A Baby Who Wouldn’t Sleep Started Maayan’s Home Assistant Journey

0:04 [SPEAKER_01]: Hello, and welcome to The Home Mrs. Podcast. [SPEAKER_01]: My name is Phil, joining me as usual. [SPEAKER_01]: I've got Rohan, how are you going mate? [SPEAKER_01]: Good, how are you? [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, and today we're joined by someone else from Australia. [SPEAKER_01]: We've got mine with us.

0:16 [SPEAKER_01]: How are you going? [SPEAKER_00]: Hello, how are you going? [SPEAKER_01]: Before we get started, here's a quick word from our sponsor, Home Assistant Link by Nabukasa. [SPEAKER_01]: If you've ever tried to set up remote access the hard way, dynamic DNS, reverse proxies, self-sensitificates, and Nabukasa is the easy button.

0:33 [SPEAKER_01]: Sign up, flip a switch, done. [SPEAKER_01]: And you can access your home assistant from anywhere. [SPEAKER_01]: What's more, you also get secure off-site backups, a voice control with the Amazon Echo, or Google Home devices, and the ability to supercharge your DIY voice assistant. [SPEAKER_01]: And here's the part we love.

0:51 [SPEAKER_01]: Your subscription pays the developers behind home assistant, esp home, and the open home foundation. [SPEAKER_01]: It's the best few dollars a month you'll spend on your smart home. [SPEAKER_01]: Start your 31-day trial today, just open your home business and settings, go to the cloud page or sign up at NabooCouser.com.

1:09 [SPEAKER_01]: There's a link in the description. [SPEAKER_01]: This episode is also sponsored by our friends at Apollo Automation, makers of open-source smart home sensors built for the home assistant ecosystem. [SPEAKER_01]: The official ESP home starter kit is now available, and it is the easiest entry into making your own sensors.

1:26 [SPEAKER_01]: It is designed and built by the Open Home Foundation and Apollo Automation. [SPEAKER_01]: Profits help fund the Open Home Foundation, which owns and maintains home assistant, ESB home, music assistant, and 250 other open source projects. [SPEAKER_01]: While they're there, be sure to check out the Pollute Automations cast one, built for music assistant, and to make anything with a line-in input, a smart speaker.

1:52 [SPEAKER_01]: If you're deep into home assistant or just getting started, definitely check them out at poloautomation.com. [SPEAKER_01]: Bye, and thank you so much for joining us this evening. [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, we are in Victoria as well. [SPEAKER_01]: So always good to have another fellow. [SPEAKER_01]: I was here with me today.

2:10 [SPEAKER_01]: What started? [SPEAKER_01]: You want your home automation journey? [SPEAKER_00]: And hey, if you'll hire on and first of all, I just want to say that I have a big fan of your podcasts I've been listening to that for years and I've really enjoyed the way that you interact with guests that you bring really interesting people.

2:25 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think there was a single point podcast that I didn't take something and most of them I implemented it on my end as well. [SPEAKER_00]: Just want to thank you for the service that you do for the community and just the [SPEAKER_01]: quality of the material and the top of people and how you run it so just before we start I just want to thank you and brought me on behalf of a lot of other people that think to say Yeah, thank you for sharing that It's hard right yeah, I know a lot of people here we You're not necessarily getting you get a lot of negative feedback sometimes and you know [SPEAKER_01]: It's always good to say the positive feedback come back to you.

2:57 [SPEAKER_01]: So thank you for that. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, my home assistant journey started with actually the birth sort of like of my daughter. [SPEAKER_00]: She just didn't slip and everything that we tried like our eating too much, eating too little light not light and at that at some point it got to the perfect temperature that babies need to slip.

3:20 [SPEAKER_00]: and in Victoria Rhine's field could tell you that temperature could vary quite a lot. [SPEAKER_00]: Like for example, in the summer you could have 37 Celsius degrees during the day and like 15 during the night. [SPEAKER_00]: So even like you know, I, um, [SPEAKER_00]: closing for a newborn, et cetera, it just everything gets really messy and I'm just going to have a bit of a spoiler, nothing worked, she didn't slip food that I feel were like 40 months, we were at some point closing our marbles and one of the marbles that we had to lose is to see if the temperature is right in the room.

3:58 [SPEAKER_00]: So my partner did a lot of research. [SPEAKER_00]: We talked to lactation consultant. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, you have to have it like exactly 20 or 20.5 degrees. [SPEAKER_00]: So me the like anil engineer that I am had to exactly snipe it. [SPEAKER_00]: And we basically had an oil heater in the room.

4:21 [SPEAKER_00]: And I just before we started to put a ducted heating and split system and stuff, just before we decided to commit to the house and stay in a couple of years ago, we just wanted to see okay, that's actually the problem. [SPEAKER_00]: So I hadn't just a regular oil heater that you just plug it to the wall.

4:39 [SPEAKER_00]: and started with the temperature sensor and binary control of the oil heater just turning it on and off. [SPEAKER_00]: And with just snabbing, I've just got to a tolerance of something like a half a degree and it's still working. [SPEAKER_00]: The room was great, she still didn't slip, and she stepped to the night for the first time after 14 months, and that was quite brutal, but I've set up this whole thing just to solve a problem, and then I'd like to wait a minute, I'm going to plug into that light, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, and a couple of years later, I'm in a very cozy and nice rabbit hole.

5:17 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I was going to say it gets really exposed really quickly. [SPEAKER_01]: Um, what did we, what was your first purchase then to start monitoring the, the temperature that you just go for any type of temperature sensor? [SPEAKER_01]: Just do some research to build your own. [SPEAKER_00]: So, I'm actually going to start from the control over the heater itself.

5:39 [SPEAKER_00]: It's just like a smart plug, why am I based? [SPEAKER_00]: I think the vendor is great. [SPEAKER_00]: You can get it off the bunnings, which is a hardware story in Australia. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: And it's basically a two-year wrap with their own brand. [SPEAKER_00]: And so, that's what I started with, eventually, it became just a wall plug that is Zigbee-based.

6:03 [SPEAKER_00]: and the temperature sensor itself. [SPEAKER_00]: I actually don't remember what was the first version, but now everything is Zigbee. [SPEAKER_00]: I just bought a couple of maybe 20 of those from Ali Express, the one with the AA battery. [SPEAKER_00]: and I have one almost in every room in the house now.

6:23 [SPEAKER_00]: So now it closes the loop through the through the Zigbee and the One Plug. [SPEAKER_00]: So I kind of think about it for 40 bucks. [SPEAKER_00]: You get a very smart, very accurate system. [SPEAKER_01]: How did you go with those alert quick connect that smart switch? [SPEAKER_01]: Did you have any issues getting it in by two?

6:43 [SPEAKER_01]: Because I know there's two you're cloud, there's two you're local and it's pin pain in the asked trying to get the keys out of the API. [SPEAKER_00]: So initially when I used it, it wasn't, it wasn't with the Tuiya initially, it was just like through the, through the initial update, it came through itself and then I think you could just plug it to the Tuiya cloud and by the way, [SPEAKER_00]: I'm still using couple of two-year, let's call it not critical device.

7:15 [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't grow through the two-year local. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just something what might to do this to do at some point. [SPEAKER_00]: I just probably have like four or five lights, the deck lights, and one of the lamps that I have with them. [SPEAKER_00]: But all the critical thing, for example, the heater is now going through a through Zigbee.

7:31 [SPEAKER_00]: But no, it's all right to do this to localize the two-year cloud. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's still fun, like the Wild West, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Like I have a Cogan smart kettle, Cogan is a online retailer, based I from Australian, New Zealand, and it's to your base, the integration can like to find the smart kettle that can see a switch to turn the kettle on and off, but it's unavailable.

