I've been building and rebuilding my whole-home audio setup for years, mostly with secondhand and thrift store gear! My latest upgrade might be my favorite yet.

I took a pair of $20 thrift store speakers, added two Sonocotta Louder Mini ESP32 amplifier boards, and brought them into Home Assistant.

Now I've got real stereo, synchronized music throughout the house, announcements, and more audio settings than I know what to do with.

I'm not really an audiophile, but tunning these things made my jaw drop.

The whole experience involved three little magic tricks. Getting the speakers working, getting everything playing together, and finally getting the EQ settings right.

Sonocotta provided the boards for this project, but the thrift store speakers and the audio adventure are all mine.

I wrote up the whole story here:

https://thingtootech.blogspot.com/2026/10/thrift-store-hi-fi-sonocotta-sendspin.html

Anyone else mixing old school speakers with modern home automation? What are you using for whole-home audio?

… with the white-hot passion of a thousand fiery suns!

That first box you see is the safe stopping point I chose about 7 hours into a 90-minute project.

You’re seeing a GE z-wave fan controller, then two Enbrighten dimmers and a hole where the Zooz scene controller will go. Maybe. Eventually.

That switch is connected to the 3-switch box on the other side of the room.

On a different circuit. Having all 4 neutral wires bundled together in the same box and going to different circuits might be what’s messing me up. Or, I misidentified the load/line wires. Or, the neutral wires disconnected when I plugged screwed the switches back into the box. I’ve now got a wago 5 wire lever connector - so much better than wire nuts!

All I know is that one time I turned it on, I got power from one Zooz and not the other. The next attempt flipped the circuit breaker and the third gave me blinking fault lights on the breaker.

Anyway, I think I’m going to move the Zooz switches to one of the single pole switches and use Enbrighten on the 3-way. That will be a tiny bit easier wiring.

Hey all,

I’m doing a down to the studs renovation in Western NC and the electrician rough-in starts next week, so I need to pick a lighting approach now and not after the walls are closed. I’d love guidance from people who’ve lived with these systems for a few years, as I’ve been waffling back and forth on this.

The house

Main level plus a finished walkout lower level Mostly recessed LED plus some pendants, ceiling fans, exhaust fans, and porch, deck and landscape lighting Attached garage and a separate workshop building 400A service with a transfer switch and propane standby generator

What I need

Local control only, no cloud dependence Wall switches that work normally for guests and kids Home Assistant integration, plus automated shades (leaning Lutron Serena)

I’m torn between Lutron (Caseta or RadioRA 3 (I can get certified) and Inovelli, but I’m open to other options.

Questions

What would you pick for a whole house today, and what would you avoid? Any dimming or flicker issues with LED drivers? What should I tell the electrician to wire now? I’m already planning a neutral in every box and deep boxes.

Thanks!

I recently started setting up basic automations around the house to fix a few daily annoyances:

• Lighting: Smart switches in the main rooms so I can trigger scenes rather than adjusting individual bulbs.
• Schedules: Smart plug on a sunset/bedtime schedule for an accent lamp, plus a desk power strip that cuts power overnight.
• Sensors: Simple motion sensor and light in the storage room that turns on and off automatically.

Now that I’m planning the next additions—a washer cycle notification, laundry room leak sensors, and an alert if the garage door stays open—I can see app fragmentation becoming a headache fast. I really want to avoid needing a separate proprietary hub and app for every new brand I add.

For those who started piecemeal: did you make the jump to Home Assistant early on before things got complex, or did you wait until app fatigue became unbearable?

Also curious what hardware route you'd recommend for a beginner making the switch—a dedicated green/yellow box, an old mini PC, or a Raspberry Pi?

Hey everyone! I just got this smartthings original smart home kit from 2013, upon research, the hub itself (STH-ETH-001) is like, dead-dead. Maybe anyone had any experience with the thing and have some tips to share?

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!

I'm moving into a new flat that has Rako lighting, WK-HUB, Rako wall-mounted lighting controls, etc. The controls have curtain open/close buttons, however there are no curtains in the flat, so I'm thinking of installing compatible ones.

My main question is: would the Rako-compatible motorised curtains show up in the Apple Home app?

I know the lighting does show up, but what about the curtains?

I recently started living by myself with my cat and I wanted to get a smoke alarm that sends me a notification that it’s going off if I am not at home.
I’ve been looking at all the brands on Amazon including Yolink but it only has 5 reviews.
I don’t need anything super fancy just a notification if the alarm goes off so I can call my neighbors and run home.
Any suggestions? Ideally I’d like to stay under $100.

