Here is a list of the Technologies that I use and links to some of there whereabouts. Over time I will be creating more detailed pages describing how I am using each of them in my ecosystems and how you can make them work for you.

  • Node-Red - This is at the core of all of my control. I have been programming in Node-Red for about 5 years now. Probably nearly since it began.
  • MQTT - By using MQTT as the communication hub I am able to stay agnostic on what hardware and software I get to use as mostly everything will in some way or another communicate with MQTT.
  • Tasmota - This is one of the most awesome finds that I have made. I can thank Travis from digiblur for this one. All of my end devices that are built on a ESP8266 chip I have flashed with Tasmota. This way I can two-way communicate with any device on the network.
  • Simplisafe - It is important to me to have a really solid home security system. TO me, Simplisafe had the best of all worlds. It was wireless, had a good number of available device types, had an API that I could access and had cellular backup.
  • IOTStack - I recently found this. It is a pre-established Docker IOT stack with an easy to use config menu and automatic backups. This is how I run my Node-Red, Mosquitto, PiHole, TasmotoAdmin, and other software. I have a PI4 that boots off of a 512GB SSD as the central controller for the house. 
  • Ubiquiti - I run my networks using Ubiquiti hardware. I have a USG controller and 6 APs. I run 3 VLANs that I use to separate my different device types. There is the private LAN that has access to everything. The IOT VLAN that has access to the Internet but not the main LAN. This is for devices such as Echo Dots. and then I have a NOT VLAN. This is where I have my automation devices and it has zero access to the outside world. 
  • Nvidia Jetson Nano - I am using AI for both video image recognition and voice recognition. I have been able to get both working but nothing to my satisfaction yet.
  • 433MhZ Devices - This is really a nice option for simple automation tasks. It is probably not the most reliable of technologies but it provides for a ton of flexibility. Plus, the way that I have it set up it uses MQTT.