WordPress, Electronics Home Automation
I recently tried out the self-hosted version of the Umami analytics (v2 specifically). It is a breath of fresh air for anyone used to Google Analytics. Features like individual user session drill-downs and other context related explorations are super simple and straight forward. Here are my notes on the implementation details and reasons for why [ ] Read more
Did you know that you can replace the fiber optic modem/router supplied by your internet service provider (ISP) with a simple SFP stick that runs Linux and does the mapping of light into Ethernet packets directly into your router? Hack GPON is the ultimate resource with tutorials and guides for doing that. In many countries [ ] Read more
Did you know that you can point any domain to 127.0.0.1 and it will happily resolve to your local development environment? No more edits to /etc/hosts or complex NS server setups. For example, if the domain of your project is example.com then you could set the A record of local.example.com to 127.0.0.1. But wait [ ] Read more
Turns out you can t specify a custom email address for a new Google Account if the birthday specified during registration is for an underage person. This is due to the parental controls they enforce for kids accounts and how that functionality requires a @gmail.com account email address. During registration you re asked for name and date [ ] Read more
Learn how to switch to RGB input mode or disable macOS GPU temporal dithering. Read more
A DIY mineralizing solution of silicates, iron sulphate and borax (enhanced with lime, soap, and alcohol for better fixation and penetration) can harden the wood surface, provide natural protection against fungi and insects, and accelerate the development of a consistent silver-grey patina. Read more
Had a deeper look at the FAIR package manager today. Version 1.0 of the WordPress integration plugin introduced package signatures verification (in this pull request). That means that WordPress sites can now cryptographically confirm that a downloaded plugin or theme really came from the claimed publisher (as long as you trust the keys reported by [ ] Read more
WordPress comments are missing critical functionality to really embrace engagement and community there are no notifications when your comment is approved or gets a reply, which prevents any kind of continued discussion. In this video I m demonstrating an update to the Comment Approval Notifications plugin (which hasn t been touched in 10 years) to extend [ ] Read more
How to configure remote syslog in Mikrotik RouterOS for logging to Grafana Promtail and Alloy? Read more
When setting up the podcast for my wife s business, I applied the following customizations to the Seriously Simple Podcasting plugin for WordPress: Disable Podcast Feed Stylesheet By default the plugin applies an XSL stylesheet to the podcast RSS feeds which make them look like the podcast landing page which might confuse some users. The following [ ] Read more
WordPress multisite prevents everybody but super-admins from adding HTML blocks with script and iframe tags also known as unfiltered_html capability which adds the following restrictions (enabled here). This is done for security reasons on sites where anyone could register and post content that could do nasty things with shared cookies (on subdomain and sub-directory [ ] Read more
WordPress login and XML-RPC endpoints at wp-login.php and xmlrpc.php respectively are the mostly widely abused targets for bots scanning the web for sites with weak passwords. Here is a simple Nginx configuration snippet that allows you to set the limit_req depending on the request path and method. First, define the limit_req_zone at the http {} [ ] Read more
I wasn t able to find a tool to resize and center all open windows to a specific size for screen recording, so I came up with this AppleScript: set windowWidth to 1024set windowHeight to 768tell application "Finder" set {0, 0, screenWidth, screenHeight} to bounds of window of desktopend telltell application "System Events" set position of [ ] Read more
Available for around $130 on AliExpress (including shipping) or from the manufacturer store, Airbank D13 Puffer Pro is a battery powered two-stage pump that delivers up to 20 psi (1.4 bar) of pressure. Note that there is also a cheaper version without the battery that requires a 12V power supply. Contrary to the manufacturer specification [ ] Read more
I got my wife this Accolmile Antelope 1S electric bicycle with Bafang components from their latest M-series lineup of mid-drive motors and displays which communicate over a CAN bus. It s a great city bike and the price includes fast shipping from the warehouse in Poland. Their support was also quick to send a replacement wheel [ ] Read more
Makita doesn t make an official USB-C PD (power delivery) adaptor (they only have ADP05 with two 5V/2A ports) so I found this UDCB094 on AliExpress (affiliate link) with PD65W output and with variants for 18V Makita, DeWalt, Milwaukee and Bosch power tool batteries. It appears to very well built using 16AWG wires for the [ ] Read more
