GreatReads - Blog Aggregator · Phoenix Framework

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Circus Scientist 2 weeks ago

How to get patterns on POV poi – so many ways!

Over the years I have experimented with so many different ways of getting pixels to update on the poi I make. Basically it boils down to 2 different ways. Looks almost the same, right? Let’s look at a picture: On the left we have Magic Poi. The poi have a list of files and ask “please can I have this file named “pic.bin”. The server responds with the data. On the right we have the Android app SmartPoi_Controls sending images over to the Poi, without asking first. We could use http requests, udp – or even webhooks (I found those to be un-reliable however). That is the current system on SmartPoi. But what happens if the network is un-reliable? Your neighbour could start streaming Netflix on the same WiFi channel and the transfer could be interrupted! If we are using UDP streaming, the display just stops. Very bad. Http upload is a lot better – we only save the file if it is fully uploaded. If we only upload some images but not all, too bad! If, however we are using the first “Magic Poi” method, ASKING for files that we already know about (we send a separate request for the list before this), we have an advantage: we know which files to expect. That means we can KEEP ASKING until we get the whole lot (or give up and do something else). We don’t have the same problem. Due to technical reasons, we cannot easily do “Magic Poi” method without an online server*. That means magicpoi.com (not just an Android App) – which I hope to build into something that everyone will be able to use easily to share, download and sync poi images. I could go on, but I hope this gives an idea of why I am moving over to Magic Poi and trying very hard to build the future of POV poi. My AI is hard at work right now building in BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY into the Magic Poi firmware – meaning that the SmartPoi Android app will still work with Magic Poi, AS WELL as the new, more reliable methods, functionality (like Timelines) and especially multi-poi sync. Big dreams, a lot to do! Many thanks to my growing list of Patreon supporters who help finance my AI coding obsession and facilitate this project’s future growth. You can join them! Visit https://patreon.com/c/circusscientist to follow for more updates (it’s free!). Paid supporters get access to the in-development magicpoi.com portal with thousands of images to use on their poi. Also, you will be the first to receive the Magic Poi firmware once it is ready (soon!). * There is ANOTHER way which I am ALSO looking at – using a Raspberry Pi as a local server (no need for internet). This does cost extra, however, but would be nice for those who don’t want to use Android for example – and means you can easily do stuff like this (video link – more coming soon). This blog post is specifically about how we get pixel data onto the poi for display. I have not mentioned the other advantages of Magic Poi like MQTT sync and of course the fact that it is a complete re-write with better reliability built-in. I cannot wait until my own poi are running this new firmware! The post How to get patterns on POV poi – so many ways! appeared first on Circus Scientist . We send files to the poi from somewhere The poi fetch files from somewhere

Programming

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Circus Scientist 3 weeks ago

Upgrading cheap LED Juggling Balls

Many years ago I bought 10 LED juggling balls from Oddballs in the UK. At the time, the special they had on was pretty good for bulk orders, but even today the balls are pretty cheap, if a bit basic (11 Pounds UK). The balls, being cheap, did not last. They have replacable batteries and the screw-in plug to close and switch on is a terrible design. Recently one of my upgraded K8 juggling balls broke somehow (a short from being dropped too much?). I fixed it up but I decided I needed some spares in case this happens again just before a show. Luckily I had some broken Oddballs balls lying around. I used the super bright LED’s from the ball and upgraded them with a 110mAh battery and Jack Switch for switching on/off and charging. Components: The post Upgrading cheap LED Juggling Balls appeared first on Circus Scientist . Oddballs Juggling Ball 110mAh LiPo battery Jack Switch

Tutorial Electronics

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Circus Scientist 3 months ago

