Giovanni joins Rohan and Phil to dive into a fully local, privacy-first smart home. We cover Home Assistant on an Intel N100, Shelly devices, Zigbee vs Wi‑Fi, ESP32 Bluetooth proxies, Frigate with a Coral TPU, Reolink cams, and smart lighting with pets.

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Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA234

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https://homeassistant.fm/patreon

Share your story

We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.

Chapters

00:00:00 Intro

00:05:00 Local-only gear and protocols

00:12:00 Lighting, presence, and pets

00:18:00 Cameras, Frigate and automations

00:27:20 Media servers

00:33:00 Plex vs Jellyfin

00:41:00 Nextcloud and Immich photos

00:47:00 Backups and offsite strategy

00:53:00 Security, reverse proxy, wrap-up

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors

Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa

Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.

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.

Clean My Mac

Get Tidy Today! Get 7 days free and use our code ASSISTANT for 20% off

Products Discussed

Intel N100 mini PC: https://amzn.to/3OP00FI

NVIDIA Shield TV: https://amzn.to/4w9E2Ok

Google Coral USB TPU accelerator: https://amzn.to/4cNVot1

Products we Recommend

Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

Website

Twitter: @philhawthorne

Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com

Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi

Website

Twitter: @rohank9

Buy Rohan a Coffee

This episode contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Mark went from a rocky SmartThings world to a rock-solid Home Assistant install. He shares his tails of disaster and recovery, as well as his journey from Tasmota to ESPHome.

Watch this episode on YouTube

Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA233

Support the Podcast

Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.

https://homeassistant.fm/patreon

Share your story

We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.

Chapters

00:00:00 - Intro

00:02:00 - SmartThings beginnings and first automations

00:06:00 - Old timers to cameras after a theft

00:09:30 - Discovering Home Assistant and server build

00:16:00 - From Node-RED to cleaner HA automations

00:19:50 - Reolink AI triggers outside lighting

00:23:30 - Server failure and Proxmox migration

00:28:30 - UPS woes and garage door backup issue

00:38:00 - Presence, Ecobee, salt and propane projects

00:44:00 - Matter locks, long-range Z-Wave ideas

00:49:00 - New Overview, Alarmo plans, wrap-up

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors

Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa

Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.

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.

Products Discussed

Aladdin garage door openers (with battery backup): https://amzn.to/4mxGfPl

Products we Recommend

Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

Website

Twitter: @philhawthorne

Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com

Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi

Website

Twitter: @rohank9

Buy Rohan a Coffee

This video contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

We’re diving into Home Assistant 2026.5 and re-capping the highlights from State of the Open Home 2026. There’s new RS-232 serial control, dashboard strategies, and more purpose-specific triggers.

Watch this episode on YouTube

Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA232

Support the Podcast

Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.

https://homeassistant.fm/patreon

Share your story

We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.

Chapters

00:00:00 Intro

00:10:30 Roadmap deep-dive and HTTP 80

00:15:30 Easter eggs, Project BLAST, merch

00:19:30 IR databases and Z-Wave spectrum

00:23:00 2026.5: RS-232 and RF proxies

00:28:30 RF rolling codes and SDR hopes

00:31:30 Dashboards: strategies and shortcuts

00:36:00 Vacuums chat and power strip ad

00:41:00 Purpose-specific triggers (Labs)

00:44:00 MQTT, Matter, ESPHome updates

00:46:30 Shelly, Sonos, groups, and S1/S2

00:50:30 Apple TV typing, WLED, notifications

00:54:00 Immich photos, Subaru, and UniFi

00:57:00 New integrations roundup

01:00:00 Breaking changes: Ring, webhooks

01:01:30 Template docs overhaul

01:02:30 Network outage story and resilience

01:05:30 Wrap-up and sign-off

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors

Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa

Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.

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.

Products Discussed

Broadlink RM4 Pro (433 MHz IR/RF blaster): https://amzn.to/4tesZk8

UniFi Protect PoE Smart Siren: https://amzn.to/4w4ZWCh

Products we Recommend

Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

Website

Twitter: @philhawthorne

Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com

Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi

Website

Twitter: @rohank9

Buy Rohan a Coffee

This episode contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

We’re sitting down with Nick and Larsen from FireAvert to talk about how FireAvert aims to stop house fires, and how they can tie into smart home systems like Home Assistant

Watch this episode on YouTube

Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA231

Support the Podcast

Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.

https://homeassistant.fm/patreon

Share your story

We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.

Chapters

00:00:00 Intro and Sponsors

00:04:00 What FireAvert Does

00:08:00 Technical Challenges and Detection

00:12:00 Form Factor and Installation

00:16:00 Accuracy, ML, and Notifications

00:20:00 Smart Automations and Control

00:24:00 Product Evolution and Z-Wave/LoRa

00:31:00 Risk Areas: Kitchens, EVs, Dryers

00:35:00 Water Leaks and Mitigation

00:39:00 Startup Lessons and Team

00:43:00 Home Assistant Dev and Roadmap

00:46:00 Global Availability and Wrap-up

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors

Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa

Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.

