A few weeks ago I needed to stock on smart power outlets for my lab. I ordered known WiFi-controlled outlets that have been known by me to contain esp8266, so that I could flash them with esphome. To my surprise, instead of a very well-known esp8266 module, they had some weird CB2S module from Tuya. […]
Category: hardware
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2 ways of fixing broken Aqara zigbee switches
Aqara switches are somewhat very common zigbee light switches. I moved to these a few years ago and they worked without an issue up until about now. And now, guess what: Mechanics failed. So I decided to document 2 different ways of fixing them in this very post.
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Making ezShare WiFi SD work seamlessly with OpenWRT, docker and other black magic
Basically an SD card with WiFi. At one time there were even Transcend cards with OpenWRT on them, but they ran out quickly and I didn’t manage to get my hands on any of them. They were replaced by cards with an obscure chip from some weird lzeal. I managed to find a little to […]
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Flashing Philips E14 Smart LED Bulbs with esphome
One day I needed to add an automated light near the stairs. Motion sensor was already in place, I only needed some bulbs I could turn on and off remotely and I was not feeling like doing any DIY that time. So I picked a few ZigBee bulbs with E14 socket. What could possibly go […]
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Optimizing ESP8266/ESPHOME for battery power (and making an ice bath thermometer as well)
It’s been a long while I wanted to check for how long can an esp8266 with esphome last on a battery supply. Yet I didn’t have a reason to get it done. Time to fix that and add yet another battery optimization manual for ESP8266 to the internets. And what’s the big reason? The story […]
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nRF24L01+: Manually calibrating the antenna with MySensors and … HomeAssistant
Perhaps the final post about the good old nRF24L01+ and the shady Chinese suppliers that tend to optimize all freakin’ bits and pieces. This time I will tell how to create a simple RF calibration station to verify the modules are properly operational and how to manually fix those that are not.
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nRF24L01+: Fixing the “magic finger” problem
This time I was spending the holidays as usual away from the city, further improving my smarthome. This time I was installing a bunch of devices with nRF24L01+ radios. When I was running out of spare nRF24L01+ modules, I noticed that I was left with a bunch of weird modules that kind of work, but […]
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Replacing Aqara Gateway: CC2531 & CC2538 for a homebrew Zigbee network
I decided to describe in detail a proper replacement for Xiaomi Aqara Zigbee Gateway. CC2531-based and CC2538-based to be precise and gather all the relevant stuff about flashing and preparing those in one place.
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Getting rid of telemarketing, Pt. 1
Frequent calls from telemarketers, spam and espionage – these are the main reasons I try to use the loyalty cards and other stuff, and if I have to – tend to have a long chat about how much I do NOT want to receive any calls/messages or ‘super special deals’. However, it doesn’t stop many […]
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3D-Printed molds for casting metal objects, first try
Creating metal objects is rather simple if you already have a cheap FDM 3d-printer. Just print it in PLA, put into gypsum, dry it, burn out the plastic, pour in the metal… PROFIT. Looks simple, right? Well, I decided to give it a try and here’s the very first sloppy result. More details about the […]