Home Automation Central Coast

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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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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Home Assistant and Google Actions

David Williams - DEW IT Home Automation Central Coast , , 0 Comment
google home mini

Originally posted 2017-10-31 13:40:06. So I just got another Google Home – but this one is a Google Home Mini. I got this one for my office so I can listen to background music easily without blasting music everywhere at home. I’m also planning on getting a mini for our bedroom to listen to music with the new sleep timer that was recently introduced. However, the purpose of this post is to speak about the Google Actions Integration with Home Assistant. You will remember from my previous blog posts about controlling my Limitless LED lights with Google Home that I
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Sonoff Switches with Tasmota and new MQTT Addon Home Assistant

David Williams - DEW IT Home Automation Central Coast , , , 0 Comment
sonoff s22 switch mqtt firmware

Originally posted 2018-11-14 12:41:45. I know I have done a few articles now about Sonoff switches and MQTT in Home Assistant. However a lot has changed – also my understanding has changed and so it’s time for another post about this. I’m also going to take a crack at making a video showing how to flash a sonoff switch with Tasmota. For reference, my previous posts can be found here: Home Assistant Updates May 2018 and Sonoff-Tasmota update How to use a Sonoff Switch with Home Assistant So lets look at the changes in MQTT introduced with the new MQTT
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Setting Home Assistant up for Secure access over the Internet

David Williams - DEW IT Home Automation Central Coast , , , 4 Comments
home assistant configuration

Originally posted 2018-06-05 15:35:04. Lets have a conversation about security when your Home Assistant is opened up so you can access it over the Internet. If you take a look over on the Home Assistant Community forums here there are threads about user’s home assistant instances being hacked with ‘friendly’ hackers who have just changed a few things and left some warnings about their insecure home assistant setups. Traditionally or ‘normally’ external access to your system over the internet means that you would open up some ports on your router so that you can connect over the internet. This would
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