7:58 [SPEAKER_01]: But using AI, I was able to fix it very loosely there. [SPEAKER_01]: And the AI has created a, like a command switch that I can send the commands over the typical local to your API and turn the kettle on and off, but I can't read its current state. [SPEAKER_01]: It'll tell me the temperature fine, but everything else against that kettle is unavailable, but I can still manipulate it by using, by sending command directly to the device.

8:24 [SPEAKER_01]: It's some, [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, two years is something I try to avoid way possible. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, there's people out there that love it and there's people that are, I don't know, indifferent. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm probably not saying campus, Phil, right? [SPEAKER_02]: It just, I don't know, it's, if I have something that I know will work every time I'm going to prefer that over a two year, or if I don't have to guess even what you integration to use or whatever, right?

8:48 [SPEAKER_02]: It's, I don't know, [SPEAKER_00]: completely agree. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I've bought any two-year device for years. [SPEAKER_00]: So it's interesting what you say feel about the capital. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm deliberately avoiding connecting [SPEAKER_00]: any appliances that could burn down my house into any kind of Wi-Fi or smartphone to Zigbee.

9:10 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's only because I'm afraid that someone is going to hack into my home assistant and burn down the house, I'm actually afraid of failures, like just bugs in the implementation of device the framework or software itself. [SPEAKER_00]: So probably not, you know, my oven or stove or kettle, [SPEAKER_00]: a bit of a get to risk in in my mind at least, but [SPEAKER_01]: No, I totally say that I, I think there's two sides of that.

9:42 [SPEAKER_01]: The stove, I totally can see that, you know, I don't want that accidentally being turned on. [SPEAKER_01]: But then on the other side, would one of the, you know, everyone's always saying that the joke is like, oh, did I turn the stove off? [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I don't have to go back to the home because I think I've left the kettle on stove.

10:00 [SPEAKER_01]: But with it being smart, you could then just open up an app on your phone or have home, this is an automate turning off the stove when you leave the house, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think like a best case in RFC of redolly access to those devices and then that's kind of get the best of both worlds in my mind.

10:17 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't necessarily would want for an oven. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm resistant to turn the oven on. [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe I do. [SPEAKER_01]: Depending on maybe we're getting closer to home and I've got food and the oven ready to go. [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe I could see that as a use case, but I think for me Will be what is the oven doing?

10:35 [SPEAKER_01]: Is it on? [SPEAKER_01]: Have I left it on? [SPEAKER_01]: Can I turn it off? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I try to see where can I go so far. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, well, it depends too. [SPEAKER_02]: If you have if you have [SPEAKER_02]: like natural gas or something that there's who is a fire overt and and we actually have them on the podcast before and they make a like a shutoff switch for that right like they just did sits between your gas line and your stove right or oven so it's like you know those kind of things I'm like yeah all for all for a red and it's sorry keep going I know you were saying in terms of like how you were getting here [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, so basically started with with the journey over baby and later on I connected the sensible that control to split systems that we have in the house.

11:30 [SPEAKER_00]: And at that point, I think it became winter. [SPEAKER_00]: And obviously I put a companion up on my partner's phone. [SPEAKER_00]: And she actually loved it because that means that, you know, if she wakes up before me at the time, if I'm working. [SPEAKER_00]: And when she was on maternity leave, that was quite good.

11:49 [SPEAKER_00]: you know, it's just under the blanket, like open the phone, like turning like the heater, like in the whole house and everything, even before we actually fully automated it. [SPEAKER_00]: So started to bring a couple of more devices. [SPEAKER_00]: And when you start playing with the lights, temperature, all the heat and cooling controls, you kind of like already fully invested in [SPEAKER_00]: If you have some free one on it, I can't work, all the ESP, all the X, I do, you know, ecosystem.

12:26 [SPEAKER_00]: It's just a delight to play with you, it can achieve so much with so little effort. [SPEAKER_00]: And another thing, again, like another aspect of the please, baby, sleep, please, please. [SPEAKER_00]: We're losing our marbles. [SPEAKER_00]: What's the white noise? [SPEAKER_00]: So we have sonos because in the house and my partner said, Naga, it's white dust, for sure it's the white dust because we tried everything else until now, which we did.

12:50 [SPEAKER_00]: So let's write the white noise again spoiler that didn't work as well. [SPEAKER_00]: So we have a sonos speaker in the house and we wanted to [SPEAKER_00]: Send white noise, but every time that you would, for example, stream before you go to bed from Spotify or something like that, it just wasn't reliable enough, I don't know if it's because of issues between the API of solos or Spotify or maybe it is some kind of limits I can Netflix, are you still listening or still on?

13:17 [SPEAKER_00]: It would just stop. [SPEAKER_00]: I think like the white noise held my door is a bit, but I don't know if you were because it stopped, etc. [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, I ended up building a small Raspberry Pi, building a small mini-nast that had the file of 60 hours of white noise that it would play them in repeat.

13:36 [SPEAKER_00]: So Raspberry Pi is connected to my home network. [SPEAKER_00]: and it has the file of the white noise in it. [SPEAKER_00]: I mounted it into home assistant as storage and we had the white noise button and once you click on it it streams it again everything is locally through the house straight into the solar speaker through the solar integration.

13:59 [SPEAKER_00]: So that was another thing. [SPEAKER_00]: And once you realize, wow, by Chromesis and it's like, it's like the blue, you can connect a lot of stuff in a way that you haven't thought. [SPEAKER_00]: But again, it's very similar to the two-year conversation. [SPEAKER_00]: Keep everything local when you have control.

14:16 [SPEAKER_00]: You get more reliability with less risk. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, well, especially when it's to do with your child's sleep, right? [SPEAKER_02]: And it's like your stuff is, you know, if people are stopping, whatever internet dies, whatever any of that stuff happens and your child's waking up.

14:32 [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know, that's a big problem there too, right? [SPEAKER_02]: Both one for your sake and more and more of the kids sake too, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: I will say the sonos can be a bit too smart, sorry not sort of Spotify can be a bit too smart for itself too. [SPEAKER_01]: I find that if I am playing music through sonos and I connect my headphones to my phone because my Spotify account is on the sonos for the house.

15:00 [SPEAKER_01]: My headphones will then take the music away from the sonos speaker and then start playing the music that's playing my daughter's room through my headphones. [SPEAKER_01]: same if I get in the car and I connect to the Tesla Spotify app in the car it will stop playing the music on the sonal speakers and pump it through to the car which is annoying I think now the only solution I have is to get like a family plan and then have it dedicated [SPEAKER_01]: house Spotify profile.

15:26 [SPEAKER_01]: I'd like to get recommendations for, you know, all the kids songs that they alert to the little Amazon lady for. [SPEAKER_01]: I also found, um, Wi-Fi signal, like plug plug and a, uh, ethernet into the one-zone speaker. [SPEAKER_01]: So it goes onto a Sony's so nice Wi-Fi network as opposed to your home network and, um, make a bit of improvement too.

15:45 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like the villain probably that's the next thing that I also also need to do. [SPEAKER_00]: And I while you're sharing on the Spotify account, I grow and feel I just remember that that was another thing because once the white noise was on, if accidentally you put a podcast or something like that after my daughter went to bed, you're like, oh no, yeah, yeah, yeah.

16:07 [SPEAKER_00]: And yes, I get all the [SPEAKER_00]: Contaminate my recommendation engine with Exhibits Spider and Peppa Piazza. [SPEAKER_02]: That's right. [SPEAKER_02]: No matter how much you do that, it's still going to contaminate it, man, it is. [SPEAKER_02]: I do the same thing, I do the same thing filled with same, right?

16:31 [SPEAKER_02]: We have a family plan and we have one account. [SPEAKER_02]: I originally made it for my car because my Amazon Echoes and stuff were tied to my account. [SPEAKER_02]: She'd want to listen to music and then I'd mind would obviously stop or whatever or change. [SPEAKER_02]: But when it's and then eventually now it's like the house has an account and then I use my personal one on my in my car.

