Home Automation CONSUMED MY LIFE (and you're next)

[@youruniquehandle2]

The ADHD is strong in this episode. It's like you're giving a play by play of my own devolution into home automation.

[@TerraMagnus]

This whole channel is throbbing with ADHD

[@jamesbennett8004]

@@isthattrue1083Hi, I'm James and my printing problem has a home automation problem.

[@southerndime333]

@@isthattrue1083 can i join ya gang?

[@CheeseB1234]

​@@isthattrue1083can we automate that? 🤔😂

[@GreenFox1505]

I'm only half way done and I've sent two clips already.

[@KevinJonson]

When you mentioned Home Assistant, I literally muttered: "oh no" out loud, because I know how much of a time sink that can be.

[@wchorski]

Hahaha... 😮‍💨(Knuckles "oh no")

[@chriss3404]

The dreadcitement

[@herrgerd1684]

Just started out. It's just too easy nowadays. Passive cooled ThinClient for EUR50 and you've created yourself a new timesink...

[@sonoftheright]

Haha! My time's in danger!

[@TenForceFalls]

Almost prioritized home automation stuff over bills a little while ago. It’s not just a time sink, it’s a money sink too!

[@ProtoV33MK1]

The funny thing about the Sonoff having the exposed serial port is that it's not accidental, they officially support modding their hardware with custom firmware. There's a section on their website talking about DIY mode (how to flash)

[@onimus93]

More like Sonoff caving to their diy customer base. For a long time they were against it, but the dollars whispering in their ear did change their goals a little.

[@alexwoodhead6471]

@@onimus93 and that's a bad thing? fuck i wish more companies realised how much money they could make allowing shit to be fucked with like Sonoff

[@immatys]

​@@alexwoodhead6471"allowing shit to be fucked" 😂😂 you're right tho

[@BradfordBenn]

The question of Home Automation or 3D printing and how I got to watching the video. The answer is I got to Voidstar through 3D printing. At the same time I have lots of Home Automation experience. At one point I was even a partner in a Media Company that produced podcasts about Home Automation.

[@ProtoV33MK1]

THIS. I would've happily loaded up on Wyze stuff if they embraced letting me put ESPHome on their wall switches and use them in Home Assistant, but no, they don't allow that, so here we are with me having a bunch of TP-Link Kasa switches.@@alexwoodhead6471

[@BionicleFreek99]

Pro-Tip: with most dehumidifiers (that i know of) you can typically hook a tube up to them on a port or under a cover on the side and they'll just drain from that tube without needing to be discharged by hand.

[@glittalogik]

I was 100% expecting the current-sensing adapter to trigger a reservoir-emptying pump. Definitely room for further tinkering there!

[@chrisfox6843]

And if you need to pump it up, like from a basement, you can connect dehumidifier to a condensate pump. Works like a small sump pump. Some of them you can even wire the dehumidifier to shut down if the pump malfunctions. Some dehumidifiers come with a pump included.

[@OgdenM]

True, but you have to keep an eye on said tube. They get clogged with gunk. We have a dehumidifier running in our basement and have to keep an eye on it because of that. There's also the issue of having a hose long enough to go over to wherever your basement floor drain. But hey, it's still indeed better then emptying them by hand. And everyone with a basement in a damp environment SHOULD have a dehumidifier in it. It's 100% a must. Trust me, I moved into a house without one that had no door to the basement and the whole house smelled like mold and mildew most of the year. (I'm in the PNW). Put in a dehumidifier and the issue was gone.

[@krazed0451]

I am super disappointed to find 3 replies here and not one of them is a joke about your tube being discharging by hand.

[@renanportocarrero7816]

As a 3d and home automation nerd, I can affirm this is the crossover we were secretly waiting for, including all the stages of going crazy with home assistant! Love it

[@burgle66]

As a new homeowner becoming obsessed with home automation AND a 3D printing nerd, this video is slapping on several levels. Bad ass, Zack. Funny as hell as always too.

[@Desert-edDave]

❄

[@MysticalGoat69]

Same here!!!

[@Noctuloquor]

Good news, Home Assistant is doing "the Year of Voice" this year and putting a bunch of development work into voice assistants.

[@chriss3404]

Modern voice assistants prove that its harder to listen than to speak lmao😂 Super exciting for HA!

