Welcome to today’s daily kōrero!

Anyone can make the thread, first in first served. If you are here on a day and there’s no daily thread, feel free to create it!

Anyway, it’s just a chance to talk about your day, what you have planned, what you have done, etc.

So, how’s it going?

  • eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Home assistant is great isn’t it? I started with it a couple years ago, it can be as complex or as simple as you like. I haven’t added anything new to it for quite awhile though

    • sylverstream@lemmy.nz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s a rabbit hole :D I’m no longer allowed to talk about it at the dinner table.

      Automated the lights, device usage for kids (mostly), garage door, my standing desk with height sensor & relay, IR blasters, and panel heaters with thermostats. That’s enough for now :)

      • eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Similar here lights, heaters and heatpump, IR blaster, some other misc notifications and speakers and things. No money for more fun gadgets at the moment though :(

        • sylverstream@lemmy.nz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          How do you do speakers? I’ve got a bluetooth speaker but couldn’t find a way to control it via HA. It’s too far away from the HA server, tried to connect it to a tablet I’m using as wall panel, but then couldn’t play music through it. Tried with DLNA apps but that was slow/unreliable. Also tried Browsermod but that didn’t work either. Also saw people using a Chromecast with HDMI to Audio splitter and then cast to the Chromecast, seemed overkill to me. Finally, saw some ESPHome projects connected via aux to the speaker, but didn’t seem very reliable.

          Think best way is to get proper smart speakers like Sonos, but I find them too expensive.

          • eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            I would love some smart speakers but I find them pricey as well.

            I’m using a Chromecast audio with an old pair of speakers on a smart plug. The speakers are old enough that it only has an IR remote.

            I have it setup so:

            • Chromecast is detected as Playing, speakers turn on.
            • IR blaster sends commands to set the volume and bass level I like.
            • Dashboard displays additional buttons for controlling volume via IR blaster.
            • If Chromecast stops casting, the speakers turn off and buttons on dashboard disappear.

            Main reason it’s setup this way is I already had the old speakers and getting a Chromecast audio and IR blaster was much cheaper than getting good smart speakers. Although you’re right it would be much simpler if I just get some decent smart speakers.

              • eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                1 year ago

                I got it shortly after I heard they were discontinued, so there was still some stock floating around. I think it might have been through Dick Smith/Kogan at the time?

                If you’re willing to go down the Amazon route, I think Echo Dot’s have an aux out? They had a device called the Echo Input as well which was like and Echo Dot without the speaker, doesn’t seem available anywhere though. I would probably only try this if I could be sure I could disable the microphone and smart speaker functions.

                • sylverstream@lemmy.nz
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Thanks. Yeah I don’t want any cloud based stuff, especially not from Amazon as I’m afraid they will shut down Alexa if they keep losing money on it.

                  Guess I’ll wait for now. Thanks.

                  • eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Understandable. I feel like there must be something out there that works as a replacement, I just haven’t looked very deeply into it.

    • Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      I don’t know if it’s great, this is my first foray into it, and I’ve fallen at the first hurdle 🙁

      • eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        I think it’s strength is the amount of integrations they have, you can just mish mash devices from different systems and get them all under one dashboard.

        For example, in mine I’ve got devices using Hue, Smart things, Tuya, Sensibo etc.