Shows
Automated Home ShowSmart homes can be so frustrating at timesI've been trying to find a solution so that we can have smart lights in our new home for a few months. I bought an IKEA Jetstrom smart ceiling light, found a local electrician to help me get it powered and then...Failed completely. I guess this is one of those smart home fails you have to go through before getting to the next win!Learn more about Automated Home here.
2025-11-0217 minAutomated Home ShowSmart home update and some new toysIn this solo episode, I share an update on what's happening in my smart home. Wifi 7 is great, smart lights are causing me some headaches and I got a few new toys to play with too.Learn more about Automated Home here.
2025-08-0914 minAutomated Home ShowSmart Window Treatments w/ David WebsterSmart home expert David Webster joins me to talk about smart window treatments. This conversation is beginner-friendly, but David also does a good job of explaining some more advanced concepts in an easy-to-understand way. If you enjoy this conversation, be sure to check out the conversation that I published right before this one with Jason Turner, VP of Powershades about much the same topic. Learn more about Automated Home here.
2025-07-1137 minAutomated Home ShowSmart Window Treatments w/ Jason Turner of PowershadesPowershades VP Jason Turner joins me for a chat about smart shades and some innovative ideas they're implementing for their clients across the US. You can check them out at powershades.com.Check out my next conversation with David Webster where we also cover smart window treatments, but in a slightly more beginner-friendly way. Learn more about Automated Home here.
2025-07-1130 minAutomated Home ShowNew Home UpdateWe recently moved into a smaller place and as expected, some parts of our smart home went smoothly, while other pieces broke. This is a quick update on things, some plans for the future and a short funny story. Learn more about Automated Home here.
2025-06-0610 minAutomated Home ShowPlanning a Smart Home Build with David WebsterI had this conversation with David Webster recently after someone posted on the Automated Home forums asking for feedback on a proposed smart home build for his 6,000-square-foot home. David understands this stuff more than anyone else I know, so it was a very interesting conversation and good to learn more about the "why" with regard to some of David's points of view. This was going to be a private conversation between David and I, but we agreed to record the conversation, so I hope you enjoy it. Learn more about Automated Home here.
2025-04-1742 minAutomated Home ShowSmart Lighting Basics with Smart Home Expert David WebsterDavid Webster joins me again to talk about smart lighting considerations. David is a smart home expert and electrical technician, so he understands things at a very deep level. As someone who is NOT an electrical engineer, I ask some questions that a beginner might be wondering about so there's something for everyone. The conversation ends with the promise of continuing the conversation and some cursory discussion about Homey. Learn more about Automated Home here.
2025-02-1141 minAutomated Home ShowI finally solved my Homey flow problemI feel like I've climbed a mountain (well, perhaps a small hill) because I finally figured out the issue with not being able to immediately re-trigger the flow to turn the lights on when motion is detected outside our front door. I also share some of the smart devices that I've added to our home recently and share a recent funny story. Learn more about Automated Home here.
2025-01-0415 minAutomated Home ShowHomey, Home Assistant and Bringing AI Into Your Smart HomeDavid and I discuss the good and the bad of Homey Pro, what we each think about Home Assistant and David talks about how AI could make smart homes way better very soon. ***Apologies for the out-of-sync audio*** This conversation was recorded using the same software as the last time I spoke to David and for some reason, our files are out of synch by about a second. It sounds like I'm constantly talking over the top of David and David is very slow to respond to anything, but that's not the case. I was torn o...
2024-12-2046 minAutomated Home ShowNew Smart Home Products Nov 2024I probably should have waited to buy some of these during Black Friday, but I picked up some cool new products for my smart home recently. I'll be unboxing these products and getting them setup and going over the coming month and I'll keep you posted on how they all go. Learn more about Automated Home here.