[@InvisibleSquids]

I'm a 3D printing nerd who works as a software developer watching a video about home automation from a cybro who specializes in enthusiastic levels of 3D printing and software development. The direction this channel follows can best be described as Bailey Yard. The 2 hardest things in programming is cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors

[@zackarybrown6752]

Lol I love all the puns and the word carnage. It makes me happy. You could always do a video on how to design a case for a raspberry pi. A pimp your pie video if you will.

[@madmachanicest9955]

I'm both as I make my own home / personally assistant software but I also a 3d printer.

[@TheAliceQuo]

I am all of this too, but I'll shorten it for you. I have ADHD.

[@Desert-edDave]

❄

[@Xials]

Are

[@robdunn8832]

Don't give up on your voice assistant, the home assistant team has been working hard on a custom voice assistant this year and its finally in a pretty decent state (as of this week). Just need an ESP based board, a mic and a speaker

[@GideonMesser]

I've been using Home Assistant for a while now, and I share Zack's amazement at how easy home automation has become. I feel sorry for all the people stuck with proprietary hubs.

[@ShadowDrakken]

All the RGB Gridfinity needs now is NFC tags on the bins so you can have a living inventory that knows where everything is and can light your way when you need a part :D

[@ZackFreedman]

🤷‍♂️

[@muziqfreak1]

Thissssss

[@Esablaka]

I only checked it a couple years ago, but there was an addon (GROCY) that was primarily made for automating shopping lists etc.. Iirc there was a tutorial about using it with home assistant by philhawthorne. I haven't tried it in a couple years (and maybe there are better options now anyway) but at the time it probably could have been used to completely manage a living inventory.

[@v4lgrind]

There was a guy in Discord#gridfinity working on that. I think we lost him because he hasn't been around for months. :(

[@dsnineteen]

Throw in a script that links the lights to Lego kit build steps, and I’ll buy eight.

[@alexg8406]

I felt the 'Home Assistant finds stuff you didnt know was IoT' in my soul. I spun up an HA instance just to play with it, and let it run for a few days to test. After checking after a few days, I saw that it had found my Canon inkjet printer... I could check the levels of each color of ink, AND it was storing logs of the ink levels. When I clicked on it, I nearly lost my mind, HA was automatically giving me GRAPHED historical data of the ink levels in my crappy printer... Then I was addicted...

[@brianwhitley1053]

And that's the stuff you know it found. What about the stuff it found and hasn't told you, yet. (looking cautiously over my shoulder at the faint green "eyes" peering out of the closet).

[@AndrewGillard]

…and with the improved Bluetooth support earlier this year, HA suddenly discovered my housemate's _toothbrush!_ I had no idea her toothbrush even had Bluetooth 😐

[@timothymusson5040]

@@AndrewGillardtoothbrush? You sure about that?😅

[@AndrewGillard]

@@timothymusson5040 Home Assistant shows it as an Oral-B Smart Series 7000, which is indeed a range of toothbrushes with Bluetooth. So yes, I'm sure :)

[@Rintintink-01]

@@AndrewGillardmine just found the same. Now I can make sure my girlfriend brushes for the whole 2 minutes without putting too much pressure!

[@justinbaits7149]

I am both a 3D printing and home automation nerd. This video is the crossover we needed.

[@tylersasaki2935]

I'm a home automation journeyman and a 3d printing observer. Hoping to delve deeper into both soon.

[@dsnineteen]

Me too.. I suspect the middle of this Venn diagram we both live in is actually pretty crowded!

[@sarfata]

+1

[@jota4095]

Amen, brother.

[@NoxiousPluK]

yess same; home assistant all the things and indeed.. need to integrate that ceiling fan. also the mechanical ventilation. also my ceiling windows

[@StevenCregan]

This was friggin amazing; as a software developer, 3d printing person, and diy home improvement person, this hit all the sweet ADHD "You need a project" buttons

[@DonC876]

You're actually the only tech - electronic - engeneering channel where i watch videos multiple times, just because of the incredible entertainment value. Your writing is through the roof, your delivery is on point and you're projects range from genuinely interesting to absolutely amazing. I just wished you were able to release more often, but i'd rather wait then see you crumble under the crunch and let your quality suffer. Big

[@heyspookyboogie644]

The problem I’ve always had with home automation was how little you could do without replacing all your switches, lights, etc and the cost of it all assuming you can even modify that stuff where you live. But it’s definitely gotten easier.

