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Michael Sage

IT, Digital & Culture

Author: michael

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October 2020 Update

October 2020 Update

I have added home assistant to the mix, after years of watching from afar, the IFTTT subscription and eWeLink subscription finally pushed me to install it on a spare Pi, I want to reduce my reliance on 3rd party clouds, especially with some of the less well known manufacturers. It works with nearly all my smart home stuff (with the exception of the flic hub I am hoping the new API will fix this). There is now a plugin for sonoff which works without having to change the firmware so I can wait a bit longer for the Shelly UK plugs which should be coming soon. 

I have updated the garden TV to use a firestick, which gives me Alexa in the garden through the voice enabled remote. I have also purchased a Chromecast with Google TV, it’s impressive but not impressive enough to move away from Roku. Alexa in the garden has always been something I wanted to have, but I didn’t really want a device outside full time that would allow people to control my house!

In new smart home news, I have the new Echo on order and the curtain bots have shipped, I’m really looking forward to trying both these products! Unifi have announced a G3 instant camera which will be a great replacement for the NEOS cameras and consolidation is what this iteration of the smarthome is all about. FTTP is now available, so I am weighing up my options when it comes to providers as I will have to leave my current provider (Plusnet) as they have no FTTP offering. I am currently looking at the 900Mbps service from Zen. I am unlikely to change until after Christmas though! 

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Lego Rack Server

Rack Mount Lego Server

Stolen from a LinkedIn post.

Parts List:

Element ID (BrickLink) Description Quantity
11211 Brick – Modified 1×2 with Studs on 1 Side 2
2412a Tile – Modified 1×2 Grille without bottom lip 9
2431 Tile – 1×4 4
26603 Tile – 2×3 1
3003 Brick – 2×2 1
3004 Brick – 1×2 1
3010 Brick – 1×4 8
3020 Plate – 2×4 2
3023 Plate – 1×2 4
3024 Plate – 1×1 6
3068a Tile – 2 x 2 without Groove 3
3069a Tile – 1 x 2 without Groove 6
3622 Brick – 1×3 2
63864 Tile – 1 x 3 2
69729 Tile – 2×6 (not many colour choices for this one) 1
87079 Tile – 2 x4 1
92438 Plate – 8×16 1
Total 54

Alternative for the front (avoiding 69729 – Tile – 2×6) for more colour options!

Element ID Description Quantity
3005 Brick – 1×1 2
3068a Tile – 2×2 1
26603 Tile – 2×3 1
87079 Tile – 2×4 1
87087 Brick – Modified 1×1 with stud on 1 side 4

Using the above list you don’t require – 69729, 11211, 3004 or 26603 – from the first list!

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Shelly HTTP Commands

Some standard HTTP commands for the Shelly I have found In case of password protected you will need to put http://user:password@shellyIP first

Shelly 1:
Turn on: 
http://192.168.xxx.xxx/relay/0?turn=on
Turn off: 
http://192.168.xxx.xxx/relay/0?turn=off
Turn on and after ttt-seconds automatically turn off: (ttt replace with the desired time in seconds!) 
http://192.168.xxx.xxx/relay/0?turn=on&timer=ttt
The code can also be sent to an already activated Shelly. This will stay on for ttt seconds and then turn off automatically. Turn off and after ttt-seconds automatically turn on: (ttt replace with the desired time in seconds!) 
http://192.168.xxx.xxx/relay/0?turn=off&timer=ttt
The code can also be sent to an already switched off Shelly. This will remain switched off for ttt seconds and then automatically switched on.

Switch toggle: 
http://192.168.xxx.xxx/relay/0?turn=toggle
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Proxmox Community Updates

First remove the enterprise enterprise.proxmox repository

# rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve.enterprise

#apt update && apt -y full-upgrade

Add the no-subscription or pve-test repositori :

#nano /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian buster pve-no-subscription

Go back to the GUI and check you can get updates!

