Garage Doors, E‑Ink Dashboards, and Entity Chaos with the Evil Genius Dave Slusher
Podcaster Dave Slusher joins Phil and Rohan to share hard-won smart home lessons: building a reliable mesh, solving a 100m mailbox sensor with Z-Wave Long Range and the ZWA2, and retiring MyQ with RATGDO + ESPHome. We also cover using an e‑ink terminal as a Home Assistant dashboard.Watch this episode on YouTubehttps://hasspodcast.io/ha208Support the PodcastGet early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.Support Rohan and Phil on PatreonShare your storyWe wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.Chapters00:00:00 Welcome00:01:23 Guest intro: Dave Slusher’s podcasting origin story00:04:59 Discovering Home Assistant 00:07:20 Hardware journey: Raspberry Pi 3/4, SD crashes, backups, staying on Pi00:09:40 ZWA2 portable capability00:11:10 Zigbee mesh realities00:13:56 The mailbox quest00:19:16 Power monitoring the lawnmower + adding Z‑Wave plug to the mesh00:20:31 Beating peak electricity pricing with calendar‑driven automations00:24:50 Buying for Home Assistant00:31:26 Audi e‑tron HACS00:33:00 ‘Terminal’ e‑ink display00:41:11 Fun APIs: Domino’s throwback and accidental developer‑friendly brands00:44:25 Update strategy + restoring from backups when an upgrade breaks boot00:46:26 Entity naming conventions, device vs entity IDs, and maintainability00:49:18 The router kill‑switch: renaming a plug and unintended automations00:52:19 Ping watchdog automation for internet recovery (8.8.8.8)00:54:58 Labels, documentation, and making a smart home family‑friendly01:00:00 Selling a smart home: what stays, what goes, and account handoffs01:02:16 First device nostalgia: Sonoff relay, app sprawl, and converging on HA01:07:52 Next projects: buying with purpose, reliability over novelty01:10:00 Mac mini (Linux Mint) homelab, Synology vs Docker, consolidating services01:12:18 Package tracking with 17Track, long strings, and dashboard renderingThis episode was made possible thanks to our sponsorsHome Assistant Cloud by Nabu CasaEasily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.ZoozIf you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers.For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to thesmartesthouse.comNotionNotion brings all your notes, docs, and projects into one connected space that just works — it’s seamless, flexible, powerful, and actually fun to use. With AI built right in, you spend less time switching between tools and more time creating great work.Try Notion, now with Notion Agent, at notion.com/homeassistantHostsPhil HawthorneWebsiteSmart Home ProductsTwitter: @philhawthorneBluesky: @philhawthorne.comBuy Phil a CoffeeRohan KaramandiWebsiteSmart Home ProductsTwitter: @rohank9Buy Rohan a CoffeeAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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