Automation

Welcome to the Automation section of PHP Systems Blog. Here you’ll find guides, projects, and experiments in making technology work for you - from home automation with Raspberry Pi and Home Assistant to workflow orchestration with Kestra and Ansible. I share practical setups, real-world configs, and the lessons learned while automating my own systems.

Firefly iii to Paperless NGX

Automate your finances and document management by linking Firefly III to Paperless NGX with Node-RED in Home Assistant. This flow uses webhooks and APIs to pull receipts from Firefly III and upload them to Paperless NGX automatically, keeping your records synced without manual effort.

🐦Home Assistant - It's for the birds! [Part 2]

Automate music for your feathered friends with this smart Home Assistant setup! Our BirdMusic automation plays soothing tunes at 9 AM and stops at 8:30 PM—but only when the birds are home and people aren’t. Learn how to set it up using Music Assistant and a simple YAML script.

🎵 How to Install Music Assistant for Home Assistant: Your Ultimate Guide

Bring multi-room audio to your smart home with Music Assistant for Home Assistant! This guide walks you through installing and configuring Music Assistant to stream music, manage sources like Spotify, and control playback across devices. Perfect for audiophiles and automation fans!

Home Assistant - It's for the birds! [Part 1]

If you are looking for a post that is bashing home assistant, you have probably come to the wrong place. Recently I was asked to look after a flock of birds. The only trouble here was that I was away for some of the time. This time I set up cameras to monitor the birds.

Car Automation using tasker

I upgraded from an old Audi A3 to a BMW 1-Series after a nightmare trip with two punctures. Lesson learned: check your spare tire regularly. I use Tasker, an Android-only app, to automate tasks like launching music and navigation apps when using Bluetooth.

Uptime Kuma and kestra - Fixing issues within minutes.

Integrating Uptime Kuma with Kestra via webhooks enables real-time issue detection and automated remediation. Uptime Kuma monitors services and triggers Kestra workflows to resolve incidents, reducing manual intervention, improving reliability, and ensuring faster, more efficient operations.

Automating Your Android phone with JoaoJoin and Tasker

Combine JoaoJoin with Tasker for seamless cross-device automation. Link your devices in Join, create Tasker profiles to trigger actions, and automate tasks like syncing notifications, sharing clipboards, or transferring files between devices.

Setting up AutoInput with Tasker

AutoInput is a Tasker plugin that lets you simulate touch gestures and interact with apps beyond Tasker's native capabilities. It’s ideal for automating actions in apps without built-in Tasker support, allowing you to simulate button presses, swipes, and navigate apps to complete complex tasks.

Proxmox Host management with Ansible

Learn how to use Ansible to automate and manage a Proxmox host, including tasks like setting up NTP and SDN. This guide covers installation, configuration, and examples of playbooks to streamline your Proxmox environment, enhancing efficiency and consistency across your infrastructure.

Introduction to Tasker

Using Tasker for automation on your Android phone can initially seem a bit overwhelming due to its wide range of capabilities. However, once you get the hang of it, Tasker becomes an incredibly powerful tool for automating everyday tasks.

About the author

Tim Wilkes is a UK-based security architect with over 15 years of experience in electronics, Linux, and Unix systems administration. Since 2021, he's been designing secure systems for a telecom company while indulging his passions for programming, automation, and 3D printing. Tim shares his projects, tinkering adventures, and tech insights here - partly as a personal log, and partly in the hopes that others will find them useful.

Want to connect or follow along?

LinkedIn: [phpsytems]
Twitter / X: [@timmehwimmy]
Mastodon: [@timmehwimmy@infosec.exchange]

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