Random

There are a lot of home alarm systems on the market, and most require you to purchase a bundled package from a provider that includes hardware, professional installation, and a monthly subscription. While these solutions work for many, I wanted something more customizable. I also didn’t want a company constantly tracking my cameras and sensors, if they want my data, they can pay me for it. I’m not about to pay them to take it.

I’ve been using Home Assistant on and off for years, and it has really matured. I recently put together a simple DIY alarm system that mimics many of the features of a traditional setup. Here’s what I wanted:

• Window and Door sensors
• Phone app control (as a front panel)
• Smoke/Fire/CO monitoring
• A loud siren
• Voice announcements when doors open and alerts if they’re left open

At the heart of my system is a Raspberry Pi 5 from Canakit. This kit is great because it includes everything you need to start: power supply, case, SD card, card reader, cables, and a fan. For this project, there’s no need for a monitor, mouse, or keyboard. You’ll access it over your home network.

Next, I added a UPS battery backup to keep the Pi, router, and modem running in a power outage. Only one side of the unit is backed up so be sure to plug essential devices into that side. The other side functions as a surge protector for non-critical gear like your TV or game console.

Wireless Protocols

For wireless sensors, I prefer Z-Wave over Zigbee. Z-Wave is generally more secure, though it’s slightly pricier and offers fewer product options. Zigbee is widely used and supports more device types (like bulbs and outlets), but in my opinion, it’s too easy to hack for use in a security system. You can use both in Home Assistant if you want the best of both worlds.

Z-Wave is more secure partly because it’s governed by the Z-Wave Alliance. Devices must be certified to use the protocol. Z-Wave frequencies vary by region, so check the Alliance’s site to find compatible devices and manuals for pairing or resetting.

Door and Window Sensors

You’ll need a Z-Wave USB dongle to connect the Pi to your sensors.

For sensors, I recommend Ring’s Z-Wave contact sensors. They’re affordable and easy to install. If your doors or frames aren’t aligned, these risers help position the magnets properly. You can also 3D print your own and use extra adhesive strips. For garage doors, I use these handy brackets.

Smoke and CO Monitoring

If your home has wired smoke detectors, you can retrofit them with this Z-Wave sensor. It listens for alarms and sends a signal to Home Assistant. If you’re buying new detectors, Ring’s listener is a solid option. Note that it doesn’t detect CO directly. Instead, it listens for the sound of a CO alarm and then alerts your system.

Siren

The siren I use is discontinued, but this Aeotec model is a good replacement. These sirens often support multiple chimes and alarms, so you can assign different sounds to different events, like a door chime or an intrusion alert. You’ll configure these behaviors through Home Assistant automations.

Announcements

I currently use an Echo Dot for spoken notifications when doors open or to remind me if they’re left open at night. You can also use Google Home or other smart speakers.

Other Devices

Depending on your needs, you can add leak sensors near washers, sinks, or sump pumps. Zooz even makes an actuator that can shut off your water supply in an emergency.

Brands I’ve used successfully include Zooz, Aeotec, Dome, and Ecolink which are all great for Z-Wave sensors and actuators.

Home Assistant Setup

Home Assistant is the software platform powering all of this. You can do everything from integrating smart bulbs to automating your HVAC. For this build, we’ll stick to the basics, sensor monitoring and phone access.

The simplest and most stable install is flashing Home Assistant as the Raspberry Pi’s operating system. Their official install guide walks you through it. You won’t need a monitor or keyboard, just plug the Pi into your router with Ethernet and power it up.

After a few minutes, go to http://homeassistant:8123/ in your browser to finish setup by creating your username and password. In the next post, we’ll walk through adding sensors and automations. Then we’ll learn how to access the system remotely and have voice announcements for when events happen.

If you’ve recently encountered an issue where your Fire TV loads the logo but gets stuck on a blank screen, you’re not alone. I experienced this frustrating problem myself. The app buttons for Netflix, Hulu, and Disney worked fine, but I couldn’t get the home screen to load or access Prime Video properly. Every time I tried using Prime, I got an error message: “Error: 1061.”  I tried a lot of recommendations from users on Amazon’s forums such as unplugging the firestick from both the HDMI and power for 15 minutes, then trying again. I also tried their suggestion of changing the HDMI port, but nothing they suggested worked.

After some poking around, I eventually found a quick and effective fix:

1. Open the Prime Video app on your Fire TV.
2. Navigate to the Account section within Prime.
3. Select Sign in with a different Amazon account to log out of your current account.
4. Log back in using your Amazon credentials.

That’s it! After logging back in, everything worked perfectly again—the home screen loaded, and Prime Video was back to normal.

If you’re facing a similar issue, give this method a try before diving into more complicated fixes. It worked like a charm for me!

I wanted to use MplabX to replace the graphical front-end of the Arduino app and write my own bare metal C/C++ code, but use the arduino’s built-in USB programming function. The method below can be done in multiple different IDEs, but I show how to set up MplabX. It is important to note that this method expects the Arduino’s bootloader to be stay on the board.

1. Setting up the Path to the Arduino IDE’s Compiler:

These are different for every computer so you have to find it yourself. To do this, open the Arduino IDE , go to File–>Preferences and click “Show Verbose Output” for both Compile and Download.

Next, plug in a board and send an example project to your Arduino (such as Blink.ino). The command line will spill over with commands.

