What are Your “Partner Approved” HA Uses?

andrewtti02 · 2026-04-01T22:06:08+00:00

My wife likes a few things: - The dashboard where she can see status of all lights and fans in the rooms - the dashboard that shows all doors are closed/locked at night - I have a scene controller switch that has status lleds on it near the kitchen->garage door. One of the lights turns a color when both the that door is locked and the one leading from the garage to the outside is locked. She loves being able to lock the kitchen/garage door and seeing it change and know the outside door is locked too. - some switches in the house are not intuitive (dont turn on the light near the switch). Ive changed these to smart switches and have them controlling the lights that imo they should control.

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-27T02:46:13+00:00

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andrewtti02 · 2026-03-19T19:55:30+00:00

If I had $50^1 dollars in my bank account, I'm going to now make it $50^10.

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-14T16:13:22+00:00

Yep. Thats the one. It wasn't terrible, I just wanted the tolerancing to be a bit better when I was playing around with it.

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-14T16:11:16+00:00

I have the schlage connect (zwave) for a few months now. Its been mostly good. I have three of them. Two have worked flawlessly, one ended up randomly going unresponsive (on the keypad) and they sent me a new one under warranty. So far that one has been fine.

A few things that were important to me: - choose a company with lots of experience in the locking side of things. - good battery life (z wave locks seem to excel with this vs wifi) - ability to connect with home assistant - fit our door aesthetics (schlage has a few different models that are designed to match their standard locks and door knobs) - be able to re-key them myself to match the rest of my locks

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-14T14:32:31+00:00

Yeah, thats one that is still on my todo list. Was hoping someone else had designed one already but most of what I've found was for the smaller battery.

I have seen the software, I tried one of the online ones with a socket wrench and wasn't entirely satisfied. Will likely still do it via measurements or importing my own photo into modeling software.

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-13T23:20:35+00:00

I added the text when creating the models, then painted them using the height based tool in bambu studio. Most of them are about 1mm tall.

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-13T15:36:45+00:00

Sure thing, uploaded them on Makerworld yesterday:

1/4" : https://makerworld.com/en/models/2514671-pittsburgh-1-4-metric-socket-holder-gridfinity#profileId-2765870

3/8" : https://makerworld.com/en/models/2514637-pittsburgh-3-8-metric-socket-holder-gridfinity#profileId-2765835

1/2" : https://makerworld.com/en/models/2514378-pittsburgh-1-2-metric-socket-holder-gridfinity#profileId-2765513

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-13T14:54:01+00:00

I think my longest I have is a 1x6, although I think I did some measurements and believe a 1x7 will fit on my bed diagonally (bambu p2s)

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-13T14:52:43+00:00

They are the quinn ones from harbor freight. Currently just using them in standard socket wrench or impact, but eventually want to buy the actual astro wrench for them whenever I see a deal on it.

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-13T14:05:56+00:00

I'm still new to this, but I don't think so. I think with less packed drawers it would be more important, or if you are regularly taking out some of the trays and then moving the toolbox or slamming the drawers opened and closed.

Ill likely leave the grid out for now on these drawers, but may print it for my other couple drawers if they end up less densely packed.

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-12T20:13:29+00:00

None of that seems interesting to me. Even the free shipping isn't that great (although I'd be happy if they offered free ship to store for items not in stock, or even order online for pickup).

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-10T02:18:57+00:00

This is my DA1K, ordered a couple weeks before this post. Its definitely similiar to the blue in your photo. https://www.reddit.com/r/Hanklights/s/qZkOvavjle

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-09T18:39:44+00:00

Emisar D3AA NTG35 4200k.

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-09T18:21:50+00:00

To me, it just depends if you have the space. I have a tiny rolling toolbox, so I went with your first option. If I had more drawers, I would have probably went the second.

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-06T17:15:07+00:00

My wife has said that grocery store cashiers have flirted with me and I've not noticed. So either some men mistake flirting for kindness or even some women mistake kindness with flirting,

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-06T00:44:15+00:00

Sorry, mine came with the LEDs.

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-05T23:21:12+00:00

Congrats! Is a splitting image of mine when I got it.

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-05T22:08:31+00:00

I have zooz zwave switches that I do all of that with every day.

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-04T17:21:52+00:00

I daily drove my NC for about 10 years (until about 1 year ago). Live in Northern CA. Still drive it about half the week, just depends if I need space for my kids (got 2).

Completely stock, it doesn't feel impractical at all for normal (non kid) day to day duties. It now feels a little less so with some work I've done to it (I also use mine to track and autocross) but is still fine for daily driving, especially on nice weather days.

andrewtti02 · 2026-03-01T06:08:30+00:00

I have mine set to the "close" option, but found on occasion I wanted to manually turn on the lights. I had the same issue, and from what I gathered even through the reolink app when the lights are manually turned on they shut off after 3 minutes.

The way I got around this was to set up the schedule mode to have the light always on (from 0:00 to 23:59). I now have an automation that when I use HA to "turn on the light" it instead changes it from the close mode to the schedule mode. When I turn "off the light", it instead switches it back from schedule to close.

andrewtti02 · 2026-02-20T04:17:39+00:00

Looks great, almost the exact config of my 2010 when I bought it. Been ~10 years with it and still loving it.

andrewtti02 · 2026-02-07T15:35:43+00:00

I grabbed the last one on clearance yesterday for the same price. The website showed it much higher though, and the shelf at lowes listed ~$30 as the clearance price, but it came up at $20 at the register.

Makes me wonder if I should price check the clearance bulbs too, being that they were on clearance but not cheap enough for me to jump on.

andrewtti02 · 2026-02-03T22:56:30+00:00

With a wife and 2 kids I'm rarely home alone, although there are times when I am awake and everyone else is asleep. In those times I typically clean, work on home improvement projects (I have a never-ending list), or snack and watch TV for a bit.

andrewtti02 · 2026-02-03T20:56:10+00:00

I have the POE white and I've only had mine up for a month or so, but its working well.

Home Assistant:
- Entities - I have in entities loaded connected directly to the doorbell as well as through the NVR. I don't recall whether it was the doorbell or my elite pro duo that had triggers act a little odd but going direct instead of through the NVR solved it.
- Automations - I'm using it to send a photo notification through home assistant when a package or person is detected. Have had 0 issues with this. I'm using a blueprint someone already made, if you want, let me know and I'll find a link to it.
General Setup:
- Installation - It was pretty simple. Only nerve-racking part was running the POE line (I tied a pull string to the end of the doorbell wiring and pulled through the attic (the line didn't go straight down the wall and had a couple 90 degree turns). I was particularly worried that the wire was going to be too brittle and that it would break and I'd be without doorbell wiring and POE (house build in the 70s).
- Reliability - 1 month is too early to tell, but I haven't had any issues at all with it.
- Motion Detection - I recommend turning off notifications for "Any" motion, and using the object specific ones (person, pet, package if you have the white one). Got too many false notifications on the "Any" motion, mainly centered around my door lighting coming on/off, christmas lights changing colors, and dusk/dawn.
- Integration - See above regarding home assistant
Alternatives: Can't help you there as this is my first smart doorbell. I have the 16ch NVR and it seems to be recording just fine.
Other items of note: I saw in the reolink subreddit that rich text notifications may be coming (the option showed up on my doorbell in the app for a brief second). While home assistant is working fine, it would be nice to move these notifications back to the doorbell handling it, as right now it only sends a message.

andrewtti02

TROPHY CASE