Using an Arduino & A 1602 LCD Screen With Polyglot Code To Display Your Next Outlook Meeting

In a prior post I discussed how you can connect a 1602 LCD screen via i2C to an Arduino compliant MCU, with the aid of MQTT and C++ to display metrics that matter. But I realised, other than wanting to know the temperature and metrics around energy consumption there was another key piece of information … Read more

Displaying Metrics With A 1602 LCD, I2C and MQTT

A few months ago, I solved the problem of having to use a Home Assistant dashboard to view power related metrics that matter to me by using LED’s embedded into my desk. You can read about it here, and these LED’s work really well. The LED’s have saved me looking at Home Assistant, and they … Read more

Monitoring Solar Consumption With A ESP32/8266 and LED Lights

Since having a PV (Photo Voltaic) solar array installed on my roof earlier in the year I have become a more aware of the energy consumption of my house. In my post ‘Making Data Driven Decisions With A PV Array, Home Assistant and MQTT‘ I am leveraging consumption data to make decisions in my house, … Read more

Automagically Keeping Cool In Zwift

Cycling has always been something I have been passionate about. With the COVID-19 induced lockdowns I finally decided to purchase an indoor trainer (Garmin TACX Neo 2T) and like so many people around the world, I use Zwift as a means to hit my distance targets each week. Spoiler – Want to see a demo? … Read more

Creating a Soft-Remote with MQTT and Home Assistant

Technology is amazing and as much as we want to use our smart phones or ask Alexa, Google and Siri to take action, nothing beats a physical button. In almost all cases they are faster and it’s a good reason why I practice passive automation. Walk into a room and its dark, then the light … Read more

Tracking State Without Feedback Loops

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 … Read more

Making Data Driven Decisions With A PV Array, Home Assistant and MQTT

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 … Read more

Bridging Mosquitto MQTT into Azure IoT Hub with an Arduino based ESP32

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 … Read more

Bridge Building – Mosquitto MQTT to Azure IOT Using Paho MQTT and the Azure IOT SDK’s

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 … Read more

Replacing Mosquitto with Azure IOT Edge

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 … Read more