Home Assistant project

A few years ago I built a Home Assistant server to capture information from my various temperature sensors and my Emporia Energy Monitors. I added a longer range 433 radio to capture all the Lacrosse & Acurite sensors and a longer range Bluetooth radio to capture a bunch of cheap Bluetooth indoor LCD temp sensors.

Late last year I decided to rebuild my HA server on a faster Raspberry PI. Once that was completed I started thinking about how to better manage the temps that I wanted to monitor.  

While the Lacrosse sensors "work" they just aren't very reliable.  They don't have a unique signature. If the HA system loses contact for awhile and re-establishes it a new device is created.  This is very much not ideal.

I recently found out about the Switch Bot Indoor / Outdoor sensors.  These are Bluetooth, have a unique address and can be easily added to HA.  I bought 6, probably really only needed 4 but they were relatively cheap.  Once connected to HA I now know what sensor is what.

This started me thinking about decommissioning the Lacrosse sensors.  The problem is that one of the Lacrosse devices I bought is a nice display that shows 3 of the sensors, plus time and temp at the display location.  The problem being that I can't guarantee that the sensors it displays are mine and the ones I think they are.

With that in mind, I bought a few Cheap Yellow Displays (2.8 inch) with an ESP32.  Gemini helped me (with a LOT of back & forth) write a working config that connected  to HA using ESPHome.  I decided the display was too small.

I then bought a CrowPanel 7" ESP32 display that more closely matched the size of my existing temp display.  Gemini could not figure out a config after 20 or so tries.  I then decided to switch to Claude.  Claude hit a working config on the first try.  I then worked with Claude to refine the display.

This thing works great.  I was able to combine a bunch of different temperature sensors on the screen.  I then decided to create multiple pages that I would be able to switch to just by touching the screen.  This gives me the ability to show a whole bunch of temp sensors and the Emporia sensors all on an easy to read display so that my wife can look at things.  It even shows the Date & Time as well as the 4 day forecast.

Next up will be to get a 3D printer so I can create a case for the display and holders for the Switch Bot sensors so I can mount them outside.  Once I have those, I can get rid of all the Lacrosse sensors.

I haven't hooked up all the sensors yet, but here is a picture of it.

Tough year, but should get better

Hey, at least it hasn't been 2 years since the last post :)

Here is the current update:

Finally had a long overdue purging.  While it sucked for me, it will be great in the long term.

Got a new guy, looks very promising.  Maybe next year I can actually get back to coding.

Did not replace the siding on the shed yet.  Still dreaming about that.  Not sure when it may happen.

Still dreaming about a workshop.

Built some more new shelves in the basement.  Turned out really nice. Need to finish moving everything onto them.

Got my F.I.L's car... stuck 4gs into it.  Runs much better now and way safer than it was but it isn't a stick :).  Civic, which is a stick, is rusting out will be donating it to Raw Hide soon.  Very sad about that as I've had it for 21 years.

Both kids moved out. That sucks a LOT.  Miss them so much.  But they are doing well on their own so happy for them, sad for me.

Friend retired, he is younger than me... that sux, Another friend is retiring soon, he is also younger than me. Also happy for them and sad for me.

Built a pergola.  Turned out great.  Added lights to it too.  Just need to do some wiring so I can have it plugged in all the time.

Added another battery to my power system so up to 20 kWH (ish)

Finally changed my web hosting.  Old place was 4x the cost for the same features / time.  I cancelled the old one a week before it renewed and got a confirmation and the idiots still renewed and had the gall to tell me they couldn't charge my billing (good thing I disconnected that) :)  Took me 3 calls to get them to cancel it again... idiots.  You should never use them... I won't tell you their name but a number of years ago they were bought out, their original name consisted of a couple of numbers on either side of a conjunction :)

Going to see Devo live... really excited for that.

Still have a giant pile of stuff to do and no time to do it.  But there does look like there is light at the end of the tunnel, hopefully the light bulb doesn't burn out...