From an Orange Bulb to a Smart Home: Claudia’s Home Assistant Journey

0:05 [SPEAKER_01]: Hello and welcome to the home Mrs. and podcast. [SPEAKER_01]: My name's Phil and join me. [SPEAKER_01]: I've got Ruham. [SPEAKER_01]: How you doing, man? [SPEAKER_02]: Hey good, how are you? [SPEAKER_01]: And today we've got Claudia. [SPEAKER_01]: How are you doing? [SPEAKER_00]: Hi, I'm good.

0:18 [SPEAKER_01]: This podcast is sponsored by Hermisson Cloud by Nabukasa. [SPEAKER_01]: For a small monthly fee, you unlock powerful features, Laxicua, effortless access to your system from anywhere, which works of voice assistance, off-site backups, and more. [SPEAKER_01]: It's all configurable in UI with no Yamult needed.

0:34 [SPEAKER_01]: It also supports development of home assistant, USB home, and other open home foundation projects. [SPEAKER_01]: Click the link in the description to learn more. [SPEAKER_01]: This episode is also sponsored by our friends at Apollo Automation, makers of open-source smart-known sensors built for the home assistant ecosystem.

0:52 [SPEAKER_01]: They're an official open-home foundation commercial partner, and their devices are built with local control, privacy, and reliability in mind. [SPEAKER_01]: Almost everything they offer is worked with home assistant and may for ESP home certified, giving you full control and flexibility right out of the box.

1:09 [SPEAKER_01]: and the best part, they built in the open, working directly with the community to create sensors that people actually need. [SPEAKER_01]: If you're deep into home assistant or just getting started, definitely check them out at ApolloAutomation.com. [SPEAKER_01]: Claudia, thank you so much for joining us today.

1:26 [SPEAKER_01]: Where are the world are you coming to as wrong? [SPEAKER_00]: I am in the North Eastern United States. [SPEAKER_01]: Nice, so, same time as where I'm, very helpful. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Um, so, it can also be about your home automation journey. [SPEAKER_01]: What sort of led you down this rabbit hole?

1:44 [SPEAKER_01]: Do you go to an IT background? [SPEAKER_00]: I do not have an IT background, however, I am the byproduct of a electrical engineer and a computer programmer and so that's my parents respectively and my brothers in the IT field, but I did not follow that path except in hobby. [SPEAKER_01]: Well that's cool, I can say it's generally like most of our guests that we have on the podcast I've generally good like an IT background or you know a programmer I'm a programmer by day random does IT stuff all the time um so have you always been into home automation before home assistant or time assistant sort of your first 4-8 down into home emotion land [SPEAKER_00]: As a teenager, I had a orange colored light bulb that I thought was the coolest thing ever.

2:39 [SPEAKER_00]: It was before Philips Hue. [SPEAKER_00]: And at that time, I would turn that on because, you know, cozy, comfy lighting. [SPEAKER_00]: But then as I moved to my own place and with my husband, well, to be husband partner person, I got into smart lighting in our apartment and that was, [SPEAKER_00]: a deep rabbit hole that I have done since, you know, just I haven't always been into home automation until I really had the space to do my own thing because, you know, when you're in your parent's home, it's their house, they're rules, so you can't really, you know, you're for walls to kind of play within, right?

3:27 [SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, versus versus, you know, all [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, um, um, home automation started for me with, uh, had the ever so affordable Google home minis back in the day and then it went to [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, what can I do with this and then I went to I somehow in the meantime swapped from a really ancient Android phone to an iPhone and then I was like, oh, Apple home.

4:02 [SPEAKER_00]: This is neat. [SPEAKER_00]: This was like the beginning of Apple home, but so there was like, it's it's a very closed e-gope system. [SPEAKER_00]: So it's hard to really bring in devices that I thought were neat into it. [SPEAKER_00]: through many years of trial and error, I have then done.

4:21 [SPEAKER_00]: Homeless isn't, which is the best thing ever. [SPEAKER_02]: Nice. [SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, you started down this path of lights, then voice, and then what did, what did that lead to? [SPEAKER_02]: Like, homelessness, yeah, but what, what within homelessness and like, what kind of stuff for you and what do you do?

4:37 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, what really drew me to homosistent was, [SPEAKER_00]: the local control and I didn't want to pay a bajillion d dollars in subscription fees for a variety of services that I could have hosted on my own um like with cameras with you know voice and also my distaste for [SPEAKER_00]: the man always kind of having an inside door to your personal space, I just it just didn't sit well with me, so trying to migrate to a primarily local setup was my driver in [SPEAKER_00]: really diving into home assistant several years ago.

5:24 [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, ah, I just, you know, I just don't want that kind of stuff to be. [SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to be optional to the cloud, you know, but not having to pay fees. [SPEAKER_01]: Yet by a thousand cuts really, like all of a sudden you have a subscription to Netflix. [SPEAKER_01]: Now you have a subscription to Disney and now you've got a subscription for your smart lock and a subscription for your lights, all right?

5:52 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Why? [SPEAKER_00]: Like, what is what is the purpose, um, yeah, and all the accounts, like keeping track of like what apps you're using to control your light, you have. [SPEAKER_00]: App you're using to control your lock. [SPEAKER_00]: Why does this stuff, you know? [SPEAKER_02]: it's that plus it's like okay this light is this brand this light is that brand this light is a third brand so I have three different apps for to turn on lights right yeah yeah that's cool so once you started going down this rabbit hole then you started uh obviously started out all with an orange light which is uh I think I think it's uh it's a cool uh I don't know if she's like a third of a book or something like that it all started with an orange light

6:37 [SPEAKER_02]: Exactly. [SPEAKER_02]: So now what are you doing in terms of like I think I see a smart [SPEAKER_02]: door handle or a door lock behind you. [SPEAKER_02]: So you're doing some stuff there. [SPEAKER_00]: It sounds a little bit like yeah yeah yeah well that handle is to my very DIY server closet like it's literally just a closet um yeah but I have that's where I have like my router my NVR my sure [SPEAKER_00]: mini-PC and to avoid, you know, if we have guest over or friends over or some schmuck decides to invite themselves into our house, [SPEAKER_00]: It's just that little extra bit of like, maybe don't go into this closet.

7:30 [SPEAKER_00]: So it like locks when we're not home or if I have guests mode enabled just so that Crying eyes don't be like, oh, this button right here, let me press it and then all of a sudden everything's offline because they disconnected my mini PC that runs on my system, yeah [SPEAKER_01]: as a common cabinet that needs to be restricted, right?

7:49 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, you don't, yeah, it's good. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, yeah, some folks have nice racks. [SPEAKER_00]: I just, it's just a table in there and a mess of wires. [SPEAKER_01]: I think, hate from technical difficulties has a shoe rack is his serve rack, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, I do remember him saying that, yeah.

