Connecting your Landline to Home Assistant for CallerID Notifications

home assistant landline phoneWhen 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

sonoff camera unboxed

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

ir beam break sensor

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”

Converting a Cisco Aironet AP to Standalone Autonomous Mode

cisco ap
My day job see me working for a few large corporations who generally love Cisco network gear. On the odd occasion I have been asked to swap out a Cisco Aironet 2600 WiFi access point. These solid looking devices are very common around corporate offices and shopping centres etc. In these applications the devices run a lightweight firmware that is all controlled centrally by the Cisco wireless LAN controller, so these devices are useless by themselves unless you upgrade the device to Cisco’s autonomous firmware. Continue reading “Converting a Cisco Aironet AP to Standalone Autonomous Mode”

Flashing the H801 LED controller with Tasmota firmware

h801 controllerAnother 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

h801 vs Magichome LED Controller

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”

Adding Cruise Control to a Fiat 500

Fiat 500 cruise control stalk

I recently purchased a Fiat 500 as a run about car. Being a 2014 model it has most of the modern conveniences that you would want on it with the exception of cruise control. Oddly, at least for the Australian market, cruise control was not even an option you could order from Fiat. This is strange as in modern cars with electronic throttles adding cruise control can be as simple as adding the switch and enabling the option in the cars’ computer. Manufacturers love this as it’s a $20 part that you can retail for $700. Continue reading “Adding Cruise Control to a Fiat 500”

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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