Research

This is a summary of my experience, and the exact steps I followed, to convert cheap Tuya based WiFi smart plugs to ESPHome for Home Assistant integration. I am a novice when it comes to ESPHome, and I pieced information together from various great sources: Tuya Convert project. ESPHome Tuya Convert guide. ESPHome migrating from Tasmota guide. ESPHome Config device templates. Blakadder device templates. DigiblurDIY Tuya Convert guide. Frenck power plug calibration guide. My goal was to use Tuya Convert, for it allows over the air firmware conversion, and no physical disassembly and firmware programmer wiring is required. Unfortunately I found that many currently shipping versions of plugs that apparently used to work no longer work, possibly contributed to by Tuya switching from ESP82xx to Realtek chips. The model numbers and physical appearance of the plugs did not change, making it difficult to predict what you will get if you buy now. ...

I finally took the plunge and moved from Unraid to Proxmox VE. I used to love Unraid, but at some point the easy to use web management UI and app store ecosystem simply lacked capabilities I needed for deployment automation and configuration tasks. Then there is the problem with the poor IO performance, that I’ve written several posts on, and excessive SSD writes wearing out drives, that have remained unresolved, and no solution seems to be forthcoming. ...

In my last round of testing I found that Unraid v6.8 SMB still underperforms compared to Windows Server 2019, but I was wondering if it is a Linux Samba problem, or an Unraid problem. I installed an Ubuntu Server 18.04.3 LTS VM on Unraid, bridged network, 16GB RAM, 128GB raw disk located on the BTRFS cache volume, consisting of 4 x Samsung Pro 860 SSD drives. This is exactly the same configuration I use for the W2K19 test VM. I installed Samba on Ubuntu using default options. ...

In a previous post I wrote about my transition from Nest to Ecobee3 thermostats, and how the biggest benefit of the E3 was the use of remote sensors. After several months of use, winter and summer, I find the remote sensors really do work very well, and our bedrooms remain at the desired temperature, while the areas around the thermostats can be warmer or colder. But, the E3 is not perfect, there are two recurring problems; the remote sensors would report offline, and the units would lose network connectivity. ...

[7 years later, see update at end of post] This post is about my research into finding suitable MR16 LED’s for replacing the 50W recessed halogen lights in our house. In summary, I’ve found “ok” bulbs, not great bulbs, and you can read about the details below. Our house is about 3 years old, new construction, and one of the many decisions we made during planning was recessed halogen vs. recessed LED lighting. At the time my calculations showed the additional cost for LED lights would only be recovered in electricity cost savings after about 12 years, not worth the cost at the time. Another problem was the optical quality of the products, the near halogen optical quality LED products were ridiculously expensive, and the mainstream LED’s were of poor optical quality, and had poor dimmability. ...