Home-Assistant on karl

Frigate in Kubernetes

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Frigate: Kubernetes edition

This is a follow up to my ‘Frigate From Scratch’ post. Most of that post is still relevant today but I have since moved almost all of my workloads into Kubernetes.

This post is intended to document some of the issues I hit while trying to get Frigate running in my k8s cluster. This is not every issue I hit, just the ones that are not directly related to my specific environment/setup/workflows.

#TwoMinuteTeardown: Panel Mount Liquid Level Indicator

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Generic liquid level meter teardown

I ordered this part years ago for a project I eventually canceled.

I can’t use it for anything, and it’s just taking up space, so I’m going to open it up before I recycle it.

The Ali Express listing is a 404 so I don’t have a link to share or really any information about it.

The main thing to take away is that it’s meant to interface with a liquid level sensor. It will display the level of liquid in a tank and - optionally - trigger a few relays based on the level.

#TwoMinuteTeardown: Home Assistant Voice - Preview Edition

Sat, 01 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Home Assistant Voice: Preview Edition teardown

This is a quick #TwoMinuteTeardown post for the recently released Home Assistant Voice Node - Preview edition.

Normally, I’d be doing a full teardown, but this is a little different; the Home Assistant team has done a lot of the work out in the open. With just a quick Google, you can find official:

teardown instructions here.
source code here.
3D printable case files.
Instructions for adding custom devices here.

I am grateful for such a well-documented and open project. Truly, by hackers for hackers!

Monitoring HVAC system with ESPHome

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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.

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

Arizer XQ2 Teardown

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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

Sun, 09 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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.

ESPHome for Sonoff T5 family of Switches

Sat, 11 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

ESPHome for Sonoff T5 family of Switches

It’s hard to beat Sonoff switches when it comes to well-made, affordable, Home Assistant compatible switches. Ever since they announced the T5 series, I’ve been patiently waiting for the US variant to become available so I could replace my M5 switches with T5 switches.

Don’t get me wrong, the M5 switches are great… but not perfect.

The T5 switches improve on the M5 limitations with some new and novel hardware features. Taking advantage of these unique features requires a considerably more complex ESPHome configuration than the M5 series switches.

ESPHome on the Yeelight Monitor Light Bar Pro

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Yeelight Light Bar Pro (YLTD003) Teardown

Monitor-top light bars are wonderful for reducing eye strain and fatigue and the effect is even better with a bias light behind the monitor. Enter the Yeelight Light Bar Pro (YLTD003).

YeeLight marketing photo from AliExpress listing. The background wash light really does help reduce eye strain and fatigue.

ESPHome on dingtian-tech relay modules

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This is another one of those quick “I wish that was easier to find when I was googling it” posts.

For a project, I needed a small relay module to switch a few mains loads. I chose this generic looking relay module from AliExpress because it was powered by an ESP32 and featured ethernet connectivity.

AliExpress is full of generic looking relay modules but this one is branded dingtian-tech

Frigate From Scratch guide

Sat, 04 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Updates in 2025

In early 2025, I began moving virtually all of my workloads into a k8s cluster. I have put some basic notes on frigate in k8s here.

Beyond that, the section below about installing the coral.ai edge TPU drivers is now out of date and has been revised.

The Frigate NVR project is a relatively new entrant to the home security camera DVR space. Like most immature yet popular software, it has a killer feature - very good object detection that just works™ and robust Home Assistant integration.

Integrating a dumb coffee maker with Home Assistant via ESPHome

Sat, 21 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

My beloved coffee maker of 10 years has finally died 😢. Parts are no longer available from either the manufacturer or the second-hand market.

Taking advantage of a (slight) holiday sale discount, I pulled the trigger on a coffee maker that’s designed to be repairable forever. The perpetual serviceability is a side effect of an ultra-simple design; this coffee maker has zero intelligent features which means there’s next to no remote control or customizability.

Integrating ESPHome with a cheap Geiger Counter

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, there have been loads of people doing similar things! ESPHome already has a tutorial covering exactly this!

I’m writing this up because the approach that I ended up taking was not the intended/planned approach.

The Geiger Counter

I originally pulled the trigger on this particular version because it had a built in screen attached to a micro controller.

I naïvely thought that I’d be able to get a simple UART from the 4 pins next to the microcontroller or maybe even get data directly off of the micro USB port.

ESPHome for Sinilink PC remotes

Sat, 22 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

PC (power) remote control

While doing research for a potential project, I stumbled onto a device that fit’s so squarely into that “it’s so simple and obvious, why didn’t I think tof that?!” category that I immediately placed an order for a few.

That device?

A simple WiFi equipped micro controller that gets wired between the power button on a PC and the motherboard. This makes it possible to remotely control and monitor the power state of any PC!

Using ESPHome with the Treatlife DS03

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Post depreciation notice

This is an update to the Fixing Home Assistant discovery with Tasmota on the Treatlife DS03 post.

Tasmota reliability

A few months ago, I started to notice some bizarre behavior with the DS03 ceiling fan controllers that I had previously flashed with Tasmota. Very regularly, the devices would crash and reboot! I almost never noticed unless I was explicitly looking at the uptime / boot count graphs for the devices but every once in a while, the device would reboot right as I was trying to control it remotely.

Configuring additional ZwaveJS entities in Home Assistant over MQTT

Thu, 12 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is a super quick “because the official docs didn’t make it super clear so here’s what ended up working for me” post.

After some very disappointing WiFi connectivity issues, I settled on a Zwave based thermostat to replace the Venstar thermostat.

After installing the Honeywell TH6320 and connecting it to the ZwaveJS gateway, a new `climate`` entity appeared in Home Assistant. From there, I was able to see/control:

Quick look inside Venstar T7850 - One of the only 'no-cloud' WiFi Thermostats that plays nice with Home Assistant

Sat, 23 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Info

As of 2022-05-11, there is an update on my experience with the thermostat below!

