Bridging EnOcean Sensors and Actuators to HomeKit using HAP-NodeJS

Hello HomeKit enthusiasts, after my catching up again with NodeJS and HomeKit sensor integration using HAP-NodeJS I ordered a couple of new sensors for the integration into our new home. I have already tweeted about an EnOcean enabled Window Handle which I’m going to tell you more about in this post as well. First of all I was using a Raspberry PI running HAP-NodeJS. In order to detect EnOcean telegrams sent out by the sensors I ordered a Add-On Board Enocean Pi 868Mhz and the NodeJS module node-enocean-utils.

HAP-NodeJS HomeKit Switch

Some time ago when we started planning the renovation of our house we were thinking of adding some HomeKit accessories. Lightbulbs are kind of massively available but in the wall mounted switches are kind of rare to get especially in Europe. So I decided to build something myself based on HAP-NodeJS. Well just building the accessory using some buttons is not a big deal but mounting it into something usable more of a challenge.

Latest addition: nRF52 Development Kit

Hey BLE developers after some months of planning and renovation we finally moved into our new home and I have again time to deal with hardware development kits and focus on HomeKit and Smarthome and Sensors and IoT and embedded systems and… and….and… Before xmas I have already ordered and unboxed the nRF52 Development kit from Nordic. I finally was able to go through the “Getting Started” document and downloaded a pile of sdks and documents to dig into.

Integrating BLE Kitchen Gadgets into Let's Cook!

Hello everyone, as I already mentioned in my previous blog post next step in the Let’s Cook! implementation, aside from fixing bugs and finally make the app Swift 3.0 ready, to integrate some premium features. Yes, premium means they will be available as InApp-Purchase. Those features will include accessing the following two BLE enabled kitchen devices: Anova Precision Cooker https://anovaculinary.com/anova-precision-cooker/ Redi Check ET-735 BBQ Thermometer http://www.ichefthermometers.com/et-735-bluetooth-barbecue-thermometer/ I have already reverse engineered the GATT setup and the behaviour of the two devices and will post some details soon when the corresponding CocoaPods are setup on my GitHub account.

Let's Cook! Recipe Companion for iPhone and iPad available in the AppStore

Hello everyone, as some of you might have already recognised I was working on a cooking companion app for the last couple of months. Finally Let’s Cook! is available on the Apple AppStore. More detailed information about the app can be found on the companion webpage available at http://www.letscook.mobi. Currently I’m working on integrating some BLE kitchen gadgets into the app. So stay tuned for more detailed information about premium integration features and some GitHub projects where you will find the code to deal with those devices properly.

Raspberry Pi 3 and the 7" Touchscreen Display delivered today

Hello everyone I ordered the new Raspberry PI 3 and the 7” Touchscreen display almost 1 ½ weeks ago but they were just delivered. The display looks really nice and the mounting at the back looks promising as well so that I can integrate it into an upcoming furniture maker project. Well I cannot say too much at the moment but it will include an IKEA EKERÖ and some oak wood.

SiLabs Blue Gecko BGM111-A Development Kit arrived

Hello everyone it is already a couple of weeks ago when I received my FoC (free of charge) development kit sample but now it’s time to unbox and start a few tests with it. In this post I will just show the content of it and run the preinstalled firmware and read the temperature value of the on board Si7021 Temperature/Humidity sensor. After opening the package you will find a card pointing to the following links where you can download the necessary software:

BTstack LE Arduino Shield

Hello everyone it is quite a bit time ago when the BTstack LE Arduino Shield was developed and finally available at Seeedstudio’s Bazaar for sale using the following link: http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/BTstack-LE-Arduino-Shield-p-2464.html In this blogpost I will quickly demonstrate how the BTstack LE Shield can be used with an Arduino/Genuino Zero to act as an iBeacon Scanner. As usual working with additional Arduino Libraries is very easy. Just follow the description provided by BlueKitchen at the following link: http://bluekitchen-gmbh.

New Breakout Boards on the way

Hello everyone it has been a while since the last post but it take some time to develops something new and prove it’s functionality until it can be show to the public. After I received the free of charge BT121 development board from Bluegiga I started to work on some breakout boards. The idea behind those boards is to minimize the size of prototypes compared to the size of the original development kits provided by Bluegiga.