Optimize your YAML automations using basic templating

Optimize your YAML automations using basic templating

If you're like me you probably started your Home Assistant automation journey by emulating or straight up copying some of the readily available example code in the Home Assistant documentation. You probably started off automating a lightbulb or switch using a simple trigger, maybe even a condition and finally an action containing some service call like light.turn_on or switch.turn_on. This is one of the most straightforward type of automations and therefore the perfect way to get started. I wan…

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Home Automation on a budget

Home Automation on a budget

In this article I will describe how to get the most bang for of your buck. I won't lie and tell you home automation is a cheap hobby. I spent quite a bunch of money before finally getting it right. The hardware The trick to saving money is to learn from my mistakes and buy the right hardware right off the bet. Most of the consumer level products in this space try to lock you into their ecosystem by using 'bridges' and 'hubs' that either only talk to their brand of products or a select group o…

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Strip metadata and resize using ImageMagick

Strip metadata and resize using ImageMagick

Ever had to put up some ad on Craigslist or Ebay only to be told your photo filesize is too large? Life is too short to manually resize and compress multiple files to the appropriate specs. Also you might want to remove your metadata as well before uploading. ImageMagick has you covered!

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