16:55 [SPEAKER_02]: And second the kids in the car is like okay we're listening to whatever the wheels on the bus. [SPEAKER_02]: I don't like that. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Recommendations are still you just you can't avoid that. [SPEAKER_02]: It's it's it's done. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, just give up and die happy, okay?

17:13 [SPEAKER_00]: That's right. [SPEAKER_01]: Now, you mentioned that you had the temperature sensors you went down. [SPEAKER_01]: Does ZIGB for those? [SPEAKER_01]: Are you now fully into the ZIGB ecosystem? [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, everything that I get is ZIGB. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm following a red and matter, but as of now, everything that I get is ZIGB.

17:38 [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't have too many unknowing things with it. [SPEAKER_00]: It gets the occasional command, didn't receive. [SPEAKER_00]: For example, if I sunrise off sunset, every couple of weeks, one of the lights would not turn on or off. [SPEAKER_00]: If I really want to solve it, you can solve it, but other than that, everything else is working quite well.

18:07 [SPEAKER_00]: trying to avoid Wi-Fi or the only downside on board a Wi-Fi into the ecosystem is either because I build it with USB 32. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think there is a DIY open source version similar to USB home yet. [SPEAKER_00]: Or if it's a specific device that you just don't have any other option, like the one of the dice on the air purifier heater that we have.

18:35 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think that's the same sort of philosophy. [SPEAKER_01]: I've got to like I'll try and avoid Wi-Fi where I can But at the end of the day, there are some devices like a robot vacuum cleaner or a Dyson as you mentioned. [SPEAKER_01]: I have the same Dyson You can have to go on Wi-Fi.

18:50 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Now you talked about ESP32 and and doing that What are you doing with with the ESP32? [SPEAKER_00]: Well, what are start a bunch of things I think I built [SPEAKER_00]: at least half a dozen hardware solutions that are connected to all type of things in the house.

19:15 [SPEAKER_00]: Anything from controlling a louvert per golla that we have, the flaps themselves. [SPEAKER_00]: Delights build a couple of costumed light fixtures and lamps. [SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of the time I would take NUSB32 and then connect it either relay or MOSFET or smart LEDs. [SPEAKER_00]: And really, it's been mostly the solutions around the lighting or some kind of exotic solution.

19:51 [SPEAKER_00]: There's actually an exotic solution that I'm working on, so we have a fireplace. [SPEAKER_00]: It has quite a big hitbox, and the hitbox itself has a fan, and the fan itself is the hitbox itself, it's basically a metal box inside a metal box, and there is a fan that pushes the air between those boxes into the house, and it gets quite quickly, and all of the instructions of the fireblades itself is [SPEAKER_00]: don't run it without having the fan because from a certain temperature, probably like the most extreme, you're going to deform it.

20:26 [SPEAKER_00]: So you have to then, the heater on and then, now it's off, it's basically a knob that is selector of zero and three other states how hard the fan is going to go. [SPEAKER_00]: Each position is, I guess, it's connected to certain windings in the motor, it's quite a simple mechanism. [SPEAKER_00]: So one of the things I'm going to put in SB32, K-type temperature sensor, that could do up to six hundred degrees.

20:55 [SPEAKER_00]: And then three of the relays that would get turned on according to the temperature that the sensor currently has. [SPEAKER_00]: Because as of now, when I'm going to start the fire, plus putting on board and everything, I don't have to manually turn it on and then you get it in the morning.

21:10 [SPEAKER_00]: there's no more fire no more wood the fan is still on which is it doesn't bother anyone just bother my my OCD brain that I can get you like out there's no fire in this thing is all good. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: How does that then Joe with your previous comment about having devices that could burn the house down like you'll potentially [SPEAKER_01]: going into adjusting a heater like a heat element of the house, is there a risk of causing fire there if you don't do like your ESP breaks at one point?

21:41 [SPEAKER_00]: So, I actually thought about that. [SPEAKER_00]: First of all, in essence, you're right. [SPEAKER_00]: You cannot fully proof yourself again against it, but like any highly reliable system that you would like to build. [SPEAKER_00]: There's a couple of pre-priced at what you could put. [SPEAKER_00]: For example, [SPEAKER_00]: For that thing to fail, either like the holiosp has to fail, or one of the relays, or the temperature itself.

22:11 [SPEAKER_00]: So you can see, for example, if I don't get any temperature reading for X amount of time, or if I get the same temperature over like an hour, that is a dozen dozen change even by 0.1 degree. [SPEAKER_00]: Or it goes beyond certain threshold that you defined, like, okay, like setting a lower and wake me up.

22:29 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they're a couple of, but I think the thing that Waritmeen would warn me most is if I'm basically connecting really to AC, like 240 volts to AC, that for me is a bit more concerning that anything else at all. [SPEAKER_00]: I realize everything is graded, but the device itself is a bit of a [SPEAKER_01]: Um, so this is then, yeah, so you've got a blog which will have links in the show and I do go and check it out.

23:03 [SPEAKER_01]: You've done some crazy projects over the years. [SPEAKER_01]: I think you had a fire breathing dragon for the city of Melbourne celebration. [SPEAKER_01]: Um, yeah, there's a lot of cool stuff on that blog. [SPEAKER_01]: Um, and I do like the, um, you've got a projector housing with custom lights.

23:20 [SPEAKER_01]: You've built into the home, isn't there? [SPEAKER_01]: Um, you're building all this hardware yourself. [SPEAKER_01]: You're [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm probably what you would call a maker. [SPEAKER_00]: So I enjoy building things and to end. [SPEAKER_00]: Ice. [SPEAKER_00]: And it's interesting because it's a bit we've been to all my personal career.

23:41 [SPEAKER_00]: So I started my whole career, like a feel very similar, like a software in IT. [SPEAKER_00]: I've been doing data, and I started math and computer science. [SPEAKER_00]: So, I've been doing data for over 25 years and through that journey, I started to work with IOT, it was probably 15-20 years ago and I went, wow, this is so interesting.

24:04 [SPEAKER_00]: So, I went for one end of completely being hardware removed to the point that I could design a PCB and send it to China, to fabrication and get it back and then flush it with my own code and then [SPEAKER_00]: If I want using a CAD design, a 3D print casing do it and package it and like a great I have like a prototype or like quotes on quotes a product and yeah, build a bunch of those things over the years and for like you said the projector reading like that was around the [SPEAKER_00]: in other, um, um, uh, waft, like wife, um, approval, um, factor.

24:42 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the partner approval factor. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, exactly. [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly. [SPEAKER_00]: But a partner approval factor, um, um, project, um, she really liked sitting in the living room and reading, but the light over there was not enough for reading. [SPEAKER_00]: So, um, she said, oh, maybe she'll get the lamp or put the light over there, something on it under the projector.

25:04 [SPEAKER_00]: I just jumped like, oh great, another unnecessary cool project that I can do and connect it to home assistant. [SPEAKER_00]: Just live it with me by the time that I finished that project, you finish the whole three books of the series. [SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, like the, the, the, the old saying there's no, [SPEAKER_00]: There's no need to, like, remind your husband that you're going to do this project every six months, you'll finish it when you'll finish it.

25:28 [SPEAKER_00]: And that up with actually really nice, really nice solution of 3D printed mount, my purchase for my express 2 box with 8 watts, I think, light in each one of them with natural light, which is really good for reading. [SPEAKER_00]: And the back of it is connected to two MOSFET and ESP32 and that world world driver.

25:53 [SPEAKER_00]: So, and it all tapped behind the project, behind the projector and connected the straight to the light. [SPEAKER_00]: So, it's demoable, you can control the lights and it also connected to another automation that we have. [SPEAKER_00]: When we watch a movie, we have a Zigbee button, so when you're going to press on it, it's going to turn on the light team.

