November 24, 2023 Automating “should be the bins be out… and are they?” Use of ESPresence, 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: 3
August 6, 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
December 24, 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
September 29, 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: 4
July 8, 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: 4
May 27, 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
May 27, 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
November 18, 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: 0
October 14, 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: 0
August 30, 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
April 17, 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
April 12, 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
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
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
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