8:15 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, exactly. [SPEAKER_00]: Use what you have. [SPEAKER_01]: So what is the hardware in that closet then that's pairing your smart type? [SPEAKER_01]: Is it just a Raspberry Pi? [SPEAKER_00]: No, no. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I started with a Raspberry Pi, a Pi 4. [SPEAKER_00]: And then I was like, that kind of got migrated to different projects that I was [SPEAKER_00]: filling it around with not really sure what I was doing with the pie for, but then I got a home assistant green and that was super cool because it was supporting the project.

8:49 [SPEAKER_00]: It was very plug and play very easy, just essentially plug it in and boot up your server and it worked and then I outgrew it really quickly and so now it's a PC, a mini PC that's just dedicated for home assistant [SPEAKER_00]: Wow, I use the right word. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: And on your apps that I have running on there, it's not going to any Docker container or virtual machines, it's just home assistant.

9:21 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: So you know, you'll have a high-mesith and run all that for you. [SPEAKER_01]: You're just down there and so in the apps. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's what home assistant runs on currently. [SPEAKER_00]: Is the mini PC? [SPEAKER_00]: And then I have a NVR stuck in there for my cameras that I have dotted around my property.

9:42 [SPEAKER_00]: And I also have my router, I think, and which is I just recently, I'm really excited about it. [SPEAKER_00]: It's really neat because I wanted to isolate certain things from my network and gave me a lot more granular control, which I didn't have on my previous router. [SPEAKER_00]: I went for that in itself is his own story.

10:19 [SPEAKER_00]: I went from the Google Nest Wi-Fi mesh thingies. [SPEAKER_00]: to, um, what are they? [SPEAKER_00]: The decos, the... [SPEAKER_01]: I had those, I thought they were not the best. [SPEAKER_01]: I had to get rid of them. [SPEAKER_00]: They were, they did the job for what I needed at the time.

10:41 [SPEAKER_00]: But then as I got more into wanting to jump into the weeds, if you will, with certain networking things, I am by no means an expert, like I said, I'm not an IT professional, but that was a real big upgrade. [SPEAKER_01]: I haven't even got into the way it's yet. [SPEAKER_01]: I've got, I've had ubiquity.

11:05 [SPEAKER_01]: I must be almost two years now. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, same like a while now. [SPEAKER_01]: And I haven't got it the way it is. [SPEAKER_01]: I've been meaning to sit up like villains and all the fun stuff now that you can do these at, it's something you're willing towards doing as well.

11:17 [SPEAKER_00]: I am dabbling with it. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a work in progress, let's say. [SPEAKER_02]: So let's talk some of the automations you're doing around the house and, you know, [SPEAKER_02]: kind of enabling those, right? [SPEAKER_02]: So, what, I mean, let's just start with, like, you know, what are some of the automation you're doing around there?

11:37 [SPEAKER_02]: That's what are some of the cool ones and the fun ones are super, super practical ones or the different ones. [SPEAKER_00]: The one that comes in to daily use, like whether we think about it or not, is just the, I call it, the magic light. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just so simple. [SPEAKER_00]: It's room-based presence, and it turns on the light when you go in the room, and stays on while you're in the room, unless you manually turn it off, and then once you leave the room, I have a timeout of like about one minute.

12:08 [SPEAKER_00]: then it'll turn it off because sometimes you know you just run to the kitchen for snack or whatever and uh you don't want what's the point in turning off and on the lights um if you're only out for a moment but uh that that is so simple but it's awesome like I haven't touched uh light switch to turn on the lights in goodness knows how long it's it's awesome [SPEAKER_01]: you feel like when you go to another house or another house or another house or another house or another house or a holiday right like oh that I have to switch this on after to turn it off yeah turn it off you see infrared for those sensors then or using millimeter wave no I'm using mm wave yeah any particular sensor your favorite one I know there's a few millimeter wave sensors now

12:56 [SPEAKER_00]: I have gone through several until I found that I in fact do not need zones in my rooms. [SPEAKER_00]: My rooms are pretty self-contained. [SPEAKER_00]: Each room is a room. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't have an open floor plan type of establishment, so I didn't need zones. [SPEAKER_00]: That really narrowed it down, and I also wanted something completely local.

13:18 [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't want to have to go through separate apps for it. [SPEAKER_00]: So right now, my current favorite once I got positioned in correct was the AkaraFP one is, they're just as big the base and just after I played around where with where I wanted to position them, where they would cover the majority of the room where we frequent, amazing, they they work so well.

13:46 [SPEAKER_01]: They are made like the FP1 was my first millimeter wave and it was yet night and day can go from the old infrared sensors to have the time out right now it's your walk out of a room and within a few seconds the lights turn off because I think it's easy to turn lights on it's hard to know when to turn lights off at the right time.

14:08 [SPEAKER_02]: And in the converse of you're sitting there and then you got to like wave your hands or or whatever right just to get keep turn it on again if it if you're just they're long enough. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I've had very few instances of the likes turning off on me. [SPEAKER_00]: So hopefully they don't fail me and then jokes on me.

14:28 [SPEAKER_00]: I was bragging about how great these centers are and then, you know, and then you're an automation podcast and it all turns off. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, of course. [SPEAKER_00]: That's it's I'm sure there's some law of the universe where that is a thing where it turns off once you say how great it is.

14:44 [SPEAKER_01]: So, okay, so the magic lights are there. [SPEAKER_01]: And they also present space. [SPEAKER_01]: So we're gonna be using, I'm guessing, apps and all that to know who's home, who's not home. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I use the just the GPS location of the companion app for if we're home, if we're not in the designated area.

15:07 [SPEAKER_00]: I also have a couple of zones that have like the grocery store and our workplace establishments just for general. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, areas of where it might be useful to know where you are other than just away. [SPEAKER_00]: the room the magic lights don't happen when we're not home is one use of the location so it'll just everything in less we're having some sort of automation where it work away and you want to simulate being home um that's a whole separate thing um but in general like during the day why do you need the lights going on and off just because the [SPEAKER_00]: but they do pretty well at not detecting the cats where I have them placed, but still sometimes the cat will jump.

16:02 [SPEAKER_00]: We, yep, been around. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm going to watch their depression. [SPEAKER_00]: No, it's just a cat. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: I was going to ask, how does it deal with your pets and stuff? [SPEAKER_02]: So it sounds like pretty well for them. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, in general, [SPEAKER_00]: I have them placed kind of like chest height and pointed, not towards the ground where the cats are usually, you know, of course there are some times when they are in fact not on the ground, but that is few and far between, but it also is difficult because we have ceiling fans in most of our rooms, so you also don't want it thinking the ceiling fan is [SPEAKER_00]: actual present.

