@ChemicalDependant likewise i have a thing for technology but programming is definitely not my forte …
if you want to P.M me we can talk more about your project i feel node red is pretty nice i hear people using blink.io was another one too best of luck just picked up one of these guys so we will see!
And another Pi but a 4 to see what the hype is all about 
VOC Sensor, pricey little buggers. More data (said as Tim the toolman) I use little D1 Minis and ESP8266/32s a lot but with ESPHome and or Tasmota. If I knew how to program more than a few lines, I’d use esphome and place it all onboard so they would function with a lost connection, HA is not super dependable in my experience.
tbh i know not much about programming my self… that’s why i am paying someone to do this for me … but all in all i will probably end up uploading the files for others to do this project to but ill have a little donation box for the project… or i might try and build these for folks to start there little automation at home…
so far right now i been running with no Issues but my only concern is drawing to much on a 10A relay … i don’t want anyone getting hurt using this product so next step is incorporating some sort of fail switch to kill all power currently mine is plugged into a GFI protected outlet… but for the ones without that im thinking over alternative ideas anyone paying attention here have some ideas shed some light !
Fixing the old nikko 7075 receive kept making some sort of popping sound with volume all way down I think I found issue but man I’m a 90s baby but I’ve taken apart things as a child and never put back together and as I got older I acquired the disassemble and reassemble skill set lol but look at this piece of art pulley driven tuner for AM/FM like this wasn’t cheap building … but it needs a nice 
I just installed Home Assistant on a Rasberry PI 4 and got some TP-Link Smart plugs to play around with. Using Node Red in HA I was able to set a light schedule for my veg light and it actually works lol. Cool stuff. I have some Ruuvi Temp/Humidity sensors on the way and a ESP32 dev board to start getting temp/humidity readings into HA. Once thats going I want to build some automations to control my exhaust fan and dehumidifier.
Anyone using soil moisture sensors with Home Assistant? I would like to work that in as well so I can control the irrigation based on soil moisture content.
Pretty cool stuff to nerd out on I must say.
Got my Ruuvi tags in a day early so went to work adding them into Home Assistant.
Still following LEDGardeners video guide. I have to HIGHLY recommend this video series of his. Its very well done and easy to follow. I cannot believe how well fleshed out these free open source software packages are and what is available for them to do. I have invested less then $275 for something that would probably cost well over $3,000 if I bought it off the shelf.
First thing I did was add an Esp32 devboard into HA. My purpose for this device is to act as a Bluetooth to Wifi bridge. The Ruuvi pucks that are Bluetooth will communicate with the Esp32 which will then pass that info over wifi to the Rasberry PI that is running Home Assistant. HA has an integration called ESP32home that takes care of most of the backend scripting for you and this makes getting the esp32 board connected and working a breeze. This is where I ran into my first major issue, some esp32 boards require you to hold down the Reboot button on the actual board to allow the board to be updated when flashing the boards config. LEDGardener does mention that some of the boards require this so warning was given and I knew to look out for it. Good news is that you only have to do this once the very first time you configure the board and then subsequent over the air (OTA) updates don’t require it.
Another nice thing about the Esp32Home integration is that their website has the code for many supported devices and Ruuvi tags happen to be supported devices so this was a snap as well. Just had to copy their code and paste it into the yaml config file and replace the MAC address with those of my devices and I was good to go. Uploaded the new config to the esp32 board, checked the logs and boom the devices were talking and the Ruuvi tags were sending back their readings to Home Assistant.
Then added these sensor reading to my Dashboard using an entities card and ended up with this:
Even though the Ruuvi tags are labeled different in the UI I actually have them physically sitting next to each other because I want to check their accuracy. Pretty close so far. I have another Bluetooth sensor of a different brand and it reports the humidity 10% more then the Ruuvi tags. I have some humidor hygrometers that I use for curing that I will throw in the room to see which sensor is accurate with the humidity. My money is on the Ruuvi’s being the more accurate one.
My next project in Home Assistant will be to build some automations based off these environmental measurements and control turning on/off a ventilation fan and dehumidifier using the smart plugs.
After a few hours here are the readings of the two Ruuvi tags sitting next to each other.
Both tags look to be within a pretty close range of each other so I will not need to calibrate them which is an option that can be done in the yaml config file.
The SensorPush Bluetooth sensor I have in the same spot and it is reporting 42.8% humidity. The Ruuvi tags use the Bosch BME280 which seems to be held in high regard on the interwebz but I was not able to find what sensors the SensorPush use. Plus I can’t say how good the battery is in it so who knows. Still guessing the Ruuvi are more true but will update when I get a chance to throw a third sensor in there. But as of now I totally recommend the Ruuvi tags especially if you are trying DIY Automation using Home Assistant. They are just too easy.
Another cool feature, when you click on one of the measurements you get a historical graph to show you previous readings.