SmartPoi Accelerometer Controller

Connects to your Poi Gets a list of images available Every time it stops spinning sends a “Change Image” signal to the poi* *only works for the newer SmartPoi firmware with Single Image selection. Code is on GitHub: https://github.com/tomjuggler/SmartPoi_Accelerometer_Controller – includes all install instructions needed (ESP32 C3 only – PlatformIO firmware). Extra: Battery, charger and switch, for one you can clip onto poi.. The post SmartPoi Accelerometer Controller appeared first on Circus Scientist . ESP32 with C3 chip: recommended: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008593933324.html (just choose the correct one with antenna). I used C3 SuperMini which also works (WiFi not the best though), my better ones are still in the post. MPU-6050 Accelerometer: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c40exNFh

HTML Electronics

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Circus Scientist 3 months ago

I just discovered Kokoro free Text To Speech that runs locally

Github: https://github.com/eduardolat/kokoro-web I can’t wait to try out the api. I am planning a series of video posts on Instagram, YouTube and Tiktok for people who just don’t read (a lot more these days it seems). Just my blog posts being read out, with the web page scrolling in the background. The challenge will be automating the video creation from start to finish. Here is the first one – this was my first blog post ever (not very long!) The post I just discovered Kokoro free Text To Speech that runs locally appeared first on Circus Scientist .

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Circus Scientist 3 months ago

Failure is part of Success

Today I want to talk about failure – specifically where it applies to my work on SmartPoi/Magic Poi, with Cecli AI assistant . A little while back I decided to add Timeline mode to SmartPoi – and SmartPoi_Controls. This required code updates to: After looking at Timelines, I realised that actually I did not have to re-write the whole Timeline thing into SmartPoi firmware – I already had a working base in Magic Poi, re-written from scratch and with the integration with Magic Poi website built-in. The solution: I have started polishing the firmware up and am going to release it as Open Source. UDP mode on ESP32 just doesn’t work, sorry. I am starting to suspect it is an issue with the UDP library and not my code. I have a lot of work to do here – if the library is not working as I suspect I will have to prove that for myself by creating a simple UDP Client-Server pair of apps and troubleshoot that, without all of the complexity of SmartPoi happening around it. Estimated time: at least 2 days, but if it’s really broken there may actually be no solution? I don’t like to say something is impossible, I am willing to spend another two weeks looking at this to fix it at some point! I am currently obsessed with getting the “Perfect Sync” between poi. This is made more difficult by my “Virtual Poi” – which I am determined to sync with the “Real” poi. I actually did get this working, but now the “Virtual Poi” do not sync with one-another! So far finishing this feature is proving very difficult due to the sheer amount of services and functions that have to work together. I have MQTT server, Flask back-end, JavaScript and C++ firmware to handle. Every change needs to be uploaded to poi, and server, then tested in real world situations. The good news is, when this is working, we will have something I have never achieved before – and it’s an unique feature for LED Poi! Real-time, perfect sync over the internet. I just need time to fail and try again and it will work eventually. Looking forward to releasing Magic Poi firmware asap – while also fixing the few bugs we still have with the SmartPoi_Controls app. Many thanks to my Patreon supporters – special shout out to Flavio over in Brazil who is doing increadible things with the hardware side of things! Follow me on Patreon Check out Flavio’s work on Intagram The post Failure is part of Success appeared first on Circus Scientist . Magic Poi website (downloading of Timelines) SmartPoi firmware (both ESP32 AND Arduino versions), and SmartPoi_Controls Android App This did not succeed. I literally spent 2 weeks on this, but I am sure I mentioned before, SmartPoi code is based on a project that is now 12 years old. It works, but is very difficult to change. The changes required to add Timeline functionality were threatening to break some of that stability.

JavaScript

Programming

C++

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Circus Scientist 4 months ago

