The Home Assistant Smart Home That Reminds, Nudges, and almost Pours Tea

0:05 [SPEAKER_01]: Hello and welcome to the Hymnisten Podcast. [SPEAKER_01]: My name is Phil and it's joining me. [SPEAKER_01]: I've got Rohan with me. [SPEAKER_01]: How you doing, man? [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, good, how are you? [SPEAKER_01]: Good, thank you, and today from the UK we've got Jason joining us. [SPEAKER_01]: How are you, mate?

0:16 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm very good. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you very much for having me. [SPEAKER_01]: There you are. [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome. [SPEAKER_01]: Before we get started, here's a quick word from our sponsor. [SPEAKER_01]: Home Assistant Cloud by Navrucasa. [SPEAKER_01]: If you've ever tried to set up remote access the hard way, dynamic DNS, reverse proxy, self-science certificates, Navrucasa is the easy button.

0:35 [SPEAKER_01]: Sign up, flip a switch, done, and you can access your home assistant from anywhere. [SPEAKER_01]: What's more, you also get secure off-site backups, voice control with the Amazon Echo or Google Home Devices, and the ability to supercharge your DIY voice assistant. [SPEAKER_01]: And here's the part we love.

0:56 [SPEAKER_01]: Your subscription pays the developers behind home assistant, SP home, and the open home foundation. [SPEAKER_01]: It's the best few dollars a month you'll spend on your smart home. [SPEAKER_01]: Start your 31-day trial today, just open your home assistant settings, go to the cloud page or sign up at nabukasa.com.

1:17 [SPEAKER_01]: There's a link in the description. [SPEAKER_01]: This episode is also sponsored by our friends at Apollo Automation, makers of open-source smart home sensors are built for the home assistant ecosystem. [SPEAKER_01]: They're an official open-home foundation commercial partner, and their devices are built with a local control, privacy, and reliability in mind.

1:39 [SPEAKER_01]: Almost everything they offer is works with home assistant and made for ESP home certified, giving you full control and flexibility right out of the box. [SPEAKER_01]: And the best part, they build in the open, working directly with the community to create sensors that people actually need.

1:57 [SPEAKER_01]: If you're deep into home assistant or just getting started, definitely check them out at ApolloAutomation.com. [SPEAKER_01]: Jason, thank you so much for joining us today. [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm actually going to get you in the UK, how long have you been into, I'm going to mention for. [SPEAKER_02]: Home automation probably five or six years and for home assistant, probably about four or five of those years.

2:22 [SPEAKER_02]: So I started off as a lot of people do, firstly with a Google home, [SPEAKER_02]: found that didn't work very well, particularly microphones, switched over to Willix, but I was really looking for something that just was a bit more automatic and felt a bit more like the home almost head of brain.

2:41 [SPEAKER_02]: So a home assistant promoted on YouTube, looked at it, thought I'd really really like that, bought a Raspberry Pi 3, tried to sit it up every day and thought this [SPEAKER_02]: got the bug again off another YouTube video and then set it up and it's just been probably the thing that I spend most time on apart from that from work.

3:05 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's amazing like how sometimes you can just go down something like, you know what, not for me and [SPEAKER_01]: Somehow they, I don't know who is the algorithms or what, but somehow they can just get back in you on the front of mind, but I think I had the same thing with OpenClaw, I saw OpenClaw like, oh, that is way too complicated for me, leave it alone.

3:25 [SPEAKER_01]: And sure enough that you start seeing some other YouTube videos coming out like that. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, look, this cool thing, all right, I'll experiment with it again, and then bam, here you are, right, like running all these little profiles and AI agents and away you go. [SPEAKER_01]: So you started with Google home, so what was there like something that you didn't like in those sort of closed ecosystems that sort of wanted you to branch out more?

3:50 [SPEAKER_01]: Were you not getting enough powerful automations? [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's the powerful automation, and also it was probably the period when Google Home and those little units that they had, they started losing being able to understand you. [SPEAKER_02]: You got really, really thought about it.

4:07 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, it's standard thing where you'd ask for something and then, you know, the TV had switched itself off. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: just sort of found a mixer a bit better, but I think with a high-miss distance thing really kicked in a game when I was looking at, I think it was probably almost a tipping point when Nebuchastra, where they really made it a lot more accessible, and I think the work that they've done over the last five or six years, as well as taking home assistant forward, they've made it so much easier for people to enter into it as well and get the bug early rather than looking at and going.

4:38 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, I've got so much jammer local understanding if I get, you know, that paranoia about if I get a line wrong, I'm going to completely cook it all. [SPEAKER_02]: So it was just little, little entries that lentries and I think probably one of the things that got me back to home assistant was, um, there's a guy here in the UK called Mark what.

4:58 [SPEAKER_02]: On the YouTube and I think what he did was what I saw was. [SPEAKER_02]: him getting Alexa to ask you a question and then based on your response it would do something through home assistant. [SPEAKER_02]: I went, there we go. [SPEAKER_02]: That's exactly what I want to start playing with say, that was that.

5:13 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I actually have Mark on episode 193. [SPEAKER_01]: So if you're on Shigusupin you want to see what Mark's doing, can you go? [SPEAKER_01]: Check out his channel and also check out episode 193. [SPEAKER_01]: It's a fantastic shirt with Mark. [SPEAKER_00]: Good knowledge. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

5:28 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: And so prior to this, what were you doing? [SPEAKER_00]: Were you just doing it on natively in Google Home or Amazon Echo or like, I know you said you switched from one to the other, but then they were all the machines and routines inside either of them. [SPEAKER_02]: But it really was that sort of limited.

5:46 [SPEAKER_02]: you know, turn the lights on at this time or make sure that the lights are off at a certain time with a couple of teenage children. [SPEAKER_02]: As I had then, you know, switching things off was not their greatest strength. [SPEAKER_02]: So again, that I wouldn't say paranoia, but you know, that's sort of almost control-free career about, you know, you can start doing these things.

6:06 [SPEAKER_02]: And then as I said, [SPEAKER_02]: What I've always wanted of, and I'm not very good on the actual technical side of anything, you know, in terms of coding or anything like that. [SPEAKER_02]: But what I think I am quite good at is seeing how it's done and then beginning to go, well, do you know, if I do that, [SPEAKER_02]: And then I'll do that.

6:25 [SPEAKER_02]: I'll do that. [SPEAKER_02]: Actually, all of the sudden, this all builds together, and like I said, you know, marks thing about, you know, you can actually get a lecture asking you questions based on an automation and in home assistant, and then responding to whether you say yes or no, like said, I was just off and running after that.

6:42 [SPEAKER_01]: So what have you got the lady asking you then, like that you have found powerful? [SPEAKER_02]: It's everything from, you know, if I walk into the living room, it will ask me if I want the TV to be switched on and then, you know, based on that, it'll do that. [SPEAKER_02]: Similarly, if I come into my garden office here and it's a certain time of day, [SPEAKER_02]: it will say hello to me and then ask, do you want to fire up the desk, you know, because I'm probably here to work and then again, it will also straight after that ask me if I want a cup of tea and more than boil the kettle because I drink far too much tea throughout the course of the day, you know, and all fire everything up like that or again, if I've got a meeting five minutes beforehand or say you've got a meeting, do you want to go into do not disturb mode and again will ask me if I want a cup of tea for that meeting.

7:33 [SPEAKER_02]: and then a minute later it will then remind me to put my headphones on because I was finding, you know, I get that five-minute reminder which was brilliant and then I get, again, I get engrossed in something else and missed the start of the meeting. [SPEAKER_02]: So it's all that type of thing.

