SappyFest, The Second X-T5, and a new 56mm Lens

I shot my first festival a few weeks ago! Every August long weekend SappyFest takes over a small part of downtown Sackville for swamp magic. It’s nostalgia. It’s reunion. It’s incredible art and artists. This year was the 20th year and with my push for more pro work this year I reached out for a photo pass. It was three 14 hour days of shooting incredible acts and moments, and I’m still riding the high. Some high level takeaways:

• Hearing protection was key! I have a pair of Loop Quiet earbuds and they were comfortable all weekend. Highly recommended.

• Properly lit stages are an absolute pleasure to photograph and enabled me to easily use my zoom lenses. It look a few songs to get used to composing with zooms but what a treat after that.

• Having primes stashed nearby made it a breeze to transition to the venues that were lit a bit more poorly.

• The 8-16 2.8 wasn’t used for a lot, but what it was used for was pretty mind blowing.

• Delivering photos to Instagram stories directly out of camera really levelled up the experience for a lot of artists - Fuji delivers some incredible colors right out of camera which made this really easy.

• Switching to your secondary is always faster than reloading… If you have a secondary.

On the last note, I regret not pursuing a second X-T5 prior to the festival. The number of lens changes made for some definite missed shots and it was more jumbling around with an open sensor in an outdoor setting than was necessary. I was stalking a few on eBay in the weeks leading up to the festival but never bit the bullet. Shortly after the festival I did end up buying a new one from Vistek, and after shooting my first show with two bodies last week, I can safely say I don’t think I can go back!

Setup was dead simple - I made sure both bodies were on the same firmware, backed up the settings from the old body using the Fuji app on my phone, then restored them to the new body. Voila, identical cameras. The only thing I had to tweak was updating the file naming in both cameras to ensure they’re unique - DSCF became DSC1 and DSC2.

The current kit for live shows in poorly lit venues, taken with the X100V and a bit of fill flash.

Muscle memory makes it feel like I’m just using the same camera. It’s truly just like switching lenses, without the time and fumbling associated with swapping. I have a few things to figure out, like effectively using/carrying both, but I think I’ll be grabbing a BlackRapid dual strap for that purpose. Currently my main body hangs around on the capture clip on the side of my sling, whereas the secondary is on a Peak Design leash.

Along with the X-T5 I also upgraded my 56 1.2 R to the 56 1.2 R WR. There’s a lot of discourse online that swings wildly differently - Some say the new lens is incredibly better, some say it’s not worth the extra. I’ve shot a few shows using it now and as someone who shoots a lot of low-light venues I can comfortably say it’s a noticeable upgrade from the 56 1.2 R.

• The autofocus is of similar speed with a slight edge going to the newer version.

• The autofocus confidence is a lot higher on the new version. The old version would usually grab the microphone instead of an eye at shallower depth of field, but the new version hits the eye 99% of the time.

• The new version is considerably sharper at f1.2-f1.8. Beyond that it’s about the same.

• The newer lens has more micro contrast.

• The newer lens has better bokeh due to more aperture blades.

• The newer lens is bigger but doesn’t feel any bigger. It fits well in the kit still.

Old lens on the left, new lens on the right. Manual settings at f1.2 on a tripod, same focus point. The old version is softer, less contrasty, and doesn’t resolve as much detail at 40mp.

Overall I’m very happy with the upgrade from the old to new lens. The look is very in line with the 23 1.4 which makes post-processing a lot easier. I’ve got some hopes to grab the 18 1.4 and 33 1.4 at some point, and there’s also the siren call of the Viltrox 75 1.2, but I’m pretty darn happy with my current spread of glass!

Fujifilm X-T5: Impressions

It’s been about three months that I’ve been able to skulk around dark venues and snowy streets with this new camera, and I figure I’d drop a few thoughts on the X-T5 and associated lenses. Since my first post I grabbed the XF 23 F1.4 LM WR and the XF 8-16 F2.8 LM WR to go with the crop of used lenses I picked up, along with a Godox TT685ii and some MagMod gear. I’ve done a bit of work so far, including dimly lit shows, events, social media photos for a local business, direct flash “club” photography, and some headshots/band portraits. I’ve thrown some samples into a gallery here:

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XF 16 1.4

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XF 16 1.4

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XF 16-55 2.8 w/ Flash

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XF 56 1.2

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XF 23 1.4

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XF 16-55 2.8

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XF 56 1.2

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XF 16 1.4 w/ Flash

X-T5:

• The XTrans5 high resolution sensor is pretty easy to shoot with, providing a similar noise quality at high ISOs compared to the XTrans4 in the X100V. Overall very similar feel across the two sensors from a usage and editing perspective.

• 40MP is very nice to have. The ability to crop a bit more is incredibly welcome - It allows for a lot more keepers if I’m a bit sloppy with composition.

• Autofocus works well - I use wide/tracking most of the time, and even in dimmer venues it works well. Combined with a fast linear motor driven lens I can just focus and compose - Easy.

• Face and subject detection works well enough. I am still not the biggest fan of Fuji connecting photometry with the detection features, but I get it.

• I do still miss having a highlight weighted metering mode, but spot + exposure compensation works well enough for scenes where the lighting doesn’t vary much.

• The battery last for a long time. I have four spares and even with a full day end-to-end shooting I could see myself maybe going through two batteries tops.

• The additional physical controls on the body are so welcome. The ISO dial being built into the shutter speed dial is fine on the X100V but not an easy to use thing for pro work. I like the button locks on the ISO and shutter speed dials and the additional buttons on the back of the camera.

• Great viewfinder, and the screen that tilts horizontally and vertically is awesome. Much easier to get low shots when shooting portrait orientation.

• The shutter is louder than the X100V as expected, but not overly loud. A satisfying shutter noise, overall.

• It’s good to be back to dual SD card slots, even if I haven’t yet lost an SD card in my time shooting.

• The buffer is ok. Not great. Not awful. I suppose if I wanted to be rattling off 40MP RAW files at 15FPS+ for longer than a few seconds I’d have chosen a much more expensive camera. I’m currently on a pair of relatively fast Samsung UHS-I cards, but I may invest in some faster UHS-II cards to see if buffer clear time is improved.

