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In previous posts, I’ve been testing and figuring out how to manage my old control system for our underfloor heating. Now, it was time for something more bold, and since I’m increasingly impressed with Home Assistant(HA) and its software capabilities, that’s exactly what I did. Industrial-style ESP32 boards are becoming increasingly popular for Home Assistant and automation projects, especially when they include Ethernet, isolated inputs and relay outputs on a single PCB. The Waveshare ESP32-S3-ETH-8DI-8RO (W8) is one such board: it’s compact, well-equipped and clearly designed for serious control applications, rather than just hobbyist breadboards. In this post, I’ll share my experience setting up this board using ESPHome , pointing out the main configuration points, common mistakes and practical lessons I’ve learned along the way.

I have made several posts regarding temperature ,  in some way, and now I'm back with a post using Home Assistant(HA) and controlling temperature. The primary purpose of this post is to address an upcoming issue with our floor heating system. However, it may also provide some assistance for other temperature control problems using HA "Generic Thermostat" As said before I'm more comfortable with Node-RED then YAML, in HA, so .....😎

Updated 2025-12-01 ! OpenPlotter(OP), a Boat Navigation application, is really a nice and simple installation of OpenPlotter (OP) OpenCPN (OC) SignalK (SK)  and other supporting applications for Your boat. An overall information about the OP package is found  here   and you can watch the OP v4 progress  here .

Updated 2025-11-01 ! I have written a post with the same subject before, also using NodeRed (NR), but this post is using the latest WeatherLink v2 API instead of the v1 API .  The v2 API supports more devices and now also including the old ones. If You want a more advanced weather site  this is  a very nice one coded in PHP also using the v2 API.

The short answer is that if you have a  Z-wave.me adapter and are using their Z-wave.me server you shall use the  Z-wave.me integration . On the other hand if you want to use the latest updated software, for your Z-wave.me product, or almost any other , use the Z-wave JS server together with the Z-wave integration . This post will show how to set up the integrations interfacing a standalone  Z-wave.me server  and a standalone  Z-wave JS server

Instead of buying  a new Z-Way adapter I thought it would be a nice project to reuse the almost 10 year old RaZberry 2(RZ) adapter together with a Raspberry Pi 2(RPi).  After some Googling I found  Z-Wave JS UI (ZUI) which is both the server part and an UI. The described installation could be used for almost "any" Z-way interface, impressing list ! , and for "any" Linux distribution.

Updated 2025-10-16 ! In search of the optimal solution on how to interface our IVT Heat pump,   first try here , I stumbled over   a nice integration   for Home Assistant(HA). A first quick setup is shown at the right. The first obstacle was that it was HA which I knew about but never used.  So it was "back too school" and doing  a blog post  about a HA Core install.

Updated 2025-10-15 for Trixie ! The purpose of a watchdog timer(WD) is very well described here but a more practical answer is; If your Raspberry Pi(RPi) "freezes", or hangs, it will automagically reboot within a very short time. This is made with a combination of hardware and software which is all ready available, on the RPi, and just have to be enabled. After some hours Googling and testing these are my findings !

Updated 2025-10-02 ! I like the Raspberry Pi(RPi), with Raspberry Pi OS Lite (no Desktop is included), headless operation, and then adding the software You need. Until now I haven't had a use case where I needed a Desktop but now was time.  Why don't use the Raspberry Pi OS with Desktop ?? In that package there is a lot of software I don't need and I really want to optimize the RPi. I think that the less software You install the happier RPi will be... 😉

Having some Linux servers up and running I checked out  monitoring tools like Nagios, Zabbix, Cockpit or Prometheus. For small setups, home labs, or lightweight environments, those solutions can feel like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. In this post, I’ll show you how to build a   lightweight monitoring agent   using nothing more than a Bash script, MQTT, and Node-RED. The script collects key metrics from your server — disk usage, memory consumption, CPU load, and available package upgrades — then publishes them to an MQTT broker. From there, Node-RED visualizes the data in a clean, real-time dashboard. The result? A simple but powerful monitoring system that works across multiple servers, scales with your needs, and gives you instant visibility into the health of your infrastructure. And the best part: you control every piece of it.

