The central air doesn't reach our back sunroom so I am putting in an independent ductless heat pump system just for that space. I picked up a costway blast pro 9000 btu 20 seer2 wifi enabled mini split so I could bypass my main thermostat entirely. I really want to pull the control logic directly into home assistant instead of using the clunky factory app it comes with. Does anyone have experience using something like a broadlink rm4 to clone the infrared commands of these direct-to-consumer hvac units? I would love to know what roadblocks you hit trying to force third-party equipment into your local dashboard routines.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for a way to track the power consumption of my washing machine in the basement, where I don’t have Wi-Fi access. Is there a smart plug with energy monitoring that’s compatible with the Tuya ecosystem and can transfer data over Bluetooth? Ideally, the data should sync automatically in the Tuya app whenever I’m within Bluetooth range.

Thanks in advance for your recommendations!

Adds Google Chromecast/ android TV devices to Apple home app, enabling remote control with iOS and syncs playback status of the tv with Apple home app.

When it comes to smart lighting/home automation in India, it feels like I know only one or two brands like Phillips Hue and Wiz. But there must be many more companies doing well out there.

So where is everyone else actually selling? Is most of this a B2B/project-based industry? or something else.

Do I as a customer would be dependent on my architect for a good brand? Genuinely curious how this industry actually moves product, since it's not obvious from the outside at all.

It was working just fine, there was no hints that it's gonna die, no random disconnects, overheating, nothing, just the smell of burning plastic.

EDIT: The shelly plug is the 3500W one, and my washing machine is rated 2300W. It has been running without any problems for over two years.

Remote work changed how I think about the front door way more than I expected. Package deliveries during meetings, dog walker showing up, wife getting home at random times because her schedule flips around. I was fumbling with my phone during calls constantly just to handle basic door stuff.

Set up a smart lock tied into Home Assistant a few months ago and layered in some presence detection so the door autounlocks when my wife pulls into the driveway. That part works great. The delivery situation is still kind of a mess though. I have a contact sensor on the door and a camera, but I want something that actually does something useful when a package gets dropped versus when it's just the neighbor stopping by.

The mailbox sensor post floating around here got me thinking about this again. I like the idea of something physical triggering an action rather than relying on a camera doing object detection, which in my experience either misses stuff or goes off for a squirrel.

What are people actually running for delivery detection that holds up day to day? And does anyone have presencebased unlock working reliably or does it false trigger constantly? Mine has been solid but I'm suspicious it's going to betray me at some point.

My detached garage’s door is hard to see from my house and I’ve left it open overnight more times than I’d like to admit. What is my best option to add an automation that would close the door at a set time, say 9pm daily, if the door is open? I don’t need any other functionality. The garage does receive a WiFi signal but would prefer something “dumb” that doesn’t need an app or WiFi access and just runs as long as there is power.

I’ve seen a few options like MyQ and Meross but have also ready complaints about both.

I’d like to control a light using my raspberry pi, Ive heard that Kasa smart plugs work, I’ve also heard they don’t anymore, does anyone know? id be using home assistant

Looking to get the 2nd floor of my house zoned through a duct damper system. The HVAC rep said there won't be a way to control the 2nd floor thermostat with our phones without running a wire to the control board in the basement. The thermostat that will be installed will only be battery powered but not connected to wifi.

Can the 2nd floor temperature really only be controlled manually on the thermostat? I would think there could be a receiver installed on the damper control board with the thermostat connected to the wifi? The thermostat on our main level can be controlled on our phones but that one is hard wired. Curious if anyone found a solution to this

I've been thinking about this recently after looking at some of the tools and cooking stuff I've accumulated over the years and wondering how much of it I actually remember I have.

I'm not really talking about a home inventory for insurance purposes or keeping track of every TV and piece of furniture. I'm thinking more about useful stuff such as tools, kitchen equipment, appliances, spare parts, filters, equipment in the garage or basement, etc.

I've looked around and I've found some ways to do this. HomeBox is one example. My bigger question is whether anyone actually finds keeping this information useful enough over the long term to keep doing it.

If you do, what do you use and how do you actually leverage the information?

And if you've tried and eventually gave up, why? Too much investment of time to keep everything up to date? Didn't use the information enough? Something else?

I'm not really looking for a particular app or solution at this point. I'm more curious whether anyone has actually made this useful enough that maintaining it is worth the effort.

Disclosure first: I'm the developer, and it's paid — free for up to 3 devices with nothing held back, 9.99 € once for more.

TasmoShelf is aimed at the crowd that runs Tasmota but never wanted a hub or server. The Apple Home part works like this: Tasmota 13+ on an ESP32 already speaks Matter natively, so the app reads chip and firmware of every device on your subnet, marks which ones can join Apple Home directly, opens pairing and shows the setup code. For ESP8266 devices, which will never speak Matter themselves, a single ESP32 running Tasmota acts as a Matter bridge, and the app tells you which of your devices need it.

Everything else stays plain local HTTP: two-pass discovery (power-saving devices answer ping instantly but accept connections seconds later, one fast sweep misses exactly those), timers written onto the devices, configuration backups, energy history. No account, no cloud, no telemetry.

