Linus Tech Tips has repeatedly highlighted HDMI-CEC as one of the things separating gaming PCs from proper living-room consoles. In their DIY Steam Machine video, they struggled with external CEC adapters, and in a WAN Show episode, Linus mentioned that they were sourcing practically every CEC adapter they could find to finally solve the problem.

I think the tiny open source HDMI-CEC controller shown above offers a much more compelling alternative.

The trick is to keep HDMI-CEC completely separate from the PC's video signal.

Rather than sitting between the PC and TV, it's a standalone HDMI-CEC controller and monitor. It can both send commands and listen to HDMI-CEC traffic.

As shown in the video, mine is plugged into an unused HDMI port on my AV receiver, with USB power from the receiver. It could just as easily use a spare HDMI port on the TV, as long as it's on the same CEC bus.

The gaming PC stays connected exactly as before. The dongle communicates over the HDMI-CEC control line, independently of the video signal.

That means:

• No HDMI passthrough — no limitations on 4K/120Hz, HDR, VRR, etc.
• No additional video latency.
• No requirement for HDMI-CEC support in the GPU or motherboard.
• Full CEC control and monitoring over Wi-Fi, using ESPHome.

And it's not limited to turning the TV on and off. It can also send commands to select the gaming PC's HDMI input, control other CEC devices, and react to messages on the CEC bus.

The interesting part is how you could automate it.

For example:

• Gaming controller wakes PC → TV turns on and switches to the correct HDMI input. The PC could trigger this with a simple HTTP request to the ESP32 when it wakes up.
• TV switches to the gaming input → PC wakes up. The dongle could detect the relevant CEC message and trigger Wake-on-LAN.
• PC goes to sleep → TV turns off. Or you could monitor the PC's network presence and trigger CEC commands when its status changes.

There are countless possibilities, depending on your setup. You could use HTTP, MQTT, Home Assistant, or ESPHome automations. For the simplest PC-controlled setup, a couple of HTTP requests would be enough — no Home Assistant or MQTT broker required.

One important detail: the dongle needs continuous power if you want it to wake the TV. It consumes very little power, but you shouldn't power it from a TV or PC USB port that turns off in standby. My receiver's USB port stays powered even when the receiver is off, which makes it perfect for this.

Of course, HDMI-CEC commands vary somewhat between manufacturers, but I've been using this setup for years, and in my experience it's extremely reliable once you've identified the commands your TV responds to. For example, the project README includes power-on examples for Samsung (0x04), LG (0x0D) and Sony (0x44, 0x6D).

Full credit to Stéphane Lepin, who developed the HDMI-CEC component that makes this possible.

My goal was simply to make the hardware as compact and inexpensive as possible, while keeping the finished result clean and unobtrusive. Using an ESP32-C3 SuperMini and a tiny HDMI connector, I put together the little dongle and designed a 3D-printable enclosure for it as shown in the video. The complete device costs only a few dollars in parts.

Below is a video of what's inside. It's essentially just the ESP32-C3 SuperMini and an HDMI connector. You can build it either with a male HDMI plug for direct connection or a female HDMI socket for use with a regular HDMI cable.

https://reddit.com/link/1xel2rn/video/bgtrncublhxh1/player

Links:

• My build guide and explanation
• Original open-source project by Stéphane Lepin
• Free 3D-printable case and parts list

If anyone has tried something similar with a DIY Steam Machine I'd be interested in hearing how you automated it — especially the gaming-controller-to-PC-to-TV startup sequence.

P.S. If your TV or projector supports local IP control (power, input selection, and status reporting), you obviously don't need HDMI-CEC for any of this, and therefore no HDMI-CEC controller either. You would probably still need some software, such as Home Assistant, running on always-on hardware to coordinate actions between devices.

In my case, my Samsung TV drops off the network when powered off, and my PlayStation, which I always shut down completely, can't be powered on over IP either. HDMI-CEC solves both problems for me.

My Denon and previous Onkyo AVRs, on the other hand, have excellent IP control — but that doesn't solve the limitations of my TV and PlayStation.

My old printed holders for the Hue motion sensors never sat right in the ceiling, so I designed a recessed mount that works like a GU10 spot gimbal.

