Junkyard
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Detecting movement in Home Assistant using Ikea Vallhorn sensor
I’ve bought some #Ikea #Vallhorn motion sensors for 8€ a piece. (see info here) Pairing to the #Zigbee network in #HomeAssistant and #Zigbee2MQTT was somehow difficult, which is not usual for Zigbee devices (at least according to my limited experiences with them). Nevertheless, I succeeded in pairing them. Unsuccessful attempts Firstly I tried to pair…
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Fixing junk LED light found on the street
I have a nasty habit of picking up bolts, nuts and other ‘trash’ lying on the ground. A few days ago, I was walking on the road (which also leads to a local waste collection centre) and found a drywall LED spotlight. It looks like it fell from somebody’s trailer. I picked it up, maybe…
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Simple tablet charge controller using Sonoff’s ZBMini
I’m using an Amazon #FireHD tablet stuck to my fridge with several magnets and 3D printed case as a #homeassistant dashboard. I read it’s bad for the tablet’s battery if it’s constantly plugged into a charger. Battery can swallow or worse. So I installed Sonoff’s #ZBMini (Zigbee) smart switch into a socket where the charger…
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Dishwasher saga part 3 (it wasn’t a microswitch!)
As I wrote in my previous post I was so happy when I finally discovered what’s wrong with my 20yr old #Bosch #dishwasher. A faulty microswitch. Except that it wasn’t. The joy was over after a day and the symptoms returned: I disassembled the dishwasher for the 23rd time. Added a bolt to a microswitch…
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When did I change the batteries in my sensors?
Last month I learned about the integration which helps track battery change status in various devices connected to #homeassistant. Today I finally had some time to install #HACS integration (source) called ‘Battery Notes‘ which was written by Andrew. After the installation and HA restart, it automatically found my #Aqara battery devices (#Zigbee buttons, magnetic door…
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Home Assistant and breaking changes (27. 12. 2023)
I’ve been running #homeassistant for 2 years now and have never dealt with breaking changes. Until today. 1st breaking change: #ESPHome entities are unavailable After updating Home Assistant Core to 2023.12.4 and ESPHome to the latest (Dec. 2023) I’ve noticed ESP entities marked as ‘Unavailable‘. Moreover, all entities had duplicates in the entity list ending…
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Pimp my dishwasher part 2
In my previous post, I wrote about measuring the consumption of the dishwasher using a Tuya smart socket and Home Assistant. The bottom line was that buying a new one doesn’t pay off. But there’s more to it. Knowing how much it consumes per washing cycle I found an issue with the door microswitch which…
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How much electricity does 20y old dishwasher consume (Tuya Zigbee smart socket test)
Aliexpress Santa delivered a cheap (10€) Tuya smart socket (Zigbee version). I have several Aquara smart sockets (SP-EUC01) around the house that work really well in #homeassistant. But they cost 20-25€. I wanted to test the #Tuya smart socket this time. Not sure exactly which model it is, Aliex… markets it as “Homekit Tuya Smart…
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The water meter experiment failed successfully
This, my dears, this is how to fail spectacularly:I wanted to measure my home’s water consumption and track it in Home Assistant. I failed (for now). Read on to find out what happens if you buy all the correct components, follow the instructions but fail to check the type of the water meter first. I’ve…
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Sorry because of testing messages
Hi there! I’m trying to fix the #Activitypub plugin for #WordPress therefore you will probably see some random test messages. Sorry for that and please bear with me. I’d really like to make it work. There is a glitch somewhere in my home lab setup and I am still searching for the pattern. Sometimes the…