It's been a while since I wrote about any Home Assistant stuff so I figured this was as a good time to write about something I'm super happy with: custom/reference sensor templates!
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Behind the scenes of Matt Zaske Online is Matt Zaske: automation evangelist, technology grief counselor, developer, systems admin, freelancer, father, moustache aficionado, and jack of all trades.
I provide practical advice, extraordinary ideas, and no-nonsense technology solutions for everyday folks. Let's work together to do something amazing!
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Almost as soon as I started using OctoPrint, I also set up an old webcam to let me remotely "see" things since I keep the printer in the basement. That whole process was an adventure, because I don't use a Raspberry Pi for OctoPrint like most folks; I have an old Intel NUC (also used as a local dev server) running Ubuntu on which I installed OctoPrint.
If you had disk/storage failure (on any of your important devices/things/places), would you be "up the creek?"
For many folks, the answer to that question is "absolutely."
One of my "winter break" projects this year was to get all of my disparate Ubuntu server instances upgraded and into parity.
I got hooked into 3D printing late last summer. A problem that cropped up after the first couple months of tinkering and relatively error-less printing was an issue with thermal runaway. Something I could correct for short periods of time, but never make totally go away...
See also: asking a friend for help can save oodles of time and effort.
Around Thanksgiving 2022, an friend of mine asked to talk through a problem he thought might be solvable with Powershell, but he'd been stuck on the design. Naturally, I agreed to help out if/where I could and it provided an opportunity to chat via Zoom which I am not one to turn down.
As I've noted before, my 1940's-era house has its own quirks with regard to smart home automation in large part due to 1940's wiring standards.
Once I settled on jumping into home automation and Home Assistant (HA), the first "practical" thing I wanted to address was the issue of lights being left on at random throughout the house.
About a month ago, I took the plunge.
After considering it for a long time and hearing about some cool stuff folks were doing with home automation, I decided it was time to start my own dabbling adventure. A warning to folks: home automation is a little bit like owning horses. There can be a bunch of expense in the process for little obvious reward.