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DIY Smart Appliance: Adding WiFi power control to an integrated amplifier

· 3 min read

Previously I was using JBL Bar connected to a TV in my living room. It was controlled with WiFi IR bridge, so whenever my Chromecast or PS4 was in playing state, the Bar was turned on and ready.

Now I have passive speakers with a simple integrated amplifier, and it can’t be turned on or off without physical interaction. You need to press and release the button on the front panel to toggle amplifier power. So today we will add WiFi power control to Cambridge Audion AXA25 integrated amplifier.

Building WiFi IR remote control for any TV with ESP8266 Wemos D1 mini and ESPHome

· 8 min read

Many modern TVs can be controlled not only with an IR remote. Many could be easily integrated with Home Assistant or any other smart home solution. Samsung smart TVs, LG with WebOS… But what if your TV is so dumb it even don’t have WiFi or Bluetooth? Today we’ll add WiFi control to an old and dumb Samsung TV with a little help from ESPHome.

Send and receive SMS in Home Assistant with GSM modem

· 2 min read

Yes, it is possible and you don’t need to build anything from sources. Sending SMS from your home could be useful, for example, to send emergency alerts. But what about receiving and parsing SMS messages? Well, I used it to integrate my car security system with my Home Assistant. Now my Home Assistant could start the engine of my car automatically to warm it up before driving to work.

Bed presence detection with Aqara window and door sensor and a cheap car part

· 2 min read

Bed presence detection could be very useful in home automation to control the lights and appliances you don’t need at night, but want to be ready in the morning. And today we will build a bed presence sensor out of a very universal device for DIY IoT. It is an Aqara ZigBee window and door sensor. Why it is so universal? Let’s take a closer look at its internals.

Using variables as configuration for Home Assistant automation

· 4 min read

Home Assistant 0.115 got the ability to use variables in automation and scripts. You can declare variables even using templates and use them across the script or automation. Here is an example from the release notes:

automation:
  trigger:
    platform: sun
    event: sunset
    offset: -00:30
  variables:
    notification_service: notify.paulus_iphone
  action:
    - service: "{{ notification_service }}"
      data:
        message: Beautiful sunset!