Category: Repair

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Monitor Your Home Energy in Real Time with ESP32 and Home Assistant

Check out this wirte up by our member Christian Kortenhorst.

With energy prices climbing and smart homes becoming the norm, having a clear view of your household power usage has never been more valuable. That’s what motivated me to create a compact, real-time energy display powered by an ESP32 and a 2.8″ TFT touchscreen—fully integrated with Home Assistant for accurate, live data at a glance.

Why I Built This
I already had a power monitoring system installed through my home energy provider. While it gave a general idea of usage, it was far from ideal:

  • It only updated every 30 minutes to an hour, making real-time decision-making impossible.
  • It didn’t show live solar production, even though I had solar panels installed.
  • It lacked any visual clarity—just vague numbers with no context on where power was flowing.
  • Most importantly, there was no breakdown of grid vs solar vs battery usage. – Without opening my phone
  • Also existing power monitor does not do negative number so any feedin from solar does not show.

That’s when I realised I needed something more flexible, accurate, and immediate—custom-built to show the exact figures I cared about.

Old OWl monitor

The Hardware

Here’s what I used for this project:

  • ESP32 Microcontroller – Powerful, Wi-Fi enabled and Arduino-compatible. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DXFBKKQB?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
  • 2.8” TFT Touch Display (320×240) – A colourful and responsive screen with touch input, perfect for compact dashboards.
  • Home Assistant – My existing setup, which already tracks energy through integrations like the Energy Dashboard or MQTT sensors. Shelly

What It Shows

The display cycles through or organises a simple dashboard view with key stats:

  • 🌞 Solar Power: Current generation in watts.
  • 🏠 Home Consumption: Real-time power draw.
  • ⚡ Grid Usage: Whether I’m importing or exporting electricity.
  • 🔋 Battery Level: Charge percentage and power flow.
  • Water temperature in boiler

These are live, accurate figures from my energy system—not delayed estimates.

How It Works
The ESP32 fetches data from Home Assistant using either its REST API or MQTT feed. I chose to parse JSON data from Home Assistant’s /api/states endpoint, which allows me to pull specific sensor values and display them on the TFT screen.

To keep it fast and responsive:

  • Sensor values update every few seconds.
  • Touch input can be added for toggling views or brightness.
  • The layout is clean, using large fonts and colour-coded elements for clarity.
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From the Dead to the Dancefloor – Quickshot Studio 4 Revived!

Sometimes, the best sessions are the ones you don’t plan.

During a recent open evening at Tog Hackerspace, a visitor walked in carrying a curious bit of vintage tech – a Quickshot Studio 4 Sound Mixing System from the 1980s. Sadly, it had seen better days and showed no signs of life. But its retro charm and potential to make funky noises quickly captured the imagination of everyone in the room.

Within minutes, a team of members and visitors formed around the mystery machine. Tools came out, screws were undone, and curiosity led the charge. Once opened up, the source of the silence became clearer – the wire to the battery compartment had failed, and the switch for toggling between the 6V adapter and battery power had also given up.

So, what to do?

The owner casually mentioned, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could convert it to USB-C?” Well, challenge accepted.

First, we needed to see if the system would even work with a slightly lower voltage. We hooked it up to an adjustable power supply, dialed in 5V, and… it worked beautifully! That was all the encouragement we needed.

Luckily, visitor Gary had a spare USB-C power module and breakout board from a previous project. Ambrose unearthed a Dremel for a bit of tasteful case modification, making space for the sleek new power port. Rod (yes, that Rod from YouTube!) took on the soldering duties with the steady hand of a seasoned pro. The rest of us stood by in awe, offering encouragement, jokes, and possibly questionable advice.

And just like that, the Quickshot Studio 4 was alive again – now powered by modern USB-C and belting out bleepy ’80s goodness. The room was filled with sound and smiles. Everyone was delighted, especially the original owner, who left with a working piece of musical history… and a great story to tell.

If you’re into repairs, love solving problems, or just want to be part of spontaneous hacker magic like this, why not come along to one of our Repair Cafés or get in touch about becoming a fixer? You never know what will walk through the door next.