7:48 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so yeah, it's just asking you to ask questions all the time. [SPEAKER_02]: That's nice. [SPEAKER_01]: I've never, like, I love the premise of those questions being asked, but if I always found them, like, to never be asked at the right time, you seem to be using them a lot. [SPEAKER_01]: Do you find them obtrusive, like, or too much, if you've got a delay or a cooldown before they're asked again?

8:14 [SPEAKER_02]: Certainly for the living room, yeah, that can be a problem. [SPEAKER_02]: So there is a cooldown within that, and sort of with some of the others, I use helpers. [SPEAKER_02]: So it will turn its, you know, if it thinks that the next time the scenario is going to kind of happen, the health will be on, and that will be a condition, and then, you know, [SPEAKER_02]: the fact that I've answered it all into the helper off.

8:39 [SPEAKER_02]: So, again, if it, like I said, if we go into the living room, you know, that helper will be off for 10 minutes because if I'm flitting in and out the living room, it will know not to do it. [SPEAKER_02]: So, yeah, I'd be [SPEAKER_02]: Again, very much trial and error, and I think probably over the last three years, you know, those conditions and helpers have really, really grown, once you sort of begin to figure it out like I said, you go, well actually, if I do it like that, and then I do that, yeah, that will work, you know, again, there's stuff like, I've got a pause automation on that living room TV.

9:11 [SPEAKER_02]: So if I, again, go out the room, it'll pause the TV, but I've done always want that because there will be, there might be other people in the room. [SPEAKER_02]: So, again, as part of that whole TV fire up routine, after I say, yes, I want the TV on, the next question will be, do you want the causal automation on?

9:31 [SPEAKER_02]: And again, the health will flick on and off, depending on what they're answer is. [SPEAKER_02]: So, I mean, most of the time, it will be yes, because, you know, I'm sort of in there by myself. [SPEAKER_02]: So, I'd say, walk out the room, TV pauses, walk back in the room, TV comes back on.

9:47 [SPEAKER_01]: It's, I know for me, like, I could just never get the question to be asked at the right time. [SPEAKER_01]: Right, and maybe that's where I am at that stage of the life right, like to very two young kids. [SPEAKER_01]: I can imagine, you know, like the Amazon Echo just all of a sudden, waking up and asking a question of my kids before the questions even finished would be asking, like, why is it asking, why, what, and then I'd never be able to get my voice across, and answer the question properly.

10:12 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's funny because it changes the whole other level of just dynamic interaction that you don't necessarily want. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm at that stage of life where the two kids go and spend all the time in their bedrooms, because one of them's gaming or talking to his mates on TikTok and the other ones upstairs just watching TV.

10:41 [SPEAKER_00]: Do you have any pets or anything like that, and does that, do you find the doubt could or does affect stuff? [SPEAKER_02]: We've got one very adventurous cat, probably doesn't it affect it as much as it could do because she likes to be able to spend most of the time outside hunting things.

10:58 [SPEAKER_02]: But in terms of, you know, again, talking about the living room or here in the office, the present centre I've got is sort of set halfway up the wall. [SPEAKER_02]: So her wondering around, she's not going to really set it off. [SPEAKER_02]: The only thing she'll occasionally set off is the lights at the top of the landing at night, because she likes to come in about five o'clock and decide that she's now rolling the house.

11:24 [SPEAKER_02]: So she'll walk in and all of a sudden just through [SPEAKER_02]: the light will sort of, you know, let's theorize it that, you know, there's one of the small, small ones that I've not figured out yet. [SPEAKER_02]: Interesting, okay. [SPEAKER_01]: You mentioned in your email to us that when something breaks, you'd like to find another way to solve problems, can you give us an example of that?

11:52 [SPEAKER_02]: It's probably tinkering and it's again to the work to my problem solving that I like to do. [SPEAKER_02]: But when something breaks, I don't just do any of that. [SPEAKER_02]: That's a bit of a pain. [SPEAKER_02]: It was probably about 18 months ago. [SPEAKER_02]: My ex-media player was really playing out in terms of every update seemed to be breaking the connection.

12:15 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, my still working. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so I switched over to the official Amazon integration. [SPEAKER_02]: Um... [SPEAKER_02]: And that's sort of worked all right, but are they in found again for a lot of those questions? [SPEAKER_02]: It likes media players just worked a lot better, so they came back.

12:31 [SPEAKER_02]: So again, it's just being flexible and being able to move around, I mean, the one thing that's causing me great problems at the moment is we've recently got a car with Andrew Adorto and up. [SPEAKER_02]: And again, I was beginning to sort something on YouTube that you can get telegram to send you messages and other big football fan.

12:53 [SPEAKER_02]: and as well as following my team, I like to sort of hear various scores during the afternoon and most Saturday afternoon, I'll actually be driving around. [SPEAKER_02]: So, working through the ESPN team tracker integration and home assistant at the end of the team, I like it would then send the telegram message to the car and would just read out the score.

13:20 [SPEAKER_02]: So, you're not having to [SPEAKER_02]: You shouldn't be in your way, but pick up your phone, you'll get distracted with anything like that. [SPEAKER_02]: You're just getting there, they go all of it. [SPEAKER_02]: And then I thought further, actually, if I am coming home and again, this goes back to my teacher in King, having the kettle boil, a smart kettle boil, just as I walk through the door, it would be brilliant.

13:39 [SPEAKER_02]: So I said at one point two kilometers from home, get the message, telegram goes, do you want a cup of tea, and then if you reply, [SPEAKER_02]: saying, yes, or the kettle, those key words then fire the script within home assistant. [SPEAKER_02]: Unfortunately, Android Auto has broken that was turned off the telegram service as being recognized as a messaging app.

14:04 [SPEAKER_02]: So there's nothing wrong with the home assistant side but that's the working. [SPEAKER_02]: But the message doesn't come through and I'll be trying to work out, there's probably people screaming at the phones right at the moment saying, use what's at, [SPEAKER_02]: from what I understand what step won't take the answer back, that's just the little thing it's really really annoying me at the moment because I've got it working for about six weeks and I said, yeah, I'm cock of the walk here, I've got my kettle waiting for me as I get home, and you could do it automated but have I forgotten to put enough water in the kettle, there's [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and it could be like it does it the bone with the UK heatwave.

14:46 [SPEAKER_02]: Do you actually want a cup of tea as you walk through the door at 2 o'clock and they have no problem. [SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, you want to have that little level of control. [SPEAKER_02]: So, I'm working on that. [SPEAKER_02]: And there's buttons on the on the Android auto screen that you can use to fire it.

15:03 [SPEAKER_02]: There's a script again, but it's just, I just love that. [SPEAKER_02]: Do you want a cup of tea? [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, I do. [SPEAKER_02]: And it just goes often [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, it's nice. [SPEAKER_00]: It's nice. [SPEAKER_00]: We need to use voice instead of having to actually interact.

15:17 [SPEAKER_00]: I get that there's buttons, but that still kind of takes your focus away from the road, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Nits. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: And I'm very, I'm very to liberal. [SPEAKER_02]: I know there's a few people that you used to have on and some of them are, you know, the house should just work.

15:32 [SPEAKER_02]: It should just be all automations. [SPEAKER_02]: There shouldn't be any interaction. [SPEAKER_02]: Some people say they, you know, they love voice, some people love dashboards. [SPEAKER_02]: You know, I'm sort of right across all three, you know, this thing that people can just work in the background absolutely perfect.

15:45 [SPEAKER_02]: But there are also things that [SPEAKER_02]: You know, I like to have a bit of a choice and some of those will be voice, but then there'll be other things like winning a meeting or recordings podcast, I've got a look dashboard right next to me on the next of my main monitor and again, I can just lean over and turn the light on or you know, turn something off or or whatever, you know, so I like to be across all sort of three and and just be able to pick and choose.