This is another one of those posts from my never ending quest to integrate Home Assistant with All The Things!

The thermostat that was installed when I moved in was an early Nest thermostat. These thermostats are - for the most part - well reviewed and liked. I had no complaints… except one.

Inside a generic/white-label HDMI KVM Switch

Sat, 16 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re here just for “how do I get it working with ESPHome” bit, skip to the ESPHome Component section below.

Update 2022.05.14

I have just uploaded a basic PCB and enclosure to the ESPHome Component Repository.

For the last few months, I have been looking for a KVM switch to simplify switching between work and personal computers. Initially, I didn’t think my criteria were that unreasonable, but for whatever reason there is no KVM switch that:

Installing Tasmota on the Xiaomi Desk Lamp

Sat, 22 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

MJGJD02YL vs MUGJD01YL

There are at least two versions of this lamp. Thanks to @htvekov for confirming that the MUGJD01YL variant does not contain an ESP32. It contains a TLSR8368. Some photos of the MUGJD01YL internals are provided below.

If you’re here just for “how do I flash tasmota” bit, skip to the Tasmota section below.

Now with ESPHome

ESPHome support for the single-core ESP32 chip in the lamp has come a long way. You can find the ESPHome configuration that I used with this lamp below.

I was looking for a way to light my desk my desk without screen glare. The easiest way to prevent glare on a screen is to change the orientation of the light relative to the screen either from under or behind the screen. This is not practical for ceiling mounted lights or for any floor lamps.

Adding an APC UPS to Home Assistant energy dashboard

Sun, 05 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

EDIT: (2021-09-19): After some back and forth with /u/Laxarus, there is now a simpler method! The snmp platform still does not support setting device_class, but wrapping the sensor in another template sensor is not required; just do so in your customize.yaml. I have called this out below.

This is another quick “here’s how I did it, hope this help” post.

In preparation for the inevitable grid brownouts that summer 2021 would bring, I installed a rather beefy UPS for my home network / lab. After some browsing, I discovered a local eWaste liquidator with a really good deal on some second-hand APC UPSs.

Fixing Home Assistant discovery with Tasmota on the Treatlife DS03

Wed, 12 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Update

This post is now deprecated. It has been superseded by Using ESPHome with the Treatlife DS03 from 2022-06.

UPDATE: (2021-10-22): Tasmota 9.5.0 has been superseded by the new Tasmota 10.0.0 release. This release works perfectly with the rules/automation outlined below; you no longer need to avoid the problematic 9.5 release with the DS03. I am extremely grateful to every one of the people that contributes to the Tasmota project to keep it improving!

PoE powered Stack Light

Sun, 28 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The lights are much brighter than they appear in this picture; had to intentionally darken the image to prevent camera from blowing out the colors.

Stack/signal lights are everywhere in industrial applications for good reason: they’re a compact and relatively information-dense indicator system. They always seemed like the kind of indicator that only people with expensive machines needed. Until I found that they can be had for just under $6/light from Ali Express, that is.

Amcrest IP Cameras: security isn't a feature, it's a punchline

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This is part rant, part “reference” for anybody else that’s struggling to get their Amcrest IP Camera to work with Home Assistant via ONVIF. Skip to TL;DR for a working Home Assistant config.

Briefly, ONVIF is an industry group that maintains a set of standards to allow for interoperability between IP Cameras and related devices from multiple vendors. One set of protocols so your cameras from $vendorA will work with with the recording/analytics software from $vendorB which can then pipe events into software from $vendorC. How ONVIF works and how it’s implemented are beyond the scope of this rant, but, like most standards that haven’t aged well, SOAP is involved. 🤮.

Two Tasmota rules

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Tasmota is an incredibly powerful alternative/open source firmware for the ever popular Espressif family of WiFi equipped microcontrollers. This does not need to be another post espousing it’s many awesome qualities, so just trust me on this; Tasmota is AWESOME.

Tasmota supports user configurable rules which are simple commands wired into various device triggers. In short; a device running Tasmota gains some autonomy to react to events without needing to report the event to, and wait for commands from, a remote server.

Enhanced Home Assistant Switch Plate (HASP)

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The HASwitchPlate project by aderusha is brilliant. He’s managed to arrange some relatively cheap commodity hardware into a package that conveniently fits into a prime location for interacting with Home Automation - the light switch. The entire package sips power off of the already present mains wiring and connects to any MQTT broker via the esp8266 chip. As the HASP was designed to be used with Home Assistant, the humble 2.4 inch LCD transforms into an accessible control surface for an incredibly powerful home automation platform!

Adding an airborne particulate mater sensor to WS3 Weather Station

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A while back, I posted a small bit of code that could decode the data from the ubiquitous WS3 Weather Station and make it accessible to the amazing HomeAssistant via the wonderful ESPHome project. Since then, my weather station has been dutifully collecting data that’s been invaluable for augmenting automation that deals with indoor climate.

As the numerous wild fires in California rage on, the air quality has gone from bad to dangerous. Knowing that outside was warmer, but less humid, was no longer enough to make a smart decision about weather or not to open the windows for some cost-effective cooling. I now need HomeAssistant to be aware of how clean the outside air was before making the decision to pipe in outdoor air.

RSS and Home Assistant: early warning for grid blackouts

Sun, 16 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

California, like most of the West Coast, is currently in the middle of a prolonged and serious heat-wave. Record breaking temperatures results in a distribution grid stressed beyond it’s abilities which guarantees blackouts.

The organization that oversees the electric grid in California publishes RSS feeds for various types of grid related news and events. All the CA ISO RSS feeds are published here, but the two feed that I’m using are: