links.lmorchard.com - #iot

Controlling your home with tiny, cheap touchscreens

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 22:06:31 +0000

This turned out really well and was a cheap solution to my problems (it cost me about$16 but it currently shows me $21 for a screen). In the weeks since I set it up, it's been so useful for everyone else in the house that I'm considering buying one for the kitchen to control all the living room lights without anyone having to take their phones out, and another one in my barn to turn all the lights on whenever I walk in (currently I always fire up the Apple Home app and run a shortcut to turn on the 6 different light switches).

Tags: #diy #esp32 #hardware #homeassistant #iot

Banned Book Library | Rick's Blog

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 22:31:50 +0000

A long while back I had an idea to hack a WiFi smart light bulb to do something more useful to me. Actually, I had a few different ideas of things to do with them. One of these ideas was to modify the device to have an open WiFi access point and a web server hosting banned books. The idea was that if you lived somewhere that banned books you thought were important, you could theoretically stick a digital copy of the book on one of these light bulbs. Then you could go install it somewhere in your community. As long as the light bulb is switched on, then anyone in the vicinity can still access the banned material assuming they have an electronic device with WiFi. Since the device is a light bulb, it would be difficult to detect and likely to go unnoticed. A cyberpunk digital dead drop. These devices are also fairly inexpensive, so leaving them around town as is hopefully not very cost prohibitive.

Tags: #books #cyberpunk #diy #esp32 #hacks #hardware #iot

My house alerts me when my cat climbs into the ceiling

Sat, 30 May 2026 06:00:29 +0000

The goal of the project was to turn on a light in the living room any time a cat is detected in the drop ceiling alcove.

Tags: #cat #homeassistant #iot #video

Model Context Protocol Server - Home Assistant

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 05:48:10 +0000

The Model Context Protocol is an open protocol that standardizes how applications provide context to LLMs. The Model Context Protocol Server (MCP) integration enables using Home Assistant to provide context for MCP LLM Client Applications. For example, you can control your lights from Claude Desktop

Tags: #ai #homeassistant #iot #llms #mcp #smarthome

Sett Home Thermostat – Sett Thermostat

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 18:35:06 +0000

Sett is an open-source, enclosure-compatible version of the 2nd gen Nest thermostat. It reuses the enclosure, encoder ring, display, and mounts of the Nest but replaces the "thinking" part with open-source PCBs that interact with Home Assistant and other local-first home automation setups.

Tags: #google #iot #nest #sett #smarthome #thermostat

Google is collecting troves of data from downgraded Nest thermostats | The Verge

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 18:49:06 +0000

Google officially turned off remote control functionality for early Nest Learning Thermostats last month, but it hasn’t stopped collecting a stream of data from these downgraded devices. After digging into the backend, security researcher Cody Kociemba found that the first- and second-generation Nest Learning Thermostats are still sending Google information about manual temperature changes, whether a person is present in the room, if sunlight is hitting the device, and more.

Tags: #google #home #iot #nest

Running Minecraft on a lightbulb

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 03:16:52 +0000

WiFi-enabled ‘smart’ light bulbs are everywhere these days, and each one of them has a microcontroller inside that’s capable enough to run all sorts of interesting software. For example, [vimpo] decided to get one running a minimal Minecraft server

Tags: #diy #electronics #hacks #iot #minecraft

IKEA launches new smart home range with 21 Matter-compatible products – IKEA Global

Sun, 09 Nov 2025 18:09:41 +0000

IKEA is launching 21 new smart home products focusing on lighting, sensors, and control — all built to work with Matter, the universal smart home standard

Tags: #ikea #iot #smarthome

Removing Jeff Bezos From My Bed ◆ Truffle Security Co.

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 23:26:54 +0000

Eight Sleep smart bed found to contain an exposed AWS key and a likely backdoor that allowed engineers to remotely access users' beds

Tags: #amazon #aws #beds #iot #security

Hacking a tiny Bluetooth Smart Ring - YouTube

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 19:16:35 +0000

In this video we will take a deeper look into the Colmi Bluetooth Smart Ring R02 and its SoC

Tags: #diy #fitness #gadgets #hardware #iot

Gadgetbridge

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 18:57:16 +0000

Gadgetbridge is a free and open source Android application that allows you to pair and manage various gadgets such as smart watches, bands, headphones, and more without the need for the vendor application. So in short, you can use Gadgetbridge instead of relying on your gadget's own proprietary app.

Tags: #android #diy #gadgets #hardware #iot

IoT Container makes shopping easier – Tinkering with Technology

Sun, 29 Oct 2017 19:58:17 +0000

The yogurt texts you when it's time to buy more!

Tags: #diy #hardware #imported:pinboard #iot #shopping

IoT Container makes shopping easier – Tinkering with Technology

Sun, 29 Oct 2017 19:58:17 +0000

The yogurt texts you when it's time to buy more!

Tags: #diy #hardware #iot #shopping

Physical-web by google

Thu, 02 Oct 2014 21:33:39 +0000

The Physical Web is an approach to unleash the core superpower of the web: interaction on demand. People should be able to walk up to any smart device - a vending machine, a poster, a toy, a bus stop, a rental car - and not have to download an app first. Everything should be just a tap away.

Tags: #apis #google #imported:pinboard #iot #to:twitter #webdev

Physical-web by google

Thu, 02 Oct 2014 21:33:39 +0000

Tags: #apis #google #iot #to:twitter #webdev