We just moved into a townhome and all the windows are set up with automated remote control blinds. Problem is, the previous tenants lost the remote. Our landlord ordered us a new one, but I’m 80% sure she ordered the wrong one because the blinds don’t look anything like the ones depicted in the instruction manual for the new remote. Please help us figure out what brand/model of automatic blinds these are!!! We want to see outside lol

I’m including a picture of the mechanism that operates the blinds, a picture of the blinds, and a picture of the remote since I would love to get confirmation that it’s the wrong one. Thanks!!

Hey all,
I’m pretty new to the pro side of smart home stuff and I’m trying to wrap my head around Lutron HomeWorks and RadioRA 3. I get that they’re the high-end systems for lights and shades, and sometimes tie into Control4 for the whole-house setup.

Couple things I’m curious about:

• How did you first learn to program these systems?
• Is there any way to practice or at least see the software without being an official dealer?
• Any “gotchas” you wish you knew when starting out?

I’ve got a software/automation background, so I pick up logic pretty quick, just trying to figure out where to start before I dive deeper.

Appreciate any pointers 🙏

Context. My family living room has a more modern basic setup where I have a WiiM Amp connected to the TV via HDMI. It means I can just use the TV remote which ensures the WiiM is on and uses the TV volume to control the WiiM. Perfect.

My main living room I have a more complex setup. Optical out to a WiiM Pro streamer, then toslink out to an external DAC, then RCA to a Marantz PM6004 stereo amp.

The WiiM Pro already does good things like auto source detection, so when the TV is on it switches itself to that input.

What would be idea to piggy back of CEC signals: - Use the trigger input of the Marantz to turn it on when the TV turns on. - Volume up/down from the TV remote. Assuming only possible with an IR blaster.

I guess the fallback plan is a universal remote. Any recommendations?

Is there any products available for Hvac dampers that are poe to automate and make hvac more efficient. Such as at night only have bedrooms dampers open instead of cooling the whole house.

Hello everyone. I live in apartment building with my family and we order a lot of stuff from various places. There was two times where our packages have gotten stolen while no one was at home.

Does anyone have any suggestions on cameras that I can put inside my apartment and see through the peephole? Also, I don’t think my building allows for the camera to be outside the apartment. Thanks!

I recently got into smart curtains and honestly wasn’t sure if they were just a gimmick. So I ran a little experiment: installed motorized curtains in the living room and set them to close at 10am and reopen around 5pm, while running the thermostat as usual. Here’s what I noticed: My summer electricity bill dropped by around 12–15% The room stayed cooler and the temperature was way more consistent Integration with HomeKit worked smoothly (I used a scene to automate it) I’m using a quiet model from Bringnox, and it’s noticeably quieter than the other brands I’ve tried before. Has anyone else tried this kind of energy-saving setup?

So I'm thinking it would be nice to turn on the lights in my living room automatically when someone walks into it.

Except that sometimes I want it to be dark in there, for instance when we're watching a movie. So I want the movement sensor to turn the lights on *unless* I've said that it should leave the room dark. (Preferably for the next x hours, so that it will work again later on).

At the moment I'm using Alexa, but I'm happy to try something else that supports more complex commands/scripts if that would be better.

Suggestions?

This may be slightly off topic - Posting here only because the led strip subs I found have been dead for a while. And, I plan to have these either Zigbee or WiFi/Shelly controlled with home assistant.

I’m a total newbie with LED strips. I’ve done a ton of research and watched a bunch of videos so I get the flavors and technology for the most part but what I can’t find is practical installation advice or even examples I can replicate.

For example if I’m illuminating three shelves on a wall that are free floating and separate- I’d like light only on each shelf with a wire between each shelf that is hidden (and not illuminated). What’s the best way to wire that? Where do I hide or place the controller and power source? What size / type wire should I use? Etc etc.

Does anyone know of a good source for that type of installation information ? Or even the right subreddit?

Thank you

AI-driven IoT automation via MCP unlocks new workflows but if not secured, it opens the door to tool poisoning, rogue commands, and device takeovers. In this article, I explore defense-in-depth for MCP-based IoT systems: TLS/mTLS for secure transport, OAuth/Cerbos for identity + access control, ETDI-signed tool definitions, and runtime defense with MCP Guardian. I also walk through a working secure MCP server example built with Python + mTLS. As IoT systems get more agentic, is security-by-default the only way forward for deployments in factories and smart homes?

Hey all, fairly new to home automation. We just bought a lakehouse that we plan to rent as a short term rental and use when it’s not booked.

With home automation products (leak detectors, cameras, motion sensors, door/window sensors, smart thermostats, etc) , it seems like there are loads of ways to “keep an eye” on the place when it’s not in use.

What is the best way to add “security”? I know that cameras inside would be a no no. But would the best option be motion sensors inside? Or door/window sensors? Both? Or perhaps another device altogether?

I want to have a way to tell if someone is in the Lakehouse when we aren’t there and when it isn’t booked. Basically get a notification so that I could then check the outdoor cameras that we would set up.

Hi. I want to have my pantry light turn on when the door is opened and off when closed. The pantry and door is finished and since it's on the first floor attic access is difficult, so I don't really want to run wire to the door. I have a regular 120 v light switch on the outside of the pantry and a 120 v light fixture in the ceiling of the pantry. In the house, I have Leviton smart switches and Hue lights for the TV in the living room. I have how server running home assistant and other apps.

I figured some of you guys might have some experience with this kind of stuff.

So I use these remote controlled power outlets made by Brennenstuhl, and they work great... for like 49/52 weeks of the year.

