Tag: Technology

5 December 2024

Wee History, a “Living Museum” in Edinburgh

On a recent trip to Europe I was in Edinburgh, and have the chance to stop by this interesting little spot called the Wee Museum of History, described as “Edinburgh’s Reminiscence Project” and a “hands-on museum”

Categories Collections/Technology/Travel Comments: 0

1 September 2024

Shorts: Decent phone holder finally?

Had a bunch of phone holders in cars over the years, including magnet types and gel pads etc… I miss the phone specific car kits of the mid 90s 🙂 Discovered this type the other month… The best and most convenient I’ve had so far.

Categories Thoughts Comments: 0

31 July 2024

My Polaroid Instant Cameras, 1969 – 2000

I have a bunch of still and movie film cameras I have collected over the years. The polaroid ones I’m most fond of, and have recently purchased some modern film for the Land Camera 1000. Here are some photos and descriptions of my Polaroid collection, with cameras from 1969 to 2000.

Categories Collections/Photography/Technology 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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

17 April 2021

LED Strip Ambient Up-lighting

Some notes re how I have used LEDs for decorative up-lighting in between ceiling beams, and controlled with Tasmota and Node Red.

Categories Home Automation/Lighting Comments: 0

12 April 2021

Internet Speed test to InfluxDB & MQTT with Docker

Use of the Ookla speedtest cli to test the internet connection regularly, and push the results to influx db & MQTT.

Categories Home Automation/IT & Networking Comments: 0

13 August 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

21 July 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

13 May 2020

Setting up Alt-f Firmware on Dlink DNS-320L NAS

These are cheap 2-bay NASs with replacement open Firmware install.

Categories Electronics/IT & Networking/Technology Comments: 0

5 December 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

27 July 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

12 April 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

24 June 2018

How to Stop Your Caravan From Disappearing

Caravan thefts in New Zealand have become a lot more common in the past few years, and every day or so you hear about another one going missing. Caravans are pretty easy to steal by themselves, as they are light weight, usually easily accessible on a driveway… and they sit home alone when people go to work. An often touted...

Categories Retro Caravans/Security Comments: 0

19 May 2018

Tips: Get Your Cabling in Tricky Places

Do you have an existing house or structure and trying to get a cable into a tricky place?  Here are a few tips from methods I have used over the years. Conduit Sucker There is nothing more annoying than finding a broken cable in a conduit or pipe and having nothing to pull the replacement wire though.  it is especially...

Categories Home Renovations/Projects/Technology Comments: 0