Squawk 5, a small white flight display with a stub aerial, on a desk by a window

Home observatories.

Small devices that keep an eye on things, made in a workshop in Weldon, Northamptonshire. The first one tells you which plane just went over the house: the Squawk 5 for the desk now, the Squawk 7 for the wall in February. The next two watch an empty cottage and a bird table.

Squawk 5, £199 Reserve now, pay when it ships in December

The devices

Squawk 5 screen showing a Ryanair 737 from Stansted to Dublin, 3.4 km away, look north-east
Reservations open · ships December 2026

Squawk 5

A 5-inch screen that listens to aircraft directly and names each one as it passes: who it is, where it's going, how high, and which way to look. No subscription, works without the internet.

See it working
A small white box on a cottage hallway wall with a green light
Being built · 2027

Housekeeper

For holiday lets and second homes. Temperature, leaks, doors, power and noise, with a message to your phone when something's wrong. I'm testing it in my own two places first.

Tell me when it's ready
A small white camera pod clipped to a bird feeder with a blue tit beside it
Being built · 2027

Nestwatch

A camera for the feeder that knows a blue tit from a great tit, and keeps a diary of who came by. Runs on the feeder, no cloud account.

Tell me when it's ready

How they're made

Each one is built on a Raspberry Pi, in a case I print here, and tested on the bench before it goes in the box. If it ever fails out of warranty, any competent repairer can open it and fix it; nothing's glued shut.

The software updates itself over Wi-Fi, so a unit sold today gets the features I add next year. When customers ask for something sensible I usually build it.

Runs are small, so there's sometimes a wait. The product page says when the next batch goes out.