New Project "VanAssistant"

By Rob Litjens

January 8, 2025

A short one today.

I have had a non humourous last year. My family and me went through some deep holes as we call them. Real friends know what all happened and I would like to keep it that way.

Time to leave that behind. I want to start something new.

Last year I switched teams. Now I am in team that does a lot of Azure related services around Data and Analytics. I am gathering knowledge and look into getting into C# (yes… I am wearing glasses but that is not the reason). These steps will continue.

During Christmas, I was with Dennis and Nancy with a group of enthousiasts. We talked about automating our Mobile Homes or RV’s. We had good suggestions. We found out that most of the people where familiar with some products and automation tools, but not all.

I think the knowledge shown in that meeting was good and we should share that with the community. Therefore I decided to write a set of Blogs about how you can automate your CamperVan, MobileHome or whatever. After the setup there will be some more details on solutions we found and how you can implement them.

My idea is to setup a series of VanAssistant blogs about automation in the Van. My plan is to write at least the following Blogs, including some outline of the content. 1. VanAssistant: Setup your raspberry Pi to use UART and a NVME SSD - Describe how to - prepare a RPI in a specific case - Add the nvme - add the cooling stuff - enable UAT - Prepare HomeAssistant 3. VanAssistant: Go from HomeAsissistant to VanAssistant - Prepare the RPI - Prepare bootorder (because of NVME SSD) - Installation of HomeAssistant - Configure ZigBee 2. VanAssistant: Setup a Router (RutX50) - Setup the Router to use a Card - Other options - Connecting the RPI to the Router 4. VanAssistant: Implementing a sensor for a closed door - Using simple sensors to be connected - Gettng an alert when a door is opened - How to use other ZigBee devices - How about BlueTooth things? 5. VanAssistant: Setup MQTT on your Router - What is MQTT - Why do I need it 6. VanAssistant: Controlling your Heater - How to use the linbut from your boiler or heating - reading the values - setting the values

Of course this is what I think of right now. If you have ideas let me know. Also if you dont get it. I want to write this really clear. What are your thoughts?