26:15 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's going to turn on another light in the living room as well when we watch it. [SPEAKER_00]: I believe that I took that idea from a guest that you have. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't remember who was it. [SPEAKER_00]: But I pinched that idea from that person. [SPEAKER_00]: I think upgraded that I did it was that it's a Zigbee button.

26:34 [SPEAKER_00]: Just like a son of Zigbee button that had three states. [SPEAKER_00]: So click double click and long click. [SPEAKER_00]: So one click just. [SPEAKER_00]: and to Google the pause stop of the movie and to Google the lights double click turn everything off and long click I actually it's a muscle when we don't remember which one is that but one of them allows you to reset it so for example you've got to the room in the lights and on in the movie's playing you're going to do a one long click and then the lights would completely completely turn off and then you sync it so the next click it would stop and the lights would go on [SPEAKER_01]: So it's always those nice little touches, right?

27:15 [SPEAKER_01]: Like when you can just touch a button and everything seems to just work together. [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that is the real magic of home. [SPEAKER_01]: This isn't like bringing everything together into one place. [SPEAKER_02]: That's, it's great. [SPEAKER_01]: Now we have some exciting news from Zeus.

27:31 [SPEAKER_01]: Zeus is beginning a new chapter as part of Jasko, bringing more resources to the brand for product development, innovation, and future growth. [SPEAKER_01]: For home assistant users, their focus remains where it has always been. [SPEAKER_01]: Reliable Z-Wave products, advanced functionality, continued firmware maintenance and improvements, strong platform integration, and responsive support when you need it.

27:53 [SPEAKER_01]: The Zeus has always taken a community first approach to product development. [SPEAKER_01]: Feedback from customers, developers, and platform communities helps shape the documentation, firmware improvements, feature decisions, and even future products. [SPEAKER_01]: Zeus plan to keep listening, testing real-world use cases, and building around the ways their community actually uses Zeus devices.

28:16 [SPEAKER_01]: The Zeus brand and product line are staying in place, and looking forward will continue to work with the platform's developers and smart home communities that have helped Zeus grow. [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks to everyone who is tested, integrated, suggested features, reported issues, shared real-world use cases, and helped make Zeus products better over the years where excited for what [SPEAKER_01]: You can read the full announcement on the Zeus community forum, and thanks to Zeus and Jessica for sponsoring this podcast.

28:44 [SPEAKER_02]: So, how do you interact with your smartphone, right? [SPEAKER_02]: Like to use a voice tablet, you know, pull out your phone every time, buttons or what's you're watching this. [SPEAKER_02]: Again, you've involved tablets or whatever. [SPEAKER_00]: The answer is yes, it's all over the world.

29:08 [SPEAKER_00]: So it actually depends on what room are you, who you are in the house, what you're trying to do, etc. [SPEAKER_00]: So we have a few of the Zigbee son of buttons. [SPEAKER_00]: So for example, the night I'm moving with my daughter, there's a button on the shelf above her bed. [SPEAKER_00]: So, if it's mom or all myself and now she's to use a ton of years off, she has been enjoying pressing it, she putting herself to bed.

29:37 [SPEAKER_00]: So, one click would turn on or off to Google the white noise. [SPEAKER_00]: Double click would turn the fair light that she has, which is an undressable LED chain into red light, very low intensity. [SPEAKER_00]: That if there's not completely no light in the room. [SPEAKER_00]: And you walk up from sleep, you can still see things around you.

29:58 [SPEAKER_00]: Again, one of the other straws that we're trying to pull, like I was that maybe she doesn't sleep, she wakes up in the middle of the night. [SPEAKER_00]: Everything is dark, she's scared. [SPEAKER_00]: So okay, there's another advice that we got to get like a small night lamp. [SPEAKER_00]: So of course, it's a long system, and long press on that button would just turn on the light in the room, the fairy lights, and it's just a normal light.

30:21 [SPEAKER_00]: So that would be one wave interaction, another one would be the companion app. [SPEAKER_00]: And if you are in the kitchen or in one of the bathroom, you'd have the Google mini speakers that are connected to some of the automation. [SPEAKER_00]: So, for example, there you know, on 10 of ACs, it's connected through home assistant to the sensible.

30:42 [SPEAKER_00]: We also have a tablet in the kitchen that has its own dashboard because of the layout. [SPEAKER_00]: In my workplace, there's a couple of transmitting rooms. [SPEAKER_00]: One day last year, they decided to upgrade all the tablets. [SPEAKER_00]: When to maintenance, excuse me, can I please have a couple of those tablets?

31:02 [SPEAKER_00]: It's really cool because they're already coming with a really slick black metal mount that is flush and connected. [SPEAKER_00]: I think I have a photo of that. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's in the kitchen and that also allows [SPEAKER_00]: allows my in-laws when they're coming. [SPEAKER_00]: Let me know when you can see my screen.

31:23 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's great. [SPEAKER_00]: And allows my in-laws when they're coming to control the stuff that only guests supposed to. [SPEAKER_00]: So for example, they could see the solar panels. [SPEAKER_00]: whether and a heater heating cooling in the house and the cool thing about it is if I can find like a swimming beach or a bit, you cannot see it here, but the miters will just share the [SPEAKER_01]: and we'll have pictures up on the Ahsha notes too, how does this end.fm.

32:02 [SPEAKER_00]: You have to, you have here that's that's the kitchen tablet. [SPEAKER_00]: So the layout that you saw here, I have dashboard that for the companion app, this is what the main my partner would use, and that's the kitchen tablet. [SPEAKER_00]: So you have here the net house consumption. [SPEAKER_00]: So during the day when the solar is on, [SPEAKER_00]: If someone's in the kitchen, is it a 90M, when we do loadshifting, let's not turn washing machine via dishwasher, etc, etc.

32:29 [SPEAKER_00]: So you have here the net house consumption, that is also helping you to better optimize your energy usage. [SPEAKER_00]: So this button, there's voice, there's a companion app, and there's the tablet. [SPEAKER_00]: So it's a... [SPEAKER_00]: all of those things depends who is using what, what room and for what, what purpose it's working, working quite well to be honest for now.

32:55 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: No, that's cool. [SPEAKER_02]: It's, you know, one thing you talked about earlier, I thought was super, super interesting, which is, um, again, like, [SPEAKER_02]: got to do with the tablets, but was the red lights and stuff like that in your in your your daughter's room, right?

33:14 [SPEAKER_02]: It's where, you know, I think it's like, so I think we're getting to the point where my little guy is like, he's he's always slept in the dark, and he's been he's been okay with that. [SPEAKER_02]: But I think now same thing like you, he's starting to get up in the middle of the night, and you know, so it's crying and I'll go with his room and I'll be like, [SPEAKER_02]: He's like, yeah, and I held the coddle and I was like, were you scared?

33:36 [SPEAKER_02]: He's like, yeah, right? [SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, okay, so it's like maybe I can start doing something like that. [SPEAKER_02]: Where it's like at least he can see, you know, is where he is. [SPEAKER_02]: that kind of thing. [SPEAKER_02]: So, yeah, that's a pretty cool, uh, pretty cool diet.

33:50 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I had the same thing with my daughter, um, we have a Philips cube bloom, um, in the home room, and it will turn out she has a she likes a pink. [SPEAKER_01]: So there's a scene, turns it pink, very low light, um, it stays on, but I had an automation to turn it off at three a.m. And yeah, eventually she would come down and be like, Daddy, my room's dark, it might [SPEAKER_01]: So now it turns off with sunrise, yeah, so okay, I think that's the hardest part.

34:18 [SPEAKER_00]: And Roy and I, one of the rabbit holes that I went through, though, I can't believe it's please baby go to sleep. [SPEAKER_00]: Was that visible light at how it affects almost [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, secret in rhythms. [SPEAKER_00]: So you might not even see 420 or 400 nanometer to 700 nanometer web length, which is like the higher one.

