It’s finally happening. After months of late-night PCB tweaks, fried components, firmware experiments, and more than one “why is it doing that?” moment, my Smart Garage Controller is nearly ready for the world. This isn’t just another Wi-Fi relay in a plastic box. Those exists already – and most of them are unreliable, cloud-dependent,…

Introduction In the world of home automation, Home Assistant stands out as a powerful, open-source platform that unifies devices from countless manufacturers into one cohesive smart home ecosystem. At the heart of many advanced integrations lies MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) — a lightweight publish/subscribe messaging protocol designed specifically for IoT (Internet of Things)…

When most people think of smart home automation, they picture lights, thermostats, or security cameras. But Home Assistant goes way beyond that. With a little creativity, you can transform almost any device in your home into a DIY smart device. In this post, I’ll share some unconventional but practical Home Assistant automations that make…