16:13 [SPEAKER_00]: Now from like a perspective of, you said you kind of like using kind of all of them. [SPEAKER_00]: Do you find one of them? [SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, do you have a lot of voice interactions back and forth? [SPEAKER_00]: Do you find one of them kind of more desirable? [SPEAKER_00]: Do you prefer the voice?

16:32 [SPEAKER_00]: Do you prefer or is it kind of just like, yeah, whatever? [SPEAKER_02]: It really is, yeah, whatever. [SPEAKER_02]: You know, I'm not sort of welded. [SPEAKER_02]: The only thing I'm welded to is does it work and is at the easiest way. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's um, and, you know, like I said, there are some things where voice absolutely works.

16:49 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, the car example being perfect one where you don't want to be bleeding over or anything like that or picking your phone up. [SPEAKER_02]: But, you know, there are other things whereby, you know, just leading over and touching this dashboard right now. [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know, I say, I know the kettle started boiling, bizarrely whatever I could just lean over, discreetly, and turn the plug off.

17:12 [SPEAKER_02]: And again, you know, but this should also always be things that are just automated like. [SPEAKER_02]: you know, but a limited clock that light on the landing, which sort of shines into the bedrooms, there's a scene that just comes on automatically that will turn it to blue through to six thirty in the morning because you know, I forget up and need to go to the toilet where if you don't want to be going to be working up.

17:34 [SPEAKER_02]: And again, that type of thing, that should just be happening every day, never have to worry about it. [SPEAKER_02]: And I say, yeah, I, I, I, the only rule is just does it work and then if it works perfect, if not, again, going back to the point that for was asked about earlier, Tinker around, you'll probably find a solution somehow because again, that's the brilliant thing about home assistant.

17:55 [SPEAKER_02]: There's nothing. [SPEAKER_02]: short of Android Auto and Telegram. [SPEAKER_02]: There's nothing that you probably can't find effects around and even then sort of dipping into using Alexa routines as well. [SPEAKER_02]: So again, going back to the [SPEAKER_02]: She won't work. [SPEAKER_02]: It's not being seen natively into home assistant, but scripts and a smart plug, our work are seen from home assistant into a lecture.

18:27 [SPEAKER_02]: So home assistant is what's pairing it, but it is still jumping over to a lecture and saying, right, it's time to spoil the kit, because the plugs come on. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you're getting around like a device not natively supporting homes that they're going into the Amazon ecosystem and saying yep, and using home assistant to then flicker off a assuming an Amazon account routine in there to then switch on.

18:54 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so the kettle is. [SPEAKER_02]: The kid was probably overcomplicated for what it is, but there's a parammoner tree plug that's plugged into. [SPEAKER_02]: Not except the kid will only speak to Amazon. [SPEAKER_02]: So, I will turn around, particularly if the echo asks me or do a command to the echo saying, [SPEAKER_02]: That phrase is within Alexa and it knows that the tin the power plug on, quite a few seconds for the Wi-Fi to kick in on the kettle, boil the kettle.

19:37 [SPEAKER_02]: But then what happens is as soon as the current usage within the plug dies off, [SPEAKER_02]: It will turn that plug off, so again it sort of effectively resets the system. [SPEAKER_02]: But again, I am incredibly bad for boiling a kettle, and I will drive my wife absolutely up the wall.

20:00 [SPEAKER_02]: And I will forget that I have boiled a kettle, or I will forget even worse, and I have put a tea bag in the cup. [SPEAKER_02]: So... [SPEAKER_02]: that that power dipping in home assistant then sets off again it will read again based on the presence of which whichever room on them it will then give me a message saying time to answer the TV again.

20:20 [SPEAKER_02]: really inviting other five minutes trusting that I've actually gone and done it and then it will give me a very rude reminder to go and get the TV out of the cup and I wouldn't say it's saved my marriage but certainly saved me a lot of money on electricity and a very upset wife because she's not stumbling over 20 minute old cups of tea and the other thing again with [SPEAKER_02]: is you don't want that notification for tea where you're just getting the same message the whole time.

20:47 [SPEAKER_02]: So those messages, there's there's four or five random messages for each of those alerts. [SPEAKER_02]: Some of them vary very, very rude, so they catch my attention, which I will not repeat on a fairly podcast, but you know it's literally all we can get off your band and go and take the tea bag out.

21:07 [SPEAKER_02]: So [SPEAKER_01]: Have you thought about throwing those over to an LLM, giving it even more random responses to going to get that to you? [SPEAKER_02]: I did. [SPEAKER_02]: There was a guy who, I can't remember what his YouTube channel was, but a couple years ago he was doing a lot around that type of stuff and random things.

21:28 [SPEAKER_02]: He sort of died off the channel net or the platform now. [SPEAKER_02]: I looked at it and that was just getting a little [SPEAKER_02]: We're off used LLMs but for instance is around the security on the driveway so that it will look at the snapshot and actually decide whether or not there's a human being on the driveway so I'm getting there with AI but now the random things on in terms of what it was I'm quite happy with Nicky.

22:00 [SPEAKER_02]: And it's sort of one of those things that it just works. [SPEAKER_01]: Now, it sounds like to me that presence is very important. [SPEAKER_01]: You just mentioned there when the house knows what room you're in, how does the house know what room you're in? [SPEAKER_02]: So I've got little ESP32s, the Bluetooth things that just hook into where my phone is.

22:22 [SPEAKER_02]: So that works for me. [SPEAKER_02]: And again, the mobile dashboard that I've got on my phone, [SPEAKER_02]: works to show the relevant room controls whenever I'm in it, I found that, I found that great. [SPEAKER_01]: That's actually, I was wondering, that is awesome. [SPEAKER_01]: So based on where you are in the house, you open up your app and the room, the base that you have a dashboard for the room you're in.

22:49 [SPEAKER_01]: Because that is, that's really cool. [SPEAKER_01]: I actually really like that. [SPEAKER_02]: I stole that off someone from YouTube. [SPEAKER_02]: I cannot claim credit for it. [SPEAKER_02]: But again, it's where the combination of the helpers sort of kicks in, because it will, again, as I move around the house, it will turn on a helper.

23:11 [SPEAKER_02]: So, at the moment, you know, Bluetooth adjacent to the office help the Reson, so my phone will show me the controls in the office. [SPEAKER_02]: When I go to the bedroom, it does the same. [SPEAKER_02]: I set up my family's phones to do the same. [SPEAKER_02]: but here in the UK, you know, houses are obviously, you know, a little bit smaller than the most places certainly, Canada, the states and Australia and New Zealand.

23:39 [SPEAKER_02]: So I was finding there was quite bit of overlay, and they weren't really using it anyway, and yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: You know, did I need to know which rooms they were in? [SPEAKER_02]: And was there any automations working off where they were? [SPEAKER_02]: No, so I just sort of again just crypt it back to, um, to it being me.

23:55 [SPEAKER_02]: Um, but yeah, I find it really, really useful in terms of, again, going back to the, the kettle, um, situation. [SPEAKER_02]: I've got two smart kids. [SPEAKER_02]: It was one in the office, one in the kettle. [SPEAKER_02]: That's why I went in the kitchen. [SPEAKER_02]: And if I get that, there are two different commands.

24:10 [SPEAKER_02]: But if I get the wrong one, if I say boil the kettle, which is the kitchen command. [SPEAKER_02]: But [SPEAKER_02]: presence into her saying, he's in the office, then I'll tell you, well, I'm not going to boil that kit, because this is clearly being the moron and done the wrong kind of hunt.

24:25 [SPEAKER_02]: So, you're not boiling the kettle on the other side of the house or anything like that. [SPEAKER_02]: And then it also allies with, I've got, I use the Lincoln link, presence in IAR, [SPEAKER_02]: they also as well as they can basically tell if someone in the room and then particularly useful in the office.

