I’ve recently found myself building up my smart home accessories. It’s become a bit of an obsession. You see, I installed a home server which opened up the world of Home Assistant and boy oh boy is it fun. Thanks to AI support from ChatGPT (ideation and infrastructure) and Cursor (for coding), the barriers to entry have been absolutely eradicated. But not all the answers or ideas come from AI.
KeenOnTech is a new YouTube channel dedicated to developing your smart home. Bonus points because it’s run by an Irish guy!
What is Home Assistant?
Home Assistant is an open-source platform to manage your smart home devices. If you’ve ever used the likes of the Google Home or Apple Home apps to control your smart home devices, you might have felt the frustration that they bring to the table. For example, maybe Google couldn’t reach an agreement with some company and as a result, you can’t use that product with their control app.
Home Assistant takes all of that and removes the vast majority of integration problems. Now, I have a single app that controls nearly everything in my home. I don’t need to open the Tapo, Aqara, Switchbot, Eufy or Dyson app to control devices. Instead, I open Home Assistant.
Thanks to it being open-source, you have all the control. Now, that means there’s a bigger learning curve. Installing most products is a single click, but some that aren’t directly supported need to be manually coded in.
I can’t code, but emerging AI-powered platforms like Cursor mean I don’t really have to. I’m a “vibe coder” and sorry if that offends you.
While I can’t code, there are plenty out there that can. The internet is full of great projects that people have completed with Home Assistant. You can make some incredible home automations. And now, there’s an Irishman adding to that content – which is always nice.
KeenOnTech: Smart Home YouTube Channel
Cian Gallagher is a Dublin-based software engineer with a love for open-source software and home hackery. He’s just launched a YouTube channel where he promises to post “step-by-step tutorials on ESPHome, Home Assistant, DIY smart devices, coding projects, and electronics builds — all explained in a way that anyone can follow”. Right up the Goosed alley with democratising tech!
I personally like following Irish channels like this because they are rare and typically work on projects where I’ll be able to get parts (because we’re shopping in the same market!).
The first KeenOnTech project really struck a chord with me because it sums up why I love smart home hacking. A couple of years ago I bought a Logitech Harmony. It was to be the solution to my remote control woes. The Harmony let you program all of your remotes into a single box which also had internet access. This meant my 3 or 4 remotes became 1 and I could control them from anywhere in the world.
Unfortunately, not everyone was as excited by this tech as me. Resulting in poor sales and Logitech discontinuing the product completely. There might be other solutions out there, but I’m not ready to be hurt again. Plus I’m in the “why not just build it myself” phase of life realising all of this stuff is quite doable with the right instruction. Sure, that instruction comes from AI, but also creators like KeenOnTech.
Create Home Assistant IR Smart Remote
This is KeenOnTech’s first video tutorial showing how to create your own alternative to Logitech’s Harmony system. Cian brings you through everything needed to get the unit built, including parts, wiring diagrams, 3D printing models and code.
The purpose and approach are perfectly paced, clear and easy to follow. To show his chops he even busts out the Flipper Zero but you won’t need one for the project to work.
Ireland is shockingly light on hobbyist YouTube creators. So please do support them when you can and give KeenOnTech and auld follow.
