The testbed
A Dell machine running Linux, kept just for this. It’s where new tooling gets broken first, and it runs Home Assistant, which the household uses every day for lights, notifications and routines, including night-time and leaving-the-house automations. Both Arduino builds below ran on it as Docker images at one point. A NAS and more are planned.
The network
UniFi kit, split into VLANs for four reasons:
- Smart devices are isolated. Cheap IoT kit can’t see laptops and phones.
- The lab is kept apart. The testbed can break without taking the household offline.
- Guests get their own network. Internet and nothing else.
- Ad blocking for everyone. Pi-hole filters ads and trackers for every device in the house.
Arduino builds
Bin light (retired). An indicator that changed colour by collection type. Retired once the council calendar could do the job.
LED board (retired). A custom display board for scrolling text and pixel art: you could draw anything and it would appear on the board. It ran until its power supply went bang.
What broke, and what I learned
- The LED board’s power supply went bang. It wasn’t a good one, and it just died.
- The bin light got replaced by a calendar. Not everything needs building.
- Home Assistant is only good if everyone can use it. Automations have to be simple enough for people who aren’t technical to understand and use, or they don’t get used.