Just another tech blag
Smart Home / Home Automation using Home Assistant Primarily
Ever since I integrated per key LEDs in the NFC Deck, I have wanted to update the ESP Deck design to incorporate them (and update some of my keypads to include them too). I finally got around to both of these, swapping the switches for clear switches on one of my ESP Decks and integrating in the LED lighting.
Continue reading “ESPDeck 3 + LED Backlighting”On occasion, dealing with embedded hardware can be a bit of a pain. Flashing ESPs is a bit of guess and check from time to time. We’ll be flashing an ESP32 DevKit V2 today. We first need to install the drivers from here: CP210x USB to UART Bridge VCP Drivers – Silicon Labs (silabs.com)
With those installed, plug the USB connection for the controller into your PC (Close out of CURA too!), and from ESPHome web, connect to the COM port for the device. After that, hold down the boot button while selecting “Prepare for First Boot” in the ESPHome web interface, and keep holding it until you see the install begin running (getting the percentage complete, etc). Once that shows up, you can release the button and wait for it to finish flashing.
The NFC Decks that I design and build have rotary encoders onboard. I added them to eventually use in a whole home audio setup, and now that I have some squeezelite speakers to control, I finally have something to use that part of my design on. Let’s take a look at how to control media volume with the rotary encoders.
Continue reading “Controlling Media Volume with a Rotary Encoder from ESPHome”
I have played with the MAX7219 display a few times in the past but never had a solid project in mind for it. With my whole home audio project though, I realized I can use it for a cool little display showing what’s currently playing on the system. I’ll want a slightly larger display to use for a final project, but for now I can play with the automations and back end setup for such a display.
Continue reading “Displaying Currently Playing Music Info”
I’ve had a Bluetooth speaker in my drawer for a few years that is problematic. It doesn’t charge, or turn on consistently, and has other issues as well. Now that I have the ESP audio kit though, I have a need for a good speaker to plug into it. This speaker needing a new control board is just the right candidate for the procedure.
Continue reading “Cramming Smarts into a Bluetooth Speaker”
Since I found the ESP32 audio kit and it’s support for squeezelite, I decided to try making 2 small 3w speakers with it. One of them I’d use an existing speaker as the base and the second I’d custom build. This is my little custom built squeezelite speaker unit with its two built in 3w speakers.
Continue reading “Custom Squeezelite ESP32-A1S Speaker”
I finally came across a speaker setup that I could try out for relatively inexpensively, that also uses open source software, and can be used for multi-room audio. I found the ESP32 A1S audio kit that is supported by squeezelite-esp and has a simple web installer. On top of that, there are a decent number of forum posts using it and providing details on configuration. This gives me a potential holy grail, open source, locally based, multi-room audio speaker. The main problem I will end up having is putting something together with good audio quality, and appliance level ease of use and stability, but thats a future problem, for now, lets check out squeezelite on the ESP32 A1S.
Continue reading “Squeezebox ESP32 Multi-room Audio System”I hooked up my front door lock to my z-wave network recently and wanted to setup some automations around it. One of the automations was to be a notification from home assistant if the lock was unlocked for more than some time period, with two actions on it, one to immediately lock the door, and the other to do nothing.
Continue reading “Actionable Notifications with Home Assistant”I’ve been going down the route of researching and building out infrastructure for a home audio system, and the next stop on this is installing music assistant and checking out some of its features.
Continue reading “Installing Music Assistant on Home Assistant”HACS just released a new major version, with a large redesign using help from the Open Home Foundation. The install process for some major updates can have potential hiccups in it, however this one is very nice and easy to do. This is how I went about installing the update on my home assistant instance along with initial impressions of the new version.
Continue reading “Updating to HACS 2.0”