If i don’t touch anything do i still need to wash my hands?

Alexa
Raspberry pi- to connect and control all the things
Bond - for the blinds
Switchbot- IR transmitter for bidet

Wireless, pocket-sized, voice assistant with full Music Assistant controls. TV remote coming soon.

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/slampton/esphome-pocket-assistant

Hardware: https://docs.waveshare.com/ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-1.75C

Voice Pipeline FYI: Nabu Casa STT and TTS, with Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite.

Hey guys,
I’ve done some research but can’t find a solid answer.

Basically I have ANE at a switch, and an ANE at a light fitting but cannot get a cable between the two.

What devices would I need snd the switch and at the light so I can switch the light independently?

Thanks!

Hello! A few years ago I went to my cousins and his home was full of smart lighting controllable by voice, room, and his phone.

I have recently tried to figure out how he did it and am hitting a few crossroads.

For 1 I don’t need to use voice command, not really my interest.

I purchased the Hue bridge, And would love to understand how to use it to connect to either hue bulbs or the new ikea matter bulbs.(which are so much cheaper)

Does anyone have any insight as to how I should dip my toes into this world. I would Ideally like to be able to have all the lights let’s say in my living room, controllable by an app. All to be turned on or off via 1 button, and colour to be synced for all.

Should I stay with hue, or go to the ikea ecosystem. (I’d like to use ikea bulbs because I have their lamps)

Thank you so much.

I have a ceiling fan with a built in light that is turned on and off at the wall. The same switch controls the fan and the light. There are chains that turn the fan on and off and control the speed.

I want to be able to turn the light and fan on and off independently of each other using my phone or voice commands, and still be able to use the switch at the wall.

From my understanding, I need a smart device I can install on the fan that can communicate to a smart switch on the wall.

I have a Eero 7 WiFi router that has a zigbee smart hub built into it, so I would prefer the device and switch to be compatible with zigbee or to use WiFi with no hub required.

Just purchased our forever home and will be moving next month. In our current home we have a nest thermostat and wireless cameras (nursery, front door, back door). In our new home I’m not opposed to pivoting to an entirely new system. With that said I don’t mind our nest products, I just hate that at the time our only option was wireless. If we went that route again I’d be getting the wired options.
Some notes:
- Located in Ontario, Canada
- Pretty indifferent to a subscription fee. I’ve been used to it up until this point.
- Looking for: thermostat, camera, smart doorbell (the layout of this new house a camera on the front door wouldn’t pick up the driveway so I do think we need both), and any other cool “smart home” recommendations you may have :)

thank you!!

Helppp.

Looking for an expert who has experience with Mirabella Flex & Plug Genio Smart Wi-Fi Dimmable Downlights, or similar smart lighting systems.

The lights constantly flash, unpair from the app and reset back to factory settings.

We've tried:
Unpairing and repairing.
Upgrading the modem.
Adding a mesh Wi-Fi node.

We are coming up to one year in our newly built house and I can't even turn the lights on without it feeling like 3am in a nightclub, so now I don't even bother and use a lamp.

It's possible these just weren't the right choice of light, but it's not something we can easily change now with more than 50 installed throughout the new house.

If you've experienced something similar, or know an electrician with experience diagnosing smart lighting issues, I'd really appreciate any recommendations.

Have they been installed wrongly ? Noting they have flashed from the get go.

*paired with starlink internet
*installed by a licensed electrician
*one set are on the same circuit as a pendant dimmer, however ALL lights flash.
*NT, Australia.

I have a Vaillant ecoTEC plus VMW ES 346/5‑5
I also have a new Born baby

I want to keep the room temp constant in the entire home but keep each room in a different temperature.

Any recommendations?
Is Tado any good? And what is the difference between v3+ / X en X 2’d gen? Any other brands?

For a while I used DAKboard on a screen at home: a plain, non-touch display on the wall that always shows the family calendar, the weather and some photos. A few days ago the calendar stopped syncing. I looked for an alternative, but couldn't find anything free with a decent design, everything had a paid plan. So I built my own.

