Category: Home Automation

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

7 September 2024

Flashing a Mi Home 1S LED Desk Lamp with ESPHome

I found that this Xiaomi Lamp had an esp32 in it and could pretty easily be flashed with ESPHome. I always like commercial products that can be reflashed, so thought it might be a useful addition to my work desk. This is a pretty low effort product to flash.

Categories Home Automation/Lighting Comments: 0

2 July 2024

Replacing ESPresense with Bermuda for BLE tracking

I really like using ESPHome, and the setup of ESPresense is similar in some ways, but focused on devices tracking. I had been hoping that ESPresense would eventually be fully integrated into ESPHome, but that has obviously not happened, or is a bit hard. “Bermuda BLE Trilateration” is a new project that could possibly replace my ESPresense setup.

Categories Home Automation/Technology Comments: 0

5 June 2024

mmWave occupancy, ESP32 and LD2410 (UART)

An ESP32 running ESPHome to interface with a LD2410 (with UART/Serial, directly connected and not Bluetooth). Also using a BME280 and simple PIR for additional sensing. This was the second mmWave sensor I played with.

Categories Electronics/Home Automation Comments: 0

16 May 2024

mmWave occupancy, ESP32 and LD1125H

Use of an ESP32 running ESPHome to interface with a LD1125H mmWave occupancy sensor, Also monitoring of room temperature, humidity and pressure via the same device.

Categories Electronics/Home Automation Comments: 0

24 November 2023

Automating “should be the bins be out… and are they?”

Use of ESPresense, BLE iBeacons, Node Red and Home Assistant to tell if it is rubbish day, which bins need to go out (and only if the bins haven’t been put out yet)

Categories Home Automation Comments: 5

7 August 2023

Home EV Wallcharger Setup & Installation Tips

Having had electric vehicles for a few years now, I thought I’d share a few tips and photos regarding our current EV charging setup. We currently have 2 EVs (both that live outside) and 2 charging points, one beside the other.

Categories Electric Vehicles/Home Automation/Security Comments: 0

6 August 2023

Appliance Completion Notification with Node Red

Use of Node Red and Javascript to monitor power to an appliance and notify when complete. It also can log to a csv file and do calculations based on total power used and the cost of that power, with peak/offpeak rates taken into account.

Categories Home Automation Comments: 0

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

24 December 2022

Oven Reminders with Node Red & ESPHome

Use of Node Red and Javascript to monitor power to my oven and give regular announcements that is is still running. It also can log to a csv file and do calculations based on total power used and the cost of that power, with peak/offpeak rates taken into account.

Categories Home Automation Comments: 0

19 October 2022

Small CCTV Monitor for RTSP Display

This project allows the use of an old raspberry pi (V1), plus a basic automotive 7″ analogue LCD screen to display streamed CCTV images.

Categories CCTV/Home Automation Comments: 0

29 September 2022

Zemismart KS-811 with OpenBK7231N/OpenBeken

Recently a friend bought some Zemismart wall switches and they have a BK7231N chip rather than an ESP8266. This outines the OpenBeken project and how it can be used in the switch in a similar way to Tasmota/ESPHome.

Categories Home Automation Comments: 3

31 August 2022

Vehicle 12V Battery Monitoring with ESP8266 and ESPHome

Using the Analogue input on an ESP8266 and voltage divider to monitor the status of a 12V battery in a car.

Categories Electric Vehicles/Electronics/Home Automation/Vehicles Comments: 14

8 July 2022

WB3S replacement for Home Automation devices

More and more home automation devices from China are coming with no ESP8266 module, especially the TUYA based ones. Some are coming with a WB3S (which is different to the TYWB3S), but this can easily be removed and replaced with a cheap ESP12F (or similar) module.

Categories Electronics/Home Automation Comments: 6

27 June 2022

Used EV Payback (Part 2, Was it worth it?)

How much to you save buying a used EV, and is it worth it? How long is the payback? This is my actual calculations about four years later and close to 100kkms on the odometer of the 2014 Nissan Leaf I purchased. Cutting to the chase, it was a LOT better than my estimates, and I wish we’d bought two of them.

Categories Electric Vehicles/Home Automation/Opinion Comment: 1

27 May 2022

Xiaomi BLE LCD Thermometers in Home Assistant

Using esphome in an ESP32 dev board to pull the values of some cheap Xiaomi LCD temp sensors (with BLE) and integrate them into home assistant.

Categories Home Automation Comments: 0

27 May 2022

Jaycar Duinotech ESP32 Wearable Board Fix

I couldn’t wait for some cheap ESP32 Dev boards from China, and Jaycar happened to have some half price ESP32 boards (Duinotech wearable ESP32 Development Board) so I grabbed a couple to play with. Unfortunately I had a couple of issues flashing them and keeping them stable so had to find a solution.

Categories Electronics/Home Automation Comments: 0

3 May 2022

ESP8266 with PWM to control a computer fan

Use of an ESP8266 to PWM control a 12Vdc, 2-wire computer fan, with a MOSFET (first with Tasmota, then a change to using ESPHome)

Categories Home Automation/IT & Networking Comments: 0

27 January 2022

WH1080 Fine Offset Weather Station Reset

I have a low cost WH1080 USB Weather station, connected by USB to an intel NUC running docker (x86). These weather stations have a bug in that they occasionally lock up and stop sending data. I implemented an automated way to reset it.

Categories Home Automation/Weather Comments: 0

18 November 2021

Tasmota Run on Timer Rules: Triple bathroom light button

Use of a triple pushbutton, running Tasmota to do simple run-on functions in a bathroom.

Categories Home Automation Comments: 2

14 October 2021

Kogan Smart Glass Kettle 1.7L and Tasmota

Notes on how to flash Tasmota to a $50 Kogan Smart Glass Kettle 1.7L Tasmota (Also available from the online retailer Dick Smith), and control it with Home Assistant.

Categories Home Automation Comments: 2

10 October 2021

Notes for Moes Zigbee Scene Switch

Notes for setting up “Moes” brand 1,2,3 or 4 button zigbee Scene switches with a Sonoff Zigbee Bridge

Categories Home Automation Comments: 0

30 August 2021

Tracking Pet Feeding with Home Automation

A method to track whether the cat and dog have been fed in a busy household.

Categories Home Automation Comments: 0

2 August 2021

Viewsonic Touch Screen for Home Assistant Display

Use of a pretty old Viewsonic All-in-One computer as a home automation display. I picked a couple of these up for around NZ$40 each, however found the touch screen didn’t work out of the box as drivers were missing from Linux.

Categories Electronics/Home Automation/Home Renovations/IT & Networking/Projects/Technology Comments: 0