A few years back I was desperate to get some stuff printed and my printer had shit the bed. So I needed a new printer asap, I did what most people do and walked into PCWorld and grabbed a cheap wifi Canon printer, in my case the MG3100 scanner/printer combo. It’s a sweet little thing, only cost me about £30, can’t go wrong, right? Well, it’d be better if it had Airprint compatability and not just use the Canon app thats a bit clunky for a quick print option. I decided during lockdown that I should solve this, it was something that I thought about doing everytime I used the printer and knew I could do it, but I just had never gotten around to it. So sat on my arse in self isolation I sorted it and now I wish I had done it sooner. I decided to use…Continue reading Make any printer compatible with Apple Airprint and print from any ios device easily! Just using a Raspberry Pi and Cups
Category: RaspberryPi
How to flash Tasmota to a Sonoff Zigbee wifi bridge/hub to communicate with Home Assistant, without soldering. Use any Zigbee accessory with HA! :)
I’m slowly moving towards a zigbee home automation enviroment. Everything Zigbee is getting cheaper and cheaper, be it bulbs, buttons, temporature sensors, door/window sensors etc etc. I hate the idea though that all these devices need their own hubs to talk to your smart devices like Alexa, that’s just bs. Who wants a dozen hubs, or to get stuck with one manufacturer that doesn’t cover all bases or offers some sensors at higher price points than others. So this is where creating a hub that can talk to any Zigbee device comes in, and Sonoff have made a great hub. Much like their RF hub that I also flashed with Tasmota, this little box is powered via a standard microusb connection, connects to your wifi, sits there and listens for a zigbee device and then (when flashed with Tasmota) sends that data to your HomeAssistant installation. If you didn’t flash…Continue reading How to flash Tasmota to a Sonoff Zigbee wifi bridge/hub to communicate with Home Assistant, without soldering. Use any Zigbee accessory with HA! 🙂
How to get around the FAT32 4GB file size limit
I’ve been moving some large files between my mac and to my Pi’s external HDD and keep coming up against the fat32 file size limit of 4GB which is rather infuriating. I can’t change my disk format type, so I needed to get around it. After having a look about I’ve found split and cat, meaning I can use command line tools to split the file into two and then join them again using cat. Unfortunately split wasn’t installed on my mac but does come with Raspian, so had to do that too. Firstly to install split on my mac, in terminal: Now to split the file to be less than 4gb: This command will split the file into filename.extaa and filename.extab, the first being 4.29GB the second being what’s left. Move the files in anyway you wish to their destination, now it’s time to rejoin them which is very…Continue reading How to get around the FAT32 4GB file size limit
Remove the default user Pi from your RasberryPi for a bit of extra security
An easy way of making your Pi that little bit more secure is to remove the default user, Pi. So when setting up a new Pi installation this is one of the first things I do which is very simple. SSH into your Pi as usual: ssh pi@192.168.0.2 Switch to the root user: sudo -i Create a new user: adduser puk Will result in the below, add a decent password when asked and then repeat it: Adding user `puk’ … Adding new group `puk’ (1001) … Adding new user `puk’ (1001) with group `puk’ … Creating home directory `/home/puk’ … Copying files from `/etc/skel’ … Enter new UNIX password: <REDACTED> Retype new UNIX password: <REDACTED> passwd: password updated successfully Changing the user information for puk Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default Full Name []: Puk Room Number []: Work Phone []: Home Phone []: Other []:…Continue reading Remove the default user Pi from your RasberryPi for a bit of extra security
Using PiVPN to turn your RaspberryPi into a VPN. Access your home network securely from anywhere, secure any wifi connection
I wanted a secure way of accessing my home network whilst away. Not only for my Home Assistant installation but to access files, photos, be able to work on scripts and the like. I did some research into various ways but kept coming back to a VPN. I found other reasons for using a VPN too, mainly to secure usage of public wifi, prevent region locking, and to use my PiHole DNS advert blocker. For instance, if I’m using public wifi at a cafe/shopping center I can connect via my VPN to secure any passwords/bank details that I enter. If you don’t realise anyone sharing the same wifi network can gain access to your passwords or data that you enter, scared? Have a read how they do it here. This same Pi is running an instance of PiHole for DNS level advert blocking, when I’m connected to my VPN, I’ll…Continue reading Using PiVPN to turn your RaspberryPi into a VPN. Access your home network securely from anywhere, secure any wifi connection
AlexaPi, AVS timeout in non Alexa Countries, java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException
With Amazon only supporting a few countries with Alexa, being the UK, Germany and the USA, you may get timeouts on the java app with an error of: java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException It’s a pain when this happens as you have to login with VNC and click the OK button to reset the application. To help prevent it, you can alter the timeout threshold in the java file located at: /home/pi/Desktop/alexa-avs-sample-app/samples/javaclient/src/main/java/com/amazon/alexa/avs/http/AVSClient.java#L69 You can edit this with: sudo nano /home/pi/Desktop/alexa-avs-sample-app/samples/javaclient/src/main/java/com/amazon/alexa/avs/http/AVSClient.java You’re after line 69, it looks like this, alter the timeout as below: Restart your Alexa and job done!