Marco: https://marcohome.app

What it does

• Merges the family calendars into one view: Google Calendar, iCloud, Outlook/Microsoft 365 or any iCal link
• Weather (Open-Meteo, no API key), birthdays with ages, countdowns, a news ticker, your own photos as the background
• The screen only displays: nothing to tap on it. Everything is set up from the admin on your phone or computer
• 11 layouts (month, week, agenda, today, board, photo frame, bedside clock...), Modern and Classic styles, light and dark
• Several screens from one server, each with its own layout and calendars
• Announcements with a chime ("the washing machine is done") from Home Assistant, a script or your phone
• Works on any TV, monitor, tablet or Raspberry Pi in kiosk mode

Two ways to use it, both free

• Self-hosted: one-line installer for Debian, Ubuntu and Raspberry Pi OS (server only, server and screen on the same Pi, or kiosk only), Docker, or by hand. Your data stays at home.
• Marco Cloud: if you don't want to run anything, make an account at https://app.marcohome.app/signup and point a screen at it.

Code: https://github.com/mr-reb00t/marco (MIT)

AI disclosure: vibecoded with AI and tested on my own setup at home, where it runs every day. The code, and in the cloud version how each household's data is kept separate from the others, were reviewed for security with Claude Opus 5.5 before publishing. It's an AI review, not a professional audit, so if you find something, please report it (there's a SECURITY.md in the repo).

One note on the cloud version: Google Calendar linking is still waiting for Google's verification, so for now you may see an "unverified app" screen or not be able to link it at all. Until then you can add a Google calendar through its secret iCal link.

Feedback and bug reports are welcome, here or as GitHub issues.

My Philips Hue lights turn on before it gets dark, my SwitchBot curtains close themselves at night, and my Ecovacs robot vacuum usually cleans while I’m out.

Last week I came home from grocery shopping to the lights already on, curtains doing their thing, and clean floors without touching an app once.

I’ve gotten so used to all of it that I barely notice anymore. What’s yours?

I have a few A-Ok blinds which were paired to my Zigbee Hub THP-10, I reset the hub and now i am not able to add back the blinds. I am able to get my blinds in pairing mode with is green flashing 1/per second. I go to the Tuya or Smart Life App and they have only quick add. Previously there used to be an option to Add Device under subdevices it is not there any more. Any idea how to get this resolved?

Another option I am thinking is to get a Zigbee Coordinator and add it to HA, Before i buy the coordinator i want to ensure this works, Hence I was looking into this.

Just been 2 months since it was bought/installed and twice locked out due to battery drainage in a few days after changing to new recommended battery Luckily, had my spare physical key 2nd time so managed to get in. Called customer service and they have shipped the wifi HUB suspecting it could be an issue. They said its expedited shipping and supposed to be delivered on Friday and till now not delivered. Not sure if anyone else here faced similar issues. Overall really frustrating experience with Yale.

Hi zusammen,

Ich hab ein kleines Problem und evtl hat jemand von euch eine Lösung.

Situation:
Innenstadt- unser Haus ist im Hinterhof. Vorne ist ein Mehrfamilienhaus wo sich auch Klingeln befinden.
Ich habe eine Ring doorbell vorne angebracht und durch ein WLAN eines Nachbarn die mit Internet ausgestattet. Der Empfang ist schlecht, obwohl der Repeater ca 4 Meter entfern ist. Aber dicke Wände.

Das soll natürlich so nicht bleiben. Da ich gerne die Klingel im eigen Netzwerk hätte.

Hat jemand eine idee oder ggf. ein alternatives Produkt um das sauber aufzusetzen?

Danke!

Hi everyone,

I’m Raphael, founder of AniRepel. I’ve been building a smart outdoor animal deterrent as a solo hardware project.

The idea actually started when my stepmom got sprayed by a traditional motion sprinkler - more than once :).

