Botmonster Tech
Integrate any microcontroller with Home Assistant. Publish sensor data to discovery topics and subscribe to commands. Full control, no ESPHome.
Smart Home
Real-world smart home builds with Home Assistant, sensors, and integrations that survive past the honeymoon period.
Do you need Wi-Fi 7 for Matter? What a smart home really uses
Do you need WiFi 7 for Matter? No: Matter devices use 2.4GHz WiFi or Thread. What a WiFi 7 router does and doesn't change for a 50-device smart home.
WLED LED strips: voice control with Home Assistant for $30
Add voice-controlled LED strips with WLED and Home Assistant. Covers hardware, power sizing, flashing, integration, and voice commands, zero cloud.
Smart home network segmentation: VLANs and firewall rules
Use VLANs to isolate smart home IoT devices from your personal computers and sensitive data, preventing compromised devices from spreading threats.
Version control HA config with GitHub, not snapshots
Back up your Home Assistant config to GitHub as code. Git-based backups are diff-able and restorable, more practical than snapshots for recovery.
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.