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Flic HTTP request with Authentication

When you are wanting to use the HTTP request within Flic it doesn’t work using the standard user:pass@host. So you have to do a little more work…

  • Add your URL which for me was http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/relay/0?turn=toggle to turn a light on or off in the garage.

  • stick with GET http method (or which ever suites)

  • under the HTTP headers, set up basic authentication i.e. type “Authorization” in the Key field of the app

  • encode your “user:password” string using base64 (I used base64encode.org for online base64 encoding)

  • Prefix the encoded string with “Basic ” including a trailing space

  • “Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4NCg==” is encoded “admin:admin” as an example. Key or paste all of this into the Value field in the FLIC app

  • Press the save button.

  • Press DONE to ensure all saved away

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OPNsense + NextCloud Backup – Windows Client Issue

OPNsense backups contain a special character, in this case “:”. Which while most operating systems tolerate it causes an issue with the Windows NextCloud client and it is unable to sync. The developer has a very good point in that this isn’t a OPNsense issue, but a NextCloud / Windows one for not respecting, or being able to deal with special characters. However, all is not lost, there is a tiny modification you can make to one file on the OPNsense server to make everything OK!

First log into the shell on the OPNsense box (option 8 on the console GUI)

If you don’t have an editor installed you can use vi, or you can install nano

pkg install nano

Open the file

nano /usr/local/opnsense/mvc/app/library/OPNsense/Backup/Nextcloud.php
Change line 132 from 
$configname = 'config-' . $hostname . '-' .  date("Y-m-d_h:m:s") . '.xml';
to 
$configname = 'config-' . $hostname . '-' .  date("Y-m-d_H-i-s") . '.xml';
This changes the “:” to a “-“, but you could change this to anything you like. Save the file, job done!

Remember it is likely this will get overwritten with updates to OPNsense so I recommend you check the file after every update!

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Public Sector Podcast

Public Sector Podcast

In last May I was invited to speak on “The Public Sector Pod”, a podcast that focuses on digital transformation in the public sector.

I really enjoyed having the chance to talk about a subject that I feel very passionately about, digital transformation in the public sector. I was allowed to chat about the successes and failings we had experienced at Chelmsford as well as the future. 

You can find the podcast here!

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June 2020 Update

June 2020 Update

The year is now 2020 and things have changed in the smart home. After a lot of soul searching I decided it was time to remove lightwave from the setup, the product hasn’t really moved with the times from it’s promising start, it felt old, expensive and stagnant. I replaced all my remaining lightwave switches and plugs with products from sonoff, some of them are running the custom tasmota firmware others are still running the default sonoff firmware, I am likely to start buying Shelly stuff as it becomes available in the UK because of its flexibility. 

I am also really interested in Broadlinks new offering especially the zero app series that is likely to arrive in the UK in the next few months. I have added a couple of NEOS cameras to watch Hollie while I am at work these integrate nicely with Alexa and I now have a Show 8 and Show 5 to make use of video based skills. 

My hue install has grown and now covers the garden as well as the house, an additional govee ambilight has been added to the TV, and although it integrates with Alexa, it mainly stands alone.

Alexa has expanded to include my car using the Echo Auto and the control outside of the house is a nice feature, with geolocation it could become almost as game changing as the original echo.

I have migrated from the Unifi USG to OPNsense. With the promise of BT FTTP coming in the next couple of months and continuing issues with the USG (it just isn’t powerful enough to do everything it says it can). I decided to move back to OPNsense (I moved from pfSense to OPNsense about 5 years ago when I didn’t like the way pfSense licensing was heading).

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Duo ByPass

To bypass duo 2fa for a script or secure login etc on Linux you simply need to add the following to your SSHD PAM config (/etc/pam.d/sshd)

auth    [success=2 default=ignore]      pam_access.so accessfile=/etc/security/access-local.conf

You will then need to create the access file and put your rules in for example

+ : ALL : 192.168.1.0/24
- : ALL : ALL

For information on the access file, see here

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