Xiaomi Buttons & Switches Around The House

I've already told you how much I loved Xiaomi's 1st Generation Button, and I'm happy to say that the others are just as great! In this post I'll quickly cover... How to connect the Xiaomi 2nd Generation Button to the Gateway. How to connect the Xiaomi Wireless Double Key Switch to the Gateway. Differences between …

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Xiaomi Door/Window Sensors, A Follow Up.

I've had my Xiaomi Gateway for 7 or 8 months by now and have been very happy with its performance. The sensors are inexpensive and they integrate well with Home Assistant. The set I originally got, came with the Gateway, 2 Door/Window Sensors, and a Generation 1 Button. I've recently added some more sensors into …

Make A Dumb TV Smarter with a Chromecast, Roku, and Home Assistant

Starting my Smart-Home with a Broadlink RM-Pro was such a great first step because it gave me control of my IR devices at a fraction of the cost of the other devices out there, but it left me wanting more. My TV, and I think most out there, use a single On/Off function, as opposed …

Easy Alexa Notifications from Home Assistant

At this point, I'm all in with the Alexa ecosystem.  Amazon announced Alexa notifications in September last year and I haven't used it much. The built in notifications for deliveries were not super useful. I would get an email, Android notification, AND an Alexa notification for each delivery; and I usually found the delivery before …

The Xiaomi Robot Vacuum, Home Assistant, and Alexa

**This post will cover setting the Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum up to work with Home Assistant. If you don't use Home Assistant and want to control your vacuum with only your Alexa device, go here.** I recently splurged and got myself a robot vacuum and I think it's been the best purchase I've made in …

Custom Alexa Skills & Launch Requests In Home Assistant

The information in this post is outdated. The Alexa skill editor shown here, is no longer used. Using Alexa to control my stuff is probably the closest thing to using magic as I'll ever get. You've got to get the "incantation" right or it won't work. Luckily, we can write our own by creating our …

Home Assistant Scripts – 2 Ways

A script is a sequence of actions that takes place when the script is activated. When turned on, they run through their sequence of actions, then turn themselves off. Just like customizing entities and automations, scripts can be created and edited using either the .yaml files or with the Script editor in the Configuration tab …

Home Assistant Automations – 2 Ways

"Smart-Home" and "Home Automation" are terms that seem to be used interchangeably often, though they really shouldn't be. A Smart-Home is the all encompassing term for the home system that is connected to the devices in the house. It can be controlled using direct control, like using your smartphone, voice, or buttons. Home Automation is …

Encrypt Home Assistant With Let’s Encrypt

You've made it this far, you're almost there. Time to secure your Smart-Home devices. This is really easy with Let's Encrypt . This is a free automated service that provides Free SSL/TLS Certificates. This keeps your traffic safe. Forward Ports 80 and 443 Lets Encrypt Add On Forward Port 8123 to 443 Forward Ports 80 and …

Remotely Access Home Assistant – Port Forwarding & DuckDNS

Home Assistant is pretty easy to configure for remote access. Using a service, like DuckDNS you can create a personalized URL to connect to your Smart-Home set-up. This will only take a couple of steps. Forward port 8123 Create a domain using DuckDNS. Set a password. Some info before we get started: Your internet service provider …