Blog2023 ≫ New Home Automation dongle has arrived

The dongle got here very quickly, but not the new home automation server yet. It's coming from China via FedEx, I suppose it could arrive today, probably in the week though. What is a dongle anyway? This is just the term for a thing you plug in the USB really. The server runs the softward but doesn't have the radio transmitter / receiver to talk to the devices that are not on wifi, that's what you need the dongle for.

I have looked into the wall display panel some more, I don't think it's easy in the UK. I wanted one that fits into the space where a light switch would go, to operate as a touch screen light switch, but also provide some more info. I hoped this would be the thing1 but it needs a neutral wire, so no good in the spot where a light switch would go in the UK. It looks just the job apart from that, little screen and actual buttons. It's a mini android device, like a tablet or phone. This is the one people have had success with1, replacing the app it is running with one that runs Home Assistant so you have full customisation. But a) no neutral wire b) they seem to have stopped doing them.

Instead maybe some of these are the answer1, they go behind the light switch, you put a normal light switch back in its place over the top. This means I can have nice light switches that don't look like like the home automation frankenswitches I have now, but still have the full home automation chops. This doesn't provide the display panel at all of course but makes things like nice and normal.

A quiet day today after the cinema and all the exercise yesterday. It's actually Folkestone half marathon today, but I didn't know about it until yesterday, I'm not fit enough, wasn't prepared for it, and have been ill. Apart from that though... Going to take a walk to Waitrose to collect a new lunchbox Clare ordered, as T1 dropped and broke his at school on Friday. Waitrose, Sunday afternoon, that will take me right past the Potting Shed...

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Paul Clarkeʼs weblog - I live in Hythe, Kent. Married to Clare and father to two, I am a full-stack web engineer, + I do js / nodejs, some ruby, python, php ect ect. I like pubs, running, eating, home-automation + other diy jiggery-pokery, history, tree stuff, Television, squirrels, pirates, lego, + TIME TRAVEL.