DIY Smart Home Cabinet Lighting

DIY Smart Home Cabinet Lighting

My wife and I were looking to add some additional lighting to our kitchen. There are several companies making lighting solutions for underneath cabinets, but many are expensive and have limited functionality. We decided to create some DIY Smart Home Cabinet Lighting to add additional light that looks great and matches our lifestyle.

The lighting adds additional task lighting when working by the cabinets and automatically adjusts the color temperature depending on the time of day. It uses an RGBW controller to create any color you want, so you can have more “festive” lighting during parties as well.

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Home Assistant Z-Wave Tips and Trick

Home Assistant Z-Wave Tips and Tricks

Z-Wave is a wireless communications protocol used primarily for Home Automation. It can be a bit harder to work with compared to some other protocols we see daily like WiFi and Bluetooth. Ever since I got my USB Z-Wave gateway and first dimmer switch, I’ve been interested in Z-Wave and see the benefits of a completely local mesh network for Home Automation communication. I’ve assembled a few tips and tricks that can help improve your Z-Wave experience using Home Assistant.

Some of these will work with other Home Automation platforms, but these are what I use for Home Assistant.

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Zooz ZSE29 Outdoor Motion Sensor

Zooz ZSE29 Z-Wave Outdoor Motion Sensor Review

I recently wanted to overhaul my outdoor lighting. I wanted for all my outdoor lighting to be dimmed around dusk, so that my house was accented but not be too bright. But if any motion happened around the house, I wanted all the lights to go full brightness for some added security. Last week I reviewed the ZEN22 dimmer switch that can control lighting. This week I’ve got the Zooz ZSE29 Z-Wave Outdoor Motion Sensor to sense when motion occurs around my property.

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Zooz ZEN22 Z-Wave Dimmer Switch

Zooz ZEN22 Z-Wave Dimmer Switch Review

If you’re just getting into smart home tech, lighting is a great place to get your feet wet. If you’re looking to start investing in Z-Wave for your lighting setup, the Zooz ZEN22 Z-Wave Dimmer Switch could be your answer. I replaced a switch in my garage to the ZEN22 to automate my outdoor lighting at night. In today’s review, I look at the features of the switch, installation process, and integration with Home Assistant. The ZEN22 switch is available at Amazon and The Smartest House.

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DIY WiFi Sprinkler Controller Software

DIY WiFi Sprinkler Controller using ESP8266 (Part 2)

Welcome to part 2 of my series on my DIY WiFi Sprinkler Controller using ESP8266. Last week I wrote an article on the hardware involved in the project, definitely check it out if you haven’t already. It goes in depth to all the components used. Today’s article will be looking closer at the software of the system. Including the firmware running on the device and the Home Assistant integration.

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DIY WiFi Sprinkler Controller

DIY WiFi Sprinkler Controller using ESP8266 (Part 1)

Thinking about getting a smart sprinkler controller for your house? Want completely local control using no cloud services? Today’s article walks through the hardware I used to create my own DIY WiFi sprinkler controller using an ESP8266. I’ll be going over the software portion in part 2 of the series. The goals of the project are:

  • Control my sprinkler system in an automated fashion, but still turn on individual zones manually when needed
  • No reliance on the cloud, should work over local network
  • Be extendable to any number of zones relatively easy
  • Keep the controller simple, keep the scheduling logic on the home automation platform
  • Inexpensive to build, but must be reliable

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