16:46 [SPEAKER_00]: So it's just all about positioning with M&W sensors. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, just sensitivity on those. [SPEAKER_01]: I think there was a very high medium low on the ones I had, but they still do expose that for your version. [SPEAKER_00]: I have them running through Zigbee to MQTT, so there is a lot of stuff you can adjust on them, [SPEAKER_00]: probably I have them on, I think I have them on low sensitivity right now because our human presences are enough to trigger them and you don't want them, you know, a breeze to trigger it.

17:25 [SPEAKER_00]: So what, what else are you doing in terms of automation and another one I'm particularly fond of is a couple of routines that I have such as [SPEAKER_00]: nap time. [SPEAKER_00]: That's my favorite part of the days after work. [SPEAKER_00]: I have my nap. [SPEAKER_01]: Now, I think that this is going to be like a tricky one because a lot of like, how do you know when it's nap time versus just walking into a room or lying down?

17:51 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, nap time for me is very intentional. [SPEAKER_00]: It's I'm not just going to, you know, just fall asleep at my desk. [SPEAKER_00]: I have my favorite [SPEAKER_00]: So I like 99% of the time and going into a nap with the full intention of I'm going to be out. [SPEAKER_00]: I am going to sleep.

18:19 [SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be awesome. [SPEAKER_00]: So I use a button just to, you know, trigger on and off of the end. [SPEAKER_00]: to set the scene versus, like, undo the scene where, you know, depending on if it's sunny or night time or because now time happens at any time of the day. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just when I'm tired.

18:46 [SPEAKER_00]: It can either raise or lower my blinds turn off and on the lights turn off and on my music. [SPEAKER_00]: the cats do, in fact, trigger the magic lights. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want the lights turning off and on when I'm trying to sleep. [SPEAKER_00]: So it turns off the whole automation and it's awesome.

19:11 [SPEAKER_02]: So what are you doing to find some of that information? [SPEAKER_02]: So are you just pulling like weather data, for example, or like in terms of how bright it is, do you have like luck sensors? [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I have [SPEAKER_00]: I think of a variety of sensors. [SPEAKER_00]: Right now I have on the solar panels that I have attached to my roller blinds.

19:33 [SPEAKER_00]: They have some general brightness. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Information. [SPEAKER_00]: So Usually a safe bet is I at least lower the shades to 55% not halfway, not 50% because that is right where [SPEAKER_00]: usually at the time of day the sun is missing the things of 55% lower the shades.

19:57 [SPEAKER_00]: It'll turn the lights lower to a nice, like I said, orangey glow or turn them off and then I can either choose to completely turn them off. [SPEAKER_00]: I need more, I need some help. [SPEAKER_01]: Is this all in a script? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's all in the script and I'm just like, I need to get my thoughts together.

20:21 [SPEAKER_00]: It just magically happens. [SPEAKER_00]: I set it up and tweaks a few things a few years ago. [SPEAKER_00]: And now it works great. [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't even think about it. [SPEAKER_00]: I just pressed the button. [SPEAKER_00]: Ooh, in half time. [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't even think about it anymore.

20:35 [SPEAKER_00]: I'd have to really pull it up, which and tell you exactly what's in there. [SPEAKER_01]: I need some kind of automation, right? [SPEAKER_01]: It's been so long that you just haven't had to think about it ever again. [SPEAKER_01]: You know what, I push it button and it happens, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it works.

20:51 [SPEAKER_00]: It just works. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, let me ask you this then. [SPEAKER_02]: How much refining did you have to do to get that, right? [SPEAKER_02]: Like, because it sounds like it's in like the perfect place. [SPEAKER_02]: Clearly, if you've not looked at it or touched it for a couple of days.

21:02 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I did some fiddling with it in the beginning because sometimes I used to have it automatically without fail, turn on my music. [SPEAKER_00]: I have a nice ambient, like, [SPEAKER_00]: low-fi music in the background sometimes. [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I don't want it always to play music.

21:19 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes I want dead silence. [SPEAKER_00]: So the funny part is, I did if the music is ready playing that means or any type of music is ready playing, then it'll, it'll kind of infer that I want music, so it'll keep the music, it'll just lower and change it to the playlist. [SPEAKER_00]: But if there's no music playing, then it assumes that I don't want music playing in the first place.

21:46 [SPEAKER_00]: So it won't start any music at all. [SPEAKER_00]: So that was like my most recent change several months ago, or I'm like, I want silence. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's cool. [SPEAKER_02]: And these are on the Google homes. [SPEAKER_02]: You're saying that. [SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, no, I've long since moved on from the Google's.

22:02 [SPEAKER_00]: Ah, no, no, no, no. [SPEAKER_00]: I use the novel costs. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, the voice keys. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they were great. [SPEAKER_00]: Because I don't need any fancy AI telling me the weather three states over, you know. [SPEAKER_00]: telling me all this. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't use a task.

22:25 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't ask jokes. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, so I didn't need any LLMs or anything. [SPEAKER_00]: So I just was like, okay, turn on this. [SPEAKER_00]: If so, you know, like, I don't generally use voice, but when I do want it to work. [SPEAKER_00]: The voice piece work fantastic. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's awesome.

22:46 [SPEAKER_02]: That's awesome. [SPEAKER_02]: And do you play your music through there too? [SPEAKER_02]: Or do you have your music on other devices? [SPEAKER_00]: Um, I have a stereo speaker hooked up to it actually. [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, um, yeah, just on the audio. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, in the audio jack, finding one that fit, because some of them didn't fit all the way into the jack.

23:08 [SPEAKER_00]: I had to find a really like narrow little, [SPEAKER_00]: jack to fit it in, but since then I in the room that I'm usually playing music in. [SPEAKER_00]: I have the stereo speakers hooked up to the audio jack of the voice pe. [SPEAKER_00]: And there I use music assistant to pull in from a variety of sources.

23:33 [SPEAKER_00]: The playlists, the artists, the songs that I [SPEAKER_02]: And in terms of like, the music assistant set up, that's all sitting in your home assistant server as well. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: It's all, um, I use the Piper and, uh, whisper, I think.

23:56 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, whisper and Piper. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Um, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: So. [SPEAKER_01]: They're all running off this mini-pacet, just the one mini-pacet. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: I try to have everything as local as possible with cloud-being, optional, or if there's no other option, then you know, I'll use that.