24:53 [SPEAKER_02]: It will tell that it's me in the office and so again slightly different things will be here. [SPEAKER_02]: You know the kids sometimes very rarely but sometimes will come out here and watch TV with their mates or things like that. [SPEAKER_02]: So again you don't want the office interacting and the way it does with me with them.

25:08 [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah it's an additional layer of verification right [SPEAKER_00]: that's cool. [SPEAKER_00]: Now, how do you find, like, as you go through the house, how do you find the accuracy of that? [SPEAKER_00]: Like, if I'm in this room versus just on the other side of the wall, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Like, do you have it?

25:28 [SPEAKER_00]: I know obviously there's a lot of ways to tune this, but do you have that tuned to that point? [SPEAKER_00]: Or is it mostly accurate and still kind of slips up once in a while? [SPEAKER_00]: Like, [SPEAKER_02]: I thought I'd got it exactly right, just again, just moving with ESP32s were just changing the distance in the absorption levels within home assistant and it was working perfectly and then this week the real problems between the bedroom and the kitchen because they're [SPEAKER_02]: So, I found that it was just flicking every minute or whatever between the two of them.

26:13 [SPEAKER_02]: So again, I've just had to just tweak it a little bit, seems to have gone back to normal. [SPEAKER_02]: But again, goes back to that question that Phil was asking, asking, you know, little things break and you just go in and just go, well, if I just try this and it usually you'll find your way.

26:28 [SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, [SPEAKER_02]: the main one that's best is definitely the office and then also the loving room because again part of the dashboard controls that will come up on my phone will control the volume particularly but also most of the TV controls are neither in either room so you know you can just lean over if you don't want to use your voice down the TV volume to go down just lean over and just press button and then run and script and then go up through or down through.

27:00 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Tom makes sense and then when I mean you talked about having those custom dashboards, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Like where's like hey, I mean the office gives you my office dashboard kind of thing. [SPEAKER_00]: What do you what do you default to in your outside of the home? [SPEAKER_00]: Do you find that it's kind of [SPEAKER_02]: Do you find that you just have like a page that's got everything because your outside or is it like garage doors or like stuff like that like what is yeah the the not at home dashboard is probably the the actual minimal one and it will show me.

27:32 [SPEAKER_02]: It will show me a picture of the doorbell camera, feed life, it will show me, as you say, the garage door, whether it's open or after, if I want to open it or not, it will show me where the family are, again, because whilst within the house their presence isn't tracked, you know, they are obviously on whether they're home or not, and I've got a lot of zones where people are [SPEAKER_02]: So again, now I can just look over and I can see that my older son is doing his job at Lake Island of London.

28:07 [SPEAKER_02]: And again, that might sound a bit creepy, but he's got a drive 45 minutes every day, there or not. [SPEAKER_02]: So again, it's those little things that sort of peaks in mind. [SPEAKER_02]: He might be 22, but I've still got to go out and fix his car when he runs over and blows the tire up as I did two weeks ago and find a firearm.

28:24 [SPEAKER_02]: via home assistant areas on some country road. [SPEAKER_02]: But no, the the not at home dashboard is very much skinny down, you know, and then I've got an outside dashboard as well, which doesn't work off my presence, but I've got to drop down menu work and just drop to it and again, that would just show me the outdoor lights, you know, the outdoor power plugs and all those types of things are great.

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30:17 [SPEAKER_00]: protocols and stuff you use there, right? [SPEAKER_00]: I know you said you started out on the Google Home ecosystem and then moved to the Amazon ecosystem. [SPEAKER_00]: And you do stuff with the S332s and so on. [SPEAKER_00]: Most of those things are Wi-Fi devices. [SPEAKER_00]: This is a fair to say that you're using primarily Wi-Fi, or do you use ZigBee, do you any matter?

30:39 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, I started off again probably because I'm a bit cheap, started off with a lot of Wi-Fi devices. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: And then I had the Google Nests, Mesh Wi-Fi, and finding real problems with that both on the smart home side, but also particularly getting the Wi-Fi out to the office.

31:02 [SPEAKER_02]: So, as well as switching over to T.P. [SPEAKER_02]: Lanky, I'm really getting to the move to a lot of Zigbee devices. [SPEAKER_02]: So, I've got a lot of a lot of the carous stuff and I find that rock solid. [SPEAKER_02]: Again, I only use ZHA for that. [SPEAKER_02]: I know a lot of people have got a lot of criticisms and say it doesn't work at scale, but I think I've got a lot of criticisms and say it doesn't work at scale, but I think I've got a lot of criticisms and say it doesn't work at scale, but I think I've got a lot of criticisms and say it doesn't work at scale, but I think I've got a lot of criticisms and say it doesn't work at scale, but I think I've got a lot of criticisms and say it doesn't work at scale, but I think I've got a lot of criticisms and say it doesn't work at scale, but I think I've got a lot of criticisms and say it doesn't work at scale, but I

31:23 [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's 58 Zigbee devices running through ZHA. [SPEAKER_02]: You know, absolutely works perfectly, you know, there's Zigbee stuff out here in the office. [SPEAKER_02]: I've got and a carer will probably hold the hits and horror at this. [SPEAKER_02]: But I've got one of just their indoor motion sensors right out on the driveway, on the gate post.

31:45 [SPEAKER_02]: Sort of, it sort of protected slightly from the weather, but that's what that's what sets off the lights on the driveway. [SPEAKER_02]: You know, and both of those are absolutely fine, but again, I've got, you know, occasionally one thing might drop off, and I've sort of set it up so I get the alerts onto my to-doers to do list to go and fix that.

32:06 [SPEAKER_02]: So probably, [SPEAKER_02]: far fewer Wi-Fi devices and a lot of the Wi-Fi devices that I have got, I've managed to move over to Toyo Local, so at least you've got that control level control, and then I've got a few meta devices. [SPEAKER_02]: Not a huge amount, but I used to work for a German smart heating company [SPEAKER_02]: And while I was there, I'm just trying to think, I must have been 2025, they launched their meta smart thermostrex.

32:38 [SPEAKER_02]: So all my smart heating's working off meta, which again all feeds into home assistant, and I actually controlled it through home assistant. [SPEAKER_02]: Just so again, so it gives me that local control gives me a bit of protection in case there isn't anything that ever changes with the company.

32:52 [SPEAKER_02]: And then I've got a few of the IKEA matters devices that have just come out. [SPEAKER_02]: But again, maybe there's been me being a little bit simplistic, but I found the Zippy stuff, just as robust, just as easy to use as anything with Metro Over Thread, and some of the Metro Over Thread things.

33:13 [SPEAKER_02]: It doesn't always play nice. [SPEAKER_02]: And again, to me, you know, having homocyst and almost [SPEAKER_02]: is that answers the matter question because you know I've I've got everything I need within home assistant or it's just sort of slightly off to the side and Alexa. [SPEAKER_02]: So [SPEAKER_02]: you know, I can control everything effectively with with with one platform.

33:35 [SPEAKER_02]: Um, you know, I know I know I met as come in, but I said, doesn't always work quite as you want it yet. [SPEAKER_01]: It's not quite mature enough yet. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think I care found that out the the hard way. [SPEAKER_01]: Um, with all that new devices at the moment. [SPEAKER_01]: Um, you mentioned to do us just then, or I think is a good segue into something that I've been excited and I'm wanting to start picking your brains about.

34:01 [SPEAKER_01]: So, um, can you tell me how you have turned home assistant into Jason Assistant? [SPEAKER_02]: Uh, let's- [SPEAKER_02]: that is probably what I really wanted smart technology to be, was looking after me rather than just turning the lights on and things like that. [SPEAKER_02]: You know, you go back to the whole Jarvis Ironman type thing, that's where we work, that's where everybody really wants to get to.

