March 30, 2021

Caravans at Beach Hop, 2021

Beach Hop rolled around quickly for 2021 as the last one was just in November. Some awesome new vans on view, and the usual suspects back with there fantastic renovations, displays and creations. I’m looking forward to next year’s Caravans & Classics sponsored light show – it was organised at short notice this year and not a lot of vans…

Categories Photo Gallery/Retro Caravans Comments: 0

March 20, 2021

Controlling a Computer Remotely with MQTT

I was looking for various ways to control my computers via home automation, and my method of choice MQTT. I found mqcontrol by albertnis to be the best option and simplest for my use case.

Categories Home Automation/IT & Networking Comments: 0

November 30, 2020

Lilliputs at Beach Hop 2020

Lilliput Caravans at Beach Hop 2020

Categories Photo Gallery/Retro Caravans Comments: 0

November 27, 2020

Caravans at Beach Hop, 2020

Beach Hop in Whangamata was supposed to be in March this year but was rescheduled to November due to the Pandemic. These photos were mostly taken on the Friday. The winning caravan this year was Kate & Tony Bartlett with their show set-up 50s styled caravan Frankie-Jo and matching vehicle. Runners up were Greg and Kaylie Vine. If you would…

Categories Photo Gallery/Retro Caravans Comments: 0

November 3, 2020

Using an SDR and RTL_433 in docker with MQTT

Mainly to grab weather station data, but also useful for other 433MHz data, this is the setup I use in Docker. It uses a cheap Realtek USB SDR, and pushes data received straight to an MQTT server.

Categories Home Automation/Weather Comments: 0

October 31, 2020

Tasmota Flash of GLD110HA Smart Globe

Flashing a cheap Wifi connected smart light bulb with Tasmota (attempting to use Tuya Convertmethod, but reverting to a hardware flash)

Categories Home Automation Comments: 0

September 21, 2020

Using nsupdate to update a DNS server using docker

Summary This sets up a continual check (using cron) to obtain the current external IP, and if it has changed from the last check, update the remote dns server (that you need full access to). Notes do not as yet show how to set up the dns server and certs. Suggestions for simplifying welcome, maybe holding the current IP address…

Categories Home Automation/IT & Networking Comments: 0

August 13, 2020

Smartphone screen protector UV cured

I have had various phone screen protectors over the years, floppy and solid and preferred the solid glass cover I had on on my Note 8 for over a year I paid NZ$30+ for the last one including install by someone at a ‘phone shop’ but really it wasn’t a nice install, and I re-seated it not long to try…

Categories Mobile Phones & Android Comment: 1

July 29, 2020

Tasmota Energy Meter Pulse Output Counting

Summary This monitoring was built as part of my whole house 3 phase monitoring project. I had a couple of kWh counters (often called Check Meters) on my main and a sub board. Not as accurate, and can’t monitor V or power factor etc, but useful to look at targeted areas of power use as well as having their own…

Categories Home Automation

July 26, 2020

Whole House Surge Suppression for 3 Phase

Summary Common in Europe and other locations around the world, but not really in NZ is the use of surge suppression modules in a main DB. I have a few servers and sensitive equipment so thought it might be a good idea as I was building a small power monitoring switchboard anyway. Standard install practice is to use an MCB…

Categories Home Automation

July 21, 2020

Whole House 3 Phase Power with PZEM-004T

A robust, accurate, low cost and safe whole house electricity monitoring setup, using PZEM-004T modules. These use current transformers (CTs), and send data as TTL Modbus-RTU. Recently Tasmota has added support for up to 3 of these directly (on the same data channel) so there are fewer hoops to jump though to get them working (previously my testing involved sending serial commands)

Categories Home Automation

June 11, 2020

Secure the Chocolate: Simple Cupboard Security

We have created a self contained area of our house that we still use a lot ourselves, and part of the need is to be able to store and use spaces for our own stuff… without guests having access. One of the bedrooms and a full sized cupboard can be locked with a key when needed, but what do you…

Categories Home Automation/Home Renovations/Security Comments: 0

June 11, 2020

Bike Cover Sail

Photos of a simple cover made to protect bikes stored outside.

Categories DIY Projects/Home Renovations/Photo Gallery Comments: 0

June 2, 2020

USB Weather Station & Weewx using Docker

Use of a Low cost WH1080 USB Weather station, connected by USB to an intel NUC running docker.
Weewx pushes data to a local MQTT server (on the same NUC) and also uses SFTP to push graphs and displays to my commercial webserver.

Categories Home Automation/Weather Comments: 0

May 17, 2020

Sinilink USB XY-WFUSB Tasmota Flash

Summary Pics and notes for flashing a Sinilink USB Stick XY-WFUSB with Tasmota This is a USB A Male to female stick, with an esp8266 in it to switch the output. It can be flashed with Tasmota, but has annoyingly small 1.27mm pitch headers. I used the ‘sewing pin’ method suggested in a couple of places. If I was doing…

Categories Home Automation Comments: 0

April 24, 2020

Tasmota based Equipment Cabinet Fan Controller

More an exercise in playing with Tasmota & documenting how Tasmota Rules work, this overly complex fan setup is a standalone fan controller/thermostat for my equipment cupboard.

