The end of the summer vacation has arrived and that means that school or work is back on the agenda. The study will start again on this Tuesday and I am really looking forward to it. Because I am mainly going to run projects in my specialization, so I am very curious what we will do.
New hardware
In addition to maintaining code, I also brought in some new stuff in house.
Harmony Hub (companion)
For a long time I used the Broadlink RM Pro +, but during the Amazon Prime days the Harmony Hub was so cheap that I decided to buy one. Also to see to what extent the Harmony differs from the Broadlink in use.
Blitzwolf BW-LT11 led strips
Perhaps you’ve heard of it: Tuya. This company develops IoT wifi modules that other brands / manufacturers can build into their own products, to make it smart and connectable to other platforms. A good example of this is the LSC smart connect product line in the Action nowadays. Although time must tell whether these products of the action are really worth it.
An important note: Tuya products can be operated via an app, but communication is via external servers. In a smart house, preference should always be given to products that support local APIs.
In the case of Tuya: it’s possible to flash it with other firmware through Tuya Convert, so that local access is possible. But Tuya has considerably improved security in recent years, making it more difficult and you sometimes have to open the product yourself to flash it.
Blitzwolf BW-LT11 (2M led strip)
But in my case I bought LED strips from Blitzwolf that are also Tuya compitable. It does not cost very much for a ready-made (plug and play) product and is very easy to use, in my case I have both installed in my rack cabinet. So I always have good work lighting for when I’m working on a project.
Airco ๐ง
In our flat we have been struggling with heat problems for years, not just the summer but actually every day that the sun shines. As a result, the temperature rises very quickly in the studios to 38 degrees on the hottest days of the year. A direct attack on the living pleasure for the students. An air conditioner is therefore currently the best option to keep the temperature under control.
Pick up the package 
In operation
In the end I opted for the Eurom CoolSilent 100 Wifi and yes this air conditioner is Tuya compitable and can therefore also work with Home Assistant. Unfortunately, the Tuya climate platform in Home Assistant is not working properly, I suspect there is a bug there.
Volunteer of the year award
Volunteer of the year award
At the last minute: I got a (large) award as a volunteer at my old swimming club. This is awarded to the silent volunteer who means / does a lot for the club, but you never hear or see him. In addition, also received a gift voucher and a large bunch of flowers.
I am in a nice list of volunteers who have previously received this cup, for the time being it will be showing off in Leiden for a year in my studio.
IFA Berlin 2019 (6-11 sep)
I am also looking forward to the IFA fair in Messe Berlin this year. Together with my girlfriend we will travel to Berlin by plane, which will also be the very first flight we are going to do together ๐ I’ve always wanted to go there and this year I finally booked tickets for it.
IFA stands for Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin and it’s the largest and oldest tech fair in Europe. Many large and small companies will show their latest technological developments and prototypes and IFA is a great platform for networking with companies.
Which stands should I visit?
Therefore let me know which company I should definitely visit!
You can find here the list of companies for this year on IFA.
