The Best Way To Install Home Assistant

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The Best Way To Install Home Assistant

Home Assistant

I’ve been using Home Assistant for years. In my opinion it is the best platform for home automation. My hardware of choice was a Raspberry Pi hooked to ethernet.

No more.

Not because it doesn’t work but because I found an easier and more reliable way to install and maintain it.

Believe me when I say I am not knocking you if you are using a Pi, or a laptop, or a mini computer or some other hardware. My installations served me well for years.

Until something went wrong. Then I would have to erase the SD card in my Pi, and then reinstall Home Assistant. Additionally, I would have to restore a backup. All that took time. Like “drink a cup or two of coffee” time.

What if I told you there was a better way? Read on.

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CachyOS – Good For A Daily Driver?

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CachyOS – Good For A Daily Driver?

CachyOS

I love Linux. I cut my teeth on Red Hat 4 around 2005 or so. It was so large I had to buy a box set from the Exchange in Okinawa Japan. Since that time I have tried a metric ton of distros over the years. Today I’ll focus on CachyOS.

CachyOS is based on Arch Linux which is something I dabbled with years ago. Arch was tough to get going but I managed.

I drifted towards a distro called ArchBang which was cool. But as my Linux journey evolved I found that while Arch was cutting edge it didn’t support some of the programs that I wanted to use.

So I drifted away from Arch and landed smack dab in Ubuntu and Debian based distributions. One of my favorite websites to check in on Linux is distrowatch.com. For quite a while now I have seen that LinuxMint was toppled as the number one page hit ranking distro by none other than CachyOS.

So what’s a geek to do? Why download and install it of course.

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Leica M8 – Tethering – Is It Possible?

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Leica M8 – Tethering – Is It Possible?

Right after the Leica M8 was released in 2006 I bought one. Even back then I was dabbling with tethering cameras to a computer and the advantages of that process. Leica M8 tethering just wasn’t as problem free as I thought it would be.

Back then Windows XP was the operating system of choice for most. Leica had a hunk of software called Digital Capture but kind of sort of abandoned it quickly.

In the camera tethering world usually someone else picks up the slack. Not in this case. Capture One doesn’t support it and neither does Adobe Lightroom. Open source software such as Darktable or Entangle don’t get the job done either.

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Casio GG-1000 – Calibrate Watch Hands After Battery Change

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Casio GG-1000 – Calibrate Watch Hands After Battery Change

Casio GG-1000

I own a Casio G-Shock GG-1000 Mudmaster and dug it out yesterday only to find out the battery was dead. I just so happened to have a couple of 395 batteries and opened up the case to change them.

That went well and I put the Mudmaster back together. When I went to set the time that also went well, however, the procedure is to set the time digitally and when you are done the analog hands move into place to reflect the right time.

If they don’t then you need to calibrate the watch hands by using something called H-Set.

That will put the second hand, the hour hand, and the minute hand pointing straight up to 12 o’clock.

Only mine didn’t do that. The hour hand on mine went to 6 o’clock while the other two hands did what they were supposed to do.

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TOOCAA NOVA Smart Home Laser Engraver Review

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TOOCAA NOVA Smart Home Laser Engraver Review

I’ve reviewed quite a few laser engravers on this blog. Recently, TOOCAA reached out to me and asked me to review their new TOOCAA NOVA Smart Home Laser Engraver.

Two years ago I reviewed the TOOCAA L2 Laser Engraver for them. That review can be found here.

I found that to be a good machine and I passed it along to a good friend of mine who uses it to this day. To sum it up, I have had good experiences with TOOCAA. Also, it needs to be stated that they provided me the TOOCAA NOVA to review and have in no way attempted to influence any kind of editorial control at all. What you read here will reflect my thoughts and my thoughts alone.

I was specifically sent the 20 Watt Creator Bundle ($1164.90). Additional modules can be purchased to include a 2 Watt IR module.

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Install Syncthing On QNAP TS-433

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Install Syncthing On QNAP TS-433

Well, this was harder than it should have been. Syncthing is quite likely the best synchronization software out there. At least I think so. Some years ago I kind of got tired of building up NAS devices and bought a QNAP TS-433 four bay NAS. This device uses an OS called QNAP Turbo System (QTS).

