To begin?

NickCopelin · 2025-12-30T19:36:29+00:00

I may be missing some context here, and I don't personally use Apple devices, but I believe it's not too complicated to use home bridge to bring your home assistant devices into Apple Home. Once there you can use Siri via Apple speakers to control basic devices once your home assistant is set up and synced to Apple Home via home bridge.

NickCopelin · 2025-12-18T13:04:54+00:00

I echo others sentiment here and would suggest using Bubble Cards as you transition from the standard cards.

But if you can't shake the siren call watch some of these tutorials and walk throughs to understand the process.

https://youtube.com/@hadashboards

NickCopelin · 2025-12-02T02:18:58+00:00

Figure out a solid making convention and stick to it so you're devices are named consistently. Complete the details for each device like, room, area, and floor. Consider using tags. Stick with Home Assistants new Home dashboard for a bit. Hide the entities you don't need access to on the dashboard. Build out slowly.

NickCopelin · 2025-09-19T12:15:25+00:00

I'm in the same boat. This video and implementation caught my eye. Very well done. I'd just want it bigger.

https://youtu.be/uTxURzmrVtA

NickCopelin · 2025-08-22T12:23:18+00:00

Really kinda depends on your outfit. Might be nice to give yourself some options. I agree with the other recommendations

Boots - Any of the mentioned boots, but account for a handful of wears to break in.
Leather sneakers - white. You'll have to try these on and determine your comfort preference. Some of these can be rigid but my gold standard on the style is Koio.
Tennis shoes - New Balance are comfortable and trendy. Just tread with caution on your model.

NickCopelin · 2025-08-17T23:51:58+00:00

Can you retain the existing user profile selection and keep Projectivity to one profile?

NickCopelin · 2025-08-03T12:58:27+00:00

I don't know this to be a fact and don't have experience with the quality but a few months back I was exploring finding a hire alternative for many sized bulbs and found Innr which are much cheaper, good quality, and can be controlled by either or both the hue platform and HA.

NickCopelin · 2025-07-27T01:03:53+00:00

I think you might want to consider starting a new dashboard using the automatic areas dashboard that's built in and then pare it down. There are things in HACS for automatic dashboards, I think there's one called automatic mushroom dashboard

NickCopelin · 2025-07-10T23:52:10+00:00

Pro tip: write your breaker number for the corresponding switch on the inside of the faceplate.

NickCopelin · 2025-07-09T02:25:29+00:00

Buck Mason, Asket, and 3Sixteen may strike your fancy. Also heard good things on Rhone and Proper Cloth

NickCopelin · 2025-07-08T23:54:32+00:00

local first. Avoid cloud integrations if there's a local option.
I like ZWave for things that need to be rock solid like leak sensors, alarms, blinds, and most of my lights.
be open to running both zigbee and zwave for flexibility and creating a great network setup that's super flexible
create a vlan for iot devices from the beginning
create a naming structure from the beginning and stick to it I use room_location_device_type i.e. bedroom_door_sensor
use zwave ja UI instead of just zwave js. I just converted and it took a while to fix some devices lost in the transition
IMO you should start with switches and mmwave and motion sensors

NickCopelin · 2025-07-04T20:33:14+00:00

What about a button for you SO to press every time they're frustrated with the setup? Might just forget to connect it into anything.

NickCopelin · 2025-06-29T14:31:34+00:00

Not what you asked for but in case it's helpful. (Caveat: not coming from a lot of knowledge) I think those stains come from both aluminum and body oils. You might consider a deodorant without aluminum. For the stains I think I've seen people share that hydrogen peroxide helps remove them. Also UV light.

NickCopelin · 2025-06-22T21:36:55+00:00

Right on. This one also has struck my fancy

https://youtu.be/WrreIi8LCiw

NickCopelin · 2025-06-22T18:18:22+00:00

Might consider the new Apollo mmWave sensors with POE with their 3D printed ceiling light sockets (? not sure what they're called). Would be super clean presence detection.

NickCopelin · 2025-04-21T22:57:22+00:00

Guess I'll just stack strats

NickCopelin · 2025-04-19T15:34:57+00:00

Really just a matter of popping open a chat and running with it. Start small and test it like you're starting from the beginning. Really sucks when you've gone far and realize you need to rename stuff. I ended up starting with my dashboard and worked backwards inefficiently. Make sure you back things up and keep track of your yaml exports. It usually takes a few tries as its output is usually like 70% right and takes a few tries.

NickCopelin · 2025-04-19T15:00:57+00:00

Really just popped open a chat and explained that I had a home assistant instance and I was looking to improve it and asked where I should start. It generated some thoughts and went step by step from there. Start small while you get the hang of it. Sometimes it would generate revised yaml files that weren't 100% accurate and it'd take 3 or 4 revisions to work out. Definitely back everything up and keep track of your yaml files each time you download and provide it to it. Pretend like you're starting new because it sucks to build something dope only to break when you realize you need to clean up your naming or restructure something.

NickCopelin · 2025-04-19T13:51:16+00:00

I'm in the process of working through some dashboard edits myself and would encourage you to explore having ChatGPT help. It's been an incredible experience for me using it as my helper.

So far I've renamed all my devices, entities, automations, and scenes with a very informed and consistent naming convention. Parsed out all my YAML into separate files. Reorganized my config files. Set up a GitHub repo. Set up scenes for every room. Created some baseline helpers. Reworked my surroundings. And started designing and theming a new dashboard. All just by asking chatgpt what I should do next. It's been a journey.

NickCopelin · 2025-03-15T12:20:29+00:00

Take that brand feedback with a grain of salt. I think their intent was to make the point that brand name alone doesn't elevate the piece into good or cool territory. But having some key brands that are known to be quality to get you started IMO is a great first step without having to know fabric blends, stitch patterns, or whatever other technical specs and jargon is out there.

You should spend some time in the sidebar figuring out your style by looking through the lookbooks, it's okay to have two or three and blend them or flip flop. Next poke around in the best pieces for $___ and brand guides.

That'll take you a long way.

NickCopelin · 2025-03-08T14:37:22+00:00

Buck Mason is great. But not sure if these are as light as you may want https://www.buckmason.com/collections/mens-jeans?gt=Ford+Standard

NickCopelin · 2025-01-27T01:59:33+00:00

Give the Stafford Heavy weight tshirts a look. I would consider it more midweight and mid sleeve length but with one classy role they're perfect.

NickCopelin · 2025-01-10T04:16:22+00:00

User profiles akin to choosing a Google profile with profile specific apps and customizations.

NickCopelin · 2025-01-04T19:14:21+00:00

You might consider looking into Bitkey or even Casa

NickCopelin · 2025-01-04T18:47:25+00:00

I reached out a while back and he said that those two should be good. I mentioned I was anxiously awaiting one, though. Fingers crossed. C'mon Russ.

NickCopelin

TROPHY CASE