The sprinkler was doing exactly what it was designed to do: something moved, so it sprayed. The problem was that it had no idea whether that something was an unwanted animal, a person walking through the garden, or your own pet.

That got me thinking: could you keep the simplicity of a motion sprinkler, but make it more selective about when not to spray?

That idea became AniRepel. The basic idea is still simple and effective: use a short burst of water to deter unwanted animals from gardens.

I experimented with taking the computer vision and robotics much further - including animal classification and moving target tracking - and even tested more powerful AI hardware and camera setups. Technically, there are some really interesting things you can do there. But I kept coming back to the same question: does this actually solve the gardener's problem better?

For AniRepel, I didn't think the improvement justified the additional processing power, energy consumption, hardware cost, weight, complexity and reliability measures. It would also work against another goal I have for the product: keeping it compact and easy to move around the garden.

So I eventually came back to a simpler principle: use the least technology necessary to solve the actual problem reliably. I don't want to add AI just because I can.

Motion is still the trigger. On the Pro version, an on-device camera check can determine whether a person is present and suppress the spray.

For pets, I took a different approach: recognising that an animal is a cat or dog isn't the same as knowing that it's your cat or dog. So optional Pet Recognition uses a small registered collar tag instead.

The recognition and core decision-making stay local. No cloud connection is required for AniRepel to do its job.

I have an app prototype, and I’m developing controls such as active time windows, spray duration, cooldown, pet recognition sensitivity and firmware updates. I’m also investigating Wi-Fi-connected Light Sleep to make remote control more responsive while keeping power consumption low. That still needs hardware testing. I want connectivity to add control rather than become a dependency: the core device should keep working with or without the app or any internet connection.

I’m currently preparing the first field-test units before finalizing the Pioneer Batch, and this is where I’d really value the perspective of r/smarthome - particularly on how a device like this should integrate into a local smart home.

I’ve seen people here build their own camera → detection → sprinkler automations, which made me wonder how a purpose-built device like this should fit into a smart home without becoming yet another cloud-dependent IoT gadget.

A few things I’m especially curious about:

- What would you actually want to control from Home Assistant - enable/disable, temporary pause, schedules, something else?

- Would device status such as battery voltage and solar charging status or spray activations be useful?

- My current thinking is that Home Assistant should provide control and status, while recognition and the final spray decision remain local to the device. Does that separation make sense, or would you design the boundary differently?

- Would you want to be ale to turn Human Recognition on and off on the Pro?

- MQTT is already part of the firmware, but Home Assistant integration isn’t implemented yet. What would make a local integration feel straightforward and useful to you - automatic discovery, particular controls or sensors, or something else?

- Which controls would need to take effect immediately, and which could tolerate a delay? For example, would you expect a temporary pause to respond within a couple of seconds, while schedule changes could wait longer? I’m exploring the trade-off between responsiveness and standby power.

- What would make you trust - or not trust - a device with a camera in your garden?

And most importantly: what am I missing?

I’ve attached a short clip of the current models in the garden. It compares Base and Pro, shows the Pro's on-device Human Recognition, and demonstrates the optional Pet Recognition available for both versions - including the devices deciding when not to spray.

AMA about the electronics, detection approach, privacy, pet recognition, battery life, power management, hardware iterations, things that have gone wrong, or where I’m taking it next.

Critical feedback is very welcome. I’d much rather discover the stupid decisions now than after manufacturing :).

If you want more context on what I’m building, you can see the AniRepel project here.

https://reddit.com/link/1x36jtt/video/qy81fwwdwtuh1/player

We've had this thermostat for a few years now to control out heated floor, which worked well. We've now had a heat pump (Panasonic K series) installed with their own thermostat to control the heated floor and moved the Honeywell to the office room. The office room has a standard radiator, so does our bathroom, and the thermostat controls 1 zone on our heat pump. We've now noticed it ran over 140 compressor cycles in 1 week, and the Honeywell thermostat seems to be the cause.

