From Alexa to Assist: NetworkChuck’s Smart Home with Frigate, UniFi, and AI
Home Assistant Podcast
Removing Alexa and voice transitions
Chuck describes migrating off Alexa, challenges replacing multiple devices, and treating Home Assistant as an ongoing project.
YouTuber NetworkChuck joins Phil and Rohan to break down his real-world Home Assistant setup: migrating off Alexa, building a Home Assistant voice assistant (with a Terry Crews voice clone!), wiring Frigate to Reolink cameras, and using UniFi + AI to debug Wi‑Fi chaos. We also compare Node‑RED vs n8n, talk Plex vs Jellyfin and NAS headaches, inventory with Grocy, mmWave presence, ESP32 room presence, and how local AI stacks up against GPT/Claude for home automations.
Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA214
Support the Podcast
Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.
https://homeassistant.fm/patreon
Share your story
We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.
Chapters
00:00:00 - Welcome
00:02:30 - Network Chuck’s background
00:06:30 - Discovering Home Assistant
00:10:30 - Toilet paper saga automation
00:14:30 - From Alexa to Home Assistant Voice
00:20:30 - Frigate cameras and Reolink lessons
00:27:30 - Face and plate recognition ideas
00:32:00 - Local AI models vs cloud
00:39:00 - Family adoption and analog rebounds
00:43:30 - Presence, phones, mmWave, ESP32
00:48:30 - Halloween thunderstorm and Plex fun
00:52:30 - Node-RED vs n8n in automations
00:58:00 - Plex vs Jellyfin and NAS woes
01:05:30 - Grocy, inventory, and shopping hacks
01:12:00 - Air quality, energy, and next steps
01:18:00 - Enterprise talk and wrap-up
This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors
Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa
Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.
If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers.
For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to https://thesmartesthouse.com
Products Discussed
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs (dual GPU local AI rig): https://amzn.to/4a5Lf9w
Smart locks: Nuki Smart Lock: https://amzn.to/47VH6nj
Smart locks: Level Lock: https://amzn.to/3XtPdBz
Smart locks: August Smart Lock: https://amzn.to/4id1ovK
Hosts
Phil Hawthorne
Twitter: @philhawthorne
Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com
Rohan Karamandi
Twitter: @rohank9
This episode contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
The AI-powered Podcast Player
