Father. Photographer. Geek.
I make geeky things for my family and take photos of them!
Projects.
Some projects I've done to help out around the house... or just for the fun of it!
Naptime Monitor
Why buy an expensive video monitor to watch my son sleep what I can make my own IR video monitor? Not only does it let me monitor my son while he's napping, it can intelligently tell me when he wakes up by texting my phone! Also tracks stats such as average naptime, best wake-up detection, and turn off our house's doorbell.
Modern Spa
When I bought our house, the spa's jets and heater could only be controlled from the breaker box in the basement! Now, I can control it all from my phone or Alexa complete with maintenance runs and temperature management. Makes maintaining and using the spa MUCH easier!
Home Automation Upgrade
My home was built in the 60's with a very basic home automation system. I've since gone through and modernized in so that everything it could control can now be managed on my phone as well as controlled by Alexa.
Doorbell Control
With three kids, it quickly got old to have them all down for a nap only to have someone ring the doorbell! To work around this, I added my own hardware to intercept the doorbell signal so I can control if the chime is on or not. It also can text my wife and I when the doorbell is rung and, as an added bonus, I can ring it from my phone just to tease the dog. :)
RF Control
I bought an extremely cheap set of RF 433Mhz outlet switches. The problem was that the remote was broken so that only 3 of the 5 buttons worked! To work around that, I used a Raspberry Pi to implement my own controller complete with scheduling capabilities.
Node Red Home Automation
Setup Node Red to monitor and control many aspects of my home. From the 60s home automation (mentioned above) to WeMo outlets, garage door, HVAC, and other sensors/services -- everything can now be controlled by a Node Red UI. In addition, it supports my own Alexa interface for additional control.