Sonoff Mini vs. Shelly1 – Tiny Smart Switch Battle

So you’ve got Hassio up and running.  You’ve probably got a few smart switches and lights, maybe some sensors and even presence detection.  Now the real magic in Home Automation is getting all those smart devices to work together to make your house feel alive.  With Home Assistant you can do that with automations or…

After the fantastic reception that my magnetic door locks video got, I got a lot of questions about doing a RFID Card Reader video. I did it. 🙂 Today we are going to use the arduino sketch esp-rfid. Go to the repository and download the Zip file. Open it up and find the bin folder….

I’ve had a lot of requests for a video about the Sonoff Touch light switch.  Of course I can’t just use it and do a review. I’ve gotta crack it open, flash it with Tasmota, and connect it to Home Assistant.  So that’s what I did.   The Sonoff Touch comes in a US or…

HA Forum for Broadlink Manager Download Broadlink Manager HA Docs for Broadlink IR Switches Welcome back to the World of Home Automation.  If you are a human with electricity, you probably have one of these.  This is the Broadlink RM Pro. And this, is his little brother, the Broadlink RM mini.  In the next few…

I play video games. I started with Atari and Intellivision and now it’s xbox and even a little Oculus VR. The games have become so good it is often hard to stop playing. If we don’t set limits it is easy for kids to spend too much time playing. But parents are busy, and aren’t…

As promised. Here’s how you can make even more custom LED effects for other Holidays.   This is the non-programmer’s way to decipher and change the arduino sketch. There are certainly other (and likely better) ways to do it, but this is what I learned and how I did it. If you find other ways…