We talk about the release of 0.46 and upcoming features in 0.47. The feature topic was Bluetooth Presence.
We talk about the release of 0.46 and upcoming features in 0.47. The feature topic was Bluetooth Presence.

Show notes

  • 0.46 Release
    • Bug fixes!
      • Breaking Changes
        • Automation state trigger
          • Now ignores attribute changes
          • After changing to at
            • Only for triggers, not conditions! Watch your find/replaces
          • Above and below will no longer trigger if it is equal.
    • Changes
      • Can now specify icons for presence devices
      • Netgear Arlo Cameras
      • Z-wave can now have a network key set in configuration.yaml
  • 0.47 Upcoming Features
    • New Platforms
      • Sesame Smart Lock
        • Will have support for the Kickstarter Lock before they ship their Wifi access point Hardware
        • Ability to lock and unlock from Home Assistant
        • Contributed by Albert Lee (trisk on GitHub)
      • Yahoo Weather
        • Support for the Yahoo Weather Platform is coming
        • Contributed by Fabian
    • New/Updated features
      • Ability to define templates for icons using icon_template
        • Will allow the icon to be based on a value, for example a closed door may now use a different icon, great for template sensors
        • By PhracturedBlue
      • Ability to set Nest away and home modes
        • By Matthew Schick
      • Radarr Sensor
        • Similar to Sonarr, but for movies
        • By Trevor
  • Smart Speakers
    • Apple HomePod launching in December
      • US, UK and Australia first to get it
      • Built in Siri with smart home product control
      • Aims to take on Sonos with AirPlay 2 – for multiroom audio
    • Alexa / Amazon Echo
      • New features
        • Reminders
        • Named Timers
      • Alexa falling behind with losing market dominance
        • Google Home already supports localized weather. “Hey Google what’s the weather?” Alexa requires the city name. Big Sky skill is not an answer to this!
        • Could go the way of Pebble Smart watch, Oculus if not careful
    • Google Home launches in Canada this month, Australia France, Germany and Japan to follow
      • This will see Google Home in more markets than Amazon
      • Canada preorders now open
      • Alexa now being threatened on two fronts, Google and Apple
  • Focus Topic
    • Bluetooth Presence
      • Phil
        • Single Bluetooth dongle covering 2 bedroom apartment okay. Larger house would need a spread of bluetooth beacons most likely.
        • Slight time delay detecting phones < 1 minute
        • Working with iPhone and Google Pixel
      • Dan
        • iBeacons and Happy Bubbles
        • Beacon receivers in 4 outer rooms of the house publish iBeacon ID and signal strength over MQTT
        • Presence server takes these and publishes which receiver each iBeacon is closest to
  • Podcast Episode Alerts
    • Carlos Costanzo has created a Home Assistant alert when a new Home Assistant Podcast Episode is created
      • https://github.com/CCOSTAN/Home-AssistantConfig/blob/master/packages/hasspodcast.yaml
   

Hosted By

Dan Faulknor

Dan is a serial podcaster, full time day job worker and a business owner. How he gets time for sleep is anyone's guess. He started podcasting in 2005 with "The Daniel and Gemma show" to go along with a blog he was doing with a friend. Unfortunately those archives have been lost. After a few more attempts over the years at podcasting, he has now been podcasting consistently since 2015. In what little free time he has, apart from spending time with his wife, he writes software, takes photos and plays the piano.

Phil Hawthorne

Phil is a Melbourne based web developer who lives and breathes technology. When he's not at his day job, he’s in his home office attempting to simplify his life through complicated tech.

Website Smart Home Products Buy a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi

Rohan from Toronto, Canada works in the Technology sector as an architect designing network and datacenter solutions for his customers. His passion for technology stems from there and extends to IoT and home automation

Website Smart Home Products Buy a Coffee

Spotlight

 

Special episodes focused on various aspects of Home Assistant and Home Automation.