visitors this year: 59 it’s not hard to make use of old or inexpensive 433MHz RF devices so that you can use them with modern smart home devices. For example, a 443MHz bell push...
visitors this year: 354 control all your smart thermostats from the Home Assistant dashboard When you have several thermostats there’s a need to see them at a glance. Home Assistant has a ’tile card’...
visitors this year: 240 This tank level sensor produces surprising detail about my heating oil usage. It’s a bit like a smart meter for oil so I now know say, how many litres I...
visitors this year: 538 what you need to set up a Bluetooth proxy A Bluetooth proxy requires almost any of the ESP32 development boards you can find at maker shops or Amazon. You need...
visitors this year: 107 You can connect the Switchbot water leak detector with Home Assistant without the need for a Switchbot hub. The detector uses Bluetooth and wifi to send out its alarms which...
visitors this year: 699 The Google Nest thermostat dial can have a wired connection and/or a wireless connection with the Heat Link base. A loss of wireless connection is a rare event and it...
visitors this year: 348 Smart devices often find their best uses in Home Assistant ‘automations’. ‘Automations’ are better known as ‘routines’ and they make quite unrelated devices interact with each other as will be...
visitors this year: 640 why the Creality K1C impressed can’t you think of any any negatives? For a critical reviewer, bringing more experience I’d point you to Daniel’s ‘CROSSLINK’ channel on YouTube. This is...
visitors this year: 126 The situation: in addition to the router that serves your home with internet you’ve another router that could perhaps improve your wireless or wired coverage. The extra router could be...
visitors this year: 81 This page records my notes on a jura E8 (eg 2024 model 15662 / 15661). If you’re repairing a jura machine these notes on the jura F90 may to be...
visitors this year: 300 Houses and farms in remote places pump their water from an underground source. I don’t have a choice in the matter – a borehole comes with costs in maintenance and...
visitors this year: 442 Remote homes and farms can get their water from a borehole – years ago the owner of my house drilled the garden until they found a water source. Today I...
visitors this year: 705 why a server? what can I use a home server for? a vpn, a router, an ad-blocker, storage for backups, a photo library, a music server, a printer server, a...
visitors this year: 511 Growing up in Whitechapel, London in the 1950’s there were several Jewish bakeries – Rinkoffs and Kosoffs and another were yards away but today there’s that many in all of...
visitors this year: 899 TLDR: one morning too often I’ve woken to find that my ‘smart’ things has gone stupid and they haven’t turned on because the Raspberry Pi running Home Assistant has gone...
visitors this year: 670 With today’s energy issues it feels unnecessary to heat rooms we aren’t using. Back in the day we fitted thermostatic radiator valves (TRV) to radiators in central heating systems. We...
visitors this year: 172 what’s the best way to eat panettone? By mouth. Or face first. does panettone come from Germany? No. It comes from Tesco, Aldi, Lidl and if you have money, Waitrose...
visitors this year: 1,144 My boiler burns heating oil from a tank and unlike the ‘gas’ that most homes burn it’s finite – so when it’s gone I’m cold. Ordering heating oil is tricky...
visitors this year: 555 WS2812B strip – INMP441 microphone – WLED SR software – ESP32 board shopping list for these motion activated stairway lights – see photos wiring diagram for a microphone controlled LED...
visitors this year: 66 Krispy Kreme doughnuts are meant to be eaten fresh at room temperature within 12 hours. It’s no surprise that I cannot find any official advice on keeping Krispy Kreme doughnuts...
visitors this year: 67 I bought a packet of rice paper and was surprised at how doable it was to use it to make spring rolls. This lazy version is inspired by a few...
visitors this year: 419 These walking boots were so exceedingly comfortable and waterproof that more was the disappointment when a wet walk ended with wet socks. In their one year of life these ‘waterproof’...
visitors this year: 27 weirdly crunchy, rather hot but not as hot as it might be crispy chilli avocado on toast + crispy chilli mash an avocado over two pieces of toast, add crispy...
visitors this year: 100 A collection of time-saving uses for a microwave for food preparation warm your plates in the microwave Take the chill off a couple of plates by giving them 60 seconds...
visitors this year: 308 This smoke alarm piqued my interest as a way to create an smoke/fire alert when I might be elsewhere. It’s unbranded and labelled as “C50D/W (1527, can skip code)” which...
visitors this year: 2,662 Here is a tank level sensor that’s more useful than anything you can buy. This post focuses on my housing and the calibration for a basic sensor to measure oil...
visitors this year: 44 No munchies for tonight’s telly watching? This recipe makes 16 biscuits. Do in two batches if you’ve no self control Set the oven to 180°C In a small bowl melt...
visitors this year: 4,203 how to make a heating oil tank level sensor that’s more useful than anything you can buy. This sensor… Background: homes like mine use diesel oil as a fuel to...
visitors this year: 2,340 how to make a heating oil tank level sensor that’s more useful than anything you can buy. This sensor… Background: homes like mine use oil as a fuel to keep...
visitors this year: 526 tips on choosing cameras and using POE / passive POE and waterproofing the connection. how do I record activity from cameras? Buying a security camera system isn’t just for professionals....
visitors this year: 173 If you’re as puzzled as I was about upgrading to the latest (2013) Brompton brake levers, this post aims to unconfuse. My cost, using Brompton clone parts was £17 plus...
handling data from experiments / home & garden / monitoring at home
by Roger · Published Mar 2022 · Last modified Mar 2023
visitors this year: 1,684 I know that I ought not leave things powered on. Knowing that is easier than remembering that an e-bike or drone or laptop battery is still connected. Below I show...
visitors this year: 3,684 The very popular, but hardly-known Xiaomi nightlight, which lights up a dark space when you pass, now has a ‘smart’ version. A night light is nice on a dark stairway...
visitors this year: 145 places to drink and snack places to park Cambs & Herts council public rights of way maps
visitors this year: 1,155 see version 2 of this project here My initial want was for the stairs to have soft glow lighting … but what the hec, LED strip lights do more than...
visitors this year: 909 A ‘smart scale’ that records my weight to a phone might be seen as ‘gadgety’ and unnecessary but I’m now many months into this and think it’s fabulous. Almost fact:...
visitors this year: 345 GoPro, microphone and camera fittings are so ridiculously different, so here are some pointers to help buy the right bits to mount them. In all cases, even a GoPro (below)...
visitors this year: 3,340 The good idea to mount a Swytch electric kit battery on the Brompton front luggage block had consequences. I’d lost a bestest way of carrying a bag. Searching for an easy-on,...
visitors this year: 1,159 when you want an e-bike and you don’t want another bike:
visitors this year: 307 , If you’re a casual electronics hobbyist like me, the idea of using a LCD magnifier or microscope may seem attractive. For example this music spectrum display kit requires soldering...
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