About a year ago, I bought a smart home water monitor in order to keep an eye my water use at home. The city where I live provides a big rebate on one particular device from San Luis Obispo company Flume. I was immediately curious about how this device could work and was excited to open the box when it arrived and inspect the contents.

There are two hardware components in this system. One component, the sensor, is designed to be physically strapped to your water meter. The other component, the bridge, receives information from the sensor and connects to the Internet via Wi-Fi to deliver all this data to Flume. Flume provides an API for customers to access their own data and there’s even a Home Assistant plugin which should help bring all this information to the platform I run at home.

But I wanted to learn more about how this all works and was curious if there could be a way to access this data more directly. As friendly as Flume seems to be, I do feel that if I buy a device to track my own data, that data should belong to me. But also, it would be nice to know that if Flume ever closes up shop or shuts down its web service, that these devices could all still be useful. So let’s take a closer look at the hardware to see what’s really happening.

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In 2023, I managed to integrate my garage doors with HomeAssistant using a Shelly Uni device. Controlled remote operation is pretty great, but I wanted to document this project because this solution covers remote door control, door state and even door light control is possible, using a single $12 device with no batteries required. The setup is easy to achieve, and leaves all the garage door opener functionality in tact.

Overview

• Shelly Uni device is powered from a 12v DC power source leeched from the low-voltage side of the garage door control circuit board
• Garage door switch is operated using one of the two potential free outputs on the Shelly Uni
• Garage door state is monitored using both Shelly Uni inputs, detecting open/closed circuits on the garage door opener’s own state sensors
• Light control is not implemented, but could be added to the extra Shelly Uni output in an extremely simple circuit

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My roommate has been noting the increased number of large and scary black widows that have been hanging around my house lately. There was a noticeable spider problem when I moved in, but I never really cared too much. I’ve just been wiping the cobwebs down every few weeks. Maybe they’re enjoying the cooler weather as much as I am. For whatever reason, they’re out in force and once or twice have cause me to actually feel a little fear. That’s not something I need to stand for in my own house, so I decided I’m going to fight back.

One thing is for sure, this wasn’t going to be a job for some half-assed can of raid, or whatever puny aresol can I could get at the grocery store. I always wondered what those professional pest control guys actually have in their secret tubes of death, so I went out looking. After exactly one google search. I found the good stuff. One pound of Cynoff WP makes about 48 gallons of sweet spidery slumber for only $48 shipped. You can’t beat that with a stick. It should arrive sometime next week.

Update: July 8, 2009 It’s been almost a year and I must say this stuff is the ticket. I’ve since discovered that you can actually get the same chemical (cypermethrin) in the same wettable powder packaging for about $30 per pound if you look for off brand labels. I’ve seen just a handful of spiders since I sprayed and no black widows.

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