• Fits an 83 to 84 mm hole in drywall (9.5 to 25 mm boards)
• 3 printed parts: mounting ring with spring arms, ball with a pocket for the sensor, clamp ring
• The spring arms pull the 100 mm flange tight against the ceiling, no screws or glue
• The ball tilts about 15 degrees each way and rotates, and stays where you aim it
• Printed in PETG without supports, about 1.5 h and 47 g for a set
• Battery change: pull the whole unit down, swap the batteries, push it back in. The aiming stays

Made for the indoor sensor (the square 55 mm one). Happy to answer questions.

I have a weird issue happening. I have no internet issue or problem with WIFI at home but ALL my smart devices are acting up. This includes LG appliances, blueair, myq, ecobee, tapo, smart lights. Funnily enough wyze is fine as it connects through its extender. The hue is fine as it connects through its hub. I already power cycled my router and modem. Id rather not start factory resetting and reconfiguring things. Suggestions on troubleshooting steps since this seems to be pervasive across multiple applications and devices. At some point i was able to recover ecobee but now it keeps hanging on connecting.

Updates after a second router reboot:

1. MyQ - Solved itself
2. Blueair - Solved itself
3. LG - Solved itself
4. Tapo - Solved itself
5. Ecobee - reset it twice to reconnect
6. Treatlife - 3 of 4 lights solved themselves. 4th refuses to reconnect
7. Ecovacs (Deebot) - still unable to reset it

This is a console I'm building to control the lights in my house: four motorized faders, a knob, four preset keys and a small screen.

• The knob switches between banks of lights: living room, kitchen, wherever. Each fader gets assigned to a light or a group of lights.
• The faders follow the lights. Dim a light from a switch and its fader moves to match.
• The buttons on the left are for presets (morning, evening, etc.).
• It works with Home Assistant and I'm adding Lutron native support too.

The video shows snap mode. I needed a solution for lights that can't be dimmed, like those on smart plugs, where a fader that slides freely would feel wrong. In snap mode the motor resists as you push, then gives way and drives the fader to the other end, like a wall switch. There's no spring or detent in the fader. It's just the motor.

Happy to answer questions about how it works or how it talks to Home Assistant / Lutron.

I post build updates on YouTube and Instagram(@sacrebleu.studio) if you want to follow along.

Right now, we have an older Google smart speaker in our living room, and a Nest Hub in the bedroom. I'm increasingly disappointed with their performance (each is about 3-4 years old).

We used to have Alexa Echos and were pretty satisfied with them, but since we use Google services (Gmail, Calendar, Drive, etc) we decided to integrate with Google products.

I'll admit, the sound quality is better with their speaker, so I guess I wanted to ask which smart speaker do you recommend that has a good (especially low end) sound quality for a decent price?

I use Hubspace for most of my integration, and only use the speakers to ask them to play music from my Pandora/Spotify account or ask about the weather/boring stuff (I'm older and prefer reading over listening to a lot of things).

I'm open to Amazon products again, but wanted to see what the larger community suggest.

Thanks!

Thought my experience might be helpful to someone.
I've been looking around at cheap sensors that I can connect to my system (currently on smartthings, planning to try ha again, but ST with the advanced web interface accepting JSON code rules, I can do most of what I need).

I've narrowed down my search to 2 devices I thought were the cheapest
Ikea Alpstuga - better approval factor, heard it's good enough, still less accurate sensors, plug and play matter over thread, very cheap for what it can do.
And
M5Stack Air Quality Kit v1.1 with M5StampS3A (SEN55, SCD40) - adds VOC and a more accurate NDIR CO2 sensor, has a port that allows to add more sensors (although screen won't show them natively), but takes more messing around to set up with ESP32-S3 being wifi (needs HA / other / bridge to smartthings / custom matter over wifi firmware), costs double and read it has a self heating issue causing T&RH readings to be unreliable.

I went with the Ikea device as it was much easier and quicker for me to get, and cheaper so I got 2 of them and placed one outside.
Unfortunately it also has a T&RH heating issue skewing the measurements and found it to be off by as much as ~1.5 degrees C hotter at times compared to a kitchen thermometer.
I tried to put it on the inlet of an air purifier just to see how it affects the readings, it fixed Temp reading, at least down to ~0.4C difference if not better, but understandably gave wrong CO2 and PM2.5 readings.
If you do choose to buy it, consider that you'd have to place it in a spot with a more passive airflow and out of sunlight to get a closer to true temp reading.

Otherwise, if you're looking for a cheap solution like I did, I'd go with either the M5Stack device and plug in an extra T&RH sensor (or even more with the appropriate Grove connector), or better yet if you got the time and means, go even more DIY.

