Using OpenAI and Gmail to Reolink Solar cameras for intelligent detection

I recently talked about using Home Assistant and OpenAI for POE cameras here: Using OpenAI (GPT), Home Assistant and Amcrest cameras for intelligent detection. This works fine for wired or AC powered cameras, but for battery powered cameras, like the Reolink Argus PT Ultra, this does not work. It appears that for battery powered, there are … Continue reading Using OpenAI and Gmail to Reolink Solar cameras for intelligent detection →

Using OpenAI (GPT), Home Assistant and Amcrest cameras for intelligent detection

In today's blog, I will walk through natively setting up Home Assistant with an Open AI model to perform image analysis. In my case, I want an announcement in my house when people show up. This was inspired by the new movie 'The Roses' where the home security system (named HAL) says something like '2 … Continue reading Using OpenAI (GPT), Home Assistant and Amcrest cameras for intelligent detection →

Using Home Assistant to enable Emergency Heat

Recently there was a cold front in the US where temperatures dropped below freezing in many areas. For home users with Heat Pumps (different from none Heat Pump traditional units), you may find that you have to enable Emergency Heat or Auxiliary Heat. This being my first year with a Heat Pump, I was surprised … Continue reading Using Home Assistant to enable Emergency Heat →

Announce “Door is open” with Home Assistant and an ESP32 w/ speaker

I have talked before about automating the home here: IoT, changing the way we secure our assets and the power of IoT devices, RF and ESP8266 / ESP32 devices. In today's blob, I will demonstrate a simple "front door is open" announcement using an ESP32 with a DAC and speaker. This is made possible by Home … Continue reading Announce “Door is open” with Home Assistant and an ESP32 w/ speaker →

Using Nginx in Azure to access services on premises [and behind a firewall]

Recently I started using Starlink as my Internet provider. Nice solution for when your options are limited. The challenge is that Starlink does not allow you to publish services (port forwarding) to the Internet. With some of my home automation stuff, like HomeAssistant, I require publishing services. My options are limited to: Moving my service … Continue reading Using Nginx in Azure to access services on premises [and behind a firewall] →

Creating an IoT based relay powered with PoE

I recently had a need for a network-based relay that I will control from a simple application on my phone. The relay has the following needs: accessible from the Internet secure communications respond in less than a second connect to the Internet via ethernet and support DHCP powered by a POE switch secured from local network … Continue reading Creating an IoT based relay powered with PoE →

Monitoring Water and Electricity meters with a Software Defined Radio

I have talked before about a Software defined radio here: IoT Edge: Using a Software Defined Radio to visualize data. In today's blog, we will use the same device with a different frequency to monitor both Electricity and Water meters. In my neighborhood, as in many, they use "smart meters" which use the 900 MHz band. … Continue reading Monitoring Water and Electricity meters with a Software Defined Radio →

Using Azure Machine Learning Endpoints to inference JPEG images

I have talked about the Azure Machine Learning AutoML capability in the following 2 blogs: Using Azure AutoML instead of Azure Custom Vision for object detection Using Azure AutoML instead of Azure Custom Vision for image classification. I have discussed inferencing at the edge in the following 3 blogs: Creating an AutoML container to score at the … Continue reading Using Azure Machine Learning Endpoints to inference JPEG images →

Monitoring your home AC filter with a pressure sensor and an ESP

Today, we will look at monitoring your home air conditioner filter to predict and get notifications when to change it. To monitor the filter we can measure the air pressure before and after the filter and when the difference exceeds your desired threshold, get a notification. Of course, being that the air conditioner is in … Continue reading Monitoring your home AC filter with a pressure sensor and an ESP →