Mark – CoffeeBear.net

Home Assistant: Temperature Sensor Display

5 August 2023 Mark

I’ve been running Home Assistant in Docker on a Raspberry Pi for sometime now. The Raspberry Pi was initially setup for running Pi-Hole, and I didn’t want to wipe that out when I decided to start playing around with Home Assistant. This had the downside of making it more difficult to install add-ons to HA; so I had started planning out a change to my setup. Unfortunately, we had a recent storm that killed power to my house and after power was restored my Raspberry Pi failed to boot. I’ve not had any luck bringing it back online, though admittedly I have been spending more time figuring out alternate arrangements for running various services at home. I also decided that I should spend more time documenting the various configurations and tweaks I’m making to my setup. That way when I next have a problem knocking out my setup; I’ll lose less time restoring it.

Along with getting things set back up, I’m also working on improving how various information gets displayed. In the upstairs of our house, I have a sensor that reports the temperature to Home Assistant. That temperature data is nicely integrated as a sensor; so HA will track it over time. While playing around with various settings, I decided it would be cool if I could get that information for the downstairs of our house. Since our thermostat is downstairs, this seemed like it would be an easy win. It took more than just a little googling to work everything out; as our thermostat does not send over the temperature data in the same way. Instead, it sends the current temperature over as an attribute. Attributes aren’t tracked over time and are more difficult to work with. But with classic McKibben stubbornness, I kept at it and finally figured out a working solution.

1. I went into Developer Tools > States.
2. Searched for the entity created by the thermostat’s HA integration. In my case, this was called climate.thermostat.
3. Looking over the attributes on climate.thermostat, I saw current_temperature attribute.
4. A bunch of googling later, I found I could extract that attribute using this code: value_template: "{{ state_attr('climate.thermostat', 'current_temperature') }}". I was able to confirm that this worked in Developer Tools > Template, but at this point I hadn’t found any instructions on where to add this code in a non-testing fashion.
5. A ridiculous amount of googling later, I found out the trick is to add a sensor¹There can be only one! Which is to say HA only allows for one sensor section; if you have multiple sensors to add, then they all go under the same sensor section. The complete code I’m using to add this sensor to my HA setup is:
```
sensor:
 # Temperature from Living Room Thermostat
 - platform: template
 sensors:
 living_room_temp:
 friendly_name: "Living Room Temperature"
 unit_of_measurement: '°F'
 value_template: "{{ state_attr('climate.thermostat', 'current_temperature') }}"
```
6. Once I had the temperature being properly captured from the thermostat; it was pretty simple to get the sort of display I wanted to see. I made use of the mini-graph-card available via HACS to make my Home Assistant Temperature Display card.
```
type: horizontal-stack
cards:
  - type: custom:mini-graph-card
    entities:
      - sensor.hue_motion_sensor_temperature
    name: Upstairs
    hours_to_show: 48
    points_per_hour: 0.25
    color_thresholds:
    color_thresholds:
      - value: 70
        color: '#3381FF'
      - value: 80
        color: '#ffb133'
      - value: 90
        color: '#FF4B33'
  - type: custom:mini-graph-card
    entities:
      - sensor.living_room_temp
    name: Living Room
    hours_to_show: 48
    points_per_hour: 0.25
    color_thresholds:
      - value: 70
        color: '#3381FF'
      - value: 80
        color: '#ffb133'
      - value: 90
        color: '#FF4B33'
```

Now with both the senor and the card added, I finally have my ideal display for the temperature on both floors of our house. The graph displays the last 48 hours with different temps displaying in different colors (cooler ones shifting towards blue, warmer ones shifting towards red).

Computers Scripting

Get-DbaRandomizedValue

21 June 2023 Mark

For work, I’ve been making my way through Learn dbatools in a Month of Lunches. Down in Chapter 21, it talks about using Get-DbaRandomizedValue to generate random data and I was curious what that random data might look like. I tried following the documentation for running this command, but I was specifically trying to run the command to generate Lorem Ipsum data, like so: Get-DbaRandomizedValue -RandomizerType Lorem -RandomizerSubType ntext -max 75. But when I ran that command, I kept getting this warning/error: WARNING: [09:20:40][Get-DbaRandomizedValue] Invalid randomizer sub type. This was driving me a bit crazy, especially as the documentation doesn’t give any hints on what a valid randomizer sub type would be. Eventually by reading through the PowerShell code for Get-DbaRandomizedValue on GitHub; I noticed this module imports the list of randomizer types from a CSV file installed with the module. The current list of these types can be found on GitHub, but for the lazy (like me) here’s what that CSV file holds:

