February 4th, 2025

Self-Hosted Isn't Always Easy.

You have to work to get the flowers and rainbows.

Christmas is Over

And now I have a mess I need to clean. All of this Christmas stuff set up here needs to be put back in its bin once again. Back to normal, plain times until Lent.

Keyboard Layouts

Some time ago, I read the Colemak layout was easier, faster, less strain, etc. So I decided to give it a try. I switched over to it last week. I’ve been using it, and so far it has been quite rocky. I keep trying to push a letter that is in the wrong spot, and overall I have had a slower typing speed. I still have quite a ways to go for learning it. The amount of hand strain seems to have improved. Now it is all brain strain from trying to type the right letters.

Home Assistant and Temperature Sensors.

I ordered some D1 Mini boards and a DHT22 temperature sensor to use in my chicken coops. I assembled the D1 Mini by soldering its pins, then connecting the DHT22 to it using the jumper cables. From there, it’d all be cake and ice cream. Right?

No.

I got Home Assistant set up, and then I installed ESPHome. The guide I was following had specific instructions, but they did not work for me. Instead, I created a new device using the UI it had, against its suggestion, then modified the file with the code for the sensor, which had to be tweaked a bit. Once that happened, I used the ESPHome Web Flasher to flash it, and from there it worked. Do NOT use the Web Flasher’s setup for first time. Just have the ESPHome create the file, and flash that file instead. I did have to calibrate the sensor a bit though. It was off by several degrees. Each sensor has a different inaccuracy. I ended up using the thermostat to calibrate it.

Link to YAML file. Modify as needed.

I may consider adding a small writeup on the process to my site. It’s quite confusing at first. Home Assistant in and of itself does work fairly well with this. I need to setup and test the coop door, and my setup will be mostly complete. I did try to get the Home Assistant voice assistant working, but it did not like my AMD Athlon II X2 250 due to it not having AVX support. Oh well.

Other Stuff

There isn’t much else that’s worth writing down. My desk has been invaded by doves. I may be doing some changes to the main pages on this site. Other than that, there isn’t anything else for this post.

Smartie sitting on a curtain rod next to the door.

Pichon on my AC Adapter Bins.

unicorn