It's set at night to 19 and heat to 21 during the day. When it starts heating, it runs for about 10-15 minutes and shuts off for 10 minutes. Then it starts heating again for 10-15 minutes until it reaches target temperature. When it reaches target temperature, it frequently micro-cycles for short bursts, which always triggers the heat pump compressor for a few minutes.

The T6R is connected to a receiver which triggers a pump. Once the heat pump notices flow it starts heating that zone. Optimal start, optimal stop and delayed start are disabled and low load control is enabled (can't find if it should be enabled or disabled with this receiver). The receiver is R4H910RF1004 Receiver box. Cycle rate is currently 3 times per hour and minimum ON time of 5 minutes.

1. Is there a way to just heat until target temperature without stopping?
2. Is there a way to disable micro-cycling when it is at the target temperature?

Hi everyone, I have recently been looking into smart home technology. I have a few questions and I thought actual users would be the best people to ask. The usual product descriptions/ads/catalogues only tell what the device is supposed to do but I am more interested in what's really like to live with these things.

1. What happens when your internet goes down?
   This is what I am most curious about. Let's say a smart device that you genuinely rely on in your daily life. If your internet suddenly stops working, does the device still do its job, or does it become useless until the connection comes back?

I would love to know which features continue working offline and which ones stop. Have you ever bought a device expecting it to work a certain way, only to discover that it depends on an internet connection more than you thought?

1. Have the devices you use ever let you down?
   eg. automation failures, sensor missing something, or routines refuse to run when you need them? How did you deal with it? or did you just find a workaround and move on?

2. Privacy

I have come across information that some smart home gadgets send data to cloud services. Personally, there are certain things I'd rather keep inside my home so this got me thinking

Do you ever check where your data goes when choosing a device? Would you give up some features in exchange for keeping your data local? Or is it a convenience "worth it" to you?

This leads my next question, how much do you actually trust your smart home?
What I mean is that, do you feel comfortable letting your devices handle things without checking on them? Has any device made you lose confidence/trust in it?

I am still learning about all of this, so I might have misunderstood something or used incorrect terminology. Please let me know if I have! English is not my first language so apologies for any mistakes.

I would genuinely love to hear your experiences even if they are small annoyances or things you found through trial and error. Those are the kinds of things you don't find in product reviews. Thanks : }!

Hey all, I figured I’d get the most knowledge in one place here. I’m about to purchase all my electrical components on a new home build and I’m lost. I wanted what I thought was simple but it’s sounding more complicated the further I get. I’m hoping you all can help me sift through the never ending product options on the market lol.

I do need to say I’m new to smart home stuff completely, so I may be overthinking it. My plan was to use Alexa and smart switches to integrate basic smart lights and doorbell cameras. I didn’t really want to get deep into the weeds of programming some sort of complicated system. At the end of the day I want all my ceiling lights to be rgb 4” wafers, but I want my switches to look and function like plain dumb decora style rockers. I was hoping I could get a smart switch that would turn on/off lights like nothing was special but if I asked Alexa to dim or change colors it would override the switch. The hard part seems to be, if the switch is in the off position I want Alexa to be able to turn the lights on.

I was planning to accomplish this by wiring my switch leg as constant hot and then having the smart switch be more of a controller than a switch. I’m not convinced this is impossible but it’s more a case of buying components that are compatible. From what I read, I’ve seen some switches say their relay can “decouple” from the lights and I’m getting a sneaking suspicion that’s what I’m looking for. So all that being said has anyone done this, do you have any product recommendations? Also i have to buy 30 lights here so I’m hoping to find something on the more “budget” side. Not the cheapest but I definitely cant go with a Phillips hue or something of that sort. Not all bulbs will have to be smart but a good majority. For clarity I’m in the USA, west coast.

I'm looking for both bulbs + ambient lighting (something put in corner or room, or that has low brightness ambient lighting on a wall). Needs to be from same company so that the color tone matches.

In the early evening, I like warm lighting, but after 9pm, I like it really low kelvin, and dim to wind down for the night. especially if watching TV.