Type	SubType
Address	BuildingNumber
Address	CardinalDirection
Address	City
Address	CityPrefix
Address	CitySuffix
Address	Country
Address	CountryCode
Address	County
Address	Direction
Address	FullAddress
Address	Latitude
Address	Longitude
Address	OrdinalDirection
Address	SecondaryAddress
Address	State
Address	StateAbbr
Address	StreetAddress
Address	StreetName
Address	StreetSuffix
Address	ZipCode
Commerce	Categories
Commerce	Color
Commerce	Department
Commerce	Price
Commerce	Product
Commerce	ProductAdjective
Commerce	ProductMaterial
Commerce	ProductName
Company	Bs
Company	CatchPhrase
Company	CompanyName
Company	CompanySuffix
Database	Collation
Database	Column
Database	Engine
Database	Type
Date	Between
Date	BetweenOffset
Date	Future
Date	FutureOffset
Date	Month
Date	Past
Date	PastOffset
Date	Recent
Date	RecentOffset
Date	Soon
Date	SoonOffset
Date	Timespan
Date	Weekday
Date	Random
Finance	Account
Finance	AccountName
Finance	Amount
Finance	Bic
Finance	BitcoinAddress
Finance	CreditCardCvv
Finance	CreditCardNumber
Finance	Currency
Finance	EthereumAddress
Finance	Iban
Finance	RoutingNumber
Finance	TransactionType
Hacker	Abbreviation
Hacker	Adjective
Hacker	IngVerb
Hacker	Noun
Hacker	Phrase
Hacker	Verb
Hashids	Decode
Hashids	DecodeHex
Hashids	DecodeLong
Hashids	Decrypt
Hashids	DecryptHex
Hashids	Encode
Hashids	EncodeHex
Hashids	EncodeLong
Hashids	Encrypt
Hashids	EncryptHex
Image	Abstract
Image	Animals
Image	Business
Image	Cats
Image	City
Image	DataUri
Image	Fashion
Image	Food
Image	Image
Image	Nature
Image	Nightlife
Image	People
Image	Sports
Image	Technics
Image	Transport
Internet	Avatar
Internet	Color
Internet	DomainName
Internet	DomainSuffix
Internet	DomainWord
Internet	Email
Internet	ExampleEmail
Internet	Ip
Internet	Ipv6
Internet	Mac
Internet	Password
Internet	Protocol
Internet	Url
Internet	UrlWithPath
Internet	UserAgent
Internet	UserName
Lorem	Letter
Lorem	Lines
Lorem	Paragraph
Lorem	Paragraphs
Lorem	Sentence
Lorem	Sentences
Lorem	Slug
Lorem	Text
Lorem	Word
Lorem	Words
Name	FindName
Name	FirstName
Name	FullName
Name	JobArea
Name	JobDescriptor
Name	JobTitle
Name	JobType
Name	LastName
Name	Prefix
Name	Suffix
Name	HasFirstNameList
Name	SupportsGenderFirstNames
Name	SupportsGenderLastNames
Name	SupportsGenderPrefixes
Person	Address
Person	Avatar
Person	Company
Person	Context
Person	DateOfBirth
Person	Email
Person	FirstName
Person	FullName
Person	Gender
Person	LastName
Person	Phone
Person	UserName
Person	Website
Phone	PhoneNumber
Phone	PhoneNumberFormat
Random	AlphaNumeric
Random	Bool
Random	Byte
Random	Bytes
Random	Char
Random	Chars
Random	ClampString
Random	CollectionItem
Random	Decimal
Random	Digits
Random	Double
Random	Enum
Random	Even
Random	Float
Random	Guid
Random	Hash
Random	Hexadecimal
Random	Int
Random	ListItem
Random	ListItems
Random	Long
Random	Number
Random	Odd
Random	RandomLocale
Random	Replace
Random	ReplaceNumbers
Random	ReplaceSymbols
Random	SByte
Random	Short
Random	Shuffle
Random	String
Random	String2
Random	UInt
Random	ULong
Random	UShort
Random	Uuid
Random	WeightedRandom
Random	Word
Random	Words
Random	WordsArray
Rant	Review
Rant	Reviews
System	AndroidId
System	ApplePushToken
System	BlackBerryPin
System	CommonFileExt
System	CommonFileName
System	CommonFileType
System	DirectoryPath
System	Exception
System	FileExt
System	FileName
System	FilePath
System	FileType
System	MimeType
System	Semver
System	Version
Static	None

Life

New Siding Complete!

