How to – Page 8 – Systems Lab

March 31, 2022October 22, 2024

Novelkeys Novelty Big Switch Macro Pad

After putting together the EspDeck 9 key pad, and talking to the wife of other places we could make things better, the bedroom fan and lights came up. I mentioned that we could use smart switches for them and make a small 2 key control for our night stands, which she was super excited about, and then I showed her the NovelKeys big switches and it was sold, we were going to have some hilarious macro pads to control our bedroom lights.

March 28, 2022February 7, 2022

Automated Pantry Light

I have a light in my pantry that isn’t super obvious when its on if the door is closed, and I may leave the light on from time to time by accident. The light switch is also partially buried in things hanging from the wall, so why not automate it to make things a bit easier, that is what smart homes are for. My idea is to use a smart door sensor and light switch to automate it and keep things from being left on.

Goal

Turn on the pantry lights while the door is open
Close the pantry lights when the door is closed
Allow lights to be turned on with the door closed

March 21, 2022February 7, 2022

WLED Notice of Laser Cutter Use

I have a laser cutter in my office that I use from time to time. I close the door when its running because you need safety glasses on while its running, but since I use my office for other things, the door closed doesn’t necessarily mean safety glasses are needed. To make this simpler, I decided to try and make some automations to notify when the laser is running. I want to use a WLED strip around the door and light it different colors based on laser operating status (and other statuses in the future).

Goals

Set the WLED strip to red when the laser starts cutting
Set the WLED strip to the previous settings (or turn it off) when the laser stops cutting

March 14, 2022February 11, 2022

Upgrading Proxmox Debian from 6.4 to 7

I was running upgrades one day and noticed in Proxmox that there was an error about being on an unsupported version. I hadn’t upgraded major versions since I setup the system, so now was the time to upgrade.

March 7, 2022February 21, 2022

Creating Icons for Relegendable Keycaps

After picking up some relegendable keycaps for my EspDeck, I needed to start creating some icons to print it and use in them. I’m not the most proficient with image editing tools, so here’s what I did to get some made.

February 28, 2022November 2, 2023

EspDeck Automations

Now that I have two EspDecks in my house, its time to start adding some automations. These are just going to be suggestions that people can make use of, ideas on what to use them for. There won’t be much text here, just the automation configurations and what they do.

February 14, 2022July 23, 2022

MDNS Across Unifi VLANs

I started working on some hardware projects related to home assistant using the ESP8266. in working on these I learned that the ESP devices use mDNS to advertise their hostnames for communicating with them. My devices however are on a separate VLAN that’s unable to communicate with the internet, and that VLAN was also blocking the mDNS updates from making it through to home assistant, keeping it from being able to know the hostnames. I could use static IPs for this, however I want to avoid locking all my little smart devices to static IPs.

February 7, 2022November 2, 2023

EspDeck Generation 2

When I started into the EspDeck project, I had enough parts on hand to build two units. I had two sampler packs of switches and two ESP8266 boards to use. So once I had the gen1 unit built, I started working on generation 2 of the EspDeck. Gen2 has a well designed case that holds the board in place, allows easier plugging in of USB, and a cleaner wiring design.

January 29, 2022November 2, 2023

EspDeck: Home Assistant Macro Pad

After seeing some posts with EspHome and Zigbee keypads, I realized I wanted to make one too. I wanted the ability to easily trigger more complex actions in home assistant that I don’t have an easy way to fully automate. I decided to make the EspDeck project to provide construction and technical details on building one of these macro pads. EspDeck provides a 9 key macro pad supporting single, double, and hold click actions on every key and can be integrated with home assistant easily through the ESPHome integration or add-on.

January 10, 2022October 17, 2021

Server Rack Repair

I noticed a bit of damage on my server rack recently. The top of it is starting to crack around two of the screws. This isn’t good as it undermines the integrity of the rack and could cause problems in the future, and so I had to fix it. The lid was crushed downwards, likely due from a heavy object sitting on it (more than likely my NAS sitting on it at some point in time).