As the title says, every few months, the reception of these just suddenly drops dead for a week or so, to the point where remote control and power outlet almost have to touch to work. It seemingly happens completely at random, with no change in my behavior or the environment where the outlets are located. I do live in an apartment building, so other apartments are in range.

And just as suddenly and randomly as the problem appears, it goes away and everything is fine again. I tried all the obvious solutions, fresh batteries, different remote, different outlets, controlling the outlets over Wi-Fi with a gateway, different channels and so on.

Does anyone got any idea what could be causing this? Interference from some device used by the neighbors? The weather? Or... I don't know, solar flares or something?

I'm looking at buying a reolink doorbell (dual powered battery/electric) as I see they've introduced rich notifications ie an image preview of vid clip with the push notification on phone, 25 max a day. It's an important feature for me.

For anyone that has a reolink my questions are: Is the preview image on notification large? In particular, does the preview image capture the person's face, or is it just a random image of clip eg when the person first enters the field of view, so you might not be able to actually see who it is in the preview?! When you click on the preview image, does it bring you to the actual clip?

I'm a clueless homeowner trying to install Lutron Caseta Diva (dimmer) and Claro (on/off) without hurting myself or my house.

The left switch controls the fan light. The right one controls the fan motor. One red wire goes into the left switch (top). One black wire goes into the left switch (the bottom screw). A short black wire from the same screw connects to the right switch at the bottom. Then another black wire connects the right switch to the wall.

From the wall, there are 3 entry points (last picture). Top left (red, black, white), top middle (black, white, exposed), and bottom (2 blacks, 2 whites?)

What am I looking at? Is there a name for this setup?

I started reading the instructions (https://assets.lutron.com/a/documents/0302048.pdf) but got overwhelmed really quickly. Any help is appreciated.

Hey folks,

I’ve been tinkering with smart home setups and realized that in every room, I almost end up needing more or less of the same core devices:

• Room presence sensor (mmWave/motion)
• Temperature & humidity sensor
• Noise/sound sensor
• Air quality sensor (CO₂, VOCs, PM2.5)
• Smart speaker (voice assistant + audio)
• Dashboard (tablet / e-ink display)
• NFC tag
• Optional: Universal IR/RF blaster

Instead of scattering all these around, I was thinking of a single modular “smart room hub box” that:

• Houses all these devices in one enclosure
• Runs off a single power source (plug into wall) with a built-in power strip inside
• Modular by design → you can add/remove what you need per room
• Easy to replicate across rooms (just drop the box in, plug it in, done)

Basically a “room-in-a-box” IoT hub that simplifies setup, avoids cable clutter, and standardizes sensors across the home.

I’m not talking about inventing new hardware — more like housing existing off-the-shelf devices neatly into one powered box. Think of it as an organized modular docking station for smart home gadgets.

Questions for the community:

1. Does something like this already exist (commercially or DIY)?
2. Would this actually be practical, or just a nerdy cable-management project?
3. Any suggestions on what else should/shouldn’t go inside the hub?
4. What would be your biggest concerns (heat, interference, aesthetics, cost)?

Curious to hear your thoughts. Would you use something like this, or do you prefer spreading devices around the room?

So many companies have failed because they cant maintain the cost of software with the hardware sales. Should move to:

1. Not relying on server for anything other than updates and optional access
2. Offer updates as in-app purchases

Not everything needs to be a subscription, not everything should be free. Let’s get back to trading value for value. Software updates and features as opt in purchases

Thoughts?

I currently have a wired Ring Doorbell. Just recently I realised that notifications are not instant (the postman told me) and had up to 2 minutes delay from the actual ring to the notification.

Is there a way to connect an offline chime to it? Otherwise could you suggest a good alternative, possibly without subscription.

Hello, I'm looking to see if anyone has ideas on how I could automate these blinds. We recently bought a new house and I've been looking for ways to add automation to things as I've been jumping into Home Assistant. (Quite the rabbit hole 😅)

Looking at options online, I'm not finding anything that works for these blinds specifically. Everything is mostly either for horizontal blinds with tilt control OR rolling blinds/blinds with loop cord controls. Pretty sure it's safe to assume the cord lock mechanism is the main problem since that wouldn't work as is with a motor of any kind. I'm wondering if there is a cost-effective way that could replace the cord lock with a motorized option. I saw a similar post that was for horizontal blinds and the weight was the primary problem since it'd require too large a motor to lift those kinds of blinds. Plus tilt makes way more sense for those types of blinds. However, I'm wondering if there would be an option for these since they're much lighter compared to standard horizontal blinds (larger windows might still be a weight problem).

Initial thoughts are either a spooling mechanism (length of cord likely a problem) or some rotating drums that pull the cords through. This would end up being very DIY. I'm not against something DIY, I do have a 3D printer that has sat idle for too long, but I just want to be realistic

Ultimately, I'm wondering if there's a relatively simple way to replace the cord lock mechanism with a different mechanism that would be more easily automated. Replacing the blinds is very cost-prohibitive as we have 14 windows with these types of blinds that are all custom sizes. One important thing to note is that the head rail on these is a solid piece of wood with a couple of small cutouts for mounting/cord lock.

Windows range from the smallest being 23" wide to the largest being 132" wide. The shortest is 42" and the tallest is 71".

Brand: Levolor

Type: Woven Bamboo

Mechanism: Cord Lock

What are some must have home automation if you had a clean canvas during home construction to work with. I plan on running cat6 everywhere just wondering what you all would plan or invest in for home automation.