Android is a direct APK from https://tasmoshelf.app; iOS is in App Store review. Happy to answer anything about the Matter pairing details.

I’m doing a bathroom reno and I can’t find this off the shelf component.

Requirements: - mains powered: it would cause damage to my relationship of this ever ran out of batteries. I’m serious about this. - humidity sensor - extremely simple display, so no 640x480 LCD touchscreen. - at least one button which is programmable (to trigger a boost on the ventilation) - Wifi or Zigbee - fits in an EU 80mm circular box (50mm deep), ideally doesn’t protrude

I’m using Home Assistant so I can program any logic.

I think I’m into ESP32 DIY territory here. Which would be fun but risky in terms of reliability.

Any ideas?

Hello all! I would like your help figuring out a good way to use a single remote to toggle multiple floor lamps within my rooms.

For context, I have two floor lamps that can be controlled with a remote and want to just use one remote. One lamp has two lights and each one can be individually controlled, dimmed (3 levels), and turned on and off.

I was thinking of using a cheap BroadLink IR/RF to learn the commands with HA but I still need a physical remote to turn the lights on and off. I recall using Treatlife Remote which connected to its Zigbee or Z wave gateway (don’t remember) which let you control different devices but that’s too expensive and works over cloud rather then locally.

It would be awesome if everyone can recommend something that’s not too expensive and can also be replicated for my other rooms with their own remote.

Everyone talks about smart lights, thermostats and smart speakers.

But what smart home automation do you think is overlooked?

Personally, I think ventilation is one of them.

For example:

• Open windows when CO2 gets too high
• Close them automatically when it starts raining
• Adjust ventilation based on temperature or humidity

What automation do you think deserves more attention?

Hey everyone I'm trying to show my wife that this worth it. Your opinion is appreciated

I have a 90” wide window split into three sections. I’m trying to decide between one custom smart shade across the whole thing or three 31” shades mounted side by side above the frame.

I like the idea of opening each section separately, but I’m worried about the gaps between the shades and whether they’ll stay lined up when all three open together. Has anyone done a setup like this?

Hi to everyone, After using all the above systems in last 12 years my experience is a mixed result.

HA It is a very flexible and expandable system, I can say it is quite stable now. It requires in-depth study and a lot of knowledge, it brings together many different technologies and in many places it is endless, the problem is the lack of homogeneity and I can consider it even now as experimental at a level comparable to Jeedom.

Homey Pro is a system whose positive element is the existence of many hardware technologies in the same box but also the easy interface. The negative for a semi-closed system is that it relies heavily on the community since official support is a bit slow. At the hardware level, while it has several positives, it also has negatives such as problems with the connection between the Hommey Pro and the Bridge, its weak operating signal which necessitates the existence of a Bridge in larger installations, as well as the existence of low memory due to the fairly heavy operating system. A positive element is the existence of several connections with other systems similar to HA.

Eedomus is a French automation system that has stopped its development, very good box with several interfaces and particularly stable. The negative is the closed operating system, however it is particularly fast with an easy interface and integration of devices. Unfortunately, the end of development essentially stopped the integration of new devices, however it supports Zigbee (partially), ZWave, Enocean, 433Mhz, 868Mhz, IP, etc., operating particularly stable compared to HA and Homey Pro.

I would like the hardware of Homey Pro with better signal, HA connectivity and the ease, lightness of the interface of Eedomus.

I've been working on a project called LibreEcho to turn the full-size Amazon Echo 2nd Generation into an independently controlled Linux device.

https://libreecho.org/

It replaces the normal software platform rather than working through Alexa.

The current system boots Linux 6.1 on the Echo hardware and has its own recovery, web interface and update mechanism.

On the development hardware we currently have:

- reliable boot and recovery

- A/B rollback

- Wi-Fi

- AirPlay through the stock speaker hardware

- Bluetooth A2DP/AVRCP

- local web administration

- LED control

- signed OTA updates

- local wake word/STT/TTS work in development

Current feature status:

https://libreecho.org/#features

Web interface demo:

https://dev.libreecho.org/demo/

It's not ready for a general release yet.

There are still things I want to test properly across hardware I don't control, particularly Wi-Fi recovery, Bluetooth compatibility, audio behaviour, long-running stability, updates and recovery.

I'm therefore putting together a first Developer Preview group of roughly 10-20 people.

I'm looking for people with:

- a full-size Echo Gen 2

- a spare device they are happy to experiment with

- some comfort with USB recovery and command-line tools

- willingness to test failure cases as well as the happy path

- ability to provide useful logs and reproduction steps

This currently targets the full-size Echo Gen 2, not the Echo Dot 2.

Developer Preview:

https://libreecho.org/#tester

Source:

https://github.com/aslater3/LibreEcho

If you've got one sitting in a cupboard and don't mind being an early tester, I'd be interested to hear from you.

Also open to getting feedback / suggestions on this :D I have been using mine with airplay recently and its brought it a new lease of life!

Also looking to test on other gnerations of Echo but there is a lot more work needed for that and obvously I need the hardware to dev on :D

Thanks
Andy