Stephen Collins<p>We're still definitely at the gaffer tape, bendy mirrors, and magic smoke stage of making <a href="https://aus.social/tags/smarthome" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>smarthome</span></a> tech behave in any sane way for people who aren't terminally tech-oriented</p><p>About half of everything works just fine, and the other half requires wiring a heap of potentially unreliable open-source projects together behind the scenes.</p><p>Add on to that an attempt at de- <a href="https://aus.social/tags/shittification" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>shittification</span></a> by removing various Google owned devices and services and it's extra fun.</p><p>Right now, our smart home stack consists of Home Assistant, <a href="https://aus.social/tags/HomeKit" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HomeKit</span></a> (Apple) with <a href="https://aus.social/tags/HomeBridge" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HomeBridge</span></a> supplying some services, legacy Google/Nest things and devices from a couple of key vendors and a handful-and-a-half of others with one or two devices. .</p><p>I'm happy to faff about with this stuff in my spare time to make things work, but making something useful and usable for a person with multiple disabilities who relies on a voice assistant and a partner who doesn't have the bandwidth to play around in <a href="https://aus.social/tags/HomeAssistant" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HomeAssistant</span></a> isn't straightforward by any means.</p>