Posts

Update DeepStack in Windows 10 for Blue Iris

I’m running Blue Iris with the DeepStack AI integration using the officially supported method with DeepStack running in Windows 10 on the same hardware as Blue Iris. I recently wanted to update DeepStack but couldn’t find Blue Iris-specific documentation on how to do this. It turns out to be very straightforward if things are done…

Read more

Truncate the home-assistant.log file Using a Shell Command

When my Home Assistant instance goes a couple weeks between restarts, the home-assistant.log file can grow to nearly a gigabyte in size if there are any integrations that are throwing error messages regularly. Even on an Intel NUC with a 128GB SSD this was making my snapshots/backups too large in size and using up all…

Read more
Xbox One controller and Apple TV remote

Reset Controller Buttons on Steam Link for tvOS

Lately I’ve been using an Xbox One controller paired to the Apple TV for playing tvOS games. I recently installed the Steam Link tvOS app to play PC games from Steam on it. However I ran into a problem with configuring the controller’s buttons that I could not undo in an obvious way. The Steam…

Read more

Adding a CT101 Z-Wave Thermostat to Home Assistant

These are the steps I used to successfully pair a CT101 Z-Wave thermostat with my USB Z-Wave stick running with Home Assistant. These steps were not totally clear in the instructions that came with the thermostat, so I wanted to write them down here. Put the Z-Wave USB stick into pairing mode; this varies depending…

Read more

How to Increase Sensitivity on Aqara Vibration Sensor with Home Assistant ZHA

I recently purchased an Aqara vibration sensor, but the default sensitivity wasn’t working for my application. The sensor was connected to Home Assistant via the Zigbee Home Automation (ZHA) integration using a GoControl HUSBZB-1. I didn’t see an obvious way to change the sensitivity on the sensor, but fortunately I came across a forum post…

Read more

Syncing a GitHub Fork with the Upstream Repo

GitHub provides some documentation on how to keep your fork in sync with the original (i.e. “upstream”) repo that you forked from. This is essential if you are working on some changes for a long time and the original repo is getting updated with other pull requests in the meantime. There are a couple rules…

Read more

Using Emojis in SharePoint Classic Web Part Titles

I recently helped a client create a COVID-19 page on their intranet, which is still using on-premises SharePoint 2013. To add some visual flair to the page, I used emojis in the web part titles. It’s funny, I haven’t done a lot of work on SharePoint Classic pages in years, and back then emojis were…

Read more

Fix Aeotec Water Sensor Not Working with Home Assistant

Update 2022-05-12: This was originally posted when the legacy Z-Wave integration was in use. Using Z-Wave JS I believe you will need to enable the parameter 121 setting for “On Trigger: Send Binary Sensor Report” is toggled on as shown in the next screenshot. The original article follows the screenshot: I picked up a couple…

Read more