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The new glass - XF 8-16 2.8 and XF 23 1.4

The lens selection:

• All the lenses are Fuji first party, with the zooms being “red badge” zooms. They all carry a similar design language with physical aperture rings and nice smooth focus and zoom rings. They are all satisfying lenses to use.

• The zooms are pretty much like having a bunch of primes in a single lens. They are large and heavy, but they are optically fantastic. With linear motors, they focus quickly and silently. These will likely be bread and butter lenses for pretty much everything that’s lit decently. What I’ve used them for so far has produced great results. I’m happy to take any of these out in reasonable light, or if I’m doing any kind of flash photography.

• F2.8 is unfortunately still a bit too slow for the dimly lit venues I tend to shoot in. I did shoot my first show of the year with the 16-55 F2.8, and in a lot of cases struggled to keep my shutter speed where I was comfortable for good exposure with little to no motion blur, even pushing ISO 12800.

• For the other two shows I very much gravitated toward the 23/56 combo as my main lenses. This is pretty unsurprising considering how much I shot with the X100V - I was very comfortable with the 35mm equivalent FOV and always wanted a bit more reach than the TCL could provide. The extra stop (or stop and a third in the case of the 56) vs the 23f2 on the X100V really let me draw ISO down a bit on shots while maintaining a reasonable shutter speed, generally resulting in a bit more flexibility in files end of the day.

• I was very on the fence about the 56 1.2 R after reading a lot of polarizing info online about it’s performance vs the newer version of the lens, but overall it’s optically very nice, and the autofocus performs a lot better than expected. For the amount I spent on it, I’m very happy with the lens.

Overall I’m really happy with the thing so far - Coming from the X100V for a number of years I’m pretty darn familiar with Fuji’s quirks, so adapting to the body was done in very short order. It’s very nice having the flexibility of an interchangeable lens again too. My next step with the setup is building out my lighting kit a bit more (primarily a bit more MagMod gear which has been fantastic so far) and then starting to pursue a bit more event work. I may look at a few more lenses down the road, but so far the six I have now cover a ton of range and all feel like they have a home.

New Bag: Peak Design Everyday Backpack Zip 20L

Bigger kit, bigger bag to carry it. For the longest while I’ve been relying on slings for my X100V setup, and I’ve been meaning to grab something a bit more structured than my Bellroy Classic backpack for work. The newly found occasional need to lug around many pounds of glass and metal means a bag designed to lug around many pounds of glass and metal.

Faithful companion of years past, the first version of Everyday Backpack 20L. An old shot from 2018.

I didn’t think twice returning to Peak Design, after years of lugging around a first version of the Everyday backpack, pictured above. I knew the Everyday lineup was pretty ideal for camera carry, and had the modularity to work for my work/daily carry as well.

After reviewing the current options, I decided on going with the slightly cheaper version of the Everyday - The Everyday Zip. The more minimal look helped a lot with that decision. I was back and forth between the 15L version and the 20L, but in the end the 20L won out - With the less snug laptop section and the addition of a tablet sleeve, it made more sense to me to grab the slightly larger bag. Along with the bag I grabbed an extra flexfold divider and a Capture clip.

Side access in sling mode works the same as the old Everyday v1!

The backpack still has a lot of my favorite features from my old Everyday v1. It still supports side access like a sling bag, includes super modular flexfold dividers, has a bunch of handy pockets, and an incredible build quality. It’s clad in very weather resistant fabric which is great for occasional rainy or snowy trips to and from work or getting caught while out and about. The only real loss for most would be the over-engineered magnetic latch, but I think the zipper access makes this bag look a lot more minimalistic and probably sheds a bit of weight.

Flexfold setup currently - Still tweaking divider layout for optimal spacing, but it fits the Fuji red badge trinity fine!

The flexfold setup right now supports the XF 8-16 in the bottom, the X-T5 with the XF 16-55 with hood in place, along with the XF 50-140 with the hood in place as well. There’s a bit of space on the other side at the bottom for a rocket blower and my slide lite. The side pouches easily hold batteries, a lens pen, and whatever else I can think to bring along. Still a lot of space in the top for a flash or two along with a whole host of other gear. For work purposes I’ll pull camera gear but leave the dividers in place. My 14” Macbook Pro fits handily in the laptop sleeve and my tech pouch and Airpods Max slot into the main body section with lots of room to spare for stuff like shopping bags or extra clothing layers.

Overall I’m fairly happy with the evolution of the Everyday line, and the inclusion of a more minimal bag option. Owning a number of bags and accessories from Peak Design in the black color way, I’m unsurprised it gets somewhat dusty relatively easy, but it’s built to take a beating.

Next bag will likely be a Peak Design 6L sling. The 3L surprisingly fits the X-T5 with the XF 16-55 attached, or the X-T5 with a prime attached and a second prime, but it feels tight. The 6L I’m hoping will hold a couple zooms or a whole host of primes, but more research is required!

Fujifilm X-T5: The Return Of The Pro Kit

New year, new me or something like that?

After shooting a bunch more in 2024 and really enjoying shooting live shows, I decided I was going to grab a more flexible solution in 2025.

Facebook Marketplace came through for me at the end of the year, and although I was out of country for December a friend was kind enough to grab this like-new X-T5, 16-55 2.8, and 50-140 2.8 for me for less than the price of the two lenses new. It came with a bunch of filters, smallrig grips, a Peak Design Slide Lite, 5 total first party batteries, and a first party dual battery charger. I grabbed the 16 1.4 and OG 56 1.2 just last night. I plan on adding the 23 1.4 this month, and then the 8-16 2.8 and maybe the 33 1.4 later this year. I have a feeling that the 16-55 and the 50-140 will end up being my workhorse pieces however.

I was on the fence between grabbing another A7iii and a 24-70 2.8, but I couldn’t help myself with this deal. I’ve really grown to enjoy shooting Fuji over the past while, and the experience feels very similar with the X-T5, just a lot faster.

Couple notes on the X-T5:

• New 40mp high res sensor for better cropping

• IBIS for crispier handhelds

• Interchangeable lenses

• Dual card slots

• Considerably better autofocus with subject detection, really nice eye AF, and pretty sticky tracking

• A solid used market in my local area

• Cross-functionality of my flash gear between my X100V and X-T5

So far I’m relatively impressed, I look forward to exploring this body a bit more over the next while!

