Home Automation – Page 2 – Inspect My Gadgets

Proxmox – migrate your Home Assistant VM to a new PC via a cluster

This post is a follow on to my previous post where I installed Home Assistant OS as a virtual machine under Proxmox. I did this on my development PC to see if Proxmox was for me before I moved the VM to my main home automation server. Now that I am happy with Proxmox running Home Assistant, it’s time to upgrade my main server to Proxmox and set up Home Assistant on it. While I could have just done a fresh installation like I did in my previous post very easily, I decided to test out Proxmox’s clustering options that allow the VM to be moved to another PC in the cluster. If this option interests you, read on.

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Home Assistant on Proxmox – next steps

In a previous post I detailed installing Proxmox on an old PC to use as Home Assistant server with Home Assistant’s Virtual Machine image. Today I will go over some changes and tweaks I have done since setting up my Proxmox server. Continue reading “Home Assistant on Proxmox – next steps”

Arlec PC191HA Smart Energy Meter Socket Review

Since Home Assistant introduced the energy dashboard, I have been playing about with the odd energy monitoring smart plug that I had in use and decided I needed to try a few more. I previously used TP-link sockets, but since this Alert I decided against using this brand again. When browsing the Bunnings website, I saw that they have a new range of cheap Tuya based Arlec Smart Plugs. Known as the Arlec Grid Connect Smart Plug-in socket with energy meter, this seems to be a smaller, upgraded version of a previous Arlec plug. At only $17.50 the price was too good to resist, so after stopping by a few stores, I eventually found one in stock, and proceeded to purchase it to try it out.

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Set up a Home Assistant VM on Proxmox

In a previous post a while back, I documented how I installed Home Assistant Supervised in Docker under Ubuntu. Since then, that method of install has become the not recommended way to install Home Assistant, as the Home Assistant team have stopped supporting that style of install. While I still run one system like that in a friend’s house, I decided it was time to change up the way my system was set up and have gone with Home Assistant in a VM under Proxmox. Continue reading “Set up a Home Assistant VM on Proxmox”

Connecting your Landline to Home Assistant for CallerID Notifications

When going through my box of old unused tech gear the other day I found a USB 56K modem that I purchased off eBay a few years back. I instantly thought maybe I can use this with Home Assistant. I checked out the Home Assistant websites integration page and sure enough you can. Below I outline what I did to get the modem up and running on my Home Assistant install that is running on Proxmox, along with an automation I used to announce the caller id feature that my landline provider supplies.

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Sonoff GK-200MP2-B Camera review

A mate recently asked me to set up a cheap IP camera for his new man cave. This is not his first IP camera, with him using a combination of a D-link Omna WiFi camera and two Xiaomi Dafang cameras with hacked firmware. All of these existing cameras connect to either Apple Homekit, Home Assistant, a Synology Surveillance station or a combination of both. The brief was he wanted something cheap that is simple to use with all his stuff. This was a good opportunity for us to buy and test out the new kid on the block, the Sonoff GK-200MP2-B. I will share my thoughts on it below drawing some comparisons to the other similar devices we have used before. Continue reading “Sonoff GK-200MP2-B Camera review”

IR beam break sensors with Tasmota and Home Assistant

I recently have been adding a few more features to my smart home seeing that I have some extra free time at home while my state is in lockdown. One thing I have always wanted was an IR beam break detector like you see in secure commercial yards. Traditionally these have been used via an alarm system and have been outrageously expensive. While browsing BangGood’s website one day I came across a set of IR beam break sensors on sale for around $10, so I knew I had to have them. Continue reading “IR beam break sensors with Tasmota and Home Assistant”

Flashing the H801 LED controller with Tasmota firmware

Another follow on to a few earlier posts today. I previously documented flashing my Arilux/Magic home LED controllers with Tasmota and also did a comparison review of the Arilux vs the H801 controller. Today’s post is a quick update on a few gotchas I found when flashing the H801 with Tasmota compared to my previous effort of flashing the Arilux/Magic Home device. Continue reading “Flashing the H801 LED controller with Tasmota firmware”

H801 vs Arilux/MagicHome LED Controller Review

So this post is kind of a follow on from my earlier post where I flashed my Magic Home Led controller with Tasmota firmware for use in Home Assistant. I wanted to create a few more LED strips and this time I chose a H801 controller from Banggood. Both the Magic Home and H801 controllers are similar ESP8266 based devices with a few key differences. Both have their pros and cons that I will try and demystify below while proving a review into their usability with Home Assistant. Continue reading “H801 vs Arilux/MagicHome LED Controller Review”

The Sonoff 433MHz RF bridge with Home Assistant

The sonoff RF bridge
If you have played with home automation for some time, you are probably aware of 433MHz devices. They are generally a device like a wall plug relay that is controlled by a small radio remote. While very cheap, their popularity has begun to wane in the past 8 or so years as more and more smart outlets hit the market. While these smart outlets are way better in terms of functionality and reliability, maybe you may have a bunch of 433MHz things lying around that you would prefer to put to a good use if you can do so cheaply. This is where this post comes in.
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