19 May 2022 Mark

Back when we first moved into our house (way back in 2006), it was looking pretty sharp with a recent coat of paint. Over the years of living here, we thought about repainting the exterior but found the quotes we got to be excessively high; so we kept putting it off. Then my family sold the last of the old family farm, which gave us a little chunk of change to play with. Unfortunately, this was post-derecho; so it took a little longer to get started than we hoped. But now that it’s all done; we couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out. If you happen to be needing new siding put on your house in the Cedar Rapids area; we’re happy to recommend R&P Construction to you.

Travel

Walt Disney World Vacation 2022

20 February 2022 Mark

So for the first time in many a year, Michelle & I took a proper vacation. We’ve been back from the vacation for nearly two weeks and I’ve been meaning to write up my thoughts but I keep getting distracted from doing so. I’ve been asked multiple times by different people how it went; so below is what I’ve been saying to those I’ve talked to about it. Also, you can find all my photos from the trip in my WDW Vacation 2022 album on Flickr.

While I’ve been to amusement parks before; this was my first time at a Disney park. My number one tip for going to Disney is to have the trip planned by somebody who loves you. All the reservations (flights, hotel, parks, & meals) involved in a such a trip makes planning it a nightmare; but fortunately for me, Michelle decided to tackle all of that work herself. My only contributions to that phase of the trip was getting the time off from work and making sure there were funds in the vacation account. This made things super easy (for me), for which I’m grateful for all the love my wife showered me with. Thanks love!

My second tip is stay at one of the Disney resorts. Their easy transport options to all of the parks made it simple to retreat back to our hotel when we needed a break. This is more important than I realized before going to Walt Disney World; as there are very few places for people to sit down in the parks. The few spots that are there were almost always full of other people. For somebody on the older side and who tends to be sedentary, walking around the Disney parks got exhausting. Being able to retreat to the hotel to relax was a blessing.

My third tip is to try to schedule time at each of the parks both during the day and at night. Galaxy’s Edge in Hollywood Studios was especially spectacular at night. Admittedly, it was harder to navigate the parks at night; as so many people were wearing dark colors and the streets weren’t brightly lit. Though if at all possible, don’t do both times on the same day. If you try to do it all in a single day, it would be easy to over do it and get burned out.

Best Rides

Hollywood Studios: Star Wars – Rise of the Resistance was balls-to-the-walls amazing… when it was running. We rode it our first day/first ride and got in after about 90 minutes, even though the line was huge. At the end of that day, the line was half the size, so we decided to try it again. We got about halfway through the line when it broke down 2-3 times and we were kind of stuck in place. We clocked it as taking 3 hours to get through the line the second time. We were also stuck near some really annoying people; so that wasn’t as fun an experience.
Magic Kingdom: While Haunted Mansion was a very close second; Jungle Cruise just managed to edge it out with the delightful patter that our guides used during the ride.
Epcot: Soarin’ Around the World is this wicked ride where they strap you into a seat and then lift you up in the air in front of something like a curved IMAX screen. Shaking you around to match the aerial video footage of various spots around earth. We only got to ride it our last day at Epcot; but if I’d known it was as cool as it was, I would have insisted on riding it sooner
Animal Kingdom: Flight of Passage was basically an Avatar themed version of Soarin’ Around the World. It’s all special effects rather than real video, but just as amazing… EXCEPT to maintain their immersion into the Avatar stick; when the ride started/stopped they flashed a bunch of strobe lights at us to signify the link to our avatars being opened/closed. The bright strobe lights were an instant headache for me. If I realized that was going to happen, I’d still happily have ridden the ride, but would have closed my eyes before the strobes started to avoid that pain.

Best Food

Hollywood Studios: Free-Range Chicken à la King at The Brown Derby
Magic Kingdom: Pot Roast at Liberty Tree Tavern
Epcot: Filet Mignon at Le Cellier Steakhouse

Best Drinks (DisneyDrinkathon)

Hollywood Studios: Fuzzy Tautaun at Oga’s Cantina
Magic Kingdom: Modern Fashioned at The Brown Derby
Epcot: The Nebula at Space220

Before I left for vacation, as I was signing off from work; I sent my co-workers a message telling them to have a good weekend and that I’d see them in a couple weeks after I have a delicious mai tai… Or two or three and who cares I’ll be on my first real vacation in ages. Since I sent that message, I couldn’t resist keeping track of all the lovely adult beverages that I enjoyed while on vacation. Hence, the group of photos I’ve taken to calling my DisneyDrinkathon.

Life

EFY 2021

5 October 2021 Mark

Michelle and I once again participated in the EFY race. We ~~showed up late~~ decided to be extra socially distant. We still finished and even weren’t dead last. Though I’m still feeling stiff & sore from it.

Author: Mark