r/smarthome • • Oct 05 '25

Home Assistant Introducing Post Flair

8 Upvotes

When posting, please set your flair according to what platform you're utlizing to make it easier to receive help. The system should now force it and won't let you post without selecting flair. Please reach out if there are missing options.


r/smarthome • • 17h ago

Home Assistant What is your most over-engineered smart home feature?

17 Upvotes

I think mine is that my bathroom fart fan is controlled by over 900 lines of code.


r/smarthome • • 1h ago

I don't have a smarthome platform Hello, new to smart home tech! I’ve got a question on lighting.

• Upvotes

I want to add some lamps to my bedroom but turning them on and off one by one is inconvenient. Therefore I’m looking for a way to simultaneously turn all of them on and off. I’ve found that answer pretty easily. Get some matter smart bulbs and connect them with a matter remote. Now the small issue is I want to remotes that control all the bulbs simultaneously. One remote I can keep next to the light switch for entering and leaving the room and one on my night stand so I don’t have to get up after I’m prepared for bed.

What way would you go about doing this?
Do you have a recommendation on the specific products?
Should I use a different program other than matter?

Thanks!


r/smarthome • • 7h ago

Home Assistant Whole house is in Home Assistant, the lawn is still me and a push mower. Does any robot mower talk to anything besides its own app?

1 Upvotes

Hue lights and the Zigbee blinds are in Home Assistant, with the Ecobee, the Reolink cameras, and the robot vacuum. Third of an acre out back is still me and a push mower.

What I want is ordinary. Once the sprinklers finish, the mower stays put until the grass isn't soaked, and if it gets stuck I want a ping on my phone. Kids in the yard, I stop it myself. Not leaving that call to a camera.

Goko M6 is one of a few I'm looking at. For now I'd plan on its own app, the same way I'd plan on any of the others. I haven't confirmed it talks to anything else in the house, so a connection isn't part of why I'd buy it.

If you run a robot mower next to automatic sprinklers, how do you keep the two schedules from stepping on each other? When it gets stuck, does the app actually tell you, or do you end up walking out to check?


r/smarthome • • 8h ago

Home Assistant My hot tub room is finally actually finished, with matching smart lighting!

1 Upvotes

A few weeks ago I posted that my hot tub room was finally finished.

Technically, that wasn’t completely true. There was still one last project I wanted to finish: making the lighting in the room automatically match the lighting inside the hot tub.

Earlier this year I posted about how I turned my hot tub into a “smart” hot tub using an ESP32 and Home Assistant. While working on that, I also added an M5Stack Color Sensor RGB Unit based on the TCS3472.

I mounted the sensor inside the hot tub housing, positioned so it can see the light from one of the LEDs inside the tub. The LEDs shine through into the tub itself, which gives the sensor enough light and color information to reliably determine which color is currently being displayed.

That color information is then made available to Home Assistant.

The next part of the project was adding addressable lighting to the hot tub room itself.

After quite a bit of research I ended up using a 24V WS2805 RGB+CCT strip, controlled through WLED. I specifically wanted a 24V strip because the total run is fairly long and I wanted to avoid having to add power injection everywhere.

The physical installation turned out to be one of the more annoying parts of the project.

I initially planned to mount a series of 50 cm aluminium LED profiles directly onto the roughly 5-meter-long wooden beams. I quickly discovered that getting that many individual profiles perfectly straight and aligned over that distance was almost impossible. Even a tiny difference between two profiles becomes very obvious once you have a long continuous LED strip running through them.

My solution was to first glue all of the aluminium profiles for each side onto one very thin, long wooden strip. Once everything was aligned properly, I could mount that entire strip onto the beam in one piece.

That worked much better and resulted in a much cleaner installation.

The system is now fully functional.

There’s a Sonoff NSPanel near the entrance of the hot tub room which I use as the main control panel for both the hot tub and the room lighting.

If I simply switch on the room lighting, the WS2805 strip starts in a warm white mode.