Airpods Max: First Impressions

They arrived on the 20th as expected, and I’ve put a number of hours into listening so far. I’m using Youtube Music as my source. Figured I’d give a quick point form impressions post!

• Definitely heavy - Though they’re balanced well on the head. I’ve worn them for about 2+ hours straight without fatigue issues. The fit and finish across the whole product is great.

• Clamping force feels average for me, maybe slightly above. It’ll take a bit of time to get used to over-ears again.

• The color is definitely a cool-leaning black. Depending on the lighting they can come across black or deep navy. Not sure how I feel about that entirely.

• Noise cancelling is great as expected.

• Transparency mode is outstanding. Close to not wearing anything. Love using it for work calls.

• The sound signature is enjoyable, if leaning a bit bass heavy. Would love to see an EQ option that carries between your devices, but overall they sit squarely in the luxury listening sound signature - AKA headphone sound good, not for critical listening.

• The sound stage is great for closed cans. That probably comes from spatial audio as well.

• Integrations into the Apple Ecosystem make these feel even more premium - auto-device switching, device based controls for noise cancelling modes/spatial audio, etc.

• The case is fine. It’s not amazing.

• The magnetic ear cups are a really cool feature that should be a standard.

• The digital crown and buttons feel really nice to use.

• They fit great in my new Aer Day Sling 3 Max along with my iPad, camera, and a bunch of other electronics carry stuff. That meets the requirements for the December India trip.

• 20 hours of battery seems fine for these. They can charge off the phone too with a USB-C to USB-C cable.

• Would be nice if these folded into the headband itself to reduce size further.

Overall I’m happy with the headphones, but I’m still not sure if I want to keep them or not. I’m going to evaluate the rest of the week and decide on a return. They’re very nice, but I don’t know if they’re very nice for the price point quite yet.

Airpods Max: Alright, I'll bite

My Airpods Pro 2 have become a seriously integral piece of gear in my day-to-day life. They’re good for short stints of music while out, they drone out office noises effectively, and are astounding for short flights and transit when things are just a bit too loud. The sound quality and noise cancelling was a notable improvement over the first generation. I’m happy with them. They felt like an upgrade.

The Airpods Max by comparison just look like the first generation product with USB-C and a new coat of paint. No H2 chip, no apparent design changes, no battery life improvements, no sound quality improvements… Why would I try these out?

Well, first and foremost, I feel like I need a full sized headset again. December is coming up and along with that a doozy of a trip - I’ll be headed to India and the UK for the whole month (Keep eyes out for a packing list and trip report post - It’s got some pretty interesting requirements!). With long trips come long transit, and a number of 6+ hour flights. As much as I do like my Airpods Pro 2, the fit can get a little fatiguing over about 2 hours, and the battery life is gonna be rough pushing past the rated 6 hour mark. Travelling last year to Portugal, my WH-1000XM4s were saintly on those long stints, but I’ve since sold them. This should also translate well to the office or focus time at home, really eliminating surroundings and helping me focus a bit better.

Secondly, I don’t think there’s a ton of actual features I utilize with the H2 chip. Better battery life would be great of course, but the improved noise cancelling is sort of moot with how well the first generation of these headphones performs. I find conversational awareness and adaptive audio to be sort of gimmicky and never had much luck with the former. In my opinion, a full sized headset is for concentrated listening, not day-to-day usage like the Airpods Pros.

Thirdly, I’ve got a hardline on USB-C only now. This is the only meaningful upgrade on the surface here, and I might have been able to save a bit of money with the 1st generation, but I’m fine with grabbing the USB-C model to keep with all of my other devices. One cable!

Finally, just like anything Apple, the incredibly deep integration into the ecosystem is what keeps me looking at their products. Seamless pairing and switching between all of your devices and seamless controls built directly into the various Apple OSes sets these cans apart for an Apple user.

So let’s see where it goes. I’m fully committed to trying these for the return period, and determining if this is a product for me or not. Do I have concerns? Absolutely.

• There’s a number of reports on flex cable issues internally and condensation issues, along with the headband mesh sagging over time - Things hopefully Apple has silently addressed in this version.

• They are relatively heavy at 384g. My WH-1000XM4s were something around 250g.

• They don’t fold down like my old WH-1000XM4s.

• The “case” seems to be poorly received universally - Though I’m sold on it being fine.

• The battery is good, but not as good as my WH-1000XM4 were. (20 hours on the Airpods Max vs 30 hours for the WH-1000XM4) Still plenty for big transit days, especially with some breaks for charging here and there.

• There’s no on/off switch!

Keep your eyes out for more thoughts in the next few weeks - Hopefully these are in on release day and I can start jamming on them next week.

The Tech Kit: Smaller Than Ever

I wrote a while ago about my comprehensive tech kit, and it’s been great. I’m always looking to reduce my carry size however, and when I saw Peak Design launched a new smaller version of the peak design tech pouch I couldn’t help but order it.

Much to my surprise, my whole carry from the regular sized tech pouch fits comfortably! It’s lacking a few of the extra dividers that were in the original, but overall it’s a much more compact carry for the gear I’d lug around with my Macbook.

That said, I did make a few adjustments to the loadout, as one does over time.

Removals:

• 1x Apple USB-C Digital AV Multimedia adapter

• 1x DLink 2.5gbe USB-C ethernet adapter

Adds:

• Anker 555 USB-C Hub

I axed the DLink and Apple adapters in favor of the Anker 555 hub - It’s got more ports on it, though forgoes 2.5gbe. This is fine as I can drop two separate adapters for one.

The Anker 555 8-in-1 USB-C Hub

The 555 also has another advantage of having a USB-C data port and an SD card reader directly on it - For this reason it makes for a solid iPad Pro companion. I can connect both my SD card and Samsung T5 to the iPad, and use the Files app to directly copy photos from the SD card to the SSD. Although my usual import to Lightroom is still going to be a thing, having extra copies of RAW files while internet is spotty seems like good practice.

Overall very happy with the smaller tech pouch - It fits a ton of stuff and has the same build quality as the larger version. For those who like Peak Design and are looking for something a bit on the smaller side, I can whole-heartedly recommend the small tech pouch.

