Humidity-sensitive ventilation and Home Assistant

By mvuilleu, in Measures and Internet of Things, january 10,2025.

When insulating a house as part of an energy-efficiency renovation, it's essential to provide ventilation to evacuate any moisture that might accumulate inside. Since it's generally not possible to install a double-flow ventilation system after the fact, the recommended method is to use humidity-sensitive ventilation, which selectively ventilates the rooms that need it most. But does it really work? Let's find out with Yoctopuce modules and the Home Assistant home automation platform.

Upcycling an old fan

By mvuilleu, in DIY, Internet of Things and Measures, september 27,2024.

Almost ten years ago, we showed you how to combat humidity in a room using humidity-controlled ventilation. The system described had just then been installed in a cellar, where it worked efficiently until very recently. Unfortunately, the discovery of mold alerted us to a problem, and a quick check revealed that the system had broken down: the fan controlling the air intake had died.

A decorative IoT and PoE lamp

By martinm, in DIY and Internet of Things, september 13,2024.

To tell you the truth, this week we had planned to continue our series on USB batteries, but it turns out that the associated experiments are taking longer than expected. Actually, this is rather good news, but this also means we had to fall back on an emergency topic...

A quick tutorial on I2C

By mvuilleu, in Measures and Internet of Things, july 19,2024.

Many sensors on the market use an I2C interface. The datasheets for these sensors usually simply recall how an I2C bus works by copying and pasting the original Philips/NXP specifications, but for engineers implementing PC- or Internet-based automation solutions today, this isn't necessarily the most relevant explanation. So here's our crash course for new I2C users.

Integrating an M-Bus meter in Home Assistant

By mvuilleu, in Internet of Things and Measures, july 12,2024.

M-Bus (also known as Meter-Bus) is a standard dating back to the '90s, designed for reading water and power meters. A wireless variant using the same data coding was later defined, but for this post we'll focus on the original version, which powers and reads up to 250 meters over 1 km, linked by a single pair of twisted wires.