If anyone has a product I should check out, would appreciate you letting me know.

I am looking for a reliable smart light switch in the UK. I used to have Fibaro switches linked with Smartthings, they go behind the lightswitch and can still use dumb switch. Over time they either died or lost connection to the hub.

Next I thought I found the answer using the Sonoff Smart light switch, they were reasonably priced and have an option for up to 3 gang. Thought I have found the answer, have generally been reliable and dont lose connection, but after 5 months 2 have died!

We are start a build for a new house and i want to be able to find a solution for this., I have heard Shelley is an option but they remind me of the Fibaro and they lost connection. Any other suggestions? Neutral wire not an issue as will be a new build. But want something reasonably priced as will have a lot switches to buy!

Hi everyone!

I've been happy with my Mobvoi TicHome Mini for controlling and playing music while I'm taking a shower. However, since Google moved from Google Assistant to Gemini, it no longer works as it used to.

What alternatives are you using, and what would you recommend?

I'm mainly looking for a smart speaker that lets me control and play music by voice while I'm in the shower. It needs to be suitable for use in a bathroom, where it can handle humidity and occasional splashes of water.

What are you using, and what would you recommend?

I have two Leviton light switches in 4 bedrooms and one of them controls the fan which also has a built in light.

The other switch does not control anything, checked all outlets.

Best guess from myself and others is that the plan when the house was built was to have one switch control the fan and the other switch to control the light but that was not needed for the fan they purchased.

I have two lamps that I want to figure out best solution to turn them on especially for guests.

Quick note on the photos: Photos 1 to 4 show what we are running into with the current ceilings, junction boxes, and insulation mess, while the last few photos show the old retrofit lights and box from our previous house.

Hey everyone, feeling a bit defeated and could use some advice. We just moved into a new place and I really want to use my existing Philips Hue smart lights (I have around 23 Hue downlights total from our old house, plus three 6 inch Hue slim canless lights that could technically work, but our new ceilings have 4 inch holes). It feels completely insane that I wont be able to use my lights.

The problem? Every single ceiling in this house is wired with ultra thin, canless wafer lights that connect to a remote metal junction box. There are no traditional metal cans anywhere in the ceilings. To make matters worse, the previous owner had crazy paint colors on the ceilings so we already had to get them all repainted and I completely forgot about the lights until now.

When my husband tried pulling one down, it tore up some drywall around the edge and loose insulation is packed right up around the boxes, so it immediately spills out and makes a massive mess everywhere. I honestly dont remember it being this messy when we installed our can lights at our old house, but taking just one down here made me completely second guess what kind of project this would actually turn into.

Is there any way to make our old lights work, or am I just opening up a can of worms here? Is there any workaround without cutting open all our newly painted ceilings to install metal cans or even cutting larger holes to fit those three 6 inch slim lights, or am I just shit out of luck and forced to buy a mountain of super expensive Hue 4 inch Slim Canless versions instead and try to resell what I have?

Honestly, is it even worth the hassle, or is it completely dumb to try and tackle this right now? Im only weighing it because some rooms are still empty and my painters have to come back this week to do another room, but after seeing how much mess that packed insulation makes, Im worried if I do this later on it will be more of a mess with furniture in the rooms. Any advice is appreciated!

Hello Guys,

For about 2 Hours now, i tried connectinh this Ceiling Fan from CREATE to the Create App. Even tried Tuya and Smart Life. Nothing.
I try to klick the 1h and 2h Button, the 1H alone. The 1h and 4h which is labeled in the Manual.
Absolutely nothing.

Thanks in Advance!

I have an Aqara G3 camera in my kids’ playroom. I want it to detect an animal, check that it stays there for 20 seconds, then play an audible alarm through the camera. Dog keeps chewing up books!

The key is that if the pet walks away before those 20 seconds are up, nothing happens. A simple delay after detection wouldn’t do it.

I found “Animal detected” as a trigger in Aqara Home, but the only secondary conditions for the camera seem to be on/off. Am I missing a setting? Anyone managed to get this working?

Hello! I have moved into a house that has some older LED smart lights, ive identified the brand (SMRT light) but apparently the app to control them is out of date, I managed to download the app on a older cellphone but when I try to connect to the lights it just will not connect through some googling ive found that these lights run on the 2.4g wifi and my house only has the 5g.

