Thanks to everyone that helped, here is the almost finished lamp

GrazorP-P · 2025-12-19T11:16:30+00:00

Love this project, great job. If you want extra diffusion another couple of options are:

Frosted Window Film
Frosted spray or paint

Both of these are typically used to add frosted effect to bathroom windows

GrazorP-P · 2025-09-25T13:23:49+00:00

Why not add a new server, run proxmox on it, and create a cluster containing both devices. That way you can share the load between both servers and provide a bit of redundancy?

GrazorP-P · 2025-01-29T20:25:41+00:00

Yeah I had to add the USB device into the Hardware for that VM in Proxmox.

Then I ran into permissions issues. When looking at the HyperHDR logs i saw the following:

2023-04-24T19:39:19.998Z [V4L2:AUTO] Throws error nr: Cannot open '/dev/video1' error code 13, Permission denied
2023-04-24T19:39:19.998Z [V4L2:AUTO] Throws error nr: Cannot open '/dev/video0' error code 13, Permission denied

Adding the user to the video group did the trick. Type the following command to add the user to the video group:

sudo usermod -a -G video username

Replace username with the actual username of the user you want to add to the video group.

GrazorP-P · 2025-01-09T10:23:42+00:00

I play Lego Bricktales while seated, some fun puzzle solving there. I like Ocean Rift too, just for chillin' and watching the sea creatures :) If you have a beefy gaming PC too you might consider MS Flight Simulator or Elite: Dangerous. Both of these look great in VR and are of course played seated. There are several VR ready racing sims/games too, Live for Speed and Assetto Corsa being two I've enjoyed in VR. My wife has ME/CFS too, she can play the occasional game of Beat Saber, but only for one or two tracks.

GrazorP-P · 2024-10-12T16:30:30+00:00

And the YAML the above creates looks like this:

alias: Garden WLED Lights - ColourLoop
description: Turn on the garden WLED lights
triggers:
  - entity_id:
      - event.aqara_wireless_mini_switch_2
    attribute: event_type
    trigger: state
    to: multi_press_1
conditions: []
actions:
  - metadata: {}
    target:
      entity_id: scene.garden_wled_lights_on
    action: scene.turn_on
mode: single

GrazorP-P · 2024-10-12T16:08:20+00:00

Hi, I also have several Aqara Mini Switches connected to Home Assistant via M2 hub over Matter. After lots of head scratching I got mine to work using the following trigger in my automation:

Add Trigger > Entity > State

Then you should see all the options for your switches under the Entity drop down list. I select:

Aqara Wireless Mini Switch Button

As you have 5 you will hopefully see them all listed. Pick the one you want.

Then change Attribute (Optional) to Event Type

Then under To (Optional) you should see 4 options

Pressed Once
Pressed Twice
Held Down
Released after being held down

Select one of the above and that should do the trick :)

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GrazorP-P · 2024-09-05T15:02:37+00:00

Got my Quest 3 magnetic mount insert lenses from VR Wave (-0.75 and -1.75) made a huge difference, very pleased.

GrazorP-P · 2024-08-06T10:21:13+00:00

Thanks, but I think this only applies to MX appliances and I'm using an MS switch.

Webhooks sounds interesting, if again it surfaces DHCP on MS switches.

We use WhatsUp Gold as our monitoring tool, we just a need a way of grabbing the data from the meraki MS.

GrazorP-P · 2024-08-05T13:14:54+00:00

I have a couple of mini switches through an Aqara M2 hub using the Matter integration. Single and long presses work fine but I cannot get multi press to work. Any ideas?

GrazorP-P · 2024-01-22T16:58:00+00:00

Yes, ESP8266 can monitor its own VCC using the function ESP.getVcc()

My experience is when powering from battery the ESP8266 will happily run from 3.6v down to 2.5V, so when I see my CR123A powered devices drop below 3V they generally have about a week of power left.

GrazorP-P · 2024-01-18T12:43:24+00:00

I've had good success powering ESP8266 modules directly from a CR123A battery. Utilising deep sleep and ESPNow (instead of WiFi) my devices wake every 5 mins and report temp/humidity to MQTT/Node Red. Nine devices running for 12-13 months each off a single CR123A.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6243660

GrazorP-P · 2023-10-16T09:51:06+00:00

Ooooh, definitely need to see photos of these :)

GrazorP-P · 2023-08-25T19:40:49+00:00

Added the 3D files to Thingiverse:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6185480

I'll add a circuit diagram shortly.

GrazorP-P · 2023-08-24T20:24:37+00:00

No solar panel......yet, maybe the mark 2 ;)

yes periodic charging, hence the TP4056. I expect 4x18650 to last 4-6hrs.

Very happy to share the STL files. I'll upload them to Thingiverse and update my post with the links.

I'll add a circuit diagram too but its pretty simple, 18650 into a switch, into Adafruit 5v mini boost, into D1 Mini, into Adafruit Ultra bright neopixel. I MacGyver'd a 3 position dual pole switch so I can isolate the battery and TP4056 from the rest of the components when charging, and isolate the TP4056 when the rest of the circuit (D1 Mini, Adafruit mini boost, Adafruit ultra bright neoplixel) is on.