Having to adjust this manually for each room is cumbersome, and even more annoying if the next early afternoon the room is still the orange tone with i need a brighter higher kelvin tone.

I need a smart device setup so that each room's lighting automatically switches its kelvin/brightness by time:

• 9am-5pm: 2800K and 80% brightness
• 5pm-9pm: 2600K and 60% brightness
• 9pm: 2200K and 40% brightness

\it would be nice to not have to setup the above on an automated on/off schedule. Because I dont want all the lights coming on on the set schedule just to change the color. I want the color tone to change automatically while they stay off. and when i turn them on, the color tone is already what is expected*

Have had the encode plus for a year and it's increasingly becoming unresponsive to touch when tapping the touch screen to lock the door. I'll have to wait about 10 seconds for it to respond. I've already reset it. Batteries are good. Thanks

I wanted to share a budget-friendly DIY project I just finished. Motorized cabinets for Ultra Short Throw (UST) projectors can cost hundreds of dollars, so I decided to build my own automated drawer for about $40 in parts.

The drawer automatically opens when the projector turns on and closes when it powers down.

How it Works:
I’m using Home Assistant to handle the automation logic. A Sonoff smart plug monitors the energy usage of the projector. When it detects a power spike (projector turning on), Home Assistant triggers a 2-channel Zigbee relay module to extend the 12V linear actuator and open the drawer. When power drops, it reverses the relay to close it.

The Budget Parts List:

• Smart Plug: SONOFF S60ZB IPlug (Zigbee with Power Monitoring)
• Actuator: HAKIWO MINI Linear Actuator (Stroke 200mm, 12V, 80N)
• Relay: Zigbee Smart Switch Remote Control Relay Module (2-Channel, 7-32V)
• Power: 12V 2A DC Power Supply (EU Plug)

Hello everyone,

I am new in this platform, and I seek the community's honest response and guidelines. I am from Bangladesh and am recently planning to build my own smart home system for my new apartment. Nothing too fancy, but just to start something to motivate me to go from one project to another. Bangladesh is not a country where electricity or internet services are available in abundance, as there are interruptions and constant network issues. Hence, I cannot rely completely on home assistance or other such gadgets that provide these services. So I am seeking guidance from the community to know where I should start my journey. I am looking for systems which can enhance the security of my apartment and provide motion-sensor-activated automated lights. I think this is a very good place to start this journey, and later on I can build my way towards the larger projects.

Looking forward to some practical responses which can turn out to be beneficial. You can also provide YouTube links if necessary, but hopefully it will be something within my understanding.

TIA.

I’ve been using hubitat for many years, and been quite happy with it. But I feel like they are not really there in terms of being modern. The webui is ugly and feels dated.

And before my little hub gives up I am thinking about upgrading to a new unit, but should I move to home assistant? It feels like home assistant is much more up2date and hubitat gives me the impression that it’s a few people behind the project and everything moves slowly.

Thoughts?

Thoughts?

This all started because I don’t trust IoT devices not giving your data via requests once they get connected to the network, especially after the recent scandal involving LG TVs. It’s much better to keep them all confined to a VLAN without Internet access, or on an isolated access point. This project addresses the scenario of using a Wi-Fi interface (such as an external dongle) as an access point, because I can’t set up VLANs on my home network yet.

I'm sure this will help more than a few people. This tool handles both pairing and controlling the light bulbs (color, brightness, presets) all from your computer (and your Wi-Fi dongle). You'll never have to use the app at all. Also, it works much better for me locally than through the app.

Repo: https://github.com/50ck/wizbind

Behind the scenes, this involved a lot of trial and error, capturing the requests sent by the bulb and the app during pairing, and examining the Android .apk to see how the requests are formed so I could replicate them for the pairing. After pairing, we already know that color changes are handled via UDP as there are a lot of projects covering this. I took everything I found + the color requests, and AI to bundle it together in a Python script, so here it is!

You can fork it and adapt it to your homelab so you can register and manage your WiZ devices locally. Hope this helps!