visitors this year: 1,351 see also more about 433MHz devices The letterbox is five doors and fifty metres from my desk. The uncertainty of the postie arriving in the afternoon means that I make...
visitors this year: 141 This quick post is for anybody wondering how much money they need to put aside for energy. If you don’t use electricity for keeping warm, your summer and winter electricity...
visitors this year: 186 smart bulbs and sockets have select uses. A smart socket adds a little on/off cleverness to a table lamp, electric heater or the printer upstairs that takes five minutes before...
visitors this year: 516 When you look for home automation equipment you find many systems. They turn on lights and plug sockets; water the garden; unlock a door, turn up the heating; record a...
visitors this year: 686 In the beginning there was the smart bulb that changed colour and convinced me that here was something trivial and fanciful. Today I’m surprised by the usefulness of the smart...
visitors this year: 1,654 … and see how to add features to the Home Assistant display An interest in solar energy is a possible reason to record the sun’s azimuth and the time of...
visitors this year: 2,108 The Google nest thermostat (or its Hive equivalent) are devices which I’d be happy to pay for and recommend. A DIY person could make a thing to turn on the...
visitors this year: 392 When you set up a gadget or device you’ll sometimes be asked what its IP address is – and gosh – becoming at ease with that question is good for...
visitors this year: 1,713 what’s needed to start using ESPhome? option 1: an ESP32 development board with a micro-USB socket option 2: an ESP8266 development board – less power use, but no Bluetooth option...
visitors this year: 11,234 Home Assistant is software that connects smart devices. It enables them to have a useful life outside of the app that they come with. You will gain unusual flexibility where...
visitors this year: 18,909 These instructions may help you upload a fireware.bin file to an ESP32 dev board. You are not alone if you meet a problem uploading a firmware bin file to an...
visitors this year: 2,521 When a ESP32 device, such as a development board like the wemos D1 mini or ESP32-CAM, has been flashed and powered, it will use the password you added to the...
visitors this year: 1,354 ‘own’ your own devices THE FOLLOWING PROCESS IS STILL USEFUL – HOWEVER SONOFF DEVICES CAN WORK WITHOUT MODIFICATION IN HOME ASSISTANT (SEE HERE) AND THE EWElink app. THE ADVANTAGE OF...
visitors this year: 22,713 Costing less than £10 or $10, the ESP32-CAM board comes equipped with WiFi, a camera and a micro SD-card slot. It needs a little work to turn this ‘development board’...
visitors this year: 1,787 I am the person who wants to know if using an electric fan heater in one room costs less than heating the whole house using gas*. At parties I can...
visitors this year: 834 The Sonoff POWR2 can replace the timer on a hot water immersion heater. This model also measures electricity as volts, amps and current. This feature provides the key to saving...
visitors this year: 1,074 Dupont leads connect up projects. They come as male to male pin / female to female / male pin to female types. You can solder the male ends to a...
visitors this year: 1,330 Domestic hot water can be heated by a gas or oil central heating boiler or by an electrical immersion heater. I take advantage of half-price nighttime electricity and use an...
visitors this year: 65 ready dec 2020
visitors this year: 632 A Raspberry Pi is a small low power computer that hopefully has a use that chimes for you. I don’t think you’d want to use a Pi for emails and...
visitors this year: 319 “… It’s an ESP32. Yes but which?” ESPRESSIF is the company that markets chips such as the ESP8266 and ESP32 and ESP32-CAM. Other companies buy those chips and fit them...
visitors this year: 381 There are a variety of camera types to help monitor the drive, a pet, a baby, a device, a bird feeder – whatever. You might want to know what’s eating...
visitors this year: 182 Here’s how to add a little functionality to Home Assistant, the automation platform. Do try this especially if you’re just starting to add features to Home Assistant. speedtestdotnet: scan_interval: hours:...
visitors this year: 1,349 Travel information can be one of the things you need easy access to. If you have Google Home or Alexa you’ll find it helpful to recall the exact way to...
visitors this year: 575 When you have a few smart devices you meet a need to be able to see them easily. We might have a camera pointed at the front door but it’s...
visitors this year: 1,636 The Xiaomi Mijia sensor runs for ages on a AAA battery and it can be stuck to a wall to show the temperature and humidity. It’s an attractive Bluetooth Low...
visitors this year: 863 The LED striplights in a kitchen use 12v transformers and they are powered through smart plugs / sockets. The sockets are by TP-link – and they remember their on-off state...
visitors this year: 4,860 fit a sensor to the electricity meter for a minute by minute readout The UK electricity meter shows electricity use in kWatt hours, and a human sometimes pops by to...
visitors this year: 135
visitors this year: 8,129 make a heating oil tank level sensor that’s more useful than anything you can buy There is a replacement for this project – the latest project uses a DFROBOT A02YYUW...
visitors this year: 304 The Home Assistant sensor graph offers painless autoscaling with options to set detail and timespan. But how do I alter the data itself? A car fuel tank measures in gallons...
visitors this year: 16,430 how much heating oil do I use each year? Of course it depends but reckon on needing to order 1000 to 1600 litres a year for heating your rooms and...
visitors this year: 1,184 A volume control at hand and ready to turn. Bash the top and the video or track pauses. Double bash to skip to the next track. It’s plug and play,...