Tech Pick Ups: Electric Bike..?

About a month ago I started jumping on a bike to get to and from work. I haven’t been on a bike in more than a decade. I had affectionately referred to my donated Raleigh Triumph mountain bike as “ditch bike” as I’m certain my uncle found it in a trash pickup day on the side of the road. The rides downtown were great! But Sackville - It’s a hilly place, and the ride back is all up hill. I realized quickly on the rides back home that I’m very out of shape. So after a few weeks of doing that, I decided to grab a couple electric bikes for my wife and I.

I did a bunch of research, and decided on a roughly $1000 per bike budget. The primary use case is daily transit - To and from the office, downtown for a few groceries, going out, etc - never really much further than a few kilometres from home. Most importantly though, I still wanted a bike that looked and felt like a bike, but flattened out the Sackville hills.

There’s surprisingly not a lot of tangible information online regarding how various motors perform on hills. There’s discourse all over the internet telling you that you need super powerful 1000w motor and a giant 48v battery if you want to do anything beyond a slight incline.

I decided to take a gamble on a 350w 36v battery model with the brand HeyBike - I grabbed a combo pack of two of their CityScape bikes, for roughly $1800 shipped to door. These stood out vs others in a similar price range with features like headlight/tail light, a throttle, and disc brakes. The design is also super clean - so props to that!

Assembly was very easy - I had both bikes together and running in about half an hour, and I immediately took one of them on a romp around the neighborhood. Pretty much all of my concerns related to hills were null and void after about 15 minutes biking around, up and down hills, around the block. Taking them out that night for roughly 25 kilometres of cycling around town really cemented that too - We tested all the hills around town that gave us trouble with regular bikes and had no issues.

My only comments would be that customer service email was a bit slow… I can see this as being an issue in the future potentially, but for now I’ll put it on sending them emails during their anniversary sale.

This has been a really pleasant experience overall. The ride to and from work now is about 5 minutes door-to-door, and I arrive on both sides sweat-free and not out of breath, but still feeling like I moved my body. I’m actively looking for reasons to get out for a ride too!

Tech Pick Ups: 11" Magic Keyboard

It’s 2021 all over again! But cheaper. The Source is going out of business, and changes in Apple’s product lines means a nice fat 40% discount on a brand new magic keyboard.

Do I now have a smart cover, a smart keyboard folio, and a magic keyboard? Yes. Am I going to get rid of any of them? Potentially the smart keyboard folio. I really forgot exactly how nice it was to type on the magic keyboard and also have a trackpad available when using this form factor. My only real dislikes with it are that it’s somewhat heavy, and it doesn’t fold back, so the only way to tablet mode the thing is pulling it off the stand. This isn’t the worst as it is an absolute pleasure to use sans-case, but it’s awkward having the magic keyboard just kicking around, taking up space.

Overall though it does make the iPad a more versatile device to use, and as I find myself reaching for it more and more, making it more versatile is only a positive. I’m pretty positively positioned with the device for any upcoming changes at WWDC, if they decide to throw a crumb or two to iPadOS.

ESPHome - Fine, I'll build my own IOT devices - Part 2

I outlined a desire to build an ultrasonic sensor for the garage to tell me if I’ve brought in the compost bin or not, so I decided to obsess over this for a little while, and we’re finally done!

I had a few requirements for this:

• Somewhat professional looking finish

• Weatherproof casing (The garage shifts humidity a lot!)

• Custom PCB

• Non-USB-C power

• JST XH connectors

I first started ordering the parts, designing the layout in EasyEDA, and breadboarding the solution. I went with an M5Stamp C3U, and an HS-SR04 sensor from Digikey. A JST XH/Dupont connector kit and nicely sized project box from Amazon, and a the DC barrel jack and adapter from Aliexpress. While waiting for components I designed the layout as below and started drawing up the PCB design:

PCB Design Drawing!

I wired the thing on the breadboard using a modified USB cable as a pseudo bench power supply, knowing I was aiming for powering this using a 5V1A DC power adapter. And surprisingly, it worked first try! So with that in mind, I finalized my PCB design and placed my JLCPCB order - With a total cost of less than $5 Canadian I had 5 copies of my PCB coming to me.

EasyEDA made things really simple with the autorouting feature for the connections, and a few weeks later these beauties showed up. They probably would have came sooner but sometimes Canadian customs takes it’s time. I got to work soldering the components on board, getting my connectors attached, and testing things out. It was a big relief knowing my design was functional!

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From there I spent some time cutting the project box to get the external connectors to fit, and other than having to 3D print a few parts to stabilize the ultrasonic sensor in the case, it was pretty straight forward!

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One final thing left is to mount it in the garage and get automations setup, but overall I’m very happy with the results of this small project. It taught me a lot about PCB design, basic circuit design, soldering, connectors, external power to ESP32 devices, CAD software, and probably a bunch of other stuff I’m forgetting. Did I need to custom design a PCB and all that jazz for this? Absolutely not. But it was fun.

I do wish my finish was better on the final product, but overall I can’t complain too much - It’s leaps and bounds above my basement automation box, and I think my only limitation was my tools available.

ESPHome - Fine, I'll build my own IOT devices.

Natural progression for someone doing Home Assistant home automation is probably going to be jumping into ESPHome and ESP8266/ESP32 based devices. ESP devices and accessories are shockingly cheap for what they can do. and they’re already integrated into a lot of WiFi smart devices as is today. Dev parts are readily available, they just require a bit of knowledge on how they work and a drive to learn/troubleshoot.

