Home Automation

Smart Home projects and automations

Amazon Echo Show 5 2nd Gen Smart Display Teardown

Tearing down an Amazon Echo Show 5, 2021 2nd generation smart speaker and display

30 November 2021 20 min read

As part of our ongoing quest to reduce our energy usage and carbon footprint, we have installed a compressive home energy logging system which uses various sensors to monitor our energy consumption, generation and environment data, which are collated in Home Assistant and also on our home logger

07 November 2021 7 min read

Adding a Zigbee Smart Thermostatic radiator valve to Home Assistant

Controlling our loft radiator with a Zigbee controlled thermostatic radiator valve and Home Assistant.

13 September 2021 6 min read

Adding Gas Meter Energy logging to Home Assistant

Adding new MQTT sensors to Home Assistant to log Gas meter usage data

03 September 2021 3 min read

Shelly EM Power Logging with Home Assistant

Adding Shelly EM power monitoring in the loft with Home Assistant

26 August 2021 11 min read

Mastervolt Soladin 600 Wi-Fi logging adapter with ESP32

Adding remote Wi-Fi data access to our Mastervolt Soladin 600 solar PV inverter using an Espressif ESP32-WROOM-32UE module

20 August 2021 9 min read

Washing Machine notifications via Home Assistant and Sonos Smart Speakers

Audio notifications for when the washing machine needs to be emptied via Home Assistant and Sonos speakers

15 August 2021 4 min read

Sonoff POW R2 Smart Switch power consumption mod

Modifying a Sonoff POWR2 Smart Switch with energy monitoring to reduce its power consumption when being used to monitor a device's energy usage

15 August 2021 6 min read

Home Data Logger Zigbee Sensor Upgrades

We have added several new Zigbee sensors to our smart home system which runs Home Assistant and the sensors talk to the home Linux server using Zigbee2mqtt

15 May 2021 6 min read

Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen Smart Speaker Teardown

Teardown time with an Amazon Echo Dot 4th generation smart speaker, find out how Alexa is listening to you

19 December 2020 9 min read

Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen Smart Speaker with Clock Teardown

Teardown time with an Amazon Echo Dot 3rd generation smart speaker with a built-in LED clock on the side

18 December 2020 6 min read

Sonos Door and Window Alerts from Home Assistant

Using Zigbee door and window sensors to trigger alerts in Home Assistant to our tablets, phones and Sonos smart speakers.

01 November 2020 5 min read

Kasa Smart Plug by TP-Link Power Consumption Mods

Modifying a Kasa Smart Plug by TP-Link Power to reduce its power consumption when being used to monitor a device's energy usage

25 October 2020 4 min read

Adding 10Gb Fibre to the home network

Everyone needs some fibre in their diet and we have added more to the home network using 10Gb Fibre to connect our computers and Synology network storage devices via a MikroTik CRS309-1G-8S+IN network switch

24 October 2020 9 min read