Chris Hansen

New demo of doorbell-mqtt-unifi v0.2.0 Home Assistant can now control UniFi G4 Doorbell animations & sounds via MQTT. New features: - Faster IPC profile switching - Profile validation - Trigger sound effects anytime GitHub: github.com/ChrisHansenTec…

Full write up of how I use them with Home Assistant chrishansen.tech/posts/Automati…

Lincoln standing guard at the empty @AqaraSmarthouse feeders like he hasn’t been fed in weeks. One “Alexa, feed the dogs” later and suddenly everything is right in the world. This setup has honestly been one of the most useful smart home devices in our house.

I’m still playing with it coming up with a good setup. So far I use it for a light switch for the living room lamp which is just a smart bulb. To trigger my three Aqara pet feeders manually. I also setup a scene the triggers Home Assistant to get the weather from my Tempest and announce it on an echo dot.

How are you using the screen on the Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 besides temperature control? 🤔

Was helping a junior developer troubleshoot today and told them to clear the JsonData parameter. They hit an error, so I said: “JsonData as in JavaScript Object Notation… not Jason Momoa.” They saw it immediately and laughed.

Removed a tree stump today and was slightly disappointed there wasn’t a crowd cheering like the stump episode of Bluey. Turns out real life is mostly just dirt, roots, and dogs investigating the hole. 😂

When Home Assistant says the feeder dispensed but you still demand manual verification.

Reading Courage Is Calling by Ryan Holiday made me realize how much growth comes from building in public. Blog posts, open source projects, YouTube videos, and even social posts have improved not just my technical communication, but my confidence professionally as well. Sometimes the hardest part is just pressing publish.

My 5 year old daughter just ran 4 blocks to catch the ice cream truck the first time this year. At least she got her exercise.

@BatsouElef Depends. I just started YouTube. My blog on average a few times a month.

@ChrisHansenTech How often do you post on your blog and your YouTube channel?

What's one habit you want to build in the next 30 days? Happy 1st of May!

As a Tech Lead I can relate to this, except it’s rarely end users asking. It’s programmers and support: “Why is this printer doing hieroglyphics?” “Why won’t this scanner scan?” “Can you look at this pin pad?” “This drawer won’t kick.” Somewhere along the line I accidentally became a part-time hardware exorcist.

@embersunn We should use the term "trad coding" 😁

“Coding manually” instead of just saying “Coding” is a thing now Rip

Leak sensors are the least exciting smart home device. But this little @AqaraSmarthouse leak sensor saved the day when the garbage disposal failed and started leaking.

@smarth0mejunkie I completely agree on the constant UI changes. Last month a combo box refresh broke the device detail view. Luckily, I had a VM I hadn’t updated yet, so my demo didn’t look broken in my video.

📊 Poll: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻? 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗲: 👉 The constant 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗜. It makes creating 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀 virtually impossible. #homeassistant #smarthomejunkie

I always enjoy reviewing Aqara products. One question I’ve been getting from readers is about HVAC fan control when using Matter (especially in Home Assistant or HomeKit). Right now, the fan options don’t seem to show up in those platforms. Is this something that might be added in a future update?

@ChrisHansenTech The screen + presence sensor stealing the show. Thanks for the honest review, Chris. We're taking note on the humidity feedback ☺️

I replaced my ecobee with the @AqaraSmarthouse Thermostat Hub W200. Turns out the most useful feature wasn’t the thermostat; it was the screen + presence sensor. Also found a pretty big limitation with humidity updates. chrishansen.tech/posts/aqara-w2… #homeassistant #aqara

Taking a break from tech to build a paper boat armada with my daughter. I’m folding, she’s coloring. Simple, but probably the best part of my day.

Lincoln says, “Let’s blog about dog treats instead of smart homes!”

Made it through the first North Dakota winter and still going strong. Use code CHT10 for 10% off at shop.tempest.earth/?ref=jdajgkks (affiliate).

@tdse3 You can DM or email me the actual config without any secrets and I can look at it. Do the entities appear in HA just don’t update?

@ChrisHansenTech I'm using http: resource: http://192.168.1.222:8040/api/v1/results/latest/ and trying verify_ssl: false did not change anything

Just published a blog post on integrating Speed Test Tracker with Home Assistant to display real-time download/upload speeds and ping—without relying on the Speedtest-net integration that can slow things down. Full write-up: chrishansen.tech/posts/SpeedTes… #HomeAssistant #Homelab #SelfHosted