Author: David Williams - DEW IT

Integrating Google Home with Limitless LED Lights Part 2

David Williams - DEW IT Home Automation Central Coast , , , 0 Comment
home assistant configuration

Originally posted 2017-09-22 13:24:52. Home Automation This is Part 2 of our Home Automation article following on from Part 1 here. Home assistant allows you to use a URL as a command to trigger actions. This can be either on your home network or on the Internet. So the next step we need to follow is to get a Web command from a browser to trigger our Home Assistant and turn our lights on or off. This is more complicated than it sounds but paradoxically easier as well. A couple of things we need to bear in mind. First, to
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Using Xiaomi WiFi Switches with Google Home & Home Assistant

David Williams - DEW IT Home Automation Central Coast , 0 Comment
xiaomi wifi switches

Originally posted 2018-02-19 10:50:21. So after my experiences with the Yeelights and Google Home, I wanted to add a couple of WiFi switches to my system. I already had one of the Belkin Wemo switches but Belkin has abandoned the Australian Market now and their switches are no longer available. Not only that, even if they were available, the price was really steep at around $60-$70 Aussie. Looking around on eBay and also looking in the Home Assistant Community, I saw that some people were using the Xiaomi WiFi switches (pictured). What I didn’t realise initially is that there are
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How to setup HDMI ARC

David Williams - DEW IT Home Theatre Setup Gosford , , 0 Comment
Home Theatre Setup Kariong

Originally posted 2017-09-07 12:43:08. One of the awesome features of a Home Theatre setup or even just a modern TV equipped with HDMI is the ARC and CEC feature. First some definitions. HDMI : In addition to being the ‘name’ of the connecting cable used with modern AV and TV equipment stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface. There are numerous standards for HDMI – the latest standard is version 1.4 although there is a new version 2.1 that is higher speed. A lot of this is just marketing. A version 1.3 cable for instance as long as it is not longer
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Using a Raspberry Pi to control my Hottop Roaster with Artisan Software

David Williams - DEW IT Home Automation Central Coast , , 0 Comment
Hottop KN-8828B-2K+ Coffee Roasting in Kariong

Originally posted 2018-03-05 14:39:40. So this is my coffee roasting setup and has been for some time. I know it’s not elegant but it’s functional. You see my computer on the left and my coffee roaster on the right. I lashed out and purchased a Hottop KN-8828B-2K+ which has USB control. I have had this roaster almost since it was first released onto the market, probably late 2015. When I purchased it, there was no actual software available for it but in my research I came across the Open Source Artisan software and thought I would give that a try.
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BOM Radar and Oz Weather in Kodi (Media Player)

David Williams - DEW IT Home Theatre Setup Gosford , , 6 Comments
kodi runs on a raspberry pi

Originally posted 2018-02-15 11:44:33. This article will help you configure the BOM Radar and weather forecasting in Kodi and make the skin persistent. Read on and I’ll explain. As part of my Home Theatre systems, I use a device that runs the open source media player, Kodi. Kodi is the ‘new’ name for an open source program that started as the Xbox Media Centre (XBMC). Way back when I first started running this, there were a few ways to run it on a Raspberry Pi. There was a product called Openelec (still around I think) and a modified version of
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