Hiding Smart Tech in a 1950s Home: Mike’s Home Assistant Journey

0:04 [SPEAKER_03]: Hello and welcome to the home Mrs. and podcast. [SPEAKER_03]: My name is Phil. [SPEAKER_03]: Join me as usual. [SPEAKER_03]: I've got work on how you doing mate. [SPEAKER_02]: Get Harry you. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, very good. [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you and today we have Mark with this. [SPEAKER_03]: Hey, Mike.

0:16 [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, good morning. [SPEAKER_03]: This podcast is sponsored by Homiston Cloud by Navocasa. [SPEAKER_03]: For some more monthly fee, you unlock powerful features like Secure, FLS access to your system from anywhere, your choice of voice assistants, off-site backups, and more, all configurable in the UI with no YAML needed.

0:33 [SPEAKER_03]: It also supports the development of home assistant, ESP home, and other open home foundation projects. [SPEAKER_03]: Click the link in the description to learn more. [SPEAKER_03]: We'd also like to give a shout out to our Patreon members, including our executive producers, Jason and Rob.

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1:05 [SPEAKER_03]: Mike, thank you so much for joining us today. [SPEAKER_03]: Whereabouts are your joining us from? [SPEAKER_00]: I am in such a Florida or a land. [SPEAKER_03]: Nice. [SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, we're just discussing before we start. [SPEAKER_03]: No, it's no issues for you. [SPEAKER_03]: We are recording, basically a couple of days before Christmas here.

1:19 [SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, no, no, it's no issues for you. [SPEAKER_03]: No need for a snowblower. [SPEAKER_03]: What sort of is your background in home automation? [SPEAKER_03]: How do you get to using home assistant? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I started for me, you know, I've always been a nerd and like technology and stuff and I've worked somewhat in a adjacent space.

1:40 [SPEAKER_00]: And I started with Sono speakers and things like that if those count and then I've since ditch Sonos, but we live in a 50s ranch style, mid-century modern house, and we were renovating the kitchen. [SPEAKER_00]: And [SPEAKER_00]: The contractor for two LED strips underneath two sets of cabinets worn it like an absorbent amount of money And I was like, wow, I've been curious about getting hue bulbs I could let me price out that versus what they're quoting me for these two LED strips because I'm pretty handy I'll just do myself after you guys leave and [SPEAKER_00]: I priced it out and it was like I could outfit my entire house and hue bulbs for the price that they wanted for these two LED strips So I'm just like no thank you.

2:24 [SPEAKER_00]: And so that started me down the path, you know, and I feel too. [SPEAKER_00]: It's not safe either So yeah, I'm not at the time this was back in 2016 2017 so I think they've come down and price some Yeah, wow, yeah, but yeah lighting. [SPEAKER_00]: I think that's the gateway drug for a lot of people right because it's pretty easy to do [SPEAKER_03]: And it's one of the most satisfaction things to want to make, too, right?

2:50 [SPEAKER_03]: I really is. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's one of the things that still gives me delight. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's just like walking in the room and it just kind of lights before you. [SPEAKER_00]: And it's nice. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

2:59 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: I mentioned you guys before we started my wife's not a technology fan. [SPEAKER_00]: When we met her, the extent of her technology was she had a record player. [SPEAKER_00]: And she had a 13 inch CRT. [SPEAKER_00]: TV, DVD, combo with the rags, and that was what she was rocking.

3:17 [SPEAKER_00]: And so she would like check out DVDs from the library. [SPEAKER_00]: And then she saw my house and was just like, oh my god, you know, nerd, nerd. [SPEAKER_00]: And so yeah, pretty much. [SPEAKER_00]: And then so we moved in together. [SPEAKER_00]: It's been a nice mix, you know, like she's gotten me more into the analog world.

3:34 [SPEAKER_00]: And she's in charge while the styling and all that stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: and then I kind of sneak the technology and words except the ball. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, really fun. [SPEAKER_02]: Nice, that's good. [SPEAKER_02]: And what does that look like? [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, so where it's acceptable.

3:49 [SPEAKER_02]: So what's too much? [SPEAKER_02]: What's too little? [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: I share her. [SPEAKER_00]: love of aesthetics and I lean on her for that she actually went to school for some cemetery or design stuff even though it never became her career and I work in the like technology space in the trade show industry so we provide technology to booths and events and lighting and all that kind of stuff so I really like hiding wires and making things look seamless like I watch people smart home tours and I'm never going to trash anybody [SPEAKER_00]: There's wallwarts and cables and wires everywhere, right?

4:28 [SPEAKER_03]: How am I doing this? [SPEAKER_03]: Do not look at my house. [SPEAKER_00]: So, the way I actually started to, to dip my toe in with the hubos was I did the undercounting at lighting and as far as she was concerned, it was just undercounting at lighting. [SPEAKER_00]: And then it's a slowly like as she was at the house, it's like I'm going to start swap it out some more bulbs, you know.

4:45 [SPEAKER_00]: because they look like regular and condescending bulbs, which is still work, or whatever, so I'm slowly doing this and the other thing you have to know about us is that she loves to dance and we do at home dance parties and so it's like, okay, here's the plan, right? [SPEAKER_00]: And so I set up a few, I got a few disco going.

5:01 [SPEAKER_00]: She has no idea that I've changed to any light bulbs in the house, right? [SPEAKER_00]: And this is been going on for several weeks, and so I've gotten it done. [SPEAKER_00]: And then, so it's like, through dance party and the lights happen, right? [SPEAKER_00]: And she's just like, [SPEAKER_00]: What the heck did you do like what is happening right now you know and and so it's like kind of surprised you know and and she is like what do I have to do and all of this and I was able to do anything and I'm like but you could set up scenes and then as soon as she discovered like the lighting scenes I had everything at home get so it's easy for her to go and do not miss what you have stuff and then.

5:38 [SPEAKER_00]: She loves that. [SPEAKER_00]: So now she's still. [SPEAKER_00]: That's very much a responsibility of setting all the brightnesses in certain tones and she's got like when company comes over, it looks like this and when you know, dinner time is dislighting and all that stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's the extent of her involvement.

5:52 [SPEAKER_00]: But she she won't invoke them. [SPEAKER_00]: We have home pods and she actually she will. [SPEAKER_00]: She'll she'll say she'll say the name of the scene. [SPEAKER_00]: But like if she wants to know what the weather [SPEAKER_00]: Siri, and then it answers the so it's like that so I think there is something to that.

6:13 [SPEAKER_03]: I think like some voice assistants They do have like a male bias, right? [SPEAKER_03]: Like whatever reason, maybe some microphones don't pick up [SPEAKER_03]: a high-pitched voice or whatever, but you know, my self will find, you know, like my daughter or anyone else in the family, you know, my wife or my mother-in-law trying to talk to those lady in the box from the Amazon Echo.

6:34 [SPEAKER_03]: They just get frustrated with it because it's not responding in a, in the right way. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, I can see that, for sure. [SPEAKER_00]: My hearing is missing some of that frequency, but yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: So that was really what got me started. [SPEAKER_00]: And I got it to HomeKit.

6:50 [SPEAKER_00]: And I liked the security local control, things like that, that Apple seems to value. [SPEAKER_00]: And so I just kind of went down that and trying to get all the HomeKit devices. [SPEAKER_00]: And then from there, of course, you run into things that don't work or this kind of device isn't even an option.

7:06 [SPEAKER_00]: and so I went down the home bridge path for a while running that locally on a headless 2012 Mac Mini that was my like plug server and all that stuff forever. [SPEAKER_00]: So it was already year running. [SPEAKER_00]: So it was kind of a natural thing and then you run into limitations with home bridge and you you know like as I'm looking on forums and things online I saw someone and I thought [SPEAKER_00]: I saw a reference somebody said, uh, yeah, people that use home original kit, they should just use home assistant because otherwise you end up with a a rude goalberg of of toggle switches and like virtual switches right and I was like, that's exactly what I am going on.