But when I switch on the LEDs inside the hot tub, the ESP32 detects their color. Home Assistant then uses that detected color to control the WLED strip, so the lighting around the entire room automatically follows the color of the hot tub.

So if the tub turns blue, the room turns blue. Red becomes red, green becomes green, etc. When using white light, the RGB+CCT strip also gives me proper white lighting rather than trying to fake it with RGB.

It was probably a slightly over-engineered solution to the problem of “I want the lights to match”, but that is half the fun of Home Assistant anyway.

And for me, this is pretty much the perfect result: sitting in the hot tub with a cold beer and a movie while the entire room is softly illuminated in the same color as the tub.


r/smarthome • • 22h ago

I don't have a smarthome platform Honeywell Resideo disabled App on oct 12th forcing users to create new first alert account

12 Upvotes

I clicked on Resideo app this week to check temperature of our cabin in Wi. The normal screen didn't come up. Instead a screen came up stating i needed to create a new "First Alert" account

I called resideo service today 1-800-633-3991. After a short hold i got connected with "Ruby" and was just explaining the issue and when the line dropped.

I called back and got "Tony". He explained that the old app has been deprecated and i need to get the new app and create a new First Alert Account.

Ok, frustrating- but then he said i will need to be up at cabin to register my thermostat to this new app including sending pictures of the thermostat screen.

How stupid can Honeywell be to force users to travel to their remote thermostat to basically re-install!!!

This all happened with no advanced warning. They should have (1) notified users via email or the app so they could plan for this (2) allowed for some transition period vs just suddenly disabling the old app.

A few people in honeywell/resideo development need to be fired over this disaster.

Yeah, so now i need to drive 170 miles to my cabin just to re-install my thermostat so i can monitor temps before winter. What an Awful user experience with Honeywell / Resideo.


r/smarthome • • 8h ago

Home Assistant GU5.3 Zigbee / Home Assistant Compatible Bulbs

1 Upvotes

I have a rock solid Zigbee network in my home but I made the mistake of adding two Osram GU5.3 bulbs. Turns out they are absolute trash.

They were awful to pair to the network and have absolutely been the most poorly performing devices I own.

Does anyone have any recommendations for Zigbee GU5.3 bulbs that they would recommend?

There are surprisingly few options as far as I can tell from my searches and all of them don't seem to be well regarded. Even looking at the WiFi options seem to be reviewed pretty badly.


r/smarthome • • 19h ago

I don't have a smarthome platform Wiz Smart Bulb: Dimmer start to wake up

2 Upvotes

Has anyone found any great workarounds here? I thought that night light was the dimmest setting, but I've realized that cozy at 1% brightness is actually it. The wake up setting starts too bright for me, so I've had to add five different automations for my wake up routine which is a bit ridiculous.

Wondering if there's any workarounds to get it to start extra dim and then slowly get to a white daylight and stay there for a little while.

It would make it a lot easier to skip days or have different schedules on different days if it could just be one combined automation.

I am synced with the Google home app, so maybe I can do something there instead of through the Wiz app?

Also wondering about using Google home (or similar) to make schedules all simpler: I literally just have this bulb and a smart plug, which powers on a sad lamp that turns on in the same time frame. Just want to be able to schedule those to have a certain rhythm and possibly start at different times on different days of the week. And then easy voice control to control the light bulb at other times of day.


r/smarthome • • 21h ago

I don't have a smarthome platform Update: I added Android TV support and event details popups to my digital wall calendar app (Almanac Board)

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1 Upvotes

(If you missed the first post, you can check it out first post

Hey r/smarthome !

A while back I posted about Almanac Board—the digital wall calendar app I built to turn old, dusty Android tablets and wall-mounted screens into clean, always-on dashboards.

I got some fantastic feedback and requests from you guys, so I wanted to share a major update based on what people were asking for:

  • Android TV & Box Support: The app is now fully optimized for the TV form factor and available on the Google Play Store. You can now turn any spare monitor or older TV into a dedicated wall calendar screen using a cheap TV box or stick, alongside traditional wall-mounted tablets.
  • Event Details Popups: Based on your feedback, you can now tap/click on any calendar event to open a clean popup showing full details (time, location, description, notes).
  • Always-on focus: Still designed for a clean, glanceable layout for your digital wall calendar and time without unnecessary clutter.

