Category: Time Needed

  • Mach-E Monitor 12v Notification with Home Assistant

    While there is an official fix for Mach-E’s 12v issues there is a Ford Pass app (unofficial of course) for Home Assistant that allows you to track and set a notification for the 12v battery. (Along with a host of other things.)

    The login process is not super easy but once added the level of integration is excellent and, best of all, includes a readout of the 12v status. From there, setting up a automation triggered by the battery level is fairly straightforward. At the moment, I have it set to notify if the level drops below 40%. Usually the battery cycles around the %60 level, not usually dropping much below there so %40 seems like a good buffer.

  • An F3800 API via MQTT

    First massive massive kudos to https://github.com/thomluther and all the folks working on the https://github.com/thomluther/anker-solix-api/ Anker Solix API. I cannot believe how far they have come in such a short period of time. There is now a usable Sensor API for the F3800 without the need for the power panels or other connections, all that is needed is the base unit.

    At the moment, the MQTT decoding expects a base unit without add-on (official) batteries. (As far as I can read.) The install steps are fairly easy:

    1. Install the HA version of the API via the HACS link.
    2. Log-in using your Anker account.
    3. Enable MQTT via the overall (gear) options.

    And after MQTT runs for the first time the sensor stats will populate. At the moment there aren’t options to edit options on the unit, turning off and on outlets or other options but that isn’t super important in my current use of just powering the mini-servers, networking gear, and chest freezer. It isn’t turning services off and on or trying to load shift in any complicated way.

    This is so useful for finally seeing just how much each server is using, how much solar it brings in, or just how depleted the battery is. The off-grid solar isn’t bringing in enough power during the winter to allow charging the car or dumping extra load anywhere but in the spring and summer this will be hugely useful.

    (Also, note, do not know if this works with the F3800 Plus.)

    Updated and Retried on Home Assistant 2025.11.3 12/03/25

  • Battery Status Aggregation in Home Assistant

    Smart Batteries have their issues but being able to monitor them in Home Assistant is convenient and mostly works well. (Yes, another option is a smart shunt.)

    Fortunately, as usual with Home Assistant, there is an awesome plug-in via HACS, the Home Assistant Community Store, for all these bluetooth BMSes via BMS_BLE-HA.

    Once the batteries are showing in the BLE Management, you can then create a helper to combine the status of these. Now, granted, if these batteries are series and paralleled correctly their charge states should stay very close but this is helpful for a quick look. Also this could be set up to notify you if the voltages or charge states do drift.

    Updated and Retried on Home Assistant 2025.11.3 12/03/25

  • Hide the TimeMachine SMB to avoid more permissions issues

    Pointing out a key element in the SMB code posted before.

    [smb-name-for-timemachine]
      ...
      valid users = timemachinename00, timemachinename01
      ...

    For the valid users, be sure to:

    1. Create SMB users for each separate system.
    2. Don’t include wider SMB users. If you accidentally click into that share in Finder on OSX, you’ll end up messing up the permissions for any other SMB you have loaded.
    3. If you change users or shares you’ll probably have to delete the old timemachine file and start again. You might be able to fix permissions but probably not worth going down that path.

    So far the setup is working (along with so many other services from the same N150 powered Ubuntu) really well and well worth the 2-3 hours of setup and refining times.

    Updated and Retried with Ubuntu 25.04 and MacOS Tahoe 26.0.1: 11/19/25