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.

Products Discussed

FireAvert Gas Auto Shut-Off: https://amzn.to/4vLz0rl

Products we Recommend

Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

Website

Twitter: @philhawthorne

Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com

Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi

Website

Twitter: @rohank9

Buy Rohan a Coffee

This episode contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Industrial data pro Mike joins Phil and Rohan to unpack his Home Assistant setup. We dive deep into Node‑RED flows, mmWave presence, actionable dashboards, and AI‑assisted automations—including recognizing his own cat and verifying the right bin is curbside.

Watch this episode on YouTube

Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA230

Support the Podcast

Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.

https://homeassistant.fm/patreon

Share your story

We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.

Chapters

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:28 - Mike’s background and location

00:03:43 - From OpenHAB to Home Assistant

00:06:11 - Cloud vs local pragmatism

00:09:40 - Zigbee, Thread and Matter lessons

00:12:17 - Distributed hardware and Docker setup

00:16:08 - Family UX and presence ethos

00:20:26 - PIR, mmWave and context signals

00:24:41 - Automations with Node‑RED

00:29:50 - AI‑assisted automation building

00:34:44 - Dashboards and notifications

00:43:42 - Cameras, AI and the cat

00:50:59 - Smarter heating and preheating

01:03:33 - Actionable notifications philosophy

01:05:40 - Evangelizing at work and wrap‑up

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors

Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa

Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.

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.

Clean My Mac

Get Tidy Today! Get 7 days free and use our code ASSISTANT for 20% off

Products Discussed

Aqara Cube: https://amzn.to/47C7YIm

Intel N100 Mini PC: https://amzn.to/4v13dC8

Oral‑B Electric Toothbrush: https://amzn.to/4tfVoGV

Products we Recommend

Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

Website

Twitter: @philhawthorne

Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com

Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi

Website

Twitter: @rohank9

Buy Rohan a Coffee

Electrical engineer Braden joins Phil and Rohan to share practical Home Assistant wins. From migrating to Zigbee2MQTT, taming a Whirlpool ice maker with ESPHome, building a garage door opener, and planning a sensor-packed greenhouse lab.

Watch this episode on YouTube

Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA229

Support the Podcast

Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.

https://homeassistant.fm/patreon

Share your story

We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.

Chapters

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:23 - Meet Brayden in Windy Indiana

00:03:35 - From Hue to Home Assistant

00:08:50 - Greenhouse Lab Plans

00:12:45 - Nursery Voice and Motion Tactics

00:18:20 - RFID Cards for Kids’ Media

00:29:00 - Zigbee2MQTT, Aqara, Litter Box Hack

00:36:40 - ESPHome: Ice Maker and Garage

00:43:40 - Power Monitoring and Breakers

00:47:00 - Unifi, Cameras, and ZBT-2

00:52:30 - Agents, Dashboards, and Presence

01:00:20 - Wrap-up and Thanks

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors

Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa

Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.

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.

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

Notion

Notion is an AI-powered, connected workspace for teams. Notion brings all your notes, docs, and projects into one space that just works. Try Custom Agents now at https://notion.com/homeassistant

Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @philhawthorne

Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com

Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @rohank9

Buy Rohan a Coffee

Home Assistant 2026.4 is here! We break down Infrared as a first‑class feature with IR proxies, expanded purpose‑specific triggers, dashboard background colors, favorites for lights/covers, Matter lock credential management, and more. We also cover a critical HA OS/Supervisor security patch you should apply now.

Watch this episode on YouTube

Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA228

Support the Podcast

Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.

https://homeassistant.fm/patreon

Share your story

We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.

Chapters

00:00:00 Intro, sponsors, housekeeping

00:02:30 2026.4 overview and event

00:05:00 Security alert and patch tips

00:07:30 New Works With partner: HeatIt

00:10:00 Feedback: Frigate and Litter‑Robot

00:12:30 Thread/Matter experiences and FP300

00:15:00 Local LLMs and home agents

00:17:30 Cat litter → RoboRock cleanup

00:20:00 Entity naming change delayed

00:23:00 Infrared goes first‑class

00:26:00 IR proxies now, RF coming

00:28:30 Purpose‑specific triggers expand

00:31:00 Dashboard background colors

00:33:30 Favorites for lights and covers

00:36:00 Matter lock credentials, locks

00:38:30 Robots: Roborock Q10, SmartThings

00:41:00 Jellyfin and Proxmox updates

00:43:30 Voice cleaning, backup progress

00:46:00 Markdown actions, LG IR nuances

00:48:30 New integrations roundup

00:51:00 E‑ink, energy, access, breaking changes

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors

Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa

Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.

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.

Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @philhawthorne

Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com

Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @rohank9

Buy Rohan a Coffee

This video contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.