7:49 [SPEAKER_00]: They've just described me and so I looked into home assistant and it's intimidating at first because it's so much a yam all and I didn't know yam all or anything and then I just kept playing with it and it's like okay. [SPEAKER_00]: I think I'm going to go all in on this and so that's what I did and I love it and it's the best.

8:06 [SPEAKER_00]: So now home assistant is the complete back end. [SPEAKER_00]: I moved everything over to it. [SPEAKER_00]: Got rid of all the hubs I could. [SPEAKER_00]: I got I got rid of a few hub but not that and everything's now in the CHA. [SPEAKER_03]: And so if those scenes that you're talking about before with Philips you, are they now are insistent scenes that they were homekit scenes before?

8:26 [SPEAKER_00]: Okay. [SPEAKER_00]: So now they're still just homekit scenes, you know, so for everything. [SPEAKER_00]: And that's really that if I'm going to interface with dashboard, I generally use the homekit dashboard as well, but for me, if we have to open an app we've failed, I want it to be a smart home that works for me and I don't want to have to do it.

8:44 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like I look at the forums and I see all these cool [SPEAKER_00]: You know home assisted dash force people make and they're super cool and I made my own custom one, but mine's very much A dashboard in the sense of like a car like I think it was just idiot lights right like it just tells me status is a stuff if I just need to open it in glance or if there's an air and automation didn't run [SPEAKER_00]: or I love that homocyste as logs and activities so you can actually look back and see why did this happen.

9:10 [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't expect that and get things really dialed in. [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, so that's the first stop is everything goes through homocyste and then I share what need be, you know, mostly for my wife through home kit and all of our cameras are POE and they're through scripted and through home kit because it's a we use Apple TV so it's nice to be able to have that picture and picture [SPEAKER_00]: that kind of simple interaction and stuff, it's really nice.

9:39 [SPEAKER_02]: That's awesome. [SPEAKER_02]: It sounds like, I mean, as much as your wife didn't want to use technology, or is an interest in an industry, sounds like she's, I mean, she's taking a role in it, which even with like, you know, color temperatures or color, bright or light brightness, or those kind of things, so that's a good, that's a good start.

10:01 [SPEAKER_02]: I know I know in my household that's not the case and it's like I'll do this and then and then I'll get tips on like okay, you don't Maybe you should be a little brighter. [SPEAKER_02]: Okay. [SPEAKER_02]: And then then I get to do that right and it's But it's good. [SPEAKER_02]: That's you've got acceptance.

10:14 [SPEAKER_02]: You've got all those things too. [SPEAKER_00]: No, that's that's it. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's that's Toliya and we're we're a ambitious before like we're really good team as far as that goes to show like as she decided to house like I want to [SPEAKER_00]: move this furniture or I want to set this up or that up and I'm always thinking like okay how's that like at work or how am I going to or I'm going to put a sensor that's going to be hidden or or things like that and um it it helps right and and just as we watch [SPEAKER_00]: You know AD tours and stuff and I'm like, that's not real.

10:43 [SPEAKER_00]: That's that's not even plugged in because we're going to be in how good you know like It's as so much stuff is staged and isn't really functional and so many catalogs and things like that and people don't get it. [SPEAKER_00]: And so we try and I try and make that a reality with my skillset and stuff so it's nice [SPEAKER_00]: I was going to say we opted for bulbs instead of light switches and everybody loves the Lutheran switches and all that stuff and we like the look of the 50s house it's got the we've got the old push button lights which is it's like a toggle that pushes it out in the really cool and I was like I don't want to [SPEAKER_00]: get rid of these and I don't want to have to use them anyway.

11:17 [SPEAKER_00]: So let's keep those, let's use the lights. [SPEAKER_00]: If you do need to use them, I do like that. [SPEAKER_00]: You can set and if this is a huge default where you just toggle it off and on again, and it goes full brightness. [SPEAKER_00]: So if for whatever reason, you don't have a phone, you're not in a scene or something.

11:33 [SPEAKER_00]: I've known where you can always still control the light. [SPEAKER_00]: But I really prefer the bolts, it's funny. [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like I'm in the minority as far as that goes. [SPEAKER_02]: It's, I guess it depends on, on the use, right? [SPEAKER_02]: Like again, for me, yeah, like I like the Lutheran, whatever, but it's, I also went from like the ugly flip switches to, to that, right?

11:55 [SPEAKER_02]: So it's like aesthetically, it's actually a way larger improvement, whereas in your case, I think, [SPEAKER_02]: You've got the 50s, I mean, the house itself, you like you said is kind of a 50 style, right? [SPEAKER_02]: And that's a 50s design. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: I guess it makes sense that you, you also want to have you.

12:13 [SPEAKER_02]: Have you considered like something like relays that are in the wall, like a shelly or something like that? [SPEAKER_00]: I've got a few. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I used the Shelly for a little while for the Bathroom fan. [SPEAKER_00]: I've since swapped it out for an Akara T2. [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's what happened.

12:30 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's definitely what happened there now because it's also a beer beaters so that helps my mesh, but yeah, I have that automated for the Bathroom fan for the exhaust. [SPEAKER_00]: And then also there's a home pod hidden dead. [SPEAKER_00]: We have home pod meetings in every room, but they're all out of sight.

12:45 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't see them, you just hear them. [SPEAKER_00]: And our house was built in 53 [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't look like retro necessarily, but it, you know, it's got a certain vibe, so it's the neighborhood. [SPEAKER_00]: So, and I don't want to belighting and all this crazy stuff, but so yeah, I have used a few, really, when the, like the bathroom was fun, when it, um, [SPEAKER_00]: There's a humidity sensor in the medicine cabinet, and so when the shower is on for a certain amount of time, it pops the bathroom fan automatically on for you, and it turns up the volume on the home pod in there because it assumes you're in the shower, so you're not going to be able to hear the music as well, and then once the humidity sensor goes down, the volume knob goes back down, we have a little nice creature comforts and things like that.

13:33 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I have a few other places I may use some [SPEAKER_02]: that's cool. [SPEAKER_02]: How did you find obviously in an older home like that? [SPEAKER_02]: How did you find being able to modify stuff or any of that stuff? [SPEAKER_02]: Because a lot of times I've heard that's been a big challenge, right?

13:49 [SPEAKER_02]: Like. [SPEAKER_00]: It's interesting, right? [SPEAKER_00]: And it's no different than anything else. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I don't know that there's a, with an old home. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that there's a straight wall in this place. [SPEAKER_00]: And who knows how many people have worked on it over the years.

14:00 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, every time you go to open up something like we do a lot of DIY projects on the house. [SPEAKER_00]: And it's just like, oh, my gosh, why did they do this? [SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm, I'm bigger about keeping things up to code and like cleaning up a lot of this stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: But that's also what I like about the house, right?

14:12 [SPEAKER_00]: Like the soul living. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm an old home, it's like an old nice pair of jeans, you know, it's been lived in, it's got scars, it's got some wabi sobby, you know, we really appreciate it all, that's so, it's good stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: And like our television, we just have a frame, 43 inch television, so we put our work on it.

14:31 [SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully, it shares a wall to what's effectively a broom closet, and so all of the hardware and everything's in there that's basically my own lab is inside that that room. [SPEAKER_00]: So everything's nice and hidden. [SPEAKER_00]: That's where fiber comes into the house that's, you know, where have all my unified gear and everything is all.

14:50 [SPEAKER_00]: hidden inside there. [SPEAKER_00]: And my entire home lab consists of just one and four Mac Mini. [SPEAKER_00]: It's gone through a lot of different iterations over the years. [SPEAKER_00]: Like I started like I mentioned with the 2012 Mac Mini and then I had when I went all in on home assistant, I've had it on a Raspberry Pi.

