Posts in DIY

What are the Best Platforms for DIY IoT and Smart Devices?

Posted on 24th Jul 2020 21:48:51 in DIY, IoT, Smart

If you like to do things your self, it's possible you've thought of creating a smart or Internet of Things (IoT) device that responds to your specific needs. While there exist many commercial options that have come down in cost significantly in the last few years, there are cases where none of these will work well enough for what you need. Sometimes you might also just want to have some fun and build the solution your self, after all, that's what DIY is all about. Find out what IoT platforms are available and which one is best.

ESP8266 with an Arduino clone

Getting Started with DIY Smart Home Tech for Cheap

Posted on 22nd Jul 2020 18:14:32 in DIY, Home Assistant, IoT, Smart

Smart homes are becoming more and more popular and with the "Internet of Things" (IoT) quickly gaining traction you might be wondering how you can get a piece of this futuristic pie. One of the common problems when starting a smart home is that there are so many different options that it can be overwhelming to know which one you should choose. Today we're going to cover an excellent choice when it comes to DIY smart home technology - one that is free, open to many completely different vendors, and easy to let your imagination run wild with. Learn how to use Home Assistant to get started on your smart home adventure...

Raspberry Pi which can be the brain of your home for cheap

How To Use Meross Smart Devices As Cheap Offline IoT

Posted on 20th Jul 2020 03:47:32 in DIY, Home Assistant, IoT, Smart, Tutorial

When it comes to smart devices, Meross has been my choice for multiple projects due to their excellent construction and very competitive prices. The biggest problem with these devices, as with many other readily available smart devices is that any commands you send will go over the internet, to some remote server, only to come back to your local network. Find out how I got these readily available devices to work without any internet connection using Home Assistant...

A Meross Lamp

How to Remember your Plant's Water with an ESP8266

Posted on 12th Jul 2020 01:10:31 in DIY, IoT, Smart

One of the things I have never been truly good at is remembering to do specific tasks that should ideally be done on a frequent basis. I recently received a plant as a gift and although it says it requires little attention I know that despite my best effort I will forget to water it regularly which will result in a sad plant. Luckily there is technology all around that can help me with this task. Here I use an ESP8622 to measure the humidity in the soil, allowing my Home Assistant instance to notify me when it drops below a certain amount. I first started by gathering the necessary materials...

How to Remember your Plant's Water

Arduino DMX to RGBW LED with MAX485

Posted on 18th Apr 2018 16:11:44 in DIY, General

So here's a fun one: you have a DMX console and an entire system that runs using it. You just bought an awesome set of LED strips for super cheap from Amazon and of course, you want to use them in sync with the rest of the system. You could, of course, buy a DMX decoder but I wasn't able to find any decent ones for what I wanted...

Schematic