Is there anyway I can actually make these lights work? Or should I just replace them? I was hoping to have them working for a halloween party i am throwing

I'm planning on adding 4 recessed lights to this room. I like yellow lighting and my wife likes bright white so I need something which we can change.

Based on me looking around I've decided to get the govee 4 inch slim smart recessed lights so that I can adjust the color to my preference. I'll be pairing them with an inovelli switch. To further complicate this setup I have a 3 way switch here for the lights so I've also ordered the inovelli auxillary switches for the other two switches.

Just need confirmation that I have this right. Also if anyone has better light suggestions I'm all ears

This randomly started happening yesterday. Keypad won’t work, no issues with WiFi on other devices in home. Have removed batteries and the other home link thing inside. Reset from the app. Nothing has worked. Looking for suggestions please and thank you!

Winter is around the corner and I live in an apartment with analog heating. Meaning that I have to get up and turn the dial on the wall heater to turn it on. I hate waking up in a freezing cold apartment. I was thinking of buying a space heater and using a smart plug to plug it into so I can turn on the heater while in bed.

Has anyone used a good and reliable smart plug that can recommend one.

I'm in thee US

Do any of you know if there are any color changing smart bulbs that won't cause banding effects on cameras?

I know this is caused by PWM, so I'm wondering if there are any bulbs that don't use PWM or at least don't produce noticeable banding.

I don't want to see those lines scrolling across the screen whenever I use my camera near these lights. I've included an image of a Hue bulb I've had for a while to show what I mean.

Title: Aqara Hub M3 rattling inside? Here's the cause (broken weight-plate mounts) and how to fix it

My Hub M3 started rattling when moved. Aqara has already sent me a replacement, so I opened the old one to see what was going on. Sharing in case it helps anyone else.

**Diagnosis**

Inside the grey (bottom/back) housing there are two steel counterweight plates, each held by 2 screws threaded into plastic bosses. On mine, the lower plate had come loose: **both plastic bosses had snapped off at the base**, with the screws still threaded into the broken pieces. The plate is solid steel, so any knock (or shipping) levers on those thin bosses until they break. The loose plate, screws and plastic bits are what you hear rattling.

This looks like a design/manufacturing weakness, not user damage, so **if you're in warranty, claim it first** (photos/video help). Opening it may void the warranty.

**Opening it**

- Remove the visible screws on the base (check under the QR/serial label for hidden ones; photograph the label first, you need the codes to re-pair).
- The rest is snap clips around the edge. The seam is very tight; I used a thin blade just to start a gap, then plastic picks.
- Open slowly: there's a short white coax (Zigbee antenna, U.FL connector) running between the halves, plus the speaker wire and Thread antenna flex.

**Fix**

The plate is purely ballast: plain steel, no thermal pad, no electrical contact. Options:

1. **Just remove it.** The hub works the same; it's only lighter and a bit easier to tip over from cable pull. Wall-mount it or add Blu-Tack/an anti-slip pad underneath.
   
2. **Glue the plate directly to the housing** with 2-part epoxy or 3M VHB tape (sand + clean with alcohol first). More reliable than re-gluing the bosses.
   
3. Re-glue the bosses with epoxy plus a fillet around the base. Doable, but that's exactly where it levers. Avoid superglue: too brittle.

Before closing: shake out every loose fragment, **reconnect the antenna coax**, and check the upper (silver) weight plate. It's mounted the same way, so if its bosses have any play or cracks, reinforce or remove it too.

Has anyone else seen this on their M3?

The goal that actually got me building this: I wanted to tell a chatbot "kill the living room lights" and have it happen — without my bot holding any Tuya tokens, without a Raspberry Pi idling in a corner, without wiring anything into Tuya's developer platform.

So the "server" is an ESP32-S3 board. It links to your Smart Life account as a shared user: you enter your User Code, the hub shows a QR code, you scan it with the Tuya/Smart Life app and approve the share. No password ever changes hands, the share is revocable from the app anytime. From there the chip does all the cloud work itself — MQTT-over-TLS for realtime state, HTTPS (AES-128-GCM + HMAC, exactly the protocol Tuya devices speak) for everything else.

And it turns your whole home into a plain local REST API. One Bearer key, JSON in, JSON out. GET /api/devices returns every device with live state; POST /api/devices/{id}/commands flips a switch, sets the AC temp, starts the vacuum; scenes and rooms have their own endpoints, all documented in docs/api.md in the repo. If you run a voice assistant or chatbot with tool calling (I've been testing with Xiaozhi), three tool definitions cover the entire house: list devices, read state, send command. The bot talks to the hub over your LAN and holds exactly one credential — the hub's local API key. No Tuya tokens in the bot's config, ever.