Controlling Infa-Red IR devices with Home-Assistant & AlexaPi on a Raspberry Pi (Non smart, Dumb devices)
In this post I’m continuing my Home Automation and Home-Assistant journey. I already have an Xbox-One with a kinect so routinely say “Xbox on” which turns on the TV, SoundBar and Foxtel (cable) box. This also accepts volume up/down, change of channel, record, Netflix and games. So I’m moving to a completely voice driven household with using Alexa or Siri to operate the lights. But how do I go further? What else is there in the house that I can’t talk to, what remote controls do I still use? There are several things in my apartment that cannot be controlled via wifi, I live in a typical late 90s midcity Australian apartment and have the ubiquitous through house aircon/heating unit with buttons on a wall and a remote control in the living room and vents to each room in the apartment. So since my apartment reaches dizzying temps in the…Continue reading Controlling Infa-Red IR devices with Home-Assistant & AlexaPi on a Raspberry Pi (Non smart, Dumb devices)
Using IFTTT and Alexa Voice Service AVS on a RaspberryPi to control HomeAssistant
This is the next post in my multipost of using a Raspberry-Pi 3 as the center of my Home Automation world. Firstly I set a Raspberry-Pi 3 up in headless mode, then installed Pi-Hole to block adverts at local DNS level, so saving you much needed bandwidth. Next, I installed Home-Assistant, and then Homebridge, which allowed me to use Siri to access my various bulbs in the house. Lastly I installed Amazon AVS but all it does is tell me the time, weather, flash forcast, todo lists etc. Here’s the previous posts: Part 1, Headless Pi Part 2, Pi-Hole, HomeAssistant, LimitlessLED Part 3, Homebridge, Siri, Apple Home Part 4, Alexa AVS on a Pi Config files Using IFTTT Now due to it’s limitation, I can’t simply say “Alexa, find my devices” to find the lights that I can control in my home. So I need IFTTT. If you’ve never used…Continue reading Using IFTTT and Alexa Voice Service AVS on a RaspberryPi to control HomeAssistant
Setting up a Raspberry-Pi, Home-Assistant, Homebridge, Siri and Alexa. Part 4: Installing Alexa-Pi, Amazon’s Alexa Voice Service
Welcome to Part 4 of my multipart blog of setting up a Raspberry-Pi to be the center of your homeautomation world. To recap what I’ve done so far: Set the Pi in headless mode, ie it’s never going to be connected to a monitor Installed HomeAssistant so I can control lights in my apartment, set automation like lights on at sunset if i’m home. Installed Pi-Hole for network wide advert blocking. Setup Homebridge, to link HomeAssistant to Apple Home on my IOS devices, so Siri can control my lights, show me temperatures in the apartment etc. Here are the previous posts: Setting up a Raspberry-Pi, with Pi-Hole, Home-Assistant, Homebridge, Siri and Alexa. Part 1, Setting up a headless (monitorless) Pi http://www.pukit.com/2017/04/05/setting-up-a-raspberry-pi-with-pi-hole-home-assistant-homebridge-siri-and-alexa-part-2-installing-pi-hole-and-home-assistant-using-limitless-led-lamps/ http://www.pukit.com/2017/04/07/setting-up-a-raspberry-pi-with-pi-hole-home-assistant-homebridge-siri-and-alexa-part-3-installing-homebridge-and-using-siri-and-apple-home/ And now for making my Pi into a cheap Amazon Echo. Now know from the outset, that a RaspberryPi with Alexa cant do all the things an Echo…Continue reading Setting up a Raspberry-Pi, Home-Assistant, Homebridge, Siri and Alexa. Part 4: Installing Alexa-Pi, Amazon’s Alexa Voice Service
Setting up a Raspberry-Pi, with Pi-Hole, Home-Assistant, Homebridge, Siri and Alexa. Part 3: Installing Homebridge and using Siri and Apple Home
This is part 3 of my multi-post of setting up a Pi with HomeAssistant, Homebridge, Siri and Pi-Hole. If you want the previous parts here they are: Part 1, Setting up a Pi in headless mode Part 2, Installing Pi-Hole, Home-Assistant and setting up Limitless-LED (Milight) bulbs So now onto the fun part, you want to control the lights you’ve setup previously with Siri, either by talking to your IOS device, or using the favourites option on your slide up menu, which you probably didn’t know existed! Installing Homebridge Lets crack on. SSH via terminal into your Pi (Putty if you’re a Windows user) and install homebridge: Install git and make: sudo apt-get install git make Now to install Node, this is on a Pi3, if you’re on a lower pi refer to this site for installing homebridge. curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_7.x | sudo -E bash – sudo apt-get install -y…Continue reading Setting up a Raspberry-Pi, with Pi-Hole, Home-Assistant, Homebridge, Siri and Alexa. Part 3: Installing Homebridge and using Siri and Apple Home
