Author: Nick
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Working around USB webcam auto exposure sticking
The webcam I use for my birdfeeder stream regularly exhibits a glitch where the autoexposure gets stuck. This often leads to an underexposed image in low light conditions. Restarting the device resolves this but I wanted a simpler and less intrusive workaround. I found that toggling the exposure mode to manual and back to auto…
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Scheduling cache release in Ubuntu
To keep my server running smoothly, I use crontab to schedule release of cache files: This schedules the tasks to run at 5:01 am and 5:02 each day. Sudo sync is used to write and currently used data buffers to non volatile memory The next command then frees up space in the non-volatile
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Selecting a ZigBee Channel
ZigBee can be a great way of handling smart home communication, without putting additional load on your existing WiFi network. Having the network separated, also means additional resilience for your smart home network, at times when your WiFi is under heavy load. Conversely, it also prevents heavy load on the ZigBee side from affecting WiFi…
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Running DOODS2 for LAN accessible TensorFlow Object Detection
The problem: Motion detection on camera streams results in a lot of false positives, especially in environments where motion is expected from certain objects such as trees, or in this case birdfeeders The solution: Implement Object Detection Solution plan: MJPEG stream > LAN > doods2 node > shinobi/AgentDVR/HA DOODS 2 uses object detection via tensorflow…
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Scheduling USB device reload on Ubuntu
Intermittently I have an issue with some of my webcams connected to my Ubuntu server. The devices disappear as if they are disconnected. I found a simple workaround for this was to run the command: Simple scheduling of this command using crontab achieves a more permantant workaround: This cron is set to run at 5am…
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Pulse Audio Ubuntu not loading correctly on boot
I found that pulse audio wasn’t loading right on boot, resulting in ‘dummy audio device’. If you’re having the same issue, you can follow these quick steps to work around it. Simply running killing the pulseaudio service would force it to load correctly But this is only a fix until the next reboot. To add…
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TPA3116D2 Amplifier Board Design
This post is a work in progress I’ve been building speakers for years, and always had audio electronics as a passion. Up until this point, I have completed many of my own cabinet designs, studying the acoustic sciences to optimise the cabinets. I’ve used many different types of amplifier with my cabinet designs but have…
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Building Marlin Firmware for BTT SKR_V3
The BigTreeTech company manufacture a great range of 3D printer controller boards that can be really good upgrade options for most printers. I decide to go for one of these, as part of a number of upgrades I’m doing to my printer. I elected to go with the SKR_V3 which is their current latest board,…
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Scripting Docker Compose Up
My Ubuntu server primarily runs services in docker containers, all configured via docker-compose. Each time I make a modification to the docker compose configuration file, I then need to run a command to update the docker containers. Typing this isn’t too much pain, but regardless I still wanted to streamline this due to the frequency…
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Lovelace Dashboards
In this post, I’m going to run through the lovelace dashboards that I have configured in my HomeAssistant instance. Theme The theme I have gone with is called Waves, I really like the Aesthetic. You can download it from github. Landing Page This is my main landing page for HA. I’ve designed this to be…