On our most recent IoT Podcast, Danny called in to our voicemail hotline with a very interesting question. He wants to know if platforms such as Home Assistant or OpenHAB could help support older smart devices that lose support from their … [Read more...]
The inexpensive age of DIY smart home image detection is here if you’re up for it
I’ve said many times in the past that every home ought to have a Raspberry Pi computer. And that is even truer for every smart home. Aside from being relatively inexpensive, these sub-$50 computers can accept analog signals from sensors, are easy … [Read more...]
DIY smart home hubs are going retail: Here’s why that’s a good thing
For years, there have been two kinds of hubs that run smart homes. One is the kind you buy from a retailer, such as the Amazon Echo Plus, Hubitat, Samsung SmartThings, or Wink hubs. And one is the DIY kind where you download and install software to a … [Read more...]
Just how secure is Home Assistant? (Hint: very)
On our most recent IoT Podcast, a listener with the same name as me called in asking about Home Assistant security. Specifically, he wanted to know how secure I thought it was and I'm super glad he asked. Why? Because as I've continued my DIY journey … [Read more...]
Can you run an OpenHAB or Home Assistant smart home in the cloud?
Typically, people who use either the OpenHAB or Home Assistant open source smart home platforms tend to run the software on their own computer or a low-cost Raspberry Pi. Can you actually run these on cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud or … [Read more...]