TekOnline

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  • Well that is a little more than usual 😅

    Just putting this up more of a reminder to my future self. This was from the HVAC Zone Controller and promoting it on the Facebook Home Assistant group. This post https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DuqeyED87/ You can find the product here: esp32 Zone Controller HVAC

  • ESPHome 7-Zone HVAC Controller – Smart 24VAC Zone Control for Home Assistant

    TL:DR – You can get it here 🥳 Its been way too long in the making. But its finally done (well…maybe a few small tweaks left!) One of the biggest challenges when integrating HVAC systems into Home Assistant is controlling 24VAC devices like duct dampers and zone valves. Most smart home relay boards are designed…

  • Zone Control (7 Zones) – Open-Source ESPHome HVAC Controller

    Zone Control (7 Zones) Open-source HVAC zone control for real homes and real automation stacks. Built on ESPHome and designed for Home Assistant, this controller gives you local-first control without vendor lock-in. Why this controller Controls up to 7 HVAC zones Local-first architecture Home Assistant friendly Open, transparent configuration model Built and tested on real…

  • Installer Perspective: Deploying Open HVAC Zone Control Without the Usual Pain

    Integrators and installers keep asking the same question: “Can open-source HVAC control be deployed reliably for real clients?” Short answer: yes, if you package it correctly. At TekOnline, we are shaping our 7-zone ESPHome controller specifically for repeatable field deployment, not just hobby projects. What installers need from a zone controller From an installer viewpoint,…

  • How We Built a 7-Zone HVAC Controller with ESPHome

    The 7-zone controller is now running, and this post walks through the build direction we took at TekOnline. The goal was simple: create a zone control platform that is reliable, local-first, and deeply compatible with Home Assistant. Project requirements Before writing firmware, we locked in these constraints: That pushed us toward ESPHome from day one.…

  • Open-Source HVAC Zoning vs Closed Systems: What Actually Matters

    Open-Source HVAC Zoning vs Closed Systems: What Actually Matters If you are automating your home or client projects in 2026, HVAC control is one of the biggest decisions you will make. It is also one of the easiest places to get trapped in expensive, closed systems. At TekOnline, we have been building and testing a…

  • From USB Cable To Home Assistant: Getting Our ESP32 HVAC Board Online (And the New Workflow)

    On March 5, 2026, we brought a fresh ESP32 HVAC board online and documented a cleaner workflow for future installs. This post is the practical version of what happened: what worked, what confused us, and the exact flow we will use from now on. The Goal We wanted to: Step 1: Confirm Serial Connectivity First Before…

  • The Tool That Instantly Shows What’s Filling Your Hard Drive

    At some point every computer user runs into the same problem: Your hard drive is full… but you have no idea what’s taking up all the space. You open your file explorer, start digging through folders, and quickly realise it’s almost impossible to tell where the storage has gone. Is it videos? Old downloads? Some…

  • Auth Spikes as a Security Signal: What Authentik Caught (And Why That Matters)

    Environment: Oracle host + Authentik + Nginx Proxy Manager Why This Matters We saw a useful security pattern: This is exactly why keeping identity and proxy telemetry together is valuable. Even when traffic is noisy, the auth layer can still tell you what is being targeted. What Happened During investigation, we found two overlapping traffic…

  • Git Worktree Cheat Sheet

    Need parallel branches without cloning the same repository twice? Git worktree lets you attach multiple working directories to one repo, so you can work on features, hotfixes, and release branches side-by-side. Why Use Git Worktree? Quick Start This creates a new directory (../feature-login) checked out to a new branch (feature/login), all tied to the same…