Scroll to the top of the command window in the ArduinoIDE and look for the line after it says “Compiling Sketch”:

Copy this entire line and paste it to a text file so we can edit it. (Double-click this line to highlight it to copy). Here’s mine:

"C:\\Users\\adamp\\AppData\\Local\\Arduino15\\packages\\arduino\\tools\\avr-gcc\\7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7/bin/avr-g++" -c -g -Os -w -std=gnu++11 -fpermissive -fno-exceptions -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -fno-threadsafe-statics -Wno-error=narrowing -MMD -flto -mmcu=atmega328p -DF_CPU=16000000L -DARDUINO=10819 -DARDUINO_AVR_NANO -DARDUINO_ARCH_AVR "-IC:\\Users\\adamp\\AppData\\Local\\Arduino15\\packages\\arduino\\hardware\\avr\\1.8.6\\cores\\arduino" "-IC:\\Users\\adamp\\AppData\\Local\\Arduino15\\packages\\arduino\\hardware\\avr\\1.8.6\\variants\\eightanaloginputs" "C:\\Users\\adamp\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\arduino_build_752190\\sketch\\Blink.ino.cpp" -o "C:\\Users\\adamp\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\arduino_build_752190\\sketch\\Blink.ino.cpp.o"

The highlighted portion above is the file path to the C++ compiler Arduino uses. If we want to write our own bare-bones C or C++ code for the arduino, this is all we need.

Open MPlabX and select “Tools–>Preferences” or “Tools–>Options” depending on your version of MPlabx.  In the popup, select the “Embedded” tab.  On the left side, click the Add… button to add a new toolchain. A new popup will appear where you can paste the “Base Directory”. Paste in the highlighted part of your path only up to but NOT including the “avr-g++” part.  This will allow MPlabx to use the AVR-G++ compiler for Atmel chips.

2. Creating a MplabX project:

In MpLabx, start a new standalone project. I’m using an Arduino nano so I will choose the chip “Atmega328P” I recommend you select “Simulator” for the “Tool” entry here as it can be really handy for debugging code.

Then select the new entry “AVR-GCC” for the toolchain.

3. Set up the Programming Tool in MPlabX:

Now to take advantage of the built-in USB programming of an arduino board we need to set up the correct commands. In the Arduino IDE scroll down in the command window and find the last line of white text before the red text begins. The red text is the output from the programmer app (called avrdude.exe).  The line just before this is the command that calls avrdude with the appropriate settings.

C:\Users\adamp\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\tools\avrdude\6.3.0-arduino17/bin/avrdude -CC:\Users\adamp\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\tools\avrdude\6.3.0-arduino17/etc/avrdude.conf -v -patmega328p -carduino -PCOM7 -b115200 -D -Uflash:w:C:\Users\adamp\AppData\Local\Temp\arduino_build_752190/Blink.ino.hex:i

Scroll to the rightmost of the command below to see the highlighted text in the line above. This is the path to the actual hex file the programmer is sending. This changes based on where you name the MPlabx project. You need to change this file path to the following to work with any MPlabX project:

-Uflash:w:${ImagePath}

Once you make this change, simply copy this entire command and paste it into the MplabX project properties.

In Mplabx, right-click the project you want to work on, select Properties, then select “Building” from the left sidebar in the popup window. Make sure to click “Execute this line after build” and paste the entire command from above in the blank. Also, you might want to add “2>&1” at the end of this line so it redirects its output to the console in MPlabx. I don’t think it is necessary though.

***BIG NOTE: If you change the port number of the board you are programming (plugging in a different board, or using this same project on a different computer) you MUST change the COM port in this option in the project or it will fail to program and give a cryptic error.

4. Testing with a Blink project:

If you have set everything up correctly, then you can right-click your project and select New–>main.c

Replace the code in this file with the following:

#define F_CPU 16000000UL //You must define the clock frequency before you can use the delay function. This should match the crystal on your board.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <util/delay.h> //must use this to use the _delay_ms() function
#include <avr/io.h> //Must use this to access port and pin numbers on our chip

/*
*
*/
int main(int argc, char** argv) {

       //this is where your setup() function goes
       DDRB |= (1 << PORTB5); //Make Arduino Pin13 (AVR PortD Pin5)) and output pin

      while (1) {//this is your "loop" function
           PORTB ^= (1 << PORTB5); //Toggle the value of this pin using an XOR function with itself
          _delay_ms(100); //Change this number to change the LED flashing frequency to know if it is working or not.
        }//end while 1

       return (EXIT_SUCCESS);
}//end main

Then click the build icon and it should compile, then you should see the familiar text from the Arduino IDE. The Avrdude programming information is the red text when you turn on Verbose mode.

Troubleshooting:

If you don’t see this text, a few things might be the cause:

1. You forgot to click the “Execute after build” checkbox in the build properties
2. You have the wrong COM port or U:flash setting in the line you want it to execute after building.
3. Make sure you set your project up with the correct chip and correct toolchain (AVR-GCC)
4. You have a compilation errors. This can be hard to see, but you can make it easier

If your Arduino isn’t doing what you want it to, then you likely need to debug your code. There’s a LOT to be said with this. The easiest method is to set up a UART library so you can print text out the serial port to your computer. Search github and AVR freaks for examples you can import.

Another method is to use the Simulator in MPlabx to see what bits are being set/changed in the memory location of the Atmega chip.

A third option allows you to run the code line by line on the actual chip. This would require a proper programmer (not just the arduino’s built-in USB programming).  Here’s an example of how to set that up.

Now you can learn to write your own libraries to better understand the magic of the Arduino project. Learn some of the tricks that are used to simplify the interface for programming on this site.