34:39 [SPEAKER_00]: It's the red that you'll get to infer it, which is completely invisible. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's why you will go towards the red. [SPEAKER_00]: And it's the opposite of blue light. [SPEAKER_00]: That would not wake them up, because if you're going to put them in the middle of an ultra light or like a violet or ultra light or blue light during the night, you're going to wake up and like, yeah, that's it.

34:58 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for the fun and I found that the red light in low intensity and with every LED how you drive it the voltage would be different like but diode use and everything and just [SPEAKER_00]: go to a room, stay in the room in dark room. [SPEAKER_00]: You yourself, let's say like five minutes, let your eyes adjust to the darkness and then turn on the red light and see when it's good enough when you're imagining your yourself getting up in the middle of the night and have enough like, oh, I mean, my room, I'm sleeping and everything's alright and go back to bed.

35:32 [SPEAKER_00]: That now works really well because [SPEAKER_00]: One day I think I, I remember it was I did a softer upgrade to the, to the, to the device while she was sleeping and he preceded and he didn't kept its previous state. [SPEAKER_00]: So it was completely off and 3M. [SPEAKER_00]: She walk up in the night like that and it's dark.

35:54 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah, right. [SPEAKER_00]: So it's obviously it's working and I don't know about it, which is great. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, which is really nice, right? [SPEAKER_02]: And it's, uh, [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's a good, sorry. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, personally, I was just like, I was thinking about that.

36:08 [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's actually brilliant. [SPEAKER_02]: Use a red leg of right now. [SPEAKER_02]: I just, I go in in the dark and pray that I don't step on anything, right? [SPEAKER_00]: So I flashbacks from, please, please, please. [SPEAKER_01]: That's cool. [SPEAKER_02]: So in your tablet there, I noticed, you kind of have stuff to organize your life in there too, right, like your calendars and all of that kind of stuff.

36:39 [SPEAKER_02]: Do you find that your family actively looks at that and you're like, okay, this is what we're doing. [SPEAKER_02]: It is what's going on today, like that kind of thing. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's actually quite good because we are using the tablet in the kitchen and if it's something that you just clock every time that you turn on a fitting or want to see the weather, et cetera.

36:59 [SPEAKER_00]: So for privacy point of view and security, I didn't want to connect that tablet to my personal Gmail account or to auto my partner's Gmail account because we might have [SPEAKER_00]: dot kitchens, something like that, that thing is connected. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what's the integration that I use maybe 8 ohm or something like that.

37:25 [SPEAKER_00]: I can actually look at it here. [SPEAKER_00]: And one of them is Google Calendar. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, the integration is for Google Calendar. [SPEAKER_00]: And the card itself, the visualization, is another one called atomic calendar revive. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's a good night. [SPEAKER_00]: What are you doing every time?

37:51 [SPEAKER_00]: And so every time that we have, for example, we had last week the eight weeks immunization for my newborn, which is for months, no, not eight weeks for months old. [SPEAKER_00]: For example, we would book the point with the doctor and then for the advice to my partner would for the advice to myself and to the calendar.

38:12 [SPEAKER_00]: And then it just pops up whether you accept a meeting or not. [SPEAKER_00]: And then when you have [SPEAKER_00]: almost very similar to what the Spotify solution that you said that you do a house account, so that's the calendar of the house. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, which is awesome. [SPEAKER_02]: And so I've done the same thing, right?

38:31 [SPEAKER_02]: Like, it's an, and I recognize the that my calendar integration there too, it's, which we really liked using that, right? [SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, okay, even if nothing, you know, the morning, you kind of are like, I think I probably use it more than more than my wife did, but it's, we had multiple calendars in there.

38:49 [SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, okay, for my son, it's like the same thing. [SPEAKER_02]: It's like, oh, is there anything going on today? [SPEAKER_02]: Or is there any, like, [SPEAKER_02]: whatever, it's like a special day at day care where it's like dressed this way or, you know, music day or something like that, right?

39:00 [SPEAKER_02]: And so we, uh, we made sure, like, you know, it's just, it's a quick glance, right? [SPEAKER_02]: And it's right there, the tablets there anyways, whatever. [SPEAKER_02]: So it's, uh, I really liked that, that type of it. [SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, that's, that's awesome. [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for sharing that.

39:14 [SPEAKER_00]: And drawing it, you managed to do any kind of automation of that using AI or some kind of agent that would look at your own personal calendar that can agent that you would transfer. [SPEAKER_00]: For example, Google Gemini is already inside the Google ecosystem and it would recommend to you according to reasoning context or privacy.

39:34 [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, those events, I'm going to push to the house calendar, those not like that's so like the next step of how you can use AI for this. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: No, we didn't. [SPEAKER_02]: What we do is instead of sharing the calendar with a separate calendar, what we have is we just do shared calendar.

39:51 [SPEAKER_02]: So we have one for my wife and I, and then we have one for our kit. [SPEAKER_02]: right so anything under my kid it'll go and like once we create it in that once we just change the calendar to calendar to my kids calendar then it just shows up in there. [SPEAKER_02]: Otherwise like some of my stuff, her stuff doesn't show up in there because like she like sometimes the podcast is helpful like okay you're rowing as a recording in the morning or in the evening or whatever [SPEAKER_02]: Um, but really other than that, it's like there's not a whole lot of stuff where it's like like if I have a doctor's appointment in the middle of the day, it's like my wife doesn't doesn't really affect her right and so but I will still put stuff in in our shared calendar for for the two of us and then for my kids stuff.

40:36 [SPEAKER_02]: It's just a categorization mechanism that we have just so that we don't need to, um, [SPEAKER_02]: or we don't need to bother with the sharing. [SPEAKER_02]: It's just an extra step for us, right? [SPEAKER_02]: And whereas it's just like Katie's dad to this and it's done. [SPEAKER_02]: So that's how it wasn't really a need to copy the calendars, but we do between Phil and I, we do actually do that for like my travel schedule and just to notice when I'm busy and or Phil's busy and when we're not.

41:08 [SPEAKER_02]: So we do something like that for the podcast. [SPEAKER_02]: So when you actually came on and said, hey, I want to record whatever's the calendar link you got. [SPEAKER_02]: actually looks at a bunch of that stuff, and it looks at copied events from our, from our, both of our calendars. [SPEAKER_00]: Cool.

41:24 [SPEAKER_00]: All right, cool. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I live out of my calendar and I encourage my wife to the same run when your son gets into school and, you know, he has started having friend birthday parties and needs to go to and activities swimming lessons and all that it's all right, it yeah, I need the calendar I need to be able to see at the weekend events, okay, I need to be here who's going to have the car this day, like how do we yeah, my wife and I have fortnightly meetings, you know, who can be on the office on this day and [SPEAKER_00]: to all of that, rather, like it's a very logistic modern Tetris, I feel like what we've done that to the Sunday nights before the week start.

42:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, exactly. [SPEAKER_00]: A couple of D before I will go to bed like you do this, you do that, just a whole 20 months, it's more than Tetris of to adults working and caring for families and trying to recall the podcast and what [SPEAKER_02]: exactly right and it's like and it's we need that these days right and unfortunately it kind of sucks that we do but it's it's it's our lives are just our lives are just so over sketch older or just sketch old right and it's like so but we like for at least in our house we both try to be cognizant of [SPEAKER_02]: You know, like, what does the other person care about, right?

42:46 [SPEAKER_02]: Like, like, like I said, if I have a doctor's appointment in the middle of the day when my wife is at work, that's gonna go into my calendar because she doesn't care if I'm like, we both know I'm not available whenever, but if our kids thought there's something with our kids, both of us are, yeah.

43:01 [SPEAKER_02]: So that was kind of, so I guess it's just every family unit operates their own little quirky way, right? [SPEAKER_00]: And it's, yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: So moving out of the house now, are you doing, have you got cameras outside? [SPEAKER_01]: Have you got any future plans for garden projects?

