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Showing posts with the label Raspberry

My Home with Apple HomeKit, Home Assistant, Mobile broadband, ZigBee, Z-wave, Matter over Thread, IKEA, ESP32 ......

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During the years it has been a lot of tinkering..... So in this post I will make a list with links to products, software and blogposts describing my daily use. Since the family is Apple users it started up with HomeKit and an Apple TV as the Home hub..... Now I'm moving towards the new standard => Matter over Thread .
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Install Apache/PHP WEB-server on RPi, Linux, Ubuntu, Debian ....

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Updated 2026-09-01 As a part of one of my project,  the ultimate Weather site ? Weather34 , I needed a WEB-host with PHP. Log on, with ssh/terminal to the host,  in this case hostname "pws01",  and update the OS(skip " sudo " if using " root ") with sudo apt update sudo apt full-upgrade -y sudo apt clean go on and install the Apache server with sudo apt install apache2
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Signal K quick install, Raspberry Pi, Proxmox, Ubuntu, Debian

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Updated 2026-08-06 ! 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.
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Volvo Penta NMEA 2000 Gateway

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Updated 2026-06-15 It's always nice to have ALL information at the same place, navigator/plotter, when You are out with the boat.  What could be missing is the engine information/data. If You have a Volvo Penta from 2006 or later it could be pretty easy. There are some "standard" NMEA 2000 gateways to choose from, for example;  Volvo Penta has it's own 22813366, 3889758 Raymarine ECI-100 Maretron J2K100 ..... Since you found this post, check this out => Remote Yacht control  
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OpenPlotter v4 , install guide

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Updated 2026-05-22 ! 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 . Maybe you should think twice before installing OP, u pdates don't happen as often as they should and still using Debian 12. So check out Signal K instead !!
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Home Assistant and Node-RED

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Updated 2026-04-09 ! Node-Red (NR) is  Flow-based programming for the Internet of Things. I have in the past  written a lot of posts  for Node-RED and the   HA implementation  makes it easy to interact with HA:s entities. The best thing is that even if you don't are a skilled programmer, but like logic flows, you can make really advanced things and it really complements the logic that could be made within Home Assistant(HA). In this post I will do a quick introduction to what is possible with NR together with HA.
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DYI Weather template with data from Davis Weatherlink, Gemini, Claude

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I have been very fond of our weather website with the Weather34 application (W34), but there is an end to everything..... Doing an upgrade of the server it collapsed and showed a blank screen. I'm no programmer but I had to test if it was possible to update the app using ChatGPT and Gemini. Burt several hours later I gave up !!
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DMI forecast API for atmosphere, ocean and sea ice, free !

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Updated 2026-03-28 ! DMI is the Danish Meteorological Institute and the   Open Data API provides free and open access to DMI’s data.They are covering a pretty big area not just Denmark . I'm maintaining the weather station for Domstens yacht club and have become really interested in weather "issues". The actual use case for me is that I have to change the mooring, of our boat, if the water level exceeds 60 cm from normal.   For several years I have been searching for a free forecast API so I can get an early warning when the water level rises. Node-Red is used.
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Node-Red quick install

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Updated 2026-03- 15 ! Node-Red (NR) is  Flow-based programming for the Internet of Things This post isn't made as a complete install guide, there are several, just some links to the best information I have found. The best thing is that even if you don't are a skilled programmer, but like logic flows, you can make really advanced things. It's pre-installed on some Raspberry Pi(RPi) distributions. Running  Node-Red with  multiple instances  ?
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Underfloor heating with PID controller, Node-RED

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Updated 2026-01-03 ! In a former post I did some hacking/checking how our underfloor heating control system handled the valves, via actuators, regulating the heat.  Now it was time to do some tests with Node-RED(NR), with a PID controller ,  and a Shelly 1 (S1) connected via WiFi and driving the actuator. I really nice solution with Home Assistant and a relay board is found here ! 
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Should i use the Z-wave.me or Z-wave JS integration with Home Assistant ?

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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
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Z-Wave JS UI standalone server on a Raspberry Pi or Linux computer

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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.
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Raspberry Pi watchdog made simple

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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 !
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Raspberry Pi OS Lite with GUI, RDP, VNC, Chromium

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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... 😉
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Node-Red & Mosquitto quick install, Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry OS

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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 .
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Signal K, stream data changes

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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. 
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Remote access for Linux, remote.it, made simple

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Updated 2025-03-23 ! Sometimes it's really nice to reach your applications, secure and quick, at home when you are somewhere else.  There are several applications but this post will be describe a really quick setup with remote.it  on a Raspberry Pi(RPi) or another Linux platform. Of course there also is a Windows version. But these days I prefer a  VPN solution  ! The most used services are; http, ssh, vnc, rdp, SAMBA(smb/cifs) ..... and  or non-commercial use, with up to 5 devices, it's free ! I'm using it to access Home Assistant , display  NodeRed dashboard , access servers with "ssh" and file sharing with SAMBA there all applications are running on RPi:s at home.
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Z-Wave on Raspberry PI

