Awesome, happy to hear it! Be sure to check out a bunch of my other great content for how to start getting stuff set up. :) Thanks for watching!!

You must not have watched the video about the 5 rules for smart homes, I'm guessing? :) Thanks for watching!

I honestly have no idea how to tell for certain, but based on availability dates vs when I purchased them, likely gen 2.

Free content has to be paid for somehow... Thanks for watching!

I'll try to go in order.. The and/if: I believe what you said is accurate - however, I've never tried it. Coming from a programming background, I rather prefer things to be explicitly spelled out. It also makes things easier to read (IMO). GREAT catch! Those are some of the first automations I ever wrote, and since they've just worked this whole time, I was operating under the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mindset. I think they actually used to have some different logic and actions in them, but I just checked - and nope. Close the garage door and lock the doors. *sigh* I've added them to the list of items that need to be cleaned up. Yeah, absolutely a select...case would be preferable! I don't think HA has such a construct though (although I could certainly be wrong - I learn new things every day!), so Choose would be the next best. That's already on the to-do list. The initial 2 second delay..... Man, is this a convoluted story, and very well may not be accurate any longer due to how long ago I wrote all this stuff and how many updates there have been in the interim. For FULL detail, check out the 3-part series I did all about BI/DS. I think the automations/integration are all in video 3, maybe? Anyhow... The motion detection sensors are triggered via an MQTT message from BI. This is obviously a very small payload, so those update in near real time. The alert PHOTOS, on the other hand... Those are still sent from BI (as a base64 image) - but also sent via MQTT. So, I need to allow HA time to not only receive them, but process them from the MQTT message and store them in a camera entity - which is what I'm taking a snapshot of. I'm sure there's much more efficient ways of handling that, but it worked at the time - see ain't broke/don't fix. :) Thank you for the thoughtful questions, and thank you for watching!!!

@@fasthowto Thanks for the quick reply! I totally get the programming/explicitly listed. Makes total sense. Your right - they call it choose; don't consider myself a programmer anymore, but hard to get away from that language. I knew about the run in parallel; but just changed quite a few automations to utilize it - which leads me to another question. Most of the actions I have running in parallel are to notify via TTS multiple echo devices throughout the house. Are you doing this another way? Wish I could post screenshots to the chat. Thanks in advance and apologies - not trying to turn this into tech support - but hopefully the comments help your other viewers as well. I'm going to have to subscribe via paid patreon soon. Thanks again.

@benjaminlellis I use Google nest minis since you can cast to them locally. I have the mics disabled on them since I don't use Google home for anything. A buddy had some Amazon stuff and there was quite a bit of a delay due to all the cloud integration. Not sure if you can't cast to them, or if he did it wrong, or what.

Interesting. I've never tried that before, I'll have to give it a go. Thank you for the tip, and thanks for watching!!

Wa just going to say this! Much easier, with the single condition. I tried an AND condition with two After Sunset and before Sunrise statements and because at certain times in the day, those two conditions are for today and tomorrow, you get unexpected results. Always learning and still a rookie!

It can never be an and, ever. I made that mistake as well when I first started. Lol

@@aaajp3 thanks you for the kind words, I'm glad you found it helpful! Thanks for watching!

@@fasthowto More of this type of vid would be great. An overview on fixing errors would definitely help me and I'm sure lots of others - just an idea. Thanks

That's awesome, glad you got that working! I'm not familiar with tag: or importance:. What do those do? That's a really useful automation! I'm starting to think more and more about automations to make life easier with a small child, and to keep them safe/healthy. It won't be long before my son starts working doorknobs, so I'm going to put a contact sensor on his door that will turn on some lights or play an alert when his door is opened, along with some other stuff. Thinking an mmwave presence sensor in his room so I know if he has managed to climb out of his crib (hasn't done it yet, but the day is coming), stuff like that.

Check this older video of mine out about mobile notifications. Also shows how to make callbacks to HA so that when you tap a button in a notification you can make things happen: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eJSWZKOjaZKhpK8

Check your wife's location in Home Assistant. Likely the system thinks she's not home. Typically, this is due to an issue on the phone with location updates.

Congrats on your first automation! What are you working on for your second? Stay safe over there, and thanks for watching!

@@fasthowto Thanx! Next, I work on the use of excess generation of photocells, balancing of heating between gas and solid fuel boilers...

You're most welcome, thank you for watching!

