[00:02] questions and it's been about 5 years since my last Q&A. So, yeah, I think it's time for an update. I gathered about 30 questions you've asked on videos lately and let's get into it. All right, first question. You mentioned in
[00:15] your video to use a USB extender. This is talking about like a Ziggb or Z-Wave USB dongle that you plug into the hub. How long and where did you actually extend it to? So, mine is about 3 ft away from the hub and it's working
[00:29] great. I originally when I first tried this out years ago, I had it plugged straight into the Raspberry Pi, no extender, and it didn't work. So, using some kind of extender is going to help. The rule of thumb for any wireless
[00:42] better. You're never going to have a perfect signal, so try to just keep it as far away as possible without it looking ugly. All right, next one. How do you make sure automations don't
[00:54] overlap? Say you had 80 automations and 30 of those were lighting. How do you interfere with each other? You'll definitely run into this if you're setting up automations in your smartome. You're going to have automations that
[01:08] For example, I have some lighting automations in our living room that I showed recently. The lights will turn on to a dim setting when it's sunset and they'll also turn off when the TV is on. Now, they could definitely interfere.
[01:22] So, I have a condition on that automation when the sun is setting to turn on the lights, checks to see if the TV is on, and if it is, it just skips the automation altogether, all the actions. So, that's how you do it. You
[01:36] set up a condition, it skips the action. They don't interfere with each other. You can sometimes figure this out when you're setting up the automation, but a lot of the times your family will start complaining that they're running when
[01:49] like, "Oh no, why is that happening?" You'll quickly add a condition and it'll be solved. So, nothing to worry about. And uh yeah, it's just part of the smart home experience. What is that lamp that you have on your desk, the one with the
[02:03] blue top? I get asked about this all the time. It's an IKEA lamp that they discontinued that style a while ago, which is frustrating because I really like the lamp. It has a Sonos speaker built into it. I don't know why IKEA
[02:18] good one. Yeah, it reminds me of this old rainbow cloud light that we had in the back of a lot of our videos way long ago. People would always want to buy that little rainbow cloud light and I think they discontinued that one as
[02:33] think they discontinued that one as well. So, yeah. Sorry. Okay. I recently covered a millimeter wave sensor and there was a lot of questions if dogs like a big dog would set it off. Now, I don't know for sure because I don't have
[02:46] a big dog to test it out on, but I think that this whole issue could be completely avoided with conditions on your automations. So, say like you don't middle of the night if your dog walks down the hall. Well, you could set up a
[03:03] condition on that automation that if you're in bed, don't turn on the lights if your dog's walking down the hall. So, a lot of uh those potential issues with like a large dog being triggered by a motion sensor or millimeter wave sensor
[03:17] could be fixed with conditions. Oh, no. What kind of animal presses a switch to turn the lights off? Pretty sick animal, that's who. I agree. I try not to touch
[03:29] the light switches. I just rely on the automations, but you know, sometimes family members, especially kids, they like to press the button to change the lights. So, I know it's barbaric. Okay. Question on your smart light switch
[03:42] choice. I see that you're using the old Lutron dimmer switches. You had reviewed little while ago as they were nearly perfect smart switch. Did you actively issue, or was it just that you had already gone all in on the older
[03:57] version, transfer from the old house to the new house? First of all, thanks for tell from your question that you've seen a lot. So, I really appreciate that. The main reason that we're using the older Lutron dimmer is because my family is
[04:13] used to using them. They see those little arrow buttons and it's super intuitive. like my three-year-old can dim and change the lights super easy. And so that's why now I don't even really use the dimmer switches, like the
[04:27] physical buttons that much. So, it's not really that big of an issue to me. If I had to start fresh, like I had a brand new family, I was starting to buy smart home equipment, I wouldn't start with those. I would get the newer version.
