HHI - The Hiding Hardware Initiative

Hi all,

Home automation is fun, but to give our homes that luxurious feeling, the automation should be seamless and work unnoticed. Like magic!
A big part of that, for me, is to hide hardware as much as possible. Motion sensors on the ceiling, instead of on a shelf in people’s eyeline. NFC chips inside wall switches or stuck underneath surfaces, cable management, etc…
All in order to create visual peace in the home and to raise the dreaded Spouse Acceptance Factor.

I call this the Hiding Hardware initiative. Of HHI for short.

I’ll be posting guides on how I hid hardware in my home in this topic.
Some of it will be basic, others maybe a little more comprehensive.
The goal is to create an inspirational repository for others so they can easily find tips to apply in their own spaces.

GUIDES:
Painting contact sensors
Hidden install of a contact sensor by @smowk
Hidden Robot Vacuum Automatic Door System by @smowk

CALL TO ACTION:
Do you have a project that fits the Hiding Hardware Initiative? Please create a post that shows your project and link it here as well.

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Teaser: I’ll be posting a guide to painting contact sensors this weekend.

Regarding the growing importance for controlling the impact of an increasing size of the smart home for the SAF, this couldnt be of more importance and so i am totally into your topic and am bookmarking it! Awesome!

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The first guide is up!
I’ve created a guide on painting contact sensors featuring a disassembly of the Aqara E1 contact sensor.

@nickrout pointed me a project by @smowk .
He did a completely hidden install of an Aqara door/window sensor.

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works for Wifi and for other devices that don’t need/shouldn’t have LOS

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This can make my wife very happier!!!

this is great!

Yep. I use one i made myself - a small version of something like this (https://www.houzz.com/products/rattan-rectangular-storage-basket-12x8-prvw-vr~145912884 ) that i hide everything in, and it’s easy to punch a hole or two to squeeze some cables through. But i was looking for other solutions and this popped up. I don’t know quality - didn’t buy it. But i may if that’s what she chooses.