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.

Shelly Garage Door Hack

Shelly Garage Door Hack
Turns out my garage doors are dumb. They make smart ones, but I don't really want to give up privacy on my locks. Enter 2nd buttons triggered via Shelly over WIFI. When I looked into my garage openers, it was clear going smart with their tech wasn't an option. I did a little more research and realized that they did support second remotes. I found cheap compatible buttons on Amazon for about $10 each and…