I decided to pick up some goodies to get started on a few little projects that couldn’t easily be solved with existing products - Namely my basement automator. My first order was a bunch of M5Stack gear from Digikey, along with some D1 gear from Universal Solder and AliExpress. The M5Stack stuff has been a touch more expensive than regular ESP devices, but it’s polished hardware, very plug and play with all accessories supporting grove connectors, and I personally find it’s relatively well documented. So I built my first few devices out of that. I got started with a simple CO2 sensor utilizing the M5Stack CO2 sensor and an AtomS3 Lite:

This was just placed inside a cheap project box - The CO2 sensor is secured with a couple M3 bolts. Since this was sitting in the living room, I also added a bluetooth proxy function to allow access to BLE devices from Home Assistant. My code for this is below:

esphome:
  name: "livingroomco2bluetoothproxy"
  friendly_name: BluetoothProxy
  platformio_options:
    board_build.flash_mode: dio

esp32:
  board: esp32-s3-devkitc-1
  framework:
    type: esp-idf


# Enable logging
logger:

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:
  encryption:
    key: "APIKeyHere"

ota:
  password: "SecretPasswordHere"

wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password
  manual_ip:
    static_ip: IPAddressHere
    gateway: GatewayHere
    subnet: 255.255.255.0

esp32_ble_tracker:
  scan_parameters:
    #interval: 1100ms
    #window: 1100ms
    active: true

bluetooth_proxy:
  active: true

i2c:
  sda: 2
  scl: 1

sensor:
  - platform: scd4x
    id: scd40
    automatic_self_calibration: False
    co2:
      name: "CO2"
      accuracy_decimals: 1
    temperature:
      name: "Temperature"
      accuracy_decimals: 2
    humidity:
      name: "Humidity"
      accuracy_decimals: 1
    address: 0x62
    update_interval: 10s

I was originally only able to get this working on the Arduino framework, but adding the board build flash mode of dio let me boot esp-idf. This little thing sits plugged into the soundbar near the TV, and reports on CO2 levels in the common area. I’ve built an automation that triggers the HRV to kick into high mode if CO2 level is detected above 1000ppm, until it falls below 800ppm. CO2 is likely the fastest way to determine if a room is packed, and having more frequent air exchanges is a good thing to keep air fresh. It also functions as a bluetooth proxy, letting me tap into current and future BLE devices and patch them into HomeAssistant (Hello, Inkbird wireless BBQ thermometer!). The only issue I want to try addressing is the extra heat generated by the ESP32 chip itself is throwing off the temperature readings. I may look at some sleep options and maybe reduce the checks down to every minute or so.

I may have mis-drilled my junction box.

Of course to control the HRV override I needed to build something out. I had a few things to accomplish in the basement:

• HRV override with a relay.

• Dehumidifer control.

• Temperature/humidity readings.

• Bluetooth proxy.

Again, no precanned device on the market, so I built something out with some M5Stack products and threw it in the junction box above! I utilized:

• M5Stack AtomS3 Lite

• M5Stack AtomPortABC

• M5Stack Mini 3A Relay Unit

• M5Stack ENV IV Sensor

• M5Stack Mini IR Unit

Everything was connected with grove connectors/cables, so wiring it was incredibly easy, and all parts were secured with M3 bolts. The finished product isn’t quite ready for shelves yet, but it looks considerably cleaner than just having things hanging off a power bar. My code for this is below:

esphome:
  name: basement-automator
  friendly_name: Basement Automator
  platformio_options:
    board_build.flash_mode: dio

esp32:
  board: esp32-s3-devkitc-1
  framework:
    type: esp-idf
  variant: esp32s3
  
# Enable logging
logger:

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:
  encryption:
    key: "SecureKey"

ota:
  password: "SecurePassword"

wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password
  manual_ip:
    static_ip: IPAddress
    gateway: Gateway
    subnet: 255.255.255.0
  # Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
#  ap:
#    ssid: "Basement-Automator"
#    password: "SecurePassword"

captive_portal:
    
i2c:
  sda: 38
  scl: 39
  scan: true
  id: bus_1


sensor:
  - platform: sht4x
    temperature:
      name: "Temperature - SHT40"
      id: "temperature_sht40"
    humidity:
      name: "Humidity - SHT40"
      id: "humidity_sht40"
    address: 0x44
    update_interval: 10s
  - platform: bmp280
    temperature:
      name: "Temperature - BMP280"
      id: "temperature_bmp280"
      oversampling: 16x
    pressure:
      name: "Pressure BMP280"
      id: "pressure_bmp280"
    address: 0x76
    update_interval: 10s

    # Relay, toggle it on / off
switch:
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 5
    id: Relay1
    name: "HRV Override"
    inverted: False

remote_receiver:
  pin:
    number: GPIO8
    inverted: true
  dump: all

remote_transmitter:
  pin: GPIO7
  carrier_duty_percent: 50%

climate:
  - platform: midea_ir      # adjust to match your AC unit!
    name: "Basement Dehumidifer"

esp32_ble_tracker:
  scan_parameters:
    #interval: 1100ms
    #window: 1100ms
    active: true

bluetooth_proxy:
  active: true

The pins required for the specific headers were well labeled, so all it required was adding those to the above config. I ran some 18 gauge wire to the overrides on the HRV, and secured the junction box to the wall. I have yet to build the basement dehumidifier automations but that’s a next step. For right now, the build can turn the HRV override on/off depending on washroom humidity, or CO2 levels in the house.

ESPresence

I’ve also scattered a bunch of these AtomS3 Lites around various rooms in the house loaded with ESPresence - these just look for BLE beacons and determine distance a device is from them, which can let me determine which room devices are in - primarily phones. This is a work in progress and I’ve yet to implement these into any automations, but so far with a bit of tweaking I’ve got pretty consistent results for what room my phone is in.

Future Projects

I’ve got two things I want to play around with:

• Ikea PM2.5 sensor mod

• Ultrasonic distance measure for the garage

For the Ikea PM2.5 sensor, Ikea has a really cheap “dumb” PM2.5 sensor with an easy to mod board. I’d like to do a proof of concept on one of these and would love to wire in a BME680 and a SCD40 for additional readings. I need to find the ideal board but I’ll probably leverage a very tiny ESP32-S3 board, I just need to find one I can use that supports 5V in.

For the ultrasonic distance measure, this one is a bit lazy, but I do plan on using it to detect if I’ve brought in the compost bin or not after garbage day. I like the idea of building this one from components that aren’t plug and play, but I’m going to need to see how I can fit it into an existing project box.

We’ll see what’s after that for the future - I think I’ll be looking to custom build more things on perf board that’s designed to fit into junction boxes, and I want to try figuring out what’s a solid connector option for these little projects as well - Molex or otherwise.

