Presence detection: Bee in a box

2021-07-22 Smart Home Michael Kolb

The ‘bee in a box’ algorithm enables you to detect presence in a given area of your smart home. It will enable your smart home system to know whether in a given area anybody is present or not. No special sensors or other additional hardware is required to do so. Bee in a box algorithm: The theory Imagine somebody handing you over a small box made out of cardboard. On the top side of the box, there is a yellow warning symbol ‘Warning: there might be a bee inside’. Continue reading

ESP32 as BLE Gateway for Xiaomi Mijia BLE Temperature & Humidity Sensor

2021-07-01 Smart Home Michael Kolb

Problem statement Too many unused BLE sensors, too much time during the COVID-19 lockdown - lets add more sensors! Just because we can… No seriously. I struggled a lot with too much humidity in the air in several areas of my house. After having a hot shower in the bathroom, the humidity condensed at the window, increasing the risk for mold growth. In the basement where our food supplies are stored, we had issues with salt getting wet. Continue reading

Monitor the pH of your reef tank with Tasmota

2021-03-01 Smart Home Michael Kolb

Monitoring water values of your fish tank is essential. To keep your reef-ecosystem alive, several dozens of water values need to be measured. This can be quite annoying to do that manually all the time. So I just started automating the measurement of them via Tasmota. One of the leading indicators for a fish tank is the pH level of the water. Measuring the pH level gives you a good indication for several other water values as well. Continue reading