2024-11-2812 minAutomated Home ShowWhy You Should Never Split Your Home WifiI had the pleasure of catching up with David Webster recently to get into the nitty gritty of why it's not necessary to split up your home wifi into separate 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz networks. David has A LOT of knowledge about smart home products and connectivity issues, so I certainly learned a lot from this chat. Even if you're already an expert in this stuff, there's probably still something here for you. If you're a newbie to smart homes or if you're wondering if you need to split up your home wifi, this conversation is a...
2024-10-3040 minAutomated Home ShowHomey should add this functionalityThanks to Tim for the comment on my last Youtube video which helped me to get my Aqara lights connected and online in Homey. That was a big help. I was able to get some Homey "flows" going with the motion sensor and those Aqara lights, but there are a couple of things that I'm not thrilled about. 1. The range of the P1 motion sensor isn't great, and2. Why won't Homey let flows re-start before they're finished? That makes no sense to meLearn more about Automated Home here.
2024-10-1217 minAutomated Home ShowMy smart home is back on trackLast update was a total disaster, but I've fixed most things and in many cases, things are better than before. There are still a few issues, but it seems much more manageable than a couple of weeks ago. I got an Aqara motion sensor, set up an Annke camera for baby monitoring, setup the Sonos voice assistant that I didn't even know existed and just had my first Govee product delivered. Learn more about Automated Home here.
2024-10-0725 minAutomated Home ShowDid changing my Wifi name just break everything?!I just created a 2.4GHz wifi network in my home and chaos ensued.What I thought was a piece of cake ended up becoming a disaster and now I guess I'm looking down the barrel of a bunch of factory resets and re-adding devices. Seriously, this was not what I had planned for my Sunday. Learn more about Automated Home here.
2024-09-2315 minAutomated Home ShowMy Aqara vibration sensor failure and what's up with Alexa today?!My hopes of turning my dining room table into one giant "light switch" didn't work out when I learned that the Aqara vibration sensor isn't as sensitive as it would need to be for that idea to work. ...sigh...Oh well, I'm sure I'll find another idea for that vibration sensor eventually. Also, why is Alexa going crazy today?!Learn more about Automated Home here.
2024-09-1617 minAutomated Home ShowIs Aqara being short sighted?I ask why I can't enjoy the full-feature capability of my new Aqara light bulb. Is it a business decision or do I just not understand it?I discuss some recent wins, and some failures and talk about upcoming plans. Get more from Automated Home here.
2024-09-1530 minAutomated Home ShowI bought some Aqara devices for my Homey hub!Today I got stranded in a shopping mall because of some rain and ended up buying a couple of Aqara products that should work with my Homey Pro. I talk about an Amazon routine that my wife absolutely hated and vetoed in all of 24 hours, talk about a couple of things I've learned recently and then end with a funny story that's completely unrelated to smart homes. Get more from Automated Home here.
2024-09-0716 minAutomated Home ShowShould the Sonos CEO be fired?Do you think the Sonos CEO should resign or be fired?Lots of people are angry about the app update that rolled out nearly 3 months ago and the CEO of the company has finally issued an apology and shared a timeline for fixing some of the issues with the new app. Read more at https://automatedhome.com/
2024-07-2607 minAutomated Home ShowUnboxing my Homey Pro and a setbackIn this brief update, I talk about how I unboxed my Homey Pro smart hub and got some bad (or maybe good?) news regarding the compatibility of some other smart home products that I was about to buy. Automated Home links:https://linktr.ee/automated_home
2024-07-1106 minAutomated Home ShowLG acquires Athom & smart home updatesIt's been a while since we last spoke, but in this podcast I talk about some updates that have happened over the last few months, look ahead to what's coming up soon and cover the big news story of this week which is that Korean LG have acquired Athom (makers of Homey). Here's the link to our new smart home community.Get more from Automated Home here.
2024-07-0612 minAutomated Home ShowReplying to FullBore on the forums and the plan for the podcastHey and welcome to the first Automated Home podcast episode. I respond to FullBore (and everyone else who uses the forums) to explain the situation and what's been done because I know it's very frustrating and everyone wants a solution soon. I also talk about plans for the podcast and the website in general.At the end I share a funny story too!
2024-02-2520 min