Installation and Integration of a Hydreon RG-11 Optical Rain Sensor with a PLC & HomeAssistant

This is an article I have been meaning to write for some time. I guess I haven’t as this sensor has been something that has just worked out of the box and hasn’t skipped a beat in almost 5 years. I use OpenSprinkler to drive my irrigation and I will soon share how I integrate … Read more

Flashing Tasmota on a Sonoff Dual R3 & Integrating With Home Assistant

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 … Read more

TLS 1.3 – Faster, Safer and Just Awesome

Recently I thought it was time to get back to basics, time to get in to the detail and I gave an internal session at Microsoft on (TLS) Transport Layer Security 1.3 and why its such step change for TLS. I am sure you are probably aware TLS is an encryption protocol that protects Internet … Read more

A Journey in to MQTT With Roller Shutters, Mosquitto, HomeAssistant & Low Powered Micro-Controllers

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 … Read more

Controlling A PLC With Amazon Alexa

I recently purchased an Amazon Echo which is a hands-free speaker you control with your voice. Amazon Echo connects to the Alexa Voice Service to play music, provide information, news, sports scores, weather, and more—instantly. It’s the ‘more’ this article will explore. Unlike other services, Alexa exposes itself via the Alexa Skills Kit According to … Read more

Reading Exetel Usage Data With PowerShell

The de facto standard for control in house is our PLC, things mainly happen autonomously, but when things don’t happen magically the tool of choice is a smart phone running NetIO. NetIO is a multi platform smartphone application, a generic remote controller for almost everything. It simply sends and reads strings over a network socket. … Read more

Presentation: Automation and Scale On Azure – An Introduction To ARM Templates

I recently had the pleasure to present an Azure ARM templates 101 to Melbourne Infrastructure Coders. I want to thank all of those who attended, David  Lutz (@dlutzy) and Matthew Jones (@geekle) for facilitating and REA for the use of their facilities. My presentation, Automation and Scale On Azure – An Introduction To ARM Templates, … Read more