Month: September 2021

A Wired Sonoff Zigbee Alternative

UPDATE 10/15: READ IF YOU PLAN TO USE HUB WITH ZHA

UPDATE 10/18: READ IF YOU PLAN TO USE HUB WITH Zigbee2Tasmota

UPDATE 12/5: We’ve come full circle. The amazing developers of Tasmota have fixed the issue causing serial port disconnections to the zigbee radio with Tasmota 10. Now, the below instructions can be followed, without relying on the previous update posts from 10/15 and 10/18. The uploaded precompiled Tasmota firmware below has been updated to the newest version as of today.

Many of us have seen the Sonoff Zigbee Hub and how easy it is to flash to Tasmota … Read the rest

The Birth of a Smart Home

When the first Google Home came out in 2016, I briefly thought about buying it, but decided I had no use for it. Shortly after, my brother-in-law bought me two Chinese Tuya White-label smart plugs from Amazon. I plugged a couple of lamps into them and was hooked. Google home followed shortly after. At the time, we were renting and so my ability to “smartify” our home was limited. I replaced many light bulbs with Sengled bulbs, changed out smoke detectors for Nest, but that was pretty much it.

In 2019 we bought our first home. I knew from the … Read the rest