And I was kind of shocked to find out that Syncthing was NOT available in the QNAP App Center. What to do, what to do?

All is not lost. Read on.

It turns out that you can install Syncthing in a Container on QTS. I’ll demonstrate how to do this here. Hopefully, this will be beneficial to someone out there.

In retrospect I wish I had just built up another NAS and slapped TrueNAS on it.

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BlindsMagic – The Ultimate In Smart Blinds Window Treatments

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BlindsMagic – The Ultimate In Smart Blinds Window Treatments

Over the years I have documented a lot of smart home devices. Some of the most useful, in my opinion, are smart window treatments. And I have reviewed smart blinds from a few manufacturers. Recently a company named BlindsMagic reached out to me and asked me to review their BlindsMagic Smart Blinds which I happily agreed to.

Let me provide a quick statement of how much I love these things. I live in a pretty large two story house. Each story has its own HVAC system however, my upstairs system simply wasn’t keeping up during the hottest days of summer. Every upstairs room is surrounded by attics accessible by a small door in each closet. The closets get HOT which then transfer heat into the rooms. When it gets over 90 degrees outside my air conditioner stops keeping up and the temps gradually increase upstairs. Sometimes my smart thermostats will even tell me there must be a problem.

Fortunately, (or unfortunately) we had a tree fall on the house which got us a new roof. The new roof included some attic vent fans. Additionally, I installed a smart exhaust fan in one attic compartment. The air conditioner does a much better job now but the temps can still rise albeit slightly on super hot days.

Enter Smart Blinds.

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Heltec V4 Meshtastic Review

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Heltec V4 Meshtastic Review

Heltec V4 Meshtastic

I’ve recently rediscovered Meshtastic and have built up several nodes in the past week. It’s not that I need more of them, I just enjoy testing the various boards. In this entry we’ll be looking at the Heltec V4 Meshtastic LoRa 32 board. In my opinion this is one of the better boards for installing in a solar fixture.

It seems like the latest crop of Meshtastic boards are designed to integrate easily into solar fixtures. The Heltec V4 is no exception. It comes with everything you need for a solar installation.

  • Heltec V4
  • 2 cables with JST terminations. One for solar, one for lithium battery.
  • Antenna
  • Pin Headers

The Heltec V3 and V4 are nearly identical however the V4 has higher transmit power.

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Meshtastic Heltec T096 – Best Solar Build

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Meshtastic Heltec T096 – Best Solar Build

Meshtastic Heltec T096

I’ve recently gotten back into Meshtastic and built a couple of solar nodes. For my second node I used the Heltec T096 Mesh Node.

In my opinion this is the EASIEST solar node build that is out there. There is no shortage of solar node projects out there on the interwebs. Most of them are based around the Harbor Breeze solar lights ($9.98).

My key considerations for choosing the Heltec T096 are simple. The board includes a Battery Management System (BMS) and the only hookups are to the battery and to the solar panel. In the Heltec T096 packaging there are 2 power cables with the correct sized JST connectors for the board. Solder one across the battery terminals and solder the other to the solar panel. That’s it.

Here is what Heltec says about their BMS – “Integrated lithium battery management system (charge/discharge management, overcharge protection, battery power detection, automatic switching between USB and battery power).”

The board also incorporates Bluetooth, LoRa, and GNSS. It is based on the nRF52840 and the SX1262 LoRa transceiver. The GNSS chipset is a Unicore UC6580.

The best part of this board is that the nRF52840 sips power making it perfect for a battery powered installation. The antenna I used is this one.

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Cigman CM-S05 12 Line Laser Level Review

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Cigman CM-S05 12 Line Laser Level Review

I recently was contacted by Cigman to review their 16 Line Laser Level (CM-S04). Following that review they asked me to test and review their new Cigman CM-S05.

The principal difference between the two are the number of projected line and the fact that the CM-S05 can be gesture controlled. Conversely, that means once it is setup it doesn’t require touching to operate.

The line lights can be dimmed and turned on or off just by using hand gestures. Also, this keeps the CM-S05 from being touched by dirty or greasy hands and touching the machine to push a button could shake or move your alignment slightly.

My video below demonstrates the function of the gesture controls. Additionally, I show the components of the CM-S05 kit.

This is an interesting development in the world of laser levels.

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