34:25 [SPEAKER_02]: So, I already before I'd gone into home assistant, was using to do us to sort of basically structure my day on, you know, [SPEAKER_02]: I work in quite a fast-paced job, lots of different things changing, and also, you know, I can go down and grab old and things like that. [SPEAKER_02]: So if I stick it on the list, I at least now it'll get done.

34:47 [SPEAKER_02]: So the whole reason why I used to do this, and then when I got into home assistance, I began to see, you know, some of the possibilities in terms of automations, both in, for meetings, [SPEAKER_02]: So they will all work together and tell me effectively what I've got to do and again if it's on a list then it will get done and it goes down to things like even, you know, say a battery runs out on a prison sense somewhere.

35:21 [SPEAKER_02]: As soon as home assistant takes that son available, it will then drop a job into my main to do list and say go and fix the door sensor. [SPEAKER_02]: And people say, well, you know, you can just get that notification on your phone, absolutely can. [SPEAKER_02]: But I've got so many notifications going on my phone that, you know, I'll look at it.

35:43 [SPEAKER_02]: I think, yeah, I'll get to that in three hours or whatever, and then I'll just forget. [SPEAKER_02]: And then three days later, I'll go, hang on, what's the automation working off that door sensor not working? [SPEAKER_02]: Where is if it's still in, in, to do it, I know right, yep, no, I've got to go and do that.

35:56 [SPEAKER_02]: So I'll go and press the button, it all will come back to life. [SPEAKER_02]: or sorry, I'll change the battery. [SPEAKER_02]: It's also something drops off the system as well. [SPEAKER_02]: We can just go and, you know, press it button and bring it on. [SPEAKER_02]: And then, one of them also done is, and this is where the power of that to do with the integration is great, is say it drops, if we talk about something dropping off the system.

36:18 [SPEAKER_02]: So it comes back, you know, it's a two hour hitsy foot or whatever, two o'clock in the morning. [SPEAKER_02]: It will have created that to do as the entry for me, but then if it spots that has come back on the system and let's you go and clear it and so it's not like I'm waking up and then going hang on, it's telling me I've just this thing's broken, I've got to go and fix it, well, no, we're completely fine.

36:37 [SPEAKER_02]: So it's it's doing that sort of smart thinking in the background for me, and then again, you know, there are. [SPEAKER_02]: certain things during the week that I've got to do for my work or dusting the living room or anything like that. [SPEAKER_02]: So we're taking the bins out and again working to home assistance waste collection service integration which scrapes the local council where I am.

37:04 [SPEAKER_02]: So it will tell me whether it's the green bin for a garden waste, whether it's recycling bin, whether it's the general waste bin on each day. [SPEAKER_02]: And so it's probably about four o'clock today, whose tomorrow is our recycling bin. [SPEAKER_02]: I can see on my dashboard, four o'clock today, it will stick something into this, and then alert me at six o'clock tonight.

37:28 [SPEAKER_02]: You've got to go and stick that bin out. [SPEAKER_02]: And again, there's a little in a seat tag on the side of the bin. [SPEAKER_02]: I'll swipe that with my phone and then that will clear the to-do as job. [SPEAKER_02]: But also, stop at, I'm now 8.30 tonight, that if that to-do as job isn't being done, home assistant will actually pause the TV if I'm in the living room and tell me to get off my bun and go and take the bin out.

38:00 [SPEAKER_02]: you know, put things on, but it'll also take things off. [SPEAKER_02]: So it all good nights, it's me greatly and also saves me a lot of trouble with the wife. [SPEAKER_02]: Another one that's quite good for a sort of spouse, keeping the spouse happy, is I can always get brownie points that if my wife puts the washing on and then she goes out, home assistant based on on those two things goes right [SPEAKER_02]: he can get some brownie points, he knows when the washing machine's going to finish so he can come and stick it in the dryer, go and stick it on the washing line.

38:32 [SPEAKER_02]: So it'll then put something on my to-do list list but also give me an alerts going, you know, washing machine's done, you might want to put the washing out and then when she gets home, the washing's already out in the line, I get the brownie points because I've been thinking about it, but I haven't been doing that at home assistance, been sorting it out for me, so that's fine.

38:48 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you're basically automating your marriage, basically right there. [SPEAKER_01]: So, I use something similar. [SPEAKER_01]: If we're looking at JSON, this is the money as fillers isn't enough. [SPEAKER_01]: I've mentioned this before. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure many a time, but I use a service called Reclaim.

39:04 [SPEAKER_01]: Very similar. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, if a battery dies or a device is not responding, I will have a task added to my Google tasks via home assistant in a certain format, which then will get picked up by Reclaim, which is an AI scheduling assistant. [SPEAKER_01]: So in those tasks I'll say block out 15 minutes for me to go and change the battery in this blind.

39:27 [SPEAKER_01]: And then on my calendar, I think once the kids are gone to bed, just about 9pm. [SPEAKER_01]: So anything between after 9pm to 11pm is basically the time that ALI can schedule all my personal admin tasks to do. [SPEAKER_01]: And it will go in and block out that 15 minutes for me to go and change that blind battery.

39:46 [SPEAKER_01]: And then I'll just mark it as done and it won't repeat. [SPEAKER_01]: I delete that calendar event the next day so I'll just go to the next day what did I do last night to delete that calendar event and then the AI will then reschedule that For me, so it basically time boxes or my little personal admin stuff so I don't forget about it Just tell me yeah, good doing some pretty similar [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and like so, it just takes the stress out of having to remember those things because, yeah, yeah, I'd say if it's on the list, it will get done, if not, there will always be something that will jump in front of you and take your attention away.

40:22 [SPEAKER_02]: So, yeah, it just organizes me so much better, lots of meetings, you know, will drop the meeting in or, you know, if I've got a, so every Friday, I sit down and plan out next week's work. [SPEAKER_02]: Again, it will only do it at about 12 o'clock on a Friday. [SPEAKER_02]: It will drop it into my work to do list plan next week.

40:46 [SPEAKER_02]: Now, you could just do a recurring to-do list task for instance and just say, you know, this has always got to be there. [SPEAKER_02]: But again, you will just get blind to that, um, yeah, to that entry. [SPEAKER_02]: So again, it's just thinking your way through popping up resurfacing at much like you'll do with AI field.

41:01 [SPEAKER_02]: Just resurface back so it gets you to attention again, it's sorted out and everybody's happy. [SPEAKER_01]: And then of course, like you can then make that a bit more smarter occurring as well. [SPEAKER_01]: Like if you're on holiday, the next week don't schedule that thing in right or if it's a public holiday delay it by day before it gets scheduled in I think that's one of the great things.

41:22 [SPEAKER_02]: that the waste collection service being so dynamic and live is, you know, we have a lot of bank holidays and my bins are collected on a Monday and that's when bank holidays are here. [SPEAKER_02]: So it will automatically go through and go. [SPEAKER_02]: You know, it's east of Monday for instance, you know, the green by the, uh, recycling is actually going to get collected on Wednesday because, you know, the local council is having to catch up on, on letting it out.

41:49 [SPEAKER_02]: Uh, so, you know, all that sort of dynamic side of it is, is, you know, it's just so powerful. [SPEAKER_02]: So again, it's just not a static thing that, you know, as you say, you get up on, or, you know, Easter Sunday, it's even a clock put the bin out and then it's set there for three days.

42:06 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, you've also got to do this. [SPEAKER_01]: Are you automating anything with calendars as well? [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the, again, my, my work calendar. [SPEAKER_02]: far too many meetings at work, which I hope my boss doesn't hear this, but far too many meetings at work and there's always the chance that you'll miss something.

42:27 [SPEAKER_02]: So again, you know, it will automatically work off my work calendar and go five minutes beforehand, you know, here's an alert. [SPEAKER_02]: Like I said, you are a cup of tea, a minute before hand, it will turn around and go, you need to, you know, you need to put your headphones on just as a reminder that the meetings coming up.