I'm planning a separate video about yaml since many of my viewers have expressed some difficulty around that topic, and could use a good tutorial. The best way that I've found to learn it is to configure what you want in the UI, and then go look at the code that was generated for you to see how its supposed to look. If you found this video basic, that's a good thing - it means you already know more about automations than most people just getting started with Home assistant. I done have any Amazon devices here, but presumably you can just send TTS announcements to them - which I already made a video about. As for a timer, there is no need. Home assistant keeps track of the state of all devices, as well as when that state last changed. The use of the timer in the complicated camera automation serves other purposes, as there are actually several more automations intertwined with that one that fire when the timer expires. But additionally, if I manually turn on the lights, I don't want them to turn off after 1 hour, so I couldn't use state last changed. All you have to do for a garage door reminder is write an automation with three different triggers. Make the trigger "garage door opened" and then you'll see spot underneath that to specify for how long. Make one of them for 10 mins, one for 30, and one for 60. Then make the action the same, a TTS announcement that says the garage door is open. Depending on how you are handling your garage door, you can actually just close it automatically as well once the obstruction sensor is cleared. I'm doing that with my doorbell automations (I have a corner lot, so people frequently ring my garage doorbell instead of the front door since friends usually park in the driveway instead of on the street out front). I'll cover that one in detail when I make an updated doorbell video dunce I switched from ubiquiti to amcrest. Hopefully that all made sense to you. Thanks for watching!

@@fasthowto Awesome.. That does make sense. Since presumably the garage door would be closed immediately, the subsequent triggers would never hit and it should work great. Before I had HA, I had built my own arduino based garage controller so that it could automatically close if left open, and I had a special button out in the garage to press, to make it abort the auto-shut in case I was working out in the garage for a while. Something like that may be the only other thing I'd like in the garage automation, so that a button can trigger a "Dont start the timer until after the garage is reported shut manually again" but I'll have to play with that. Thanks so much for the ideas and details. I'll definitely go through your other videos and have subscribed!!

Yeah, you can absolutely do that. Assuming you have zigbee, just get an Aqara button (like this one: amzn.to/4gr2li5), and then create an input helper boolean for "garage door override" or something like that. Write an automation that when you press that button, it turns on the boolean. Then make that boolean being off a condition in the auto-close routine, and then write another automation that when the garage door is closed, the boolean is turned off. If you are in need of a new garage door opener, and if you have chamberlain/liftmaster, check out the RATGDO video I did. The thing works great! You can control the exact amount the door is raised/lowered, you can control the light independently (so you can turn it on without having to move the door), and you can read the state of the obstruction sensor to take actions on it (like once the door has been opened, watch the obstruction sensor and once it is obstructed and then cleared again, automatically close the door). Thanks for the sub, appreciate it!

You're welcome! Thanks for watching!

So, you're saying 7 different automations instead of one automation with 7 different choose options/actions? Or did I misunderstand?

@@fasthowto No, just one automation, but instead of specifying "North camera" the automation action specifies "triggered by". All your triggers would remain the same. If the North camera triggers, then all of the actions will get {{ triggered_by.north_camera }}, so you don't need 7 actions, just one action where the information gets filled in by the trigger. I saw someone on Reddit talk about something like that. Maybe they're called variable triggers?

Hrmmm.. I'll look into that. I mean, programmatically I know how I would do this in, for example, C or C++, but I'm a bit limited with what HA makes available to us. I definitely want to figure something out though, every time I look at this big mess of an automation is annoys me. Lol

Indeed! Unfortunately, that's one of hundreds of automations that I have that are ALL in need of some TLC. LOL It's gonna take me a bit to get through them all. Thanks for watching!

Also use labels.😉

@@ToddHolter UGH! I KNEW there was something I forgot to mention!! You can see when I switch back to the automations list that I do have labels set up. Darn it, I should have called that out! Great catch, hopefully other viewers see your comment! :)

@fasthowto yep HA is all about learning and making automations as efficiently as possible.

Yeah! great for consolidating your automation's!

Thank you for watching!

I told you what I was going to do, then I did it. I'm not sure what else you're looking for.

@@fasthowto I understood what you were going to do, but not how you did it and why. You cut pasted changed, but what did and why would have been nice, watching these videos fto be able to learn myself, but until this was good, but then it fell away for me.

