Bretts Tech

5/25/19

New Collections added to Plex

Update #96:

Added these new Collections to Brett's Plex Server:

Billy Bob Thornton (20), Cameron Diaz (25), Cars (3), Child's Play (4), Despicable Me (4), Halloween (9), Hannibal (5), Friday the 13th (8), The Matrix (3), Resident Evil (7), Rambo (4), Saturday Night Live (18), Shrek (4),The Lord of the Rings (4), Star Trek (13), Star Wars (8), Starship Troopers (5), Stephen King (32), Toy Story (3), Transformers (5)

3/21/19

Added Plex request Discord notifications

Update #95:

A discord channel will now show all Ombi requests and requests fills.

2/5/19

Text notifications for shows added to Plex

Update #94:

Any Plex user can now text me to subscribe and unsubscribe to notifications for TV shows they are interested in. If you are subscribed to a show, you will receive a text notification the moment that show is added to the Plex server. I accomplished this by using Tautulli to send my phone Join notifications when shows are added to the server. Then tasker sorts through the notifications and sends a text notification to the Plex user if they are signed up to receive it. For more info and a list of commands, view the Plex page.

1/5/19

Using CSS to improve the look of this website; More buttons

Update #93:

I started learning CSS to help make this website look nicer. I changed all of the update boxes like this one to have rounded corners and the icons are now below the update title. In general, I am trying to replace all of the outdated HTML tags with CSS. I also made a little update logo to replace the text.

I added some more category buttons to complete all of the things listed in the Guides section:

12/30/18

Website changes: Category buttons & an alternate logo

Update #92:

I made some changes to the layout of this front page. I added an alternate logo (if you hover your mouse over the current logo you'll see the 2nd one).

I also made category buttons for update posts like this one. Instead of tags like [Plex] or [Home Assistant], these icons will be displayed within the update to quickly identify which categoriesare applicable:

12/8/18

New Dash Cam + Google Home Hub + Home Assistant fixes

Update #91:

Added a Yi Compact Dash Cam to my car. The USB cable was 11.5 ft long and was the perfect length for my car to hide it completely in all its nooks and crannies. It runs across the top of the windshield, down the weather stripping on the door, under the glove box, and then under part of the center console that leads the the USB charger. It turns on and off automatically with the car's power and links with my phone to view videos or cast the dashcam's view to the phone. Pretty awesome!

Update #90:

Set up my new Google Home Hub I received for my birthday from Kayla :)

Update #89:

My Xiaomi magic cube working at last. I've had it for over a year but it was never compatible with Home Assistant until a couple months ago. It has 5 different motions that can trigger anything else in Home Assistant. I plan to put one in every room to do things like control the lights, play music, turn on the TV, set sleep timers, control videos playing on the Shield TVs, unlock the door, lots of ideas. I also got MQTT working again, it hadn't worked since they updated it to 3.0, and same the google travel time sensors. At this point in time, I have pretty much everything working in Home Assistant.

12/2/18

Plex 2 Server Online, 2nd Tautulli Server Online

Update #88:

The Plex 2 server is now accessible to all users. It's an exact copy of Plex 1's libraries but it isn't automatically updated so it may not have the most recent additions that Plex 1 does.

Update #87:

I have a 2nd instance of Tautulli running too now so it can monitor the Plex 2 server and deliver notifications via Discord, Join, email, etc.

12/1/18

Updated Collections on the Plex server

Update #86:

Added a bunch of new collections on the Plex server. Also updated all of the movie totals on the website for the existing collections. Collections are an easy way to search for groups of things to watch within the Plex app. Search by decade, actor, director or series title.

11/27/18

New Xiaomi Vacuum

Update #85:

The smart vacuum I bought on Black Friday arrived today. I chose the Xiaomi Roborock S51 because of the price and because of its reviews. After testing it out, this thing is amazing. It's paired with Google Assistant so I can say things like "Okay Google, start vacuuming" or "pause the vacuum", or "return vacuum to the charger".

Inside the Mi Home app you can view a map that it constructs of your place in real time. See pictures below, the white lines below show the path that it took the last time it cleaned my condo.

In the app, you can do things like draw boxes around areas you don't want it to go to, have the vacuum call out "I'm over here" if it gets stuck and you can't find it. You can also control it like a remote control car if you want, the app includes joysticks that allow for manual operation. My next goal with this will be to integrate the vacuum into Home Assistant and IFTTT so I can have more direct control over where it vacuums and how often. When it's done I'll be able to say things like "Vacuum the office 2 times".