Meshtastic is a wonderful project for creating decentralised text-based communication networks for local communities using low power (and low cost) Lora radios. Fun fact the Meshtastic logo appears to reference the chirp modulation used by Lora. The best way to learn about the project is to explore the forum, join the Discord server and [ ] Read more
I ve always wanted a rack mount UPS for all of our homelab gear, and PowerWalker VI 500 was pretty much the cheapest option at EUR 192 at the time. Here are my notes and observations after having used it for more than a year to power a QNAP TS-435XeU server. Power Consumption The unit draws [ ] Read more
Update (2025): Beelink now offers N5105 as part of their Mini S12 and Mini S13 line-up which also includes more recent Intel CPUs such as N95 and N150 (recommended). See the comparison table below ↓ For a home server hosting mostly Docker containers I ve always wanted a computer with proper and multiple disk drives for [ ] Read more
Until recently Zemismart ZMHK-01 was the only Zigbee hub with Apple HomeKit integration. Now there is also NEO NAS-ZW05B0 Zigbee hub (affiliate link) with a HomeKit integration produced by Shenzhen NEO Electronic for around $25 with pretty much the same components. Note that only the wired version (with RJ45 ethernet connections instead of wi-fi) appears [ ] Read more
It is a single unit for ventilation with heat recovery and a heat pump against the exhaust air for heating or cooling the incoming air and producing domestic hot water, and another heat pump against ground loop for additional heating or cooling. Components Here are the components for this particular unit (inspected manually or extracted [ ] Read more
The diminishing returns of insulation thickness is a legend referenced by many builders and architects which is actually incorrect. It is often paired with financial payback calculations that don t consider the full range of insulation benefits. The legend states that any amount of insulation added after R-10,20,30,40 (pick your number but be aware of the [ ] Read more
With electric hot water heaters it is possible to use smart sockets with energy meter capabilities to measure the electricity consumption when the water is not actually used and is heated only to maintain the set temperature. It can be assumed that all of the added heat is equal to the heat lost to the [ ] Read more
These are two devices (AliExpress) with identical PM2.5/PM10 sensors (boxes with the metal cover), temperature and humidity sensors (top center) which are connected to an STC 8G1K08 microcontroller which prepares the data for the Tuya controllers with either WiFi or Zigbee radio (bottom left). The 6in1 version has an additional VOC sensor (bottom right with [ ] Read more
The Passive House standard has two magic numbers related to the heating and cooling requirements for buildings 15kWh is the maximum allowed heating and cooling demand per square meter per year and 10W maximum allowed instantaneous heating or cooling load per square meter. And the buildings need to match just one of these parameters. [ ] Read more
Zemismart ZMHK-01 (AliExpress) is one of the few hubs that is compatible with Apple HomeKit and can expose non-HomeKit Zigbee devices in the Home app similar to the Aqara G2H camera hub. Behind the scenes it uses the Tuya TYZS4 radio module and is very similar to the Tuya reference designs used by many generic [ ] Read more
Hiking DDS238-2 ZN/S is a cheap €20 single phase energy meter which can measure import and export energy in addition to all the standard parameters, and has a Modbus interface over RS485. I used this Modbus registry information to create this device template for Home Assistant where the meter is attached to the Protoss PE11 [ ] Read more
Aqara G2H (ZNSXJ12LM) is a really nice Zigbee hub and indoor camera with official HomeKit support. Of course it runs Linux so people have discovered ways to connect it to Home Assistant which exposes most of your HomeKit devices to Home Assistant over MQTT without impacting the original Apple Home and Aqara app integrations. Getting [ ] Read more
As part of an experiment to add domestic water heating capabilities to conventional mini-split ACs, I purchased an air-source heat pump Gree GWH09YD-S6DBA2A which has an inverter controlled compressor and an electronic expansion valve that allows it to work efficiently even down to -30℃ (-22℉). Service Manual Most of the technical information in this post [ ] Read more
MySensors is a great project for building IoT devices but it tries to do many things define a general serial communications protocol (similar to ModBus, CAN), provide a software library for many hardware devices on top of the Arduino abstraction layer, firmware updates and many other things. I first tried it in 2018 when [ ] Read more