Month: April 2021

Quick Release Plate Camera Tripod 1.5×2″ Mount For Manfrotto 200PL-14 484RC2 (and modification for the Sony RX100M2) (WHL #65)

A ripoff product and some modifications to it this time.

In January I bought a used tripod set consisting of a Manfrotto 190 XPROB, a massively oversized 327 RC2 Joystick and a 200PL quick release plate (100 bucks plus delivery). While all of these are well made to a degree that I would totally buy them again, I wasn’t 100% satisfied with the quick release plate in combination with my Sony RX100M2 camera. Not sure if there are standards for camera mounts alignment and envelopes (so: “who to blame”), but the Sony does not align the UNC 20 1/4″ mounting thread with the optical axis, it touches the mounting plane with the focusing ring and even undercuts it with when swivelling the display. […]


Sensirion SGP30 and Bosch BME280 air sensors (WHL #64)

Small air sensor modules for today!

The Bosch BME280 has been in use on my ESP modules across the apartment since I discarded the unreliable DHT sensors, DHT22 in my case. It’s a combined temperature-pressure-humidity sensor, contrary to the much cheaper BMP280 or the predecessor BMP180, which lack the humidity part (pretty much vital indoors, while pressure is just a gimmick). They are sold in many similar versions, I’ve always picked the GY-BME280 module in 3.3V flavour (“GYBMEP”), as the sensor can be operated from 1.71V to 3.6V which is handy for different MCUs. […]