Author: Luke

Map: Five years of change in Pima County home values

The average home in Pima County increased about 41 percent in value over the past five years.

This interactive map shows how much residential property values have changed over the past five years, according to the Pima County Assessor’s office. The amounts and percentages reflect residential property appraisals for Tax Years 2019 to 2023. You can explore the map in a full browser window by clicking here. The 290,684 properties shown on… Continue reading Map: Five years of change in Pima County home values

Map: Home values in Pima County

This map shows an appraised dollar value per square foot for each residential property in Pima County, Arizona. You can explore the map in a full browser window by clicking here. Value and square footage data was obtained from records publicly available for download on the Pima County Assessor’s website. The values shown are for… Continue reading Map: Home values in Pima County

Controlling a 220V pool pump with a Wi-Fi smart plug

Pump control cabinet with bypassed mechanical timer, and new contactor to its left. The contactor is being controlled by the Sonoff S31 smart plug in the outlet below.

Devices that require 220 volt split-phase circuits, like larger pumps and electric water heaters in North America, can be difficult to find “smart” switches for—especially when you’re looking for a non-cloud solution that respects your privacy. I wanted a Wi-Fi switch for my pool pump that I could control with my OpenHAB server. After a… Continue reading Controlling a 220V pool pump with a Wi-Fi smart plug

Flashing the Sonoff S31 with Tasmota using a Mac (no soldering!)

Flashing the firmware on the Sonoff S31 can seem intimidating at first. You have to take it apart, exposing the electronics inside, then connect your computer directly to tabs on the PC board using a serial breakout device like the Sparkfun Serial Basic. But it’s not that hard. And you can do it without soldering.