24:15 [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: with it all being so local, how do you find the latency? [SPEAKER_01]: Like when you ask a question, is it like an instant response or is there a bit of process and then it's a happen on that many PC? [SPEAKER_00]: Just a couple seconds. [SPEAKER_00]: A couple seconds if anything, it'll just be like done with depending on if it's in the room or a different room that I'm trying to control because I think recently, [SPEAKER_00]: Recently, I'm not too sure how recent, but they did a little thing noise if you're in the room where the command is controlling and sent versus it giving you the, you know, verbal confirmation of like, okay, this has been done or yeah, I'm sorry for those right like yeah, if I said 50% whatever, like I don't need that just tell me it's done.

25:07 [SPEAKER_00]: Just tell me it's done. [SPEAKER_00]: Tell me it did it. [SPEAKER_00]: Nice little pinging noise is great just so I know it's done the only time I really want it to tell me it's not done is if it's in fact not done, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, if there's like, you know, I couldn't, like, for the reason there was an error, I need to know which device to actually after.

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26:37 [SPEAKER_01]: For the best prices on all Zeus products, head over to thesmartesthouse.com, that's thesmartesthouse.com. [SPEAKER_02]: All right, speaking of Z-Wave, Z-Wave, however you want to call it, what types of protocols are you using in your smart home? [SPEAKER_02]: So like Z-Wave, Z-Wave, Z-B, matter, thread.

26:56 [SPEAKER_00]: I use a pretty much everything, primarily Zigbee with a smattering of Z-Wave and I've been dabbling in thread and I try to, you know, I use Wi-Fi devices for, you know, my ESP home stuff, but I try to keep the Wi-Fi to a minimum, but Zigbee is the biggest of my networks. [SPEAKER_02]: Nice.

27:26 [SPEAKER_02]: That's cool. [SPEAKER_02]: And are you finding that like are there any issues or you just rocks all it? [SPEAKER_00]: It is amazingly rock solid. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: I went from ZHA to Ziggy to MQTT fairly early on in my home assistant journey, so I made the mistake once of changing the channel without kind of really looking how to properly change the channel, but this was before I had [SPEAKER_00]: a lot of Zigbee devices.

28:07 [SPEAKER_00]: So repairing it was like a mild irritation, but not end of the world. [SPEAKER_00]: That wasn't screaming at myself for days on end. [SPEAKER_00]: But because I was trying to find the proper channels to avoid interference. [SPEAKER_00]: So I think I have. [SPEAKER_00]: Once I, then then I didn't change them at all after I found where I wanted them.

28:37 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah, channel selection is like really important. [SPEAKER_01]: I know I have had a whole bunch of issues. [SPEAKER_01]: And then once you've got the channel sorted, even the radio makes a big difference. [SPEAKER_01]: I know we've, I've got the ZWA, the ZBT, one, two, whatever latest one is.

28:56 [SPEAKER_01]: And with that big antenna, it has made such a difference that I would have random devices going off line from Zigbee from the other end of the house. [SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't happen anymore. [SPEAKER_01]: Like they are touched wood, they are not unpaired themselves. [SPEAKER_01]: So, it's fantastic.

29:13 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I use, now I'm using the ZBT2, I have two of them, one for Zigbee and one for thread dedicated and they have been really great because previously I had a sewn off dongle for [SPEAKER_01]: I did a really good job on that, yeah, I love it. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm thrilled with them. [SPEAKER_00]: I have a fairly, like I said, a fairly sizeable Zigbee network.

29:58 [SPEAKER_00]: It is lots of light bulbs and lots of sensors and it's been so solid and I can attribute [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because you've got so many lights and sensors around the house. [SPEAKER_01]: If you've got all the doors, the sensors I'm guessing windows as well, if you've gone down that rabbit hole too, or even just down down.

30:24 [SPEAKER_00]: So many deep rabbit holes, most all exterior doors have sensors, and all the windows. [SPEAKER_00]: And now I found a new project with some cool. [SPEAKER_00]: files, or you can make a recessed Zigbee sensor this fine individual on YouTube. [SPEAKER_00]: I think I believe it's the stop.

30:50 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Dylan, Dylan, yeah, it's from the stop. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I need to print this. [SPEAKER_00]: So I printed the recessed sensor housing and just drilled some holes in the doors and made a whole mess, but they were great. [SPEAKER_01]: I have a funny story about this.

31:11 [SPEAKER_01]: So I have, um, so I don't take a make a, is that way of recess door sensor. [SPEAKER_01]: And, uh, very similar to what Dylan's made, um, but this is used by the product. [SPEAKER_01]: And so in the door, um, to my daughter's bedroom, um, the, the magnet part, which is just a little, [SPEAKER_01]: I had fallen out, like the glue had been the heat over stirring, so I'm going to glue it just given away and it had fallen out and was on the ground.

31:40 [SPEAKER_01]: I put it up on the kitchen bench, I was like, I'll glue it up another time. [SPEAKER_01]: I then went a couple of days later to get a new soda stream bottle for some domestic fizzy water for the kids and my wife just assumed, oh, that's just the cap to the canister fill hasn't thrown it away.

31:57 [SPEAKER_01]: I'll just throw it in the bin. [SPEAKER_01]: And so now my daughter's door has this big gaping hole with the magnet supposed to be and the magnet is long gone in the trash. [SPEAKER_01]: It's a lot in landfill. [SPEAKER_01]: And so now cool you can't just like buy that magnet right and it's like a lifetimes on my car.

32:16 [SPEAKER_01]: If only had a 3D printer, maybe I'll have to hit Dylan up and say like print me a magnet right I've got heaps of magnet spare, but just. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm just going to say, doesn't he just live like 20 minutes from you or something? [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean closer than you ever.

32:29 [SPEAKER_01]: And that's for sure. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's for sure. [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, I 100% like get that is I've always I love because I have all my internal doors all the bedroom doors because I find with presence especially with like some of the millimeter wave sensors you don't get an instant notification that you're in the room like there are some Zigbee events that you can subscribe to at least on ZHA I don't know if they'll win in Zigbee to MKT-T [SPEAKER_01]: But I know like when you open a door like that read switch Taking over is instant and then that can turn the lights on straight away.

33:03 [SPEAKER_00]: That's why I love having the door senses inside of it Kind of it's like what is that the B in a box effect where like you open the door? [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, very cool. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I haven't got to that logic. [SPEAKER_01]: Most of the outdoors stay open, but it's like if you're opening a door, turn the light on.

33:20 [SPEAKER_01]: I assume you're either going into a room or coming out of it. [SPEAKER_01]: Sure, in the room, I'll know that. [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, as soon as you open the door, if it's dark in there, turn the light on. [SPEAKER_01]: Unless it's in the morning and it could be someone sleeping there.

33:34 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't have enough time written, but yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: And it's also good to do things like, if it's early morning and the doors close, it hasn't opened yet, maybe like we're still asleep in that room, so don't open the blinds yet, until that door's been opened, then you can say, okay, now it's proof of life, like the rooms unoccupied, it's actually.