Setting up a Raspberry-Pi, with Pi-Hole, Home-Assistant, Homebridge, Siri and Alexa. Part 2: Installing Pi-Hole and Home-Assistant, using Limitless-LED lamps
Welcome to Part two of my home automation/raspberry-pi blog posts. If you missed setting up the headless Pi, here’s part one. So I’ve got my Pi quite happily working away in headless mode, slimmed down installation and on the network. Time to put it to use! The first thing I install is Pi-Hole. This enables network wide ad blocking via DNS. It’s superb, literally superb. Read up on it at https://pi-hole.net/. Here’s how to install it: Open a terminal, ssh into your Pi. ssh pi@192.168.0.24 Run the installer: curl -L https://install.pi-hole.net | bash The installer will ask for your password at somepoint, then load a graphical interface for your setup. Select both IPv4 and IPv6 ad blocking. You can edit your static ip address here, if you didn’t in my previous blog post. Make a note of your password it presents you, although you can edit it later. See if…Continue reading Setting up a Raspberry-Pi, with Pi-Hole, Home-Assistant, Homebridge, Siri and Alexa. Part 2: Installing Pi-Hole and Home-Assistant, using Limitless-LED lamps
Setting up a Raspberry-Pi, with Pi-Hole, Home-Assistant, Homebridge, Siri and Alexa. Part 1, Setting up a headless (monitorless) Pi
My previous post of setting up a Raspberry-Pi with HA, HB, Siri got a massive amount of hits and I had a few emails, as tbh, the post was more for me than general public so I’m going to write it again, in a multi-blog entry. First of all setting up a Pi to run without a monitor, headless we call it. Firstly I will state that all my work is done with a Macbook Pro, you can obviously, 100% use Windows, but for SSH you’ll have to download Putty or some other client, I won’t go into Putty usage here, it is however very intuitive to use. The only real difference between using a terminal on a Mac and Putty is the way you connect, in Putty you have a connection tab, enter the details in that, IP, username, password, in a terminal shell you simply use one line…Continue reading Setting up a Raspberry-Pi, with Pi-Hole, Home-Assistant, Homebridge, Siri and Alexa. Part 1, Setting up a headless (monitorless) Pi
Uptime of my RaspberryPi HomeAssistant & Homebridge, Siri Failing to Operate HomeBridge
So I just thought I would upgrade my Home-Assistant installation. I logged in via ssh and ran the usual update command, then thought i’d check the uptime. I cant remember the last time I shut down my Pi, other than when I went on holiday for a month. 62 Days isn’t too bad, that was the day I returned from holiday! There isn’t a time HomeAssistant or HomeBridge has failed properly on me yet, other than my own issue. I have noticed that when using Siri on my iPhone6 to turn the lights on/off or report room temperatures, on occasion I get a reply like “I didn’t hear back from your devices Puk” or “Sorry I couldn’t do that Puk”. I admit I did get a little frustrated with this, then when I sat down to think about it and check it out, my installation is fine and working, this…Continue reading Uptime of my RaspberryPi HomeAssistant & Homebridge, Siri Failing to Operate HomeBridge
Using Siri to turn on lights in your home, home automation with Home Assistant and Homebridge and LimitlessLED
This post has become outdated and the information is rather scant and badly addressed. Due to the amount of hits this thread has gotten, i’ve written a multipart post on setting up a Pi3 to be a headless pi-hole, home-assistant, homebridge, siri and alexa interfaced system. Click here for the first part – Setting up a Raspberry-Pi with pi-hole, Home-Assistant, Homebridge, Siri and Alexa, Part 1, setting up a headless, monitorless Pi So my RaspberryPi has been working away as a Pi-Hole for a few weeks now, and I decided to see what else I could use it for whilst it’s sitting idle. I’ve always liked the idea of home automation, but always found it a touch expensive, now prices are coming down I thought I’d dip my toes in the water. Please be aware, this blog post isn’t a full howto, it’s more of a reminder to me of…Continue reading Using Siri to turn on lights in your home, home automation with Home Assistant and Homebridge and LimitlessLED