15:05 [SPEAKER_00]: I started with it in Docker just to see how I'm going to use this and it's like, okay, it's effectively, uh, let's make it its own device. [SPEAKER_00]: So I did a Raspberry Pi and then I moved to the yellow because I liked the POE, I like supporting our Picasso. [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I'm going to buy a thing to do all stuff and I had a sky connect on it.

15:24 [SPEAKER_00]: The internal was working as well and then as I wanted, um, add her on extension so I could place it differently. [SPEAKER_00]: And then once I found the SM Lite, I've got the SLZBO6, the POE, after that thing is awesome. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I, anybody, anytime I see people talking about getting their Zigbee dongle store, I'm like, just get rid of the dongle band.

15:47 [SPEAKER_00]: You got to have the stale. [SPEAKER_00]: It's so nice. [SPEAKER_00]: Just every day reboot so quickly. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like I said, I'm moving it from this machine to that machine, and re-gum our virtual machine. [SPEAKER_00]: I'll have to invest with any port forwarding of USB ports or anything.

16:01 [SPEAKER_00]: It all just works. [SPEAKER_00]: It's really nice. [SPEAKER_00]: And when I made that switch, I actually tried going to ZB10 QTT, which I know a lot of people swear by. [SPEAKER_00]: And so it's okay if I'm... [SPEAKER_00]: move into a new don't go effectively. [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, let me go ahead and try this and I didn't find any value and it just seemed to over coffee things now.

16:21 [SPEAKER_00]: I've got to have an add on or I've got to have the stock or container run and CJ has just been solid for me. [SPEAKER_00]: Like I know. [SPEAKER_00]: The device supports not supposed to be as good, but for me, I've never had a device set that hasn't worked for me. [SPEAKER_00]: I've got mostly a mix of, I've got the hubols, and then a lot of a car stuff, I've got a lot of their leak sensors, which is saved me several times.

16:42 [SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, but unfortunately, and I've got a Zigbee main water shut off valve that's just a generic one upon off Amazon for years ago, and it's still going rock solid. [SPEAKER_00]: What else have got all the Akara like door sensors and all that kind of stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: I've got to mix this in third reality since then because I tried experimenting with some other brands and try things a few different temperature sensors.

17:07 [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, it's really good. [SPEAKER_00]: And the the M4 I got the the bottom of the line about it used and it's it's awesome. [SPEAKER_00]: It runs I run Olam on it. [SPEAKER_00]: I run you know all my Docker containers for media acquisition and [SPEAKER_00]: other little things that was running for it and doing all the AI step before I switched over to protect.

17:27 [SPEAKER_00]: And it never hiccups, you know, like I've got some LLM vision automations going, looks trash and recycling day the night before, look at this camera, do you see the trash can there, if so, then announce over the speaker to tell me to take the trash out or forgot or whatever, but for the most part I'm good about it, so I never hear that announcement, [SPEAKER_00]: Home Assistant, the voice PE for those announcements.

17:54 [SPEAKER_00]: I was trying to do it over the home pods. [SPEAKER_00]: But if you have music playing, it pauses the music in order to make the announcement and never resumes it and I could never get that automation to work really well, especially if you're just playing natively on them. [SPEAKER_00]: I got it to work, you know, we're to work around way that I can tell you for interested, but it's [SPEAKER_00]: It made team mobile angry, I guess.

18:16 [SPEAKER_00]: And so it, they, they banned me from using it. [SPEAKER_00]: And so then if, but it was, it was working great. [SPEAKER_00]: And so then I was like, I'm gonna get the voice be in play with it. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, as, as an alternative, and then at the end of the day, I end up now just using it for announcements, fill to your point about the, the false.

18:34 [SPEAKER_00]: announcements are like hearing things of experience stuff like that the voice be to me it like it thinks I'm talking to it all the time and I've tried switching the different wake commands and it's still and it's always during like a movie or we're watching on patrol live or something because nine times out of ten it like goes oh it sounds like you're in mental distress right now and like it like thinks whatever's on the TV is like what's happening it'll be some more movie or something and it's like I don't know what database [SPEAKER_00]: This is feeding into things like a psycho, but that's fine.

19:05 [SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, I have the microphone disabled on it, but it's great for announcements. [SPEAKER_00]: I have the LG washer dryer, and so I made some template sensors and things, and I mentioned earlier, seriously, my hearing's not that great, so I don't always hear the little chime when the washer goes off, or I hate when I hear it and I go down and like, okay, the, the, [SPEAKER_00]: washers done by the dryer still going so I can't do anything about the shed anyway or whatever so I made it since like it'll come over and say the washers done and the dryer has ten minutes left or whenever it tells you how much is left on the opposite one or it'll say it's not running if there's nothing running so just a little like those little creature comfort things

19:46 [SPEAKER_03]: I know you mentioned before that you've stepped away from Sonos, but Sonos have really good text speech support now. [SPEAKER_03]: I think there must have been an update in home assistant sometime recently, but I... [SPEAKER_03]: I, I was using the voice PA as well, right, like for my take the speech in the office and then so go.

20:07 [SPEAKER_03]: I'll just shut it through the solenoce and now it actually ducks the music in the solenoce. [SPEAKER_03]: So like, yeah, it doesn't previously, would have to pause, take a snapshot, and then resume where you're playing. [SPEAKER_03]: But now the announcement just comes over the music, and the music just fades away.

20:23 [SPEAKER_03]: And again, now someone comes on and music keeps playing. [SPEAKER_03]: So that's a good voice. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's I accomplished that through the through the home pods like I'm saying basically I was just leveraging the announcement feature in the home pods and doing it doing it that we had it had a home assistant sending an SMS to [SPEAKER_00]: That would say whatever you got an email from home assistant, you know, and then it just set the rule based on what the text was and then it would announce it and it would duck and play the announcement and it continued and then it stopped working and then I found out that team of what was really like using those that whole school feature I guess.

21:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: So they were like, you're not allowed to send any more emails from them. [SPEAKER_02]: So they fully like stopped you from doing that. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like my couch or something got banned from that. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how it worked, but I was like, okay, whatever.

21:19 [SPEAKER_00]: And so then I figured out this, this other work ground. [SPEAKER_00]: And again, I like to support Nebuchadne by and the thing anyway. [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm curious to see how it evolves. [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to continue playing with it. [SPEAKER_00]: I have a do and I have a tempest weather station.

21:30 [SPEAKER_00]: So it does, you know, high wind alerts, things like that. [SPEAKER_00]: Go out and take down the umbrella's outside. [SPEAKER_00]: So they don't blow away and, you know, all that stuff. [SPEAKER_02]: So oh, that's awesome. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: You mentioned before that you're running the M4 Mac.

21:46 [SPEAKER_03]: Are you, because I have a spare Mac mini somewhere, it's very old one. [SPEAKER_03]: Are you running Mac OS, because it does boot still boot into Mac OS, and there it is. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, everything is Mac OS, and it's my all in one whole lab. [SPEAKER_00]: So it like, it sinks all my eye clouds, stuff, my photos, things like that.

22:03 [SPEAKER_00]: So that it keeps a local backup, and then I also back that off onto a couple of [SPEAKER_00]: external NVMEs and then home assistant is right, full home assistant OS in a VMware Fusion VM and so that's really easy to back up and reboot real quick and I do all the SMB backups locally to the market self because it's a virtual machine.

22:27 [SPEAKER_00]: It just does it there and and and that gets backed up by cloud and also I do the Navocasa backups as well. [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, it's just been that I also still haven't run in a plex natively scripted natively and then in Docker I have, you know, a lot of different stuff around like a run bird net pie.

