Home Automation

Over the years, I've been very interested in Home Automation. We setup a HAI Omni LT in our cabin long ago, and I've enjoyed the technical aspects of it since.

So I thought I'd go through some of my Home Automation setup.

I've been using Home Assistant, having tried several different things, such as Smart Things hub, Home Seer, and so forth, but I've been pretty impressed with Home Assistant.

Currently I have the Home Assistant OS installed on a small computer.

The computer is the MeLE Fanless Mini PC Quieter3Q 11th Gen N5105 8GB 256GB, Micro Computer WiFi 5 Small Desktop Service with USB-C PD, Gigabit Ethernet, Dual HDMI 4K, Auto Power on, PXE Support M.2 SSD.  If has a M.2 slot, which I have a Google Coral installed to.

The Google Coral, SOM Google Edge TPU ML Compute Accelerator, Integrate The Edge TPU into Legacy and New Systems Using a Standard M.2-2280-B-M-S3 (B/M Key), allows for object detection, and is a pretty neat interface, allowing some of the video software to do object recognition.

For a Home Alarm and the basis for sensor, I have what is now a legacy device, a Leviton Omni IIe/LTe.

It is wired into all the doors and such for sensors on what is open and closed in the house.

As well, the Mele computer has a Z-wave Dongle.

The zwave controller is the AEOTEC Z-Stick Gen5 Z-Wave Hub Z-Wave Plus USB to Create Gateway (Ordinary White).  With Z-wave, there are several Zwave outlets, zwave light switches, zwave water sensors, zwave power monitoring, etc.

I also have a Home Assistant SkyConnect - Matter and Zigbee compatible dongle, though I haven't plugged it in, because I don't have any devices that 'matter.'

With the Mele box and Home Assistant, I also have a RF controller, a RFXtrx433XL Transceiver, USB HA Controller 433.92MHz. It interacts with the automated Blinds, form Blindster - Automatic. They are Battery powered motorized blinds, and can be controlled from Home Assistant and a battery remote. They are also solar powered.

I have permanent Christmas lights, running WLED.

The controller for the led lights is a QuinLED-Dig-Quad Pre-Assembled. With the controller, I picked up some lights from Amazon, BTF-LIGHTING WS2812B IC RGB 5050SMD Pure Gold Individual Addressable LED Strip 16.4FT 150LED 30LED/m Flexible Full Color IP67 DC5V for DIY Chasing Color Project(No Adapter or Controller) 16.4FT 150LED. I also got some from Ali Express, though that takes longer to arrive, WS2812B Led Lights DC5V WS2812 RGB Led Strip Light Individually Addressable Smart Pixels Magic Light Black White PCB IP30 65 67. Emitting Color: WS2812B White PCB Color: 1m 60 IP65. I also have some stranded lights that are controlled as well, 100pcs WS2811 LED Module 9/12mm 2811 IC Black/Green/White/Crystal/RGB Wire IP68 Waterproof RGB Digital Led Pixel Module DC5v/12v.

Anyway, another neat feature of the Home Automation and security cameras integration is the use of Frigate.

Computer Headphones

Having used headphones for computer gaming a fair bit, I thought I might share about my current headset, as it will be a long time before I need or want to get another one. Currently, I have a David Clark Model H-PC Headset. David Clark is famous for their aviation headphones providing all manner of headphones for airplanes and helicopters. And those can be some noisy environments. My previous headphones seemed to not last long (xBox one headeset), or not work very well (Turtle Beach Wireless). I have an small external USB audio card that I plug the headphones into that eliminates any kind of feedback loop, as it is powered over USB, and the external nature means it is outside of the computer case where cables are likely to endure induction whine. These are phenomenal. I love them.

David Clark HeadsetProduct Code:40642G-01
The Model H-PC headset for computers, tablets phones and other smart devices provides excellent audio performance and outstanding comfort. Features dual, 3.5mm plugs and volume controls on each dome for individual volume adjustment in each ear. Wired for stereo.

• Terminated with dual 3.5mm plugs (for Earphones and Microphone)
• Undercut, comfort-gel ear seals for outstanding comfort Super-soft, double-foam head pad
• Dual volume controls
• Stereo performance
• 15-ft. extended coil cord
• Durable construction
• Dynamic earphone elements, 20-20,000 Hz
• M-55 noise-canceling microphone, mounted on universal flex boom
• SPDT microphone On-Off switch
• Weight - 16 oz.

Google Home

I added a Google Home to our house.  It will be interesting to move into the realm of 'oral only' & 'cloud connected' computing.  There is of course, the Alexa option, but I am a big fan of Google music and the android ecosphere, so the Google home seemed like a logical option.  Hopefully it won't cause too much havoc, calling in the robots to run amuck.

Good Time for a Server to Crash?

The MAF phone system is a Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony system.  Several of the functions that this phone system uses are on different computer servers.