Updated 2025-09-08 ! A fantastic way to distribute data between devices is using MQTT . In this post I will do a quick and simple setup with Node-Red(NR) and the Mosquitto(MQ) broker on a Linux machine. Very short, the Broker , installed on a server, handles incoming Publishing and Subscriptions from clients. Every published  Message is "linked" to a Topic.  All Subscribers use a  Topic to "link" to the right Message . How to install Node-Red(NR)  is found here  and the MQ manual here .

For a long time I have checked for a good solution to reach my servers at home. My  thoughts   now have finalized in the VPN solution Zero Tier(ZT) where I reach Ubuntu desktop with "RDP" and Ubuntu server with "ssh". The ZT solution also works great with the Home Assistant(HA) browser access and the HA Mobile App. Until now I have used remote.it but ZT will manage all of my network resources as if they were on the same LAN . The Ubuntu desktop installation is running a Linux KVM with HA and an Ubuntu server Lite as  guests .  Setup here .

Updated 2025-08-25 ! What is the purpose of a Home Assistant(HA)  according to Wikipedia ? Home Assistant is free and open-source software used for home automation. It serves as an integration platform and smart home hub, allowing users to control smart home devices. The software emphasizes local control and privacy and is designed to be independent of any specific Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem.  Even for me, as someone running Apple HomeKit and Homebridge, it is a fantastic piece of software that bridges almost everything and enables highly intelligent integrations.  Since it is widely used, there is a wealth of information available. However, I couldn't find a clear "bullet list" on how to get started. This post will primarily contain links to other sources rather than writing extensive explanations myself.

  I really like the products on AliExpress and Alibaba, but in most cases the documentation is very simple and to short. So when I bought a combined tracker and a burglar alarm, to our boat, I really tried to get the best. One important thing was that, if possible, getting a lifetime app support. The purchase went well and 14 days later it arrived in Sweden.

It's almost become a sport to revive old Macs..... 😉 This short post will address some obstacles found during install of a new OS. The Mac Mini:s WiFi controller wasn't found ! The MacBook Air didn't manage to do a USB boot with Ubuntu !

Updated 2025-06-28 ! Are You searching for a solution where You want to create graphs and gauges from SignalK(SK) data ? Use NodeRed(NR), installed as a SK plugin , with the standard dashboard and it's easy to create info as seen in the picture. And this is without a database as InfluxDB and tools like Grafana. You use the WebSocket interface , or SK subscribe nodes, to subscribe to changes in data from the SK server. 

Updated 2025-06-23 ! I have got some questions installing, just,  Signal K (SK) so will do a summary with links. Signal K is the hub to receive data, from different devices in different data formats, and send it on to different equipment, or databases, in different formats. Most common for standard marine equipment are the old NMEA 0183 and the newer NMEA 2000 protocol which is also handled.  Besides the SK "hub" function developers  have  created  plugins  for different purposes. This is due to that  SK is open-source ! Sharing is caring ! In this post you can check the devices I'm using connected to the SK server and also my setup.

We’ve been using Mobile Broadband for several years and have always been keen to measure the speed from our Internet Service Provider (ISP). I’ve posted several variants , mostly Node-RED(NR) flows and programs that often use Python. I’m now slowly converting to Home Assistant(HA), and was glad there was an integration,   Speedtest , to do the job.  But I couldn’t get it to work since HA didn’t like that the test took more than 10 seconds,  Then I tried a Speedtest NR node, but it didn’t install because it needed Python dependencies...... (NR was installed as a HA "Add-on")

Updated 2025-06-10 ! The sea water pump, labeled 3589907 and replaced by 21380890, was leaking a little so a change of seal was necessary. Numbers below refers to the explode view. Detach the generator belt from the pump pulley and the 2 hoses from the pump. Unscrew the water pump, 4 scews, from the engine block. Remove the cover, 7, from the pump. Pull out the impeller, 6. Remove the cam, 4, by unscrewing screw 18. Remove the washer, 22. Remove the lock ring 14 and washer 21. With a pliers try to remove the seal 8.

After testing Home Assistant (HA) for a while, I’ve realised it could improve my home automation, despite that I'm using Apple HomeKit. When I tested HA with Node-RED and some other "Add-ons", on a Raspberry Pi 3 (RPi), I found that its resources wasn’t enough. The following setup could be any computer but I recently bought an Apple Mac Mini M4, replacing my 2018 (M18) model, so the M18 was really a great candidate for my HA setup. The preferred method running HA is through the  HA Operating System (HAOS), which makes your "life" easier. 😉