[@JohnR31415]

A lot of things around which don’t require changing switches, they just get wired behind the existing faceplates

[@dfinlen]

And it all is broken a$$ China schit or American. Over35% lights just randomly won't work.

[@stepheneyles2198]

My trip down the wormhole started with smart bulbs. Then others in the house started complaining that they were not happy with having to use their phones to turn the light on or off, so we're onto smart switches now. And two different hubs, and Google home thingy, almost ready to set up Home Automation (when I can find a Raspberry PI4!). Also have blinds automation motor ready to install and an ever growing heap of 'tried that, found better' stuff in the cupboard. Oh well... what will happen to it all when I snuff it nobody knows!!

[@nyanotech4106]

they make widgets that you mount over a light switch, and they physically flip the switch underneath them

[@JanS-i8z]

​@@stepheneyles2198do you know about Homeassistent?

[@vapedragon983]

Hey Zack, as a fellow ADHD having, half project doing dude, your videos are some of the few that I happily watch through the whole length. You always manage to keep my attention the whole way pretty much no matter what you’re talking about. It’s clear you put a lot of time into the script writing and delivery, and you’re getting better and better. Thanks for always sharing with us

[@Hanzi2u]

To this I fully agree since I have same condition in a different manner and often I find myself doom scroll, but from zack It peeks My interest to watch it all

[@FlashGordon5272]

Zack is to my 3D printing and maker content as Maxor is to my video gaming content.

[@justinLooper]

Been following your channel since it started, though I'm not at all into 3D printing. I have however, been quite into hacking IOT/smarthome junk for projects for many years. Watching you discover WLED, HASSIO, Tasmota etc. in real-time was hilarious. Watching you also fail to get voice assistant working in any useful capacity was deeply validating. "Coming back to the smarthome stuff after a decade away feels like returning to a remote tribe and finding a space program." Is the realist ish ever. This stuff has exploded so fast. Unfortunately, most of "home automation KZbin" is just boring dads blowing their disposable income on off-the shelf ecosystems and annoying their wives and children. There aren't very many sweaty hardware hackers who are making high-production content in the space ..... There's niche here for you!

[@gujuguru93]

As someone who wants to get into home automation.. any KZbin channels you'd recommend?

[@SpencerN.C.]

I'm a professional D&D nerd and a former IT pro, who has not enough money, and not enough time, but somehow ended up being both a 3D printing geek and a home automation weirdo. Pray for my cyber-soul. Listening to Zack discover Tasmota and Home Assistant is trippy, espeically because of the massive overlap in hardware with microcontrollers and SBCs, but also deeply satisfying. Now I feel like I need to see @EverythingSmartHome discover making...

[@dragonridertechnologies]

I absolutely love the fact that the community is building up open options to do this stuff. At the same time the default - and easier to set up, usually - firmwares and apps for all this are Orwellian nightmares and usually a remote killswitch once the OEM designs to make a new product. I worry that a lot of new customers will just use those and regret it later. Major props for using open source and DIY tools for your own system.

[@_k5271]

I’m working professionally in a industrial IoT company and followed your channel initially for the thumbnails, then the alliterations and now to witness you walking through the home automation wormhole. Brilliant! Please add home automation content and merge it with your creative and yanky made-up projects. Love the channel!

[@ads2k2]

Watching someone else discover home assistant is it's own kind of joy. I anxiously await the video you post when you discover the black hole of data logging and analysis combo of HA + Ingress + Grafana. Tracking your utilities in tandem with weather, individual room temp and humidity, individual appliance power usage, etc. Is just excellent. I even had a hydroponic tent set up with real time VPD calculation set up as a sensor for Home Assistant to control my humidifier, dehumidifier, lights, and fans. For growing plants.

[@FranNyan]

The one thing that might tempt me into this den of madness right there...