@@1kobbens I see. The changes that I was making have been covered in several of my previous videos. I try not to repeat the same content too many times, and the assumption is that viewers either already know how to perform some tasks, or have watched previous videos where I showed how to do them. All I did during that time was copy the code from the outlet button, change the display name, and the entity that the button controlled. If you watch that section again, you can see the changes happening in real time on the dashboard preview window to the right of the code. You can see the extra button called "Sink Light" appear, then you can see a second button called "Sink Light" appear, then you can see me realize I forgot to change the name of it, so I go back and change the display name to Coffee Undercabinet. You can do all that in the UI as well, but I just find the code faster and easier to work with if there are very minor changes that need to be made - like just a display name and an entity. There's no way to "copy" a button in the UI that I know of, so that's actually slower - for me, anyway. Hope that helps!

@@fasthowto OK tanks! I will watch more of your videos...😀

Yeah, there were syntax changes made to everything a few months back. I went through and updated all my stuff, but AFAIK it's not necessary. The old syntax still works (and according to the docs will NOT be deprecated), even if Studio Code does bark at you. There are several spots in my config file where it complains with one update, then stops complaining with another. All my stuff keeps working just fine. :) Just have to remember that studio code is an add-on, and is NOT part of Home Assistant, so the things it complains about are not *Home Assistant* complaining, it's just a third-party IDE. As long as HA continues to interpret it correctly, it doesn't really matter was Studio Code thinks (even though my OCD says otherwise). Not to mention that even once you fix the trigger/platform thing, Studio Code is STILL going to complain about the code for the sensor (or at least, mine does) - but again, it still works just fine. :) If you want to update your config file for triggers, the release notes from 2024.10 has the info: www.home-assistant.io/blog/2024/10/02/release-202410/#improved-yaml-syntax-for-automations I actually meant to do a video about this when I ran into it and fixed it all, but time just got away from me. Maybe next month? Thanks for watching!

huh?

@@fasthowto hass in container witth wsl2

@@nc3565 I don't do containers.

Good call! I actually gave up on these doorbells - and on Ubiquiti cameras altogether. Their wifi antennas are inferior to every other brand I've tested - and you can get cameras and doorbells that are better in every way for a lot less money. I'll be doing a video in the near future about what doorbells and cameras I'm using now. Thanks for watching!

no no no... No latency! Latency = bad. You definitely don't want latency. Latency is one of the reasons I got rid of my focusrite. That, and stability. The thing would just randomly stop working and require a reboot. Yes, there are a lot of things that annoy me about this Apollo, and yes, I think their poor quality Windows app is deplorable. They should DEFINITELY hire some real programmers. But overall, given the choice between a Scarlett and an Apollo, I'd still take the Apollo 10/10 times. You're most welcome, glad it helped you get it fixed. :)

That is not supported.

Just go to add/remove programs. Then after it's uninstalled, delete any of the disk files remaining.

Unsure. I've never used a unifi express. I would imagine you'd still get device trackers from that though? Check the integration config. I know at some point after this video the developer made the decision to disable all the device trackers by default, so they never got created. You may have to run through the config and enable them.

@@fasthowto yeah, found the device tracker after a while, now it works!

@@tsint Awesome, glad to hear it!

Absolutely! I have several bottles of that on hand. Truth be told, bourbon was my first love, rye is relatively recent-ish. But fRYEday works much better than fBOURBONday, so... 😂😂 Thank you for the suggestion, though. Even though I already have that one, I'm always open to trying new stuff. Let me know if you have any other recommendations!

Sounds to me like you live in a tiny house. Normal humans are used to operating three way light switches, so if the light is off, you just flip the switch to the opposite position to turn it on - meaning if the switch "looks" on, but the light is off, you flip the switch in front of you to "off" and the light magically turns on. I have never once had to explain - to anyone - how to operate any of the lightswitches in my house. Perhaps you should invite more intelligent guests? LOL Anyhow, thanks for watching!

@@fasthowto I'm mistakenly talking about the Tapo switches. I have Kasa also, so I got confused. It's the Tapo ones that frustrate me because other than the rocking motion, they're fantastic. It's not a three-way switch. I probably didn't explain it very well, but the switch does not rocker to an ON position. If you press the bottom of the switch, it toggles it on and off. If you press the top, it does nothing. The rocker hinge, if you will, is at the top of the switch, not in the middle, where you'd traditionally find it. If you want to turn on the light, you press down. If you want to turn off the light, you press down. Another annoying fact is that the switch doesn't turn on until your RELEASE the switch. Every other switch I've ever used switches immediately upon pressing it. Appreciate the video though. I liked and subscribed. :-)