42:46 [SPEAKER_02]: Or I also have, I've got, to the three or four friends that quite regularly on a Friday will come around for what called bad strings here in the cabin. [SPEAKER_02]: And I'll put that into the, into my calendar for Friday. [SPEAKER_02]: And again, high-miss system will then recognize that entry, and it's flicks on an automation whereby I have anyone between, you know, five o'clock and seven o'clock on that particular day, Chris is a doorbell that will open the garage door to pick, so my mates can just literally come through.

43:15 [SPEAKER_02]: come through the garage, come out to the cabin. [SPEAKER_02]: Mrs. Colley doesn't have to get up and answer the door four or five times in 15 minutes and get particularly annoyed at me. [SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, again, there's such little things, but it just makes life so much simpler.

43:30 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I really like that. [SPEAKER_01]: Like you know, people coming over, I just, yeah, make the doorbell now a remote control for the garage. [SPEAKER_00]: It's smart actually. [SPEAKER_00]: I've never, I've never thought to do something like that. [SPEAKER_00]: That's brilliant. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, even if you didn't have, like, maybe it wasn't a garage, like you do look at a door lock.

43:46 [SPEAKER_01]: Right? [SPEAKER_01]: Like the doorbell. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, or whatever it is. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, yeah, a smart lock on the front door is a sort of ongoing. [SPEAKER_02]: disagreement between myself and my wife. [SPEAKER_02]: I'd have it on in a heartbeat.

44:01 [SPEAKER_02]: I've got I've got one here on the, on the, Kevin door. [SPEAKER_02]: Yep. [SPEAKER_02]: Again, because you know, I'm usually when I'm leaving, I'll have things in the hand. [SPEAKER_02]: So I don't want to have to lock the door. [SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, I run a routine. [SPEAKER_02]: I say, you know, good night Kevin.

44:16 [SPEAKER_02]: shuts various things down, beacuse me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me [SPEAKER_01]: So we mentioned before that the dream of most people is to have an Iron Man Jarvis style smart home.

44:55 [SPEAKER_01]: One of the things that I really liked about the Jarvis is the morning briefing that you can get. [SPEAKER_01]: Have you set up any briefings or daily briefings for your smart home? [SPEAKER_02]: Yes. [SPEAKER_02]: So again, so I work [SPEAKER_02]: I worked from home three days a week and go into the office two days a week so every choose their Thursday as soon as I walk out the house you know between say 730 and 9 and it recognises them outside the house or outside the house zone and then again then this is where home assistant and Emma's in a talking to each other I will get a couple of things [SPEAKER_02]: then I'll get a weather forecast for the day.

45:44 [SPEAKER_02]: I'll get what's on my calendar, or the next four items on my calendar, and then where Anderson's very good is it will then play a news briefing for me. [SPEAKER_02]: So I'll get the BBC National Headlines, but also the BBC Local Headlines. [SPEAKER_02]: And again, as part of my job, I need to, you know, going into work, knowing what's [SPEAKER_02]: gives me a little jump up for the day.

46:10 [SPEAKER_02]: So I'll get that. [SPEAKER_02]: Similarly, when I leave the office as I'm walking out, again, to text our left work and runs pretty much the same thing again. [SPEAKER_02]: And then on other days, if I'm in the bedroom, I've had a shower, whatever I'm getting dressed. [SPEAKER_02]: I'll say, you know, good morning to the echo.

46:30 [SPEAKER_02]: And because it will recognise its Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, [SPEAKER_02]: but then also detect whether or not the office door lock is locked or not and then it says you want me to unlock the office door. [SPEAKER_02]: So it unlocks the door so I'm already that you know I'm already set a half way there.

46:46 [SPEAKER_02]: So yeah I use it for a lot of briefings. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, to me, and this is just my version to all those notifications, have you thought about instead of doing that notification to say, like, would you like a bit unlock the door? [SPEAKER_01]: Could you put some smarts around, like, okay, it's a weekday, there's just open the external door to the house, there's now this motion detected at the front of the cabin, I should unlock.

47:11 [SPEAKER_01]: the cabin door without having to prompt you, like could there be a different way to like not need you to be asked that question every morning? [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, probably if I didn't go into the office, it would almost be an automated thing because it would know that yes, it's between Monday and Friday, then yes, I'll certainly open the open the cabin back.

47:34 [SPEAKER_02]: Again, my work schedule can be a little bit, you know, [SPEAKER_02]: a little bit, I might not actually be working in the cabin on the Monday, I might have him to be going to the office. [SPEAKER_02]: So it just gives me that option. [SPEAKER_02]: And I think probably because of the door lock I've got on the cabin, I think sort of a motion or say the SP32 picked me up halfway down the garden.

48:02 [SPEAKER_02]: I think the way this toy door lock is quite a cheap one works. [SPEAKER_02]: It would take a wee while, so I'd already be at the door waiting for it to unlock. [SPEAKER_02]: Right. [SPEAKER_02]: So it's again, just at the time, you know, you know, again, I think we go back to the whole point about homes, it is so flexible, that those little things, [SPEAKER_02]: can work for one person, but you've got another way of doing it for another person.

48:26 [SPEAKER_02]: So yes, and I say, I don't know, you open the back door between certain time on Monday, Wednesday or Friday, yes, it might then turn around ago. [SPEAKER_02]: Actually, I will unlock the cabin door because I know that whoever's coming out is only going to do it for that reason. [SPEAKER_02]: So again, you've got that [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I mean, that's also where stuff like, again, I know your wife is against smart locks, but that's also where like the newer ones that do things like ultra wide band, right?

49:00 [SPEAKER_00]: Where you like walk up to it. [SPEAKER_00]: If you're not familiar with it, there's a new protocol called Lyro, which I ironically have a sticker in front of me for. [SPEAKER_00]: again, don't know why. [SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, whereas things like, you walk, you walk up to it and, you know, it automatically unlocks and whatever in your closed door locks behind you kind of thing, right?

49:24 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's, I think, you know, [SPEAKER_00]: that's kind of that new wave of where things are going, right? [SPEAKER_00]: And we saw a bunch of stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: I know we're focusing on locks right now, we saw a bunch of stuff with the palm reading or just a whole bunch of different, like I think a lockily had one that looked at your face, kind of like face ID style, a couple of others I think did too.

49:50 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's funny because at CES, [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's almost like one person comes up with this technology and goes, hey, all locked manufacturers, look at this thing. [SPEAKER_00]: That everyone has it. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but to me, the ultra wide band one is really a game changer, right?

50:09 [SPEAKER_00]: Because it's, it's not the same as like, it's, it's a lot more frictionless, right? [SPEAKER_00]: You're not, you're not holding your hand up against this thing or you're not like, I'm a retinoscale. [SPEAKER_00]: What happened? [SPEAKER_02]: Having to take your head off because it doesn't make you know, as you face without with a head off.

50:25 [SPEAKER_00]: right so whereas it's just again and you'll have an override in case you leave your phone or watch or something back inside it's like oh shoot right okay let me use my fingerprint or number pad or whatever right and again that's an override not a not the primary way but [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's, I don't know, I always find this fascinating, right?

50:44 [SPEAKER_00]: So it's, you know, even from your perspective from what we were talking about something like that, it just be great, it doesn't matter. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: And it's also authenticated, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, this is Jason walking up to the door, or hey, this is, when you're children, whatever, right, spouse, whatever.

50:59 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's a different way of looking at that, right? [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, like I said, I'd have any of that on my front door in a heartbeat, but it's the problem is we've got quite a finicky sort of latch and it's got stupid little hook below it as well. [SPEAKER_02]: And so what you'd have to, you know, if you're doing something like the switch box switch box ultra pro on it, I mean, you know, you'd have to get an extra [SPEAKER_02]: probably a good three or four inches off it and she won't tolerate that side of it, but yeah, no, the ultra wide bounce in sounds very good.

