Guides
What we have learned working on our projects — electronics and home automation, home systems, servers and self-hosted services, small tools — written for those who want to recreate them at home. Each guide states what has actually been tested on real hardware or a running service, and what has only been tested on the bench or on a PC.
Connecting an RS485 converter to an ESP32
Voltage, pins, TXD and RXD, ground and terminations: how to connect an ESP32 to an existing RS485 bus without breaking anything, using what we learned on a real system.
A temperature and presence node with ESP32-C3, SHT30 and LD2410C radar
A DIY wall sensor made with less than 15 euros of components: temperature and humidity even in the bathroom, and a radar that detects someone standing still. Wiring, ESPHome, distance calibration and typical faults.
A Tuya thermo-hygrometer without cloud, with OpenBeken
How to remove the app and the cloud from an inexpensive WiFi temperature sensor: open it, flash it with OpenBeken, read the probe via TuyaMCU, and send the measurements via MQTT over your home network.
The circulator pump of a radiant floor: who enables the pump
You change the controller, the valves open but the water doesn't circulate: in many apartment buildings, the apartment pump requires a pump enable. How to understand if this affects you and what the options are, including the safety rules to implement in the firmware.
How a Radiax radiant floor system thinks, seen from the bus
Who commands, who responds, where the system memory is located, how the season is decided, and why the pump stays on: the operation of a Radiax radiant floor reconstructed by listening to its RS485 bus.
Why a radiant floor does not regulate like a radiator
The inertia of the screed, the limits of on-off thermostats, and how a PID controller works by opening valves over time. Including simulation numbers and the precautions needed for a real system.
Testing a relay board on the bench, before opening the panel
Document the existing system, identify the valve actuators, test the relays without loads, and let everything run for a day on the table: the method for replacing a radiant floor controller without being left in the cold.