new technologies, new ideas, a new kind of home
In my last entry (HERE), I put together a quick little VB app to read 432 MHz RF data captured through an RFLink Gateway. I called it Viduus, after the minor deity from Roman mythology that divided the body from the soul. This time, I’m hoping to make sense of the name as I split the strings returned by RFLink.
Continue reading “Project Viduus Part II – Changing Direction on RFLink”
RFlink is an amazing tool. It allows you to import data from RF devices into your home automation ecosystem. I purchased two different units from a seller on eBay (now retired), both targeting the 433 MHz range. RF Link also supports 315, 868, and 915 MHz, as well as 2.4 GHz with the required receivers. Further, RFLink is supported by a number of platforms, such as Domoticz, Jeedom, Pimatic, Domotiga, OpenHAB, and HoMIDoM.
Continue reading “Project Viduus Part I – Importing Data From RFLink”
Moneta is a slight diversion from the Mercury project. Just as the Mercury project is named for the messenger of the gods in Roman mythology, Project Moneta is named for the Roman goddess of memory. The project goal is to give a very simple introduction to saving data from VB to a SQL Server.
Continue reading “Project Moneta – How to Save Data in a Database from Visual Basic”
My last post on the Arlo Pro 2 camera system covered solar panels (panel entry HERE – original camera setup is HERE). After the install, I found that the batteries required recharging every 5 or 6 days. With one camera out of reach, that meant climbing a ladder while I try to pop the camera off its magnetic mount. The solution was to add solar panels. The Wasserstein brand cost 25% less than the Arlo brand, but, unfortunately, the performance was more like 50% less…
Continue reading “Re-Going Solar With Arlo Pro 2 and Arlo Solar Panels”
In last week’s Part I of Project Mercury, I covered reading MQTT messages in VB.Net using the MQTTnet Nuget package. There aren’t any VB examples for an MQTT client floating around, so I put together a quick and dirty illustration. I completed the next section on the following day, but was promptly sidetracked with a trip into the wonderful world of SQL – one of the future parts of the program will be saving data to a database, which significantly enhances the value of the data! In any case, here’s an example of how to publish MQTT messages from your VB.Net app!
Continue reading “Project Mercury Part II – Publishing MQTT Messages”
Our friend Kerry from The Smarter Home Club pokes a pin in the balloon of our most basic technological concept while sharing his troubleshooting process with RFLink and its problems relating to a grouchy anemometer….
MQTT is a wonderful tool for the smart home enthusiast. Many different products and applications support it, allowing you to tie a lot of different technologies together in one cohesive home automation system. It is even more useful when you’ve got devices that do not support MQTT directly but do allow programmatic access through an SDK or API, which allows you to put together a custom app that combines MQTT with that other product. An interesting challenge I’ve come across, though, is that while most of the examples for SDKs that I use are written in VB.Net and there are NO examples of using MQTT in VB.Net….
Continue reading “Project Mercury Part I – Subscribing to an MQTT Topic”
In my last post (HERE), I covered the super-easy install of the Arlo Pro 2 camera system. I walked you step-by-step through the ridiculously easy setup and then raved about the picture clarity and ease-of-use. The only trade-off I can see, in fact, is that you have limited battery life in exchange for a wire-free install. Yesterday, I had my first battery discharge after 5 days. I could live with that, charging batteries every 4 or 5 days, but I’d rather not.
A couple of weeks ago, Beaver, our jet black indoor-only house cat, made a break for it while the front door was open for unloading groceries. It was dark and we didn’t notice until the next day when she didn’t show up for food. I checked cloud storage on our Ring floodlight cameras and saw the shifty little beast sneaking around the front yard, but, around 2:30 am, she crept past my truck and out of view of any cameras.
William from ZemiSmart asked me to review a couple of his company’s products for The Smarter Home Club. Today, I want to tell you about the ZemiSmart Wi-Fi Door/Window Sensor. This sensor works with the Smart Life app, meaning it uses one of the popular Tula modules based on the ESP8266, which is very well loved in the smart home community. I have a LOT of pictures included in this entry, to help guide you through the initial setup, as well as to help illustrate one way to get a little extra functionality from it.