51:38 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's pretty cool. [SPEAKER_00]: You talked a lot about your your T automations and and you know how how you're kind of world revolves around which I think is awesome. [SPEAKER_00]: What else what else are you doing that's kind of your like [SPEAKER_00]: super high-impact favorite kind of automation that you've got going on.

52:03 [SPEAKER_02]: I think the sort of touch and a little bit earlier, but one of the great ones is I live on a main road and we've got to drive away. [SPEAKER_02]: And as I said earlier, there's a little motion sensor and it turns the light on and then the doorbell will take a snapshot and it will decide if there's a human there or not this is at night time.

52:26 [SPEAKER_02]: Now my youngest son works works in a pub so he's still getting home at two to three o'clock in the morning. [SPEAKER_02]: So we're [SPEAKER_02]: So it goes off every now and again, but also because the motion detector is so close to the road, you know, people walking past particular with that occur sensor.

52:46 [SPEAKER_02]: It's got quite a wide, wide, sort of motion path. [SPEAKER_02]: That will go off quite a bit. [SPEAKER_02]: So where it's, we have to [SPEAKER_02]: Jim and I will then look at the snapshot and I will decide if there's a person in there or not. [SPEAKER_02]: And that's the end then only then will home system send me a picture notification of what's on the driveway.

53:12 [SPEAKER_02]: Because if I just leave lifted to you know every time every time the snapshot goes off. [SPEAKER_02]: I was wake up at the B, you know, the dozen pictures on my phone and again you're getting back to that notification blindness problem. [SPEAKER_02]: So I will know if there has been somebody actually on that driveway that shouldn't be an altar, I know what time my son's got in from work and if he's, you know, decided to stay back and know about three pints and being a little bit naughty when he's got to get to the university next day.

53:36 [SPEAKER_01]: And that's, and that proved to be really, really valuable when [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, literally the one night that we left our car unlocked for some reason, a personal substance abuse issue, shall we say, have been sent up by their dealer to, sort of, could we live in quite middle class area, just to go up and down the road, testing all the cars to see if there was anything in there too.

54:01 [SPEAKER_01]: Right. [SPEAKER_01]: To steal. [SPEAKER_01]: And she'd rifle through our car. [SPEAKER_02]: And we wouldn't have known this wouldn't have known a straight away, apart from I saw, you know, I had a picture notification on my phone and went, hang on, three, three, three, well, I think it was probably about five, three in the morning, that's, you know, don't recognize her.

54:20 [SPEAKER_02]: And then that obviously led me to then going straight into the doorbell camera footage, downloading it, sending it to the police. [SPEAKER_02]: They actually had known, they hadn't had any other reports of that stage. [SPEAKER_02]: And she got done for about 10 or 12 cars on the back of that, so, [SPEAKER_02]: You know, again, we didn't actually have anything, anything stolen, we didn't have anything worth nicking and the car.

54:42 [SPEAKER_02]: But again, you know, that proves really, really valuable and they sort of non-smart house geeky. [SPEAKER_02]: It's nice that the lights turn on or that you get asked if you want to watch the TV or anything like that. [SPEAKER_02]: You know, that had a real world proper results, so, you know, very, very pleased with the way that automation worked.

55:02 [SPEAKER_02]: And then probably everything else, [SPEAKER_02]: goes almost all the way back to the beginning with that mark what stuff it's you walk into certain room or something happens at certain time and the echo just pipes up and goes you know based on various conditions do you want this to happen and that's you know that's the other thing that probably rolls most of the house around it.

55:23 [SPEAKER_01]: how many like tokens are you burning because I'm imagining like this is a very dumb motion sense that's pinging, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So if that motion sense was in every time that motion sense is going off is taking a snapshot to then determine if someone, if there's a human in there, is that a lot of pictures that are being processed just to determine if there is a human in that picture?

55:49 [SPEAKER_02]: because it's true Gemini, I don't know if it's to do with my phone or anything like that. [SPEAKER_02]: I don't actually stick any money into it. [SPEAKER_02]: And the other thing I did to save on the tokens, because when I was looking at it, and again, you know, sort of saw on YouTube, that's a cool thing.

56:06 [SPEAKER_02]: People are coming up with all these messages about, well, you know, right, it is, you know, at... [SPEAKER_02]: 305 AM, I can see a woman on the driveway. [SPEAKER_02]: She's next to the car. [SPEAKER_02]: She's wearing a hat, the other other. [SPEAKER_02]: That's sort of a level of information I don't need.

56:22 [SPEAKER_02]: So what the automation does is [SPEAKER_02]: takes a snapshot, Gemini will then look at it, and it will reply either with a 0 or 1. [SPEAKER_02]: And then home assistant knows if the text message will help with what's recorded. [SPEAKER_02]: I'll set this up 18 months ago. [SPEAKER_02]: So I can't move exact intricacies of how it works.

56:44 [SPEAKER_02]: But basically if the text is the number 1, send that snapshot as the picture notification to my phone. [SPEAKER_02]: If it's a 0, just don't bother. [SPEAKER_02]: So it's not using up very much to the VAI smart or resources at all too much, so like I said, nobody sent me a bill yet and it seems to be working absolutely fine.

57:07 [SPEAKER_02]: So again, I told you I was cheap, which is why I got all those Wi-Fi things to start with. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I guess the number is letting you a bill then, yeah, it's kind of right then. [SPEAKER_01]: Now, I have a couple of random ones for you. [SPEAKER_01]: We're currently recording around World Cup time.

57:23 [SPEAKER_01]: Can you tell me about the World Cup dashboard and some of the other dashboards you built around your sporting interests? [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so I have to sort of main sports dashboard, but for the word set up, as I said, big football fan, you know, that's English football, telling football, German football, you know, I'm bigger Houston Astros fan, San Antonio Spurs, and then also coming from New Zealand, you know, the Auckland Blues, [SPEAKER_02]: and the warriors in the NRL fill from your neck of the woods.

58:04 [SPEAKER_02]: So my sports dashboard works off Team Tracker and a presents up card and it will just have what the scores are if it's you know if it's a live game and will update the scores or it will tell you what the next one is. [SPEAKER_02]: So that sort of works really well. [SPEAKER_02]: I don't have anything like goal of it because I found that the team tracker integration is it's usually one or two minutes behind winnacle, goes, goes in, talking football.

58:35 [SPEAKER_02]: So there are apps, there are apps out there on your phone that will tell you within literally a second that a goal has gone in. [SPEAKER_02]: But in terms of that sort of overall dashboard information of what's coming up, [SPEAKER_02]: that works. [SPEAKER_02]: So for the World Cup, I've got a dashboard in the kitchen, which the family don't use very much, but because they are heavily into the World Cup as I am, we've got a dashboard so it's got the latest game to the top left and that's just a...

59:03 [SPEAKER_02]: that will be whatever the latest will cut game coming out or is live and again, if there is a game going then the deep so it's the tablet works off motion in front of it so it will only spring up to life if somebody sends in front of it. [SPEAKER_02]: When there's a World Cup game, it will show the World Cup dashboard when it's not, it'll just show the normal family calendar.

59:28 [SPEAKER_02]: So as I said, main game that's going on live at the moment top left and then you'll have the New Zealand game, the card for that, but we've just got knocked out unfortunately, so that will probably have to come off very shortly. [SPEAKER_02]: England, Scotland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, [SPEAKER_02]: who else is on their Argentina.