11/26/18

Plex Server Milestone reached: The library passed 2,000 movies

Update #84:

The Plex library now has over 2000 movies. If I had to guess when it will hit 3,000 movies I would say 1.5 to 2 years from now. If you would like to accelerate the progress, request movies. Anything rated 6.0 or higher on IMDb is fair game. The library itself is nearing 10,000 items when you count all TV show episodes, movies, audiobooks, etc.

11/9/18

"Recently Added" section added to the top portion of the Plex page

Update #83:

In the Plex section of brett0wens.com, I added a Recently Added box on the top bar of the page. To accomplish this I am using a widget from Trakt which gets the Plex library data from the Trakt plug-in for Plex. See below for a picture:

9/23/18

Home Assistant displaying Trakt; Tasker scenes for Shield TV & phone

Update #82:

I created a sensor that pulls from my Trakt calendar. So now I have multiple sensors for things like the name, episode title, description, and time of the next TV show that is going to air based on my Traky library. I made it so that this information can be displayed 2 ways, either: "Better Call Saul will play in 5 hours" or "9/24/18 at 8:00PM". I added this card to my main tab in Home Assistant:

Trakt Card in HA 9-23-18

Update #81:

I made some more progress on my Tasker scenes for the Shield TVs. The main screen is a scene that I've set to display every weekday morning if I'm home. It shows things like the date, weather, traffic, phone and watch battery percentages, links to apps like Spotify, Plex and Arc Brower as well as links to my other custom screen for Investments and Reminders. I still need to add the calendar events and news stories before it's complete.

Update #80:

For the main screen scene mentioned above, I created Tasker tasks using the ADB Shell plugin to send ADB commands to wake and turn off my Shield TVs. One task turns on my 2 TVs and Shields in the morning when I unplug my phone from it's charger. The other turns them off after I've left my house. The information on my screen displays my commute time, weather information and my reminders.

Update #79:

I created a scene on my phone that pops up when my watch battery is 15% or less. It matches whatever color my phone's theme is. Changing my colors on my phone also changes the colors of the custom screens on my Shield TVs.

9/20/18

Added more features to my custom doorbell

Update #78:

I made a Tasker scene that pops up on my phone's screen for 20 seconds when my doorbell rings. This is to replace the Join notification that used to pop up on my phone and linked to a still image from the front porch camera. This new pop up notification has multiple options: view an image of the front porch, view a live video, open the front door, or dismiss the notification.

Update #77:

Created a Tasker task that pulls up the front porch camera on my TVs when the doorbell button is pushed. After 20 seconds it switches back to whatever app it was on before.

8/30/18

Added map of my complex as a new tab in Home Assistant

Update #76:

I added a map of my condo complex as a new tab in Home Assistant. I still need to make it look better but here's the first draft:

8/25/18

brett0wens.com is now https; Plex buttons change color

Update #75:

I switched all of brett0wens.com to SSL encryption. Now you will see the lock symbol and https:

Update #74:

Made the buttons on the Plex page change color if they are highlighted.

Update #73:

Fixed the Google Travel Time sensors that haven't been working for a while. The fix was tying a billing account to the Google Project, some change this made at some point recently.

8/23/18

Plex Newsletter Changes

Updated:

Added the Brett's Plex Server logo to the existing Tautulli newsletters. Daily and Weekly (default) newsletters will list what has been added to the Plex library. Here is what it looks like now:

8/22/18

Added Discord notifications (for Plex library updates, server status, & watch history)

Update #72:

I created some chat channels in the Discord app for the Plex server. Tautulli sends automatic notifications to Discord when things occur on the Plex server. There are categories for server status, recently added, and watch history. Hopefully in the future I can make the Plex Bot respond to additional requests or give additional information.

8/21/18

Added UV sensors to Home Assistant

Update #71:

I have the OpenUV sensors working. The new sensors I now have on display on the weather tab and will use in future automations are: current ozone level, current and max UV index, and the number of minutes before my particular skin type will sunburn due to UV, and a yes/no on whether or not sunscreen is recommended at the current time.

8/19/18

Colored lights based on ETA to work; Added Floor Plan tab to front layout

Update #70:

In Node Red, I created a range of time on workday mornings where my gateway lights in my living room and bedroom will turn color based on my traffic estimate to work. I added this to an existing flow in Node Red that sends the traffic time to my Shield TVs. The new part is the green being set for little to no traffic, yellow light for medium traffic, and red for heavy traffic. It updates automatically all morning and then turns off when I leave for work.

