Chris Hansen

Writing about smart home automation, Home Assistant, and dev tools | Tech Lead by day | MSSQL, C#, JS | Tinkering with Raspberry Pi + DIY setups

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

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: https://t.co/wnoSwxwYty

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

Lifeguard on duty. Payment accepted in treats. Reagan is enjoying his summer so far.

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

I think “smart” appliances only make sense when the smart part is built on open standards like Zigbee or Matter. A relay, sensor, or energy monitor will probably still be useful 10 years from now.

What doesn’t make sense to me is when a fridge turns into a giant Android tablet with proprietary apps and cloud services that stop getting updates after a few years. Then you’re left with a normal appliance attached to outdated software and a broken UI.

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

@ChristianLempa I use Adguard Home these days. I haven’t heard of Technitium, but will check it out.

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

Full write up of how I use them with Home Assistant https://t.co/4G5Ms8Gu5q

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

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.

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

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.

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

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.

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

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. 😂

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

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

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

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.

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

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.

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

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

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

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.

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

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

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

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.

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

@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.

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

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?

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

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.

https://t.co/8Z7pJpg8FH

#homeassistant #aqara

[Chris Hansen @ChrisHansenTech]

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.