TechnologyNewsTech News

Automated Home Show

Marty Spargo

Talking all things smart homes and interviewing smart home industry insiders to inspire and keep you up to date.

Play

Open in

20 episodes
Avg 23 min
English

Episodes 20

Newest Oldest Longest

All20 Unplayed20 In progress0 Played0

#22
May 24 · 27 min
Smart Home Timeout?
It took me weeks to give myself permission to make this decision and share it with you. It's not something that I ever expected might happen. After reading this research paper I've decided to switch off my wifi router and turn off most devices in our home. I have a toddler and my wife is pregnant with our second. I'm putting their health above everything else, even if it might seem like a rather extreme move to some. I'm not walking away from smart home tech and will remain active in the space, but as far as bringing tech and gadgets into our home goes, it will be on a case-by-case basis as opposed to just rushing in headfirst without considering whether there might be any tradeoffs or potential long-term health risks before doing so. Learn more about Automated Home here.
#21
Nov 2, 2025 · 17 min
Smart homes can be so frustrating at times
I've been trying to find a solution so that we can have smart lights in our new home for a few months. I bought an IKEA Jetstrom smart ceiling light, found a local electrician to help me get it powered and then... Failed completely. I guess this is one of those smart home fails you have to go through before getting to the next win! Learn more about Automated Home here.
#20
Aug 9, 2025 · 14 min
Smart home update and some new toys
In this solo episode, I share an update on what's happening in my smart home. Wifi 7 is great, smart lights are causing me some headaches and I got a few new toys to play with too. Learn more about Automated Home here.
#19
Jul 11, 2025 · 37 min
Smart Window Treatments w/ David Webster
Smart home expert David Webster joins me to talk about smart window treatments. This conversation is beginner-friendly, but David also does a good job of explaining some more advanced concepts in an easy-to-understand way. If you enjoy this conversation, be sure to check out the conversation that I published right before this one with Jason Turner, VP of Powershades about much the same topic. Learn more about Automated Home here.
#18
Jul 11, 2025 · 30 min
Smart Window Treatments w/ Jason Turner of Powershades
Powershades VP Jason Turner joins me for a chat about smart shades and some innovative ideas they're implementing for their clients across the US. You can check them out at powershades.com. Check out my next conversation with David Webster where we also cover smart window treatments, but in a slightly more beginner-friendly way. Learn more about Automated Home here.
#17
Jun 6, 2025 · 10 min
New Home Update
We recently moved into a smaller place and as expected, some parts of our smart home went smoothly, while other pieces broke. This is a quick update on things, some plans for the future and a short funny story. Learn more about Automated Home here.
#16
Apr 17, 2025 · 42 min
Planning a Smart Home Build with David Webster
I had this conversation with David Webster recently after someone posted on the Automated Home forums asking for feedback on a proposed smart home build for his 6,000-square-foot home. David understands this stuff more than anyone else I know, so it was a very interesting conversation and good to learn more about the "why" with regard to some of David's points of view. This was going to be a private conversation between David and I, but we agreed to record the conversation, so I hope you enjoy it. Learn more about Automated Home here.
#15
Feb 11, 2025 · 41 min
Smart Lighting Basics with Smart Home Expert David Webster
David Webster joins me again to talk about smart lighting considerations. David is a smart home expert and electronic engineer, so he understands things at a very deep level. As someone who is NOT an electrical engineer, I ask some questions that a beginner might be wondering about so there's something for everyone. The conversation ends with the promise of continuing the conversation and some cursory discussion about Homey. Learn more about Automated Home here.
#14
Jan 4, 2025 · 15 min
I finally solved my Homey flow problem
I feel like I've climbed a mountain (well, perhaps a small hill) because I finally figured out the issue with not being able to immediately re-trigger the flow to turn the lights on when motion is detected outside our front door. I also share some of the smart devices that I've added to our home recently and share a recent funny story. Learn more about Automated Home here.
#13
Dec 20, 2024 · 46 min
Homey, Home Assistant and Bringing AI Into Your Smart Home
