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Home Assistant Podcast

Mostly Automated Media

Join hosts Phil Hawthorne and Rohan Karamandi as they explore the newest Home Assistant releases and the latest Home Automation news. Featuring guests who use or contribute to Home Assistant, the podcast aims to inspire new ways to make your home smarter.

  1. Home Assistant 2026.6,  E‑Ink Unboxing, Yoto, and Smarter Automations

    9h ago

    Home Assistant 2026.6, E‑Ink Unboxing, Yoto, and Smarter Automations

    Rohan and Phil are breaking down the 2026.6 release, which features updates for Infrared, Purpose specific triggers and conditions. Plus we talk KVM’s, eInk displays and starting from scratch in 2026. Watch this episode on YouTube Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA236 Support the Podcast Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon. https://homeassistant.fm/patreon Share your story We 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. Chapters 00:00:00 - Intro 00:04:30 - New Works With HA gear 00:06:30 - Open Display collab, e‑ink 00:12:00 - E‑ink uses and costs 00:16:30 - OHF privacy paper 00:18:30 - RF and plugs 00:26:00 - JetKVM and PiKVM talk 00:29:30 - 2026.6: IR receivers 00:34:30 - Dashboards and Matter BLE 00:36:32 - Cards and automations 00:42:30 - Z‑Wave, Sonos, Reolink, Tuya 00:47:30 - New integrations roundup 00:54:30 - Breaking changes 00:56:30 - Fresh HA vs restore 01:00:00 - UniFi hiccup resilience 01:02:00 - Wrap‑up and callouts This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa Easily 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. Zooz If 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 https://thesmartesthouse.com Apollo Automation Apollo Automation are the makers of open source smart home sensors built for the Home Assistant ecosystem. They're an official Open Home Foundation commercial partner and their devices are built with local control, privacy, and reliability in mind, giving you full control and flexibility right out of the box. Products Discussed JetKVM IP KVM: https://amzn.to/4wU1bEO Yale Z‑Wave smart locks: https://amzn.to/4visNSl MyPropane tank monitor: https://amzn.to/3QjJZbn Yoto audio player: https://amzn.to/4xlZhNJ Products we Recommend Hosts Phil Hawthorne Website Twitter: @philhawthorne Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com Buy Phil a Coffee Rohan Karamandi Website Twitter: @rohank9 Buy Rohan a Coffee This episode contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    1h 2m
  2. MiciMike will turn your Google Home Mini into a Home Assistant Voice Satellite

    May 26

    MiciMike will turn your Google Home Mini into a Home Assistant Voice Satellite

    Imre is a Home Assistant user, who was frustrated with his Google Home mini, so he created a PCB that can turn your Google Home Mini into a Home Assistant Voice Satellite Watch this episode on YouTube Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA235 Support the Podcast Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon. https://homeassistant.fm/patreon Share your story We 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. Chapters 00:00:00 - Welcome & sponsors 00:02:30 - Imi’s smart home origin 00:05:00 - Lights first, then sensors 00:07:30 - Heating logic in Node-RED 00:10:00 - Room presence tactics 00:12:30 - Millimeter wave realities 00:15:00 - Cameras, alarms, UniFi 00:17:30 - Notifications via Telegram 00:20:00 - AI greetings at the door 00:22:30 - Protocols: Zigbee to Matter 00:25:00 - Wi‑Fi at scale pitfalls 00:28:30 - Voice stack & languages 00:31:30 - MickiMic: project intro 00:35:00 - Drop‑in PCB details 00:38:00 - HA Voice compatibility 00:41:00 - Gen2 plans & audio 00:44:00 - Echo future & limits 00:47:00 - Firmware hurdles 00:49:30 - Crowdsupply journey 00:53:00 - Pricing & sustainability 00:56:00 - What’s next & thanks This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa Easily 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. Zooz If 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 https://thesmartesthouse.com Apollo Automation Apollo Automation are the makers of open source smart home sensors built for the Home Assistant ecosystem. They're an official Open Home Foundation commercial partner and their devices are built with local control, privacy, and reliability in mind, giving you full control and flexibility right out of the box. Products Discussed MiciMic PCB (Google Home Mini drop-in board): https://www.crowdsupply.com/micimike-rev-devices/micimike-home-mini-drop-in-pcb#products Google Home Mini (Gen 1): https://amzn.to/3RtvxxG Products we Recommend Hosts Phil Hawthorne Website Twitter: @philhawthorne Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com Buy Phil a Coffee Rohan Karamandi Website Twitter: @rohank9 Buy Rohan a Coffee This episode contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    59 min
  3. Giovanni’s Self-Hosted Home