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Updated 2025-01-25 ! Installing a Z-Wave controller on Raspberry Pi is much easier than You think. The only add on You need is the Razberry Z-wave Shield and free software from the same site.
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Install Weather34 with WeatherLink

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Updated 2025-01-09 PHP 8.2 ! Deprecated !! New approach here !! If You want Your Private Weather Station(PWS) Davis Vantage Pro2, or other Davis products that use WeatherLink, to provide data for the template we use at Domstens BÃ¥tklubb just follow the instructions below.  T his is made  without  additional software such as Cumulus, Weather display or the Meteobridge product. This application is updated !! , to use the v2 API. Check   this post  !!
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Install Weather34 with WeatherLink, v2 API

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Updated 2025-01-08 OK PHP 8.2 ! Deprecated !!  New approach  here  !! or Node-RED    found here . This post is an update from a former post which handles on how to set up a weather WEB-site with data from Davis Weather Link(WL) but here adapted to the latest WL API v2. Any product that reports weather data to WL can be used as a source for this weather template. T his is made  without  additional software such as Cumulus, Weather display or the Meteobridge product.
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Popular posts, last 30 days

Installing Ubuntu 24.04 or 26.04 on an old MacBook Air(2011)

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 Updated 2026-07-09 ! I have done several posts Blogging about how to keep an old MacBook Air(MBA), mid 2011(A1369), with SSD disk "alive". I have used the fantastic software package OpenCore Legacy patcher to upgrade the Mac to the latest Mac OS.  A while ago i tested Mac OS  Sequoia (15.3), on the mentioned Mac, but I had to admit that it was to much for the 14 year old companion. I really like the Mac and everything works, after a battery change , so it ended up with installing   Ubuntu latest LTS (UOS) ! (Above link is now UOS 26 LTS which I have not tested) Ubuntu on  Mac Mini (2018) and MacBookAir (2010)  ?
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iCloud drive sync, or mount, with a Linux, Ubuntu, device

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Updated 2025-01-23 ! With my project to keep a MacBook Air 2011(MBA) alive , Ubuntu installed, i searched for a solution where my iCloud drive(iCD) was  continuous synced with my MBA. This must work both ways so even a file change made on MBA should be replicated to iCD. rclone now, 2025-01, works with iCloud !! Setup below !! Before "rclone" was working with iCloud I solved my sync between iCD and MBA with Syncthing (ST). Check below. ST doesn't sync with iCloud so the work around here was to use my MacMini, Mac OS, as the "Middle man". It's always on and synced with iCD.
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Home Assistant with VirtualBox or Proxmox or Linux KVM ???

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 Updated 2026-07-05 !  After testing Home Assistant (HA) for a while, I’ve realised it could improve my home automation, despite that I'm mainly 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. I have converted to HA running on Proxmox !   😀
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Raspberry Pi OS Lite with GUI, RDP, VNC, Chromium

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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... 😉
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SeaTalk1 to NMEA 0183 converter, DIY

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Updated 2024-08-30 !  !! Another SW solution is available for RPi 5 here !  using the same HW. Thanks to Thomas, (the guy with the nice marine interface board ) ,  it's now possible  to decode, one way, the SeaTalk1(ST1) sentences in a pretty simple way. You just  use OpenPlotter(OP) and/or SignalK(SK) and an  Optocoupler . The thing that made it, is that Thomas   has released a "how to" and  Python source code , that will read the data from a GPIO pin on the Raspberry Pi, (RPi), and format it so the standard parser in SignalK can translate it to SignalK delta format. It is then  available as NMEA 0183. It's even possible to send the data in to a NMEA 2000 network, with a proper hardware interface.
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Clone the Raspberry boot disk

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Updated 2024-02-20 ! A very nice way to fix a backup is to make a copy, bootable, of the actual SD card You are using on the Raspberry Pi(RPi). This will be done even when the RPi is up and running ! This application can also be used to make a bootable SSD or USB drive !! You clone from the command line so You don't need the standard GUI, Pixel, and the " SD card copier "  function. It is also possible to set up a a scheduled job, cronjob explained later, which for example makes a clone every night at 1 o'clock.
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IKEA Bäve dimmer hack II

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Updated 2025-01-10 ! Dimming not dimmable LED, IKEA Bäve, produced before 2019-11 and a new idea for later products ! In former post I used a  Fibaro Z-Wave RGBW controller  but in this post I will use an IKEA original or an external dimmer ?!
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OpenPlotter V2, install guide

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Updated 2023-01-02 ! 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. Please note that OP V2 is outdated use .......
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NetworkManager UI and access point, hotspot

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Updated 2023-10-12 ! In a former post I shared some thoughts about how to start using NetworkManager (NM), on a Raspberry, and here I will continue with additional examples that can help with network setup. NMTUI is NetworkManager text UI which can handle the most common tasks in a easy way. An access point or hotspot will be configured. " sudo nmcli connection edit xxxx " is a command that guides you throw a change of parameters.
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