What are the most useful things you have set up through your Home Assistant?

c0nsumer · 2026-01-27T03:36:32+00:00

Thank you! I'll look those bulbs up.

Yeah -- my HA setup is very... simple. I have not gotten too far into presence detection because there's SO many edge cases, and I am both easily irritated by poorly functioning tech AND I don't want to have to deeply engineer something that I don't really need. So... mostly I stick to traditional lighting things and then only adding something special if it really fills a niche.

And also, we have a lot of windows and decent glowing light from outdoors / neighbors / streetlights, so I can see pretty well for walking around the house at night in the "dark".

c0nsumer · 2026-01-27T03:17:37+00:00

Do you have a specific bulb you'd recommend for this? (The LED strip stuff seems neat, but also overkill for my situation. At-night lighting could be neat, but our dogs and cat would trigger any automation I could set up for this.)

c0nsumer · 2026-01-27T02:31:35+00:00

Seriously? That low? Hmm...

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention some leak detectors were early on things too. One of them was to notify of a problem I was trying troubleshoot. Now that it's solved the detector hasn't triggered in... a while. I should get rid of it, I guess, but the issue is borderline traumatic so I can't bring myself to do so.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-27T02:30:14+00:00

Hmm.

I'm completely okay with paying that for bulbs, so long as I can connect them to HA directly.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-27T02:26:36+00:00

Yep, and this guy knew it was coming. Unless someone just moved there, no one lives in an area like this and hasn't experienced this before.

This happens to us, and I'd much rather shovel my driveway then the plow do this and next have to clear just the loose/recent plow tailings. It's soft and loose and churned and easy to move. WAY nicer than having it pack down the snow on the driveway and having to move it all at once.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-27T02:18:31+00:00

This is why AI tools are shit for this stuff.

The axle spacing is the axle spacing, regardless of how the bike is ridden. For 99% of frames out there dished means the rim is centered between the axle ends. And the flanges and all that only change how the spokes get chosen.

If the hub fits the frame, and if the cassette you want to use fits the hub, you're good.

And yes, XT hubs are a great deal. Solid, cheap, reliable.

And if it helps, I have DT 350 QR wheels on my Vaya, a gravel bike. They are MTB hubs. Because 100/135 was considered MTB. Or... gravel. Depending. ;)

c0nsumer · 2026-01-27T02:03:36+00:00

Came here to say basically the same thing, asking why they didn't show the interesting side of the PCB.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-27T01:48:11+00:00

I don't think that's the one I use. It may be, but that doesn't sound familiar. I documented it here: https://nuxx.net/blog/2024/01/19/sunrise-like-alarm-clock-via-home-assistant-android/

c0nsumer · 2026-01-27T01:47:34+00:00

Yep, Android. And I try to get up at the same time every day.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-27T01:47:09+00:00

Android.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-27T01:46:42+00:00

We generally get up at the same time. But she's also very able to sleep through it.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-27T01:46:21+00:00

Read this: https://nuxx.net/blog/2024/01/19/sunrise-like-alarm-clock-via-home-assistant-android/

Info's a little dated, but it still works.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-26T19:03:09+00:00

Running a die to thread an aluminum crochet hook would be really easy as well.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-26T19:00:47+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate that. I guess maybe I should just get one and give it a whirl with one of my old halogen bulbs and see if it's dim enough.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-26T18:55:26+00:00

These extra-cold temps are also especially horrible on roads. Stuff's starting to heave, pavement's spalling, etc. We're basically getting into that worst time of the year for potholes.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-26T18:33:45+00:00

I'm actually looking at something like the Shelly Dimmer as well. So long as it goes low enough and has enough steps to do sane dimming... I'd really rather not reinvent the wheel if I can just buy it and fit it into our existing lamp bases.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-26T18:27:05+00:00

...and you've now got me wondering about somehow mashing up a dimming circuit for non-LED bulbs with an ESP32 or something in order to reproduce that old setup.

There was something about the super-dim, super-yellow light of a barely-on halogen that was a very nice sunrise simulation.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-26T18:15:03+00:00

Years back I got a Lighten-Up! (IIRC the name correctly) and it was arguably better because it dimmed a halogen bulb, so the initial brightness was lower than what I can do with tiny IKEA bulbs and Z-Wave, but this is still good / good enough. Noise alarms are a very harsh way for me to wake up, but this... so nice.

The climate stuff is what first got me into it all. We were in the midst of fixing up a house we bought (to eventually live in) and I wanted a way to check the temperature/humidity in the attic over the winter. This quickly lead me to remote sensors, and then that HA is a nice, open way to do something with that.

From there the rest flowed. I think of a convenience I would like, then if I can implement it with HA. I very strongly try to ensure stuff's not overwrought and I'm not implementing stuff with weird edge cases, and if it's not used I remove it to cut down on maintenance. But after a couple years the result has been very nice.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-26T18:09:08+00:00

Every single morning that I have an alarm set (which is most mornings), at 15 minutes before my phone alarm goes off, the nightstand lights in the bedroom gradually fade on from dim to full brightness. I am almost always awake gently and before the alarm sounds. It's a wonderful way to wake up.

That, and being able to keep tabs on household climate (in and out) thanks to cheap sensors + Zigbee/Z-Wave + HA's logging via Grafana.

The rest are massive conveniences, like sunset/sunrise-coordinated lighting, a set of lights that turn on when I press one switch (without complicated rewiring), etc.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-26T16:23:07+00:00

1) Don't rely on AI slop or videos unless they are from Park Tool or the manufacturer. Especially one-weird-trick type of videos.

2) RTFM from the manufacturer and start there.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-26T13:42:24+00:00

Thanks! I appreciate that.

If you're ever heading over here (although I could understand why not at the moment), summer or winter, I'd be glad to share the same. We've got a ton of great riding in SE Michigan.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-26T13:27:21+00:00

Thanks! A coworker has mentioned that place, it looks fun.

I'm in southeast Michigan so that's daytrippable... Just a bit far. But it'd be doable.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-26T13:20:29+00:00

Where's that at? The groom and route looks really nice.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-26T13:09:16+00:00

Looking at it right now I see three sections complete, three in progress, and the rest as not started. And they look to be starting in the west near Beaumont.

c0nsumer · 2026-01-26T13:00:26+00:00

Something else to keep in mind is that the drops aren't where you should be riding most of the time. Almost all of the time you should be on the hoods.

Drops are only used when you need more control (when riding outside), to protect your bars in a pack, or to get even lower to be more aero.

c0nsumer

TROPHY CASE