Upgrading the Versa Drape Motor with an External Antenna
Posted on 28th Dec 2025 01:19:32 in IoT, Home Assistant, esphome
Improving Range on Versa / Dooya / Tuya Drape Motors
Adding an External 433MHz Antenna (and Gaining ~11 dB Link Quality)
Most low-cost curtain/drape motors (Versa, Dooya, Tuya-based units, etc.) ship with a printed PCB antenna inside the motor housing. It works, but it’s trapped against the motor body, wiring bundle, and plastic enclosure – so RF performance is marginal at best. In my case, it resulted in weak signals and intermittent control from the other side of the house.
This write-up covers how I added an external antenna safely via the RF feed point. The modification resulted in a measured ~10–11 dB link improvement (from ~-84 dBm to ~-73.5 dBm), which translates to a substantial boost in usable range and reliability.
Upgrading the Pulse 2 Hub with an External Antenna
Posted on 27th Nov 2025 18:58:35 in Home Assistant, esphome, IoT
Part 2 - Upgrading the Pulse 2 Hub with an External Whip Antenna
Installing ESPHome on the Pulse 2 Hub
Posted on 27th Dec 2025 22:48:49 in IoT, Home Assistant, esphome
Installing ESPHome on the Rollease Acmeda Pulse 2 Hub
The Rollease Acmeda Pulse 2 Hub can be repurposed into a powerful ESPHome-based ARC bridge by flashing custom firmware directly onto its onboard ESP32-D0WD-V3 module. The hardware is very similar to the WT32-ETH01 with a physical ethernet port.
This allows direct serial communication with ARC-protocol blind motors, removing the need for the original cloud firmware or mobile app.
Asus x670e Game Stuttering Windows 24h2
Posted on 20th Feb 2025 17:45:07 in Gaming
Experiencing game stuttering after updating to Windows 11 24H2? You're not alone. The culprit might be the power management feature in the Thunderbolt controller driver. Learn how disabling it can restore smooth performance.
Smart Letterbox Build
Posted on 14th Feb 2025 07:55:14 in Home Assistant
Our old letterbox had seen better days—faded, worn, and with the flap barely hanging on by a single hinge. On top of that, couriers often tossed parcels over our gate onto the driveway, one of which my wife accidentally ran over because she didn’t see it. It was clear we needed an upgrade.
So, it was time to build a smarter letterbox—one with a dedicated parcel drop to put an end to our delivery woes.
