https://thehelpfulidiot.com • This is a web feed, also known as an Atom feed. Subscribe by copying the URL from the address bar into your newsreader. Visit About Feeds to learn more and get started. It's free. Visit website Recent posts Updated on $DATE date The Helpful Idiot Idiots don't have time for cable management. Zola2026-10-05T00:00:00+00:00https://thehelpfulidiot.com/atom.xml 2026-10-05T00:00:00+00:00 2026-10-05T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/cleaning-up-six-years-of-home-assistant-with-claude/

How I took a Home Assistant install with 421 automations, a few security holes and a lot of polling, put it in Git, and cleaned it up with Claude Code without breaking anything my family relies on.

2026-10-04T00:00:00+00:00 2026-10-04T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/rewriting-my-home-assistant-dashboards-in-plain-html/

The Lovelace dashboards on the wall tablets around my house were slow and kept reloading, so Claude and I replaced them with small HTML and JavaScript pages that talk to Home Assistant over one websocket. Here's what they look like and how they work.

2026-10-03T00:00:00+00:00 2026-10-03T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/goodbye-wordpress-hello-zola/

Why I moved this blog from a WordPress container to a static Zola site, how the posts got converted straight out of the database, and what broke along the way.

2024-09-15T00:00:00+00:00 2024-09-16T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/making-an-automatic-email-backup-updated-9-15-2024/

A new version of the mbsync and Dovecot Docker images, now with Solr full-text search for fast IMAP searches.

2024-03-31T00:00:00+00:00 2024-04-09T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/nextcloud-docker-with-nginx-proxy-manager/

Running the php-fpm Nextcloud Docker image directly behind Nginx Proxy Manager, without a second nginx container.

2024-02-11T00:00:00+00:00 2024-04-09T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/fully-local-universal-remote-control-with-home-assistant/

Replacing a discontinued Logitech Harmony with a cheap Bluetooth remote, a Python event listener, and Home Assistant automations, with no cloud involved.

2022-09-15T00:00:00+00:00 2024-04-15T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/create-a-free-public-endpoint-for-self-hosted-services-using-oracle-cloud-and-opnsense/

Using an always-free Oracle Cloud VM and a WireGuard tunnel to OPNsense to expose self-hosted services publicly without opening ports at home.

2022-06-22T00:00:00+00:00 2024-04-15T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/making-an-automatic-email-backup-part-3/

Repackaging the mbsync and Dovecot setup from Parts 1 and 2 into a pair of Docker images, configured entirely through environment variables.

2022-06-17T00:00:00+00:00 2024-04-15T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/integrating-xmcosy-outdoor-string-lights-with-home-assistant-locally/

Running XMCOSY+ outdoor string lights fully locally with Local Tuya, template lights and Node-RED, keeping colors, scenes and brightness.

2021-11-26T00:00:00+00:00 2024-04-15T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/custom-3d-printed-mount-for-fire-tablet-2015/

Designing and 3D printing a wall mount for a 2015 Amazon Fire tablet as a Home Assistant dashboard, with the cord hidden in the wall. STL included.

2021-10-18T00:00:00+00:00 2024-04-15T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/update-2-a-wired-sonoff-zigbee-alternative/

Pairing Zigbee devices caused the ZB-GW03 to reboot under Zigbee2Tasmota. The unofficial tasmota32-zigbeebridge firmware fixes it.

2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00 2024-04-15T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/update-a-wired-sonoff-zigbee-alternative/

A pair of Tasmota rules that work around the ZB-GW03 failing to reconnect to Home Assistant's ZHA after a power loss.

2021-10-09T00:00:00+00:00 2024-04-15T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/making-an-automatic-email-backup-part-2/

Adding self-signed SSL certificates to Dovecot and installing Roundcube, so the local mail archive is reachable from any browser on the network.

2021-10-04T00:00:00+00:00 2024-04-15T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/making-an-automatic-email-backup/

Automatically backing up a remote IMAP mailbox to a home server with mbsync, then serving the archive locally with Dovecot so any mail client can read it.

2021-10-03T00:00:00+00:00 2024-04-15T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/controlling-home-assistant-with-an-old-remote/

Using a Flirc USB IR receiver to turn old infrared remotes into Home Assistant controllers via keyboard events.

2021-10-02T00:00:00+00:00 2024-04-15T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/how-to-use-zigbee2tasmota-with-home-assistant/

Using a Tasmota Zigbee coordinator directly with Zigbee2Tasmota and MQTT in Home Assistant, instead of ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT.

2021-10-02T00:00:00+00:00 2024-04-15T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/playing-a-sound-directly-from-home-assistant-operating-system/

Playing a door chime through a speaker plugged into the Home Assistant box itself, using the VLC add-on over telnet.

2021-09-29T00:00:00+00:00 2024-04-15T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/a-wired-sonoff-zigbee-alternative/

Compiling and flashing Tasmota onto the EACHEN eWeLink ZB-GW03, an ESP32-based Zigbee bridge with Ethernet, for a wired coordinator that works with ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT.

2021-09-29T00:00:00+00:00 2021-09-29T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/about/

A self-hosting and home automation blog by an ophthalmologist: OPNsense, Home Assistant, Proxmox and Docker, learned the hard way.

2021-09-29T00:00:00+00:00 2024-04-15T00:00:00+00:00 thehelpfulidiot https://thehelpfulidiot.com/hello-world/

How a couple of smart plugs turned into a Proxmox server, VLANs, and a fully self-hosted smart home: the network behind this blog.