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
August 4, 2023 Tasmota Rule 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
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
August 31, 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: 5
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
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
October 10, 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
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 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
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 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
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
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
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
November 8, 2017 Set up a Cheap Home Surveillance System You can spend a lot on home security and surveillance. Obviously, better quality, higher resolution digital systems are great and can be set up for more money, but as digital systems have become more common, analogue systems have become dirt cheap. In my opinion, more lower resolution cameras is as good or better than just a few of high resolution,… Categories CCTV/Home Renovations/Technology Comments: 0