59:46 [SPEAKER_02]: So again, they can just look at it at a viewpoint, see what the last result of or see that the next game is coming up on Tuesday at 9 o'clock. [SPEAKER_02]: And then I think it's set across three columns. [SPEAKER_02]: So those cards are the sort of first two columns. [SPEAKER_02]: and then the right-hand column is just a calendar of the whole world cup.

1:00:09 [SPEAKER_02]: So you can literally, again, just look at it and go right to night, it's, I don't know. [SPEAKER_02]: Do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do [SPEAKER_00]: like that.

1:00:35 [SPEAKER_01]: Before we wrap up, we always like to ask about, you know, what's the future plans for your house. [SPEAKER_01]: You've actually got one, I think, can you tell me about your shower, music or mission that you're planning to do? [SPEAKER_02]: Yes. [SPEAKER_02]: My youngest son has a dreadful taste of music.

1:00:54 [SPEAKER_02]: It's some sort of dance, the R&B thing where everybody's either got the word little or ticker in there and they've been, or they're sing a name or whatever. [SPEAKER_02]: It's just dreadful and not only is it dreadful, he will turn that [SPEAKER_02]: I went into his phone, turned the audio sensors on, and now we have, again, an echo routine, whereby, you know, if it's blurring out, and you know, we've got to think of the neighbors, I mean, we've got to meldly neighbors, and I think quite hopefully they're deaf, but you still wouldn't look after the little bit.

1:01:35 [SPEAKER_02]: So we will just turn around now and say, you know, turn Alex's volume down, and then it will just go, [SPEAKER_02]: because I think it's 25. [SPEAKER_02]: It's how it's set up. [SPEAKER_02]: You'll just go down to 23, wait five seconds, down to 21, wait five seconds, down to 19, wait five seconds, and they'll just drop to 15.

1:01:54 [SPEAKER_02]: So he won't actually really determine the music volume. [SPEAKER_02]: And we've just got it to the thing, and he still hasn't figured that out, and I'll be running that for a week. [SPEAKER_02]: So I'm quite pleased with that. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, on one hand, like, I applaud that. [SPEAKER_01]: You've also got to, this is where, like, some of the smart home stuff can get a bit.

1:02:15 [SPEAKER_01]: It's in the gray area, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Like where you're, sort of, you know, affecting his music, but, you know, in this case, it's just music, you know, gaslighting, even another way. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you know, the music was always that light. [SPEAKER_01]: I know my wife always complains that, you know, when we're the thermostat, right?

1:02:32 [SPEAKER_01]: Like I walk into a room like, why is the thermostat on 25 degrees? [SPEAKER_01]: And so then I would put an automation into, you know, once again slowly, you know, put it back down to a more reasonable thing. [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm not cooking the earth. [SPEAKER_01]: Similar vein, right?

1:02:47 [SPEAKER_01]: Like there are with great power comes great responsibility, but I [SPEAKER_02]: Well, yeah, I mean, they've been a fit in other ways. [SPEAKER_02]: You know, from that side of thing. [SPEAKER_02]: And you know, so like I said, my, my elder son works 45 minutes away. [SPEAKER_02]: And even though he's 22, you know, he still expects his mother to have dinner on the table for him literally as he walks through the door.

1:03:14 [SPEAKER_02]: So what happens is as soon as he leaves where he's working, there will be an announcement to my wife. [SPEAKER_02]: And then when he's 10 minutes away, again, you know, because it's based on both distance but that he's traveling towards the house, shielding it, you know, look the alert that he's 10 minutes away.

1:03:34 [SPEAKER_02]: And it just makes it far more seamless for her, but also far more seamless for him. [SPEAKER_02]: And again, he's got no idea that this happens in the background. [SPEAKER_02]: He just seems to think that the mums on top of his routine because, you know, he's a 22 year old man and we're all a bit lazy and never think about [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's how that sounds, as being on his side of the fence, that sounds like that would be awesome.

1:03:59 [SPEAKER_00]: You just come home and food just shows off here. [SPEAKER_00]: Here I am. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to make a jump and food like a jump or my wife deaths. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's funny. [SPEAKER_01]: All right, Jason, final question for you. [SPEAKER_01]: If someone wanted to make their own Jason Assistant, they wanted to add home users and enter their own personal assistant, where do you think someone should start?

1:04:22 [SPEAKER_01]: What is a quick win that someone can start by helping to automate their life? [SPEAKER_02]: I think probably. [SPEAKER_02]: you'd start with Google Calendar or something similar that works into the the home assistant calendar. [SPEAKER_02]: I know home assistant set up your own to do listen and calendar stuff.

1:04:38 [SPEAKER_02]: But it's that's sort of fairly functional. [SPEAKER_02]: Whereas, you know, [SPEAKER_02]: lots of people have Google Calendar for instance. [SPEAKER_02]: So, again, you just get yourself into that discipline, make sure that they've hooked up to each other. [SPEAKER_02]: And I think, I'm trying to think that I mean, it's been so long, but I'm not sure whether you need the never-casters subscription to be able to do this.

1:04:58 [SPEAKER_02]: And if anyone doesn't have a never-casters subscription, I would wholeheartedly suggest you do that, because for a few pennies a month, you're really supporting, you know, what's really, really good work. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, the amount of value you get out of it. [SPEAKER_02]: you know, cooking up Alexa and Google to your home assistant, but I think, you know, you should sort of put some money back into the system, but, you know, again, just getting that Google calendar talking to home assistant and then getting into the discipline of, or just figuring out, again, what works for you, whether it's a label or a description that starts the automation or whether it's, you know, a certain calendar alone by itself, you know, for instance, my work calendar

1:05:42 [SPEAKER_02]: I learnt me to meetings, but my private calendar won't, for instance, because I don't go to the calendar entries, probably aren't meetings at such. [SPEAKER_02]: So again, the calendar is probably the first thing, and then you could expand it to do us if you want, and again, just think about lighting the load on the family, you know, those little things that we all get.

1:06:05 [SPEAKER_02]: I won't say nag that, but you know, we all get locked into our own sort of things that we're [SPEAKER_02]: you know, and just having that little reminder just to go, you know, you are a part of a family you should go and dust the living room or something like that, you know, it just makes life so much easier.

1:06:22 [SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, I would start with calendar and then just see where you go. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think either I agree. [SPEAKER_01]: I would agree. [SPEAKER_01]: I think calendar is a good way to work a place to start with many things. [SPEAKER_01]: Jason, thank you so much for coming on today.

1:06:35 [SPEAKER_01]: Shout out to our Patreon members, including our executive producers Benny and Jason. [SPEAKER_01]: You can help support the show and get early access to episodes or in an ad free feed. [SPEAKER_01]: To support the show, check out home assistant.fm and click Patreon in the menu. [SPEAKER_01]: We'd also love it if you can share this episode or give us a rating wherever you're listening to us today.

1:06:55 [SPEAKER_01]: It helps feed the algorithms and helps us grow our audience. [SPEAKER_01]: If you want to come on, there's a show like Jason here today to check out the story. [SPEAKER_01]: Or if you want to submit us a mail-out question, feedback at home assistant.fm. [SPEAKER_01]: Or check the website at home assistant.fm.

1:07:12 [SPEAKER_01]: Jason, this has been awesome. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for talking to us today. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, thanks for your time. [SPEAKER_02]: I've had a great time, and I know everybody says this, but hugely enjoy the podcast, because everybody's at ideas are different, and it's just these conversations.

1:07:30 [SPEAKER_02]: And lots of it might not be relevant, but again, it just might be that one little spark where you go, actually, I could do this, and I could do this, and that's the great joy of the time assistant project. [SPEAKER_01]: That's all right. [SPEAKER_01]: And that's why we love talking to the community and sharing these little tidbits right, because who knows where that little inspirational come from.

1:07:45 [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks, guys. [SPEAKER_00]: Perfect. [SPEAKER_00]: Sure.