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.

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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

Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Sign up for your free trial in your Home Assistant system: https://my.home-assistant.io/redirect/cloud/ or visit https://nabucasa.com

Zooz

If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers.

For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to https://thesmartesthouse.com

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.

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

Products we Recommend

Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

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Twitter: @philhawthorne

Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com

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Rohan Karamandi

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Twitter: @rohank9

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