22:45 [SPEAKER_00]: Identifies all the birds that come around your house via your camera RTSP feed and stuff and just don't get fun stuff just because it can and it that process or never breaks is why it's so crazy. [SPEAKER_03]: That's, and you don't mind like it then causes delays, you know, I mean, this isn't like running all that thing just one through one bone.

23:04 [SPEAKER_00]: Never. [SPEAKER_00]: No. [SPEAKER_00]: I never have any delays in anything and it's like I run the high-stat menus and you look at the the processor and the memory usage and it's like nothing, you know, it barely does anything even even if I'm streaming movies at the same time and it's doing all the stuff I've never had it slow down and I'm never at a crash.

23:23 [SPEAKER_00]: and it's been up and running since the emphores came out. [SPEAKER_00]: I bought it used, like, shortly after they came out. [SPEAKER_00]: And prior to that, the 2012 was running really well as well. [SPEAKER_00]: I just got to where I wanted to switch everything over to the Apple Silicon and it's just been, like, rock solid.

23:40 [SPEAKER_02]: My, it's funny. [SPEAKER_02]: I, I also have a 2012 or maybe just 20. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think it's a 2012 Mac mini and I think at some point it just started getting just grinding to a halt and I was like, okay, I think and then I had to wipe it and I think I put like kind of probably Ubuntu or Rocky Linux or something like that on there, right?

24:03 [SPEAKER_02]: and I was like, okay, this is the only way I can keep using this machine whenever now in the city of my basement doing nothing, but that's pretty cool that you use your 2012 for that long, because I had a very different experience with that. [SPEAKER_02]: I wish I, uh, [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm lucky or what.

24:21 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm reckless with updates. [SPEAKER_00]: I do as soon as they come out. [SPEAKER_00]: I just did that for, you know, today. [SPEAKER_00]: I think it came out or whatever. [SPEAKER_00]: I was just like, yeah, let's do it. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, like, I had to just keep, I just, yeah, I have backup.

24:32 [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm like, I can always restore. [SPEAKER_00]: But I, I've even run the the macOS beat is on that thing sometimes. [SPEAKER_00]: And, [SPEAKER_00]: I've never had an issue. [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, I guess, and it's, it's the brains of everything. [SPEAKER_00]: It kind of, like, when I had homelessness on some separate box, I understood, do it like, it is, I rely on this heavily.

24:52 [SPEAKER_00]: So it's important. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want it to go down, and it's still like the rebooting with anything. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just forever and stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: It felt like, and on the virtual machine, it's just so fast. [SPEAKER_00]: And it got to where I was, like, [SPEAKER_00]: essential as well at this point and it's just put all on the on the one device and it's easy to to back up and deal with.

25:15 [SPEAKER_00]: So, and my entire home life, it's like less than two or twice or something including all the few e-cammers and everything, it's just like sips energy, it's nice. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's cool because as far as other hubs even plugged into it because that includes everything. [SPEAKER_00]: I have it all plugged into in a car of power plug or power plug so I can see the power monitoring of what the entire lab takes and so I've got the Tempest Weather Station there too.

25:39 [SPEAKER_00]: It's all plugged into a UPS that's easy. [SPEAKER_00]: My alarm, home alarm, base station's there and then a bond bridge for ceiling fans. [SPEAKER_00]: And those are really the only hubs that I have now inside the Zigby-Dongol. [SPEAKER_00]: And everything works. [SPEAKER_00]: I try and limit Wi-Fi devices and things like that.

25:57 [SPEAKER_00]: I've been really trying to get a present sensor. [SPEAKER_00]: Just to play with, I played with the FP2. [SPEAKER_00]: That's what is the new one. [SPEAKER_00]: That FP300 as they can happen yet on box. [SPEAKER_00]: But I haven't had much of an eatable. [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like even motion sensors like I have an EchoB thermostat.

26:15 [SPEAKER_00]: And so we have the little... [SPEAKER_00]: You know, uh, presence presence in motion sensor things. [SPEAKER_00]: It's really for temperature. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: I have those in every room. [SPEAKER_00]: And they work surprisingly well for all my motion presence. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I feel like I think some people use the The Eco be integration and I have that because it gives you some stuff that don't get one doesn't, but the, but if you've parroted [SPEAKER_00]: with the HomeKit integration into Home Assistant it exposes both the presence and the motion and it's not true presence.

26:49 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I think it's just motion with a longer cool down period but it works flawlessly for me. [SPEAKER_00]: I mean it just like like the lights stay on however that along that cool down period is like maybe 15 minutes after you leave the room or something but that's perfectly fine for me especially because we like the the kind of dramatic lighting effects we have going on anyway [SPEAKER_00]: and with LED bulbs, cost nothing to leave them on, but it worked really well, so for me they're small, they're easy to hide, and I also get the benefit of the follow-me temperature in the right room and all that stuff that comes with this.

27:24 [SPEAKER_00]: So I'd rather do that than get extra sensors and same like, I'd just like to keep, excuse the life out of things that I have rather than just keep throwing money or more. [SPEAKER_00]: sensors and things at the problem, I feel like it just ends up being problematic in a long run. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

27:40 [SPEAKER_02]: Do you have those mounted, or do you just have those on the little stands that they come away? [SPEAKER_00]: I have them mounted. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: I have them mounted and kind of, and is it conspicuous as they can be? [SPEAKER_00]: In some room, you know, well, still getting the angles and things that you need, but yeah, we're surely well.

27:56 [SPEAKER_00]: Nice. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm really happy with this. [SPEAKER_03]: You mentioned before that you had some leak senses from the floor. [SPEAKER_03]: I've got a hard leak senses as well. [SPEAKER_03]: You've also got the water shut off film, I think. [SPEAKER_03]: I do. [SPEAKER_03]: I can do to describe how that works if you've got like an automation in place that can shut off the water if one of those leak senses go.

28:19 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I do. [SPEAKER_00]: I have a shut off the water, well, [SPEAKER_00]: I have a couple of things that involve the water leak, the water, the things and the stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: So with the leak sensors have them under the fridge, anywhere there's a sink, it's some of the few technology that's in my wife's dark room.

28:36 [SPEAKER_00]: We have an actual full-blown room that's a dark room outside a converted storage room. [SPEAKER_00]: and it being her kind of analog photography sanctuary. [SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing smart in there, so I have, but I do have leak sensors in there, because there's a sink. [SPEAKER_00]: And so the if a leak, another thing that I did is, art of the [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if everybody knows this, but under the bathroom sink, it's a pretty large area and those link sensors, it may take a lot of water to pool before it would bridge the gap.

29:07 [SPEAKER_00]: So I just stripped some copper wire, like the RJ45 wire, you just attach it to those screws and I just have it run along the whole bottom of there and it effectively makes the entire thing the link sensor. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's helpful. [SPEAKER_00]: And then any, when a leak happens, all the sensors are now getting, it gives you a huge blast in all of your phones everywhere, so you know that it happened, but then I have automation set up so that whatever room has the leak in it, that light turns bright blue.

29:36 [SPEAKER_00]: So if I'm sitting on the couch and there's water somewhere, I know exactly where to go and look in a panic. [SPEAKER_00]: And then I have a home assistant automation that pops up. [SPEAKER_00]: says you're mentally detected, do you want to turn off the water? [SPEAKER_00]: Yes or no? [SPEAKER_00]: And then you basically just do it that way because I have had, you know, it's just something stupid to shower curtains walk in a fall sleek and I don't want somebody being the shower and having the water cut off on them.

30:02 [SPEAKER_00]: unnecessarily. [SPEAKER_00]: So I just kind of have that as a safeguard, and then I use the iCal, I have that, the calendar in the home assistant, so whatever it sees that work going to be away from home or on vacation or whatever it just shuts off the water, because there's no need for it to be on while we're not here.

