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ESP8266 MP3 Sound Machine v2

January 27, 2020

Last summer, I made an ESP8266 MP3 Sound Machine using ESPHome to play calming sounds when my son goes to sleep. I used ESPHome to develop the firmware so it could communicate with my Home Automation platform, Home Assistant. Well, requirements change and projects need updating. So over the holidays, I created a v2.0 of … [Read more…]

Use Tuya-Convert to Free Devices From the Cloud

December 20, 2019

Have you seen cheap smart plugs on Amazon like these and wondering if you can use them with Home Assistant? Don’t want to rely on some cloud service to toggle your outlets? Well if the answer is yes to these questions you’re in luck, Tuya-Convert to the rescue! In today’s article, I’m walking through a … [Read more…]

ESP8266 MP3 Sound Machine

July 24, 2019

My 6-month old started sleeping a lot better through the night when we started to play a “shhing” YouTube video. You might think that is crazy, but the results speak for themselves (at least so far). We started off by using an old Android phone plugged in overnight just playing the video. This got to … [Read more…]

DIY WiFi Sprinkler Controller using ESP8266 (Part 2)

May 14, 2019

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 using ESP8266 (Part 1)

May 13, 2019May 7, 2019

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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Automating a Multi-Speed Ceiling Fan with Home Assistant

April 16, 2019April 16, 2019

The office in my house just doesn’t cool down as fast as the rest of the house. It’s far away from its thermostat and doesn’t get good circulation. Wouldn’t it be great if you could automatically start to cool it down when it reached a certain temperature? Even better, shouldn’t it start at a low speed and ramp up as the room got hotter and hotter. Today’s article will be looking at automating a multi-speed smart fan to automatically cool a room using Home Assistant.

If you’re looking at hooking up your ceiling fan to Home Assistant in the first place, check out my article on Convert Your Pull-Chain Ceiling Fan to Z-Wave using the GE Z-Wave Smart Fan Controller. If you don’t already have real-time temperature data for the room you want to cool down, this article starts with a mini-tutorial on how to create a cheap WiFi temperature sensor using an ESP8266 NodeMCU, a DHT22 sensor, and esphome.

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