43:18 [SPEAKER_01]: What's on the hit list? [SPEAKER_00]: Um, so outside, uh, two years ago, one of the, um, exactly we installed the Louis Vuitt-Pregola. [SPEAKER_00]: So we have in the deck itself, um, we're going to go with Louis that we can open and close, which if you live in [SPEAKER_00]: the joke in Victoria, if you don't like the word the word five minutes, you could have on one day like hail, you could be sweating and windy or something or whatever.

43:50 [SPEAKER_00]: So having those movers is quite good. [SPEAKER_00]: So when we got that... [SPEAKER_00]: Pregola, unfortunately, that was the brand that I wanted because of the properties from resiliency, from the structure, how it fits in the assets, etc., but it didn't have any integration to wife or home assistant.

44:11 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a completely, I'm just radio, I can already control. [SPEAKER_00]: And 915 megahertz, completely disconnected. [SPEAKER_00]: That's what it came without lights, so I built an outdoor pergola controller. [SPEAKER_00]: Again, using ESP 32, I think it's also in my blog. [SPEAKER_00]: It is just Martin Louisville per Gola and it has a box with quite a beefy power supply and to run it and I found on AdiExpress already pre-made ESP32 with full mofsets so with all the electronics on it so it's relatively plug and play [SPEAKER_00]: I three-deprinted brackets to hold the lights and with magnets, I don't have to drill or make any changes in the progola itself.

45:07 [SPEAKER_00]: So that was the light aspect. [SPEAKER_00]: The remote control over the lovers was a bit more tricky. [SPEAKER_00]: So the lights just go through the ESP32. [SPEAKER_00]: The remote control was a bit more annoying because when I [SPEAKER_00]: try to automate it. [SPEAKER_00]: I connected it to a spectrum analyzer and I just saw it as a rolling code.

45:29 [SPEAKER_00]: So I called the company that saw that, hey, um, blah, blah, blah, I would like to connect it to homocyst and Wi-Fi. [SPEAKER_00]: I need to do a try to explain what they do. [SPEAKER_00]: And they guys basically are so you want it in white. [SPEAKER_00]: You want it in blue. [SPEAKER_00]: Like that was the level of the discussion that it's like they just now this is just the product that we sell.

45:49 [SPEAKER_00]: And I eventually opened the hardware, opened the remote. [SPEAKER_00]: It's some kind of random company from Italy. [SPEAKER_00]: So I wasn't the point that I have two options. [SPEAKER_00]: Either completely remove the chip from the PCB and reverse engineer the protocol, which is something [SPEAKER_00]: I can do of dying the past, but it's a lot of work in time that I don't have or I can do a really brute force or just opening the remote, connect them off to the button itself and just simulate the pressing itself.

46:26 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is, this is actually what I've done and to control the purgulate itself on a screen, I can... [SPEAKER_01]: This is like, both things that I, is the part where I got, I'm gonna break this. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I've just bought a new controller and I'm opening up all the electronics and I'm gonna, just looking at it, I'm gonna short some wires and break the whole thing.

46:50 [SPEAKER_01]: And then it's gonna be expensive to explain, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So I am very impressed. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's the ESP32. [SPEAKER_00]: This is actually ESP2886, I just did a bunch of them from other projects. [SPEAKER_00]: And that's the regular remote. [SPEAKER_00]: And I just hotwired it.

47:09 [SPEAKER_00]: That's cool. [SPEAKER_00]: And so the buttons pressing. [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't even bother replacing the Econcel battery with a three-fold stabilized power supply because that thing probably is going to last for a couple of good years. [SPEAKER_00]: It just doesn't work the effort. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and he just works, and it's great because my partner could sit outside in the sun, wearing a book or like with the kid and that her goal, I'm oh, I want for some, I want less some, and you immediately could adjust it.

47:41 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, you could take the remote outside with you, but you have to remember to put it back in because if someone from inside us, to do it because some of the reason that we did a progola student, [SPEAKER_00]: the rover progresses to not block the light to the house. [SPEAKER_00]: So even if none's using them, we're going to align the flaps in an angle that allows the maximum amount of light into the house.

48:00 [SPEAKER_00]: And again, another future problem. [SPEAKER_00]: Homeless system project is to have a light sensor in the house to maximize the mountain light that goes in. [SPEAKER_00]: I think mathematically probably you can calculate it according to the time of the year and where you are on the globe.

48:15 [SPEAKER_00]: And you know exactly angle it, but probably it's with a simple PID it would be easy to snipe the right amount of light according to what you want to do. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's that's one of the project of outside the house that that I've done. [SPEAKER_01]: So there, I think you can use there is, I think it's a hacks component that can help you determine angles of the sun for blinds, like point to a similar thing there.

48:42 [SPEAKER_01]: We'll use data from like suncal.org to know, like, is it the atmosphere of the sun? [SPEAKER_01]: Then you can do something like from the bomb that you're immediately, or, honestly, the weather forecast is based on [SPEAKER_01]: cloud coverage. [SPEAKER_01]: I would also even say just like a luck sensor inside, right?

49:02 [SPEAKER_01]: And the potential weather station outside that has a lucks reading. [SPEAKER_01]: So you can see how bright it is outside and how bright it is inside. [SPEAKER_01]: And if there's a big difference, you know, okay, I can go up in the pagola to let them light in. [SPEAKER_01]: I have a question on that pagola there.

49:17 [SPEAKER_01]: So you've basically hotwired the remote control there. [SPEAKER_01]: RF promotes a generally a sort of a one-way communication. [SPEAKER_01]: How are you sensing what position you've got the loovers in? [SPEAKER_01]: Like are they open half open closed? [SPEAKER_01]: How do you know? [SPEAKER_01]: His home assistant know what then their current status he is and how do you support that?

49:39 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a really good question. [SPEAKER_00]: And so the remote itself has three button open, close and stop. [SPEAKER_00]: But I can, is my mother too ways to solve it. [SPEAKER_00]: One of them is just to count the time that you move. [SPEAKER_00]: Because if you're going to measure it once, okay, to get for full remote, for fully open, to fully close it takes X amount of time and motion is circular.

50:02 [SPEAKER_00]: So it's not linear. [SPEAKER_00]: So you actually have to build a light profile next to it. [SPEAKER_00]: That would be one option according to two times, which is what I've done, that's a simple thing. [SPEAKER_00]: The right thing probably would be to put a whole effect sensor to climb up on the roof, the pre-goldest metal metal, so I can put a whole effect sensor a couple of those and see where the flap is at any given point in time, and they could close the loop on that.

50:29 [SPEAKER_00]: That would be the ideal thing, or even the [SPEAKER_00]: like a rotary, rotary slider, again, something that is actually physically connected to the progola to close the loop, but as of now just counting seconds, like milliseconds is probably good enough for what any you can also go in a really stupid way like you would do to all CNC machine, you know one of the end points start to stop, so if you turn the progola on you don't have which position the flaps are in you could fully close it and then start counting the time from that point.

50:59 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's what I was going to ask is if if there's like a limit, like a limit, so which I'm assuming there is for safety, right? [SPEAKER_02]: So just force it closed and then open it to a specific position because then you always know starting from zero now I'm at 30% or whatever, really, it's exactly that.

51:15 [SPEAKER_01]: One of the things I've found with, like, by RF blinds, is that sometimes the commands don't get received, like, if I push a button on the remote, have you found, like, when triggering an open or closed event through home, is this that you might have to repeat a command? [SPEAKER_01]: No.

51:37 [SPEAKER_00]: I do find it sometimes on automations on Zigby, the sunrise sunset that I would have let's say 10 lights and every couple of weeks, one of those lights out of that 10 would not turn it off or turn it on. [SPEAKER_00]: It's not necessarily with our, if I think, the ISP is so far, it's surprisingly been more reliable than this Zigby, I guess.

