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I got my hands on a 600W 12V inverter so I decided to experiment with generating my own electricity.

I've been using&nbsp;<a href="https://www.home-assistant.io/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Home Assistant</a>&nbsp;to control my home IoT devices for a while. Although it fulfills all my needs, I wanted to make my own system so as to get a fully customized smart home control panel and learn how to build such an application in the process.

Air conditioners consume a fair amount of electricity. As such, forgetting to turn one off before leaving one's home can result in an expensive electricity bill. This is a Wi-Fi enabled controller for air condtioners, which can turn the unit on or off according to MQTT messages. It is built around an Wemos D1 mini and interfaces with the AC using an IR LED.

This headset enables the overlay of information on top of its user's field of view. The field of view of the user is captured by a camera and then fed to video goggles, while a MAX7456 OSD chip overlays text on the video feed.

The thermal insulation of my apartment not being the best, I decided to buy an electric heater in order not to freeze during cold winter nights. However, the one I got was probably too powerful for my needs and letting it run for too long would heat up my place too much. Thus, I added a wifi enabled controller to it so its operations are controlled by my home automation system.

Few would argue that having lights turned on in a room without occupant is a waste of electricity. Ideally, lights and other appliances like air conditioners would only be turned on when someone is around. This project is a NodeJS application that gathers data about the occupancy of an apartment and manages appliances accordingly.

This briefcase is fitted with an electronic lock and a fingerprint reader so as to be unlocked with a simple touch. It also features a bluetooth module, which enables unlocking using a smartphone or computer.

Smartwatches can be rather expensive and tend to be known for their poor battery life. On the other hand, Xiaomi's Mi band 2 is cheap and its battery lasts for up to 20 days. However, the Mi band 2 is mainly limited to fitness tracking functions, at least without the appropriate apps.