Tag: home-automation

Photon vs ESPHome: ESP Firmware Compared

Particle Photon 2 vs ESPHome for ESP32 projects: cloud lock-in, OTA updates, Home Assistant integration, and which firmware wins for self-hosters long-term.

Zigbee Coordinator Showdown: Sonoff vs ConBee vs SkyConnect

Sonoff Zigbee Dongle Plus-E vs ConBee III vs SkyConnect — pick the right Zigbee USB coordinator for your Home Assistant home lab or apartment setup in 2026.

Owntracks + Home Assistant: Private Location Tracking

Stop feeding Google your daily commute. OwnTracks + MQTT broker + Home Assistant gives you real presence detection without the surveillance capitalism overhead.

BirdNET-Pi for Self-Hosted Bird Identification

Turn a Raspberry Pi and a cheap USB mic into a self-hosted bird ID station using BirdNET-Pi and Cornell ML audio models running entirely locally offline.

Scrypted vs Frigate for Self-Hosted Cameras

Scrypted bridges your IP cameras to HomeKit and Google Home. Frigate adds AI object detection on your own hardware. Here's how to pick — or run both at once.

ESPresense: Room-Level Bluetooth Presence in Home Assistant

Track which room you're in using cheap ESP32 nodes and BLE signal distance — real room-level presence for Home Assistant automations that don't annoy you daily.

Plex Meta Manager: Posters, Collections, Sanity

Stop staring at a Plex library that looks like a clearance bin. Kometa (formerly Plex Meta Manager) automates collections, posters, overlays, and bulk ratings.

Jellyseerr Tagging Workflows for Real Libraries

Stop guessing whose request is clogging your 4K library. Jellyseerr tags + Sonarr/Radarr + Maintainerr = real per-user quota control that actually holds up.

Whisparr & Mylar3: Specialty *arr Apps Explained

Sonarr handles TV. Radarr handles movies. But who handles comics and adult content? Meet Mylar3 and Whisparr — the *arr apps nobody talks about, until now.

LazyLibrarian + Readarr: Automating Your Book Library

LazyLibrarian vs Readarr for ebook and audiobook automation — honest comparison of features, maturity, and community support, with real Docker Compose configs.

Immich vs PhotoPrism vs Ente: Self-Hosted Photo Libraries

Google Photos went paid and the alternatives matured fast. Immich, PhotoPrism, and Ente: which self-hosted photo library actually fits your life in 2026?

HACS: When Custom Integrations Bite You

HACS custom integrations can brick your Home Assistant setup overnight. Here's how to use them safely, recover when they don't, and know when to skip them.