Sonos Door and Window Alerts from Home Assistant
01 November 2020 5 min read
Using Zigbee door and window sensors to trigger alerts in Home Assistant to our tablets, phones and Sonos smart speakers.
Home Automation
From prototype to production - home automation that actually works.
Kasa Smart Plug by TP-Link Power Consumption Mods
25 October 2020 4 min read
Modifying a Kasa Smart Plug by TP-Link Power to reduce its power consumption when being used to monitor a device's energy usage
Adding 10Gb Fibre to the home network
24 October 2020 9 min read
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
Amazon Echo Flex Teardown
28 March 2020 20 min read
Teardown of an Amazon Echo Flex smart plug which listens to your commands via the Alexa service and replies using a very tiny speaker
Amazon Echo Input Teardown
03 December 2019 7 min read
Teardown of the Amazon Echo Input and trying to extract the firmware
Echo Dot 3rd Gen Digging Deeper
10 August 2019 30 min read
Digging deeper into the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Generation smart speaker
Echo Dot 3rd Gen Smart speaker Teardown
21 July 2019 5 min read
Teardown of the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Generation Smart speaker
Solar Hot Water to 1-Wire Interface
30 May 2018 3 min read
Adding a 1-Wire Interface to our Solar Hot Water Controller to allow it to talk to our home server and data logger
Mosquitto MQTT and Home Assistant Data Logging
14 March 2018 4 min read
Using Mosquitto MQTT and Home Assistant Data to log sensor data for our home using different types of wired and wireless sensors
Gigabit Internet Gateway Network PC
16 December 2017 4 min read
Upgrade time for our home Linux server with a new low-power Gigabit Internet Gateway Network PC
tp-link LB130 Smart Wi-Fi LED Bulb Python Control
30 August 2017 12 min read
Controlling a TP-Link LB130 Smart Wi-Fi LED Bulb using Python on a Raspberry Pi.
Home Network Upgrade - 48 port switch
22 August 2017 3 min read
A big upgrade to our home network with a new 48 port switch and patch panel
Home Energy Solar Logger Update
06 September 2016 2 min read
More updates to our Home Energy Solar Logger
Gas Meter Hall Effect Sensor
13 January 2016 4 min read
Modifying a reed switch-based gas meter sensor to use a hall effect sensor to allow us to record gas usage
ESP8266 Mains Energy Monitor
01 January 2016 7 min read
Building a custom ESP8266-based Wi-Fi mains electric and gas monitoring system