Connect SmartPoi to Android Hotspot

Connect your SmartPoi to Android Phone Hotspot instead of using Access Point on your Main Poi. In Router Mode, Poi always swap between AP and STA mode. This is to make sure that you can always connect even if you lose your phone or router. I wrote another blog post about this (before I had a Samsung Phone) which shows different ways to do the hotspot connection. Your phone might not have the same settings, the main thing is to find the IP addresses of the Poi while connected to the Hotspot. The post Connect SmartPoi to Android Hotspot appeared first on Circus Scientist . Main Poi is doing twice as much work (routing for Auxillary Poi) ESP8266/ESP32 have very low power – so we lose signal easily. Also, routing is faster with a Router or Hotspot. That means faster uploads , SmartPoi_Controls works better. Also UDP should work better (it’s not perfect, though). SmartPoi Access Point has no internet – so your phone has none while connected to it. Some advanced features of new Magic Poi will require internet (like instant download of saved Timelines, Sync). Input Hotspot information into Router Settings box in SmartPoi_Controls app (while connected to SmartPoi AP). This should work for both Main and Auxillary Poi at the same time Start Hotspot on phone, re-start poi and check if they connect (Green LED’s). Look in the hotspot menu for information – should show IP addresses of Poi. Put these into SmartPoi_Controls app. Test connection

Tutorial

Android

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Circus Scientist 4 months ago

I used AI to play my Classical composition

When I was starting out with guitar the first pieces I learned were Classical ones. At the time I was very influenced by Bach, even learning to play some of his pieces (Bach created a lot of music for the Lute – a cousin of the guitar). Back then my dream was to get an orchestra to play one of my pieces, but that never happened and I soon moved on to Jazz and other things (mostly juggling). In 2026 my dream can finally be realised. Using Suno I uploaded a recording of one of my pieces and told it to do a Baroque version with an orchestra. Here is the result: On the free version of Suno you don’t get a lot of control, they say that your composition is 80% AI 20% your own work, but I think that they got the melody and a lot else exactly right. I think it’s an interpretation of my original piece that I really like. Judge for yourself – here is the original (recorded with a tape deck back in 1995): The post I used AI to play my Classical composition appeared first on Circus Scientist .

Music

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Circus Scientist 4 months ago

Happy New Year (resolutions)

I feel like I got a lot done in 2025 – but there is still more to do when it comes to the Open Source POV Poi and other related projects I am working on. First – a quick personal note: I didn’t get as much circus related work as usual in December. I wrote a blog post where I blamed it on Google and it went VIRAL on Hacker News. More than 150 000 people visited my site in 48 hours! It seems I am not alone in thinking that Google Search is going away. Read the post here: https://www.circusscientist.com/2025/12/29/google-is-dead-where-do-we-go-now/ – note: read until the end, there is a happy ending! Since some people are still having trouble with ESP32 version of SmartPoi I am going to first update the ESP8266 (D1 Mini) Arduino version. I haven’t touched the code in more than a year but it still doesn’t have the single image display I added to C3 version. Look out for this update before the end of January. Next I have to finish my ESP32 C3 poi – I have one fully soldered and all of the components and pieces for both poi on my desk. This will be a reference for anyone trying to make their own, and hopefully after doing a full build we can work out the best working version – without power issues or re-starting or anything else. I also have everything ready for a cheap IR LED poi set. This is going to help anyone (like me at the moment) who is on a budget. I will be doing a full tutorial on that. Happy New Year and a big shout out to my Patreon Supporters . Did you know you can buy SmartPoi (and Smart Hoops!) in Brazil right now? Commercial design and build by Flavio ( https://www.instagram.com/hoop_roots_lovers/ ). I also am in contact with a supporter from Dominican Republic who is developing his own version which will also be for sale soon. Not to mention the Magic Poi being built over in Australia. The post Happy New Year (resolutions) appeared first on Circus Scientist .

Go

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Circus Scientist 5 months ago

Google is dead. Where do we go now?

