Category: monitoring at home

Today we can flick a switch remotely and get numbers from thermometers miles away. Here are my projects that aim to connect devices so that we can save energy and gain security from knowing what’s happening around the home. Almost everything here is connected by ‘Home Assistant’ running on a Raspberry Pi and we’ll show how it’s configured and what there is know.

monitoring at home

Jan 2023

use a sub-domain to access your home server (eg Home Assistant) via nginx proxy manager using CNAME

the need for a sub-domain: Your home network allows you access to ‘services’ such as an IP camera, the router, Home Assistant, a wi-fi access point, a NAS drive (eg Synology or QNAP) and...

monitoring at home

Dec 2022

fix problems with TimeMachine backup on openmediavault – set up and troubleshooting

Time Machine is a backup utility on the Mac. This can work for years and then one day it doesn’t. If you need a file you had an hour ago, Time Machine gets it...

time of flight sensor VI53L0X mounting and calibration

home & garden / monitoring at home

Oct 2022

calibrate a ‘Vl53L0X time of flight sensor’ to measure water or oil tank level

a tank level sensor that’s more useful than anything you can buy. This post shows my housing for a sensor that measures oil and water levels. The sensor is a VL53L0X time of flight...

monitor oil or water tank liquid level with a time of flight sensor

home & garden / monitoring at home

Oct 2022

heating oil tank level – Vl53L0X time of flight sensor version

make a heating oil tank level sensor that’s more useful than anything you can buy can measure oil level in any unit – litres, kWh, gallons or days until I need to refill the...

PoE connection waterproofing

home & garden / monitoring at home

Sep 2022

using outdoor IP cameras for home security and monitoring: PoE

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. A way forward is...

monitoring at home

Sep 2022

a DIY security camera system with object detection, recording and phone notifications – using Docker, Frigate and Home Assistant

Let’s start with the reminder that an easy route to a security camera setup is to buy a kit with cameras and a system box to record events on site – you’ll find plenty...

handling data from experiments / home & garden / monitoring at home

Mar 2022

use a smart switch to turn off a lithium battery charger

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 how to turn on...

home & garden / monitoring at home

Feb 2022

this motion detecting night light tells Home Assistant when you pass by

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 and toe-saving on a...

Keep-a-record-of-your-weight-with-Huawei-Smart-Scale-3

home & garden / monitoring at home

Jan 2022

diet: see your weight changing with a smart weighing scale

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: when you’re dieting, a...

Here is how I converted my bicycle to a electric bike using a kit

home & garden / monitoring at home

Jan 2022

convert a bicycle to an ‘e-bike’ or electric powered bike

when you want an e-bike and you don’t want another bike:

home & garden / monitoring at home

Jan 2022

iPad LCD magnifier or microscope for SMD soldering or other close work

, 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 240 SMD LEDs, with...

record-exercise-sleep-walking-routes-with-a-fitness-band-and-an-intro-to-Google-Fit

home & garden / monitoring at home

Jan 2022

the Google Fit app helps record walking tracks, sleep, weight, bike rides and calories

topics on this page: what do I eat? how does my weight change? do I get enough sleep? where did I go today? how does my body react to exercise? introducing Google Fit You...

home & garden / monitoring at home

Dec 2021

Huawei watch, Huawei watch fit new and Huawei Band 6 – useful, affordable smartwatches for 2022

If you’re looking for a smartwatch, look at the Huawei Watch / Huawei Band 6 / Huawei Watch Fit New wearables If you’ve yet to get yourself a smartwatch I’ll have a guess at...

home & garden / monitoring at home

Dec 2021

sync Huawei Health watch data into Google Fit; Google Drive or fitness apps like Strava or Komoot

… I can now see my Huawei health data in Google Fit and Google Drive. The Health Sync app acts as a go-between, and connects Huawei health to several other apps or services. In...

monitoring at home

Dec 2021

connect remotely to your home network using the WireGuard add-on in Home Assistant

Why do this? At an early point on the journey to network heaven you may have a need to connect from some holiday location say, to a camera, your computer, a home automation setup...

monitoring at home

Nov 2021

how to stop a smart light and switch states getting out of sync

what do we mean by getting out of sync: Scenario one: You’ve two table lamps which are controlled independently either because they’re smart lamps or because you’ve two regular lamps controlled by two smart...

home & garden / monitoring at home

Sep 2021

Robot arms reach out to the Raspberry Pi: this is art

What’s going on? Hec, I’m in a room with robot arms and fingers twitching as they respond to social media. THIS can only be art but it’s art powered by makers. Tucked away is...

monitoring at home

Aug 2021

upgrade your router firmware to ‘FreshTomato’

The Netgear Nighthawk r7000 is a router, switch and powerful Wi-fi access point in one unit and even in 2021, years on from when it was made it still offers your network a boost...

home & garden / monitoring at home

Aug 2021

addressable LED light strips put to use

There are LED strip lights where every LED can be doing something different with the result that you can create peculiar effects. You can start with a commercially available kit but after a while...

monitoring at home

Aug 2021

access your Home Assistant remotely using DuckDNS, Letsencrypt and the nginx SSL proxy

The Home Assistant home automation hub is more useful if you can access it remotely. In addition to having anywhere access with a browser URL, there’s an excellent phone app to access Home Assistant....

