Jason’s Home Assistant Smart Home That Watches Birds and Tracks Visitors

Phil and Rohan tour Patreon supporter Jason’s Home Assistant setup. Discover how he uses UniFi cameras as motion sensors, automatically aims a PTZ camera, and identifies backyard birds with BirdNet.

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Chapters

00:00:00 Welcome

00:02:52 From X10 to whistle-controlled TVs

00:06:44 Jason’s tech background and home lab

00:11:49 Home Assistant on Proxmox

00:14:34 Lutron, HomeKit, and reliable lighting

00:17:46 The IKEA switches that press themselves

00:20:00 WLED and the Raspberry Pi rack

00:23:45 Monitoring without alert overload

00:26:30 AI agents audit the home lab

00:29:35 Prioritizing alerts and critical devices

00:32:01 Battery reminders and daily briefings

00:34:00 Smart-home protocols

00:36:12 IKEA Matter devices and Aqara sensors

00:38:42 Water leaks, Apple TV, and climate

00:41:11 Meross thermostats and temperature mapping

00:44:47 Meal planning meets home automation

00:47:50 Shopping lists and UniFi cameras

00:50:00 Cameras that aim other cameras

00:53:17 Indoor camera rules and outdoor projects

00:56:51 BirdNet identifies backyard birds

00:59:00 Bird displays and favorite automations

01:01:40 Doorbell messages and TV automations

01:04:00 Jellyfin, Nest Hub, and closing thoughts

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Zooz

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Want Phil to help with your smart home?

You’ve heard him troubleshoot Home Assistant on the podcast. Now you can book him to troubleshoot yours. From broken automations and confusing YAML to dashboards, devices, and complete smart home setups: https://smarthomecto.com

Products Discussed

Lutron Caseta light switches: https://amzn.to/48rNmSN

Apollo Automation ESPHome Starter Kit: https://esphome.io/starter-kit/

Products we Recommend

Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

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Twitter: @philhawthorne

Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com

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Rohan Karamandi

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Twitter: @rohank9

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