30:19 [SPEAKER_00]: So then I never have to worry about it. [SPEAKER_00]: I could shut it off remotely if something did happen, but [SPEAKER_00]: Why bother having to get on at all, you know, I do that light trick with a few things too. [SPEAKER_00]: Like if there's like with my alarm sensors, whenever there's A breach if you will like a window opens a door open, something like that while the alarm set The entire house turns red and then the room with the breach of the opening turns bright, you know, so I know exactly what room something's triggered in [SPEAKER_00]: I like using the lights as signifiers and signals and things like that.

30:56 [SPEAKER_00]: Like I think a lot of people did this one. [SPEAKER_00]: Like we have dogs, so I have an Icarra sensor on our gate outside. [SPEAKER_00]: So if the gate's open, the lights by the back doors turn red. [SPEAKER_00]: So you know, not to let the dogs out, things like that. [SPEAKER_00]: that's cool.

31:12 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think there's some cool ways you can indicate using that, right? [SPEAKER_02]: And that sounds like you've got signal set. [SPEAKER_02]: Do you ever find you get them like mixed up like for like blue, oh crap, which one's that? [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's a leaky, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Like we're trying to do it pretty intuitive, you know, blue is color, water kind of, so it's like blue is leaking and you know, the alarm is [SPEAKER_00]: the ones by the back doors for the dogs, they actually flash reds, you know, like in Mordgager, you know, just get stuck to it.

31:41 [SPEAKER_00]: And then I have like, if you're cooking the kitchen and I have an air quality sensor in there and so if the air quality gets bad, it just kind of turns like an orange to the undercounting lights that started on. [SPEAKER_00]: The turn of orange, they're still there, still rockin' off those ears.

31:54 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's, yeah, that's good. [SPEAKER_03]: Have you thought about, like, automating the water shut off? [SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to mention it before, like, an automation runs to say, hey, do you want me to shut off the water? [SPEAKER_03]: Have you thought about, like, putting an automation to, like, get you out of that loop and say, OK, if it's in the middle of the night, just shut off the water, assuming that, you know, probability is that that's not going to be anyone in the shower, or if you're away from home, just shut it off so that, you know, you can get the water shut off as quick as possible.

32:22 [SPEAKER_03]: In case you're away from your phone or not. [SPEAKER_00]: I like the middle of the night one. [SPEAKER_00]: That's interesting. [SPEAKER_00]: So we need that as much as a variable, but yeah, the middle of the night, that's a good variable, but I can add for sure. [SPEAKER_00]: I like tweaking and after my generation, so thanks for that, yeah.

32:39 [SPEAKER_03]: I always think like, you know, in that situation, like the water is fighting in the house, you want action as quick as possible, if it is not supposed to be happening, right? [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and so as more information you can take, you know, in the middle of the night, can't so I will not in the shower, shut off the water.

32:57 [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know if you're not at home or whatever there is. [SPEAKER_03]: Maybe you. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we could be some another way if you're to know in the house like that's not supposed to be happening. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, thankfully the few times it's gone off, it hasn't been a flight.

33:09 [SPEAKER_00]: It's been, you know, a P-trap is misaligned and it's a slow drip that you would never notice for months and then you get that. [SPEAKER_00]: wavy under your kitchen sink can't board that everybody has right and so it's it's nice to to not have that so that's really good. [SPEAKER_00]: I think I'll put out their [SPEAKER_00]: Automations and stuff.

33:31 [SPEAKER_00]: I have a fun one so like we're talking right now and it is, you know, local time 845, generally my Robo Rock would be going right now, but whenever I used a homeless assistant companion app on my Mac and so if I'm, if this microphone is hot, it either doesn't run and then it waits until I hang up or if I start a conference call or something like that in between it, pauses it.

33:55 [SPEAKER_03]: Wow. [SPEAKER_03]: So how is it detecting that the microphones [SPEAKER_00]: uh... just the home assistant company that bit it's worth the centers that it shares uh... you could say if the mic is in use and so that's just the variable of the microphones in use and my location is home just pausing or don't run it and i do the same for uh... and we have a desk light and one of the cameras on it turns it right like for us at white out like me and then whatever the call ends goes back to a nice and condescending [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, trying to think of what other interesting ones that I have.

34:34 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, uh, the rubber rock. [SPEAKER_00]: So I, we like it hidden because I don't want to see a robot vacuum sitting out. [SPEAKER_00]: So we don't have one with the big dust bin or anything like that by design. [SPEAKER_00]: It just, it's the, the one with the small little just talking station and it's hidden under the couch.

34:50 [SPEAKER_00]: And so it runs daily because we have dogs and then, um, then I have a template sensor that if it's run today, [SPEAKER_00]: and it hasn't been paused or stopped for some other reason. [SPEAKER_00]: It goes to the trashcan and just waits to be emptied and then we send it back. [SPEAKER_00]: And that was in the Rob Rock app you can do a pin and go.

35:12 [SPEAKER_00]: to tell it where to go, but I couldn't figure out how to do that at home assistant or get her any place else, and so I was like how am I going to do this? [SPEAKER_00]: And so what I figured out is to tell it that the trash hinge in the kitchen, so tell it to do a room cleaning of the kitchen, and I just timed how long does it take before it's near the trash can, and then so I put it to lay and then a pause.

35:30 [SPEAKER_00]: and then that's the whole automation is it just go clean the kitchen and pause and then after an hour if it's at their notice empty did it goes back just so that if we're away from home and it does that it doesn't lose its battery or anything more gone and then also if we're [SPEAKER_00]: home and the calendar shows that it's either a work holiday or a vacation day or something it doesn't run so that it doesn't wake you up or whatever.

35:56 [SPEAKER_00]: Same with we have like morning playlists that goes, things like that and then where you're getting ready for work and we don't have that run on holidays or things in that nature. [SPEAKER_03]: Now, if you're looking to upgrade your smart home, you can't go past Zeus. [SPEAKER_03]: Zeus have their brand-new Z-wave long-range siren and chime, the ZSE 50 800LR.

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36:52 [SPEAKER_03]: So for the best prices on all Zeus products, head over to the smartesthouse.com. [SPEAKER_03]: That's the smartesthouse.com. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I mean, Mike, you were talking about how, you know, you're bringing all these things together. [SPEAKER_02]: You've got your, you've got your automation and stuff.

37:08 [SPEAKER_02]: What's, what's some stuff that you like pretty much absolutely, like, will not automate. [SPEAKER_02]: I'd love to know that. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that's interesting. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I have it found a good way to do the doors yet. [SPEAKER_00]: I haven't found a lock that I like either the accommodation of the look in the functionality.

37:27 [SPEAKER_00]: I thought I wanted Apple home to keep for a long time, be able to use your watch phone or whatever. [SPEAKER_00]: I think presence may be a little bit of that's a little dicey, but the, I think a figure per reader is really the way to go. [SPEAKER_00]: And I tried the switchbot one, you know, that's a retro, because I don't want to retake the whole home either.

37:47 [SPEAKER_00]: Ideally, but I haven't gotten, I just, it was so bulky and just kind of janky looking that I was like, nah, I don't want this. [SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, the level lock, it's maybe a contender, but then it doesn't have the fingerprint option or some other way to, [SPEAKER_00]: to make it nice and seamless and still be able to use a key, so we're still analog on all of our locks.

38:09 [SPEAKER_00]: As I mentioned, my wife's dark room is pretty much an automation free zone. [SPEAKER_00]: The bedroom is one that I conquered. [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of people have issues with that. [SPEAKER_00]: I mentioned trying to get a present sensor to know when we're in bed and when we're not. [SPEAKER_00]: But I actually, I've got that dialed in now without the use of an actual presence sensor using other things.

38:34 [SPEAKER_00]: I guess we could go into if you want, but it's kind of a mixed match of stuff going back to my Googleberg machine. [SPEAKER_00]: I think of automations, but I tried, like I said, I tried the FB2, everybody said that it would work through walls and stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: And so I thought, oh, that's nice.

