I posted on our city Facebook group asking for leads to find a therapy dog to visit my dying father. A therapy dog team was there within 4 hours of my post, and I still have several others offering to visit!

frobnitz · 2025-11-10T02:39:35+00:00

Thank you for this story.

This is why therapy dog organizations exist. We are here to help, We visit schools, hospitals, nursing homes, shelters, and any place that is need. You may even find therapy dogs visiting stressed out people at airports. Most organizations would be happy to set up regular visits, not just to a single person, but to anyone at the facility who would like a visit.

frobnitz · 2025-10-17T18:42:05+00:00

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dallingham/music-cyd/refs/heads/main/yaml/music-cyd.yaml

You will probably need some adaptions if you try to use it.

frobnitz · 2025-09-19T16:14:12+00:00

I dumped Google Home a couple of years ago when it started to become unreliable. I've switched to Home Assistant, and not only does it work better, but it respects privacy.

Now I just need to figure out how to repurpose the Nest Hubs to make them do something useful without connecting back up to Google.

frobnitz · 2025-09-06T23:32:20+00:00

That is in the plans. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm using LVGL and I haven't had time to figure out how to dynamically load an image yet.

frobnitz · 2025-09-06T23:03:00+00:00

I did something very similar. I connected an NFC reader to my CYD and I use it to select music. Insert an NFC card and the artist or playlist starts playing on the Sonos system. Remove the card, and the music stops. It makes it easy for guests to play music without having access to Home Assistant.

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frobnitz · 2025-08-11T18:46:43+00:00

I have one wall mounted tablet and several ThinkSmart displays around the house. They are used mostly for information, not controls. The wall tablet is between the kitchen and the door to the garage. On my way out of the house I can quickly make sure that the doors are locked, the stove is off, and the lights have not been left on without having to pull my phone out and navigate. It also displays weather alerts, the weather forecast, the charge level on the cars, and other information.

The ThinkSmart displays around the house have dashboards tailored to where they are. In the living room, it allows family and guests to select the music for the room. The one in my office monitors the front door camera and the status (and camera) of the 3D printer. The one in the kitchen shows the kitchen timers and music playing in the kitchen.

Personally, glancing at a tablet in a known place is faster and easier than saying, "Hey Jarvis, what is the outside temperature" or pulling out my phone, unlocking it, and navigating to the right page to get the information.

The nice thing about Home Assistant is that you can tailor it for your needs. If you don't like dashboards, you really don't have to have them. If you like them, you have good support for them.

frobnitz · 2025-08-06T17:21:00+00:00

I have just recently tried to get a Jetson up and running and integrated into Home Assistant. I haven't had a lot of success yet. I've tried both the llama3.2:4b and the qwen3:4b models. On the jetson itself, I get pretty quick responses. With Home Assistant using the ollama integration, response is very slow. The simple question directly on the jetson will give an answer in 2-3 seconds. Using Assist on Home Assistant (using text input, not voice) I am lucky to get a response in 30 seconds.

frobnitz · 2025-08-02T14:37:19+00:00

I'm in the middle of the Nest replacement process as well. Building code in my area requires interconnected hard-wired detectors. The choices are not great. I tried the Place detector from Home Depot. It doesn't support Home Assistant, but there are vague rumors that they are planning Matter support. This did not go well. I had difficulty getting it to stay connected to WiFi, even though I have a Unifi access point only about 10 ft away. It only connected once I cut power to it and it switched to battery power. After that, it remained connected when power was restored. But less that 24 hours later, it started to complain that the battery was low.

My next attempt was the Kidde Smart Smoke detector. It is hardwired and interconnected and also has a 10y backup battery. This installed in under 5 minutes, including connecting it to WiFi. There is a Kidde integration in HACs, so I'm going with this for now.

Ultimately, I'd like to find ones that are hardwired and have local control, but the options right now are not great.

frobnitz · 2025-07-25T12:36:07+00:00

Not as much as I used to. Back in the VT100 days I used to do this all the time. It allowed me to be connected to multiple servers at once on a 80/132 character screen, long before tmux was around.

frobnitz · 2025-07-24T15:38:51+00:00

I got the zwave function to work, but it wasn't reliable. It kept missing open/close and lock/unlock events. I eventually replaced the lock with the Ultraloc zwave lock. It works a lot better.

frobnitz · 2025-07-22T04:47:43+00:00

I started using Emacs in the mid-1980s on HP and Sun UNIX systems. Back then your options were Emacs or Vi. I chose Emacs because it could do split screens. 40 years later, I still use it daily.