Thank you for the like and sub, much appreciated! The behavior you're describing is the same as how the KASA switches operate. I still stand by my statements though about not having ever had to show anyone how they work. I realize you weren't talking about three-way switches; what I was describing is simply that due to the fact that three-way switches exist, most people don't give a second thought to the actual position of the switch, they just push it the opposite way to make it do the opposite of what it's currently doing. The not turning on or off the light until you release it though... Yeah, now that took a wee bit of getting used to. None of my guests have commented on it since they probably didn't notice, but.. The reason for that is that you can actually program the KASA switches to do different things based on if you double tap them, or if you hold them down. For example, the dimmer switches can be programmed to fade on or off if you hold them down vs just tap them. Even if you change the setting to tell it not to fade at all, and to immediately toggle the light, there is still a slight delay while the switch waits to figure out if you're going to double tap it. We got used to it, and it's pretty much a non-issue now. But even beyond that, SO many of the lights in my house are automated via the use of motion sensors, presence sensors, or contact sensors that there are very few light switches I actually need to press anymore. I walk into a room and it just does what I want it to do. To me, that's the definition of a smart house - where I can just walk around and the house automatically adjusts to the way I want it to be. Super convenient.

@@fasthowto One thing I found useful, is being able to set the bathroom fan to automatically turn off after 15 minutes.

@@Plazman You must've missed the episode where I talked about that automation. My bathroom fans turn on and off by themselves. :) I don't remember which episode it was, unfortunately, but I talked about it. Basically, if the light is on for 90 seconds, I'll assume you were in there for more than just #1, so the fan turns on. I also control the fans based on humidity in the bathrooms. This is super helpful.

Indeed, those ads are irritating, but not nearly as annoying as having to purchase a third party product to control a garage door opener that is already wifi connected....

Glad to hear you found the info about the Bond helpful!! I had to think about your garage door suggestion for a minute. The charging idea almost had me hopping up and down shouting "EUREKA!", but then I realized she has a car charger, and would be hoppin mad if the garage door didn't open when she pulled in the driveway just because the phone was on the charger. Alas, her vehicle is older and does not have Android Auto - however, that is a GREAT idea for her next vehicle, and I'll be sure to implement that. In fact, that would be AWESOME if I could use "zone away -> home" && "connected to android auto" for both phones. That would TOTALLY solve another manual workaround that I had to put in place for when we are visiting neighbors or going for a walk around the block. When we ride with someone else, or are going for a walk, manually opening the garage door using the companion app is easy. *sigh* sounds like a "some day" solution. LOL But thank you, I hadn't thought of it! Thanks for watching!

@fasthowto would if home == true & Last Reboot <= 5 minutes then stop or include the charging?

@@mike_realityi I was thinking about this some more, and I'm not sure this is the right path. The only way to get charging info is via the companion app. The issue is that one of the triggers for home or away is the wifi connection status via a device tracker from Ubiquiti. This is necessary since I have a different automation that automatically enables and disables port forwarding. By default, when we are both home, all port forwarding is disabled. When one of the phones disconnects from wifi for 30 seconds, HA assumes we have left the house and enables the port forward rule to allow us to communicate via the companion app. I think I have need to rethink several pieces here to get this working the way I want.

I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're saying.. ?

@@Mert_C_Flerkins I'd imagine you could just find pics of them online and then put them in place of the original files?

Not sure what the issue was with the other one, but I'm glad this one worked for you! :)

I'm gonna have to go ahead and say it's operator error. Commenters as recently as 3 days ago had no trouble...

@@fasthowto And that might very well be the case. For one I never found out how to get into "expert mode", and this video does not show how to do that, so... (And I do not have the "guided mode" button either!)

Sweet, glad it worked for you. Thanks for watching!

Configure the code once through the UI and HA will find the device_id for you. That's how I do it, anyway. Thanks for watching!

You just watched it....

@fasthowto what I just watched shows you need a Windows PC to run the software to set it up. I'm not just talking about the end result.

Feel free to use whatever you like.

Preach! Thanks for watching! :)

I don't have anything other than 3-way switches in my house, no 4- or 5-way, sorry. The HS210 only requires one switch per 3-way circuit, I have many of them in my house. Over a dozen of them (I know, I know). Yes, running the neutrals can definitely be a challenge depending on construction and wire location, etc. It's worth the work, though (in my opinion, anyway). Thanks for watching!