33:54 [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, for me, it's sensors, anyway you can put them, the more data I can get into home is the more I can automate on at some point. [SPEAKER_00]: Um, yeah, it's just sensors everywhere. [SPEAKER_00]: I got the little temperature in humidity. [SPEAKER_00]: Yep. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know why, but I just really like having day of what sometimes what I do with the data.

34:14 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_00]: I haven't found a use yet, but I just, I like pulling in all the sensors of like, oh, it's. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: X amount of degrees in this room. [SPEAKER_00]: I were like, I mean, it is too warm. [SPEAKER_00]: Now you know, but now I know it's just I, you know, and [SPEAKER_02]: That's right.

34:34 [SPEAKER_02]: You know what temperature I find is actually useful, right? [SPEAKER_02]: Because it's like a lot of times I have like my wife will be like, man, it's freezing in this room. [SPEAKER_02]: Are you not cold? [SPEAKER_02]: Like what's the temperature and I can actually pull up the data, right?

34:45 [SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, hey, it's actually like 23.4 degrees, whatever. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, don't turn off the heat. [SPEAKER_00]: It's it's already, you know, pretty toasty in here. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, it's an, and it helps to answer that question. [SPEAKER_02]: Like is it me or is it, is it the room, right?

34:59 [SPEAKER_02]: And, uh, [SPEAKER_00]: I recently just installed a new window unit in my house. [SPEAKER_00]: We don't have central air conditioning in my house. [SPEAKER_00]: So I installed a new window unit that I is useful to know both the indoor and the outdoor temperature. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, do I want to turn it on?

35:17 [SPEAKER_00]: Because it is a smart window unit. [SPEAKER_00]: I have that pulled in through ESP home with a a dongle that I replaced whatever was in the unit with. [SPEAKER_00]: I have it, like, if it's below this temperature, then on my dashboard, it can show the heat. [SPEAKER_00]: If the air conditioner is off, it'll show the heat and vice versa for the, you know, if the temperature is lower or higher, it'll show the appropriate card on the dashboard.

35:54 [SPEAKER_00]: and or say, hey, do you want to like maybe consider it's like a million degrees in here? [SPEAKER_00]: Do you want to? [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe consider turning on the heat or turning off the heat or ceiling fans, anything? [SPEAKER_00]: You. [SPEAKER_01]: And none of those.

36:07 [SPEAKER_01]: So the ceiling fans or that box that they can't be controlled by homes isn't yet. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, um, I have Zigbee modules in our ceiling fan to control [SPEAKER_00]: the fans, they are fantastic, I believe, they're the inner valley canopy modules, because I didn't have the time or skill required to pull new wire from our switch in the corner for one of the fans, the other one I was a long story, but I made some holes in the wall, pulled some new wire, made a whole mess of it, had to call our friend to come fix my.

36:51 [SPEAKER_00]: wiring, because I just, you know, if you want to done right higher professional, of course, but I was at least able to get the wire through to where belonged, but wiring it, I don't want to mess with that. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I want, I don't want to burn down my house. [SPEAKER_00]: So I had him wired, but I did the labor of a cutting holes and pulling wire.

37:16 [SPEAKER_00]: That was not. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't [SPEAKER_02]: It's not fun to me that's like 80% that that's actually would deter me for running stuff is I've been running the cable like I that's how I was doing that. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so the Zigbee modules are great because I am a heavy user of smart light bulbs [SPEAKER_00]: I liked that I could decouple because the ceiling fan has a light kit in it, so I wanted to still have my color light bulb available to control rather than so brilliant.

37:59 [SPEAKER_01]: That's cool. [SPEAKER_01]: So you've got your husband there at home too. [SPEAKER_01]: Have you, like, is it just you doing home automation side of things? [SPEAKER_01]: Is your husband involved? [SPEAKER_01]: Is it [SPEAKER_00]: He reaps the benefits of my hobby. [SPEAKER_00]: I am the enthusiast in the family of, let me automate, stop, let me, smartify this, let me get this cool sensor.

38:27 [SPEAKER_00]: device. [SPEAKER_00]: But he has asked him specifically, hey, do you mind like telling me what things need work, what you like, what you don't like, what his input is always very much taking into account. [SPEAKER_00]: Like for example, he hated when the ceiling fan was turning on when it reached a certain [SPEAKER_00]: the room that we hang out in.

38:53 [SPEAKER_00]: So he's like, why is this just keep turning on like magically? [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, because it's like a thousand degrees in here. [SPEAKER_00]: We need some airflow. [SPEAKER_00]: It's get stuffy. [SPEAKER_00]: He didn't like that. [SPEAKER_00]: So I was like, all right. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, guess we don't need that anymore.

39:05 [SPEAKER_00]: But he likes the magic light to a lot. [SPEAKER_00]: He's like this thing is awesome. [SPEAKER_00]: You just walk in a room, and you walk out of the room, and you don't have to think about it. [SPEAKER_00]: So [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's I'm the the tinker. [SPEAKER_00]: He is the beneficiary.

39:20 [SPEAKER_01]: We're better. [SPEAKER_01]: Okay. [SPEAKER_01]: That works. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: And it's good that you like taking like allowed to get the feedback, right? [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Good. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to have the, um, the approval.

39:31 [SPEAKER_01]: Right. [SPEAKER_01]: Otherwise. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Gotta have your partner approval rating. [SPEAKER_00]: Uh, that's right. [SPEAKER_00]: In the positive. [SPEAKER_00]: Not the negatives. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Always. [SPEAKER_02]: I'll be send.

39:41 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: He's been very understanding. [SPEAKER_01]: The other variable in your home is the cats. [SPEAKER_01]: Now, where are we at? [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what it is. [SPEAKER_01]: This year, we're part of a reason. [SPEAKER_01]: We've had a lot of like I had famed things to the point where he's reaching out to us now and be like, Hey, you want to review the cat litter stuff?

40:01 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, no, no, with that's not out. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, there's one of us have cats either. [SPEAKER_01]: Um, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: I noticed that. [SPEAKER_01]: Have you had to do any, like, like, automation specific around your cats or, or gone down that sort of level of getting the automatic kitty that it happening?

40:17 [SPEAKER_00]: I have, I never thought I would ever get one of these, but I do have a smart litter box. [SPEAKER_00]: It is a litter robot and it was a gift from my brother and I was like, I could never buy one of these. [SPEAKER_00]: And now I'm like, we're in the camp of when this thing finally breaks, I am getting another one, or whatever equivalent.