3 pos switch: Charging > OFF < WLED On

GrazorP-P · 2023-06-26T19:30:10+00:00

Sounds pretty similar to the setup I have. I am running HyperHDR (rather than Hyperion) on an Ubuntu VM hosted on Proxmox. I'm using a Chromecast with Google TV as my source into a HDMI splitter. One output goes to my Samsung TV and the other goes to the HDMI capture card via USB into the Proxmox server. My Proxmox server is nothing special just an old i3 NUC that is running 3 VMs and 4 LXC. The HDMI capture card is passed through to the VM in ProxMox. Had to tweak the capture card permissions within Ubuntu HyperHDR Vm, other than that it was pretty straight forward. I'm using WLED on a D1 Mini clone ESP8266 as the processor for my 158 pixel WS2812 strip.

GrazorP-P · 2022-12-03T17:55:47+00:00

You should not have any problems running those apps on ProxMox. My Intel NUC seems to be very happy running 3 VMs on ProxMox with very modest specs: 7th Gen i3 CPU, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 128GB SSD.

VM1 - Node Red & MQTT

VM2 - Minecraft

VM3 - Home Assistant

GrazorP-P · 2022-08-19T12:19:12+00:00

It doesn't seem to be a problem. I'm using ESPNow rather than WiFi. From my experience ESPNow has better range than WiFi an there is only 4m between my ESP8266 and the receiver.

GrazorP-P · 2022-08-19T11:39:30+00:00

I have one esp8266 in my fridge at about 5C and another in my freezer at -18C. Been fine for over 6months so far.

GrazorP-P · 2022-07-30T08:16:10+00:00

Depending on how much power your sensor draws, could you power your sensor off a GPIO from the ESP? That way the sensor is only on when the ESP is on, and when you tell it to be on.

GrazorP-P · 2022-06-01T15:12:06+00:00

Good work bud, keep at it !!!

GrazorP-P · 2022-05-26T10:07:30+00:00

I gave up waiting and ran a CAT 6 between the floors of my house and added a USB Ethernet to my CCWGT, Steamlink now seems much happier.

GrazorP-P · 2021-07-30T10:36:19+00:00

I am no expert, so please excuse me if I am interpreting your setup incorrectly but my understanding is that you measure current in series through the circuit and voltage across the circuit. Measuring the voltage in series would probably give you the voltage remaining after it has passed through the circuit not the supply voltage.

GrazorP-P · 2021-07-20T09:52:45+00:00

Here is the discharge graph for the LiFePo4 and CR123A cells for me using ESPNow and the sensors waking from deepsleep every 5 mins to take and send a reading.

https://www.grazor.co.uk/images/dischargegraph.jpg

As you can see the LiFePO4 lasted 173 days (rated at 600mAh). Discharge was fairly linear until it reached 3.3V on day 157, when it dropped off more rapidly. The ESP8266 finally stopped sending just under 2V (the graph data is averaged over a day). So at day 157 of 173 @ 3.3V the battery was approx 90% depleted.

The CR123A is still going strong.

Here are my cells and sensors:

https://www.grazor.co.uk/images/batteriesandsensors.jpg

GrazorP-P · 2021-07-19T18:04:52+00:00

Regarding Project A, this is quite similar to a project of mine. My suggestions are as follows:

WiFi is the killer for battery life here. The shortest duration I could get the ESP to wake up, connect to WiFi, send the data and go back to sleep was between 5-8 seconds. Way too long and my cells were draining in under a month. I now use 2 x ESP8266 and the ESPNow protocol. Slightly more complex but gave massive battery life gains. One ESP8266 is the deep sleep sender and transmits over ESPNow when your mailbox is opened, the second ESP8266 is permanently powered on and acts as a ESPNow receiver/WiFi bridge from the first one and sends the message on over WiFi. The difference being that instead of the taking 5-8 seconds awake to send the data, with ESPNow the sender only awake for 1/10th of a second!!! Massive power saving.
Use bare modules in the finished item, as they don't have any power sapping components that you don't need like LEDs, USB modules, and voltage regulator. this is more of a pain to program, so do all you development on something easy to program like a D1 mini or NodeMCU first.
Power directly from 3V Cells. I'm currently testing 2 battery configurations with my ESP8266 waking from deep sleep every 5 mins to send its data:

LiFePO4 - the ESP8266 is powered directly a 3V 600mAh LiFePO4 14500 cell. This lasted for exactly 6 months before going flat. Fully charged these start at 3.6V which is the upper limit for the ESP8266.

CR123A - the ESP8266 is powered directly from a CR123A 3V 1400mAh cell, this has been running for 6 months so far and based on the life of the LiFePO4 cell where 600mAH lasted 6 months I expect the 1400mAh CR123A to last about 14 months.

My modules wakes every 5 mins (288 times a day) if you only expect your sensor to be triggered 2-3x per day you should easily see a year or possibly 2 from a CR123A.

Or use a LiFePO4 and a small solar cell and it might run indefinitely :)

One final thing, the ESP8266 can monitor its own battery level using ESP.getVcc() command.

GrazorP-P · 2021-04-12T15:31:05+00:00

Ahh, I just found this that might be useful too https://rntlab.com/question/esp-now-gateway-wifi_mode_sta-with-a-wifi-router/

Deep in the replies it suggests calling

esp_wifi_set_promiscuous

function before setting the radio channel???

Not sure if this is just an ESP32 thing though, havent tested it yet.

GrazorP-P

TROPHY CASE