51:58 [SPEAKER_01]: Okay. [SPEAKER_01]: That's good. [SPEAKER_00]: But only the home stuff that I homemade, I guess the other Wi-Fi, maybe because with the cloud of stuff, obviously it wouldn't be that bad. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, nice. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, yeah, that is a, I, because we've just recently had a pagola done and we were looking similar to the louvers, for the separate reasons you had.

52:21 [SPEAKER_01]: Price stood us off that we're very expensive for what we wanted, but my fear was that we were [SPEAKER_01]: how do I tie them to home assistant? [SPEAKER_01]: Like they always advertise, you know, works with Wi-Fi, you know, you've got a remote, but I'm like, ah, if I buy this, it's a very, one, it's a lot of money, a lot of a goal that, and then I get this, but goal that I can't integrate into home assistant, that's going to make me sad.

52:45 [SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, you have literally done what I was fearing, I would have to do, and you've conquered it. [SPEAKER_01]: So, could I steer you? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's a fair point because even if I'm hotwiring it, there's just a couple of options. [SPEAKER_00]: I could climb up on the roof and hotwire the motor itself, which is something that I wanted to avoid because then you're actually interacting with the system that has AC on the other side.

53:08 [SPEAKER_00]: And maybe maybe not in the home. [SPEAKER_00]: like, but it's a few solution with the metal, the roof is metal, like that, not worth it. [SPEAKER_00]: Or you can say, like, okay, I'm going to try to hack the remote. [SPEAKER_00]: Worst case scenario, and you remote a couple of tens, hundreds of dollars workers scenario, I'm just going to risk it to not drop it, broke it, I'm just going to get another one.

53:30 [SPEAKER_00]: Again, if you really want to go dextromatic and almost just reverse engineering, this is just a lot of work. [SPEAKER_00]: And I've done it in one of my one of my previous projects of over the world of the station. [SPEAKER_00]: It was seven, eight years ago. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sharing my screen.

53:51 [SPEAKER_00]: That's the workstation that I wanted to put on on a made house. [SPEAKER_00]: And I just bought a cheap workstation just for the plastics for China. [SPEAKER_00]: And it opened down a matter in the wind van. [SPEAKER_00]: I kind surf. [SPEAKER_00]: So one of the one of the mates we used to live in next to the beach.

54:08 [SPEAKER_00]: So we just put it at his place. [SPEAKER_00]: And that's the cheap. [SPEAKER_00]: And if you connect, let's see you scope to that. [SPEAKER_00]: We're actually [SPEAKER_00]: So this is something you can go down that route, but it's a time that I don't have with the kids and I'm very, very thankful that I'm job.

54:33 [SPEAKER_00]: So it all comes out of time. [SPEAKER_00]: Hot wire to the remote. [SPEAKER_00]: So far it's working great. [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, happy. [SPEAKER_00]: I had actually won me up with it. [SPEAKER_00]: which send me like in a weird, weird rabbit hole that I managed to get back from. [SPEAKER_00]: So one day I woke up in cross-raining and under the pre-gola had the sort of lines, stripes of water coming in and I thought, oh, well, and like you discovered filled those things are unfortunately quite expensive, like it is not watertight and it is watertight.

55:09 [SPEAKER_00]: How come I have those on and I could talk with a couple of days to realize, oh, there was some kind of power outage on the middle of the night, or I upgraded my ESP32. [SPEAKER_00]: And then all the like the GPIOs from the ESP 8266, probably went up the downed around them and it went full open, full close.

55:28 [SPEAKER_00]: So when you get in the morning, everything looks close, but during the night, it opened and closed. [SPEAKER_02]: Did a reset kind of? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: It's less me a bit chasing my own tail for a good few days until I realize, oh, okay, I know what happened.

55:44 [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, yeah, I think it's great. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a user mode function. [SPEAKER_02]: So how do you, like, so I want to know about like, when you, if you travel, do you have any any systems to stop this? [SPEAKER_02]: Like, like, a holiday mode or something like that where it's like, okay, we don't, you know, keep a close.

56:01 [SPEAKER_02]: It's always closed then, you know, when you're here, only it opens or whatever. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, one of the things is that the bill was a holiday mode for the house. [SPEAKER_00]: It has a really nice caravan icon, which I really enjoyed finding when looking just for an icon for the button.

56:23 [SPEAKER_00]: It's for every software developer. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's going to take you five minutes to write the code five years to think about the variable names, I think. [SPEAKER_00]: And so. [SPEAKER_00]: when the holiday mode is on, all the regular lights, either off, are not working, or the same working, the sunrise and sunset is working.

56:45 [SPEAKER_00]: So the house looks like there's people over there. [SPEAKER_00]: There's alarm to the house. [SPEAKER_00]: So I have on all the doors, basically all the effects and so you know if the door is open or closed. [SPEAKER_00]: We have two cuts in the house. [SPEAKER_00]: During the day, the system is going to disarm itself to allow if someone is house sitting or if someone is coming to feed the cats when we're not there.

57:05 [SPEAKER_00]: And during the night, it would be another thing that it does. [SPEAKER_00]: is turning on and off the water heater so the water heater is ideally would hit the water from the solar that we have but if we're not in the house for a few days it's just not going to hit off and usually I would set myself very minder or I have another automation called one of one day before we're coming back from a holiday I'm going to remove the holiday mode [SPEAKER_00]: And then, sorry, not the holiday, I'm disabled, meant of the water heater, and then the water heater would kick in in the day before when you're coming, you'll have water.

57:45 [SPEAKER_00]: And again, it's just around saving energy and just to optimize the usage that you have in the house. [SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, it's the holiday mode is just a bullion input, but binary one on and off. [SPEAKER_00]: And I would use it in a lot of the automations to turn in, to see if I need to turn them on and off according to the holiday mode.

58:06 [SPEAKER_00]: If it's our fault, we're not. [SPEAKER_01]: Out of curiosity there, how long would it take for your border heater to heat up? [SPEAKER_00]: We have just a resistive water heater. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a 300 liter, 315 water heater. [SPEAKER_00]: That once it's going to die, probably going to put a heat pump.

58:25 [SPEAKER_00]: But as of now, it would take it couple of hours. [SPEAKER_00]: So the regardless of holiday or the water heater usually would work for 12-30 or when you have enough solar, one of the automations is once the net consumption of the house, [SPEAKER_00]: or dry air or washing machine or dish washer.

58:49 [SPEAKER_00]: then the water heater would get turned on. [SPEAKER_00]: I actually need some back and vulnerable or left behind it and it's interesting so if you have big enough solar system, it actually doesn't make sense to get heat bump, especially where I live down at the coast, the mechanical everything that has mechanics eventually is going to die faster than something that is doesn't have any moving parts.

59:18 [SPEAKER_00]: So, I'm probably going to keep out that resistive heater as long as, as long as I can, I think like the maximum that I saw it running was four hours during the winter, if we have, you know, everyone had the buff, but we never run into a situation that someone didn't have hot water. [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm actually capping the time that it's working.

59:37 [SPEAKER_00]: So the water [SPEAKER_00]: and it never gets too like 430, I think the latest that I've started working was 415, something like that. [SPEAKER_00]: And I can see it through the house consumption, the way that I've implemented that. [SPEAKER_00]: Then there is a shelly switch on the switchboard and a contactor.

1:00:06 [SPEAKER_00]: So during the day, once you have enough solar, it triggers it triggers and the water hit the start and do it up. [SPEAKER_01]: Because I'm wondering there, like you said, you have like a it would check day before holiday mode was required. [SPEAKER_01]: But if it doesn't take that long for the water hub with the pump to eat up, could you do like as you are approaching home?

