Sensory Overload – what does it cost to kit out a three bedroom home with sensors and switches on a budget.

The Smarthome Book

Ok so I have been running Xiaomi Aqara sensors (zigbee) for more than a year now and they have been brilliant. So much so that I’ve just bought another load. When this package arrived through the door, my girlfriend made her usual comment about me …

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Time for Bed MotherF*****s! Automate your bedtime routine with Node-Red & Home-Assistant

Bedtime Node-red flow

Today I want to run you through our bedroom routine using node-red and home-assistant. After reading this post you should be able to create your own routines quickly and easily. My girlfriend and I live together and like all couples we kind of have a …

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Broadlink Firmware update takes down Home-Assistant component. See my Node-red workaround!

Broadlink firmware update knocks out HA component

I’ve suddenly noticed that a recent firmware update from Broadlink has unfortunately caused issues with the broadlink component in home-assistant (hassio core). Whilst we’re waiting for the broadlink component to be updated, I’ve had to amend some of my flows in Node-red to take this …

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Changing your DNS provider to Cloudflare. Let’s see if we can improve our browsing experience.

Cloudflare

So I just thought I would see how quick our internet provider was and what I could do to make it quicker still: I ran 10 different tests which you can find how to do it here (I essentially spun up a ubuntu Virtual machine …

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Automating and integrating a Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum into Home-Assistant (part 1)

Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum

Recently we borrowed a Xiaomi Robot Vacuum as the owner was returning to his home country for a month or so due to Covid-19. We brought it into our home and began to set it up. It worked surprisingly well. I was sceptical to begin …

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How to remove all the unnecessary Bloatware and unwanted junk that comes with a fresh Windows 10 installation using Debloater.

Windows 10 Clean Installation

I recently had to set up a couple of new windows 10 machines for the family, and thought I would share with you a quick and easy way to essentially remove all the rubbish and clutter than microsoft likes to package in with the worlds …

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