[04:42] But since I already had a bunch, my family's used to them, I'm just sticking about light switches. Do you have a recommendation for Z-Wave light would like to use Z-Wave switches everywhere, but haven't found any that I
[04:56] like. Zwave is a great choice. If you're not going with Lutron, I would definitely recommend Z-Wave light switches. The big two players are Inovi and Zeus. Inov is a great option. They
[05:08] have a lot of little bells and whistles, extra LED lights, but they can be difficult to buy. Sometimes they're not always available and sometimes a little more expensive than Zeus. I personally would choose Zeus. I bought some about a
[05:22] year or so ago and they've been perfect. So, that's what I would go with. You very reliable. Okay, this question is about Home Assistant. How often do you find yourself editing a YAML file to get something done? Now, this is kind of
[05:37] tricky because the majority of the things I do in Home Assistant, I don't have to edit a YAML file for. I can just do it in the UI, but I choose to edit the YAML file to just make things go faster. Since I come from a developer
[05:52] background, I used to write a lot of code. Doesn't scare me. So, I can do stuff in YAML. But if you're thinking about using Home Assistant, you don't have to worry. You can do pretty much everything in the UI. You don't have to
[06:05] write YAML, so don't let it scare you. So, some more questions about Home Assistant. Are themes in Home Assistant free or do you have to pay for them? Super noob question. And another one is, how do you make or get the liquid glass
[06:17] style cards on your dashboard? That is also a theme. And I got that in hacks, which is Home Assistant Community Store. or it's an add-on or an app that you add
[06:29] to Home Assistant and it opens the doors to tons of themes and integrations that you can add to Home Assistant. It's all free, which is awesome, and it's super easy to do. You just select a theme, download it, apply it to Home Assistant,
[06:46] refresh your browser, and then all of a sudden your Home Assistant dashboard looks amazing. All right, next question. Your router/n network seems excessive. Yeah. How many devices do you have? So, before we moved, I had about 200 devices
[07:03] or more. I know that's not as many devices as other houses have, but uh yeah, they they start adding up quickly. I'm using UniFi. I know it's overkill
[07:15] for most people, but I do like to be able to fine-tune it and have it work extremely well for when I want to add as many smart home devices as I want. So, it's not for everyone, but I like it. Okay, there's some questions about what
[07:28] I'm using for Home Assistant, if I'm using the mini PC that I've shown or the Home Assistant green that I was showing footage of in the video. So, I can see why it would be a little confusing talking about my setup and I'm showing
[07:42] the Home Assistant green. So, technically I'm using both. Using the Home Assistant Green out here in the shop to test devices, run beta versions of Home Assistant, but my main setup is using a mini PC in the house. And
[07:56] there's a couple of reasons why I showed the Home Assistant Green. One, it's easier to film the Home Assistant Green out here. It's better lighting than that like little server rack room I have in there. And the other reason is if I'm
[08:08] showing a mini PC and I'm talking about Home Assistant, people are like, "What is that? Why are you showing me this little like computer or little box?" So that's why sometimes I show Home Assistant green when I'm talking about
[08:22] Home Assistant. It's not necessarily my main setup, but it's easier to film. I'll try to make that more clear in the future. All right, another similar future. All right, another similar question. Someone asked, "No rat GDIO."
[08:35] So, I showed a third reality garage door opener recently, and Rat GDIO is also another option to make your garage door controller smart. It works really well. I've shown it before, and I'm still using it, but it doesn't work good for
[08:50] everything like Security Plus 3.0, which is why I showed this third reality option, which is a cool little device. It presses the garage door remote, and so it'll work with pretty much any garage door opener. I just find it funny
[09:04] that people always I always see this pop up. People get mad when I don't mention up. People get mad when I don't mention Rat GDO, even though yes, there are other good options out there. And to show how silly and frustrating this can
[09:17] be to make YouTube videos on the Rat GDO video, someone also asked, "My Q is GDIO? Well, you got to watch out if you're
[09:30] using something that's free or really easy to use. Sometimes those companies easy to use. Sometimes those companies like MyQ or Evil Corp will try to trap you and get you sucked in and then when you want to integrate it into your
[09:42] smartome or your car or whatever, they'll have expensive subscriptions that there's no alternative ways around it. So, you just got to watch out. It can be like enticing at first because it seems really easy, but they'll get you.
