I managed to get MDNS working earlier this year to enable my ESPHome projects to avoid having all static IP addresses and let home assistant auto-detect them. However… after some firewall tweaking recently, it all broke. So it was time again to figure out how to get MDNS to work in the Unifi system.
Continue reading “Fixing the Unifi MDNS Repeater”Enabling Quick Sync For Plex on Unraid
Quick sync is a great way to handle hardware transcoding in plex, and also comes on most intel CPUs, so using it becomes more a why wouldn’t you question. In my plex installation, I hadn’t even realized that I was leaving this performance on the table, so here’s how I enabled it and got it to run.
Continue reading “Enabling Quick Sync For Plex on Unraid”Catia V5 Shortcut Keys
I’ve had an 8 key macro pad on my desk for a while now and haven’t been making very good use of it. Since I’ve been doing a bit more CAD work, why not setup some macros for CATIA.
Continue reading “Catia V5 Shortcut Keys”Renaming ESP Devices in ESPHome
I recently started trying out the ESPHome Add-On in home assistant. With this, I was able to add and upgrade some ESP devices, however I soon realized after adding one of them, that the auto-generated name may not be wanted (or if you’re moving a device around and want a new name). So I did some research and worked out the process for renaming the device in ESPHome.
Continue reading “Renaming ESP Devices in ESPHome”Using Z-Wave Groups vs Home Assistant Automations
I installed two Z-wave switches into my house that i wanted to be synchronized, turn on one light switch, have the other turn on too, and vice versa. I first created a home assistant automation that worked using Z-Wave JS to MQTT, this worked but had a lag of a few seconds. I was hoping to find a way to have less latency to make everything work, so in comes Z-Wave Group Associations.
Continue reading “Using Z-Wave Groups vs Home Assistant Automations”Joplin Failed to Fetch Due to Certificate Expiration
Recently I ran into an error when trying to update Joplin (hooked up to WebDAV on NextCloud).
Last error: FetchError: request to https://nextcloud.rapternet.us/remote.php/dav/files/sbachhub/Documents/Joplin/info.json failed, reason: certificate has expired
I checked the SSL cert with FireFox and everything looked good there. Finally I decided to try updating the application, on a wild attempt to fix it in a simple way, and… it worked. It might have just needed a reboot, but the update worked in this case.
Enabling the Home Assistant API
The home assistant API can be used to build external tools to manipulate information in home assistant and control elements in it. This can be useful for triggering automations with custom code. It can even be triggered using curl on linux, allowing for simple scripts executing home assistant actions.
Continue reading “Enabling the Home Assistant API”Home Assistant Automated Christmas Lights
I have a number of windows with Christmas lights in them. I would like to use smart plugs and home assistant to automate them turning on and off during the winter season since I’m pretty lazy when it comes to decorating. This should be pretty straight forward to do once we have the current month sensor setup in home assistant to use as a condition.
Continue reading “Home Assistant Automated Christmas Lights”Motion Sensing Lights with Home Assistant
I’ve already setup some fairy lights on the stairs which come on just before sundown and stay on until bedtime, but I started wondering, can I use them as night lights on the stairs for when I don’t want to turn on the main overheads, and can I do that all with motion sensors. For this project, I’d like to take my lights from here and add motion sensors so they turn on for some time period after being triggered and act as automated stairway night lights.
Continue reading “Motion Sensing Lights with Home Assistant”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.
Continue reading “Novelkeys Novelty Big Switch Macro Pad”