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Digging into the code today, to document how I have our door sensors configured, in case this example is useful for anyone else. In our case, we have a set of door sensors (we use YoLink brand, but any Alexa-compatible will work) attached to various doors, including the front. These are configured thru their respective applications to connect to Alexa, and register their state. Where the magic happens is the integration into Home Assistant, though it is actually more of a Home Assistant entry integrating into Alexa. In plain language – this automation will trigger an Alexa announcement after a…
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With our new home, I have been diving further and further into home automation, and learning the coding of Home Assistant along the way. Unfortunately, it has a bit of a learning curve, so its not for the casual user, but after a bit of effort (and a lot of youtube videos) I have started to make some sense of it. I have found that not everything is directly compatible – however, I am utilizing a combination of Amazon Alexa, Home Assistant, and a small piece of Z-Wave, which covers all of our devices and current needs. Smart home technology…
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Planning on our first true session this coming Friday for our new Warhammer FRP game, and strongly leaning towards a live, in-person game again. It has been many months since we played any game face to face, and although the ongoing pandemic is still a big concern in the United States, it feels like time to get back to “normal”. For this group, it is significantly smaller than our other sessions, so could be more manageable. Of course, this will be dependent on a lot of factors – not the least of which will be player willingness, and my wife’s…
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With life settling down, and my other gaming quieting a bit, we decided over the weekend to revisit Ark: Survival Evolved. We run a home server, so it is a customized and private world, mainly because we dont want to deal with the annoyances of public players. It has been over a year since the entire family opted to play, so we managed to get everyone involved again. Current world map is Ragnarok, though we may add clustering to different worlds if only due to the limitations of each particular setting. With elevated settings, the tribe has grown quickly, adding…
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As part of our overall move, we of course had to pack everything up, and the majority of the gaming supplies ended up in storage for quite a few months. Now that we have moved in, and most has been unpacked, I was struggling a bit with my Star Wars Armada and X-Wing collection. I had previously acquired collectable pieces of the Super Star Destroyer (Armada scale), and Tantive IV (X-Wing scale). Both are highly detailed, and admittedly high priced fully painted models that I have more interest in displaying than truly using during the game. Unfortunately, after most of…
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After quite a long run, we unfortunately closed the books on the Age of Ashes campaign over the weekend. During our prior sessions, the group had become over extended, and managed to get themselves captured by the Scarlet Triad. After the villain revealed their plans, he activated a death trap (on a very slow clock), and left the group with a single (fairly potent) guard – the only gear they had been relieved of was their weapons. The group rather quickly managed to escape their bonds, but then rather than using a bit of stealth, deception, or even lore skills,…
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With our new house, I had grand plans for our new gaming space, as a place to both play my various games and entertain our rather large groups. Part of this is an enhanced and digital table, to streamline maps and terrain for RPGs. I have the giant table, and opted this week to do at least a mock up of the future view of the digital aspects. We will be using a 50″ flat screen TV, positioned flat, and connected to a laptop, in order to display game assets and our virtual tabletop. Basic functionality was great, especially with…
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Early this summer, we opted to finally move and started the process to build a new home. Late in November, this was completed, and we started the process to move in. Now mid-January, and I would say we are fairly solidly entrenched in the new location. All boxes have been moved in (many still requiring unpacking), and we are slowly becoming acustomed to the new location. It in an interesting experience – plenty of construction still going on in the area, so always lots of trucks and dust. Other families are moving in frequently as well, the neighbors across the…
Halfling13 Hobbies
Something about nothing – a collection of miscellaneous hobbies
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