It’s anecdotal, I know, but my main entertainment business revenue is down 50% over the past 3 months. Our main paid source of leads was Google Ads, which have served us well over the past 10 years or so – I think I know what I am doing in adwords by now. Once per month I check the analytics, updating keywords and tweaking ad campaigns. Over the past year we increased our budget, and then I started looking at it once per week, running simultaneous campaigns with different settings, just trying to get SOMETHING. Last month Google gave us a bonus – free money! This was 5x our monthly ad spend, to spend just when we needed it most – over the December holidays. I added another new campaign, updated the budgets for the existing ones. Still no change. The last week there was money to burn, left over from unused ad spend. I increased our budget to 10x. ZERO RETURN. The money ran out. I am not putting more in. Where do we go from here? Research shows that many young people are getting their information from short video platforms like TikTok and Instagram. We are trying ads on there. Our customer base is comprised of 50% returning customers (I am proud of that statistic!). We have an email newsletter, we started sending them regularly over the past 2 months. Remember us? We also plan to do some actual physical advertising – I am going to a market next weekend, doing a free show or two, handing out cards. Also, we are branching out – I have some projects I want to make, related to the Magic Poi project , and hopefully sell. We ordered supplies last week. Right now, though – I’m broke. Anyone need a website or IOT project built ? I am AI assisted , very fast! Update: this post went viral on Hacker News! I went with Instagram ads because we have the most followers on there and got 4 new bookings in 48 hours! The post Google is dead. Where do we go now? appeared first on Circus Scientist .

Marketing

Business

Media

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Circus Scientist 5 months ago

Breadboards that are set up on my desk right now

I don’t always post about the things I’m working on – sometimes it’s just personal projects, or often things that just don’t work. Today’s post is about the breadboards that are set up on my desk. OK I’m sure I did mention this before, possibly on my Patreon ? Still not finished, but it works! So far I can spin this around and the LED will light up if it stops spinning only. The plan is to have this as an optional connected accessory for SmartPoi which can help with controls, or stabilize the image vertically (yes I know some other poi have this already). Still a lot of work to do. Accelerometers/gyroscopes are difficult! I set up 2 Arduino Nano’s, each with IR Transmitter and IR Receiver. The idea was to get the two to “talk” to one-another without needing WiFi. IR is so cheap I thought we could add it to poi that don’t have WiFi and still sync their LED’s. I won’t lie I am a bit stuck with this project’s software so far… These cheap 32 bit chips come in different sizes but are all so cheap! I paid R3.85 for the one on the top and R8.00 for the one on the bottom. That is the kind of money I don’t mind spending on throw-away projects. So far I got both new boards to blink , but I have big plans for these next year! It’s still set up on my desk, waiting for the right time.. This is a screen which runs a fun Arduino game with 3 buttons . I just have to solder it together inside a box.. I also got this joystick for more fun game builds.. OK, this one is finished ! I made this after finding the “ Cheapest IR LED Club ” electronics on Aliexpress. This is how I like to figure things out, copy the electronics (just a micro-controller and some transistors) to see if I can improve it. Next year I will look at ways to improve this with the new CH32 chips to be even cheaper (and better)! The post Breadboards that are set up on my desk right now appeared first on Circus Scientist .

Electronics

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Circus Scientist 5 months ago

