In this guide, I’m going to show you how to install HASS Workstation Service in Home Assistant. HASS Workstation Service is an application that lets you use use Home Assistant to control your computer, such as locking your PC, rebooting it, or detecting when your webcam is in use. It also provides useful sensors within…
In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to integrate your OpenSprinker smart sprinkler system into Home Assistant. By the end of this guide, you will be able to turn on individual stations, run your “Run Once” programs, check last run time, and much more – all from your Lovelace dashboard. For reference,…
One of the most recent smarthome projects I’ve worked on was making my sprinkler system “smart”. After doing some research, I stumbled across an open source project called OpenSprinkler. OpenSprinkler is web-based sprinkler controller for your lawn, garden, or plants. If you’d like to play around with a live demo, you can do that here:…
In this guide, I’m going to show you how to setup Plex Assistant, which is a project that integrates with Google Assistant. This allows you to say things “Hey Google, tell Plex to play Game of Thrones on Living Room Chromecast”. There are two installation methods available for Plex Assistant. One of the methods is…
In this guide, I’ll show you how to automatically create Home Assistant backups and save them to Google Drive in 2021. To do this, we are using a community addon called Home Assistant Google Drive Backup. Home Assistant Google Drive Backup leverages Home Assistant’s snapshot feature to schedule snapshots as frequently or infrequently as you…
In this guide, I’ll show you how to add an Ecolink Wireless Audio Detector to Home Assistant. I will also show you how to create a basic automation that will alert you via Home Assistant phone notifications if smoke is detected. In terms of cost, an audio detector is a great alternative to purchasing zwave…
With all of the SmartThings issues I’ve been hearing about lately, I thought now would be a good time to share some guides I created whenever I migrated to Home Assistant. Follow this guide to learn how to migrate from SmartThings to Home Assistant in 2021. Overall, SmartThings was pretty solid for me. I had…
In this guide, I’ll show you how to add Xiaomi Aqara devices to Home Assistant in 2021. If you’ve added other devices to Home Assistant using ZHA, then this should pretty straightforward. These are some of the best sensors to add to Home Assistant due to their low cost and appealing looks. We will be…
In this guide, I’ll show you how to quickly add your Securifi Peanut smart plugs to Home Assistant. These are Zigbee devices, so we’ll be adding them using the ZHA integration (zigbee home automation). During my transition from SmartThings to Home Assistant, I’ve accumulated around 9 of these smart plugs. These are some of the…
Are you looking for a step-by-step guide to add your SmartThings Water Sensor to Home Assistant in 2021? If so, then this tutorial will walk you through exactly how to do that. This simple post is part of my “How to Migrate from SmartThings to Home Assistant” series, where I show you how to migrate…