In June of 2013, the MAF phone system was upgraded to new software, fixing bugs and adding new features.  In the following month, we setup a ESXi 5.1 server to virtualize some of the servers that the phone system was using.  We had a VMware infrastructure (A High Availability cluster of ESX 3.5 servers on Dell Poweredges), but that infrastructure was too old to be supported by our phone vendor, Mitel.  We were able to re-use an older server that was now out of warranty for these functions, as the downtime tolerance for them was high, and they were not critical systems.  The older server was a Dell 1950 Poweredge, which supported the ESXi 5.1 platform (which Mitel did support).  We installed the Virtual Machines (VMs), a phone conference bridge VM, and a VM for connectivity for particular offsite phones, and they began serving wonderfully for the next year.

As that High Availability cluster is now quite old (in computer years), it was time to migrate away from it.  Generally, MAF has moved towards Hyper-V for our medium business sized needs, and the non-profit pricing is a great advantage over VMware.  However, we still had some needs for a VMWare infrastructure, as that is the only thing supported by our phone vendor.  So we budgeted for a new server this year, and ordered it in May.  It arrived, and we had some additional Dell hard drives that we could use with it, so we ordered some hard drive sleds/trays (as they were for an MD3000 storage san, having different sleds).  On May 22nd, when the sleds arrived, I installed them and provisioned the new server's RAID storage.  I installed the latest VMware software ESXi 5.5, and had the machine ready for service.

Moving the phones system VMs onto the server would be problematic logistically; as part of the service that they render is for certain offsite phones.  We would need to hunt through all the phones and determine which users were using those particular phones, and contact them to apprise them of the downtime.

That evening at 5:25pm MST, our automated alerting system chimed an alert message.  Some of the phone servers were down.  A quick look at our monitoring dashboard revealed that the VM host had crashed.  I drove over to MAf and descended upon our air conditioned server room (in my flip flops).  The VM host server for the phone VMs had crashed.  The front console of the Dell Poweredge stated:  E1420 CPU Bus PERR.   A CPU Bus Ram parity issue.  Not a good thing in the life of a server, and a rarity in dealing with Enterprise grade server equipment.  I cold cycled the power on the server, and it booted up fine with no errors.

I immediately initiated migrating the two phone server VMs to the New VMware server, which was just finished being setup hours earlier.  The migrations finished within the hour of the system crashing.  The VMs booted up fine, and have been serving the organization flawlessly.

This was serendipitous timing of the super-ordinary (which might be more commonplace at MAF): it was effectively after business hours for MAF (including probably most of the Pacific Time users).  It also allowed us to have an unplanned window to migrate the VMs to the new platform.  It also allowed us to not have to collate through our phone list records to find the specific users of the affected phones.  The migration would of probably required an off hours trip to the server room (in a planned maintenance window), but it worked out quite well for the timing of it.

XL80S

I've fixed up one of our family's motorbikes.  It's a Honda XL80S.  I've ridden it to work a few times.  Even on some cool and rainy mornings.  It's exciting driving on the road when your top speed is 45 mph downhill.  I also recently picked up an iPad.  I've decided I wanted to use a tablet to make some artwork, as well as whatever tablets are good for.  My first iPaintmash is exhibited here as the motorbike.

New Lappy

We recently celebrated Melissa's birthday.  Part of the celebrations involved having all of her wisdom teeth out.  I'm pretty sure she did not enjoy the event and will most likely pass on having them out again.  For her birthday we upgraded her laptop.  She is now a full fledged college student, so we got her an Apple lappy.  Don't worry, we installed Windows with boot camp (so it runs both operating systems).  I'm of a philosophy of hatred towards laptops, so the Applecare warranty should help me from wanting to smash it to bits.

Mobile Reading Experiment - Nov 2010

Just finished reading Chicot the Jester, by Alexandre Dumas.  A fun book, but with a bit of a quick ending.  I read the entire book on my phone, which was an interesting experiment for me.  I heard about a person who reads 2-3 books a year (on his phone) while waiting.  It was handy to have a book to read at the ready when I was waiting for things, but could be a little cumbersome when I was wanting to relax and read (which is easier with paper).

Sharles I - Underwater ROV

I've been working on an ROV for the last month or two.  It's based on an Arduino mega with web control (at this point).  It's been a fun project so far, and I will post some video and photos once it hits the water.

Team Fortress 2, Fortrix, and Starcraft 2

Recently been enjoying the game Fortrix.  Fortix is kindof a remix of the game Qix. A fun throwaway game that has a nice retro feel.
I've also been playing alot of Team Fortress 2 in the last few months.  A fun FPS that allows the play to have different roles.  It's very similar to the original Team Fortress, excepting a new game engine, and cartoony fun graphics.
I'm also super excited for Starcraft 2 to come out, which Blizzard has stated that should happen in the first half of 2010.  What that really means it as good as anything with Blizzard's record of delaying and canceling games.  The good news is that it is in Beta, however.

