Welcome to theFrankes.com!

Welcome to theFrankes.com. This blog has been around for decades now, and I do have a full-time job and family, so please be patient as I get it back up to modern standards. It’s a long, slow process that competes…

Stepped LED Brightness in ESPHome

I use ESPHome for a number of projects including LED task lighting, and my devices often use an inexpensive TTP223 capacitive touch sensor as a button. I like to be able to tap the sensor multiple times to cycle through…

TEMT6000 Illuminance Math with ESPHome

I use inexpensive TEMT6000 sensors in various projects to detect the level of ambient light. I originally hand-coded the firmware, but now I use ESPHome. My projects are usually 3.3V because I use pretty bare boards like ESP-12F instead of…

ESPHome SOS Morse Code Light Effect

I’m using ESPHome with Home Assistant for a bunch of home automation projects. I want to be able to flash some of the lights in a Morse code “SOS” pattern as an annoying alert that something has gone terribly wrong.…

Dealing with ESPHome Disconnects

I have a bunch of ESPHome/ESP8266 projects, several of which are have been plagued by repeated disconnection during seemingly random times of instability. Sometimes they’ll be fine for days, and then suddenly they start acting up again, and it can…

How to Make Deckels

What’s a Deckel? A Deckel is a lid for a drink. It fits over a glass (like one of those large German Maas mugs or a red solo cup) to identify it as your own and to keep the flies…

ESP8266 ADC Inconsistency Fixed

tl;dr The ESP-12F ADC pin appears to consistently read higher values at times when the processor is not as busy. I worked around this by taking the average of multiple reads, and discarding any averages where the number of samples…