I sat down with my friend, Todd, for lunch one day and the conversation went something like this:

After talking about the focus and the type of content we were interested in creating, we started thinking about a name. As we talked about life, it became very clear what the name should be:

Our podcast is a place where meaningful conversations meet light-hearted moments, where self-improvement doesn't feel like a chore, and where we can all learn while having a good time.

As such, we begin with an in depth discussion of Genghis Khan, because, reasons! Have a listen to get the full background, but after delving into his life story we branch out into broader life topics.

I hope you will join us. Life is a cluttered path that is best not walked alone.

Home automation, smart home, academically gifted abode – whatever the name, to accomplish things one has to have sensors and things to control. Here is a high-level run down of the technology leveraged for sensors and controls:

• Z-Wave – Z-Wave JS UI via Aeon Z‐Stick Gen5 - 70 devices
• ZigBee - ZigBee2MQTT via Sonoff ZBDongle-P - 70 devices
• Thread - Matter via SMLight SLZB-06M - none yet
• Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) via ESPHome ble_proxy - 15 devices
• IP (Ethernet/WiFi)
  • Matter - 4 devices
  • ESPHome - 25 devices
• LoRa (US 915 MHz) - WisGate Edge Lite to MQTT - 1 device (decommissioning)
• 433 MHz - environmental sensors
• 900 MHz - water meter
• 315 MHz - mailbox sensor

I have 136 automations in Home Assistant (but the fun stuff happens in Node-RED). Each automation has a trigger; that trigger is typically some type of sensor change. The automation then takes some action to affect some control.

An automation may be simple or complex; while the complex ones may be "cool," the simple ones can be very impactful. A few examples:

1. home security system
2. mail delivery notification with reminder to pickup if we are on the way home
3. universal remote to control for media center (~$30 in parts)
4. home theater mode: lights respond to play/pause, movie poster on secondary display, accent lighting color set to match movie poster
5. notify if garage door left open when everyone leaves
6. turn on amplifier(s) when casting/airplaying music
7. BLE room presence

One of the most appreciated, yet simple automation, is the "shut down the entire house when everyone leaves." Simple but powerful. The convenience is a family favorite. Someone says, "Want to grab some coffee?" And we just leave; no thought about lights, lamps, music, or even pausing whatever is on the TV. We just walk out the door. (And the side effects of this become very apparent when going on vacation with the family.)

This hobby can be both fun and impactful. I will be covering some of these automations along with the $30 universal remote in future videos. If you haven't already, consider subscribing.

It all began September, 2016, with a Philips Hue LED Starter Kit. The adrenaline rush was immediate – simply turning a light on from my phone and changing its color. But you know the feeling; a drug was unleashed.

Seeking the rush again, just few weeks later, I bought a second device: a Samsung SmartThings Hub. Followed by a motion sensor and a smart outlet. And it kept growing...

I have a vivid memory of proudly showing some coworkers my SmartThings dashboard with color and effects controls for two DMX uplights in my living room. I had written both the Python app (running on an ARM SBC with the USB DMX dongle) and the Groovy driver for SmartThings to talk to it locally via a REST API.

Pi Day!! March 14, 2018 – The next step: Home Assistant (HA) OS installed on a Raspberry Pi. Shortly thereafter, SmartThings was taken off-line.

I out grew the Pi pretty quickly and moved to Home Assistant Supervised on an Intel NUC. After a while, HA was then moved to a docker container on a server.

Home automation became my hobby. It has been a process; I've learned a lot. I did a lot of things wrong; however, it has been rewarding. I'd like to invite you along to join me along this journey!

I will be producing YouTube videos and adding the reference content here for those videos.