If you already use it or want to try it out on your tablet or TV setup, you can find it on the Play Store. Thanks again for all the great suggestions—keep the feedback coming!

Play Store link: Almanac Board on Google Play


r/smarthome • • 21h ago

Amazon Alexa How to update Hunter Winslow fans to be Alexa or smart bulbs compatible?

1 Upvotes

I have Hunter Winslow 53097 fans, currently controlled by 99600 remotes.

I would like to be able to control the lights via Alexa. I tried to install IKEA KAJPLATS smart bulbs that run on Matter, with dimming disabled in the Hunter remote, but the receiver is cutting off the power, making the bulbs unresponsive once i use Alexa to turn them off (I’m not turning off the physical switch).

Could anyone advise if I can replace receivers with HunterSMART kit 99981? Would that work? Or do you have other solutions for how I can remotely manage the lights? I’m happy to keep the fan operation via the remote if necessary, as I’m not sure if that could also be operated via an app or Alexa?

Any help would be appreciated!


r/smarthome • • 1d ago

Google Home Smart Life devices greyed out on Google Home

3 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I am not able to get the smart life devices to work on google home, I had a similar issue with Ikea and Hue devices but I finally solved those. I also tried deleting the app, linking, unliking, turning off the phone, installing again and all that jazz. Also tried to tell google to synchronize devices but nothing has made it go from grey to usable in the google home app.

Has anyone experienced this and has a solution to this issue?

Thanks so much!


r/smarthome • • 21h ago

Home Assistant تحكم بالموبايل في النور

0 Upvotes

عايز منتج يكون بيقفل و يفتح اللمبه من الموبايل
لو حد عنده جهاز او حاجه محليه تكون رخيصه و ليها ابلكيشن بسيط زي تحكم عن بعد يكون فيها واي فاي بتتربط
بالتفلون او بلوتوث
(تتركب علي نفس زرار الاوضه )


r/smarthome • • 1d ago

SmartThings Are window cleaning robots safe for high rise apartments?

0 Upvotes

I recently found out that window cleaning robots are a thing. The first time I saw one working on the outside of a window, I thought it could fall off at any second, especially on a second floor or higher.

It's not running around on the floor. It's working on the outside of a window. It's not running around on the floor. It's working on the outside of a window.

I know it must have some safety features, but I'm still curious. Do these things actually stay put? For anyone who owns one, have you ever had any issues with it falling?


r/smarthome • • 1d ago

Amazon Alexa Missing my Echo Connect

2 Upvotes

As a someone who still uses and maintains a landline, I am wondering if there exists some device that can perform the echo connect functions of annoucing caller id and make voice activated phone calls?

If anyone knows of a landline community I would appreciate information on that 😅


r/smarthome • • 2d ago

SmartThings Looking for a robot vacuum that can handle both carpet and tile floors

11 Upvotes

Most of our upstairs is carpet, except for the bathroom, which has tile floors and needs mopping sometimes.

I'm looking for a robot vacuum that can vacuum the carpet and mop the bathroom without getting the carpet wet. Ideally, I'd like to set up each room separately in the app.
I've been looking at a few models but not sure one.


r/smarthome • • 1d ago

Home Assistant KNX IP Router into HA

1 Upvotes

Hello everyone,

I hope I can find some help here.

We have recently bought a house in Germany.
It is from 2012 and has some good smart home KNX setup.

But I wan to move everything to home assistant now, since the current system is just usable with a fixed walled tablet.

After various searches through the web and discussions with ChatGPT I came to the conclusion that I need a KNX IP Router since this was not available in the setup.
Today we had the electrician here and he installed for us the SCN-IP100.03 from MDT.
After research this should be the sufficient model here.

But he told me upfront he does not really work with MDT - but was optimistic he can at least integrate into our system and I can take it from there.

