Hi!
Apologies if this is the wrong forum, but I am so lost and need help. It’s my husband’s 45th this year and I’d love to get him something to do with home automation. His interests are home automation and IOT (from whatever little I understand), and already has a Raspberry pi.
Thank you!
Hi,
if you are ever in need of a new husband… let me know 
On a more serious note… if your husband already has a Raspberry PI he should be all set to start with Home Assistant. A few sensors would make a good gift for his birthday. Perhaps a motion sensor, or a Philips Hue Bridge with lights or perhaps even both.
Haha, ill keep that in mind! 
He has all of this already. Our house is all set up with motion lights, hallway lights, temp control etc. Argh this is so tough for me.
It’s a challenge. If your bathroom does not (yet) have automated ventilation based on humidity, that could be a way to go. You’d need a humidity and a ventilator that can be controlled by HA. But to be honest, I could not give you a suggestion on the one to buy.
It depends a bit on the “controller hardware” he uses and that might be the biggest challenge. Maybe there is some WiFi based equipment (sensors, ventilators, etc) on the market, but I am not very much into that. Perhaps some other people around here that can give a push in the right direction.
Very thoughtful of you. Here are four ideas.
Something like a Sonoff RF Bridge is really inexpensive, but is allot of fun to play around with. They are less than 20 and highly modifiable. Pick up a couple 4 button RF remotes as well they are like 2 or 3 dollars each. Both should be available on Amazon or Ali. These make great bedside remotes, and more reliable than Zigbee. With this RF Bridge I can automate things that have an RF remote control but are solar powered but there is so much more.
If not so much a tinkerer, a Broadlink Pro hub is similar to the RF Bridge but also does IR remote control.
Here I will assume you are in N. America. If your lights are Z-Wave, a Zooz Zen32 scene controller. The packaging on these things is A+ and would be an eye popping surprise.
A QuinLED Dig-uno WLED controller and a string of RGB LEDs to get started.
Enjoy.
How about the merchandise store ?
Oh this is great, I’m in Europe but will look into this. Thank you so much.
Oh how cool, and super doable. Thank you!