40:37 [SPEAKER_00]: It's been huge. [SPEAKER_00]: I had notifications for when it, the litter, [SPEAKER_00]: waste bin is, you know, needs to be emptied if the cats are trying to kill each other down in the basement. [SPEAKER_00]: I have a camera pointed specifically at the litter boxes, which is a residual from a previous cat who had potty issues, but I never removed the camera so now that if I need to know [SPEAKER_00]: It just runs itself.

41:14 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, yeah, it's a huge quality of life of grade for anybody. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I never thought I'd have one, but now I do. [SPEAKER_00]: And it is awesome. [SPEAKER_00]: I just hope that one day, it can be fully local, because I believe the liter of robot integration is still primarily cloud based, not local polling or anything.

41:39 [SPEAKER_00]: So hopefully somebody can... [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, so like I don't know why. [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I understand advertising and data for companies is important to make money, but as a individual who just wants their litter to cycle, and I just want to be able to do it all, you know, let's go.

42:02 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if it is like, they've really that keen on the dirt I think it might just be, let's get this as cheap as possible. [SPEAKER_01]: What can we quickly do to get this to work? [SPEAKER_01]: And before going down the whole rabbit hole of, you know, needing, like, I guess if they're trying to support this product right, they need to know.

42:20 [SPEAKER_01]: how I can get it to work and maybe they just don't have the the time or to invest, you know, getting something local. [SPEAKER_01]: It's just let's throw it on Amazon and have it with the base and manage updates that way. [SPEAKER_01]: Right, I suppose you have to do a whole roll that thing if it bricks, we don't have an access to repair it or anything.

42:40 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Well, jackcat poop analytics might be a giant business, we don't know. [SPEAKER_00]: I think they like to know what type of literature you're using and I'm sure like how many cats. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure there's like location permissions. [SPEAKER_00]: There's all sorts of data they can acquire from the mandatory app to get it up and running.

43:01 [SPEAKER_00]: But I think it's an ESP in there. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not quite sure, but in the, I just don't have the soundsackable. [SPEAKER_00]: the technical skills to do it myself, but I really hope someone in the community can one day crack the code of, you know, just flash here. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I imagine robot.

43:24 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: But it has murder on all these kitty little. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that'd be great. [SPEAKER_02]: How about the other side of this? [SPEAKER_02]: I've like, you've got, you know, kitty litter, but what about like just cleaning up the floors and stuff like that?

43:36 [SPEAKER_02]: Do you or do you do anything in the realm of vacuums? [SPEAKER_00]: I do. [SPEAKER_00]: Um, I currently have a vacuum up in our main living area, uh, just a robot vacuum. [SPEAKER_00]: It is so good for maintenance of cat fur. [SPEAKER_00]: Um, you know, every once in a while you break out the big stick Hoover and you really punch the carpets, but from maintenance robot vacuum has been amazing.

44:06 [SPEAKER_00]: Um, [SPEAKER_00]: Clean's around the litter area and any. [SPEAKER_00]: Miss Linus. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes. [SPEAKER_01]: The automation that was suggested, one of our YouTube comments was like, you know, next automation, when the Gats done their business, send out the robot vacuum to go clean up all the, the key to the, they've trolled out with something.

44:27 [SPEAKER_00]: They've picked out and yeah, I haven't done that because the, the one down in the basement is a little, a little tiny one that is, I don't think it has a power to pick up as much [SPEAKER_00]: It's controlled via matter. [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's the switchbot case. [SPEAKER_02]: I was going to say that sounds like we've got one.

44:51 [SPEAKER_02]: When can you say it's tiny? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's great for getting around the basement with the, it's a finished basement. [SPEAKER_00]: I should start with, but for getting around all the miscellaneous stuff we have, because I wanted the small form factor. [SPEAKER_00]: And that I have in home assistant through matter.

45:10 [SPEAKER_00]: which is neat, but it gives you very basic control, but the one upstairs is the best one because I have recently gone through the journey of flashing it with how do you pronounce it? [SPEAKER_00]: Val Tuto. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, she was like, good luck pronouncing that. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Val Tuto.

45:26 [SPEAKER_00]: Val Tuto. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure. [SPEAKER_00]: However, it is. [SPEAKER_00]: it's great. [SPEAKER_00]: I can now not have a rule about that has a camera on it wandering around my house going who knows where. [SPEAKER_00]: Now it's safely on my network isolated from the outside world.

45:47 [SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to worry about the company going out of business in a few years time and exactly yes. [SPEAKER_01]: Exactly. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to not working. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: as long as the hardware doesn't give out and certain and the consumable cards are accessible.

46:01 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't have to worry about it being disconnected and bricked from some weird firmware or software update. [SPEAKER_01]: Totally. [SPEAKER_01]: You mentioned before, dashboards, have you got any tablets around the house? [SPEAKER_01]: Like what I mean, they're last guest or a lot of like no tablets around the house.

46:20 [SPEAKER_00]: But is that something like the idea of it, but in practice or in actual use, uh, I. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't really use tablets or stationary dashboards. [SPEAKER_00]: I have my phone and my partner's phone. [SPEAKER_00]: We have the companion app, but no dashboards around the house or anything.

46:42 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: But I'm pretty proud of the self-designed custom dashboard that I have tailored to our home. [SPEAKER_00]: uh he that's actually one of the things that he likes to show people he's like oh yeah she's really into home automation looks she made this uh really cool dashboard and it's it's pretty and functional okay and what we're just accustomed about it we're like a [SPEAKER_00]: everyone's true.

47:24 [SPEAKER_00]: It's almost everybody has to try, but I couldn't figure out how to adequately map my house and you know, measure it, you know, I need my laser, you know, level and all that. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm always very, [SPEAKER_00]: impressed with people who go the length of doing that cool CSS custom coding.

47:49 [SPEAKER_00]: But for me, I did a there's a basic like landing page where each room has its own tile. [SPEAKER_00]: And on the tile is like the name of the room, the lights, the fan, if it has a ceiling fan, and also occupancy, [SPEAKER_00]: badges, if you will, which is really neat, and then when you click the thing, it leads to the whole room, the page, and anything that you could want to control is there.

48:23 [SPEAKER_00]: There's not a lot of like, it's not too busy, it's not just data everywhere, graphs, and it's just, you know, [SPEAKER_01]: That makes sense. [SPEAKER_01]: I think that it's just in time notifications or not just the details you need. [SPEAKER_01]: You don't need the whole thing. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

48:48 [SPEAKER_01]: That's what I am sort of struggling to get to now. [SPEAKER_01]: I want my dashboards to be more responsible of what I'm responsive to what I need now. [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't understand how much of good work on that right with their latest home dashboard improvements. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

49:01 [SPEAKER_00]: They've been a great job with UI stuff the past couple of years. [SPEAKER_00]: getting into it was like, YAML and trying to code and everybody still kind of assumes that you still need to be some IT super genius to get into home assistant. [SPEAKER_00]: The barrier of entry has never been, it's so much more approachable than it used to be.

