this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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Asklemmy
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Home Assistant, a powerful home automation platform.
HA is still more of a lifestyle choice than just software.
Someday I'll get around to putting those bulbs back on the Homekit controller instead of trying to run them through OTBR.
The exhaust fan turning on when the litterbox detects a cat is pretty cool though.
It does take up a lot of time, but I’ve found it really rewarding.
Was there more functionality through HomeKit Controller?
I’ve thought about running the air purifier when the cats use the tray, but haven’t done it yet. What do you use to detect the cats?
https://www.litter-robot.com/explore/litter-robot-4
Unfortunately their API isn't local and goes through their site.
Cheers! I have been thinking about a Litter Robot, haven’t been willing to fork out the cash yet though. How do you rate it?
I’ve had one for 5 years and it’s definitely a quality of life improvement over the alternative. Yes you will need to empty it weekly or so (really wish they sold an upgrade to the waste drawer) and yes it will require cleaning occasionally… but otherwise pretty flawless.
The company behind it is repair friendly (sells parts, kits, provides instructions and videos) which I consider a big advantage from the competition, especially when investing this much into a fart box. Only fix we had to do was replace the waste full detector light bar and it left a good impression how DIY supportive they were.
Oh that’s good to hear. Thanks for sharing your experience!
The cats appreciate it, and it makes things less urgent. Gives more time when we're out in vacation. They don't really use the old one anymore.
You still have to deal with it in the end though.
Thanks very much mate!
Can you do voice activation with this? I am using google home it works pretty well, but I'd like to move to a more custom setup. But I need voice activation. It's so nice just talking.
You can actually still use google Home if you want to - it integrates well with Google Home and Alexa but is currently massively expanding their own voice assistant option.
Home Assistant is more a "background" integrator - it links up all you different smart home options, makes them thereby smarter and adds external data (e.g. weather, traffic,etc.) whenever you want. And of course enables you to easily add your own visualisation and your own automations.
It is on one side incredibly easy to "start". And on the other side incredibly powerful.
Philpo explained it well.
I’m currently using Home Assistant as my integration platform to talk to everything, and as an automation engine to make things happen.
Home Assistant can then expose your devices to other platforms like Apple HomeKit and Google Home.
For controlling things manually, I mostly use the Apple Home app, and Siri and Google Assistant for voice control.
This year the Home Assistant developers are focusing heavily on building out native and local voice control. There will be an announcement in a week on their progress. It looks like they will be announcing the ability to use wake works to activate voice commands (like Google/Siri/Alexa but all done without compromising your privacy).
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/live/sXzItFksYFA?feature=share
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.