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Basics

Software

Diun – the safe alternative to watchtower?

If you run a lot of Docker containers you need some mechanism to let you know about updates. Watchtower is a popular solution I also used but the auto-update feature can be dangerous. Diun is a very lightweight alternative that takes the safer approach of only notifying you. Docker image Read more…

By Oliver, 2 years02.01.2024 ago
Basics

Is the Raspberry Pi 4 powerful enough for Home Assistant and your smart home server?

The Raspberry Pis are very popular mini computers with a (usually) cheap price and small form factor and power consumption used for many tasks. Is the Pi 4 good enough as a smart home server for Home Assistant? I have been using it for more than a year now and Read more…

By Oliver, 2 years27.05.2023 ago
Basics

How to use ChatGPT for your DIY smart home

Is AI overhyped? Pretty sure! Can it do amazing things anyways? Yes! Can you use it for your smart home? Definitely! Here I will describe how I use ChatGPT for my DIY smart home and how it might be used in the future. I am living under a stone or: Read more…

By Oliver, 2 years12.05.2023 ago
Basics

Home Assistant basics II – what the heck are automations, blueprints, scenes and scripts?

Home Assistant is an awesome system but when you get started the terminology can be confusing. Here is a quick explanation what automations, blueprints, scenes and scripts are in Home Assistant. Home Assistant basics – terminology around automations In part I of this series I described the Home Assistant terminology Read more…

By Oliver, 2 years04.02.2023 ago
Basics

Home Assistant basics – what the heck are devices, entities, integrations and services?

Home Assistant is maybe the best open smart home controller out there but if you are new to it some of the terms can be a bit confusing. As a first step towards Home Assistant basics, here is what devices, entities, integrations, services and helpers are. Home Assistant basics – Read more…

By Oliver, 2 years29.01.2023 ago
Basics

How to SSH into your smart home server the secure way

A server like the small Raspberry Pi usually sits in a remote location and has screen or input devices connected to it. To be able to control it remotely SSH is the de-facto standard on Linux. Here is how to set it up to control your smart home server from Read more…

By Oliver, 3 years26.11.2022 ago
HomeAssistant

Switching Zigbee coordinators with ZHA & Home Assistant without re-pairing & testing the TubesZB coordinator

The stability of your Zigbee network is largely determined by the performance of your coordinator (or router). Switching Zigbee coordinators to a new and better one used to require you to repair all your devices though. With Home Assistant 2022.9 that is a thing of the past. In this post Read more…

By Oliver, 3 years30.10.2022 ago
Software

Fixing Docker stats and Cadvisor CPU usage (on a Raspberry Pi)

Prometheus works great for collecting server stats on a Raspberry Pi but was missing some information on a Raspberry Pi in docker stats and the cadvisor used more CPU than the containers it was monitoring. Here is how fixed those issues. Cleaning up & fixing the downloaded dashboards When I Read more…

By Oliver, 3 years01.08.2022 ago
Software

Monitoring your smart home server with prometheus on a Raspberry Pi – use the power of professional tools

To analyze errors or just to watch what is happening: your smart home gets so much better with some proper monitoring. Prometheus + Grafana is one of THE solutions for monitoring pretty much anything. Getting it to run on a Raspberry Pi does not need much time but still can Read more…

By Oliver, 3 years25.07.2022 ago
HomeAssistant

How to use Zigbee2MQTT with Home Assistant – A quick start guide

Open source software like Zigbee2MQTT and Home Assistant are a great alternative to (more or less) closed systems like Philips Hue. It can be tricky to get started though. Here is a quick start guide allowing you to use all the advantages like full offline control and the possibility to Read more…

By Oliver, 3 years19.07.2022 ago

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About this blog

This is my personal slice of the Internet, a place to show my projects and share ideas about all things smarthome, IoT and design

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