Casey Liss

However, I looked behind and found that they were actually Cat6 phones. which is, you know, Ethernet cabling, but only using one or two twisted pairs, which is to say only a subset of the wires within it. They all routed outside the home, just like the coax. I tried pulling the cables from the outside wall, but they were likely stapled down.

However, I looked behind and found that they were actually Cat6 phones. which is, you know, Ethernet cabling, but only using one or two twisted pairs, which is to say only a subset of the wires within it. They all routed outside the home, just like the coax. I tried pulling the cables from the outside wall, but they were likely stapled down.

So I cut them and rerouted them to what is now my server closet. Life lesson. If you have phone jacks, see if you have an Ethernet cable behind it.

So I cut them and rerouted them to what is now my server closet. Life lesson. If you have phone jacks, see if you have an Ethernet cable behind it.

And confirmed. All right. And I have some updates with regard to my grand notification project. First of all, I got a ton of feedback. This is one of those things where I thought I was very clear about this and either I wasn't or maybe people just didn't hear. But one way or another, it doesn't really matter. I already have the connection, if you will, between the garage door and Home Assistant.

And confirmed. All right. And I have some updates with regard to my grand notification project. First of all, I got a ton of feedback. This is one of those things where I thought I was very clear about this and either I wasn't or maybe people just didn't hear. But one way or another, it doesn't really matter. I already have the connection, if you will, between the garage door and Home Assistant.

That's sorted. That was sorted last week. It's been sorted since I went to Home Assistant. I was going to say bespoke. I don't know if that's really fair. But there is an integration with the particular weirdo flavor of garage door that I have that I've been using since I went to Home Assistant a few months ago.

That's sorted. That was sorted last week. It's been sorted since I went to Home Assistant. I was going to say bespoke. I don't know if that's really fair. But there is an integration with the particular weirdo flavor of garage door that I have that I've been using since I went to Home Assistant a few months ago.

And one of the funny things about if you look at an integration on the Home Assistant website, you can see how many people have it installed. And the integration I'm talking about is the NiceGO integration. It was introduced in Home Assistant 2024.9, and it is used by, gentlemen, 36 active installations, of which I am one of them. So. So not terribly popular, but it works.

And one of the funny things about if you look at an integration on the Home Assistant website, you can see how many people have it installed. And the integration I'm talking about is the NiceGO integration. It was introduced in Home Assistant 2024.9, and it is used by, gentlemen, 36 active installations, of which I am one of them. So. So not terribly popular, but it works.

So I just wanted to make it clear. A lot of people were talking about like RATGO. I don't recall what the acronym stands for, but I think it's like RATGD or something like that. Anyways, there are many, many mechanisms to get a dumb garage door opener into like HomeKit or Home Assistant or what have you. But that's already been solved for me.

So I just wanted to make it clear. A lot of people were talking about like RATGO. I don't recall what the acronym stands for, but I think it's like RATGD or something like that. Anyways, there are many, many mechanisms to get a dumb garage door opener into like HomeKit or Home Assistant or what have you. But that's already been solved for me.

Also, a lot of people brought up, and this one I am pretty sure I didn't say anything about, a lot of people brought up the ESP32 as an alternative to Raspberry Pi or Arduino. These are exceedingly cheap Wi-Fi-enabled little programmable basically circuit boards. They seem to be the popular way to do this sort of LED kind of dance that I'm talking about.

Also, a lot of people brought up, and this one I am pretty sure I didn't say anything about, a lot of people brought up the ESP32 as an alternative to Raspberry Pi or Arduino. These are exceedingly cheap Wi-Fi-enabled little programmable basically circuit boards. They seem to be the popular way to do this sort of LED kind of dance that I'm talking about.

And in fact, there's a software project called ESPHome that is allegedly really, really good at doing LED-related stuff and then exposing that in Home Assistant. I don't think I talked about either of these on the show last week, but I very justifiably, and I appreciate it, got a lot of feedback from people saying this is what you need to do.

And in fact, there's a software project called ESPHome that is allegedly really, really good at doing LED-related stuff and then exposing that in Home Assistant. I don't think I talked about either of these on the show last week, but I very justifiably, and I appreciate it, got a lot of feedback from people saying this is what you need to do.

I also got a lot of people saying to me, just get an LED strip, man. And I was like, okay, I don't want 100 LEDs. I want... Three. Why would I get an LED strip of, you know, a meter, two meters, three meters, four meters, 10 meters or what have you? I don't want that. I want three, not three meters, mind you. I want literally three LEDs.

I also got a lot of people saying to me, just get an LED strip, man. And I was like, okay, I don't want 100 LEDs. I want... Three. Why would I get an LED strip of, you know, a meter, two meters, three meters, four meters, 10 meters or what have you? I don't want that. I want three, not three meters, mind you. I want literally three LEDs.

And in a conversation on Slack with Kiel Olson, he said to me, well, you can just cut it. Wait, wait, I'm sorry, what? Yeah, you can just cut an LED strip. If it's the right kind of strip, you can just cut it. What? So it turns out that there is a style of LED strip and the most popular one is the WS2812B. I'll put a link to the data sheet in the show notes.

And in a conversation on Slack with Kiel Olson, he said to me, well, you can just cut it. Wait, wait, I'm sorry, what? Yeah, you can just cut an LED strip. If it's the right kind of strip, you can just cut it. What? So it turns out that there is a style of LED strip and the most popular one is the WS2812B. I'll put a link to the data sheet in the show notes.