Will Cooke – Software Engineer & Linux Developer

The Growatt ShineWiFi-X 'USB' dongle is really a Modbus bridge, so I reflashed it with ESPHome

Posted on 14 June 2026

I had a couple of spare Growatt ShineWiFi-X dongles and wanted them doing the same job as my EW11 RS485 bridges: feeding my Modbus-to-MQTT poller. The twist is that the inverter's 'USB' port isn't USB at all, it's TTL serial speaking Modbus. Here's how I put ESPHome on the ESP8266... [Read More]

The hidden Home Assistant setting that frees your Bluetooth proxy connection slots

Posted on 7 June 2026

My BLE light controllers were each holding a Bluetooth proxy connection open forever, quietly starving everything else of slots. The fix turned out to be a setting that already ships in Home Assistant, does exactly the right thing, and is almost impossible to find. Here's why you'd want it, why... [Read More]

Writing setup docs for an AI: a pattern for small, complex projects

Posted on 16 May 2026

I built a small podcast publisher this weekend, hit the usual nine-step README problem, and ended up doing something different — writing a setup playbook addressed to an AI assistant instead of to a human. Here's why I think this is going to be the right shape of documentation for... [Read More]

Eufy X8 robot vacuum, local control, and a Home Assistant integration that actually works

Posted on 16 May 2026

The Eufy X8 lives on the older Tuya platform, not the AIOT/protobuf cloud the rest of the Eufy range uses. The existing Home Assistant integrations don't know about this and silently fail. I wrote one that talks to it directly over LAN — no cloud after setup, full vacuum control,... [Read More]

Octopus Energy Free Electricity Sessions: Official GraphQL API!

Posted on 10 November 2025

Octopus Energy now has an official GraphQL API for Free Electricity Sessions - no more email scraping! Here's how to integrate it with Home Assistant. [Read More]

Will Cooke (8none1)

About Will Cooke

The Growatt ShineWiFi-X 'USB' dongle is really a Modbus bridge, so I reflashed it with ESPHome

The hidden Home Assistant setting that frees your Bluetooth proxy connection slots

Writing setup docs for an AI: a pattern for small, complex projects

Eufy X8 robot vacuum, local control, and a Home Assistant integration that actually works

Octopus Energy Free Electricity Sessions: Official GraphQL API!