209 lines
7.5 KiB
Markdown
209 lines
7.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: My New Home - Alarm Clock
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date: 2023-02-26
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tags:
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- Privacy
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- My New Home
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- Home Assistant
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description: >
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Part 2 of my new home setup. I discuss a Lenovo clock I got.
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---
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I recently picked up a [Lenovo Clock
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2](https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/p/smart-devices/smart-home/smart-home-series/lenovo-smart-clock-2/wmd00000485)
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on offer. I got it for around £25. I knew it ran Android and thought
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that for that price, it was worth picking one up to mess with.
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After a couple of searches, I found a guide to installing other android apps on
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it.
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<https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/guide-installing-android-apps-on-the-lenovo-smart-clock-2.4393271/>
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Once I'd installed a custom launcher, I was able to get into the android
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settings and start disabling apps. I disabled the vast majority of them although
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I was unable to disable the Google Assistant app. At the time of writing, there
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doesn't appear to be a reliable root method for the device. There is also no USB
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interface so even an adb shell was unachievable.
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## Dealing with the microphones
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For me to have a device like this plugged in, in my house, I want to be
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absolutely certain that it isn't sending any data back to its Google mothership.
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The device has a toggle on the back that switches the microphone off. This is a
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software toggle. This has 2 issues. Firstly, it could conceivably be overwritten
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in software. Second, it puts an icon on the screen to tell you that it's muted.
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This takes up a significant part of an already small screen. So, I took the
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device apart to see if the microphones were removable.
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I should probably make the point here that the following procedure will void any
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warranties you may have on the device. Also, this is not advice, I am not
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responsible if you break it, or hurt yourself or anything else.
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Disassembly was surprisingly easy. After unsticking the non-slip
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ring on the bottom, there were four screws to undo -- one in each corner. After
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doing this, the bottom of the device can be prized off. There are a few plastic
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clips and a ribbon cable to be aware of, but if you have ever disasembed
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anything before, it should be quite easy.
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This then exposes a couple of additional screws which hold the screen in place,
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highlighted above. The screen can then be removed, exposing a circuit board
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containing the microphones and the ambient light sensor.
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This can be removed. It is friction fit and there is another ribbon cable.
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Remove the ribbon cable and the microphones and sensor can be removed. Put
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everything back together and plug it in - there you go. You have a device that
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**cannot** listen to you.
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This may be overkill, this device is going on a VLAN that doesn't have internet
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access so there should be no way for it to talk back anyway. However, defence in
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depth is the best option in my opinion. If I connect it to the wrong network or
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misconfigure my firewall, I don't want it sending any information back to
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anyone.
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## Home Assistant Setup
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Next step, for me, was to set it up as a Home Assistant screen. I was able to
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install [WallPanel](https://github.com/thecowan/wallpanel-android) which is a
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browser that can be controlled remotely via an HTTP API or MQTT. It is similar
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to the concept of [FullyKioskBrowser](https://www.fully-kiosk.com/). It is open
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source though and doesn't lock features behind a paywall. I've used
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FullyKioskBrowser before, and it is a very competent piece of software, but I
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felt like trying something new.
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I created a simple dashboard in Home Assistant, and set the start URL for
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wallpanel to that dashboard. The screen is small, so you don't really want lots
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of information on there. I have a clock, an alarm clock toggle, a radio
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station selection (more on that later) and a few buttons.
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The next part of the setup was [Browser
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Mod](https://github.com/thomasloven/hass-browser_mod). This allows you to
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control a browser window through Home Assistant, adding the ability to use it as
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a media player or hide the navigation elements that are usually present. This
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allowed me to play (local) audio on the clock. It also allows me to remove the
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sidebar and top bar on the device to reclaim a little screen space.
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### Radio
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One of the side effects of not allowing the clock to access the internet means
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it can't play internet radio (hopefully that isn't a surprise to anyone).
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However, I like to be woken up to the radio. It is probably possible to add some
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radio IP addresses to a whitelist. However, to make my life easier, I decided to
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proxy any radio stations through my home server, which does have internet
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access and the smart clock can communicate with.
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For the most part this was pretty simple. I found stream URLs for a couple of
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radio stations. Here is the nginx configuration for Classic FM and Absolute
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Radio.
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```nginx
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perl_set $unix_timestamp 'sub {
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time();
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}';
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server {
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listen 443 ssl;
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listen [::]:443 ssl;
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ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/certs/fullchain1.pem;
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ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/certs/privkey1.pem;
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server_name radio.my.domain
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include /etc/nginx/conf.d/acl.inc;
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location /classicfm {
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proxy_pass http://icecast.thisisdax.com/ClassicFMMP3;
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}
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location /absolute {
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resolver 1.1.1.1;
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proxy_pass http://edge-bauerabsolute-05-gos2.sharp-stream.com/absoluteradiohigh.aac?aw_0_1st.skey=${unix_timestamp}&aw_0_1st.playerid=BMUK_RPi;
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}
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}
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```
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I'm sure you can see how this can be extended for more stations. The only thing
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that may not be obvious is the `unix_timestamp` variable in the absolute radio
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url. I don't know why it is necessary, but for some reason it is, so I define a
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variable in the `perl_set` block at the top.
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So, with this, I can run
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```bash
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mpv https://radio.my.domain/classicfm
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```
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And ClassicFM will play. With BrowserMod set up for the device, I can then run
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the service:
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```yaml
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service: media_player.play_media
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target:
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entity_id: media_player.alarm_clock
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data:
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media_content_type: music
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media_content_id: "https://radio.my.domain/classicfm"
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```
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I would like to be able to add these URLs to the media library, however I
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haven't yet found a way to do that. If anyone knows of a way, please let me
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know. However, for now I created a text helper with the following:
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* Off
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* Absolute Radio
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* Classic FM
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I then created an automation:
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```yaml
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- alias: Clock Radio
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trigger:
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- platform: state
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entity_id:
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- input_select.bedroom_radio
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condition: []
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action:
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- if:
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- condition: state
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entity_id: input_select.radio
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state: Classic FM
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then:
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- service: media_player.play_media
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data:
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media_content_id: https://radio.hodgson.one/classicfm
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media_content_type: music
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target:
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entity_id: media_player.alarm_clock
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- if:
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- condition: state
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entity_id: input_select.radio
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state: Absolute Radio
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then:
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- service: media_player.play_media
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data:
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media_content_id: https://radio.hodgson.one/absolute
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media_content_type: music
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target:
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entity_id: media_player.alarm_clock
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- if:
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- condition: state
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entity_id: input_select.radio
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state: 'Off'
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then:
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- service: media_player.media_stop
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data: {}
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target:
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entity_id: media_player.alarm_clock
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mode: single
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```
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The last step is an automation for my alarm clock. It simply sets the input
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select we set up to ClassicFM. This then plays on the speaker.
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The result is below:
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