[@p_serdiuk]

Then you connect your health data to this whole thing and ascend into the higher tiers of data addiction

[@coolguyflex]

I know the feeling. You don't want to look into HomeAssistant because the problem you're solving isn't that complicated. Then as your attempt to avoid Home Assistant grows into a frightening monster you give a try and realize that you wasted so much time by not just embracing it from the beginning. And then you realize all the crap that you can do now that you couldn't before and you'll be wasting much more time.

[@TechTinkerWorks]

It is really easy to tell if someone uses Home Assistant. They will tell you within 1 minute into the conversation.

[@JohnR31415]

@@TechTinkerWorksI rarely wait that long - at least you know I’m not vegan 😂

[@chriss3404]

Oh god this is just refactoring... -I find code that looks bad -I replicate 90% of the logic but miss an edge case -I spend 3 hours handling edge cases for a total savings of 7-15 lines and slightly better control flow

[@klaernie]

Home Assistant is just refactoring.. replacing your own stupid code with code people wrote who actually spent enough time to build a generalized framework for handling many interoperating state machines and work with more than just your stupid relay board driven by a parallel port.

[@laurencevdvalk]

This is exactly what happened to me

[@chilson88]

My brain just melted, there is so much amazing stuff going on in this video it makes me want to buy machines and parts I have absolutely no knowledge about. Love your energy and videos so glad I found your channel

[@gfixler]

"Coming back to the smart home stuff after a decade away feels like returning to a remote tribe and finding a space program." Tell me about it. I played with PIC microcontrollers and BASIC stamps in 2004, and then came back ten years later to the Arduino world (okay, OSEPP, but same thing), and I couldn't believe how spoiled everyone was. The chips were orders of magnitude faster (ideas I had 10 years earlier were literally impossible on any chip, and now quite doable), and you could just plug the board in over USB. I had to MAKE my own cable back when, and program in assembly, and upload from a boot loader. 10 years later, they could just plug in a USB cable, fire up an IDE based on the Processing one, and look at dozens of sample scripts up in the menus. I chose the one that blinks the light on the board, and seconds later it was blinking. It took me a week of soldering, splicing, failing, assembling, and wiring up my own clock to get that far before.

[@bobalachabbs]

I'm a home automation nut getting into 3D printing. And I love Home Assistant, WLED, Tasmota, etc. At first I'm like "Why doesn't he just use ESPHome instead of coding the Arduino stuff from scratch", and then my questions were answered lol.

[@Heimbasteln]

I tried tasmota first, but it turned out ESPHome is much better and VERY awesome because i can just bang some hardware together and I will have running software in 10min.

[@bobalachabbs]

Yeah, I am using ESPHome more and more these days, it's come a long way.

[@HexCopper]

I love seeing your solution to “humidifier tank filled up” I would’ve tried adding a drain tube and a small pump to simply siphon off the water as it filled up. Have 2 probes to see when the water is full and have a small pump pump out the water somewhere at a lower elevation and boom no more water

[@modsandendsGG-3883]

Hack the "turn off" switch to instead be rigged to a pump. Or have the dehumidifier drain to a much larger container and just buy a the cheapest sump pump you can find. Or put the dehumidifier on a high shelf and just add a drain tube to the existing tank so it drains by gravity to a sink, toilet, out a window, literally anywhere you're fine having water go. I would get so annoyed at having to drain the thing every day. That's way too often.

[@johncip]

​@@modsandendsGG-3883 You can also buy a dehumidifier with a built-in pump. And the ones that don't have pumps usually still have a garden hose hookup, so you can use gravity to drain without modifying the tank.

[@bruce-le-smith]

@@johncip he did make a video about turning on the lights but more complicated lol, also gave up on that morning stretching routine that was probably not bad for him

[@Volkbrecht]

You mean, automate the problem instead of the notification? ;)

[@Oberon4278]

Oh my fucking God JUST PUT THE HOSE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE TANK

[@JeremySeitz]

So glad you discovered Home Assistant! For someone that has so many connected devices and hacks on microcontrollers, you're gonna extrude an absolute cluster fart of great automation ideas! Cant wait to see how things boil over into total chaos!

[@diabeticjedi7951]

I spent the first half of the video expecting him to say "And then I went to Home Assistant and it made it so much easier to do everything" so I'm happy he eventually got there. I'm a home automation nut that recently got in to networking and then 3D printing. For 3D printing I've sent up a custom dashboard to monitor the camera from octoprint and the temperatures of the printer plus enviroment aws well as an automation that I turn on before going out or going to bed that turns off the printer when it is done.

