Sketchy, Cheap Solution you put in place

Tutorials & Examples openHAB Stories
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Hi ! I love " McGiver" Solution. I really like how you can do do cheap thing that shouldn’t work but do work !

Ex :

I make an old air conditioning smart by cutting the power cord and put a sonoff

I wanna change the volume of a Mac via apple script but apple script didn’t allow me to send variable to the script so I create 100 script from 0% to 100% and then I call the right script instead of sending value to the script…

So know you get my exemple of bad solution that actually work I want know if you have similar story !

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I made better, Used one Esp8266 with one InfraRed to make it super smart! I can remotely send all commands available in the remote. Total cost: +/- 3 eur each A/C.

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Lol … My AC is so old that it don’t have any remote !

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I replaced the clock timer in my old thermostat with an ESP8266 to make it smart and connected. :sunglasses:

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Mine’s not too McGyver but our power meter is “smart” but there is no way to interface with it. But they do have a flashing LED that pulses 1000 times per KwH… So using a light sensor and esp8266 I now count the pulses and calculate the current power usage for the whole house.

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I wired a relay and a dry contact sensor into my old school doorbell so I would have a notification when the doorbell rings. Also did the same thing with a Clapper so I could clap shit on

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I got a bunch of optocouplers and some binary interfaces and built an interface between my door control and knx bus. It’s bidirectional, so openHAB gets information if I open or close the doors through RF link.
Total cost was about 70EUR (the binary interface is about 65EUR…)

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I’ve since upgraded my solution to be a cleaner, but I attached an old Raspberry Pi to a relay wired to my garage door openers to create a remote trigger since the opener’s remotes stopped working and was too old to buy a replacement.

So this part really isn’t all that McGiver. But how I installed it kind of is:

image.jpg536×594 96.8 KB

I’ve since put it in a real case mounted to the wall and add a lot more functionality to the Pi.

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@TommySharp please describe in detail your setup. What parts and how did you assemble it ? I’ve noticed that my meter also has a flashing led and I may do something similar to you. Thanks

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I sometimes forget to switch off my oven. I now have an NTC in the space above my oven and if that senses the oven has been on for over an hour, I get a warning on my phone. May put in a sonoff to have it automatically switched off.
Not sure if that is really McGyvering, but it made my oven ‘smart’

I have an infrared diode registering if I left a burner on on my cooking stove, similar principle. Not ideal as it needs Free Line Of Sight… but it works

@eurico_borges
I see Tommy did not reply yet, but it is a common solution, should be easy to find on google

@rlkoshak Cardboard… McGyver would be proud.
cardboard in fact is an underestimated resource… I have made robots out of it

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