from China. Temu’s online store is very slick and quite overpowering, but what caught my eye was an introductory ‘first time customer’ offer on a thermal label maker, specifically the Phomemo-brand M110 handheld Bluetooth printer. Also available is the model M220 which has a wider print head and larger battery.

These labellers have a street price of about £45 ($55) but Temu was offering them for just £11 ($13), and four extra rolls of labels cost about the same: a thermal labeller with refills would come in at about £25 ($30) delivered.

Testing Temu

Six days later my first Temu order arrived in England all present and correct.  The M110 printer takes up little space, and has a two-colour 20mm OLED status display which is small but crystal-clear in operation. The printer contains a 1200mAh lithium battery which is charged through a USB-C port.

Labels are designed with the free Print Master app for iOS or Android.  Initially I found that designing labels was better done on a tablet than a smartphone.

Although the spec. sheet states Bluetooth and Android and iOS compatibility, not mentioned anywhere was the fact that printer drivers for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows and MacOS are downloadable from the maker’s website, along with free label creation software. There is also a Linux driver.

Phomemo labeller software and drivers (iOS, Windows, Linux) are available at https://phomemo.com/pages/drivers

^ Printing QR codes on diecut polymer labels supplied with the Phomemo M110 Bluetooth/  USB label printer

Having installed the latest Windows driver and free ‘Labelife’ software on my PC I was soon downloading labels to the printer via a USB-C cable instead. The printer firmware can also be updated that way. Using the desktop software, the required label size can be chosen from the Templates menu and then text, images, QR codes etc can be added.  Designs can be saved to disk for future use. This month’s magazine column also explained how to print cable ID labels, which I found were 40 x 30mm diecut in polymer film which is resistant to tearing, abrasion, chemicals and water.

^ A cable ID label printed on special diecut polymer labels. The narrow section is wrapped round the cable then the printed area is folded in two over it

A number of other printers is sold by Phomemo, including a fun sticker printer and a 6×4 shipping label machine. Other labels in the range include transparent and decorative ones for crafts or hobbies, so it’s worth browsing around the maker’s website for ideas. You can buy labels direct using Paypal from https://phomemo.com and watch for a pop-up discount voucher code when you enter the site. Printers and blank labels also appear on Temu, Amazon and other sites.

You can search Temu for the M110 here.

Tapo dancing

^ The Tapo P110M is a smart plug with energy monitoring that is Matter compatible. It’s rated 13A for the UK.

Regular readers will know that I’ve been trying the Tapo range of smart home controls for quite some time. Coming soon is an updated Tapo smart socket, the P110M which includes an energy-monitoring chip that it claims provides overload protection. This smart device will be Matter compatible (see Net Work, April 2023), Matter being the slowly-evolving new LAN protocol that promises to make the installation of smart devices as simple as ‘plug and play’.

Matter aims to enable compatible Matter smart devices talk to each other, even if the home itself goes offline (eg due to a broadband outage). A host of Matter-compatible devices are scheduled for early release by TP-Link, as described at https://www.tp-link.com/uk/technology/matter/ and anything that simplifies an often technical and onerous set-up routine can’t come soon enough.

A hub of activity

^ Tapo H100 Smart Hub with Chime takes up a mains socket. The H200 has more features and uses a mains adapter instead

Also part of the Tapo range is the ‘Smart Hub’ (H100) which forms the heart of a sub-group of Tapo smart sensors, switches and buttons. It’s a plug-in mains-powered hub and its main feature is its built-in audio chime and ability (in theory) to connect to up to 64 devices.

^ Tapo Smart Contact Sensor T110 is a magnetic sensor switch for sticking onto smooth surfaces like uPVC window frames and doors

I tried the H100 hub with a Tapo Smart Contact Sensor T110 by adding them as devices on the Tapo app, then firmware updates were downloaded automatically. Setup was not as slick as I’d hoped for, and it took several attempts to configure everything successfully (I gave up at one point).  I had to invest quite some time in the app before everything would function as desired: there was no quick ‘plug and play’ here.

The T110 is a two-part set containing a magnet and it’s not particularly sturdy. The only mounting option is via the pair of sticky pads supplied, which seems a missed opportunity; you can’t screw-mount them onto eg a wooden door frame for example.  Also available are a PIR motion detector, a temperature/ humidity sensor with LCD screen and a smart water leak sensor which I’ll test next month.

The Tapo Smart Button (S200B) allows human-interactive control of other Tapo smart devices such as light switches, bulbs with a single or double tap, and a rotating action accesses more functions (eg a dimmer). It could also be used as a nurse-call alarm for elderly care, or it could set, say, ‘Away’ mode when you leave the building.  I’ll explore the S200B in depth in the next (May 24) column.

For more demanding users, the Smart Hub (H200) hub uses a mains adaptor instead and has an Ethernet port and microSD storage (512GB max), suitable for up to 64 devices and up to four compatible Tapo security cameras or video doorbells. Chimes and sensor detection are also included. More details and an online shop are at www.tapo.com

Power to the people

^ Putting the lid on: the world’s largest crane, Big Carl, placed a 245 tonne lid onto the Hinkley Point C Unit 1 nuclear reactor last December. A second reactor will follow.  (Images: EDF Energy)

Work continues to make the UK’s nuclear power generating industry fit for the 21^st century. At the site of the Hinkley Point ‘C’ nuclear power station in Somerset, southern England, the world’s largest crane, the 750 tonne ‘Big Carl’, is doing the heavy lifting and last December it topped off the Unit 1 steel containment building with a 47 metre diameter, 245 tonne lid.. An honest appraisal of its progress is given by EDF in the video at https://youtu.be/rxhHTpnKX8Y. Attention will then turn to building another new nuclear station, Sizewell C.

Other news

Last November Nuscale, by mutual agreement, pulled out of a major contract for its SMRs that were destined for a project in Utah, citing rising costs and non-viability. A statement by Dr. Edwin Lyman, Director of Nuclear Power Safety at the non-profit Union of Concerned Scientists cites ‘regulatory corner-cutting’ and claims that ‘NuScale made several ill-advised design choices in an attempt to control the cost of its reactor, but which raised numerous safety concerns.’ He goes on to say how it ‘reflects the fragility of the advanced nuclear power industry in the U.S., which has been driven by an oversupply of reactor developers and a lack of genuine demand’.  The full statement is at https://www.ucsusa.org/about/news/small-nuclear-reactor-contract-fails-signaling-larger-issues-nuclear-energy-development. Despite this major setback, NuScale remains very upbeat and positive about the future, citing future projects including ones overseas that are in the pipeline.

Bringing your pet dog to work was an idea that Amazon embraced at its Seattle HQ in its earliest days. It’s why you see a picture of a dog on an Amazon ‘Uh oh’ error pages. Amazon is developing its own AI bot called Rufus, named after the very first dog (a Welsh corgi) ever to grace the office, where he was clearly a well-loved member of the Amazon team (see https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=3711811)  Amazon’s Rufus AI is a shopping  assistant ‘bot that currently undergoing beta testing in the USA.

Mozilla, the name behind the Firefox browser and Thunderbird E-mail client, has launched a hobby project sharing journal called DidThis. It’s aimed at crafters, hobbyists, constructors, home chefs, writers, knitters, woodworkers, wedding planners, car restorers… anyone who’s got a personal project on the go who would like to share its progress and everything they experienced along the way. DidThis works on iOS only, but an Android version is promised. Stories are kept ‘private’ by default. I think it’s a terrific idea – more details are at https://Didthis.app

There’s much more in the magazine article – see you next month for more Net Work!