[@MrHics]

But he didn't shout it and hump the air! That's against the rules

[@blainescroggs9268]

I've been waiting on you to discover this lol. I'm definitely a Home Assistant nut on a 3d printing channel. Couple words of advice: 1) Get off that SD card and onto a hard drive. The sd card will fail without warning due to too many writes. 2) Avoid anything that uses the cloud like the plague, unless you want them to randomly cut off your access one day. Have fun!

[@Artificial.Unintelligence]

Please more home automation stuff! I've wanted to go down the rabbit hole before but as you said it used to suck bad but now it looks like especially with MATTER there's a chance a lot of formerly incompatible devices might all just work together? My biggest analysis paralysis has always been what protocols to use (thread(?), zigbee, zwave, Bluetooth, WiFi..) for best use and minimizing security concerns (especially when you approach connecting things like home NAS, door locks, and security cameras etc. to these IOT hubs etc.). Would love to see your take on tons of different brands, when it's worth it to DIY vs buy COTS stuff (like Aqara relay vs a Shelly vs pure DIY), crazy projects and ideas. Would also be super cool to see you do some tutorials or more raw long form of all the things you do.. perhaps you'd need a second KZbin channel so you don't offend the precious algorithm though.

[@realplastbox]

Total home (and other things) automation nerd here, watching your videos which occasionally are about 3D printing. I think this is your best work so far. I do not often laugh out loud like an idiot while sitting in a room watching something alone, but maaan, your writing, your timing.. love it!

[@guilleout]

As a fellow ADHDer, I feel you. Nothing is more exciting than not doing what you should and jump into a new project!

[@the-shork]

I already went down the home assistant rabbit hole so it was very pleasing to watch that you ended up finding the good existing solutions

[@Pt-11]

Just found your channel, there is something about the way you talk that is relaxing to my brain. So many words come at me so fast that I can’t think of the 5 other things my brain wants to think about.

[@kastorcaster]

Oh man, Home Automation is what got me started as a maker. We've gotten years and years of experience and improvements and its still a huge pain in the ass!

[@drew8704]

As the owner of many cheap ESP32 Dev boards and a home assistant install I've sunk way too many hours into, I enjoyed the heck out of this. Super stoked for rgbled gridfinity content.

[@MrBrinkyboy]

I love this episode, as an electrician with specialization in smart homes and alarm systems, and a novice hobby user of 3d printers, this is just what I needed, thanks Zack.

[@OmnieStar]

I am a youtube addict who likes the way you talk. On another one of your videos because the script you wrote. And to read the comments of people who suddenly try to type like you talk but only for like 15mins after watching one of your videos. =) Edit: Something is wrong with Zack from the future... I don't know if its just the hair, or you not wearing the eye thingy.... It looks strange is all I'm saying.

[@ivovass195]

Originally subscribed for the 3d printing and electronics projects and as a tinkerer I see the home automation as almost inevitable add on to the projects "to do list" so having someone having a go at it from zero in the current times is most welcome and looking forward to it. RGB gridfinity sounds awesome and a "natural" step in the evolution

[@anxietyprimev6983]

I assume you mean "natural" in the sense that Frankenstein's monster was natural, cause let's face it, I think the Omnissiah would like to pass an argument or two to Zack.

[@thegreenemachine992]

I was once a Home Assistant user. I was lucky enough to move somewhere where i cant do much for home automation. I was saved.

[@FowlerAskew]

Hahaha your history of home automation reminds me of when I was a kid sketching out my plan for an automated room and having everything controlled by a ball of IR LEDs hanging from the ceiling 😂

[@janeknq]

I work with home assistants and I love watching zack strugle to do anything

[@Afrosy19]

Incredible. I come back to this channel when I feel that I am in a rut with my own projects. The enthusiasm and the reckless disregard for common sense revitalize me and always help push me into the step I've been putting off. I appreciate this channel so much.