Categories Home Automation/IT & Networking Comments: 0

February 28, 2020

Yunshan HW-622 Network Relay Module

Setup of a HW-622 Relay Module from AliExpress and other places. Approx NZ$6 with free shipping at the time (end 2019)

Categories Electronics/Home Automation Comments: 0

December 6, 2019

Large TV Recessed Mounting

This was a setup in our rumpus room to house a TV. I made the recess etc probably 8 months before I even thought about getting a TV for it, and I sort of ‘estimated’ the size I’d need. The back of the recess is 12mm MDF and it is set 100mm back from the Gib. There was heaps of room behind this wall due to how this area under the house is constructed. Using a sheet of MDF meant I didn’t need to worry about what I was going to do with a TV bracket later – it could be screwed anywhere.

Categories Home Renovations Comments: 0

December 5, 2019

Over Stair TV Cabinet + Hall Storage

Because I hate unused space… I decided to plan a storage unit for above where our stairs go from our lounge to the lower level. There is decent ceiling height here, and the back of the area is accessible from the hallway. We thought of the concept when we were renovating the hall about 12 months previous, and so cut…

Categories DIY Projects/Entertainment/Home Renovations Comments: 0

November 13, 2019

Home Automation: Future Thinking

So, home control with your own setup is great, but you have to think about what happens in the event you sell your house, get hit by a bus or someone needs to work on it in the future. Home Automation should add value to a house, not turn people off a sale. This is part 2 of some of…

Categories DIY Projects/Home Automation/Projects/Technology Comments: 0

November 13, 2019

Home Automation: Electrical Safety

This is part one of some of my notes regarding Home Automation concepts. Part 2 is about planning for the future and house resale value. Electrical Isolation/Safety Electrical safety is very important obviously for home automation, and as well as my tendency to over-engineer, I’m often thinking about ‘what could possibly go wrong‘. One of the things I want to…

Categories DIY Projects/Home Automation/Projects/Technology Comments: 0

July 27, 2019

Used EV Payback, Should I buy one? (Part 1, Estimates)

How much do you save buying a used EV, and is it worth it? How long is the payback? This is the story of my original conservative payback estimates for buying a Nissan Leaf, but plot twist… the actuals are much, much better.

Categories Electric Vehicles/Opinion

July 8, 2019

Conversion of Ceiling Attic to Storage

In 2019 I converted a ceiling space atticin our current house to storage (on a budget). You can never have enough home storage. This is the 5th type of install I’ve done like this (Similar in 4 previous houses), and as well as being useful, home buyers love it (if done well).

Categories Home Renovations/Projects Comments: 0

May 12, 2019

Lachco Front Door Lock for Home Automation

I researched, bought and installed an electronic front door lock to go with the home automation & security system for under NZ$200 in 2017. I looked for one with these features specifically as it was a free egress handle, would lock on door close (not a deadlock) and had a wireless RF remote… which is an easy way to connect…

Categories Home Automation/Home Renovations/Security Comments: 0

April 12, 2019

Podcasts I Listen To

Ok, I do like to listen to the occasional podcast, and there are a bunch that I like to listen to regularly. Being in traffic for an hour or more most day gives me plenty of opportunity to catch up on various technology news, history and some light hearted humour. This list is occasionally updated when I fine more content,…

Categories Education/Entertainment/Lists/Opinion/Social Media/Technology Comments: 0

April 8, 2019

Whole House Audio on the Cheap

You can pay thousands for Bose multiroom audio systems, or buy a huge stereo and crank it up so you can hear it throughout the place. You can also get multiple digital distribution amplifiers that run over Wifi (eg Sonos), but again they come at a huge cost. What you really want though is cheap DIY multiroom background music system….

Categories DIY Projects/Entertainment Comments: 0

April 6, 2019

Shelly Park Colour Run, 2019

Selfie Booth Photos from the Shelly Park School Colour Fun Run, April 2019

Categories Photo Gallery Comments: 3

April 1, 2019

Caravans at Beach Hop, 2019

Beach Hop in Whangamata had around 100 classic, vintage and retro styled caravans this year. Here are a bunch of photos I took. Not my best work.. but I didn’t spend a lot of time taking them, and of course it was pretty overcast. Congratulations to the winner at the Top 10 shootout, Retro Custom Caravan’s 50’s styled Norma Jean….

Categories Photo Gallery/Retro Caravans Comments: 2

March 7, 2019

Dog Motel

We just got a new and decided it needed a place to hang out outside… and somewhere to poop as we had no grass area. The area was an existing pebble garden that we cleared and put down a scoria base. We built a picket fence around the edge and laid some astroturf. The gate will mainly remain open as…

Categories Home Renovations/Photo Gallery Comments: 0

February 4, 2019

5 Steps to DIY Home Automation

You can spend thousands on home automation equipment. You could get yourself an ecosystem like Apple Homekit, Samsung Smart-Things, Control4 or many others, however with just some moderate techo skills you can set up or convert your home to pretty awesome home control with DIY. My take on home automation is that it should be pretty much invisible. Things should…

Categories DIY Projects/Home Automation/Technology Comments: 0