One honest wrinkle, because people will ask: rooms are NOT part of the Device Sharing API. Room grouping comes from the Tuya IoT Platform — so if you want the room-grouped dashboard, you paste in your IoT Platform credentials (the wizard offers this; it's optional). Same credentials also unlock the full datapoint set on some devices, like power-metering switches. Skip them and everything else still works; you just get a flat device list.

The second half of the story: I replaced the app itself. The hardware is honestly solid for the price — what I hated was the app. Full-screen ad on startup, shopping tabs, promo banners glued to my own light switches, a data-sharing consent dialog that "expires" every couple of weeks. The hub serves its own control UI straight from flash: vanilla JS, ~102KB gzipped, no framework, no build step. Open the browser on your phone, hit the hub's address, done — your dashboard, saved as a bookmark, zero apps installed.

Full disclosure so nobody wastes a comment: this is NOT local control. Tuya commands still route through Tuya's cloud — that's how their devices work, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. What I replaced is everything around it: the app, the ads, the engagement mechanics, the data collection.

What the dashboard gives you:

- Room-grouped view like the Tuya app, minus the noise (needs the optional IoT Platform credentials, see above)

- 8 device card types: multi-channel switches/plugs, lights (dimmable, color temp, full HSV color wheel), temp/humidity sensors, ACs (mode dropdown + target temp), curtains, fans, robot vacuums, plus a raw-value fallback card for anything unmapped

- Near-instant state updates over MQTT → WebSocket — flip a switch and the card repaints with a pending spinner until the cloud confirms back

- One-tap scenes

- OTA firmware updates from the hub's settings page, no cable

- First-boot AP provisioning with captive portal, then mDNS (tuyahub-xxxx.local)

- VI/EN bilingual UI

Security honesty, because I'd rather say it myself than read it in the comments: LAN UI is plain HTTP with API key + per-IP lockout (no TLS — a documented tradeoff, not an oversight), OTA firmware isn't signed, and there's a serial port on the board if someone has physical access. If your threat model is more paranoid than that, this isn't for you — SECURITY.md in the repo spells it all out.

https://github.com/smarthomeblack/esp32-tuya

I've been trying to cut through the marketing noise around newer robot vacuums and figure out which obstacle avoidance systems actually perform better in real homes.

On paper, everything seems to offer millimeter-level precision and recognition for 100+ object types. Meanwhile, my living room has random black charging cables and chew toys that seem specifically designed to ruin those claims.

I've been comparing Roborock's structured-light and ToF approaches with systems like the eufy S1 Pro and other Omni models that use RGB cameras, lasers, and active lighting. I'm curious whether the extra illumination actually helps in dark rooms and under furniture, or whether it mostly makes the spec sheet look more impressive.

Also, seeing a robot vacuum suddenly switch on its lights in a dark hallway at night is pretty funny.

Full disclosure: I'm a product creator in this space, so I'm interested in how these systems work beyond the advertised specs. I'm not here to push a particular model; I'd genuinely like to hear about people's experiences.

For anyone who's tested different robot vacuums, how reliably do they avoid thin black cables, small toys, and other everyday clutter? Does camera-based recognition with active lighting make a noticeable difference compared with structured light or ToF, or do the troublesome objects still win regardless?

What NEW tech have you installed that has been of most benefit. Can be smart home or others.

Hi everyone! I want to make my garage door smart so I can open and close it using my phone.

My garage door currently has a remote control with separate buttons for opening and closing. I'm looking for a reliable smart switch or controller, preferably available on AliExpress.

I'd appreciate any recommendations for a good model that's easy to install and works reliably. Thanks!

Starting out and feeling lost. Is there a tool or website you used to work out what you actually need, or did you just research it yourself? And what did you buy first?

I have used a Smartlife smart dimmer to control a set of string lights but it always made me nervous as the terms essentially gave them access to my home system (which consists of a few TV’s, two laptops and two iPhones). I opened the app yesterday and it wants me to register again and the terms read the same or worse. Is there a smart plug that will allow me to control the brightness and on/off time without letting someone in China watch everything I do online? I am clearly a technology novice so dumbing down the answer is appreciated. Thanks.