[@B1GTOBACC0]

The next steps are temperature, motion, and environment sensors. True automation isn't "I moved the button to my phone/the internet." True automation is making everything work together: "I didn't need to push the button, because I was detected entering the room and it was 3:30PM, so the lights all turned on. It was 70 degrees because my environment sensor triggered the vents to allow HVAC to flow into the room and turned the ceiling fan on for circulation. The fans on my extraction hood were spinning down because my last 3D print ended ~10 minutes earlier."

[@nashjonas]

I am both a 3D printing weirdo and a home automation weirdo, it's a match made in never finishing a project :)

[@3ATIVE]

Home Automation guy watching a 3D Printer Channel! 🤪

[@homeauto9099]

^^ BEST CHANNEL EVER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@3ATIVE]

@@homeauto9099LOL - THANKS 💖

[@Geoff_W]

I'm definitely a 3d printing enthusiast with a home automation habit 😂

[@PrivateAlex1324]

My journey into the automation hellscape started with a dimmer switch with an integrated sensor for my bedroom... Fast forward 6 months and nearly 3000$ spent on PLCs, sensors, relays, and contactors, I am now back in school and studying Automated systems and electromechanics. I have no regrets.

[@NORMIES_GET_OUT]

For those of you looking for a more off-the-shelf solution for smart switches, TP-Link's KASA switches are the most simple and robust plug-and-play switches I've found and they are pretty inexpensive compared to a lot of the other options on the market. Did my whole house with them and use Google home for automation and it's working out really well. Just make sure you have the proper wiring in your house for them to work.

[@gorilla_with_jetpack4102]

Your channel is what I imagine if Bill Nye, George Carlin, South Park, This Old House, and the entirety of MIT Opensource Ware was condensed down into a new Power Thirst energy drink. Your channel rocks! Been subscribed for a while and love the discord. This episode was really awesome dude, thank you for these videos!

[@TechoftheHound]

I’m a home automation nerd who’s getting his first 3D printer in the mail tomorrow… been sucking up your videos and stumbled across this one. I love it! Everything in my house is automated, and HomeBridge connects my cameras to it all as well for improved presence detection everywhere. My wife would describe it as that special level of hell you were talking about.

[@RinoaL]

There's something I find very sad about home automation. It overcomplicates a system and removes its robustness, but also, it gets rid of the rituals in our daily routine by overcomplicating it.

[@p_serdiuk]

it can also give you new possibilities

[@jjumberjack]

As an Industrial Automation Enginerd, hard agree about overcomplication and robustness. There's a reason physical controls are left in place - sometimes the automations fail. Any hobby is of course a personal decision of balancing time and passion, but I find as we begin to automate everything the beginning thesis of it making processes/life easier and more efficient can get twisted into an end result of more time and energy being put into a system than it began with. I've always aligned with the axiom "engineering is to simplify."

[@luxmonday]

I attempted to use Home Assistant, then fought with YAML for hours and gave up. YAML feels like one of those challenges where you try to figure out what's in the box without opening the box, and I wasn't up for a puzzle.

[@borrachomejor6767]

I'm a huge Home Automation nerd that has been enjoying your content since I found you through Gridfinity. I needed a way to organize all my smart home electronics parts. This was a great "crossover" episode, I'd love to see the crazy shit you come up with as you dive in deeper. I was the opposite of you, I thought Home Automation KZbin was bigger than 3d-Printing KZbin.

[@yaboirevived]

Im intigued.

[@HisVirusness]

Ahh, another virus for the collection. Very good... 😈

[@EnUsUserScreenname]

I'm just a trans girl watching a train's rights video by mistake.

[@davidchapdelaine8713]

I am a home automation nerd who got into 3d printing to help with the home automation. The home automation wormhole is actually part of what inspired me to go back to school to be an electrical engineer.

[@Mavi222]

I really recommend buying some (zigbee/z-wave?) 2-gang or 3-gang light switches. That way you install it instead of your old light switch, and have 1 or 2 more buttons that can be tied to anything smart in home assistant. So you can turn on and off all your LED strips with the other button on your light switch, that's not physically connected to anything. I use it in a lot of rooms, like turning LED strip for my 3D printer on and off.

[@Docanza]

A tip for that high CRI led and overheating, its best to mount it to aluminum flat bar. It acts as a heat sync, and if you drill screw holes in it, it makes it much easier to install. That is how we install all the high CRI product in film/television.