[09:58] garage doors. Have you developed an external keypad solution for opening the door? I find the evil corpse solutions to not be reliable. I haven't yet. Uh I
[10:10] need something actually. And so if you guys have any suggestions of what's down in the comments. I would love to try them out because I'm looking for a solution myself. All right, quick question. Why didn't you use Matter
[10:24] devices? So, I have a lovehate relationship with Matter. If I really want a smart home device and the only way to integrate it into my Smartome is with Matter, then I love Matter, but sometimes I need to download that
[10:41] company's app to set up the device and then I can add it to my smart home with Matter. I don't really fully understand that. That's why I like ZigGB and Z-Wave. I know for sure I'll be able to use those long into the future no matter
[10:55] use those long into the future no matter what happens. So, yeah, matters great, but it could be better. Are you really that lazy? Yes. All right. This question is from the Joel Smartome Tour that I did
[11:08] recently. There was a lot of I definitely do this. Have you come back to this video with the new location and rebuild from scratch? The answer is yes, I have. I showed in a video recently that I have some smart home rules for
[11:23] myself and one of those is based from that tour that I visited Joel where you know making it grandma proof and really easy to use. So all the smart home tours easy to use. So all the smart home tours I've learned so much. I take little bits
[11:38] and pieces every time I set up an automation or an idea and I remember the things that I learned from those tours and I try to incorporate them in my own smart home. And so yeah, if you've never watched that tour series, I highly
[11:51] recommend it. There's tons of great ideas and I definitely try to take those right, so there's some questions about solar with our previous house and if we're going to get it in our new house. So with the previous house, they're
[12:05] asking how much did you actually save? You know, it takes a while, years to save on electricity bills to make it worth it from buying those solar panels and power walls. And the answer is it's very difficult to know when you sell
[12:19] very difficult to know when you sell your house value adds. It definitely adds value and there were people interested in our house because we had interested in our house because we had solar and no electricity bills. But how
[12:31] much, you know, with us saving on it, how much value added? I honestly, no one could ever really figure that out because it's kind of subjective. >> Nobody knows. >> Do we regret getting solar in the first
[12:43] place? And the answer is no. Me and Ally really liked it and we plan on getting it again in this house. It's very expensive to run the AC here in Arizona. 500 bucks this month and we're trying to conserve on how often we're running the
[12:59] AC. So it's expensive. Having solar means lower electricity bills and you don't have to feel guilty about running the AC all the time. So there were lots of questions about moving from our previous house with our smart home over
[13:13] there. You have really three options when moving. You [clears throat] can just leave your smart home up and just give it to the next people who buy your house. You can leave your smartome up when they take pictures of your house
[13:26] and list it, but you make a long list of the things that you're going to bring the things that you're going to bring with you, or you can take it down before you list your house, and that way there's no confusion. We have option
[13:40] number three. I spent about 3 days taking down all the smart home devices that were mounted on walls, like cameras, smart light switches, thermostats. That way there was no confusion from the buyer of what was
[13:55] coming with the house and what wasn't. So that's what I prefer. It's just really easy to communicate that. I didn't leave any kind of smart home manual or anything. There were also a lot of questions about why didn't I just
[14:10] leave a lot of that smart home tech in the previous house because it might not translate into this new house. Like there might not be a spot for it. and then you can just have an excuse to buy new smart home tech, which is also a
[14:24] completely valid option. The main reason that we brought most of it with us is to just save on time. It takes a lot of time to set up new smartome tech, whether that's just actually setting it up, naming it, adding it to your smart
[14:39] home, adding it to the automations and all of that. That's why I wanted to do it this way, but some other people might want to just start fresh and that works is related. When moving, how do you migrate the Wi-Fi, ZigG or Matter
[14:55] signals, like the IP addresses and all of that. So, it feels like this big change moving houses for the people that are moving, but for your smart home, you're basically unplugging it and plugging it back in. It's just like
[15:09] working just like I was at the other house. It It doesn't know the difference. Yeah, there's not like a lot of reprogramming or anything. It just works. H Why did you move? Your old home was better. Uh this house is older than
[15:24] our previous one. I miss the old house. Yeah, we do miss our old house and this house is older, but this also has a detached shop and that's why we moved. I wouldn't be able to make this video right now if we didn't live in this
[15:37] house because my kids are in the house right now being loud and noisy. They're home from summer break and there's no way I could film a YouTube video with them around right now. So, it's nice to have a quiet place to work, test out
[15:51] smart home tech and all of that. So, we really like this house and sixcar really like this house and sixcar garage. No, I wish it's threecar. The doors are just a little bit wider, which is great for some extra room, but uh no.