David and I discuss the good and the bad of Homey Pro, what we each think about Home Assistant and David talks about how AI could make smart homes way better very soon. ***Apologies for the out-of-sync audio*** This conversation was recorded using the same software as the last time I spoke to David and for some reason, our files are out of synch by about a second. It sounds like I'm constantly talking over the top of David and David is very slow to respond to anything, but that's not the case. I was torn on whether to publish this or not, but decided to publish it because David's a smart guy and there's some good info in this conversation. I think I might try to some other option to record the next call. Learn more about Automated Home here.
#12
Nov 28, 2024 · 12 min
New Smart Home Products Nov 2024
I probably should have waited to buy some of these during Black Friday, but I picked up some cool new products for my smart home recently. I'll be unboxing these products and getting them setup and going over the coming month and I'll keep you posted on how they all go. Learn more about Automated Home here.
#11
Oct 30, 2024 · 40 min
Why You Should Never Split Your Home Wifi
I had the pleasure of catching up with David Webster recently to get into the nitty gritty of why it's not necessary to split up your home wifi into separate 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz networks. David has A LOT of knowledge about smart home products and connectivity issues, so I certainly learned a lot from this chat. Even if you're already an expert in this stuff, there's probably still something here for you. If you're a newbie to smart homes or if you're wondering if you need to split up your home wifi, this conversation is a must listen. Learn more about Automated Home here.
#10
Oct 12, 2024 · 17 min
Homey should add this functionality
Thanks to Tim for the comment on my last Youtube video which helped me to get my Aqara lights connected and online in Homey. That was a big help. I was able to get some Homey "flows" going with the motion sensor and those Aqara lights, but there are a couple of things that I'm not thrilled about. 1. The range of the P1 motion sensor isn't great, and 2. Why won't Homey let flows re-start before they're finished? That makes no sense to me Learn more about Automated Home here.
#9
Oct 7, 2024 · 25 min
My smart home is back on track
Last update was a total disaster, but I've fixed most things and in many cases, things are better than before. There are still a few issues, but it seems much more manageable than a couple of weeks ago. I got an Aqara motion sensor, set up an Annke camera for baby monitoring, setup the Sonos voice assistant that I didn't even know existed and just had my first Govee product delivered. Learn more about Automated Home here.
#8
Sep 23, 2024 · 15 min
Did changing my Wifi name just break everything?!
I just created a 2.4GHz wifi network in my home and chaos ensued. What I thought was a piece of cake ended up becoming a disaster and now I guess I'm looking down the barrel of a bunch of factory resets and re-adding devices. Seriously, this was not what I had planned for my Sunday. Learn more about Automated Home here.
#7
Sep 16, 2024 · 17 min
My Aqara vibration sensor failure and what's up with Alexa today?!
My hopes of turning my dining room table into one giant "light switch" didn't work out when I learned that the Aqara vibration sensor isn't as sensitive as it would need to be for that idea to work. ...sigh... Oh well, I'm sure I'll find another idea for that vibration sensor eventually. Also, why is Alexa going crazy today?! Learn more about Automated Home here.
#6
Sep 15, 2024 · 30 min
Is Aqara being short sighted?
I ask why I can't enjoy the full-feature capability of my new Aqara light bulb. Is it a business decision or do I just not understand it? I discuss some recent wins, and some failures and talk about upcoming plans. Get more from Automated Home here.
#5
Sep 7, 2024 · 16 min
I bought some Aqara devices for my Homey hub!
Today I got stranded in a shopping mall because of some rain and ended up buying a couple of Aqara products that should work with my Homey Pro. I talk about an Amazon routine that my wife absolutely hated and vetoed in all of 24 hours, talk about a couple of things I've learned recently and then end with a funny story that's completely unrelated to smart homes. Get more from Automated Home here.
#4
Jul 26, 2024 · 7 min
Should the Sonos CEO be fired?
Do you think the Sonos CEO should resign or be fired? Lots of people are angry about the app update that rolled out nearly 3 months ago and the CEO of the company has finally issued an apology and shared a timeline for fixing some of the issues with the new app. Read more at https://automatedhome.com/
#3
Jul 11, 2024 · 6 min
Unboxing my Homey Pro and a setback
In this brief update, I talk about how I unboxed my Homey Pro smart hub and got some bad (or maybe good?) news regarding the compatibility of some other smart home products that I was about to buy. Automated Home links: https://linktr.ee/automated_home

Showing 1–20 of 20 episodes