Rage Against The Garage Door Opener

Admittedly I wasn’t too hit with the Chamberlain MyQ internet rage as I only have dumb controls connected to my Chamberlain garage door opener, but it got me looking into options for adding some additional controls to my garage door. So taking cues from the internet, and with a little review of my garage door opener (It’s Security+ 1.0) I went ahead and ordered a ratgdo.

What’s ratgdo? It’s birthed out of the Chamberlain MyQ API closure, and involved reverse-engineering the communication protocol for the garage door opener and getting that integrated into a little ESP board. The solution can be tied into MQTT, Homekit, or ESPHome, and it’s all open source and offline, no cloud required to access the features. When connected to a garage door opener without a control panel, it emulates one, giving you access to a ton of additional features like wireless remote lockout, door position, light control, etc.

My board just came in yesterday after a short 2 week wait for transit from the US, and I flashed it this morning and went through the install process. For the software side I just used the web flasher, and within about 10 minutes I was able to get the device adopted into my ESPHome install.

Probably should have wiped down the cover first…

On the hardware side, it was just as easy and over in about 10 minutes. With tool-less terminals on both the garage door opener and the ratgdo board I connected the 3 wires from the wiring harness into the garage door opener, and decided to pass the wall button through the wall button terminals on the control board. All that was left was to secure the board to the light cover with a zip tie, and connect the power. The only additional thing that needed to be done was to calibrate the door opening and closing, and that was accomplished by opening and closing the door.

I may still consider a small 3D printed case to better secure the board to the outside of the opener and improve the cabling, and maybe trim my leads for my wall button, but the recommended method is to zip tie it to the light cover, so we’ll keep it like this for now.

Home Assistant controls

I’ll be building automations over the next little bit, but I think the big planned one is going to be notifying if the garage door is open for more than 5 minutes, along with an action on the notification to close the door if necessary. There’s consideration in putting in a check that if one or both of us is at home, send the notification, otherwise if we’re not, just close it. I’ll probably also put in a check during our bedtime automation to ensure the door is closed as well.

Home Server 2024: Shifting Services

With great power comes great responsibility. Or something like that. I’ve been shifting services between nodes to try optimizing a bit. I’ve shared my current build above!

There’s a few big changes, mostly related to shifting VPN and my Home Assistant installs over to my secondary node. I’ve also added an MQTT server in an LXC, along with adopting Frigate, also running in an LXC with Docker sitting on top.

Migrating Virtual Machines and Containers

Shifting the VPN LXC and the Home Assistant VM were fairly trivial, I just performed a back up of them via the Proxmox GUI, then used SCP to move those files over:

scp -pr /var/lib/vz/dump/* username@ipaddress:/var/lib/vz/dump

After completing the SCP process, I just restored the backup from the Proxmox GUI, confirmed the restore was working okay, and deleted the backups, old LXCs, and old VMs.

For HomeAssistant, I ended up shutting the VM down and removing the Zigbee dongle that was passed through prior to backing up. Once it was restored on the secondary node it was as simple as plugging the dongle in and passing it through to the restored VM.

Frigate, MQTT, and beyond

Along with the move of services from the primary node over to the secondary, I also finally added a local NVR - Frigate. Along with Frigate I needed MQTT, which was a pretty simple install and setup process so I won’t bother covering it.

For Frigate, I’ve added a 2TB TeamGroup NVME SSD for footage and (finally) a Google Coral USB tensor processing unit for faster local object detection. I’m patching in 2 WyzeCam v3s, along with my Reolink doorbell. For Wyze, I’m leveraging Docker Wyze Bridge in Home Assistant currently, however I’ll be moving over to Wz Mini Hacks directly on the cameras which should allow full offline control.

On the software configuration side, this is running out of Docker Compose on top of an LXC with both the Coral TPU and a folder on the NVME drive mapped to it. I’m setup with Go2RTC grabbing all the feeds in Frigate and then re-streaming on localhost to reduce connections to the cameras. Other than figuring out the specifics on motion mapping, zones, and a missed line on my Go2RTC settings that prevented me from getting a feed while outside the network, it’s been smooth sailing. All notifications are setup through Home Assistant and have been working reasonably.

I will say the local object detection and faster notifications has been great compared to what Wyze was feeding me on the app. I haven’t been using a lot of storage space with this either - My retention settings are pretty restrictive currently, so I’m likely to extend the numbers a bit now that it’s been in place for a few weeks. I’ll probably cover my config in a bit more detail once I’ve moved the Wyze cams over to local, but for now suffice it to say I’m happy, but still tweaking.

Dev?

After moving all of my important infrastructure services from the primary to secondary node, I’m left with a whole lot of available memory and a fair bit of processing power. I don’t have any current plans for DEV, but I’ve been throwing around ideas like:

• Ansible for Infrastructure as Code

• Application Evaluation

• Windows home lab

I’m not sure when exactly I’ll get started on this stuff, but I’ve got about 28GB of RAM sitting free, so there’ll be a lot of room! Stay tuned!

Reolink WiFi Doorbell - Exposing the Chime API

I finally got a new doorbell! I settled on a Reolink WiFi doorbell and other than figuring out some of the mislabeled or unlabeled wiring in the house, install was a breeze, and Frigate/HomeAssistant integration was super simple (more on Frigate and home infra updates in a later post).

Reolink does offer a pretty robust local API to the device, and it’s well documented, but unfortunately the chime settings are not currently exposed. I wanted to setup an automation to disable the chime at 10PM and re-enable it once we get back up for the day, and I sure wasn’t going to use a smart plug for it.

After referencing the API documentation here, I was able to determine a few things:

• The local API supports a debug mode, letting you see all the functions and the JSON sent during the REST calls. Once enabled you can see output in the developer console of the browser. All you need to do is append your camera’s URL with ?debug=1.

• It’s very easy to build a token - Either securely or via the quick method (user/pass in the URL). For my example, I’m using the user/pass in the browser.

• The JSON documentation is really well structured so it’s easy to build out your own.