Update #69:

View Code

Made more progress on my new "Floor Plan" tab of the front end using the new Lovelace UI. I added lots of devices. Each icon can be clicked to do other things light control the lights, type a message to a Google Home, control the thermostat, etc. I also added a Thermostat on the left side and a People/Location box that shows location based off of GPS and WiFi. It's still a work in progress as you can see from the empty boxes but coming along nicely.

8/16/18

Morning Weather Alerts

Update #68:

Added some weather alerts for the mornings when I'm getting ready for work. If it's supposed to rain or snow it will announce that over all of my Google Homes with the percentage chance. Then it turns back to the radio. I also made one that reads if the UV index for the day is extremely high (10 or higher). View Code

8/12/18

Created a Floor Plan tab in the new Home Assisant Lovelace UI

Update #67:

Added a floor plan tab to the Home Assistant front end. This will show my condo's layout with clickable icons for things like TVs, Google Homes, lights, etc. Still a work in progress at this point but see early version preview below:

Update #66:

Added a Xiaomi Mi Flora Plant sensor to monitor the soil fertility, moisture, light and air levels for the Money Tree I have in my office. The Flowercare app they provide works over Bluetooth but I still need to get it working with Home Assistant so I can create notifications to water it, change the soil, etc. Here is what the looks like on my phone and a picture of the sensor itself:

8/5/18

Website Changes, Added a Plex tab in Home Assistant

Update #65:

Added a Guides section to brett0wens.com. This will have info, settings, examples for programs I use.

Update #64:

Added an Updates section to brett0wens.com. This will have a list of updates I make to any section of the website as opposed to the old updates section that was for Home Assistant only.

Update #63:

Created a Plex tab in my Home Assistant frontend. It's still a work in progress as far as overall statistics and recently added sections.

7/25/18

Battery Level Sensors

Update #62:

Created template sensors in Home Assistant to show the battery level in my Xiaomi devices. Created a new tab to display these.

Update #61:

I am now able to show the battery levels in Node Red using a function node.

7/19/18

Migration from the old UI to the Lovelace UI is about complete

Update #60:

It's taken over a week but I've finally recreated almost every tab/view/group I had in the old user interface into the new Lovelace UI.

Click here to view all of my tabs using the new Lovelace UI

7/15/18

New Lovelace UI in Home Assistant (Part 1)

Update #59:

I recreated a couple of views (tabs) from the existing user interface to the new Lovelace interface. It definitely looks a little bit nicer and in the long run will offer a lot more customization. So far only my main home screen, rooms, and appliance views are done so 3 of 20 views recreated so far. It is slow progress and could take me weeks at this rate.

7/8/18

Added a 2nd Xiaomi Gateway to Home Assistant

Update #58:

I have a 2nd Xiaomi Gateway working with Home Assistant now. A Gatway can pair with up to 30 devices max so this 2nd one was necessary and will be kept in my bedroom.

7/7/18

Added the Yeelight lightstrip in Home Assistant & Node Red

Update #57:

View Code

I got Home Assistant to recognize the Yeelight lightstrip in the kitchen so now it can be controlled like every other light (controlled from any device or by voice). Then I also added controls for it in Node Red.

7/4/18

Created a Tasker scene on phone to control my Shield TV notifications

Update #56:

On my phone, I created a scene in Tasker that has a bunch of on and off switches for various notifications I send to my Shield TVs. The notifications include phone notifications, motion detection, downloads, weather, stock info, etc and each can be individually controlled. The tasker scene on phone communicates with my Node Red/Home Assistant setup to send the messages to both of my Shield TVs.

6/24/18

Added a Calendar to the Plex page for upcoming TV shows

Update #55:

Created a calendar that shows upcoming TV shows that will air and be added to Plex. Trakt is tied to the Plex server and has RSS feeds that Google Calendar uses to populate the calendar. It will always be up to date and accurate.

6/14/18

Installed Yeelight lightstrip, Installed Z-Wave Thermostat, Added tab for Temp & Humidity

Update #54:

Added a Yeelight lightstrip to my kitchen last night under my countertop. It looks really cool but I still need to get it linked to the Yeelight app, it's having problems detecting so for now I can't control it remotely.

Update #53:

Installed a smart thermostat tonight. It is a GoControl Z-Wave one I got at Lowes for $70 ($20 after I used a giftcard I had). I'm going to make some really cool automations with Node Red and the thermostat soon.

Update #52:

Added temperature and humidity displays for each individual room in the Room View tab.