👉 See more photos from this repair session and others in our Tog Gallery

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April 2025 Repair Cafe

Bring your broken gadgets and gizmos to get them fixed by skilled volunteers at TOG Hackerspace!
Save your things from the landfill and your wallet from having to replace them.

Join us in Tog on Saturday, the 19th of April, from 2 pm – 6 pm.

What objects can you bring in?

  • Clothes and accessories
  • Toys
  • Small electrical appliances and electronics
  • Small furniture
    … and many other things!

Safety testing (PAT) for electrical devices will be available.

Whether it’s a wonky toaster or a glitchy switch, our experienced volunteers are here to help. No need to throw things away when they can be fixed! Swing by with your items and let’s get them back in working order together. TOG members will be on hand to show you around the space – come and enjoy a tea or coffee and a tour while you wait!

See you there!

Where? – Unit 1B Motor City, Kylemore Road, Dublin 12, D12 CF6V
When? – Saturday, April 19th, 2 pm – 6 pm
Admission is free – but book a ticket so we can plan numbers – all are welcome!

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/repair-cafe-tickets-1277906194829?aff=oddtdtcreator

If you would like to be a fixer, drop us an email.

This event is supported and run in partnership with Dublin Maker. A free-to-attend, community-run event, which will be held in August each year

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Green Week: Repair Cafe

Tog Hackerspace is teaming up with Trinity College Dublin (TCD) for a special Green Week Repair Café! Bring your broken items—electronics, appliances, furniture, clothing—and our skilled volunteers will help you fix them while sharing valuable repair skills.

📅 Date & Time: 12th of March from 12:00 – 14:00.
📍 Location: Atrium, Trinity College Dublin
🔗 More details: Event website

Let’s reduce waste, learn new skills, and build a culture of repair. See you there!

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Fingal Makerspace Repair Cafe

We are teaming up with Fingal Makerspace and Make Create Innovate to host a Repair Cafe in Blanchardstown. The aim is to bring together skilled volunteers and community members who want to repair their broken household items.

Our passionate team of skilled volunteers will be on hand to help you fix everything from electronics and appliances to furniture and clothing, all while sharing valuable repair skills and promoting a sustainable lifestyle.

At the Repair Café , you can:

  • Learn essential repair techniques from our expert makers and volunteers
  • Discover the joy of fixing things and reducing waste in a collaborative, community-focused environment
  • Connect with like-minded individuals who are passionate about sustainability and the maker movement

So grab your broken treasures and join us for a day of mending, learning, and connection at Fingal Makerspace Repair Café. Together, we can build a more sustainable future and celebrate the power of repair!

Date: Saturday 29th March 2025

Time: 11 am – 3 pm

Location: Fingal Makerspace

More info & Tickets : https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/fingal-makerspace-repair-cafe-all-ages-tickets-1249306582619?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

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Ebike BMS Upgrade

An ebike battery from 2012 has given great service, but the balancing of some individual cells in this 16S Lithium Iron Phosphate battery started to take much longer than others. Eventually, some cells would not balance at all. Each cell has its own “channel” on the battery management system (BMS). A red LED on the BMS should illuminate when the cell comes up to full charge.

On closer examination, some of the sense wires to individual cells were found to have become disconnected. These were resoldered which brought some improvement, but still balancing was not happening consistently. Some damage and corrosion on the BMS circuit board was then found. In the world of ebikes, things have moved on quite a bit since 2012. So it was decided to replace the stock BMS with an up-to-date Bluetooth enabled one.

A “JK” BMS was chosen, which seems to be a popular brand from various online forums. The one page “manual” that came with the BMS isn’t the best, and would probably get a “could do better” if it was a school or college project. Thankfully, with a bit of help from a number of YouTube channels, the BMS was fitted ok and started up. With the matching smartphone app installed, it’s cool to see all the individual cell voltages in real time and the balancing happening before your eyes.

If you’d like to see these kinds of fixes and mods that we get up to, drop in to our Monday night Electronics or Tuesday Open House.