38:48 [SPEAKER_00]: I can hide it. [SPEAKER_00]: Still have it work, but I had never had that success with it actually working through the walls. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if it's because it's old home and their sheet rock and not just regular drywall. [SPEAKER_00]: And then I did the ESP32 present sensors with the Bluetooth tracking.

39:03 [SPEAKER_00]: And I thought, oh, this is going to be good. [SPEAKER_00]: This will work, and it did. [SPEAKER_00]: I got to work. [SPEAKER_00]: And the problem is, my, well, I've just like technology, so she doesn't carry her phone with her. [SPEAKER_00]: Everywhere, it'll just be sitting somewhere. [SPEAKER_00]: And so then it doesn't want room.

39:18 [SPEAKER_00]: She's in. [SPEAKER_00]: I can track my Apple Watch that was really consistent for me. [SPEAKER_00]: And so then I ended up going away from that. [SPEAKER_00]: I tried bed sensors. [SPEAKER_00]: They were kind of hit or miss for me. [SPEAKER_00]: So now it's a lot of different logic things.

39:32 [SPEAKER_00]: It was at this time, to this time, our phones plugged in and charging, at which is another phone with my wife. [SPEAKER_00]: She, I don't, I haven't installed the home as it's set up on our phone. [SPEAKER_00]: She doesn't like any third party apps. [SPEAKER_00]: And all of a sudden, she doesn't want to have to deal with it.

39:48 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I, but home, hit, you can do, you have shortcuts built in. [SPEAKER_00]: So I just have, [SPEAKER_00]: a series short cut automation for her, so whenever her phone plugs in, it flips a toggle in home assistant and sits at I know what her version of that way without the home assistant app.

40:04 [SPEAKER_00]: So I know our our phone charging between this time and that time. [SPEAKER_00]: And then we generally like read for an hour, for bed and we use cobalt readers. [SPEAKER_00]: And so as soon as you open the cover on your cobalt reader, it pings Wi-Fi. [SPEAKER_00]: And so now I know through the Unify integration that a book has been opened, I guess.

40:22 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, so that I can sit reading and bed lighting, shut off the rest of the house, close all the shades, like the shade behind me with the car, roller shade, controllers and all the doors of those. [SPEAKER_00]: Those all shut. [SPEAKER_00]: things like that. [SPEAKER_00]: And so then I did do kind of a reverse in the morning like if I get up on a bed first when I unplug my phone it knows that hers is still plugged in.

40:42 [SPEAKER_00]: So those I have a template sensors for mics and bed, you know, wife's and bed and then someone's in bed as one of the other so I can do combinations of either or and so I have that way when I get out of bed all the motion lights aren't on yet I have kills which is on those. [SPEAKER_00]: And only a a small reading light on the couch is done so I can sit there and have a coffee and and reading the morning or whatever what she's still sleeping and then when she gets up.

41:08 [SPEAKER_00]: Other things start happening all the lights kind of set and the shades open to to 20% high so for the dogs that we can see that they're looking to come back in but for an arp and jam is the shades are just open for everybody to see in. [SPEAKER_00]: All those kind of little creature comforts are really nice and those are the things that she appreciates she I do have then a car up.

41:26 [SPEAKER_00]: but not each of our nightstands. [SPEAKER_00]: And like a single click is shit everything down and that also depending on the time makes it really embed, but it's like, since the alarm closes all the shades, turns off all the lights, all that kind of stuff she appreciates that at, and then the morning and double click is the opposite, like kind of where we can open up the house and flip back off all the kill switches for interior motion and things like that.

41:50 [SPEAKER_03]: Are you using Bayesian sensors to work at the probability of these things? [SPEAKER_00]: using which sensors a Bayesian sensor like it allows you to do probabilities of you know okay this phone is charging it's between this time so that means it's like a 90% probability that there is sleep so no I would like to know more about how to do that I think I'm doing that but just through my own combination of oh yeah it's they're all conditions right if it's between this time and this time and and if you know we're home so that we're on the [SPEAKER_00]: And then other things like if it's the weekend we may have the bedroom TV on so it's that TV's on that means we're in the bedroom, you know, it's just a whole lot of If that's it's a better way to do it.

42:38 [SPEAKER_00]: I would like to streamline it, but so far it's worth it. [SPEAKER_00]: It's worth really well. [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, if it's working, if it's working, they fix it, like, yeah, I'd like, think personally. [SPEAKER_03]: But Bayesian sense has been there since very early days of home assistant, and it allows you to really dial in on, you know, like, probabilities of, you know, given all these states, there is probably this is true, so turn that sense of, like, market is on or off.

43:02 [SPEAKER_03]: And I do it for things like the washing machine run today and it's the door being opened and there's probably there's washing outside now. [SPEAKER_03]: Now I've just wanted to make that before looking at the cameras and I don't get it right. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, there's a whole bunch of things you can do right.

43:21 [SPEAKER_03]: Generally, maybe there's a device that's not that you want to track that isn't tracking ability, like you can do things like, as power sensors go up to this level, there's presence in this room, so that someone's at the desk, right? [SPEAKER_03]: Like they're on the desk, on the desk. [SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, there's lots of fun things you can do with that sensor, all right?

43:42 [SPEAKER_00]: You can be somehow more excited to get into. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, those sensor, I've just gotten into make and template sensors. [SPEAKER_00]: I've, when I found trigger IDs years ago, that was like, I did those for everything, probably too much, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Because I liked having fewer automations that could solve them all together.

44:00 [SPEAKER_00]: So I'd like all the interior emotion as each was a trigger ID for each room. [SPEAKER_00]: And then I just got like a bit cumbersome to edit when I needed to. [SPEAKER_00]: The other thing, so I split, let's split this out. [SPEAKER_00]: They still multiple trigger IDs in each room, but I have each room with the tone.

44:15 [SPEAKER_00]: set up automations for them. [SPEAKER_00]: Something I think I'm not leveraging enough as scripts, you know, because I feel like I redo the same kind of logic and a lot of different ones. [SPEAKER_00]: I do the copy paste, you know, but that's why I love that the EM will be able to copy and paste automations, but then I've still favorite the UI most of the time for doing all my edits and things.

44:39 [SPEAKER_02]: that's fair. [SPEAKER_02]: Um, so what's next with, uh, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: I'll tell you, I, yeah, things I could use help with our, the doors. [SPEAKER_00]: I need to find a good way to unlock the doors. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm really like to do that because, you know, so often it's one of those things that you're in bed and you go like to unlock all the doors and I got to get up and go around.

44:59 [SPEAKER_00]: And of course, they did, but I'm just going to make sure that's good. [SPEAKER_00]: whatever road city you're paranoid and then and I hate caring keys. [SPEAKER_00]: So if I could not, if I could have one less key to caring, I would really enjoy that. [SPEAKER_02]: So you're talking about, you're talking about Apple Home Key and all of that earlier.

45:19 [SPEAKER_02]: So I'm just discovered like this is like it's magical because I have a smart lock, whatever. [SPEAKER_02]: I don't love it. [SPEAKER_02]: It sucks, but again, multitude of reasons mostly because my door sucks. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm kind of stuck to a couple of ones that I can use. [SPEAKER_02]: But that also means I don't have any, like, great options for home care and it's like that, but at my office, when I started a new company and they basically said, hey, you can have...

45:52 [SPEAKER_02]: You can have an app, whatever, and obviously we have manual old school badges, right? [SPEAKER_02]: Like the HID or whatever badges at the, and I'll see you ones. [SPEAKER_02]: But now I can use my Apple Watch, and I walk up to the thing, and I tap it, and the door open, and I was like, wow, is this what I've been missing?

