Awesome Tips 20 INSANELY Helpful Smart Home Ideas with a Stream Deck!
I finally bought a Stream Deck and it’s awesome! Here are 20 really useful smart home ideas I use on my Elgato Stream Deck.
I finally bought a Stream Deck and it’s awesome! Here are 20 really useful smart home ideas I use on my Elgato Stream Deck.
Elgato Stream Deck:
(affiliate links)
How I set mine up:
The main integration I used was for Home Assistant
This was probably the most stable Home Assistant thing I’ve ever used, so hats off to the developer for how well it works. If you are wondering how I got my NAS or anything displayed on the Stream Deck, it is most likely with this integration and Home Assistant.
When I first tried to add the integration it didn’t work. I realized the URL I entered was wrong so I fixed it but it still didn’t work. Then I removed the integration and tried again and it worked, so don’t give up if you try it out.
The next issue was getting the info to actually display for certain sensors and devices. Make sure to enable “Enable custom labels” at the bottom and use the suggested variables like {{state}} for it to show up.
The other integration I used was for Apple Shortcuts. This is extremely powerful if you use a Mac. This is how I was using the Stream Deck to send text messages. You can also get it to run shell scripts in the terminal. So to put my computer asleep it runs “pmset sleepnow”.
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10 VERY Practical Home Automation Ideas:
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0:00 Intro
0:16 What is it?
0:58 Spotify
1:46 Busy Switch
2:18 Website URLs
2:42 Speaker buttons
3:16 Room temperature reading
3:30 Thermostat cool down
3:51 Notifications
4:15 Solar power info
4:33 Weather
4:45 Window shades
5:12 Focus button
5:31 Garage door status
5:45 Text spouse
6:16 Lights in the room
6:38 Run automations
6:55 Battery levels
7:10 Computer CPU %
7:28 Mop the kitchen
7:49 Disable morning alarm
8:14 Go to bed automation
8:42 Getting work done
9:16 How did that get there?!
———
MUSIC
Space Trooper by DivKid
The End by EVA
Deals for Days. Big home savings are happening now.
Shout out to Jean-Luc for emailing me about using a Stream Deck as a smart home dashboard! My desk will never be the same.
This is super sweet! Especially the stream deck plus! I've been looking for a controller much like this but that isn't glued to my computer. Basically physical buttons but mobile in the house like a tablet. Have you found anything of this sort?
You could use it to Chek status on your ev. Set charge level instantly, precondition the temp and so on.
so cool, I love this smart home setup, that's super dope
Finally! To see you are using stream deck for your smart home control. You should probably get the XL with more keys 😉
I mostly use mine for volume control. I hate how on Windows you need to use a keyboard shortcut to change the volume, I was used to Mac where you have dedicated keys.
ChatGPT wife message button
Maybe I missed this, but this seems predicated on having everything setup through Home Assistant? Would a Deck work if all my devices are run through Alexa or the Govee/Wyze apps? I would LOVE LOVE LOVE for something like this, but I haven't (and don't really want to have to) dive down the HA rabbit hole…
Great ideas, and I see myself adding some of them to my Stream Deck that I've been using for a while. Here's a couple of things that I use it for:
Control my Sony Bravia (Android/Google TV) Smart TV, from turing the TV on and off, selecting inputs (or directly launching apps), Volume/Mute/Play/Pause – it's to the point I rarely have to pick up the remote. I normally bring up my security cameras on it while working, one button turns it on, launches the camera app and mutes the sound.
Like your "quiet time" timer app, I have a LaMetric Time that is right next to my webcam for video conferencing. I have one button that turns on the appropriate lighting for the webcam and mutes the phone and my personal computer (which is the one Stream Deck is connected to, not the work computer being used for Video Conferencing), and additional buttons that start a countdown timer on the LaMetric Time (one for 30 minute calls and another for 60 minute calls), and another button that cancels the timer, turns of the webcam specific lighting off and unmutes everything muted previously. The timers help me (especially when they're my meetings) keep the calls on track and not run over.
