Network & Home Automation Apps

January 19, 2025
Network & Home Automation Apps
In all, I have quite a few components keeping my home automation system running. Some are apps I use every day, some are for managing different parts of the infrastructure and a few are for entertainment. Nearly everything here runs in docker on my NAS or one of two dedicated…

A love letter to Docker Compose

January 5, 2025
A love letter to Docker Compose
Today I moved my Home Assistant setup from the NAS it's been on for 3+ years, to my frigate server. With Frigate processing 15 cameras for objects, both the CPU and GPU rarely rose over 10%. I had noticed some response issues with Home Assistant and had eliminated all of…

Shop Server Rack – Tower 2

December 14, 2024
Shop Server Rack – Tower 2
Always trying to improve organization and make things tidy. Moved all of the network and server hardware in my shop to a studio rack I was no longer using. Formally, Tower 2. Top to Bottom AI Docker Server Ollama OpenWebUI Qdrant metabase phpmyadmin netdata gitea mysql Dozzle Power distribution Cisco…

Digging a pointless birthday trench

December 11, 2024
Digging a pointless birthday trench
Today is my birthday and I'm spending it knocking out a task that has been nagging me for months. I had originally tucked an outdoor ethernet cable between the house and shop. I wasn't able to get 10Gbps speeds to link between the two due to what I thought was…

Outdoor Temperature Sensors for Home Assistant

November 11, 2024
Outdoor Temperature Sensors for Home Assistant
Recently, I have had a few things I want to monitor temperature of with Home Assistant. The chicken coop needs one for Kim's peace of mind. She likes to know when it's cold so she can turn the heater on. There is also a absolute floor where we would bring…

Python Nerdery: Data Scraping for Home Assistant

November 2, 2024
Python Nerdery: Data Scraping for Home Assistant
One thing I want to monitor in Home Assistant isn't supported in any traditional way. I want to know how much propane our generator has, and I only have a local provider website to work with. Enter Python to load a browser, log me in, grab the data and send…

Can I use AI as my Frigate False Positive Checker?

September 16, 2024
Can I use AI as my Frigate False Positive Checker?
The good thing about Coral TPUs are they are really fast. The bad thing about Coral TPUs are the models they use are really small so they aren't very accurate. Luckily Frigate has a really advanced system for configuring object detection filters by size, ratio, etc. As well as a…

USB Power from a Switch?

August 27, 2024
USB Power from a Switch?
Ever need to power or charge a USB device from somewhere that has no outlet, but does have a light? I had that issue recently. We have a shelf in the living room that has switches for the overhead fans and lights. I wanted to wire in a 3-gang box…

Kasa Smart Devices and Home Assistant

August 10, 2024
Kasa Smart Devices and Home Assistant
When I moved into the new house, I decided I wanted to leave Philips Hue behind. The lights were too expensive and I wanted to incorporate more kinds of devices like switches into the system. At the same time, I wanted to reduce the number of Home Assistant integrations as…