From Smart Bulbs to Skynet: The 2026 State of my Home Automation

From Smart Bulbs to Skynet: The 2026 State of my Home Automation
When I left Elastic, one of my goals was to dive deep into home automation and finally "level up" my setup. Looking back at where I started when we first moved to Graham, it’s almost comical. Back then, "Home Automation" was just a few Philips Hue bulbs and a Raspberry Pi running Home Assistant that didn't do much. It was essentially a glorified light switch connected to Alexa. Fast forward to today, and the Raspberry…

Nova’s Fast dev API

Nova’s Fast dev API
Today's been about getting this thing set up properly. I'm not a developer by trade, but I've always been a coder. That being said, I consider myself a prototype developer, so my projects tend to be loosely managed. I wanted to grow this project up a bit, so I took a step back to think about how it's going to work and decided that I wanted to focus on an extensible API first. The Machine…

Network & Home Automation Apps

Network & Home Automation Apps
In all, I have quite a few components keeping my home automation system running. Some are apps I use every day, some are for managing different parts of the infrastructure and a few are for entertainment. Nearly everything here runs in docker on my NAS or one of two dedicated docker servers. Home Assistant powers the automations and connectivity between a wide range of smart devices. Security system, locks, lights, HVAC, weather, various sensors and…

A love letter to Docker Compose

A love letter to Docker Compose
Today I moved my Home Assistant setup from the NAS it's been on for 3+ years, to my frigate server. With Frigate processing 15 cameras for objects, both the CPU and GPU rarely rose over 10%. I had noticed some response issues with Home Assistant and had eliminated all of the options except giving it more power. I wanted a clean slate with Home Assistant and planned to import what I needed as I added…

Python Nerdery: Data Scraping for Home Assistant

Python Nerdery: Data Scraping for Home Assistant
One thing I want to monitor in Home Assistant isn't supported in any traditional way. I want to know how much propane our generator has, and I only have a local provider website to work with. Enter Python to load a browser, log me in, grab the data and send it to home assistant. Add the script to cron and you are done. import logging from selenium import webdriver from selenium.webdriver.chrome.service import Service from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options…

Kasa Smart Devices and Home Assistant

Kasa Smart Devices and Home Assistant
When I moved into the new house, I decided I wanted to leave Philips Hue behind. The lights were too expensive and I wanted to incorporate more kinds of devices like switches into the system. At the same time, I wanted to reduce the number of Home Assistant integrations as much as possible. I chose Kasa because I saw a lot of people having success Kasa and Home Assistant. I have been here over 3…

Home Automation Server – Tower 1

Home Automation Server – Tower 1
With the Frigate server complete, Tower 1 is officially out of space. Top to Bottom Home Assistant & Frigate Docker Server Ryzen 9 5900X, 64GB RAM, 8TB SSDs (2x2TB nvme, 2x2TB SATA), 16TB HDD RAID, Coral m.2 dual TPU Home Assistant Frigate Netdata Dozzle UPS Power Supply Cisco 24-Port Switch with PoE and 10GB SFP (10Gbps between house and shop, main PC and main NAS) Go bag HD for critical files Punchdown Patch Panel Keystone…

NESDR Smart HF/VHF/UHF 100kHz-1.75GHz Software Defined Radio

NESDR Smart HF/VHF/UHF 100kHz-1.75GHz Software Defined Radio
This one gets a bit nerdy. I have a driveway monitor system that uses magnetic frequencies to detect cars in the driveway. The problem is that it runs at the same frequency as a lot of garage door openers causing a lot of false positives. I have an extensive camera setup, so I was more interested in using it as a way to log events than the loud chime in the house. That led me…

Home Assistant – How Did I Get Here?

Home Assistant
I am absolutely horrible at turning off lights. That's how it began. The color changing aspect of Hue bulbs was cool, but adding motion sensors was when I saw the power of automation. I expanded Hue and added Amazon's Alexa for voice control. Then I tried Samsung's SmartThings to integrate Hue with other things, but that was flaky. Next I tried Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi. That was enough to introduce me to what…

Earthquake Data

Earthquake Data
I get asked about Rainier and volcanos a lot. I decided to integrate some seismic data into Home Assistant today for information and future notifications.