1:00:30 [SPEAKER_01]: Like if you're [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you can, but if you know the flight was like it's 2 a.m. and there's no solar, you're going to pay for the heating of the hull for the water handle of the house. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and again, because it's not a heat pump, it's quite wasteful, and it doesn't matter if you have a big solar system, but it's a...

1:00:52 [SPEAKER_00]: like 15-16 amps, that's like 3.6 kilowatts that runs over, let's say, for hours, you get into like 12-15 kilowatts hour, which some houses consume this thing through the whole day, with everything. [SPEAKER_00]: So again, just about my, [SPEAKER_00]: wish to optimize and, you know, just try to streamline everything that I get.

1:01:16 [SPEAKER_01]: We have a gas hot water system and my plan is that when that dies, instead of getting a heat pump, hot water to do like an instantaneous electric system. [SPEAKER_01]: So there's no water tank. [SPEAKER_01]: Have you been doing something similar? [SPEAKER_01]: What you would not have an electric hot water system, [SPEAKER_00]: I think we say it's going to go run.

1:01:42 [SPEAKER_02]: I think like a tankless one fill is out here. [SPEAKER_00]: I think with two young kids that have buffs, you're going to use it quite a lot when there's no sun. [SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know if you're like the inciteness would be using gas or using electricity. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think.

1:02:03 [SPEAKER_00]: I still think that low shifting, again, either by using your appliances the right time or heat banking inside the water heater during the day if you can. [SPEAKER_00]: is probably the way to go during the summer. [SPEAKER_00]: I have a lot of days that I have almost zero consumption in a water to kill a lot and it's quite a big house and we have a lot of things running here.

1:02:28 [SPEAKER_00]: And again, it's this because of the low-chifting, if I'm opening my Ferronius inverter and solar, you could actually see it triggering on and off. [SPEAKER_00]: The wire heater, but the net consumption of the house is quite low if you have the big enough solar system. [SPEAKER_01]: So, okay, interesting.

1:02:47 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I didn't think about heat banking. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it's not white, so use up that energy. [SPEAKER_00]: If I could hit my house like that, that would be amazing. [SPEAKER_00]: There are a couple of companies in mostly in Europe that have sand banks, but it's still in for residential, but it's like semi-commercial, if you know like in for houses and then you just dig a hole, not going back yard, can hit it up to 700 degrees and just use it.

1:03:15 [SPEAKER_00]: That would be ideal and then you could actually have radiators, [SPEAKER_00]: Um, hydronic heating, uh, it's not right, it's not right. [SPEAKER_02]: It's uh, it's it's there's a lot of stuff being done. [SPEAKER_02]: I think in this area right now, right? [SPEAKER_02]: And I think I think 10 years from now is going to look very different than how we typically heat stuff today.

1:03:37 [SPEAKER_02]: Right. [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I think the energy crisis that, um, acoustic and spread is started even before the, um, the war in the Middle East, um, [SPEAKER_00]: really put everything at the front. [SPEAKER_00]: So electric vehicle and heat banking, heat farms, replacing gas with split systems, etc., etc.

1:04:02 [SPEAKER_00]: Fun time to be alive. [SPEAKER_01]: Always. [SPEAKER_01]: I do want to know, like we need to fade some algorithms here and cats, a very popular. [SPEAKER_01]: Can you tell me about your cat AI trainer? [SPEAKER_00]: That's a project that is under construction. [SPEAKER_00]: It will get finished in the next month or two.

1:04:20 [SPEAKER_00]: So we have two cats, lovely sons, Pluto and Ben. [SPEAKER_00]: And cats like cats, they do what they want. [SPEAKER_00]: They not what you want. [SPEAKER_00]: And if it means that you're not in the house for extended period of time, or even they know that are you in the room, or even they clock you within, it's like dinner, quickly rush to the bath, we're going to put it to bed.

1:04:38 [SPEAKER_00]: are great for 45 minutes, not in the kitchen the door is open and potentially it's after dinner, there's some leftovers I'm going to jump on the bench. [SPEAKER_00]: So I tried all the regular things of tinfoil and blah, blah, blah, if you're not friend cats and those cats are just too smart for their own good.

1:04:55 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm using real-link cameras around my place, so I got an indoor one and if you connect it again through homo-system I have freegate installed. [SPEAKER_00]: The cat detection over their pet detection and cat is quite good. [SPEAKER_00]: So, what dogs or cats really don't like is those ultrasonic trainer, they run away from the black fire.

1:05:23 [SPEAKER_00]: So, I've bought just a cheap one from AliExpress and run it once in the house in the room and they just run to the other side of the house. [SPEAKER_00]: So, obviously that thing is working. [SPEAKER_00]: So what I need to do is to put the camera of the interior link on my kitchen, put the masking areas.

1:05:39 [SPEAKER_00]: Basically, if the cats are on the bench or on the table like anywhere they're not should be. [SPEAKER_00]: Then with SB32, I'm similar to Clip on the ultrasonic blah blah blah, the same way that I've done to my pergola. [SPEAKER_00]: And I think after a couple of times again because the source module is all every time that I go on the place that I not that I shouldn't that thinks screams at me in a way that I have to run away under the couch.

1:06:04 [SPEAKER_00]: So that's the AI trainer using a free gate and cost to make the speed 32 and ultrasonic, like a dog trainer, dog repello thingy. [SPEAKER_01]: future to see how that goes. [SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if the cats will ever like, oh, it's been moved. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't need to do this anymore.

1:06:28 [SPEAKER_01]: Like I can just slowly test the waters. [SPEAKER_00]: I actually think it's going to work really the one thing that I did in Solve is probably false false detections for example if someone is coming to the house and wearing a shirt that has cat on it or something so it's just too beautiful for Solve didn't wait and that thing goes like I'll just have to see how it works and everything is going to be a bit of a debugging and traumatized pet that's going to happen but it's [SPEAKER_00]: jumping on the bench and making us sick.

1:07:08 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, exactly. [SPEAKER_02]: What are you running all this time? [SPEAKER_02]: Because you know you mentioned forget and all this stuff. [SPEAKER_02]: Are you running everything? [SPEAKER_02]: You start a single system or what does that set up look like? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, sort of a think bad M700.

1:07:26 [SPEAKER_00]: It's those mini PC. [SPEAKER_00]: If you see this small ones that didn't do a couple of years ago, if you're working corporate day, work just a very lightweight work station that allows you to run office. [SPEAKER_00]: So I have a system you hard drive on it and 8 GB of RAM or 16, I don't remember.

1:07:44 [SPEAKER_00]: And just HALS, like bare metal straight on the machine, it works quite well. [SPEAKER_00]: I do see the process of sometimes half in the puffing because there's 8 cameras and during the night it has a motion detection and human detection. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but overall, the machine itself doesn't get hot.

1:08:08 [SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, it's working quite well. [SPEAKER_00]: I think that M700 can buy them off a before, 100 bucks. [SPEAKER_00]: So I think it's a micro-resolution and all the Raspberry Pi green, et cetera, et cetera. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it customizable. [SPEAKER_02]: You can throw more stuff out there.

1:08:27 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, help that installation itself. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Thanks. [SPEAKER_01]: That's cool. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, my end. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for joining us today. [SPEAKER_01]: I really appreciate you coming on and sharing a story with us. [SPEAKER_01]: This is being fantastic.

1:08:43 [SPEAKER_00]: Also, thank you for having me and please give a... [SPEAKER_00]: Give this beautiful podcast the live. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we intend to. [SPEAKER_01]: We'll leave links to your blog. [SPEAKER_01]: Do advice to go and check out the blog. [SPEAKER_01]: We'll have photos and screenshots of these stuff that man shared on the video version as well.

1:09:02 [SPEAKER_01]: There was a video version on YouTube, and I'll try and remember to upload this one to Spotify as well. [SPEAKER_01]: Cheers guys, really appreciate it. [SPEAKER_02]: Cheers. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.