Tag Archives: gadgets

Hot Tub Gadget

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I treated myself to a new gadget. A man can never have too many gadgets. It’s a Bluetooth hot tub thermometer, that is linked to wifi using a base station with display and of course an app.

It has a little display on the thermometer (I’m holding it in place as the bubbles make the thermometer dance around) but the main purpose is that you can see from inside what the water temperature is. You can even set an alert when it reaches a certain temperature.

This was taken after I used the tub for about an hour. It only went down from 100F (37C) to 97 so still very comfy. The additional purpose of this gadget is to have a historic view of temperatures, both in the house as well as the hot tub.

That way I can keep better track of the temperature inside. I could already see the current temperature, but no historic data so now when a guest says it was hot, I can check how hot it really was.

Sadly, they don’t have an API yet, so I cannot link it to the smart mirror.

Even Smarter Mirror

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As a developer I had fun making some improvements on the Smart Mirror App I made;

As a metric fan, I decided to display both Imperial and metric units, so I don’t have to do the math in my head. Top left is the outside temperature. Next to it the expected weather for today, followed by a detailed forecast which shows the next 8 hours temperatures, icon for weather, chance of rain, wind direction and speed. It also shows the date and current time. To the right is a weekly forecast with max and min temperatures, a temperature curve per hour and a weather icon.

On the left, below the temperature is the current local wind direction and speed. Under that is the barometer with a trend icon. Below that is the precipitation window, showing current precipitation, the amount of minutes it rained today and how much in the last 1 hours and the total this day. During Saturday’s thunderstorm, which included a rare nearby tornado (25 miles away) the precipitation was several inches in one hour.

On the right below the weekly forecast is the relative humidity, under that the UV index, followed by the Comal county burn ban status.

At the bottom right you can see the last detected lightning strike, with the distance. And the number of strikes the last 1 and 3 hours.

The centered text now rotates between an unlimited amount of custom texts I can set remotely, for instance to provide the wifi password, ask the guests to store the outdoor chair cushions indoors overnight and what ever else I would like to display.

Finally, the red motion sensed icon shows when the passive infra red sensor registers motion.

After a few minutes of no detected motion, the screen switches off, to save energy and preserve the monitor.

In the future I will likely add some new features but for now it works pretty well.

Even smarter Mirror

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My SmartMirror that my brother Karel made has been serving Ozuye well over the last 5 years. But when I arrived it had old information on it and an update did not help. Being a software developer that also creates Raspberry Pi apps, I decided to make my own Smart Mirror App;

Here’s a first version of it. The font is more in style and the mirror is even smarter; it now talks to the Tempest weather station, and shows the data in both metric and imperial units. The API was pretty easy to use. I also included a new feature; burn ban status. Here in Texas, a burn ban can be active when there’s a risk of fires due to lack of rain. I found a way to read the fire department posted data to display an icon indicating the burn ban status.

The forecast information shows the week ahead, with both an icon per day, minimum and maximum temperatures and an hourly temperature curve.

The green line is comfortable, the red line the highest recorded temp ever in Texas and the blue line the lowest. That way the curve gives an easy overview on what kind of temperatures are expected.

One thing I still have to do is read the PIR sensor (Passive infra red) to blank the screen when nobody is around for a while.

The large centered text will rotate between 5 different messages, which I will be able to set from the cloud. That way I can even show a custom message for guests when needed.

In the future, I will try add a location chip in each of the outdoor seat cushions. Then when it starts to rain and the pillow are outside, I can show a message to store them inside.

Smart Mirror Restored

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After 3 years of running flawlessly, I noticed I wasn’t greeted by the smart mirror as I entered Ozuye. Technical analyses showed that the power supply for the raspberry Pi inside had failed. So I ordered a new one, and a soldering iron, so now the Smart Mirror is fully functional again.

The picture above shows the guts of the Smart Mirror with the new soldered in power supply in the top left corner.

Gotta love gadgets

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Life without gadgets is simply less fun. Today my brother Karel surprised me with a new gadget; Tempest. It’s a state of the art weather station. Wireless and solar powered. As Ozuye faces north north-east, most of the possible locations for mounting are shady. So I used a pole to make it stick out above the tree line;

Next time I’m over I may mount it to the home to make it catch sun all the time, but for now this works.

This station of course comes with an app. Here’s a screenshot of the data it collects;

It also includes notifications, so I can get a warning when there’s a storm or cold front coming. But that won’t be this year, as the weather will remain nice.

I do think the pole is asking for something like a flag, but this is a pretty flexible pole and when it does storm, the wind usually comes from that direction, so I’m not sure the pole would hold. Next time I might get an official flag pole and raise the US flag when I’m there ðŸ¤