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Monday, 30 October 2017

Where I am now

I live in France, in an old remote former farmhouse.



The electrical system is - er - basic to say the least and the wiring is the house is spartan. For example, there are no overhead lights upstairs except for the bathroom. All the other rooms have floor sockets, so standing lamps are the norm.

I'm a geek and lazy with it, but I love programming and tinkering with electronics so what better excuse than to build my own home automation system?

The introduction of the ESP8266 as a cheap solution to IOT / Home automation has caused a revolution in its field. Now everyone wants to do it - and many can - but there is a wide minefield of "gotcha" and "oops" and "really? I never knew that" to navigate before the lights turn on and off remotely.

It has taken me many months to get to the current stage, which is:

  • Hardware 99% complete
  • Several code libraries written and published in order to get:
  • Code 90% complete
  • Actual installation - ...er...had a few ideas...

The blog is to chart the last leg of the journey to full automation of a 300+ year old farmhouse and its outbuildings and to help, inform and educate others who may be considering a similar path, but without stepping on any of those mines...

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