49:25 [SPEAKER_00]: It still work needs to be done, but it is, they've done great job. [SPEAKER_01]: Now, you said you're not, I don't have a lot of tape back around you're from IT heritage also, did you, did you have, like, any qualms getting into home is isn't like if you had to do anything like templating or any, get your hands dirty in that regard or if you try to stick away from your mouth and stay in the UI.

49:54 [SPEAKER_00]: Um, well, I, when I first got into homocystin, uh, I did a little bit of Yeml, um, just because a lot of stuff wasn't yet available through the UI and there I would go down like YouTube tutorials out the Wahzu and Google and the forums, the Reddit, the homocystin community forums [SPEAKER_00]: I haven't done templating as much as I think I would find use for it, but I'm like I said, I'm not, and I don't know much about it.

50:35 [SPEAKER_00]: So I would really have to dedicate some chunk of brain space to learning, you know, all the parentheses and the [SPEAKER_00]: all the coding stuff that I don't know really. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm willing to. [SPEAKER_00]: But that's like as a person who's already like, super in the deep end of home assistant, but I understand it can be very intimidating for a person who's like, Oh, I don't know anything about you know.

51:05 [SPEAKER_01]: Let's be honest, touch if it tastes pretty good now. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Do we have more bites now? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, that's awesome. [SPEAKER_00]: I try to avoid AI stuff, but I understand there is a use case for it. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, I have like, get up co-parallel it and when I'm doing my animal automations where I've like the suggestions it'll be like, yep, just tabacross and it suggests that this or you can just like run in, um, I'm think I'm testing a chatjpg t at the moment, the codex.

51:35 [SPEAKER_01]: I've got, okay, uh, around the house, look, uh, [SPEAKER_01]: I really wish like that the door didn't lock if I was outside, so I just write a message like, hey, can you update the automation for the door lock that if a camera outside is detected, there's someone outside just don't lock the door until like 15 minutes is passed.

51:51 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't go into the ammo, update the automation, update the triggers, and then put a pull request in for me. [SPEAKER_01]: That is super neat. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's pretty amazing. [SPEAKER_00]: Have you found a specific AI is better at certain types of like, I know there's like clawed there chat GBT and other ones.

52:14 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's Claude Opus, I think, is the might go to you. [SPEAKER_01]: Unfortunately, I can April and Thropic decided to close down Claude for their whole open Claude, third party harnesses, so I kind of counsel my subscription in, out of spite for that. [SPEAKER_01]: but yeah, the cloud was pretty amazing.

52:38 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm on GPT 5.4 now. [SPEAKER_01]: It's it's like, okay, it doesn't seem as good, but I'm getting used to it. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, because my main concern is like, well, what do I have to sign up for to, you know, use like how much does it cost for, and it's just [SPEAKER_01]: And that's another subscription thing, right?

53:03 [SPEAKER_01]: Like we're going like Netflix now. [SPEAKER_01]: We've got like Google's got their own AI You can get access to if you hey like you Google one subscription maybe and Thorpek there's open AI There's a whole bunch, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, oh yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that would that would be so cool to have a locally hosted [SPEAKER_00]: Alama kind of, but I do not have the the funds to make a phone call hardware.

53:31 [SPEAKER_02]: Well, we had a recording last night and I forget if I said it on the recording or off, but it's Alama actually has a cloud like a long cloud dad. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, right. [SPEAKER_02]: So where they host some of the bigger models that you even with a bunch of GPUs and stuff probably wouldn't be able to host unless you're getting into like that like [SPEAKER_02]: you know enterprise grade like the ones that cost like a couple hundred grade which sell your house for a GPU kind of thing um yeah so but but yeah they have they have access to that and it's like 20 25 bucks a month [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, okay.

54:06 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Like I said, I haven't really gotten down into the weeds with, you know, L-L-M's and all that, because I don't mind putting in a little bit of legwork to try and learn it. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, that's how I get into stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just, ooh, I want to find out how to do this.

54:26 [SPEAKER_00]: So I can do it myself. [SPEAKER_00]: Because if you want to done right, do yourself is usually one of my big things. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: I think like, and we've seen like this so many times with integrations or APIs have been killed right, do it yourself like it's built for you, it's not going anywhere, and there's not relying on a third party service on where it's going to stay around, right?

54:51 [SPEAKER_01]: I know, it's just every other week there is a service closing down and it's always again, are you affected, are you not affected? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for sure. [SPEAKER_01]: And that's also out of the home automation space, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Like we've got services around the podcast so the closing down look okay, we have to go and integrate that now.

55:11 [SPEAKER_01]: You know, things will work if we're going to move all that stuff off this service provider onto this service provider. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the cloud can be not your best friends sometimes. [SPEAKER_00]: No, yeah, that that that that that is a main driver for me is that if for some reason the cloud goes offline or the internet or we just have a local internet outage like a tree branch fell on a power line a couple streets away like I still want my stuff to work.

55:42 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Well, it's like, oh, because to your point, a tree branch fell on a line or whatever, it's like, okay, great. [SPEAKER_02]: Now I can't back in my house. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

56:00 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for stuff that you a lot of folks who rely a lot on cloud based integrations, when there is an internet outage, they're like, oh my gosh, it my my light will turn off and like there's a solution to that. [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I really like, like I said, cloud should be optional, but not mandatory for the functioning of your devices.

56:31 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it should always like enhance it, not make it. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you get a few more entities or a little bit more sensors, but the base function should not be affected by whether or not it can connect to a server who knows where. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, we can dream as that world, maybe.

56:49 [SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully, thanks for watching. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that is the price for the answer to that, but... Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: We've been saying that for years now, right? [SPEAKER_01]: My final question is, I want to be like, what's next on your home automation journey for, is it the right reminder of this year, or moving the following year, what is on your to-do list to get automated with your team?

57:09 [SPEAKER_01]: What's the roadmap? [SPEAKER_00]: Whoa. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that's, that's that's quite a question. [SPEAKER_00]: Um, the roadmap. [SPEAKER_00]: I just kind of, as problems show up or as I get ideas, I try to automate them. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't really have a road map. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just when I get a new device and or I see a, like, oh, I could stick a door sensor on that.

57:37 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't really have a road map that it's just, yeah, organic. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm at the same point. [SPEAKER_01]: I'll just like random like oh I don't I could put a sensor on that and then I could do this much bigger don't know that until you've had that like lightning bulb moment yes yes for sure yeah and yeah because I can guarantee like the stuff I have been automating this year I did not think of like [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, I need to do that in future, right?

