Who is that guy running this page?
Let’s be honest I have no idea how to describe myself
I would start by defining myself as a tinkerer. I like to understand how things work and enjoy the success of building “stuff” of any kind. On this site, I will mainly write about Home Automation and the Internet of Things. As I go, I will document as much as possible, in order to entertain and educate people along the way. If you want to know what I use and why, continue reading.
I’ve been doing my current job for at least 15 years in various companies. When I’m not building (aka breaking) stuff, I’m a loving father and a dear husband. Apart from tinkering, I also like to overthink and won’t give up until I find a way to get it working. My wife would consider me as stubborn but also observant and too honest.
You are way to honest, and tend to hure people. On the other hand they do know your opinion
My loving wife
My journey with smart homes started in 2015 when I bought a house to build. While planning, I knew one thing for sure, I wanted a smart home and the setup should be affordable. Since I’m handy and know how to use tools, I figured I could do the most of the installation myself. Finding an electrician who was willing to “work” with me was the most difficult part. We then started planning together and he would guide me when needs may be.
The backbone of my electrical system runs on KNX, and I would recommend for everyone, if renovating or building a new home with a smart home perspective, to use a wired system over a wireless system for first and foremost stability reasons but also to avoid additional emitting sources. The only downside is that the whole project did cost 50% more than a conventional system. I would also recommend to get the initial installation done by your electrician or at least to get him involved, in order to have a contact partner, in case there would be any issue. There are also other wired systems; however, KNX has matured in the industry business, started in luxury private homes and is now finding its way into conventional homes. Like I said before, inform yourself and find what suits you best.
While looking for a “Brain” for my smart home I was lost. I wanted touch-panels all over the house, nice views etc until I found out that those things are expensive in the KNX world. I started looking for a DIY alternative, when a colleague told me about OpenHab since he was using it at home. Unfortunately, I quickly noticed that their UI wasn’t intuitive and it didn’t feel “right”. In July 2016 I stumbled across Home Assistant. I was stoked. The UI was intuitive and the system was intended to work for non-tech-savvy people. Since then I have been working and improving or breaking my setup all the time. The latter isn’t so good on the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) though.
Wife Acceptance Factor :
urbandictionary.com
A term used by guys to describe how likely their brilliant home improvement projects, social plans or geek toys will be accepted by their wives.
Home Assistant isn’t just a software or a tool. It’s also about the community that drives it and new friendships that are made along the way. I’ve had some interesting discussions with a lot of people from the community, and even have become, what I would consider, friends with two of them (Mauricio Bonani aka mbonani & Franck Nijhof aka frenck).
I will try to update this site as often as possible with new posts so stay tuned and follow me on my adventure with Home Assistant/ESPHome and a lot of add-ons.
Andrea aka adonno
I run mostly on coffee so, if you enjoy my work, and if you would like to support me you can buy me a coffee
