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

6 October 2022

NZ Retro Caravan Awning Guide

In 2016, we had a custom awning manufactured for our New Zealand made, 15″ 1965 Zephyr Deluxe caravan. A few people have asked about it, so I have documented a bit of the process.

Categories Retro Caravans 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

24 July 2022

1956 La Gloria Imp: NZ Made Valve Radio

Whilst on holiday in the South Island, we came across this 50s Valve Radio, which was a good price. Research showed it was made in Otahuhu by DRECO. This La Gloria Imp was the first model in a line of 18 models up to the late 60s.

Categories Electronics/Retro Caravans Comments: 0

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

17 December 2021

2007 Mazda MPV AC Aircon Drain Blockage

Noticed a couple of vehicle issues we thought initially were unrelated, and symptoms were weird, but working though them I eventually figured out what the issue was.

Categories Vehicles Comments: 4

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

9 November 2021

Xiaomi 10T Pro Updating (2021)

This is the method I followed for my Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro to get from my previously installed AOSP ROM to a stock based ROM (I’ll change to a modified stock ROM later). It includes Root so a bunch of useful things can be installed. I had a nice AOSP ROM previous to this, but the camera was a stumbling block – the Xiaomi stock camera is so much better.

Categories Mobile Phones & Android Comments: 0

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

27 July 2021

Home Automation of Rinnai Gas Heater

Our Rinnai heater is a wall mounted/flued gas fire. Current control is via a large LCD remote control that also acts as the temperature sensor, and thermostat. It has some auto timing capability via way of programming the remote, but it is a bit clunky and not intuitive. The goal was to enable a better PID control of the temperature, and switch off/on control (occupancy, remotely before arrival, voice control, better scheduling etc). This shows how I connected to it with Home Assistant.

Categories Electronics/Home Automation/Home Renovations/Projects/Technology Comments: 0

9 July 2021

Cheap/Small Wireless Streaming Camera (V380)

Getting an ultra cheap wireless IP camera to put out an RTSP Stream with reflashed firmware. This enables it to be firewalled off the wider internet (local view only).

Categories CCTV Comments: 0

15 June 2021

Edgerouter Firewall Control with MQTT

Use of an Edgerouter X router with MQTT (& mqcontrol) to block kids electronic devices from a network on commands from a home automation system.

Categories IT & Networking Comments: 0

27 May 2021

zigbee2mqtt Setup in Docker for Home Automation

a setup to allow off the shelf zigbee devices to report to a mqtt server. Total cost

Categories Home Automation/IT & Networking/Technology Comments: 0

27 May 2021

Kogan Smart Plug: No Esp8266? (Tuya WB2S)

It is getting more and more common to get smart devices that have chips other than ESP8266 in them, and these chips are usually not flashable with the likes of Tasmota, espHome etc. This Kogan power monitor had an Tuya WB3S

Categories Electronics/Home Automation Comments: 3

12 May 2021

Kogan Smart Plug and Tuya Local Notes

It is better to replace the hardware and run all devices locally, which is what I did, However, before I did that, I wanted to see what was involved in running tuya local in home assistant. I have not given much detail here, but my YAML setup is below for reference.

Categories Electronics/Home Automation Comments: 0