[@Jake__Boll]

I fell down the HA rabbit hole around 3 years ago, set up a whole bunch of automations and stuff I could control with my phone and then kinda didn’t touch it until recently. And even in those 3 years I was shocked by how much progress was made in terms of ease of setup and compatibility. I am fully sucked back into the rabbit hole and that’s probably why KZbin suggested this video for me

[@efaulkner]

I’ve been diagnosed with the home automation virus. But I’ve been watching your printing videos mostly. I arrived by searching for office organization. I subscribed literally because I love your use of language. Two things pushed me across the finish line: “…as ASAP as possible…” and “my very third project” 😂

[@sio2709]

Love your "live" PS ... presentation ... slides ... thingy! Unless I finally give up, let the hyperfocus energy flow and dive deep into home automation, I'll maybe try something similar in my PhD defense (I keep procrastinating) to get people's attention. This is so fun to watch :). Oh and nice projects btw. You can feel really lucky to be able to do all this stuff as a creative outlet. Truly inspiring!

[@DisorderedArray]

In my printer room (ie the basement), I have a dehumidifier. Instead of filling up the tiny bucket it shipped with, it fills into a 200Ltr barrel. Then an ESP8266 based custom board monitors the water level in the barrel, checks for leaks outside, and measures the humidity and temp. When the barrel is full, the ESP8266 activates a submerged pump that pumps out the water to a 3d printed faceplate on the inspection port of my house drainage. I'm not so great with programming and APIs, but I managed to write enough code so I can log into the ESP via telnet and it'll give me status info, and it also can send a warning to my phone via bushbullet if there's a error state. The ESP is in a custom 3d printed case (that uses fibre optics to display LED status lights). I have dozens of electronics and 3d printing projects, and pretty much all of them are unmitigated failures, but this one actually works, and has been totally reliable for over 2 years. It even alerted me when my basement flooded after my central heating boiler broke.

[@ozjohnno]

Faaark..... I never knew the home automation rabbit hole went so goddamn damn deep..... LUV YA WORK... keep it up dude

[@sullychow4123]

My mind was going so fast watching this. The speed and anxiety. It speaks to me. Your videos are very entertaining btw, keep it up :).

[@tylermontgomery5647]

Great video man! I took the easiest route into home automation in an older house and just got Wi-Fi controlled bulbs and so far they’ve been great for us!

[@mattw7949]

Long time dehumidifier here. Either mount the DH above a sink and run the hose into the drain or get a condensate pump for $75 and run that hose to a drain. Emptying the bucket is a PITA and guarantees your DH won't always be running.

[@iankitterman4375]

I bought some smart bulbs and with google home I could immediately turn them on and off. I then spent 40+ hours setting up home assistant, tying everything together, setting up automations, and now I can turn my smart bulbs on and off! Definitely a mind virus but I love it. I also love that all my control is now local so that even without an internet connection or when companies go out of business my stuff will still work without sending all my information to whoever is out there listening.

[@seanmostert4213]

For your dehumidifier, you can install an automatic bilge pump, which is what they have on boats to automatically pump out water from say the engine bay. They run on DC so you can sit it in the bottom of your dehumidifier (or add a larger tank underneath it for the pump and run a hose to that tank). You can keep the battery charged with a trickle charge or other means and have an automatic pump. You can pump the water into a larger container or a nearby window/sink/bath etc. and you won't need to worry about the water level rising or have to constantly be emptying out the water tank.

[@futz48]

Or a condensate pump. Easily available and inexpensive and very reliable. Just plug it into the wall.

[@KnyfFite]

Good episode for October. Truly a chilling descent into madness.

[@moonmaan]

This was the absolute best home automation video I've seen. Thank you.

[@KombiGnome]

I find this all so overwhelming. Every time I dip my toe in home automation, things get out of hand, and it's two weeks later, and I've got a desktop full of parts I don't remember ordering. It's wild.