58:10 [SPEAKER_01]: You always have, like, your big ticket items, like, I wanted to get the irrigation done. [SPEAKER_02]: I've half done it. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to leave that now. [SPEAKER_01]: I've half done. [SPEAKER_01]: I've a couple ofish 50%. [SPEAKER_01]: That's a solid 50% of the zones I purchased.

58:21 [SPEAKER_01]: I'll just in the ground. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm happy with that progress for the moment. [SPEAKER_01]: All right. [SPEAKER_01]: Um, project complete. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I said in it. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like at some point I'd like I have a I don't have a sizable lawn, but I have enough grass that I have to break at the lawn or I'd love to one Oh, yes.

58:39 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that'd be so cool. [SPEAKER_00]: Just no. [SPEAKER_00]: Just drive now. [SPEAKER_00]: Crimson grass. [SPEAKER_00]: Does it for you? [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that'd be so but the barrier to entry is the the the dollar signs of they are rather pricey [SPEAKER_01]: I also feel that I don't have one either, but I also feel that they're going to be similar to a robot vacuum where you're still going to need to go out and do the edges or clean up on.

59:02 [SPEAKER_01]: All right. [SPEAKER_02]: There's a lot with the edging out. [SPEAKER_02]: That's a big, yeah, there's a few of them that can, again, is additional money, right? [SPEAKER_02]: and it'll get the edges. [SPEAKER_02]: Again, I can't speak to how well it gets the edges, but apparently it does.

59:29 [SPEAKER_00]: Some of our friends in the one who is the chore of mowing the lawn. [SPEAKER_00]: So I just cut the grass. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't do the fancy stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: That would be one thing that I'd love to automate one day. [SPEAKER_00]: but other than that, like, I have automated and added sensors to almost everything that I can currently think of and like you said, Phil, you know, it's just as I think of it, it'll be automated.

1:00:04 [SPEAKER_01]: For me, I think the launch, the analogy I try and think of is like, you can get a robot vacuum to come in vacuum and mop your floors, but it's not going to clean the toilets, right? [SPEAKER_01]: And like, I don't always think like, it doesn't do like all the cleaning for you. [SPEAKER_01]: And I feel as though, like, with the robot back to the robot lawnmowers, they're not going to do the waiting.

1:00:23 [SPEAKER_01]: You're still going to need like, the lawnmower guy to come out and do the proper job, do the waiting as well. [SPEAKER_01]: Just like when you get a clean up, they clean the toilets and they vacuum the floor. [SPEAKER_02]: You just got to get one of those giant John Deere like tractors with like they'd use in the farms that have fully roots that like burn out the weeds so that's all done.

1:00:45 [SPEAKER_00]: Or you just lower your standards I guess yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: As long as it's green in my lawn area, I'm not too picky whether it's grass or it's [SPEAKER_00]: Some other variety of vegetation, you know, I'm by no means a green thumb. [SPEAKER_00]: I like the idea of planting stuff and maintaining flowers and gardens, but I'm not very good at it.

1:01:09 [SPEAKER_00]: So if it's green and it grows and comes back every year, you know, it's good. [SPEAKER_00]: It's good. [SPEAKER_00]: It's good. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's fine. [SPEAKER_01]: That's funny. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think we just need humanoid robots already get them automatic time assistant. [SPEAKER_00]: Now, that brings to question a whole level of like when will they take over?

1:01:30 [SPEAKER_02]: I will, I will say this, it was almost, again, feeling I went to see, yes, this year again. [SPEAKER_02]: And one of the things we saw was a lot, like everybody in their dog had a humanoid robot. [SPEAKER_02]: And it was just, yeah, I got to the point where, like, the first one you see is like, oh, cool.

1:01:49 [SPEAKER_02]: Like, I've seen this on TV. [SPEAKER_02]: Now it's here, that's neat. [SPEAKER_02]: After the 50th one, you're just like, okay, these are like, and none of them actually are like, [SPEAKER_02]: properly like I it's it's nowhere near usable today like some of them are like it's automatic and there's a guy with a with a joist and mac right and it's not automated the one that we're good enough you went a lot anyway near like they were behind glass or on a stage oh yeah there's no so yeah and it's again to me it's not functional [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the concept of a humanoid robot to take care of chores and tasks is very cool, but also I find it quite frankly a little bit uncanny of, you know.

1:02:39 [SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of, I don't know, maybe it's just my human, you know, or maybe I've seen the the Terminator or whatever. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's that thing can murder me. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it is, it is a little bit offending looking at those things because you're like, [SPEAKER_02]: again, it's like unparalleled strength compared to, like, that's actually great, right?

1:03:01 [SPEAKER_00]: Depending on the filter, and it's like, yeah, it's cautious more. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: But again, even despite all that, like, maybe next year's CEO is obviously saying a different thing, whereas things are like, beat pop moving, right? [SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, great, you can actually, I can actually use you in my home today.

1:03:17 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Right. [SPEAKER_02]: A lot of these are very purpose-built like switchbot had one for just basketball. [SPEAKER_02]: They had one for tenants. [SPEAKER_02]: I think maybe maybe I made that up or maybe though something like that. [SPEAKER_00]: No, I think they did have a tennis spot.

1:03:30 [SPEAKER_00]: There was several videos going around the YouTube space. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, people. [SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, and again, they look cool. [SPEAKER_02]: I forget we were watching, [SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, it was like in a caged area and it's like, okay, everybody, there's like 30 people around right in case, like it's, but it's just, uh, I don't know, it's, yeah, it's, it's not there yet.

1:03:59 [SPEAKER_02]: I think I think it will get there. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for sure. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm not saying because this is absolutely absurd and it will never do this kind of thing. [SPEAKER_02]: It's, I think we will just, just not this year. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it'll take some, because right now you said they're all very purpose built, like you got the tennis robot, you got the, [SPEAKER_00]: laundry picking up robot you've got the there's very you know but there's no really jack-of-all trades that does any of them particularly well.

1:04:26 [SPEAKER_02]: LG seemed like it did a little more back like I was a little more multifunctional. [SPEAKER_02]: Even seeing it move was like oh my god like like I was getting like impatient like pick up the pace [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, it might just me be me living in like in and round a big city kind of like Yeah, that's right.

1:04:51 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and it's like yeah, it was just I guess if it's running like overnight from like I don't know whenever I'm asleep It's like do I care how fast it goes? [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe maybe not. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, I don't know [SPEAKER_00]: Robots are cool, but like you said, they're not quite there yet for the big dreams we have for them.

1:05:11 [SPEAKER_02]: No, no, no, it's not, we're not in the Jackson's just yet. [SPEAKER_02]: No, no, no, no, no, it's not, we're not in the Jackson's just yet. [SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,