Notes about CH32V003 chips

I recently received an order of CH32V003 – some of the 8 pin and some 20 pin variety. The 8 Pin cost me R3.83 – in US Dollars that is approximately $0.22 – for a 32 bit chip! The 20 Pin version was twice the price (free shipping) I tried both boards I got and they worked with Arduino IDE AND CH32Fun project. I haven’t tried PlatformIO or the official development platform yet. Here are some links to resources that helped me so far: WARNING: the two boards both plug into WCH-LinkE Programmer with 3 wires, 3v, GND and SWDIO. However, the order is not the same! Read the clearly labeled pins and cable connections BEFORE plugging in. Luckily the programmer seems to have protection against reverse polarity… So far I have only uploaded the obligatory Blink program to my two new chips – from Arduino IDE and using the CH32fun method. I have, however, been amazed by the resources that are already available out there for this “cheap as chips” board. I am buying mine at retail price, imagine how little they cost wholesale! I will be trying more projects on the CH32V003 in the very near future – I just ordered a gaming joystick and plan on trying out the GameConsole example, as well as NeoPixels and IR receiver for use in performance equipment. The post Notes about CH32V003 chips appeared first on Circus Scientist . CH32V003 (Cheapest was the J4M6 8 pin – you have to choose): https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c2JmZFWd – note: I chose the 3v3 version No USB you need to choose the WCH-LinkE Programmer (same link as above): https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c2JmZFWd – note: this comes with 3v3 cable by default – it’s like US$2, you only need one Another one I bought which has USB but still needs the programmer (USB just for power/communication?): https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c4sa9mah – 20 pins – actually this one had an exta 2 pins, just 1 more VCC and 1 more GND. Nice! CH32fun – a library that makes it easy to program the CH32. Lots of examples, more from the community on GitHub. Requires command line (tested on Linux): https://github.com/cnlohr/ch32fun – note: the readme includes pinout diagrams, very helpful! Arduino Boards Definition (add to Arduino IDE) – follow steps here: https://www.hackster.io/patrick-fitzgerald2/program-ch32v003-risc-v-with-arduino-ide-135f6f – note: Windows focused but works on Linux also How to unbrick your CH32V003 https://youtu.be/9UHotTF5jvg?si=JZXjj0JedtVYHrXl – I bricked mine by adding Serial which interferes with the programmer – Actually this video did not work for me with “minichlink -u” command from CH32fun – The Python library rvprog did it for me https://pypi.org/project/rvprog/ , using the same off/on method from the video but using command: rvprog -e More code (untested): – https://github.com/zlo-andr/NEOPIXELS – https://github.com/wagiminator/CH32V003-GameConsole – https://github.com/ankushkale1/NEC-IR-Receiver – https://github.com/Blakesands/ch32v003 (for Mounriver Studio official IDE)

Programming

Python

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Circus Scientist 6 months ago

Building the One Button Remote

I did not do a full build video or photo’s today but here is what I have! This project was built with support from my Patreon supporters. Join for free updates! (links are examples from AliExpress) ESP32 C3 Super Mini Latching switch (power) Momenary switch Battery USB charging board (choose overvoltage cutoff protection – important!) Project Box Battery (Buy Locally – too expensive to ship!) When you toggle the latching switch it switches the circuit on/off – when off we can plug USB into the charger board to charge the battery. See this post over here for PlatformIO Firmware and Android App download links. One Button Remote is a simple Bluetooth Foot Switch. It sends Play/Pause media events to any connected device and as such can Play and Pause any media player. When connected to the One Button Player Android App it turns into a full background music controller – add number of music tracks and configure what you want each successive button press to do. I am using this for my Fire Show in particular. I mostly talk but there are two music tracks which I like to spin poi to. Before I made this I would have to press play on my phone with my hands (or trust the DJ if there was one to press play and stop at the right time). This is not practical if you are holding flaming fire torches!! Now I can pair my foot switch, start the app and stomp on the switch at the right time. This project is pretty much done. But I plan to go further. The post Building the One Button Remote appeared first on Circus Scientist . 3D print – fitting the electronics into the box was fine but everything is stuck on with double sided tape, except for the switch which actually is screwed into an L bracket I had (originally for a PIR sensor). This is not the easiest thing to put together securely and in future I plan on doing a nice 3D printed housing. A week ago my Samsung phone finally got upgraded from Android 14 to Android 15. Now the app does not receive media events (button presses) while running in the background – for example if the screen is off. Luckily my media player phone is on Android 7.1 but in future I will have to find out what Google changed and update the app to work on Android 15+ properly. 3.7v battery on 5v input pin is probably not the most efficient way to power this. Needs a boost module – or just a bigger battery ;b

Hardware Electronics

Android

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Circus Scientist 6 months ago

Uploading SmartPoi-ESP32 version without PlatformIO

You only need Arduino IDE for this! The post Uploading SmartPoi-ESP32 version without PlatformIO appeared first on Circus Scientist . Install ElegantOTA library in your Arduino IDE Open the Demo sketch from Examples and save it for editing Add your router details See the ip address in Serial Monitor Go to <ip-address>/update in a web browser (on the same network) Get the 3 files for uploading ( smartpoi32C3-main.bin , smartpoi32C3-auxillary.bin and smartpoi32C3-littlefs.bin ) Upload littlefs file first, then main poi firmware On another device, littlefs then auxillary firmware You are done, proceed with setting up and using SmartPoi! Send me an email if you need a specific poi size, default is 36px because that’s what I am testing with. * Paid Patreon members only .