The router was then installed but apparently the software could not be installed via ETS.
He tried it first with ETS 5 but as this failed, he deleted everything and installed ETS6 with the V3 database.

But apparently it still did not work for the installation.
Sadly only my wife was here and I could not support.
He said the installation did not go through.

I can see the IP router within my network through my FRITZ!Box.

But since the software is not really installed most likely I can’t really progress.

My understanding now is, that we need still our electrician with ETS software. But i want to avoid that I call him and he comes again and we are facing the same issue.

Therefore my question: is there anything else I can do to test or prepare? Anyone had a similar situation?
Having this back and forth with our electrician will also be very pricy and I really would like to avoid that.

So happy to receive any help here. Also if you need more info - I will happily share it.

Cheers!


r/smarthome • • 2d ago

Apple HomeKit UWB smart door options in Europe?

3 Upvotes

Hello everyone,

I've been looking to buy a Smart door lock for my home, but I am unable to find any options with UWB in europe. It seems that you can make the U400 work, but that its not 100% supported. Even new releases like the LG doesn't seem to have any options in Europe. Is there no future releases that are not too far away, or should I assume that there wont be any releases or any available options any time soon?


r/smarthome • • 2d ago

Apple HomeKit Smart Home - Suggestions

1 Upvotes

I have an Amazon Echo Dot and a third-generation Apple TV. I want to automate my home and set up lighting and pre-defined scenes.
What kind of equipment would you recommend that works with both Apple TV and Alexa?

Could you provide some suggestions? I’m new to this topic.

Thanks in advance.


r/smarthome • • 2d ago

I don't have a smarthome platform SwitchBot Curtain 3 vs. Others

2 Upvotes

Hi, for U Rail setup, are there any better alternatives these days? it seems SB3 struggles to push heavier curtains and you end up with 100% coverage, then 95% then 90%, and recalibration, been using for 2 years or so and hate them. Smaller curtains worked fine.

Wondering if there is a reliable solution with strong motors and no subscriptions? I know SC4 is coming too


r/smarthome • • 2d ago

SmartThings Stock Xiaomi pan/tilt camera, fully local and auto-tracking, with safety brakes on the motor

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1 Upvotes

My Xiaomi MJSXJ10CM (under 2k, bought and paired in India) now streams 1080p HEVC to my own machine and follows people and objects around my room. Not a single frame leaves the LAN. I didn't flash it, open it or downgrade it. It's still on the firmware Xiaomi shipped, 4.5.6_0450.

go2rtc v1.9.14 plus the go2rtc-xiaomi-control patch speaks Xiaomi's protocol. The only thing that touches the internet is a one-time key exchange. Pan/tilt is a single MISS command, opcode 0x112, with operation 1 to 4 for left, right, up and down.

The thing worth knowing if you try this is that the camera's acknowledgement means "I heard you," not "I moved." I measured frame differences every 200ms after a command, and the picture doesn't change for roughly 1.4 seconds. A naive tracker running on 12fps video fires about fifteen more commands before the first one lands, and the camera just convulses. So after every move my loop ignores everything for 2 seconds, which makes the real control rate 0.5Hz. Steps also aren't symmetric: left moves further than right, and one step shifts the frame by 8 to 12%. That forced the dead zone up to 0.18.

Since this is a motor in my bedroom, I built in some brakes: - Tracking is off by default. - Manual buttons cancel automation before the step is sent. - The dashboard sends a heartbeat every 2s. Six seconds of silence and the server stops the camera. - Movement is capped at 20 steps a minute. - Losing the target stops it instead of letting it hunt around.

Detection uses Apple's Vision framework through a small Swift helper, so there are no model downloads. One bug almost got me. Vision uses a bottom-left origin, and if you get that flip wrong, tilt inverts and the camera smoothly runs away from the target.


r/smarthome • • 2d ago

Home Assistant I built an ESP32 replacement for the Reolink Chime (Hardware V2) that can ring my existing wired gong and works with Home Assistant

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12 Upvotes

I have a Reolink WiFi Video Doorbell and the stock chime always bugged me. I already have a perfectly good wired gong in the hallway. That's why I reverse-engineered the RF protocol the doorbell uses to talk to its chime and created my own firmware for an ESP32 + CC1101 radio module.