[16:04] Sixcar garage. Yeah, that that'd be crazy. If your house is part of a smart home upgrade project, is the whole mortgage considered a business expense for your YouTube channel? That would be nice. I wish, you know, just just write
[16:19] >> They just write it off. >> Since you mentioned Eco, I saw someone praising the Accara thermostat, especially after recent updates. still planning to stick with EcoB or have you already evaluated others like Accara?
[16:31] So, if you look over my shoulder right here, there is an Accara thermostat that I've been using for the last couple months or so and I really like it. It uses matter, integrates really well with my smartome. And yes, they did make some
[16:43] updates so that the temperature sensors can be averaged together, very similar to Eco. So, that's great to see. The only thing that I see missing that I have with my EcoB is to be able to change the temperature swing. So, I kind
[16:57] of like a larger temperature swing in our house so that the AC is not running as often. But, that's just my personal preference. Right now, I don't see any massive benefits the Accara thermostat has over the EcoB thermostat. So, I
[17:11] don't have a reason to swap them all out in our house, but I might look into it more and make a video on it in the future. Have you tried the third reality voice and music assistant dev edition? What do you think about it? I did about
[17:24] What do you think about it? I did about a month ago and I wasn't that impressed. You know, it's like a little bit bigger than the voice preview edition. So, I was hoping it would sound similar to like a nice Echo Dot, but it didn't. It
[17:38] like the voice preview edition. The speaker wasn't that great, or at least to my ears, it wasn't. And the button on top didn't work for me for like starting and stopping a voice prompt which I think is kind of crucial if you know
[17:52] just want to stop it. >> Platforms I'd be happy to provide >> So yeah, I didn't have really that great of experience with it. Maybe they'll make some updates but we'll see. Do you plan to always keep two channels? I find
[18:06] it confusing a bit. I follow both so no big deal. Just curious what your long-term plans are for each channel. Well, thank you for following both channels. The second channel is called Reed Smartome, and I started that a
[18:19] couple of years ago. And the reason for that second channel is so I can cover different topics that I normally wouldn't cover here on this main channel because when people subscribe to this channel, there's uh certain format
[18:33] topics that they're kind of expecting going forward in the future. And I wanted to be able to veer off that path a little bit, whether it's stuff that I'm covering, how I film the videos, like more like a vlog style. So, yeah, I
[18:47] try different things out and it's less pressure, so I'll probably keep it around. Are you planning to use something like a home assistant voice? there and a couple in the house that I'm using and it's not as good as like an
[19:02] Echo or something from Google, but I don't really use it to turn the lights on and off. I'm relying more on automations and a smart home dashboard automations and a smart home dashboard to do that. What I really like it for is
[19:14] it can ask me a question if something should happen or not, like a yes or no question. And then if I say yes, it happens or no and it doesn't. And that way I don't have to memorize any voice commands. So there's a question about
[19:26] room presence detection. Got to ask, why would anyone want this outside of worker tracking in hospitals? So, I set up all these little microcontrollers in each room of the house, and they can detect the Bluetooth signal from my phone or my
[19:41] smartwatch, and that way my smart home knows if I'm in a room or not. And I just added all of them back to this new house, and I love it. It's one of my favorite things in my smartome. And I can do some really cool stuff, like
[19:55] changing my smartome dashboard to only show me the controls for the room that I'm standing in. I can also do some other cool things like instead of having my smart home blast on all the smart speakers if it needs to tell me
[20:07] something, it can just announce it on the smart speaker in the room that I'm standing in because my smartome knows which room I'm in. So, you can really fine-tune your automations based on what room you're in. So, I definitely think
[20:21] right, last question. Does the multi-tool connect to Home Assistant? >> I showed this in my last video and said it was nearly perfect and I wouldn't but I guess I didn't consider it
[20:36] connecting to Home Assistant. Back to the drawing board. No, I don't think any multi-tool connects to Home Assistant. That would be awesome, but uh yeah, this this one's great. I know the smart home space can be confusing and not all the
[20:50] questions can be answered in regular videos. So, if you found this type of Q&A video helpful, then let me know down in the comments and I can make it a in the comments and I can make it a regular thing. Thanks for watching.
[21:02] follow you? >> Yeah. Uh, no. >> Yes. Do not have them not follow you? >> No. Wait. Yes. What are you asking?
[21:14] >> No. >> You don't mind? So, you want the lights to follow you? >> Yes. Fine. Have them follow me. Roger that. >> See, smart homes make life so easy.