I recently did a proof of concept on shutters automation by hacking the remote control: the idea is to wire the ESP in parallel with the remote control buttons.
My remotes are Bubendorff 41677 but it should work with a lot of other remote controls.

I have a great Rika pellet stove, but despite all the embedded electronics, it is unable to warn me just before the pellets tank is empty. As I already have my own low-power wireless devices and home automation tools, I just added a distance sensor and designed some enclosures.

I wanted to try if a 100% DIY process to reflow a small batch of boards. For about 10 boards it is cheaper to hand solder them than ordering a stencil, but I was wondering if it can be faster to manually cut a stencil and reflow the boards on a frying pan.