Category: Home Automation
Smart Lock – First impressions of the Aqara A100
After removing my old Kaadas K8 smart door lock after 4 years, I decided to try a different brand and model – in this case an Aqara A100. This post provides an overview of the installation process itself, integration into Home Assistant and the performance of the lock so far.
Working from Home – Migrate to Docker
I recently refreshed my work laptop and in that process moved away from Windows 10 onto a MacBook Pro. I am still using Microsoft Teams every day but the application PresenceLight that I installed 2 1⁄2 years ago to share my availability with Home Assistant does not work on macOS. The good news is that […]
Smart Lock – Kaadas K8 Post Mortem
Four years ago I bought a Kaadas K8 smart lock and now I am replacing it with one from a different manufacturer. The following review is based on my own experience with the lock and somewhat anecdotal, and I hope it helps others when going on the journey to find and assess a suitable smart […]
Gleaming Greenhouse Guide
I have recently found myself building a small indoor greenhouse as a prototype for a bigger one in the future. I am not a gardening expert myself, but I couldn’t resist in using some smart home technologies in this in-house commissioned project.
Subfloor Ventilation Made Easy
A subfloor ventilation system is probably something that most people get installed, configured and then forget about. And in many cases that might be fine, but if you had the opportunity, wouldn’t it be better to take more control over such a system? I decided to do exactly that and control the ventilation system based […]
Smarter Swimming Pool 6: Chlorinator
My old pool chlorinator motor broke and instead of forking out another $600 on an overpriced pool accessory I decided to fix it using a new reduction gear motor, connect it to an ESP and control dosing liquid chlorine via Home Assistant.
Yet Another Vindriktning Modification Tale
IKEA is selling their air quality sensor VINDRIKTNING for some time now and it finally arrived here in Australia. I bought my own device a couple of months ago with the plan to modify and integrate it into Home Assistant. Some clever people have already done all the heavy lifting and there is a thread […]
Breathe better with this Indoor Air Quality Sensor
Still holding your breath after building your outside air quality sensor? Well, here comes the sequel where you are going to learn how to build a really simple but powerful indoor air quality sensor and how to process and present the sensor readings in Home Assistant.
Winter is coming – Local Control for Smart Panel Heater
Two winters ago in 2019 I bought an Arlec smart panel heater from Bunnings and finally took some time to integrate it into Home Assistant. Luckily it was old enough so that tuya convert worked without any problems. Initially I thought the heater would have the usual ESP-MCU combination built in, so I tried going […]
