Edit: The project is now available for sale in my shop, you can grab one here: The WiFi SSR board project changed a bit and I use classical relays instead of SSRs now. The reason is that SSRs tend to…
WiFi Thermostat with weekly scheduler
IoT tech talk recording
Thanks to all that participated in the IoT tech talk session that was held late yesterday, as promised I am adding a recording of the session It was suggested that the topic of the next hangout will be the ESP8266,…
WiFi IoT 3 channel relay board with MQTT and HTTP API using ESP8266
The ESP8266 DHT22/LED blinker project grew into an M2M relay board project with the following features in mind: Relatively small (10x5cm) PCB Powered via the onboard power supply or externally via a micro-USB plug Has three 2A Sharp Solid State…
MQTT topic tree structure improvements
I’ve been unhappy with my old MQTT topic tree structure for quite some time now and did some thinking/research on how to improve it. Google pointed me to Tinkerman’s article on a similar subject, and I started planning on improvements. I will repeat…
Monitoring my home automation system uptime
I’ve set up a uptime monitor for my home automation system so that I’m notified when it is down. Such event could mean two things: either Internet connectivity issue, or system is down due to power failure, crash etc. The service…
Duck DNS updater in Node-RED
Dyn and No-IP have been for long time my choice for dynamic DNS, but both have recently made steps towards commercializing their services and implementing monthly confirmation process. I think it is time for me to move away and look for…
Improving my home automation system’s Data Quality
Data Quality is one of the areas I have been neglecting in my home automation system so far. As a result, I seem to be capturing some ‘garbage’ data along with the good quality data. Bad data can affect downstream…
DIY Internet of Things Fire Alarm
I purchased a battery operated smoke/fire alarm few days ago and it showed up today. It runs on 9V and will make a loud sound if smoke is detected. My intention was to hook it up with my home automation system…
Interfacing with Paradox home security system attempt 2
I toyed a bit with the Paradox security protocol last year, tapping into the keypad’s interface in an attempt to decode the messages being exchanged between the base station and the keypads. I had some success: I was able to…
You watch too much TV
I have the feeling that my teenager son spends too much time in front of the TV. We have a house rule that he is allowed to watch TV only after all homework is done, room is tidied up and for no…
Presence detection using phone’s WiFi and Node-RED
Nathan tweeted a cool idea couple months ago, use static IP lease for your phone, ping it every minute to see if it responds, and if the ping times out that most probably means that the phone and his owner…
NodeRED RFM2Pi to emonCMS gateway
I created a Node-RED RFM2Pi gateway few weeks ago, have it running nicely since then. I decided to use that approach instead of a python script, since it is very flexible, visual and easy to extend. Prior to Node-RED I used the…
Detecting AC
I sometimes have home automation projects that require detecting AC voltage (on/off only), previously have experimented with non-contact AC detection. Here is another approach that may be more suitable for low-power AC detection node: using a NE2 neon lamp and…
Voice controlling things with a smartphone and Raspberry Pi
I am not a big fan of voice control, but this particular project turned out quite practical. What I wanted to achieve is to pick up my phone, speak out a command and so control connected things like my TV, heat…
My dog as smart wireless DVR sensor
I live in a small village ~25km from Sofia, Bulgaria and commute daily to the city. My house’s alarm system would occasionally ring me and I would rush back home to see if all is fine, that can be pretty…