46:08 [SPEAKER_02]: I don't understand, this is amazing, right? [SPEAKER_02]: And it's in your like Apple Wall or whatever, it's essentially homekey, but for work. [SPEAKER_02]: uh, spaces, right? [SPEAKER_02]: So I'm like, yeah, this is amazing. [SPEAKER_02]: So I, I, uh, I really like the ability to, to do that.

46:25 [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, mine, I, I'm for the most part, I do use my touchpad at, uh, in my house, but yeah, it's, the problem, I guess you have is you're, you're trying to maintain that aesthetic, uh, yeah, like a mid-century modern kind of, uh, [SPEAKER_02]: look right which is which again I think it's really really beautiful and I think that's that's I would absolutely do the same but there's certain there's some ones that you get that go like inside the lock and those kind of things those are that like expensive though yep right and it's like so you know what what are you doing that or do you say okay the front looks the same [SPEAKER_00]: If you're okay with that, but even yeah, that's what I tried with the switchbot and I just and I would have been Okay with the aesthetics of it.

47:20 [SPEAKER_00]: I could have lived with it, but it just it would kept like jamming a lot And like it would go out of calibration and it was just like This is not worth the house because it's like it and then what it jam it would just automatically lock even if I had it unlocked So then it's like so now I'm gonna lock that out of the house and if I didn't have you know [SPEAKER_00]: way to get back it, it just seemed annoying.

47:39 [SPEAKER_00]: And I've got to think too of my wife like she'll leave the house without her phone without her watch. [SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, she's always going to bring her keys, so I still want to be able to be able to use a keys, so that's why I do like things like the little locks, the little leisure existing stuff still, and it keeps the aesthetics.

47:54 [SPEAKER_00]: So, I like that functionality. [SPEAKER_00]: I just have it. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna correct that yet. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I will say like the new key locks are probably the ones that I [SPEAKER_02]: really like I they look really then we we we had new keys uh uh found her on the on the podcast at some point as well and I think it's they look really nice however I don't think they're like MCM like aesthetic right?

48:20 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm a midsatrium artist [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, again to your point it's on the inside it kind of looks like a big door knob or something I'm excited most that you and it would be okay. [SPEAKER_00]: I would consider them for sure I just I'm waiting for a black one to try because all of our hardware's oil rub Frans or or black or whatever in that this so-her's not gonna work.

48:38 [SPEAKER_00]: So, So, since it came out of the black one, I'll probably get one to play around with and see how it's gonna work [SPEAKER_00]: Um, but as far as a place where something else that I, our automation will be off limits and trying to think to answer your question fully and I can't think of one that would be off limits for sure.

48:56 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, the idea of, like I said, the house working for you, just going through and it, and it. [SPEAKER_00]: things do as you'd expect into. [SPEAKER_00]: And the the nice thing is that it's just my wife and I. [SPEAKER_00]: So it's easier. [SPEAKER_00]: There's way less variables, right?

49:10 [SPEAKER_00]: I get if you have kids or you've other people in the house, or you know, all that kind of stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: It's probably harder, but we like routine. [SPEAKER_00]: So it's been really [SPEAKER_00]: fun challenge to try and hide the stuff and get it and make it so you know why it's happy with it and everything else so it's been but i like the challenge i mean it's a fun puzzle that's why i say like fill when you said don't don't fix it if it's her don't break it if it's working so yeah but if i could optimize you know so it's still it's it's used to tinker right and uh... which can get you in trouble but have you guys used uh...

49:42 [SPEAKER_00]: the home assistant time machine yet. [SPEAKER_00]: I just learned of this. [SPEAKER_00]: It's super cool. [SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of a back up alternative that somebody made. [SPEAKER_00]: I wish I could give the guy credit on, it's on get out and stuff, but it's an add-on. [SPEAKER_00]: I think not an integration.

49:55 [SPEAKER_03]: I have to look, but it's okay, it's an actual. [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, I think it's, let me pull up my hands. [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's an add-on. [SPEAKER_00]: And it, um, [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's called the Homeless It's a Time Machine and it is awesome. [SPEAKER_00]: It takes a it stores copies of all of your YAML, your automations, your dashboards, things like that, and you can go to them individually, and it shows you, so if you edit an automation, it'll show you here's what you've edited, here's the old and here's the new, and you can just restore it just that YAML with the click of the button.

50:35 [SPEAKER_00]: and you can have it saved to an SMB and stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: It seems like it's pretty new, but the guy's developing it really quickly. [SPEAKER_00]: And it works great, so it's really cool to track changes and things like that right inside. [SPEAKER_00]: How was this? [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, because the last thing I wanted to do is I had a random card in the dashboard and then be like, oh, you know what?

50:56 [SPEAKER_03]: I've broken that. [SPEAKER_03]: I want to undo that. [SPEAKER_03]: And then it's like, yep, my history's gone, all right? [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's really cool. [SPEAKER_00]: And it's just like the homocysteine backup. [SPEAKER_00]: You can say how many versions back do you want to have and Yeah, it's just all that stuff.

51:09 [SPEAKER_00]: That's really cool. [SPEAKER_00]: Does it integrate into the homocysteine backup piece as well where it doesn't it I think Okay, it should be part of the built-in backup, I think, but you know, it's still Still good. [SPEAKER_00]: I used to have automation set to like perjold the ones and all that stuff.

51:22 [SPEAKER_00]: So I've really been happy with the functionality They've added to the to the backup recently [SPEAKER_00]: So the other thing that I want to get working is the artwork on the Samsung frame. [SPEAKER_00]: Like my home bridge plugin was solid. [SPEAKER_00]: It always just worked. [SPEAKER_00]: Like as soon as you turn off the Apple TV, our work would just come up.

51:39 [SPEAKER_00]: It was perfect. [SPEAKER_00]: And I've never been able to get any of the homelessness who wants to work as reliably. [SPEAKER_00]: It's only to [SPEAKER_02]: Like to change the artwork or just to put it in frame, like just to put it in frame art mode. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like whenever you use the Apple TV remote because I like to just have one remote and we only use the Apple TV as an interface.

52:01 [SPEAKER_00]: So when you power it off or put it to sleep, it turns the TV off and now it just turns the TV off that the older we have two frames, even the older original version, that I think is a 2017 model or something. [SPEAKER_00]: And you can turn off CEC. [SPEAKER_00]: and are in both it and the Apple TV.

52:20 [SPEAKER_00]: And then it does default to our mode. [SPEAKER_00]: But the newer frames don't, and it seems like no, I don't know if Samsung changed the API or what, but I can't figure out how to get it to where when I make the Apple TV off or it just happens. [SPEAKER_00]: I have to always use that [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so with some of the plugins, there's actually like a change to, I, I, I, I, I don't know if it's, if I still have my Samsung frame and, uh, in home assistant, we still use it.

52:47 [SPEAKER_02]: I, I, I rented about this before, so, but I, I, I'm, I'm not a fan, uh, just I just found the quality. [SPEAKER_02]: of the TV itself wasn't where I wanted it to be, but with the art mode, that was a problem for a very long time because it was all the plugins basically say off or on. [SPEAKER_02]: And art is this like weird in between state where it's not quite a source, like you're not saying HDMI to it's [SPEAKER_02]: and it's not similar to that, but it kind of is, so usually when you hit off, there's something, but a couple of the plugins, I want to say it was like Samsung's smart or something like that.

53:23 [SPEAKER_00]: Samsung TV's smart is the one that I think about that. [SPEAKER_00]: You can invoke our mode. [SPEAKER_00]: It'll change the power toggle, but then it's only if you [SPEAKER_00]: if I turn off the Apple TV if the TV is off and I'm just going to turn it back on, then turn it back on. [SPEAKER_00]: But it's just, it's so cludgy and it's, and it's unreliable.