    May 19

    Giovanni’s Self-Hosted Home

    Giovanni joins Rohan and Phil to dive into a fully local, privacy-first smart home. We cover Home Assistant on an Intel N100, Shelly devices, Zigbee vs Wi‑Fi, ESP32 Bluetooth proxies, Frigate with a Coral TPU, Reolink cams, and smart lighting with pets. Watch this episode on YouTube Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA234 Support the Podcast Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon. https://homeassistant.fm/patreon Share your story We 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. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:05:00 Local-only gear and protocols 00:12:00 Lighting, presence, and pets 00:18:00 Cameras, Frigate and automations 00:27:20 Media servers 00:33:00 Plex vs Jellyfin 00:41:00 Nextcloud and Immich photos 00:47:00 Backups and offsite strategy 00:53:00 Security, reverse proxy, wrap-up This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa Easily 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. Zooz If 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 https://thesmartesthouse.com Apollo Automation Apollo Automation are the makers of open source smart home sensors built for the Home Assistant ecosystem. They're an official Open Home Foundation commercial partner and their devices are built with local control, privacy, and reliability in mind, giving you full control and flexibility right out of the box. Clean My Mac Get Tidy Today! Get 7 days free and use our code ASSISTANT for 20% off Products Discussed Intel N100 mini PC: https://amzn.to/3OP00FI NVIDIA Shield TV: https://amzn.to/4w9E2Ok Google Coral USB TPU accelerator: https://amzn.to/4cNVot1 Products we Recommend Hosts Phil Hawthorne Website Twitter: @philhawthorne Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com Buy Phil a Coffee Rohan Karamandi Website Twitter: @rohank9 Buy Rohan a Coffee This episode contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    58 min
  4. Mark's Home Assistant Setup: The Good, The Bad, The Exploded Server

    May 12

    Mark's Home Assistant Setup: The Good, The Bad, The Exploded Server

    Mark went from a rocky SmartThings world to a rock-solid Home Assistant install. He shares his tails of disaster and recovery, as well as his journey from Tasmota to ESPHome. Watch this episode on YouTube Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA233 Support the Podcast Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon. https://homeassistant.fm/patreon Share your story We 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. Chapters 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:00 - SmartThings beginnings and first automations 00:06:00 - Old timers to cameras after a theft 00:09:30 - Discovering Home Assistant and server build 00:16:00 - From Node-RED to cleaner HA automations 00:19:50 - Reolink AI triggers outside lighting 00:23:30 - Server failure and Proxmox migration 00:28:30 - UPS woes and garage door backup issue 00:38:00 - Presence, Ecobee, salt and propane projects 00:44:00 - Matter locks, long-range Z-Wave ideas 00:49:00 - New Overview, Alarmo plans, wrap-up This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa Easily 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. Zooz If 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 https://thesmartesthouse.com Apollo Automation Apollo Automation are the makers of open source smart home sensors built for the Home Assistant ecosystem. They're an official Open Home Foundation commercial partner and their devices are built with local control, privacy, and reliability in mind, giving you full control and flexibility right out of the box. Products Discussed Aladdin garage door openers (with battery backup): https://amzn.to/4mxGfPl Products we Recommend Hosts Phil Hawthorne Website Twitter: @philhawthorne Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com Buy Phil a Coffee Rohan Karamandi Website Twitter: @rohank9 Buy Rohan a Coffee This video contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    53 min
  5. Home Assistant 2026.5 introduces RF and RS-232 Control

    May 6

    Home Assistant 2026.5 introduces RF and RS-232 Control

    We’re diving into Home Assistant 2026.5 and re-capping the highlights from State of the Open Home 2026. There’s new RS-232 serial control, dashboard strategies, and more purpose-specific triggers. Watch this episode on YouTube Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA232 Support the Podcast Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon. https://homeassistant.fm/patreon Share your story We 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. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:10:30 Roadmap deep-dive and HTTP 80 00:15:30 Easter eggs, Project BLAST, merch 00:19:30 IR databases and Z-Wave spectrum 00:23:00 2026.5: RS-232 and RF proxies 00:28:30 RF rolling codes and SDR hopes 00:31:30 Dashboards: strategies and shortcuts 00:36:00 Vacuums chat and power strip ad 00:41:00 Purpose-specific triggers (Labs) 00:44:00 MQTT, Matter, ESPHome updates 00:46:30 Shelly, Sonos, groups, and S1/S2 00:50:30 Apple TV typing, WLED, notifications 00:54:00 Immich photos, Subaru, and UniFi 00:57:00 New integrations roundup 01:00:00 Breaking changes: Ring, webhooks 01:01:30 Template docs overhaul 01:02:30 Network outage story and resilience 01:05:30 Wrap-up and sign-off This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa Easily 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. Zooz If 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 https://thesmartesthouse.com Apollo Automation Apollo Automation are the makers of open source smart home sensors built for the Home Assistant ecosystem. They're an official Open Home Foundation commercial partner and their devices are built with local control, privacy, and reliability in mind, giving you full control and flexibility right out of the box. Products Discussed Broadlink RM4 Pro (433 MHz IR/RF blaster): https://amzn.to/4tesZk8 UniFi Protect PoE Smart Siren: https://amzn.to/4w4ZWCh Products we Recommend Hosts Phil Hawthorne Website Twitter: @philhawthorne Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com Buy Phil a Coffee Rohan Karamandi Website Twitter: @rohank9 Buy Rohan a Coffee This episode contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    1h 6m
4.8
out of 5
74 Ratings

About

Join hosts Phil Hawthorne and Rohan Karamandi as they explore the newest Home Assistant releases and the latest Home Automation news. Featuring guests who use or contribute to Home Assistant, the podcast aims to inspire new ways to make your home smarter.

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