#smart-home
73 episodes · Page 2 of 4
#2600: Circadian Lighting Gradients in Home Assistant
How to build a smooth, override-friendly circadian lighting system using Adaptive Lighting in Home Assistant.
#2597: Voice Control for Renters: $25 Per Room, No Wall Damage
Distributed voice control on a budget with wake words, centralized processing, and zero wall damage — perfect for rentals.
#2573: What's Actually Inside a Hotel Smart Room System
Hotels don't use Alexa or smart bulbs. Here's the industrial-grade tech running behind those sleek wall panels.
#2566: Why Your RGBW Bulbs Get Dim in Color Mode
Cheap bulbs aren't the whole story — physics limits how bright color LEDs can get. Here's what to buy instead.
#2365: Building a Custom Home Alarm Panel with ESP32
Discover how to build a tactile, local-control alarm panel for Home Assistant using ESP32, Omron buttons, and Zigbee sensors.
#2326: Voice Control Simplified: Home Assistant’s Local Stack
Discover how to build a reliable, vendor-agnostic voice control system for Home Assistant without relying on Amazon or Google.
#2274: Weekend Projects Gone Wild: Evaluating AI Startup Pitches
From fridge tax agents to guilt-scheduled cron jobs, we evaluate ten AI-driven startup ideas that could exist—but probably shouldn’t.
#2232: One Remote, Three Streams: Building a Sane Media Setup
A renter juggling six remotes and brittle integrations finds a simpler path: fewer devices, cleaner software, and accepting that Netflix won't play...
#2220: When Home Assistant Breaks Your Audio
Daniel's multi-room audio setup keeps breaking. We explore whether Snapcast, Volumio, and Mopidy can deliver reliable podcast playback across Raspb...
#2126: Why Auto Wi-Fi Settings Fail You
Stop screaming at your phone: how UniFi transmit power settings actually cause dead zones.
#2100: The Hidden Job of Managing Your Own Pharmacy
Stop making multiple pharmacy trips. Learn how to sync your meds, track inventory, and ditch the amateur pharmacist role for good.
#2091: Solving Problems That Don't Exist
From a $400 juicer that can't run without Wi-Fi to a toaster with more computing power than Apollo 11, we explore absurd gadgets.
#2038: UI-First vs Architecture-First: Choosing Your AI Agent
LobeHub vs. Dify vs. n8n: We break down the chaotic landscape of local AI agents to find the right "brain" for your workflow.
#2002: Brainstorming a Stable-by-Design Smart Home
We explore why Home Assistant is so fragile and brainstorm a stable-by-design future for the platform.
#1941: Why You Can't Zigbee-Wi-Fi Your House
The "mesh" promise fails when you hit the coordinator bottleneck. Here's why multiple hubs don't work like Wi-Fi.
#1934: Why Pro Routers Still Won't Touch Your Light Bulbs
Your Wi-Fi 7 router handles everything except smart home radios. Here’s why the “one box” dream is still stuck in 2026.
#1851: AI Toasters and Poetic Gym Coaches: Why We’re Drowning in Useless AI
From smart toasters that need Wi-Fi to email rewriters that sound like corporate robots, here are the most baffling AI features we’ve seen.
#1770: The Smart Home Tax Is Bankrupting Enthusiasts
Home Assistant's flexibility has become a liability. We explore the usability crisis and the fragile architecture of modern enthusiast smart homes.
#1654: Home Lab Security: Locking Down Your Smart Home
Learn how to prevent a single compromised container from taking over your entire home network and smart devices.
#1243: How to Hack a Smart Home for the Sabbath
How do you navigate a smart home when you can't flip a switch? Explore the engineering behind making modern technology Shabbat-compliant.
#1073: Beyond YAML: Building the Agentic Smart Home
Stop wrestling with YAML. Discover how MCP and local AI agents are transforming Home Assistant into a truly intelligent, aware partner.
#1071: Beyond the Kill Switch: Advanced Router VPN Routing
Stop breaking your smart home. Learn how to use domain-based split routing and WireGuard to gain surgical control over your network.
#960: Why Your $2,000 Smart TV Lags Like a Budget Phone
Why does a $2,000 TV struggle with basic menus? Discover the hidden "Smart TV Tax" and why your display's brain is often stuck in the past.
#934: Open Source Meets Closed Garden: Linux on a Samsung TV
Connect Ubuntu to a Samsung TV wirelessly and learn pro tips for baby-proofing your cable setup in any living room.