Category: Renovations

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AMG8833 IR Thermal Camera

After the pressure switches proved out to be not a viable sensor for detecting what stair a person was on, I started to look at the AMG8833 module. I had a couple in the workshop from past projects (people counting) and so it was free to prototype. After some initial testing, I am beginning to think it will be good solution. My alternative is a laser point sensor, but the beam is too narrow and from some initial tests it has a hard time tracking a human accurately.

The resolution is 8×8 so to be able to achieve one row of pixels per stair I will have two use two aligned sensors. This shouldn’t be an issue, but still need to iterate on this to achieve full coverage, and to get the data into Home Assistant. More to come.

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Found the perfect place for our bridge sign

I have had this sign ever since I moved out of my parents house. This was shoved in a corner of the basement when they bought it. I never figured out why it was in the basement. I have read that the bridge was built from 1927-1929, but the sign says 1919. Maybe the sign company go the date wrong, or maybe there were huge delays. I am not sure but, it is a sweet ass lift bridge from the city I was born in.

4x speed

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Stairs

This was a big project but it turned out to be much easier than expected. The pressure switches were a bust but the LEDs strips work great. The stairs do not have enough play in them to trigger the pressure switches. I plan to use a distance sensor in leu of the switches.

Before
Pressure Sensor
LEDs, Sensors & Skirt Board
Lots of wires
Landing glued up
Stain Landing
Stain Treads
Skirt Board
Rugs So We Don’t Slip
Replaced The Light
After
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Second Floor Hallway Built-in

I cant seem to find a picture of the before but I was able to snap this frame from a video I found. The outside did not look too bad but the inside was the main reason we replaced the whole thing. I will update this post if I find any footage from the inside.

This was a simple build from a wood working stand-point. The whole unit was build downstairs in the workshop and dropped right place. Installed the molding, door, and paint.

I pre-ran all the LED wires prior to installing the frame. This project used 144/m 5V Individual Addressable RGB WS2812B LED Strip. After this project, I moved to all 12V variants and stopped obsessing over controlling every single pixel. The 5V + 144/M + long wire runs initially gave me some issue, but I eventually over came them.

The LEDs sit in a quarter round defuser that I originally bought for the stairs. This was my test run for the stair project and I am happy with how they came out.

Before
New Insides
Trim It
Test Fit The Door
Same Style Pulls
Dat Dense
Cover Up!
After Side
After Side
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Hacking A Light Fixture To Free It… Cloud Free

I purchased the light and took a little bit to reverse engineer what pins did what but in the end it was one of the easier devices to hack. The main reason is all the IO is controlled by the main ESP. They do not have a secondary microcontroller that needs to be interfaced with. The main center light and the RGB ring are controlled independently.

ESPHome Config

esphome:
  name: hallway-rgbcct-light
  friendly_name: Hallway RGBCCT Light
  on_boot:
    priority: 600
    # ...
    then:
    - light.turn_on:
        id: hallway_rgb_light
        brightness: 50%
        red: 25%
        green: 0%
        blue: 100%
    - light.turn_on:
        id: hallway_cwww_light
        brightness: 70%
        cold_white: 0%
        warm_white: 100%

esp8266:
  board: esp01_1m

# Enable logging
logger:

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:
  encryption:
    key: ""
ota:
  platform: esphome
  password: ""

wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password

  # Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
  ap:
    ssid: !secret AP_ssid
    password:  !secret AP_password

captive_portal:

sensor:
  - platform: uptime
    name: ${friendly_name} Uptime

  - platform: wifi_signal
    name: ${friendly_name} Signal Strength

output:
  - platform: esp8266_pwm
    id: output_cw
    pin: GPIO5
  - platform: esp8266_pwm
    id: output_ww
    pin: GPIO4
  - platform: esp8266_pwm
    pin: GPIO1
    id: output_r
  - platform: esp8266_pwm
    pin: GPIO12
    id: output_b
  - platform: esp8266_pwm
    pin: GPIO13
    id: output_g

light:
  - platform: cwww
    name: "Hallway CWWW Light"
    id: hallway_cwww_light
    cold_white: output_cw
    warm_white: output_ww
    cold_white_color_temperature: 5700 K
    warm_white_color_temperature: 3000 K
  - platform: rgb
    name: "Hallway RGB Light"
    id: hallway_rgb_light
    red: output_r
    green: output_g
    blue: output_b