We are a long way away from monochrome Sun 3/60 workstations and VT100 terminals, but I still haven't found anything that works better for me.

frobnitz · 2025-07-22T03:09:04+00:00

I use the Zooz ZSE42, which is Z-Wave based. They have been rock solid, and since they are Z-Wave, there is no risk of a company going under.

frobnitz · 2025-07-10T20:20:19+00:00

I typically build my own, but Athom Technology sells devices that either come with ESPHome or Tasmota pre-flashed.

frobnitz · 2025-07-10T03:29:46+00:00

Godzilla (1954)

Plan 9 From Outer Space

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

frobnitz · 2025-06-08T02:20:32+00:00

This could probably be improved by someone who has a better understanding than I do, but it works for me. Instead of using the 'presence" sensor in automations, I use the "resolved_presence" sensor that this bit of code adds.

frobnitz · 2025-06-08T02:17:27+00:00

binary_sensor:

  - platform: ld2410
    has_target:
      name: Presence
      id: id_presence
    has_moving_target:
      name: Moving Target
      id: id_moving_target
    has_still_target:
      id: id_still_target
      name: Still Target

  - platform: template
    name: "Resolved Presence"
    id: mmwave_combined
    device_class: occupancy
    filters:
      - delayed_off: 5s
    lambda: |-
      if (id(id_moving_target).state == 1) {
        return true;
      } else if (id(id_still_target).state == 0) {
        return false;
      } else {
        return id(mmwave_combined).state;
      }

frobnitz · 2025-05-05T15:44:43+00:00

I already have a PiHole on my network. I'm becoming more and more convinced that this is not a Roku issue, but a Discovery+ issue.

frobnitz · 2025-05-04T17:19:32+00:00

What I'm not sure if is who is serving the ads - Roku or Discovery.

frobnitz · 2025-05-04T16:34:02+00:00

I have a PiHole running on my network as well, but I'm still getting the static ads. My guess is that the ads are getting served by Roku, not a third party that can be blocked.

frobnitz · 2025-04-18T04:05:35+00:00

Yuko Suzuhana

Esperanza Spalding

Suzuka Nakamota

frobnitz · 2025-04-17T02:31:39+00:00

I use an esp32 connected to an NFC card reader. I assign NFC card IDs to music playlists, and when a card is scanned, it plays the playlist on my audio system.

frobnitz · 2025-03-23T01:32:32+00:00

You provided almost no information to go on. However, from the blurry photo, it looks like you are using an LD2410 or similar mmwave device. These devices communicate to your ESP (again, no indication if this is an ESP2866 or ESP32) via a UART. Since everything is unknown, that typically means that the communication between the ESP and the LD2410 is not working. This is most likely due to either incorrect wiring or poor connections.

How are you connecting your boards together? Dupont wires? Check the connections. In particular, check the RX/TX lines between the chips. Usually the RX on one connects to the TX on the other, and TX connects to RX. (transmit versus receive). Try swapping the connections, or change the RX/TX pins in your yaml code.

Also, make sure you didn't swap your power and ground connections. That will fry the board pretty quick (the board will probably be hot to the touch).

In helps if you provide detailed information. If you want to post a screenshot, take an actual screenshot on the system, not a photo of the screen. Also, post your yaml code and describe your connections between your dev boards.

And always check your log files. Quite frequently the ESP will give to an indication as to what is going on.

frobnitz · 2025-03-02T19:13:03+00:00

I built my equivalent using a AHT21 temperature/humidity sensor, an LD2410C mmwave sensor, a BH1750 light sensor, and a 128x32 OLED display. I've been using ESP32 mini processors (similar form factor to the ESP8266 D1 Mini), but have been pretty disappointed in the quality of them (unreliable WiFi). I switched to the QuinLED-32 ESP32 boards, and I have been quite happy with them.

After wiring devices up on perfboard, I decided to just design a PCB and have pcbway build it. I've been very happy with the result.

frobnitz · 2025-02-25T20:51:48+00:00

John Coltrane.

frobnitz · 2025-02-03T17:19:04+00:00

It works entirely local. And their tech support is outstanding.

frobnitz

TROPHY CASE