Half life!
I have my Stream Deck play a simple Sound Board effect of a Text-To-Speech Bot saying commands so my Alexa hears it.
I came up with this myself but I like the home assistant idea better lol
Would love some details / info on how the heart button works???? BRILLIANT!
Another great video Reed. Very informative and shows how versatile this unit is. I am already thinking I would love to have one of there by my TV chair so I could change mode depending on circumstances with the push of a button.I too would love to see the programing side of the unit. But if I can manage HA – this should be a piece of cake
I have been using my stream deck for controlling spotify, and doing other quick controls through home assistant. I only have the six key version but with folders it works well for me. Finally I also use the Legion icons, there great right!
No need the Stream Deck, just use an old phone, way better imo
Will this work with SmartThings?
Stop promoting crap for some bucks!
It's a good product, but it could be much better if it had the ability to communicate with my smart home hub without needing to be connected to any computer. Maybe they are planning that for the next version of the product. Yes, I know you are thinking that some features won't work when it's not connected to a computer. But an app on the computer could communicate to the Stream Deck using some Smarthome Hub API, (either for Windows or Mac) and you should be able to get it to work with your computer wirelessly.
If you want to automate without this 100-200 dollar crap. Look around and 'keep your money! This is a discrace.
If you need this many manual buttons to "automate" 😂
Thanks Reed.
This was really helpful, thank you
How did you integrate the text? Is that an iChat or using something else?
No mirror?
That's very cool, i made a poor man's version by using a wireless keypad, some key caps and two free programs. Got around 35 dollars invested in it. Works very well. Not as fancy as the stream deck, but also not near as expensive either. But that looks very cool. Might have to save up my pennies for one.
People should know that stream decks operated from a Apple computer will have far less third party automation possibilities then on PC.
You know on Apple devices there’s a thing called Focus Mode which is an extended Do Not Disturb like Work, Sleep, Personal. You can enable notifications for certain apps and people based on each focus. Different for each.
This is great, Reid. I'm pretty familiar with the Stream Deck as a tool for video streamers, but I hadn't really considered its usefulness as a home automation hub. I may just have to pick up one of these and give it a try. I do already have a Google Nest Hub on my desk, which allows me to control my lights and other smart home devices pretty easily, provided they integrate with Google Home. I'm wondering whether one might get a little creative with routines and mimic a lot of the same functionality you're talking about achieving with the Stream Deck.
I’ve been using one in my home ‘study’ for the last year. Mix of HomeKit functions and Mac functions. Pull up my Eve app with all cameras, open folder of various light colours, play/pause, shortcut to adjust clipboard, etc. plus the pages of buttons specific to other apps.
Without home assistant, it seems the streamdeck is very limited in support for smart devices. I've only been able to find IFTTT to work with my wifi-based smarthome devices, and that has a monthly fee to use more than 3 apps.
Would love to see a video where you talk more about the technical side of setting up the streamdeck connections.
why don't you group your speakers to one single button press? not lazy enough? 😉
Guess the Stream Deck won’t work if your macbook/pc is switched off for smart device purposes. Coz normally used for gaming, etc
I am not interested in insanity…..
I’d love to see an in depth video on how some of these are set up
How to ?
Just better 1:14 : When Spotify plays, and i hit the pause Button, it Pause Spotify but also play Youtube… thats sometimes strange ingame. Music is on the flow. You want to Pause your Spotify but Youtube Starts to play …
For those with old tablets laying around and on Windows, Macrodeck is a free and opensource app which does the same thing.
It has a webinterface options which means that it doesn't matter what device or how old it is. If it has a browser, it will probably work.
hello
USB over ethernet, plug that one in next to the bed or in the kitchen. Get yourself a StreamDeck XL for your desk!
The problem is it's a USB device that needs to be connected to a computer at all times. If it had its own SoC and WiFI then we'd be talking.