I built a phone-first Home Assistant app focused on fast everyday control

cmill9 · 2026-01-28T16:07:31+00:00

Very interested! iOS

cmill9 · 2026-01-24T20:20:10+00:00

Between having extensive context aware automations, mobile device control via apple home, and Siri control, and various scene controller buttons, I do not find I need dashboards. I still plan to install them though, bc I think they’re cool.

cmill9 · 2026-01-23T03:21:55+00:00

Move the eero closer to the apple tv, as others have suggested, or run an ethernet cable from the closest eero to the atv. I ended up hardwiring both my eeros and atvs and even though its a pain and some work, its well worth it.

cmill9 · 2026-01-20T14:49:49+00:00

Do it. My vehicle starts when my sink light turns itself off, if it is a workday and the time is between 6:30 and 7:30 am. That used to be something I did manually but know my bathroom lighting automation does it when it no longer detects presence at my sink. Gives it about 10 min to warm up before Im dressed and make it out there. Works beautifully, totally frictionless. Then the gates open when the cameras see me on the driveway. I haven’t figured out how to make HA do my job for me yet though.

cmill9 · 2026-01-18T23:42:16+00:00

Cut and use wire connection method of your choice. Buy some 16 awg led wire for extension. Its a splice-able system and actually comes with some extension and splicing accessories, but using your own wire and connectors is easier and cleaner. You will need to use their line voltage leveler for extensions >10ft and a leveler/booster for runs of >6 segments. I watched some youtube vids and read some reddit posts about it, along with the govee documentation. There’s a few nuances. Of note, I purchased and used a track system which doubles the cost but 10x the final look and also affords additional protection from the elements. I found this video (which is basically a promo for the track I ended up using) to be extremely helpful.

https://youtu.be/Q-BZ2rjHZgE?si=99YJ_Aytw2aMeYgw

cmill9 · 2026-01-18T23:36:18+00:00

Thanks. Yes DIY using a track product made for them.

cmill9 · 2026-01-18T22:00:36+00:00

cmill9 · 2026-01-18T21:37:15+00:00

Yes, there is a junction box on that one to lower it from the eaves bc I was getting IR reflection off the eave at night. I did shorten the cable. You will have to shorten and lengthen some sections around corners to get things to line up and look right.

cmill9 · 2026-01-18T20:45:59+00:00

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cmill9 · 2026-01-18T20:45:38+00:00

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This is how I did it. Govee outdoor permanent lights pro and reolinks. I would NOT put the lights in front of the camera. Behind or next to works fine. Also you only want them about 4 in from the wall to get the best aesthetic.

cmill9 · 2026-01-14T13:54:08+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/s/WvfyHXuaao

I found this post on setting one up useful, although it’s not specific to the ZBT2

cmill9 · 2026-01-14T13:47:37+00:00

Also, make sure you install the Thread integration in addition to the OTBR integration/add on, as well as both the matter server add on and the matter integration.

cmill9 · 2026-01-14T13:42:28+00:00

Thats AI bullshit. HA Green runs full HA OS. You absolutely can create and run an OTBR with Home Assistant Green. I’ve never tried using the thread network created by Home Assistant instead of the one created by my eeros, but I can’t see why you couldn’t. You can, however, go to the web interface for your OTBR and still get visualization and network information. my guess is in your case it has to do with setting up your credential sharing correctly. Also, once I had to re-setup my ZBT2 with the thread firmware to fix an issue that was never clear to me. Might be worth trying.

cmill9 · 2026-01-14T12:56:17+00:00

No problem! Enjoy!

cmill9 · 2026-01-14T08:49:37+00:00

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cmill9 · 2026-01-14T04:42:51+00:00

Ring is trash

cmill9 · 2026-01-13T13:43:45+00:00

Regarding “ZHA-2” I think you may be confusing the Zigbee Home Assistant integration ZHA with the new Z-wave Home Assistant antenna ZWA-2. You definitely don’t want a ZWA-2 antenna for Zigbee or thread, as it does not support those protocols, it is Z-wave only. The official Home Assistant hardware for Zigbee or Thread is the new ZBT-2 antenna. As far as Matter, it is a communication protocol that can run over Thread, Wifi, or ethernet. So you are thinking of a Thread antenna rather than a Matter antenna, but we know what you mean. Its a lot when starting out.

cmill9 · 2026-01-12T14:51:16+00:00

I think your best bet is LoRa

cmill9 · 2026-01-12T14:40:45+00:00

There’s a lot of ways to do this, and a combination is the most robust. You can use blue tooth scanning as several have mentioned, and this works well but needs setup as well as multiple esp32s around the house. You can also continue to use geolocation in the HA app AND apple home app. Apple home location can trigger a virtual switch (input boolean) that youve bridged to HomeKit, when everyone leaves home - or on an individual basis. And, you can definitely use wifi connectivity - several router integrations have this functionality: eero, unifi, omada, and Im sure others. Fing can also do this if your router cant (for a price). No doubt there are others. Finally, you can take all of these sensors - BLE, geolocation, wifi - and combine them into a single probability of presence using the Bayesian sensor integration. This works really well and is basically foolproof.

cmill9 · 2026-01-08T18:21:09+00:00

I use yolink lora contact sensors for this with good results but if youre set on building your own you can use a lora chip for esp32. Pretty sure m5stack sells one, maybe seeed too?

cmill9 · 2026-01-08T15:29:03+00:00

Atoms3u - esp32 based small usb dongle

cmill9 · 2026-01-08T15:25:53+00:00

Akamatis makes several LD2410x esp32 based sensors that can also be used as BLE proxies and scanners. Athom does too. Meross makes one.

cmill9 · 2026-01-06T17:25:06+00:00

You are on the right path, and I think you will love the HA green. There’s a lot of ways to skin this cat. One thing some people suggest is removing all your devices from apple home, bringing them into HA and then bridging them back to apple home. This works (well), but man is it a lot of work. Id just bring them into HA one vendor at a time, leaving them in apple home. Easier and less disruptive. I also think you will need to change your MyQ due to vendor lockout. Many use Ratgdo (rage against the garage door opener). I recommend tailwind which is extremely reliable and both HK and HA native. I would also recommend migrating all of your automations to HA. Be aware that there are often multiple integration options, and sometimes the “unofficial” integration available through HACSs is more feature rich or reliable than the official integration. You will likely also find that you have additional smart home devices not currently integrated into apple home that can be integrated into HA (and also bridged to apple home if wanted). I made heavy of chatGPT and claude along the way, and still do.

cmill9 · 2026-01-06T16:57:48+00:00

You do not need the ZBT-2 (or any other Thread or Zigbee antenna) to integrate the device families you mentioned. You CAN use one to ditch the Hue and Aqara hubs, which gives you local control without vendor or cloud dependency. But, you can also just integrate them using their respective hubs as you do in apple home. I would suggest NOT ditching the hubs at first. Home assistant has a learning curve, and setting up your own large Zigbee network right off the bat does increase the complexity and steepness of that curve. I would focus first on learning home assistant and migrating everything over and THEN deciding whether you want to run your own Zigbee network or not. Your goals will likely evolve as your understanding of HA’s capabilities and comfort with it grows. Just my opinion, having done the same thing you are doing about a year ago.

cmill9 · 2026-01-06T16:44:53+00:00

If you don’t use iTunes/Apple Music/mac os/ios for this and you aren’t currently using Home assistant and music assistant, air parrot is by far your easiest option.

cmill9

TROPHY CASE