Important: this emulates the Reolink Chime hardware V2 specifically. The doorbell pairs with it like a real V2 chime. You use the normal "add chime" flow. Older or newer chime hardware revisions may use different protocols and won't work with this.

https://github.com/TheDuffman85/reolink-esp32-chime

What it can do:

  • Ring an existing low-voltage gong through a relay
  • Or play melodies through PWM/DAC into a small external amplifier
  • Or stay completely silent and only send MQTT events
  • Follows the ringtone you pick in the Reolink app, so all 10 slots map to 10 local melodies/gong patterns
  • MQTT with Home Assistant auto-discovery (doorbell event, ringing sensor, play button, mute, volume, sound selection, diagnostics, etc.)
  • Talks to the doorbell directly over RF. WiFi is only used for setup, control, OTA and MQTT, so the chime keeps ringing even if your WiFi is down (or you turn WiFi off entirely)
  • Mobile-friendly web UI with a setup wizard, ring history, permanent/timed mute, optional login and web OTA updates
  • No compiling needed: there's a browser-based USB installer

Hardware is cheap and simple:

  • ESP32-WROOM-32 dev board
  • CC1101 module, 868 MHz (EU)
  • Optionally a relay module or a small amp

I've tested this with my doorbell (DB_566128M5MP_W) at 868 MHz (EU). Other region presets (US 915 MHz and Asia 920 MHz) are in the firmware but untested and so are other doorbell models. If you're in a region other then EU and want to try it, I'd love feedback!


r/smarthome • • 2d ago

SmartThings Olafus smart flood light help for induction/auto settings

2 Upvotes

Set the thing up, chose settings and based on reviews and product page said the light could do ambient lighting and brighten when motion for "x" amount of time. Well first day it didnt do that.

Played with some automations, which ive had no problem with Govee lights outside. I think ive messed with every setting possible and it either never turns on, or never turns off, or never brightens with motion and when i go into the app it then shows it in ma ual mode not induction. Does anyone have a setup i could copy into mine to see if it works?

Want:

On at sunset

Ambient lighting (obviously not super bright)

Motion detection brightens to 50-70%

Stays bright 5 minutes

Back to ambient

Off at sunrise.


r/smarthome • • 2d ago

Home Assistant What’s important in a smart lock?

6 Upvotes

I’m looking to add a smart lock to my home, but I’m not entirely sure which features I should really be looking at or ones that are actually more problematic than they’re worth?

Any specific features that are must haves or to skip on? Specific model recommendations or ones to avoid?

Some things floating through my head
- I’m not sure I want motorized deadbolt? Kills battery and what if the door isn’t sitting just perfectly where the bolt slides in effortlessly?
- I really like the idea of being able to create codes in the fly AND tracking their usage, as I intend to use it for things like dog walkers. But do I really need to create a code on the fly? I imagine I could somehow just create one in advance and give that one out next when needed? Likewise how often do you actually care/check when a code was last used?
- Are things like fingerprint or apple key seamlessly reliable? I do use an iPhone, though also wear gloves in winter sooo…?
- I currently use a mish-mash (ugh I know) of hubutat and HomeKit, a couple legacy Google home stuff. Idea is certainly so move things to home assistant and extend to HomeKit.


r/smarthome • • 2d ago

Apple HomeKit Buy Apple HomeView (Wall Mounted)

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0 Upvotes

Someone explain to me like I'm a 10-year-old why this is necessary with phones in almost every pocket as well as Alexas and Google Home devices.


r/smarthome • • 2d ago

I don't have a smarthome platform Yale Lock not working

1 Upvotes

I was given an ADT Yale Assure Lock 2 with the Zwave. I dont have anything that works with Zwave so I bought the Yale Wifi Smart module but I try to set it up with Yale access but it says its incompatible? Says to use ADT to connect it to but I thought switching the module would allow me to connect it. Any advice?