Real-world smart home fixes, explained simply by an engineer.

// Sheet 02 — Index

Browse by topic

• 
  Is the UGREEN HomeAgent Really Local? 5 Tests With the Internet BlockedOctober 15, 2026
  I blocked UGREEN’s HomeAgent HA100 and both SynCare cameras from the internet and ran five tests to see how much of its local-AI claim holds up.
• 
  I Gave an AI Access to My Smart Home — Here’s Exactly How Far I Let It GoAugust 19, 2026
  For about a week, my front yard camera alerts quietly stopped working. Someone would pull into the driveway…
• 
  Ecovacs T80S Omni: The Upgrades That Really MatterMarch 31, 2026
  I ran the original Ecovacs T80 for over a year, so I tested the T80S Omni against it: the new roller, the triple lift, more suction and hot-water mop washing. Here’s what actually changed and whether it matters.
• 
  Make Your Existing Cameras Smarter With Frigate (and Home Assistant)February 11, 2026
  Most modern cameras can already tell you something happened—motion, a person, a car, maybe even an animal. Frigate…
• 
  MatterBridge for Home Assistant: Expose Any Device to Matter ControllersNovember 26, 2025
  MatterBridge turns Home Assistant entities into Matter devices, so your Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi and MQTT gear shows up in Apple Home, Google Home or SmartThings. Setup steps and copy-paste configs included.
• 
  How to Set Up NWS Alerts in Home Assistant (v6+ Guide)September 29, 2025
  The updated NWS Alerts integration brings National Weather Service warnings straight into Home Assistant. I cover installing it, building the sensors, sending notifications and adding alerts to a dashboard, with YAML you can copy.
• 
  Full Smart Home Control of Your Tesla with Home Assistant’s Tesla Fleet IntegrationJuly 3, 2025
  Tesla’s API change broke most community integrations. The official Tesla Fleet integration brings control back to Home Assistant, from climate and locks to charge rate. Here’s every step, from encryption keys to watch widgets.