OK, only because I'm pleased with myself. Here's something I did:
I have a battery powered window opener (for the bathroom, so didn't want a mains powered one) and a hand held IR remote. Great, I thought, I'll use an RM Mini 3 and learn the codes and I'll have an automated opener. Nope. It's a rolling code remote (clearly for security reasons). Bugger.
So, this is my very first foray into electronics.
I decided to look at using a Pi Zero and a relay hat to trigger the remote switches. Great. However, that is never, ever, going to run on batteries.
So, I bought:
- Some electronics bits
- A better soldering iron
- A better multimeter
- A SparkFun Thing Plus - XBee3 Micro (Chip Antenna)
- A box
I could have used a BLE or Wifi board (I did try both), but wanted something that would connect directly with HE.
Here it is, with lots of wire spaghetti:
On the left is the Sparkfun Xbee, in the middle is the guts of the IR remote, on the right is the little board I made with NPN transistors as switches. Add in a lithium battery and blow me down with a feather - it actually works.
I wrote a custom micropython script to code the Xbee. I wrote a custom driver for HE to treat it as a WindowShade device.
I can now control the window with voice activation 
Just need to see how long the battery lasts for, but I've integrated deep sleep into the XBee so I'm hopeful of at least a few days 
