It’s hard to believe where I was a year ago with home automation, and where I am today. What a ride!
Last April I was struggling with my SmartThings setup and wishing I could do more with it. But didn’t feel that there was much I could do about it. Doing more with home automation wasn’t really on my radar. I thought “it is what it is” and didn’t give it much more thought. Until…
I saw Smart Home Solver’s Youtube video which peaked my interest. I watched it and thought, “Huh. How good could an open source project be? I don’t have time to add to my already slow and sometimes faltering system”, but something got me to order the GoControl USB controller anyway. I used it with a RPi 3 and loaded HAOS. And wow, I was delighted to be wrong about questioning the stability and usefulness of it.
Instantly I was shocked. I thought “Wait, I can talk to my printers? My TV? What? Make my Echos say whatever I want? Mind blown!!” It’s like I discovered a whole new continent (which I had) and from then on it’s been cramming gallons and gallons of knowledge into my brain. I’ve learned so much.
I’ve learned YAML scripting, JINJA templating, I’ve moved to a more logical ‘packages’ style of programming for my automations/integrations/devices/entities, plus I’ve integrated ESPHome devices (with their crazy lambdas), etc. Heck I have so many little electronic parts around the house and my office now it looks like I’ve been doing this for years. It’s crazy. If ESPHome says they can make it work then I’m pretty good with a soldering iron, so I’ll order it and try it out.
I guess, I’m just shocked at the amount I’ve learned, the amount that was there that I had no idea about, and the time I’ve invested this past year into my home automation. I was in need of a distraction at that time anyway, so it was a welcome thing to take on.
I can’t thank enough all of the people who have over the years with Home Assistant stayed up late, stolen time away from family, sweated & toiled long hours, cried, “wondered if they were wasting their time or not”, or just “plugging holes as fast as they can so others didn’t sink”. It all speaks volumes of the kind of community that loves the HA platform.
I can honestly say that I understand what Newton meant when he said: If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. Thank you all.