Pyssel

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.

Updated 2026-03-27 ! 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. Please note !!! This integration stopped working with HA 2026.3.4 and the XMPP protocol(IVT) !!! But this one still works and can supply HA with data. 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 2026-03-25 This post is for both Windows and Mac users !   I have been running Linux, Raspberry Pi OS , since several years but almost just the Lite version (without Desktop). But when my old MacBook Air "gave up" , with Mac OS, it came naturally to use Ubuntu Desktop since it's also based on the Debian Linux distribution and the most used Linux distribution. So it ended up with installing Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS (UOS) or the later 25.10 !

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  ?

My  Home Assistant (HA) server setup is  virtualized   with  Linux KVM  and I needed a solution handling  Bluetooth  since the used  Mac Mini  just had a PCI connected one. HA recommends to use a  Bluetooth proxy (BTP) quote  " since Linux kernel updates have previously broken Bluetooth functionality and Bluetooth driver support Linux generally falls behind other operating systems for newer adapters. A Bluetooth proxy is particularly interesting to users who virtualize their instance, where the USB pass-through may cause additional problems ". So using  ESPHome  I will set up a BTP in this post !

Updated 2026-02-24 ! 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. 😉

My Home Assistant (HA) server setup is  virtualized   with Linux KVM  and I needed a solution handling Bluetooth since the used Mac Mini just had a PCI connected one. HA recommends to use a  Bluetooth proxy (BTP) quote  " since Linux kernel updates have previously broken Bluetooth functionality and Bluetooth driver support Linux generally falls behind other operating systems for newer adapters. A Bluetooth proxy is particularly interesting to users who virtualize their instance, where the USB pass-through may cause additional problems ". So using  ESPHome  I will set up a BTP in this post !

Updated 2026-01-01 ! 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.

Updated 2026-01-19 ! 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.