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Monitoring HVAC system with ESPHome

Using ESPHome to Monitor HVAC System

Here’s a quick “show-and-tell” about a recent project I completed.

The concept

I’m not sure how I first came across the idea of measuring air pressure drop across a filter to gauge its remaining life, but I remember thinking it was a great idea.

Conceptual diagram for the project.

Conceptual diagram for the project.

The idea has been lurking in the back of my mind for a while, but I never got around to implementing it… until now.

Watch Band RFID fob

Watch Band RFID fob

This is a quick project to create a wearable RFID fob that can be easily attached to a watch band. The idea is to have a small RFID tag that can be used for various purposes, such as access control or identification that is - more or less - as convenient as a surgically implanted tag, but without the need for embedding anything in your body.

AKASO DL12 Dashcam Teardown

AKASO DL12 Dashcam Teardown

If the double yellow lines are in the middle of your rear-view mirror, you're doing it wrong.

If the double yellow lines are in the middle of your rear-view mirror, you're doing it wrong.

This was my dashcam for a while until the front camera stopped working. It was a good dashcam while it lasted but there are better options now… so let’s take it apart!

Arizer XQ2 Teardown

Arizer XQ2 Teardown

A friend of mine reached out and asked me about automating some aspects of their aroma therapy treatment.

Note
I was not given permission to share the specifics of their medical condition or the larger treatment plan so this post is going to deal with just the technical aspects of the device.

The device they’re using for aromatherapy is the Arizer XQ2 and we agreed that integration with their existing Home Assistant setup would be ideal.

Using ESPHome to Automatically restart frozen cable modem

Part of the reason for developing my SB8200 monitor was to get to the bottom of some infrequent but regular outages.

To make a long story short, the LAG implementation on the modem seems to have some issues. A quick google will return many complaint threads detailing issues with the modem regularly locking up all traffic stopping. More annoyingly, these reports date back years and allege that later revisions of the firmware might fix the issue for good.