That’s what I do with my dumb washer and dryer. Notifications when the washer and dryer are done, and nagging reminders if the washer is done, but the system doesn’t see the dryer turn on after some time (eg the wet clothes are still in the washer). If the washer finishes, but the dryer is still running, it tells me that too, then waits for the dryer to finish before resuming the wet clothes notifications.

I have an easier time using my Home Assistant dashboard to control my Sonos devices rather than the native app. Takes forever to load in Sonos but with HA, it’s near instant.

I had a blast learning and configuring vlans for my smart switch and putting all the IOT devices on their own network.

I used to use SmartThings up until the announcement killing off WebCORE. I well fully into Home Assistant using Zigbee and ZWave both. HIGHLY recommend it, though there is work to set it up.

I use quite a bit of NodeRed as well for some of my more complex automations, and use the native HA automations for things like button mappings or simple scripts.

Are you looking for integrations or front-end/GUI recommendations? HACS is great for both!

It’s easier for me to control my Sonos devices through Home Assistant and dashboards I’ve created, rather than using the Sonos app itself. It’s like they hired some McKinsey consultants to make the app as useless as it can be.

I think as long as the model you are looking for supports Z-Wave, you’re good.

I have Schlage locks integrated via Z-Wave. All local, can poll for battery levels, supports physical key unlocks ( and can differentiate logging events between key, code, and HA service unlocks)

I’m happy with the capabilities.

On iOS you may need to allow HA to constantly track your location. I’ve done a decent amount of testing with zones and it seems to work well. I used some temp Node Red logic to send a push notification as I entered/left zones and it was pretty accurate.

3D printing is half the fun! Although I have no skills in design so I usually look for STLs that other have created. The NFC tag reader was such a fun project because I got to: 3D print the enclosure, solder the wiring for the ESP and NFC hardware, write the login within Node Red to work as a juke box, and then I wrote an excel file that I use to track my playlists (allows me to copy/paste the Spotify share link and have it translate it into an NFC tag payload).

Do you use Plex at all? One fun integration is to turn the lights off automatically when something starts to play, then turn them back on when paused/stopped. It’s fun to see the lights auto-dim as media starts to play.

What does your logic look like for the humidity uptick? I tried the trending integration (or something like that), but couldn’t get it to work properly. Does the fan trigger on a sudden spike in humidity? Do you compare “ baseline” values with another sensor in another room?

I use mine for a jukebox with various playlists. Allows anyone in the house to scan a tag. You can also have them do anything a button can do (run a script, turn on/off devices, etc.

Oh sorry, I meant that with an nfc tag reader you don’t need the smart phone. Apologies that I wasn’t clear.

I started to play around with WLED and integrated a whole mess of LED lights to HA. I’d also recommend ESPHome so you can build your own devices. Voice control, water flow rate sensors, etc.

Not if you build an NFC tag reader! Then anyone can scan tags! Great for music jukeboxes!

PiHole, Plex and the related “*arr” apps. I also self-host my home automation platform (Home Assistant).

If you also enjoy 3D printing, there’s a fun project to make an NFC tag reader with ESPHome. I use it for a jukebox where my playlists are NFC chips with the corresponding Spotify URLs. It lets anyone in the house tap a playlist to play. Much easier than having to get your phone out, and it’s reminiscent of flipping through CDs back in the day.

It’s certainly a problem the US government cares about when dealing with a hostile nation (from the US perspective).

I mean, of course there’s loaded language in all this. Are you also surprised at the language and rhetoric used by Chinese government and media sources when they talk about the US?