Category: Home Automation

RTSP Camera Stream Dashboard

Tim 1 Comment

After years of reliable camera streaming, I recently upgraded my RTSP Camera Dashboard from a Raspberry Pi to a Dell Mini OptiPlex with Ubuntu. I am still using the Wyze Cameras flashed with the RTSP firmware, which works great as long as your Wi-Fi connection is reliable. I also rewrote the camera streaming software using C++.  This setup lets you live stream four cameras to a monitor, which works great for a DIY home security system.

Setup

  1. Copy the C++ code and create a new file called rtsp_viewer.cpp
  2. Update the 4 RTSP URLs in the rtsp_viewer.cpp file  to be your camera URLS
  3. sudo apt install libopencv-dev libsdl2-dev
  4. g++ rtsp_viewer.cpp -o rtsp_viewer `pkg-config –cflags –libs opencv4 sdl2` -pthread
  5. ./rtsp_viewer
  6. Setup this application to start on reboot

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Simple Under Cabinet Lighting

Tim 4 Comments

Under-cabinet lighting can improve the functionality and look of your kitchen. With today’s LED light strips, installing them is a breeze. The most challenging part is finding the power to conceal your power plug. If you already have a plug inside your cabinets for your microwave or behind your fringe, using an existing outlet makes this a great DIY weekend project. If you have to add power inside a cabinet, you may need additional assistance.

I decided to use some affordable LED lights strips from Amazon. They had good reviews and multiple options on how they could be connected. In total, my kitchen took nine LED light strips. I also purchased three extra lights to use as replacements in the future if any of them go bad. This kit comes in soft white and daylight, so make sure you get the right color to match your existing lights. I also used an extension power plug to join lights over a gap.

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Turn Your Dumb Air Conditioner Into A Smart Air Conditioner

Tim 7 Comments

Recently I moved into a house that has a Diakin mini-split system (FTX12NMVJU / RX12NMVJU) in the bonus room. Mini-splits are known for being extremely energy efficient but unfortunately, I was not able to remotely control the unit on a schedule as I did with my Ecobee smart thermostats, so unless I remembered to manually turn the unit off at night, it would run for no reason. Definitely a first-world problem. I research options Diakin offered. From what I could find, the only option to turn the dumb unit into a smart unit was to by a Daikin Wireless Adapter that required taking the unit apart. Not to mention, the wireless unit cost around $165 so I started searching for other options. Read More