Throughout my automation journey there is one thing I always strive for, that is full duplex communication. The ability to send a message, but also receive a message from a device. This need, often in many cases influences technology choices. Which TV will I buy? Why will I build an irrigation controller over buy? Automation is closely related to many… read more
I have been always wanting to add a Solar PV array to my house and recently, it made sense and I purchased a modest (7.5kw) system for my house. It has been as much of an IT journey of integration and extracting value from disparate systems has it been of reducing my carbon footprint. When comparing systems, what is important… read more
I have been on a journey to explore Azure IoT and push the thousands of events that flow through my local MQTT broker (Mosquitto) in to Azure IOT. After my last post in using the Azure IoT SDK for Python conjunction with Paho MQTT I thought my work here was complete, but have just recently been made aware that their… read more
I have been on a journey to explore Azure IoT and push the thousands of events that flow through my local MQTT broker (Mosquitto) in to Azure IOT. From direct connection to Azure IOT-Hub (via MQTT and SAS tokens) through to Azure IOT-Edge running locally with MQTT. I have been able to achieve my goals with varying levels of success,… read more
In a previous post, I spoke about using Mosquitto client tools to publish to Azure IOT Hub, that was the beginning and I am on a journey in my new role to explore Azure IoT and understand the art of the possible. What is possible, I guess we will find out. Who has the longest showers? Who wakes up first?… read more
Public cloud brings a paradigm shift in what can be done, the art of the possible is possible and in the context of this post, I am planning to replicate ~250ish MQTT topics running in a Mosquitto MQTT container in to Azure IoT Hub. From ML (Machine Learning) through to anomaly detection and everything in between, the bells and whistles… read more
PLC based appliance modules have been something of a staple in my house over the last 10 years and at recent count, I had 72 X10 appliance modules. The challenges with X10 are pretty widely known but with the advances in X10, most of these challenges around reliability can be pretty easily solved. Adding in JV Engineering’s excellent XTB-IIR which… read more
Its been a journey over the last 10 years in driving heat out of the top story of my house. From double glazing, heavy drapes and window film, keeping temperatures cool and the house dark in summer has been a challenge for our north facing windows (the master bedroom). Near 6 months ago I decided I would install external roller… read more