14 February 2025

ESPHome Towel Rail Timer, preparing for offline use

A good home automation system should at least fall back to being an intuitive basic dumb system if offline (as minimum), and some automation features remaining is a bonus.
This was the start of my mission to update a few of the remaining items in my house by giving them some offline functionality, and slightly better than ‘no function’ where I can (for the eventual new home owner).
Categories Electronics/Home Automation/Home Renovations Comments: 0
20 August 2023

Dual Dashcam for the BYD Atto 3

Installing a front and rear dashcam in a BYD Atto 3. Although the Atto 3 has a dashcam, it doesn’t record when parked.
Dash cameras are great, and I like having them in all of our cars. The first one i installed was around 9 years ago and they have saved us a few times when involved in a fender-bender that wasn’t our fault, and really helped a couple of times when there has been a carpark ding.
Categories CCTV/Electric Vehicles Comments: 5
4 August 2023

Tasmota Rules Examples

Below are some rules for Tasmota that I’ve used over the years, including doing basic standalone automations (no Home Assistant, no Node Red, or other additional tools). Standalone automation can be handy, and in simple cases you don’t need any working wireless for basic functions. If you install smart devices, you can safely disconnect your networking (eg if you sell your house) and still have some basic smart functions.
Categories Home Automation Comments: 0
14 October 2022

30 Years, and my Digital Mobile Tour

It seemed like I’d owned a few mobile devices in my lifetime and a while back I gradually built up a list. The list showed that it was around one per year starting in the early ’90s, although there were times I had a work and personal phone or tablet at the same time. I thought I’d jog my own nostalgia a bit more by writing a bit of history of the cellphones in particular, and why I had them.
Categories Mobile Phones & Android Comments: 0