Open Source, For Great Autonomy

I’ve made it so I can easily keep track of all the batteries that need replacing in our networked compound.

I’ve already mentioned that we’ve got, like, a zillion different things that want to connect to some cloud service and be managed via some app on a smartphone. It seems like everything you buy these days that isn’t perishable has some kind of “smart” or “AI” BS jammed into it. Anyway, I set up a Raspberry Pi and installed Home Assistant on it and have been working on getting all the dumb things integrated so that I can just have one app on my phone instead of, like, thirty.

The Ring Spotlight Camera has two batteries in it so that when one dies and you go to replace it, it’ll keep on watching (powered by the second battery) while you swap out the dead one. They didn’t really think this through, though, since, sure the batteries are hot-swappable, but they didn’t indicate which battery bay is which. So when I go to replace the battery, I have a 50% chance of swapping out the dead one. Which is dumb.

But anyway, the Ring app on my phone will tell me that battery 1 is at 8% and battery 2 is at 100%, but the Home Assistant integration will only tell me the minimum value of {100, (battery1 + battery2)}. So even though our camera is currently at, like, 52% total battery, it’s still reporting as 100%. This bug has been filed.

Nobody cares, though. Anyway, it was broken, so I fixed it. If you install this as a custom integration it will get loaded before the default Ring integration and you’ll get to see all your Ring batteries. Then, if the fix ever gets pulled into the main codebase, you can delete the custom integration and just get on with your life.

Published by pirateguillermo

I play the bagpipes. I program computers. I support my family in their various endeavors, and I enjoy my wonderful life.

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