53:47 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: And, and, and I find with the, the other thing you could do is you could use the interviews in the Apple TV remote use the Samsung remote and, you know, operate the Apple TV through there, which is what I, what I have going on, right? [SPEAKER_02]: So when I press the power on the Samsung button.

54:04 [SPEAKER_00]: it will go to frame mode, our frame mode, that's what I've tried that and that I just don't like that promoted all. [SPEAKER_00]: I've seen the sofa but it's on to or whatever's out now and it's like maybe that thing but it's such an expensive fix to the dumb problem that I'm like no I'll just help push the art but not my sense I worry about.

54:24 [SPEAKER_00]: If that's my only use case where it's hard to hard to say and then the other thing I really want to do and I've tried a few times [SPEAKER_00]: and probably could sort of that, but is our swimming pool has a fountain feature like some jets, right? [SPEAKER_00]: And we didn't get the, whatever, the one that you could automate, I guess, right?

54:47 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a manual, I have to go over and crank a valve to turn it on. [SPEAKER_00]: And it's not a full 45 degree turn, and it is also, it's a variable speed pump. [SPEAKER_00]: So it depends how far you turn it, depends on where the pump's at at that time, [SPEAKER_00]: Strongness, this found is going to spray.

55:03 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I thought it'd be nice to have basically like a water shut-off out, but one that all of the water shut-offs that I found just do a full turn. [SPEAKER_00]: You can't say only turn 10 degrees, 15 degrees. [SPEAKER_00]: And so I've been trying to sort that out with one of those, but I can never get that to that.

55:22 [SPEAKER_02]: So I feel like that's like a Depper motor, or like a motor motor kind of, you know, where you can get a little more granular rather than to cut off. [SPEAKER_02]: bad stuff works, it's out. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I was just trying to do it with physical changes because most of the shot of valves, it's just two pins that grab the lever and so I'm just playing with how far apart those pins are, right?

55:51 [SPEAKER_00]: Like I was making my own like a touch with so that it would do a little less little more, but I could never get it reliable enough, I think. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I would like to get that. [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm very curious to get whole home power monitoring would be nice. [SPEAKER_00]: And I've looked at those, like the the impura, I'm not sure I pronounce it, but the shellies that go in power box, it just we have.

56:18 [SPEAKER_00]: our main power box, and then three sub boxes. [SPEAKER_00]: So it's just a lot of them in a lot of the little things. [SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm just like, I'm not gonna, so again, I will have 200 amps come into the house. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just, they're all over old house, right? [SPEAKER_00]: And so it's another one of those things that's charming that you go like, oh, this breaker controls something on the other side of the world.

56:36 [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, okay. [UNKNOWN]: So why? [SPEAKER_02]: I was going to say I actually liked the fact that you have like kind of localized sub panels, but if it's, if it's messy, like that would drive me full. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: And there's some. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just like, I can't no breaker controls this outlet.

56:51 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I just have to go out and do the main and it turns off that. [SPEAKER_00]: And I have no idea why. [SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, it's got to be one of them somewhere. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's a whole project one day is just tracing behind those things. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: And you do go back to your question earlier about retrofitting things in this house.

57:10 [SPEAKER_00]: It's what's been really nice and forgiving about it is we're on a, we have a crawl space, or Florida, we have a basement, so everything's a little raised, and so I can crawl under there and run cables. [SPEAKER_00]: due to different things like on my RJ-45, like I'm so able to run easily for all my PUE cameras and all that different kind of stuff, so that's been helpful.

57:29 [SPEAKER_00]: Flat roofs, so we don't have an attic, so everything is underneath, so you're in a free-foot space belly crawl around, but you can get it done. [SPEAKER_02]: If you do that, do you have to worry about, like, this might be a really stupid question, but you have to worry about mice or anything like chewing through the cables, or...

57:45 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, yes, you do and so most of them, you know, there's a mesh and so there's only a few like vents and there's one access point to it But yeah, you do have to to concern yourself with that. [SPEAKER_00]: I used at first For my for my PUE stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: I used flat RJ45 cables because they were easy to get through a really thin hole and stuff and then my cameras were at one day And yeah, they had been chewed through so then I went to like outside grade like this really thick like burial [SPEAKER_00]: We've argued for five and it's been five and ever since, but that's the only one we've had.

58:18 [SPEAKER_00]: Other than that, you just got, I've had more problems with squirrels getting my profit than I have. [SPEAKER_00]: Anything going under the house. [SPEAKER_02]: That's fair, that's fair. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, because it's, again, I was like, I don't know if it's like technically part of inside or if it's just like fenced off and it's outside of what kind of thing is that you could also use like conduit if you really cared, right?

58:37 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, yeah, I have a lot of stuff in conduit under there just from how purposes you know, it's just easier to, if I need to change out a cable, which is super easy just to tie to one end and pull it back through. [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, without any time under the house again. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but it's nice so that you have access to that right you just climb under the house and just poke a hole from underneath wherever you want to go and Here you go, you got to see up thing but connect it.

59:00 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's handy. [SPEAKER_00]: And then the other thing that I want, it's funny, because we're proud ourselves on it like, not looking like a smart home, right? [SPEAKER_00]: And you just move through it and things happen. [SPEAKER_00]: And all of your automation's happen is, as you go through the world, not having to interact with the house, it's working for you.

59:17 [SPEAKER_00]: But then I was on a call with a coworker and my boss actually had a brilliant conversation. [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, you're at home. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, do make your smart home do something for me. [SPEAKER_00]: And I was kind of like, [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't really have anything to show off for you.

59:30 [SPEAKER_00]: What do I do? [SPEAKER_00]: I do. [SPEAKER_00]: And so I just said, like, before my phone at a shade and just told Siri, he closed the shade and he thought it was cool, but I'm like, that's just not cool, you know? [SPEAKER_00]: And so when I heard a network truck on your show and he was talking about his Halloween set up with a thunderstorm and stuff.

59:46 [SPEAKER_00]: So now I'm done with it. [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, I need a party trick, you know? [SPEAKER_00]: And I need a party trick for the house. [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's what I'm working on now as a thunderstorm with the shades are going to close. [SPEAKER_00]: the sanders throughout the home pods and the lights flash lightning and stuff.

1:00:03 [SPEAKER_02]: I feel like I feel like that's the equivalent of like... [SPEAKER_02]: Hey, like, you know, you've got to kid in your kids in like on the gymnastics or something and you're like, okay, little Timmy, you're going to do a trick, right? [SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, what do you want me to do?

1:00:17 [SPEAKER_00]: Totally. [SPEAKER_00]: It's for me, it's as an aging former and still current skateboarder kid. [SPEAKER_00]: It's the hey, do a flip track or do a kick flip. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: That's not it. [SPEAKER_03]: Well, Mike, thank you so much for taking time to talk to us today.

1:00:36 [SPEAKER_03]: We really appreciate it. [SPEAKER_03]: I will track down that I miss some time machine and leave links in their slides. [SPEAKER_03]: Mike, thank you so much for your call. [SPEAKER_03]: So thank you for putting us onto that too. [SPEAKER_00]: course. [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for shaping it on and you gave me some some homework with these new helper.

1:00:57 [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, they didn't sense it. [SPEAKER_03]: Get on it. [SPEAKER_03]: I should sense it. [SPEAKER_03]: We just see what you come up with. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I got to feel and there's here to be going to be some stuff with that. [SPEAKER_00]: It's fun. [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks, my perfect. [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks.

1:01:12 [SPEAKER_03]: If you want to share your home's isn't journey or come on as a guest, reach out to us at feedback at haspodcast.io. [SPEAKER_03]: That's HASSpodcast.io. [SPEAKER_01]: The home assistant podcast is hosted by Phil Hartdoren and myself, Rohan Keremandi. [SPEAKER_01]: For links to topics we discussed today, check out ur show notes on haspodcast.io.