#smart-home
24 episodes
#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.
#784: Beyond the Alkaline Cycle: Mastering Home Batteries
Stop feeding your power-hungry tools a diet of alkalines. Learn how to switch your whole home to sustainable, high-performance rechargeables.
#762: Is Your Smart Home Too Fragile? The Decoupled Brain Fix
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.
#759: The Science of Labels: Industrial Solutions for Home Gear
Tired of peeling labels? Discover why consumer tapes fail and how industrial-grade solutions can bulletproof your home inventory system.
#758: AI Surveillance: Mastering Frigate, YOLO, and TPUs
Turn passive cameras into active observers. Learn how Frigate and YOLO models use AI to revolutionize home security and object detection.
#725: The Science of Sound: Choosing the Best Podcast Speaker
Stop listening to podcasts through tinny speakers. Learn how to choose hardware optimized for the human voice and clear, room-filling audio.
#723: Domesticating Your Home Security: How to Kill the Cloud
Learn how to "domesticate" consumer security cameras by severing their cloud ties while keeping the high-quality hardware you love.
#656: The Future of Smart Home Hubs: Matter, MQTT, and Beyond
Herman and Corn dive into the shifting landscape of smart home protocols and why Ethernet coordinators are the future of home automation.
#649: The Ultimate Dashboard: DIY Information Radiators
Tired of expensive subscriptions and messy DIY screens? Discover the middle ground for the perfect home office information radiator.
#644: From Code to Circuit: Mastering GPIO and SBCs
Discover how to use GPIO pins and breadboards to bridge the gap between software and the physical world in your smart home projects.
#594: Digital Dust: Can NFC Tags Survive for Decades?
Explore the science of NFC longevity, from EEPROM bitrot to physical durability, and learn how to future-proof your home inventory system.
#577: Under the Surface: The High-Tech Future of Smart Sewers
Explore the hidden world of urban infrastructure, from Victorian brickwork to AI-powered robots and the battle against the "fatberg."
#461: DIY vs. Pro: Is Your Smart Home Actually Secure?
Explore whether DIY smart home setups can truly replace professional security systems in this deep dive into hardware, reliability, and redundancy.
#455: Stay Cool in a Crisis: The Ultimate Apartment Fire Guide
From smart sensors to the "tipping" trick for extinguishers, Herman and Corn break down how to survive a fire in a modern apartment building.
#454: Breaking the 16-Amp Ceiling: Israeli Electrical Secrets
Tired of the power tripping when you make toast? Herman and Corn explain the "16-amp ceiling" and how to modernize Israeli apartment wiring.
#449: Skyscraper Science: The Ultimate No-Drill Rental Hack
Discover how the industrial-grade science behind the Burj Khalifa can help you mount heavy gear without losing your security deposit.
#442: Running Your Home Like a Startup: The Weekly Sync
Learn how to apply startup-style syncs and retrospectives to your household to reduce anxiety and stop things from slipping through the cracks.
#389: Breaking the Monolith: Building a Resilient Home Lab Grid
When a single home server fails, the whole house goes dark. Learn how to shrink your "blast radius" by moving to a distributed hardware grid.
#374: The Walls Have Eyes: The Reality of Hidden Travel Cameras
From power plugs to smoke detectors, hidden cameras are easier to hide than ever. Learn how to protect your privacy while traveling.
#156: DIY Smart Home Status Lights: From ESP32 to AI Tools
Discover why the ESP32 is the ultimate brain for DIY smart homes and how AI tools are revolutionizing hardware hacking for everyone.
#137: The Ghost in the Machine: Why Gadgets Wake Up After Blackouts
Why does a power flicker turn on your lights but not your TV? Herman and Corn explain the engineering behind post-outage device behavior.
#112: Industrial Strength: Why Airports Don’t Use Smart Bulbs
Why do airports stay lit while your smart home fails? Herman and Corn dive into industrial-grade tech and the physics of beaming internet.
#80: Why Your Smart Home Isn't an Airport: Industrial Reliability
Why can't you run the Louvre on a Raspberry Pi? Herman and Corn dive into the rugged, wired world of industrial building automation.
#78: Zigbee vs. Matter: Is Your Smart Home Already Obsolete?
Is Zigbee a "reliable old truck" or a dead end? Herman and Corn debate the future of local control in the age of Matter and Thread.