Temperatures 6-14-18

6/10/18

Join Messages to my Shield TVs; Installed Additional Motion Sensors

Update #51:

Worked on setting up Join messages between Home Assistant/Node Red and my Shield TVs. Will use this to make popup notifications on both of my TVs and to populate a screen that I can show at certain times of the day to diplay things like the weather, calendar events, reminders, news, etc.

Update #50:

Added motion sensors for the dining room and my condo's entryway.

Update #49:

Made the lights dim when the Plex app is opened on my Shield TV.

6/3/18

OwnTracks/MQTT using OpenVPN + Motion sensor announcements + Grafana & InfluxDB add-ons

Update #48:

Finished getting MQTT and OwnTracks working over the OpenVPN I set up a few weeks ago on the router and devices

Update #47:

Created motion triggered announcements for certain motions sensors like the medicine cabinet and liquor cabinet.

Update #46:

Installed the Grafana and InfluxDB add-ons for Hass.io. I don't have any good dashboards set up yet but will come back to this in the future.

5/27/18

Added UPS & Fedex sensors; Switched from HTTP to MQTT version of OwnTracks

Update #45:

Switched from HTTP to MQTT on the OwnTracks component. This should provide more reliable device tracking in the long run.

Update #44:

Added the UPS and FedEx package tracking sensors to Home Assistant.

5/26/18

Added more drive time sensors; Created doorbell alerts; Added coinmarketcap sensor

Update #43:

Added more drive time sensors and created separate groups like Movie Theaters.

Update #42:

Added a notification on my TV, phone, and computer when the doorbell is rang. The separate option of having "Someone is at the front door" read over all of the Google Homes is now in everyroom instead of just my office.

Update #41:

Made input booleans for both the doorbell's audio and message notifications so they can be turned off and on. Eventually will make this based on date and time.

Update #40:

Added the coinmarketcap component so I can view my 8 or so cryptocurrencies I'm invested in. I already have the Alpha Advantage one for my stocks so now I can see the current price of any stock or cryptocurrency I own.

5/22/18

I now have MQTT working in Node Red

Update #39:

Finally got MQTT working after months of trying off and on. So far only using it to monitor my phone's battery in Home Assistant as well as announce over my speakers when my lunch break is over and it is time to go back to work.

5/19/18

Motion triggered lights + Added custom Doorbell

Update #38:

						View Code

In Node Red, I have the motion detection lights working in all rooms again on the NUC. Also added a new motion sensor for the dining room.

Update #37:

Installed/set up a doorbell today with a xiaomi button. When pressed it will announce someone it at my door over all speakers.

5/15/18

Switched Hass.io from my Raspberry Pi 3 to new Intel NUC

Update #36:

After some effort, I got my new Intel NUC6CAYH up and running Hass.io. I installed Debian 9 on it first and then installed docker and then Hass.io. So far everything seems to be running correctly.

5/6/18

Automatically locking & unlocking my front door in Node Red based on my location

Update #35:

View code

Made a Node Red flow that automatically locks my door when I am away and unlocks when I get home.

5/5/18

Set up HD Home Run again, installed the Node Red add-on for Hass.io

Update #34:

Hooked up my HD Home Run again, this time in my office. I set the Plex server to record certain shows and automatically remove the commercials.

Update #33:

I have the Node-RED component working with Hass.io now and have built a few flows. The goal is to eventually transfer over as many of my yaml automations over as possible

4/22/18

Created scripts in Home Assistant to lock/unlock my smart lock

Update #32:

Added my smart lock to the front interface of Home Assistant. It can also be locked or unlocked as part of scripts.

Update #31:

Added Waze driving times for a few destinations. I'll add more eventually.

Update #30:

I've been unable to work on Home Assistant for 3 weeks so no progress on anything unfortunately. I had an issue where I couldn't update hass.io or see the front end of HA. I couldn't access via samba but I had SSH access so I ended up using a program call winscp to copy my config over before doing a reinstall of hass.io. Everything is back to normal I hope.

4/21/18

Installed a Schlage Connect Smart Lock

Update #29:

I added a Schlage Connect lock on my front door. I paired it with Wink so far and made shortcuts that I can control with my watch and with my voice over Google Home. I will try playing with it in Home Assistant soon. It's awesome.

4/1/18

Added logger component in Home Assistant

Update #28:

Found out about the logger component. Haven't got it working yet but it will be useful for MQTT warnings while I'm figuring that out.

3/31/18

OwnTracks is working again, and uses HTTP instead of MQTT

Update #27:

I got OwnTracks working again. I switched from MQTT public to HTTP private mode. I still may switch back to local MQTT if I can get that working as I think it would be better in the long run and I'll need MQTT for other things.