(Ps I don’t have any kind of Google home or Alexa set up and I’d like to keep it that way)

I work from home and my office is upstairs. every time my dog starts barking i end up going downstairs thinking someone's at the door, only to find absolutely nobody there. Sometimes its a loud car passing, sometimes its the mailman, sometimes i have no idea what set him off lol

Im thinking about putting one of those Wyze cameras facing the front entrance so i can check from my phone without leaving my desk every time he loses his mind, but only thing im wondering is whether person alerts would help more than regular motion alerts since theres a sidewalk right outside. Dont really need my phone going off every time someone walks past ya know.

I’ve tried a lot of smart-home gadgets over the years, but most are fun for a few weeks and then collect dust. Only a few have stuck.

My outdoor lights follow sunrise and sunset automatically, so I haven’t touched the switch in over a year.

Motion lights in the hallway dim at night, so I can get water without waking my wife.
My robot vacuum runs when we leave for work, and I barely have to do anything. It also makes me pick up clutter so it can move around, which helps me keep the house tidy.

These devices just work without me having to think about them. That’s the difference between a fun gadget and smart-home tech that makes life easier.

What smart-home device has made the biggest difference for you?

Swapped out a ceiling fan, and the new fan does not have a light. So I now have 1 wall switch that does nothing.

Is it possible to have the switch that does nothing control a smart bulb in a lamp? I bought a KASA smart WiFi light switch, but am confused by the wiring. Wanted to confirm it would work as intended prior to installing.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Tried to have a Honeywell X2S installed but the LED screen didn't come on. The The installer said it's because of my 120-240v main supply.

Can someone please explain why plain terms. More importantly, please suggest my best options for maximum savings and automations. Above photos to guide you.

Thanks in advance!

I got one of these mmwave presence sensors and set it up in smart things and it works.

https://s.lazada.sg/s.6v9NN?c=d&t=p-iF9SzZU-s2CJWWhh

The issue is that even when i take out the battery, in Smart things, it still shows as connected to the zigbee hub and online.

Does anyone know why this happened?

Hello fellow rabbithole peeps!

Tl;dr - I need a button that our badass rural doctors can hit on their way out of the ER to summon help from other parts of the hospital. Old brick and mortar building with incredibly poor signal penetration and just the worst wifi.

I have been tasked by my boss/wife (not being glib - I'm a nurse and she's the chief of staff) with trying to setup a code blue/emergency intercom type system for our very old hospital. Basically people try to die in the parking lot a couple times a year and we don't have a functioning intercom system for code blue. The agency responsible for our hospital is "looking into it," which generally means they'll have a mediocre solution in a few years.

What I'm looking for is something where the doctor on call can hit a button or otherwise transmit a signal that will alert the doctors in the clinic and the nurses/doctors at the nursing station that shit is going down and they should run, not walk, to help. The entire building is about 100 meters long (~300 feet) and, as mentioned, has a really bad time transmitting wireless signal. There is cell service throughout in my experience. Any thoughts would be appreciated! Ideally it isn't just a horrible screeching noise but that would still be better than nothing since we're talking about people who are actively dying.

Thanks so much, and apologies if I'm in the wrong spot! I've posted to intercom groups but they're a very niche subreddit and don't tend to get a lot of traffic (mostly studios/productions from what I gather).

Full disclaimer; I'm completely new in this space, and these are my first ventures into the world of home automation..

I am planning to upgrade my under floor heating system to a Zigbee based solution, that can be adjusted from in-room thermostats and through Home Assistant.

During my research, Google suggested that I use Möhlenhoff Alpha 5 actuators (230V/1A) paired with separate ZBMINIR2 relays for each actuator - 5 zones in total.

Looking at the specs for each of the parts, I can't find any reason that this combination wouldn't work. However; I can't find any examples of other people with the same setup, which does make me a little concerned with the amount of projects documented online..

So.. What am I missing here? :-)

Hi everyone! I'm associated with Jarvis Computing, where we work with home automation solutions, including wired and wireless automation.

We're interested in understanding what homeowners in Navi Mumbai look for when planning a smart home.

For a 2BHK or 3BHK apartment, which setup would you consider first?

• Smart lighting and lighting scenes
• Motorised curtains
• AC and climate control
• A complete home automation system

One thing we're particularly interested in is whether people prefer planning automation during construction or adding it later to an existing flat.

If you've installed a system, what has worked well for you, and what should someone check before choosing an installer?