Tutorial Electronics

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Circus Scientist 6 months ago

The new Aider-CE fork of Aider AI Assistant is now official

If you have seen my blog before you might know I have been using a fork of Aider for some time now, called Aider-CE. This fork was originally intended as a place to test out the unmerged PR’s of the official Aider project, as Paul, the original maintainer was AFK and not responding to attempts to engage about the 1100+ unresolved issues and 200+ un-merged PR’s submitted by the community! Things came to a head recently, with a comment on the Aider official Discord, by Paul. He asked us to stop talking about our “Fork” on his Discord. The new fork doesn’t even have a name yet (we have to re-name it.) I already put my vote in for “ComExA” or “Community Experimentation AI”. We do have a Discord, a repo, and a chief maintainer who you can actually talk to! We also have imo the best AI Code Assistant out there – just with a lot of bugs at the moment. https://github.com/dwash96/aider-ce – try it out, submit some bugs, help with code. See what Aider-CE is capable of here: https://www.circusscientist.com/2025/11/11/aider-ce-building-a-webapp-and-testing-live-with-a-single-prompt/ Finally I want to say Thank You to Paul Gautier. Aider helped me a lot so far. But I heard a saying that probably applies here: If you love something, set it free; if it comes back, it was always yours. The post The new Aider-CE fork of Aider AI Assistant is now official appeared first on Circus Scientist .

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Circus Scientist 6 months ago

US Govt Shutdown stopped my Desktop Wallpaper from updating

It was the Nasa Wallpaper of course. For the past month or more my Nasa Daily Image wallpaper has been unchanging. Today it finally changed to this: So on KDE linux desktop you get several options for desktop wallpaper – including some “daily update” ones. I have a laptop and one external monitor above it, so I like to have National Geographic daily image (earth) at the bottom and Nasa daily image (space) at the top. The problem started only a day or two after the shutdown in the US was started, with various govt funding cuts and layoffs happening. I am lucky enough to live very far away, so the lack of fresh wallpaper was the only effect the US government shutdown had on me. Today it changed, and I have no reason believe it won’t be business as usual going forward for my desktop wallpaper henceforth! The post US Govt Shutdown stopped my Desktop Wallpaper from updating appeared first on Circus Scientist .

Science

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Circus Scientist 6 months ago

Tools For Developers

I have been meaning to do a blog post about this for some time. The list I have is not going to be long – I don’t need to talk about Git, VSCode or Docker for example, everybody knows those. This is for things that I think might not be so well known – that I use every day. I honestly don’t know how I used a terminal before without this tool. It’s a history manager for your terminal – providing instant access to recent commands with adaptive text completion and search. Ctrl+R … type … Enter! https://atuin.sh/ If you look at my blog you will see this come up again and again. It’s the AI Coding assistant for Power Users! https://github.com/dwash96/aider-ce Previously I used Ngrok, but Cloudflared Tunnels are so much more intuitive to use. Just run your local web service on your own laptop, type one command to securely share it with the client. Let them see the updates in real time! https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/networks/connectors/cloudflare-tunnel/do-more-with-tunnels/trycloudflare/ – requires zero project setup (unlike Ngrok). That’s it, I told you it was a short list! I have no idea why anyone subscribes to Spotify or Youtube Music when we have radio (OK I’m just old) . Seriously though, this Android app has thousands of online radio stations from all genres. Get it on F-Droid On the Desktop: use Clementine music player, just set up the IceCast plugin and the Internet of Radio is yours! I have a ton of websites I host on my own VPS at DigitalOcean . Some of them I manage for other people, others are for my own entertainment businesses. Needless to say, I am invested in keeping them all up and running. Website Monitor is an Android app that checks periodically to see if a given set of websites is up and running. You get alerts if one is offline. It just works! Get Website Monitor on F-Droid The post Tools For Developers appeared first on Circus Scientist .

DevOps