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> And that's why I only build my own HA devices. That's cool. My kid is a budding (pre-tween) engineer, and I have technical/scientific skills but no engineeri
by checkyoursudo 3y ago
> And that's why I only build my own HA devices.
That's cool. My kid is a budding (pre-tween) engineer, and I have technical/scientific skills but no engineering skills. Have you made anything like super entry-level that might be a project for a couple of no-knowledge-yet enthusiasts? (I just considered for the first time ever that this might be a good starting point for my kid's "real" engineering work. So far it's been kits and toy-things.)
- Rebelgecko 3y agoNot super practical, but if you use Esphome and some cheap ESP-32 or ESP8266, it's pretty easy to get an LED blinking in HA. If you want something more useful you could look at incorporating sensors like a thermometer, light sensor, soil moisture sensor, magnetic door sensor, etc and using the sensor data to set up automations in the HA GUI. Maybe something like "activate water pump when soil moisture sensor goes below _____" (you could get the parts to do this for maybe $20-$30 on Adafruit, or cheaper from Aliexpress vendors with super slow shipping). To take things a step up from there, I built an Airgradient kit a month or two and really enjoyed it. Requires some soldering knowledge, but nothing you can't learn while doing (just start out by soldering the cheap parts in case of oopsies). You can even have your kid try to modify their PCB designs (nothing crazy, maybe just put their name on it)
- MrBruh 3y agoI'm not sure if it would be too complex but setting up pihole on a raspberry pi could be interesting for him. The benefit is that it's a network wide adblocker so it does have practical use.