Botmonster Tech
AI Smart Home Self-Hosting Coding Web Dev Hardware Bootpag Image2SVG Energy Calc

Smart Home

Real-world smart home builds with Home Assistant, sensors, and integrations that survive past the honeymoon period.

  • ◀︎
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • …
  • 10
  • ▶︎
Zigbee range issues? Fix them with routers and channels

Zigbee range issues? Fix them with routers and channels

Zigbee range issues? Fix them by adding mains-powered routers, moving the coordinator off USB 3.0, and using channel 15, 20, or 25 to dodge WiFi.

A smart pet feeder on ESPHome costs $20 and stays local

A smart pet feeder on ESPHome costs $20 and stays local

A smart pet feeder ESPHome build costs $20, or flash a feeder you already own. Portion calibration by weight, wiring, YAML, and which models flash.

Modern Nordic kitchen at twilight, dishwasher glowing green, EV charging in garage, tablet showing Home Assistant hourly price chart

Dynamic electricity pricing automations in Home Assistant with Tibber and Nordpool

Home Assistant pulls hourly spot prices via Tibber or Nordpool to schedule EV, water heater, and heat pump loads, cutting Nordic bills 20-40% in 2026.

Build a Thread device with ESPHome and the ESP32-H2

Build a Thread device with ESPHome and the ESP32-H2

Build Thread mesh devices with ESPHome 2025.6 on ESP32-H2 and ESP32-C6, join a border router, and expose battery-efficient IPv6 sensors to HA.

Build an ESPHome soil moisture sensor for under $10

Build an ESPHome soil moisture sensor for under $10

An ESPHome soil moisture sensor costs under $10 and reports to Home Assistant. Wiring, YAML, calibration, and the fix for a reading stuck at 1.07V.

Automate your pool or hot tub with Home Assistant and ESPHome sensors

Automate your pool or hot tub with Home Assistant and ESPHome sensors

Monitor pool or hot tub temperature, pH, and ORP with waterproof ESPHome sensors on ESP32 for under $80. Home Assistant alerts and calibration.

  • ◀︎
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • …
  • 10
  • ▶︎

Popular

Home Assistant AI voice with a local LLM: what works in 2026

Home Assistant AI voice with a local LLM: what works in 2026

Set up Home Assistant AI voice with a local LLM. Which Ollama models handle tool calling, a sub-second latency budget, and ESP32 satellites.

Designing a professional Home Assistant dashboard with CSS

Designing a professional Home Assistant dashboard with CSS

Build responsive Home Assistant dashboards with CSS Grid and HACS cards like button-card to create modern control centers that rival commercial apps.

Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition review: is the $59 box ready for daily use?

Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition review: is the $59 box ready for daily use?

One-year review of the $59-$69 Voice Preview Edition: fully local wake word detection, sub-second response, far-field mic array, and zero cloud calls.

Automate your pool or hot tub with Home Assistant and ESPHome sensors

Automate your pool or hot tub with Home Assistant and ESPHome sensors

Monitor pool or hot tub temperature, pH, and ORP with waterproof ESPHome sensors on ESP32 for under $80. Home Assistant alerts and calibration.

Snapcast multi-room audio system: 5 rooms under $300

Snapcast multi-room audio system: 5 rooms under $300

Build a cloud-free multi-room audio system with Snapcast and Home Assistant. Sub-millisecond sync across five rooms, an affordable Sonos rival.

Hailo-8 vs Google Coral TPU for Frigate NVR: which edge AI accelerator wins in 2026

Hailo-8 vs Google Coral TPU for Frigate NVR: which edge AI accelerator wins in 2026

Hailo vs Coral for Frigate in 2026: Coral is a legacy pick now. Dated prices, cameras per chip, night-time detection limits and which accelerator to buy.

Like what you read?

Subscribe to the Botmonster newsletter and get Linux, AI, and self-hosting posts weekly.

2013-2026 Botmonster Tech
Site About Newsletter Privacy Policy Terms of Service Contact
Categories AI Smart Home Self-Hosting Coding Web Dev Hardware
Tools Bootpag Image2SVG Energy Calc What is my IP?