Dan Built His Own Smart Switches and Connected Them to Home Assistant
Dan joins Phil and Rohan to trace his smart home journey from X10 and MySensors to Home Assistant. Hear how he designs ESPHome light switches, controls an RS-485 thermostat, and plans new automations with Zigbee, Frigate and Reolink cameras.
Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA256
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Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction and opening sponsors
00:02:08 Dan’s journey from X10
00:06:31 Building MySensors light switches
00:10:48 Discovering Home Assistant
00:14:00 Designing safer ESPHome switches
00:17:00 Connecting the legacy thermostat
00:20:49 Presence sensing and accessibility
00:23:23 Outdoor sensors and camera ideas
00:26:45 Collecting data
00:29:00 Zigbee, Modbus and the well
00:33:02 Leak detection and insurance
00:35:02 DIY irrigation and local weather
00:38:56 Soil moisture and greenhouse plans
00:42:43 Frigate, bins and pet detection
00:46:56 Wildlife cameras and closing thoughts
This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors
Home Assistant Link by Nabu Casa
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Apollo Automation are the makers of open source smart home sensors built for the Home Assistant ecosystem. They're an official Open Home Foundation commercial partner and their devices are built with local control, privacy, and reliability in mind, giving you full control and flexibility right out of the box.
Want Phil to help with your smart home?
You’ve heard him troubleshoot Home Assistant on the podcast. Now you can book him to troubleshoot yours. From broken automations and confusing YAML to dashboards, devices, and complete smart home setups: https://smarthomecto.com
Products Discussed
Aqara FP2 presence sensor: https://amzn.to/4aVeDjo
Hosts
Phil Hawthorne
Twitter: @philhawthorne
Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com
Rohan Karamandi
Twitter: @rohank9
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