So after a bit of snooping (Log in to the debug URL, open developer tools to console, then navigate to Settings > Chime and adjust the chime volume) I was able to come back with something similar to the below string:

"request params: [{\"cmd\":\"DingDongOpt\",\"action\":0,\"param\":{\"DingDong\":{\"channel\":0,\"option\":3,\"id\":123456789,\"name\":\"Reolink Chime\",\"volLevel\":4,\"ledState\":1}}}]"

So I formatted it into structured JSON:

[
    {
        "cmd":"DingDongOpt",
        "action":0,
        "param":{
            "DingDong":{
                "channel":0,
                "option":3,
                "id":123456789,
                "name":"Reolink Chime",
                "volLevel":4,
                "ledState":1
            }
        }
    }
]

And did a quick test with a REST client knowing I have to hit the DingDongOpt endpoint:

http://192.168.0.12/api.cgi?cmd=DingDongOpt&user=admin&password=WhateverYourPasswordIs

And it worked! So from there I added the rest_command service to my HomeAssistant config along with the two commands for chime volume 0, and chime volume 4, with an example below:

rest_command:
  chimevol4:
    url: "http://192.168.0.12/api.cgi?cmd=DingDongOpt&user=admin&password=WhateverYourPasswordIs"
    method: POST
    headers:
      accept: "application/json"
    payload: '[
      {
          "cmd":"DingDongOpt",
          "action":0,
          "param":{
              "DingDong":{
                  "channel":0,
                  "option":3,
                  "id":123456789,
                  "name":"Reolink Chime",
                  "volLevel":4,
                  "ledState":1
              }
          }
      }
  ]'
    content_type:  'application/json; charset=utf-8'
    verify_ssl: false

And now I can tie the chime into my automations - off at 10PM, and back on when we get up in the morning! Of course since it’s an undocumented API endpoint, there’s no guarantee it’ll stick around, but for the time being I’ll take the convenience.

Stecker App - Automating Screen Brightness

I occasionally undock my Macbook to take it to work, or out for a weekend, etc. I have the battery settings setup to automatically dim the screen when on battery, and this works great. Unfortunately Apple doesn’t seem to include an option to max the screen brightness when connected to power again, so for a while on re-attaching to my Studio Display I was manually adjusting brightness back to max to (roughly) match the output between the two panels.

I looked at a number of options to accomplish this - Building something myself as a shell script, shortcut buttons, or other paid products like Power Manager, however I came across Stecker while doing my research on launch daemons to handle this and decided that simple might be the best.

Stecker is an Apple silicon native app that allows you to run shortcuts from the Apple Shortcuts app on connecting/disconnecting various USB devices. It looks for IOKit notifications for the triggers, and it’s incredibly lightweight. In my case, the only time I really cared about maxing the brightness was when my Studio Display was connected, so it was pretty trivial to just setup a shortcut for 100% brightness and run it on connecting to the studio display. Voila, problem solved.

Now, it won’t detect me just plugging in a USB-C charger, which means I can’t automate this for every scenario here. However I’m only really using this to match display brightnesses - On the go just charging the Macbook it doesn’t matter as much. I’d love to see the developer extend this to also detecting power source for the additional flexibility, but that’s more of a nice to have.

Anyway, check out Stecker - It’s free! Lots of flexibility with it too!

Tech Pick Ups: Return of the iPad

Yeah, I got another iPad… That took a lot less time than expected.

I grabbed a 2021 iPad Pro 11”, 128GB, cellular, in silver. It was from an open box company here in Canada, and the cost on it was less than half price. On receiving it, the unit is clearly a demo model, but a demo that’s never been taken out of the box… Battery health is still 100%+, no scratches or marks at all on the unit. I’m guessing a store here in Canada received this for display but never ended up putting it out. My gain I suppose. Only issue is expired/no warranty coverage. For the extreme discount, I don’t mind this.

This came in just before going to Toronto last week, so I threw it in my bag with me. While there I grabbed the pencil for 30 dollars off at Best Buy, and an Apple Smart Cover in black from The Source for 50% off.

The specs? Basically my old iPad Pro, but swap out the A12Z and 6GB of RAM for an M1 and 8GB of RAM. Otherwise it looks and handles the exact same. Going from 256GB of storage to 128GB isn’t a big deal with how much I leverage cloud storage. Cellular is a nice touch, though I’m not 100% sure if I’ll add it to my cell plan - It’s going to depend on how much it goes out with me in the near future.

Why did I pick this up? Well, it all started with a killer deal on an iPad Mini 256GB with cellular that I failed to jump on in time. Seeing this wasn’t much more, I decided to buy this as a salve for missing out on such a solid deal on the Mini. Would I still prefer the mini? Undecided.

What am I going to use it for? We’ll see. I want to get back to some journaling (Notability, Apple Notes) and doodling (Procreate). Tactile, hands on note taking (Again, Notability). It’s a lot smaller and lighter than my Macbook Pro too with a load of power in it thanks to the M1 chip, so I’m hoping it’ll be a nice in-between when travelling without a requirement for a laptop. Lightroom performance is astounding, as always. It’s a nice stand in for a portable speaker. It’s going to make for a capable secondary monitor for my Macbook Pro while on the go. Around the house it’s going to make for a solid little web browser/news reader. You know, normal iPad things.

I’ll probably write something in the next few months on how it’s going. For now, I’m happy with it.

Office Setup 2024: Nice-To-Haves

I think anyone on the internet has been bombarded at some point with Grovemade ads, and would have probably jumped on something from them if the shipping cost to Canada and conversion rate was reasonable at all. I knew I wanted felt and some desk organization for this setup, so I went searching. I came across Beaver Peak on Etsy which checked a lot of boxes, so I ordered their largest cut felt desk pad, and an oak valet tray with a felt insert. I’m glad I took the time searching because this stuff is great - Oeko-tex certified merino wool felt cut in Canada, along with Canadian oak for a reasonable pricepoint. The felt really adds a nice warmth to the space, and breaks up the giant desk pretty well. If I have one point for improvement it’s the sizing on the valet tray - I wish it would fit the iPhone 15 Plus vertically while the tray is horizontal. The tray still works really well for my setup, so I can’t complain too much!

Along with those two felt pieces I also added some thicker cork coasters - My older ones were thin and deformed and I felt something thicker would really complement the chunkier wood tray. I also added a bamboo tissue box/desk organizer from MobileVision (First photo). I like to keep tissues close at hand, but the boxes they come in are pretty gaudy in the setup. This little bamboo organizer will function as a nice drop spot for odds and ends that are within arms reach, and it has a slot on the side for holding stuff like kindles, tablets, books, etc. The build seems really good and it fits any of our larger tissue boxes pretty well.