monitoring at home

Aug 2021

use nginx proxy manager with home assistant to access many network devices

If you need to access Home Assistant remotely away from home, skip this page and instead go to access your Home Assistant remotely using DuckDNS, Letsencrypt and the nginx SSL proxy. This page is...

monitoring at home

Aug 2021

use the smart device app even if you use an automation platform

Your smart bulbs, switches and door bell all come with a useful manufacturer’s app – over time you’ll accumulate many such apps. While Home Assistant might make them redundant, here are couple of tips...

home & garden / monitoring at home

Jun 2021

Dim display problem on large LED digital clock

The digits at one end of a large LED clock displayed much more dimly than they ought. I’d say they were about half the brightness – and it was quite a puzzle. The clock...

home & garden / monitoring at home

Feb 2021

how to know when the washing machine has finished

If you need to know when a device, like a dryer or washing machine has finished working, get a ‘smart plug with energy monitoring‘. Amazon list many of them but whichever brand you get,...

home & garden / monitoring at home

Feb 2021

automated fade up dimmer for analogue LED Strips – using a MOSFET and ESPhome

This ceiling ‘coffer’ is lit by four 5m LED strips cut down to size fitted in 2017. If you wanted really, really bright light, these analogue white LED strips were the thing to get....

monitoring at home

Feb 2021

see your sensor readings on a TTGO T-display ST7789V TFT LCD

If you use Home Assistant you can show temperature, time and other sensor entities on this cute display. The inspiration for this mini-project came from a need to display my oven temperature in a...

monitoring at home

Feb 2021

send a screenshot to your phone, instant message or email using cloud storage such as Google Photos – this really is the best workflow

Without copying a screenshot to or using a USB stick (no!) All the day I capture useful or interesting images from facebook, instagram, desktop apps and web pages. I copy bits of images to...

home & garden / monitoring at home

Jan 2021

what is the temperature of your oven? how to cook reliably with an inaccurate oven

Ovens may have digital controllers or analogue temperature controllers and cooks seem to have blind faith in their settings. In this household the cooks were burning food so I checked the oven temperature. It...

monitoring at home

Jan 2021

how much oil / electricity do I use in a day – Home Assistant or espHome

The measurements that I take around the home provide two things: – a picture of a moment in time – a room temperature for example. – how something changes over the course of a...

home & garden / monitoring at home

Jan 2021

how to integrate 433MHz temperature & humidity sensors with Home Assistant

A home automation platform, such as Home Assistant, allows you to make temperature v time graphs using sensors that you might place around the home. Monitoring temperatures allowed me to get my heating devices...

HE200 HE301 HE308 HE305 HE100

monitoring at home

Jan 2021

can I integrate ‘HomeEasy’ 433MHz devices with Home Assistant?

Yes. Below you’ll see how to control HomeEasy devices through Home Assistant and the RFlink receiver/transmitter. (This also controls other manufacturers’ wireless sockets). You’ll be able to create timers and automation to turn things...

monitoring at home

Jan 2021

control unsupported devices with Alexa or Google Home

or how to selectively expose Home Assistant entities to Alexa with emulated hue Home automation platforms like Alexa, Google Home and Home Assistant show major differences in the devices that they can discover and...

monitoring at home

Dec 2020

use GitHub and Arduino IDE to create an ESP32 web camera

If you want to use a GitHub project with Arduino software follow this step-by-step guide. We’ll make an ESP32 camera web server using the Github code from ‘easytarget’. An ESP32-CAM module consists of a...

home & garden / monitoring at home

Nov 2020

coping with 18650 batteries with and without button tops

I discover my bicycle headlamp wasn’t working because some 18650 batteries have a button top. Oh my, that was embarrassing to admit The 18650 ‘battery’, like many batteries, is named according to its dimensions....

home & garden / monitoring at home

Aug 2020

use Google lens to search the Internet using a picture or photo

Here’s what to do when a restaurant asks you to scan a QR code for their track and trace (written in 2020). And here’s how to identify a plant, an animal and lots more....

monitoring at home

Jul 2020

use one switch to turn on two lights – in any combination

The need: you use a table light for watching TV and a main (wall) light at other times and you want a coffee table button to switch between one or the other or have...

home & garden / monitoring at home

Jun 2020

T4EU1C and Home Assistant

a 3-gang wall switch for your home automation – using eWelink, T4EU1C and Home Assistant I got to a point where I had plenty of ‘smart’ lights and gadgets but few switches. But then...

monitoring at home

Jun 2020

set up rflink to respond to 433MHz devices and then integrate them with Home Assistant

a project to integrate inexpensive 433MHz RF devices with modern smart devices. We’ve brought all the instructions to get going with RFlink on one page. see also: 433MHz smarter letterbox how to set up...

home & garden / monitoring at home

Jun 2020

project: plot the temperature of your fridge-freezer, pet home or fermenting wine on a history graph in Home Assistant

In a previous project I set up temperature sensors in my room and sent the data via Bluetooth to Home Assistant, the home automation platform. Home Assistant is software that can record measurements and...

monitoring at home

May 2020

how to toggle the state of a light or switch for Alexa in Home Assistant

Toggling a light switch means that a press of the switch will turn the light off or on depending it what it was last doing. There is nothing clever about that but if I...