Home automation projects

13/01/2026

I got a very new mini PC to host Frigate and Home Assistant (in Proxmox). While HA worked well, Frigate wasn't getting the best of the Intel Alder Lake-N series (N100; N355; N95) no QuickSync .. no D128render device .. no vainfo drivers in the container ... A solution was to start over with a bleeding-edge Proxmox 9 and do a few tricks - described here - for a happy result.

Enable QuickSync (QSV) on Intel Alder Lake-N chips for use in Frigate / plex

11/11/2025

There are advantages to using HTTPS. If your browser trusts a URL it’ll offer to remember a password, autofill a login, allow push notifications and nag you less. HTTPS also ends complaints about 'insecure' content when in reality nothing is amiss. The following way to local https:// access avoids Cloudflare and it avoids getting a domain and clumsy certificate handling. If you've a few wanting services and have a Docker setup you're ready to go.

This guide uses nginx to make a service like Frigate; proxmox or portainer or synology or qnap accessible via HTTPS using a domain name.

27/10/2025

Here's a ready-reckoner to compare charging methods and costs for an electric vehicle. I've been using it to decide what's needed for any upcoming journey - as well as get my head round the basics. It delightfully shows the value of home charging vs a car park. This works for web or phone and you can customise all of this for your car and preferred units or currency (EU; UK; USA).

About: The EV charge calculator is a web app (PWA) and works in the browser on mobile or desktop. If you do install it, it'll retain your settings, work offline and just do maths. It works in ios or android, was made by me, Roger Frost in lovable.dev assisted by Google Gemini. Like many modern things it uses React, vite, tailwind CSS and Typescript.

an app to compare charging methods and costs for an electric vehicle. It shows the value of home charging, at peak or off-peak tariffs. Use the app to decide what’s needed for a journey.

29/01/2025

BIG PROJECT, BRIEF INSTRUCTIONS, ANY MAKE THERMOSTATS
Reducing my use of heating energy involves measuring it to see where it was not needed. My smart thermostats and smart radiator valves (TRV) help to ensure I’m not heating the house when I’m out and not heating rooms that I’m not occupying.

Frankly, looking after several thermostats is insanely insanity-making. This project aims to more get a bit more info about the thermostats on the Home Assistant dashboard. Perhaps others find this useful.

This project also grapples with the skills needed to make horrid template sensors. There are binary_sensors to flag when each room is heating; a history stats sensor to time how long the heating runs for; plus a clever sensor that combines the heating in different rooms into one 'how long did I heat the house for'.

As a bonus, because all the data was here anyway, we set up a Home Assistant 'mold indicator'.

we extract useful data from smart home thermostats (TRV) by creating history statistics, binary_sensors and graphs. Tricky stuff made easier.

15/01/2025

https://www.rogerfrost.com/switchbot-leak

If there's an award for the sensor that's little used and hopefully useful it's this one. If you have a situation where you really need a warning of a leak there's welcome news that Home Assistant has gained a feature (2025) to connect the Switchbot Leak Detector to your dashboard. This makes the Switchbot hub and app a bit more redundant.
A leak detector tends to be forgotten about ... to the extent that its battery will expire before the alarm goes! The Home Assistant integration provides a wet/dry alert as well as battery status.

You can connect the Switchbot water leak detector with Home Assistant without the need for a Switchbot hub. The detector uses Bluetooth and wifi to send out its alarms which will be picked up...

24/09/2024

Here is, I think, a nice introduction to creating an automated routine to control the TV room lights - made possible by so many TV's being 'smart' and discoverable on the home network.
The funny thing is that until now I was content to have found a much harder way to do this (using a Harmony hub).

when it's TV watching time you want background lighting instead of main room lighting. When the TV goes off you want the opposite of this.

28/08/2024

There's a helpful clue in a post that reads 'this is my third 3D printer..'.

In short, sometimes I need to own something 'not good' before I can get to be impressed with a different one.

why the Creality K1C

15/08/2024

I acquired a second router, a Huawei AX3 with powerful wifi 6 that deserved use. Even though I've done this many times I realised the correct way to set it up is pretty simple. The other intuitive way was problematic. For posterity, here I'll show the simple way and problematic way of setting up a second router.

The situation: in addition to the router that serves your home with internet you’ve another router that could perhaps improve your wireless or wired coverage. The extra router could be any spare wi-fi router...

18/04/2024

HE WON! THANK YOU - no action required as he has come away with the £10,000 prize. Oli can now afford to go on making tuneful songs about the climate crisis. https://youtu.be/N2w6qAZfOtM?si=jbypVVappLUMOR17 Go to the link, enjoy the song and give it a like and help solve his funding crisis. Thank you again.

24/02/2024

Definately niche this - but if you pumped all your water from a borehole you'd want to see how it's going and keep it under control. Includes tips on dealing with issues that inevitably arise.

We get our water from a borehole – years ago the garden was drilled until they found a water source. This is way remote homes and farms get their water. Today you can see...