[@jodylang8781]

I never realized I enjoyed the patron name rambling until I was without it for a while. Love your videos Zack 😎👉👉

[@forestaeon]

This is the first time I've watched one of your videos (great work btw!), and I left to check out Home Assistant in another tab while the video played out. I thought I was having a stroke part way through you reading your subscribers' names ✨

[@HiveMindAutomation]

The remark about Home Automation KZbin felt like a personal attack….. Love your work. Great work with WLED and HASS. Welcome!😊

[@Bikes-with-Ben]

I've been actively avoiding my Home Assistant setup since the weather turned nice back in April. I've got lights to add, buttons to fix, and screen layouts to fix. But, I know as soon I a jump back into it I'm going to forgo all other responsibilities for the next few weeks. Winter is coming and I'm not ready.

[@jeffreysanborn1005]

Your reaction to the cross-threading name always cracks me up. This one was especially funny. I am glad you didn't stop reading the names, I enjoy it.

[@g.tucker8682]

That's some top-level padding there

[@MegaVoltMeister]

Zack one thing you could do is add hose to your dehumidifier so it just drains by itself. If you don't have a drain that's lower than the dehumidifier, you could raise the dehumidifier or have it empty into a condensate pump.

[@AlsoAlaskanBeard]

I followed for 3D printing content, but I'm deep into home automation myself, so I'm always happy to see more content :)

[@nathan___gage]

18:20 “Coming back to this Smart Home stuff after a decade away feels like returning to a remote tribe and finding a space program” LMFAO

[@daricora]

I got recommended this video having never watched any 3D printing videos or home automation videos. I do watch tech and computer videos and am a software dev so it definitely makes sense why this was recommended to me.

[@JamesRensenhouse]

I love everything about this video. Keep them rambling

[@911freezy]

I loved those video so much! As a 3D printer who has spent countless hours hooking anything I possibly can to Home Assistant it hit all those checkboxes!

[@Cjwazzy]

Haha. Welcome to the wormhole. I'm one of those weirdos where the Venn diagrams overlap between a 3d printer and a home automation builder. With a touch of RGBled curious. Glad you found home assistant. And tasmota. Look forward to the future content!

[@CorbinBlack]

Found you for your 3D printing designs to use in my home automation habits. I could not agree more with HA is a worm hole. Hope to see more crossover of the hobby. You got a sub from me.

[@straybricks]

I don’t understand half of this video, but your enthusiasm is addictive.

[@luckygalvin1127]

With my adhd I can't usually make it thru a 2:40 video let alone a 24min video, and although I don't know how the things you're talking about ( thanks for making me feel dumb) I enjoy watching all your vids. Keep the content coming. Good work

[@tanmaywho]

You basically described maybe like 70% of the HA powered house including mine. I am a home automation guy and a 3D printing guy on the side and wait till you hear about presence sensors I'll blow you mind off. I love home automation soo much I will probably start some sort of business around it.

[@JagdtMirage]

I am glad I found your channel after I have my home. Now I need to finish electrical work so that I can get the printers into an insulated space I can put my printers and the dehydrator in a cool, dry, smart room.

[@paullundberg1485]

I cant believe this channel doesn't have more subs, all off zacks videos are amazing!

[@sutekhxaos]

home automation person watching a 3d printing channel here. I am amazed that these worlds hadnt converged for you sooner! Automation stuff is ezpz now IF you know what to get and what to use it with.... as youve discovered :) now you need to learn presence detection so you dont even HAVE to touch your phone. things just turn on around you as you stroll through your house

[@STREAMDUNES]

That rgb gridfinity looks interesting! Looking forward to the video!

[@_gamma.]

I’ve finally watched this, and you’re already f*king up my recs with home automation videos 😭

[@sarfata]

Who else learnt NOTHING in this video??? Come on Zack! About time you caught up on Home Assistant! Loved every second - thanks for your intersectional attention to 3D printing + home automation.

[@thewolfin]

jew shill mindset

[@botondszihalmi6947]

I actually had to work with a home automation setup from 2004 which was surprisingly competently setup, it had a main IR controller, a full on server cabinet, and it receiver in every room on all walls. it still works, but i swiched it from using IR to homeassistant like most sane people would do (although the IR is still usable)

[@caseycollins00]

Both 3d printing and home automation are both interests. I just installed a WLED based light for my front door. I haven't added it to home assistant yet. There is a 8 inch tablet mounted in the hallway that controls all the lights with the home assistant app. I will check out your thangs later

[@sebsafari]

I always liked watching your projects, not just 3D printing stuff