Creating the ultimate environmental board gaming experience with Anthony
May 19, 2021
auto_awesome
Anthony, an expert in using Home Assistant to create immersive board gaming experiences, talks with Rohan and Phil about enhancing board game experience with home automation. They discuss automating setup, playing background sounds, and tracking game plays using NFC tags, Arduino, Java programming, Spotify playlists, Google sheets, timers, and immersive lighting. They also share stories of automation mishaps and discuss device control for security and management.
Anthony plans to integrate his gaming activities with his office setup, automating actions based on his Steam status.
Anthony aims to improve automation in his girls' room using a door sensor and day/night events differentiation.
Anthony wants to replace his unreliable garage door opener and integrate Telegram as a messaging platform for his home assistant.
Deep dives
Future Plans: Automation with Steam Sensor
One of the future plans for Anthony is to set up lighting and computer automations based on his Steam account. He wants to integrate his gaming activities with his office setup, such as automatically opening Discord or performing other actions based on his Steam status. He envisions a seamless integration between his gaming and work environment. He also plans to improve automation in his girls' room, using a door sensor and differentiating between day and night events. This will allow for more customized and efficient control of the room's devices and notifications. Anthony also plans to replace his unreliable garage door opener with a more robust DIY solution. Additionally, he aims to integrate Telegram as a messaging platform for his home assistant, allowing for more versatile and accessible communication and control of his smart home devices. He wants to use Telegram as a notification hub, enabling him to converse with home assistant and issue commands from different devices, such as desktops or smartwatches.
Multiple Brands in Smart Home
Anthony's smart home setup includes devices from multiple brands, such as Lutron, TP-Link, Belkin, Z-Wave, IKEA Tradfri, Nano Leaf, and more. While this variety gives him the opportunity to try different devices and assess their performance, he acknowledges the challenge of having a mix of switches and controls that look different throughout his house. He plans to standardize his smart home setup in the future, but for now, he continues to explore and experiment with various smart devices.
Challenges and Tweaks
Anthony shares some of the challenges he has encountered and the ongoing tweaks he makes to his smart home setup. For example, he encountered issues with virtual machines and hardware compatibility, leading him to settle on using a Raspberry Pi 4 as the stable platform for his Home Assistant installation. He also mentions the importance of troubleshooting and refining automations, such as garbage day reminders based on the first time the kitchen light turns on. He strives to improve guest mode automation to avoid inconveniences when guests are present or when leaving the house without enabling the necessary settings. Additionally, he discusses his current usage of the Home Assistant iOS app for critical notifications and his future plans to shift towards Telegram for more flexible messaging and control.
Automating Board Gaming Experience
The podcast episode discusses how the speaker created a unique automation for their board game room using an NFC reader coded in Arduino. By placing NFC tags in each board game, the reader triggers an automation that sets up the appropriate lighting, music, and ambiance for the game being played. The speaker also explains how they integrated Alexa media to announce the game's name and provide random phrases related to the game. Additionally, the automation snapshots the room's settings before the game, allowing for easy restoration afterward.
Using Telegram and Localization for Home Automation
The episode explores the speaker's use of Telegram as a messaging platform for home automation. They highlight the advantage of being able to ask Home Assistant for information or control devices via Telegram, avoiding the need to open the app or dashboard. The speaker also mentions how they utilize localization in platforms like Google Home and Alexa to control specific devices in different rooms. This approach prevents unintended actions and provides a more contextual and immersive experience for voice commands.
This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsor 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.
Special thanks to todays guest
Anthony Jestin
Twitter: @@anthonyjestin