Home Automation
124 episodes · Page 4 of 6
#2625: White Noise vs Pink vs Brown: What Actually Works
What makes mechanical sound machines like the Dohm different from digital ones — and which noise color actually helps you sleep?
#2608: Can You Wire Your House Like a Hotel?
Can you wire your house like a hotel? Here's what KNX costs, how it works, and how to connect it to Home Assistant.
#2600: Circadian Lighting Gradients in Home Assistant
How to build a smooth, override-friendly circadian lighting system using Adaptive Lighting in Home Assistant.
#2597: Voice Control for Renters: $25 Per Room, No Wall Damage
Distributed voice control on a budget with wake words, centralized processing, and zero wall damage — perfect for rentals.
#2573: What's Actually Inside a Hotel Smart Room System
Hotels don't use Alexa or smart bulbs. Here's the industrial-grade tech running behind those sleek wall panels.
#2566: Why Your RGBW Bulbs Get Dim in Color Mode
Cheap bulbs aren't the whole story — physics limits how bright color LEDs can get. Here's what to buy instead.
#2446: Why Airport Flight Displays Still Run Windows XP
The surprising tech stack behind airport departure boards, Times Square screens, and the Windows XP systems still running them.
#2365: Building a Custom Home Alarm Panel with ESP32
Discover how to build a tactile, local-control alarm panel for Home Assistant using ESP32, Omron buttons, and Zigbee sensors.
#2359: When the Sandbox Doesn't Fit: Sysadmins Using a Dev Tool
Discover why Claude Code excels as a sysadmin tool despite being designed for developers — and the challenges that come with it.
#2326: Voice Control Simplified: Home Assistant’s Local Stack
Discover how to build a reliable, vendor-agnostic voice control system for Home Assistant without relying on Amazon or Google.
#2220: When Home Assistant Breaks Your Audio
Daniel's multi-room audio setup keeps breaking. We explore whether Snapcast, Volumio, and Mopidy can deliver reliable podcast playback across Raspb...
#2002: Brainstorming a Stable-by-Design Smart Home
We explore why Home Assistant is so fragile and brainstorm a stable-by-design future for the platform.
#1941: Why You Can't Zigbee-Wi-Fi Your House
The "mesh" promise fails when you hit the coordinator bottleneck. Here's why multiple hubs don't work like Wi-Fi.
#1934: Why Pro Routers Still Won't Touch Your Light Bulbs
Your Wi-Fi 7 router handles everything except smart home radios. Here’s why the “one box” dream is still stuck in 2026.
#1898: The Vinyl of Video: Why Laserdisc Refuses to Die
It spun at 1800 RPM, stored movies analog, and cost a fortune—yet Laserdisc’s legacy endures.
#1847: The Home Lab Blackout: Fixing Servers From a Beach
Your server is down and you're miles away. Learn the three simple checks that keep your home lab alive and how to get back in when the front door i...
#1770: The Smart Home Tax Is Bankrupting Enthusiasts
Home Assistant's flexibility has become a liability. We explore the usability crisis and the fragile architecture of modern enthusiast smart homes.
#1654: Home Lab Security: Locking Down Your Smart Home
Learn how to prevent a single compromised container from taking over your entire home network and smart devices.
#1265: The Biology of Light: Designing for Your Internal Clock
Discover why natural light is a biological nutrient and how interior design can fix your productivity, mood, and sleep.
#1073: Beyond YAML: Building the Agentic Smart Home
Stop wrestling with YAML. Discover how MCP and local AI agents are transforming Home Assistant into a truly intelligent, aware partner.
#947: Pro Audio in Acoustic Nightmares: Mobile Recording Tips
Learn how to turn a marble-floored room into a studio using your phone, simple blankets, and the right USB-C gear.
#803: The Joy of Categorizing Everything
Stop struggling with cheap labelers. Discover the durable TZE ecosystem and the pro-level hardware needed to catalog your entire home or shed.
#802: Bluetooth Reimagined: Audio and Tracking in Home Assistant
Is Bluetooth the secret weapon for your smart home? Discover how to master persistent audio and low-cost asset tracking with Home Assistant.
#762: The Decoupled Smart Home Trade-Off
Tired of your smart home crashing? Discover why moving your home's "brain" to the cloud might be the ultimate reliability hack for your setup.