3/28/18

Home Assistant's Cloud Service

Update #26:

I set up Home Assistant's Cloud service with my Amazon Echo. Need to test it out still but should let me control most things in Home Assistant via voice commands on the Echo. I'm really looking more to the Google Home support that is coming soon.

3/24/18

Added the 'Web to Plex' extension for Chrome

Update #25:

Added the Web to Plex extension to my Chrome Browser. Now when I look up movies on IMDb it tells me right there on the IMDB page whether or not it's already in the Plex library.

Update #24:

Added the Node Red add-on in Hass.io. Getting it set up now.

3/7/18

Added the Alpha Vantage sensor to display stock information

Update #23:

I added the Alpha Vantage component to Home Assistant for stock information. For now, I just have stock prices on a separate tab of Home Assistant but I eventually plan to add alerts based on large changes or price thresholds.

3/3/18

Auto-transfering new downloads to the Plex & sending notifications to the Shield TV

Update #22:

Finally got downloads to auto-transfer to the Plex after auto-downloading. uTorrent uses RSS feeds to download certain shows as soon as they become available. Filebot then renames them and then transfers the downloaded movie or TV show to the hard drive attached to the Plex server. So basically as soon as something is available it will be on the Plex very shortly after.

Update #21:

Added notifications on the SHIELD TV to show when downloads start or finish.

Update #20:

Added notifications on the SHIELD TV to show when a new file has been added to the Plex server.

3/2/18

Blue Iris HTTP Post to Home Assistant; View webpages on TV w/ Google Voice Commands

Update #19:

Linked Blue Iris camera motion detection to Home Assistant using HTTP Post and template sensors. This will allow me to use the cameras motion sensors in addition to the regular motion sensor I already had set up.

Update #18:

Linked Google Assistant to Join via IFTTT to send URLs of websites via voice commands on my Google Homes. This website, the plex server, but most importantly, Google Maps can now be viewed on my TV. So far I have traffic maps for work, home, etc. I plan to have my morning commute pop up on the TV every morning and make a separate voice command to view my stock information.

2/17/18

Motion detection & download notifications to Shield TV via Join; Input Booleans for motion sensors

Update #17:

Set up input booleans for each room's motion sensor in Home Assistant.

Update #16:

Created scripts that get triggered every time motion is detected and if the motion sensor boolean is set to on, a Join notification gets sent to the SHIELD TV.

Update #15:

Created Tasker scenes that show notifications for the motion sensors and also for when a TV show finishes downloading. I will make notifications for all sorts of things like washer or dishwasher complete, time to go to work, phone has finished charging, etc. when I have more time.

2/14/18

Join messages from HA to Shield TV; AutoRemote & Eventghost to Shield TV

Update #14:

Join app components working. Using notify in HA to send messages to the Shield TV and other devices.

Update #13:

AutoRemote is working with EventGhost on PC2 to send messages to the Shield TV can then use Tasker to do all sorts of things.

1/1/18

Xiaomi Gateway Ringtones working; Added a Xiaomi Button

Update #12:

View Code

Added Xiaomi Gateway ringtones and got the Xiaomi Button working (single click and long click).

12/31/17

Aeotec Switches Now Reporting Energy Use; 2 doors into 1 sensor

Update #11:

Got the 2 aeotec switches to start reporting their energy levels correctly.

Update #10:

Combined front and back door sensors into 1 sensor on main page to save space.

12/28/17

Added a 2nd Aeotec Switch

Update #9:

Added a 2nd Aeotec switch for the dishwasher.

Update #8:

Changed the first Aeotec switch from the Christmas Tree to the washing machine.

12/19/17

Added more Xiaomi sensors

Update #7:

Added Xiaomi Gateway and 3x temp sensors, 2x door sensors, 1x water sensor, 1x button.

12/5/17

Google Calendar

Update #6:

Added Google Calendar component.

12/4/17

Z-Wave & Zigbee working; Template sensors for device status

Update #5:

Z-Wave and Zigbee appear to be working now.

Update #4:

Added sensor templates to change Home/Away to Online/Offline on the Devices View.

11/26/17

Added custom icons to Home Assistant tabs

Update #3:

Added more tabs and icons to my front end of Home Assistant.

11/24/17

Added Z-wave component to Home Assistant

Update #2:

Added Z-Wave component but I am still working out some issues with it.

11/15/17

6 components now working within my Hass.io setup

Update #1:

I have all of these components are working with Hass.io now:

Samba
SSH
Wink component
Duck DNS
Input Numbers
Google Assistant

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