Braden’s Reliable, Low-Cost Home Automation System With Zero YAML Powered by Home Assistant

Electrical engineer Braden joins Phil and Rohan to share practical Home Assistant wins. From migrating to Zigbee2MQTT, taming a Whirlpool ice maker with ESPHome, building a garage door opener, and planning a sensor-packed greenhouse lab.

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Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA229

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Chapters

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:23 - Meet Brayden in Windy Indiana

00:03:35 - From Hue to Home Assistant

00:08:50 - Greenhouse Lab Plans

00:12:45 - Nursery Voice and Motion Tactics

00:18:20 - RFID Cards for Kids’ Media

00:29:00 - Zigbee2MQTT, Aqara, Litter Box Hack

00:36:40 - ESPHome: Ice Maker and Garage

00:43:40 - Power Monitoring and Breakers

00:47:00 - Unifi, Cameras, and ZBT-2

00:52:30 - Agents, Dashboards, and Presence

01:00:20 - Wrap-up and Thanks

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors

Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa

Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.

Apollo Automation

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.

Zooz

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Notion

Notion is an AI-powered, connected workspace for teams. Notion brings all your notes, docs, and projects into one space that just works. Try Custom Agents now at https://notion.com/homeassistant

Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @philhawthorne

Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com

Rohan Karamandi

Twitter: @rohank9

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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