Texts and Tomes 2-8-2010

     About a month ago, I read Ender's Game by  Orson Scott Card.  A fun science fiction read.  It seemed a little one dimensional on the characters, but the science fiction aspects and plot turns made for a decent book.
     I finally finished the novel Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley.  Written about 150 years ago, it details the adventures of the English battling with the Spanish and their exploits in the New World.  Interesting subject matter, but the book drags on in parts, and I'm not a particular fan of the ending.
     Currently reading Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card.  It's part of the Ender corpus, which is fairly muddled as far as which book fits where in chronological progression.  Maybe that's part of the Science Fiction aspect.

New Compy/Water Tower Hybrid

I've constructed a new computer.  It's a watercooling setup, which seems a little counter-intuitive for electronic equipment.  It's been a fun project, and I've been enjoying learning more about water cooling.  While I did construct a mostly new computer, I didn't upgrade the videocard, yet.  I'm thinking about waiting until Starcraft 2 comes out, and upgrading around then.

Torchlight

I've recently been playing Torchlight.  It's a classic dungeon runner, made by ex-blizzard employees.  It's like a cross between Nethack and Warcraft 3 and Diablo II.  Though it is funny to say, unlike online multi-player games, you can pause or stop playing the game whenever you like.  This has really been the defacto for computer games since quite some time, but seems to be changing with MMORPGs and online FPS games.

Monkey Island

I've recently been enjoying the computer game Tales of Monkey Island.  It's a fun game in the vein of Kings Quest or Space Quest.  It has precursors from that era, too.
The 3D rendered game brings a new aspect to those past games of puzzle questing.  It looks like they have a Sam and Max game that also is available in installments, though I haven't looked at them yet.  The Sam and Max game from long ago was one of my all time favorite for the sarcasm of the characters, and zanyness of the plot.

A Table, Apple TV, and Bamboo

My office recently had an injection of greenery in the form of a bamboo plant. It certainly helps to break up the monotony of the khaki colored cubicle walls.

Earlier last year, Melissa found a nice looking table in a magazine, and we decided to build one similar to it. After drafting up some measurements and adjusting the table height to be a little taller, it was time to saw and sand. After a few days of sawdust and paint, the table is now done. However, it might still end up with a different color, and another coat of paint.

We also recently got an Apple TV. I immediately began to modify it. It now features Boxee and XBMC (xBox Media Center). These additions allow the Apple TV to play almost any form of multimedia content from multiple types of servers, such as Hulu. I had installed XBMC on an original xBox and enjoyed that project thoroughly.

smartphone

Melissa bought me a wonderful gift: an iPhone from craigslist. Needless to say, I am super-mega-excited to have a smartphone! Thanks love!

hettinger.cc changes to hettinger.us

I've noticed that performance at Dreamhost fell off the charts lately, so I've been looking around for a decent VPS provider. Some of the better ones looked like Slicehost, and VPS village, and Rapidxen. I eventually ended up going with RapidXen. The uptime looks way better already. Dreamhost was giving me whole days of subversion like webpages that had nothing to do with my websites.
Along with the different web host, I am changing the domain for the website. The old domain name should forward to the new one for a while.

Books and stuff 9-2-2008

I've been reading Awakenings, by Oliver Sacks. It's interesting to see such a unique perspective form so many different angles: Modern medicine's relatively small grasp of the human mind, chemical interelationships with disease, people waking up from forty years of virtual non-existence. Overall, it is kind of a darkly realistic book that shows man's limitations and finite existence. I've also finished Apple Confidential 2.0 By Owen W. Linzmayer, a book detailing much of the early history of the Apple computer and spin doctor Steve Jobs. I also picked up from the library and plan to read iWoz by Steve Wozniak. An autobiography about his grapplings with technology, and how these have benefited all of us computer users.

eeepc

Last year, Asus released a linux based sub-laptop called the eeepc. It is very reasonably priced, a flash based device (very speedy file system), and has all the amenities one needs with a basic laptop. It does have a small screen, and requires an acquaintance with linux in order to customize. I picked one up as a stress relief toy before my wedding, and have been enjoying it ever since.

Ten Years of HTML Mangling

This year, 2008, marks ten years of my creating websites for groups and organizations. I've cobbled together a portfolio of some of the websites that I've worked on. The internet definitely looks alot better these days than it did ten years ago.

Google Reader

The internet is too big. I think we all come to that conclusion, sooner or later. One of the best tools that I've found to keep me getting the information I want is the Google Reader. With your Google account, you can add a website's RSS feed to Google reader, then you can keep up with changes without having to visit that particular website. While that might not sound like too much of a chore, once you get alot of website you like, it's easier to go to one place (an RSS aggregator, in geek terms) than a lot of places. Anyway, one of my favorite tools from Google.