I’m still adding odds and ends here and there, but for the time being this is the setup. I’ll probably let it stew for a month or so then re-evaluate, but so far it feels really nice working in this space.

Office Setup 2024: Studio Display Day 1

The display arrived yesterday morning and I wasted no time setting it up! I attached my Philips Hue light strip onto the back with some command hooks designed for light strips and reconfgired my automations. So far so good. Couple 1-day notes:

• Packaging was stellar, really above and beyond on engineering the box.

• Setup was issue free as expected - Plug it in and… It just works.

• Speakers are pretty on par with the Edifier R980Ts that I had on the desk before. Great clarity and solid bass response.

• The webcam is pretty much as disappointing as most make it out to be. Center stage is nice however, and honestly the exposure is solid. For most calls topping out at 720p compressed streams, it’s more than adequate. My Logitech Stream Cam was better, but the all in one solution is a big appeal.

• Included Thunderbolt cable is really nice - Heavy weight, braided, feels rock solid. Unfortunately it doesn’t feed through the cable run in the back of the stand well, so I swapped it with my 1m Pluggable Thunderbolt 4 cable that I was using previously.

• Colors and brightness pop! This thing is gorgeous in person. Love how it matches up well with my Macbook Pro display. Lightroom photos look awesome on the scaled 5k output.

• I was able to achieve expected internet speeds via the monitor using a Plugable USBC-E2500 2.5gb ethernet adapter into one of the type c ports. This is due to the Realtek RTL8156 chip in it, which allows hardware offload. The more common RTL8153 you see in a lot of gigabit adapters on the market isn’t capable of that currently on MacOS due to driver issues from what I’ve read, so you tend to only hit half rated speed.

Overall so far happy. I’ll be tweaking the desk layout a bit over the next few months, first and foremost a desk pad that I can set everything on which should be in by Friday. Stay tuned for more updates!

Office Setup 2024: Laptop Stand

I haven’t covered a lot of my evolved desk setup since moving back to the Maritimes, but it’s been a slow climb with a lot of slow changes. I started with an 8 foot bamboo countertop and a standing desk frame from MotionGrey, and basically just transplanted my existing setup onto it. I added speakers as I have the desk space for it, and the Skadis peg boards from Ikea keep things off the desk and functional and clean.

I’ve worked through enhancing the lighting - My office has a single, small north-facing window, which doesn’t get a ton of direct light. With Philips Hue bulbs, HomeAssistant, and the Adaptive Lighting plugin, I’ve been able to automate a daylight curve on my ambient lighting in my office, helping me both ramp up and wind down for the day without any thought.

I’ve been working off my Macbook screen a bit more lately however and it really made me wonder why I’m just throwing my macbook into clamshell under my monitor day-to-day, so I went on a week-long review search of stands. I eventually landed on the TwelveSouth HiRise Pro, and after a quick order to the Apple store - Oddly the cheapest place I could find it in Canada - it came in last week.

I chose the HiRise over other stands due to reviews of stability, ease of adjustment, and the fact that it had a purpose-built space for my MagSafe charging puck, finally! Overall it’s been incredibly easy to adjust, covers a great range of heights, and it seems rock solid. The finish matches the silver on my Macbook Pro pretty much perfectly. It’s been nice to have yet another display beside the super ultrawide for odds and ends like music and Discord too.

I’m still on a quest to optimize and minimize however, so my next post should be covering the replacement of my trusty U4919DW with something a bit higher resolution - The Apple Studio Display.

The concept with the studio display is I should be able to effectively remove my dock, speakers, and webcam from my setup, reducing cable clutter. I’m also going to be able to leverage some of the quality of life features like true tone, auto-brightness, and color-matching of the Macbook Pro display.

We’ll see where it goes - It’s going to be technically a downgrade in available screen space, however I’m very much looking forward to the nice things that come with keeping stuff within “the ecosystem”.

Stuff I Like: Miyoo Mini

I’ve had my eyes on a Miyoo Mini for the better part of a year, casually at least. They sold out almost as soon as they became available through the manufacturer for a while, apparently due to sourcing issues for the high resolution, 2.8” IPS screen. I stumbled upon them in stock on the Miyoo aliexpress site shortly before Christmas, and snap-bought the transparent black model. It arrived 2 weeks ago and after a quick trip through installing Onion OS and throwing on some games, I’ve been enjoying jamming some old favourites during bits of downtime. Figured I’d throw down some thoughts below!

• The screen is very high resolution and beautiful being IPS. No issues with it at all.

• Buttons are nicely made, though the triggers on the back are mediocre - That’s more due to how compact it is, mostly.

• Battery is reasonable, nothing to write home about. I haven’t clocked it, but I can get probably 4+ hours of play on it.

• Plays just about anything up to PS1 without issues. GBA games have been solid, and jamming a bit of Pokemon Emerald and Advance Wars so far has been super fun. A recent beta of OnionOS actually includes a DS emulator, and a number of titles work great.

• OnionOS was a very easy install and significantly improves the experience over stock.

• I was worried about the lack of RTC (real time clock) impacting my experience in games that are reliant on it such as Pokemon, but the OnionOS implementation of skipping a set number of hours each boot of the device works perfectly fine with how causally I play.

• It’s about the size of a pack of cards, so fits great in my tech kit, my sling, or my chest pocket on some of my shirts. Will be great for travel vs the Steam Deck - Any larger in this form factor I wouldn’t want to go with.

• It really does capture that retro feel with the body shape and design - Miyoo slammed it out of the park.

• The save on shutdown implementation works great - On boot it just loads you back to where you left off.

Although the Steam Deck is pretty much the ultimate emulation/gaming hand held, it’s not super portable, and with the few weeks I’ve had the Miyoo Mini I feel like it’s a solid low-end companion device that lets me fill 15-20 minutes I’d normally spend doom-scrolling. I think there’s still room for a middle device somewhere between the Steam Deck and the Miyoo Mini, but I’ve gotta figure that out.