I just installed the integration for Channels in Home Assistant. What kind of things can be done with this? Please share your ideas and code. 
I saw this topic:
Thinking about going down the home assistant rabbit hole. I've been trying to read as much as I can about everything but it can be overwhelming, so I'd like to start small. With one light. A regular dumb light switch. From everything I've read so far, I need a Shelley wifi switch? Wire it up before the dumb switch? I seem to be finding tons of info about home assistant but not something so simple as converting this one dumb light. I'd like to be able to use either the switch itself or home assistant to operate the light, realizing it will make the off / on designation on the switch useless. Regardless of what the switch is currently at, off or on, I can use the switch or smart control. So that's what I'm thinking. Figure out the one light. Get that working, move on to the rest of the light switches, then to other stuff. Any ideas or resources that might be helpful?
So, a couple of things:
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You can get LED bulbs that are Smart themselves, then you don't have to rewire anything. I use these with some basement lights and a sensor that turns them on when I open the door.
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You can get a plug-in smart switches, so a lamp plugs into the smart switch and that plugs into the wall. You get all the same functionality. I use these for standing and desk lamps, as well as pure on/off ones for fans.
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With wall switches, you may have problems. If your house is relatively new or has had an electrical upgrade and you can confirm you have Common Wires to the switch before you do anything, then you should be fine. If, like me, your house and electrical are old, then you'll need very specific wall switches that always have electricity flowing through them. For these, they are never so much "off" as "get so dim that you don't notice the light". You'll also have to use an incandescent bulb. Thankfully, mine all go to multiple bulbs so only one has to be incandescent to complete the path while the rest are LED.
I can't speak for the Apple stuff; I'm totally in a Samsung SmartThings world as my base and everything branches out from there.
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I use Google Smart home compatible things and Apple HomeKit enabled things.
I do use HomeBridge running on a Raspberry Pi that enables HomeKit control of devices that are not natively Apple Homekit compatible, Like my Ubiquiti Unifi Protect Cameras. there are many plugins for various brand devices.
I use Wemo Smart plugs for many things.
I live in an a old apartment complex, only one wall switch, the kitchen light, has a neutral wire run.
I use Lutron Caseta wall dimmers that have a small "pico" remote to control the switch/dimmer. I think they are Z-wave RF based. They have a "hub" you can buy that plugs into your router via ethernet that makes them "smart" and basically emulates the RF remote.
The dimmers them selves are 3 wire ( 2x black and ground) which is what my wall boxes are.
Having moved from Android to iOS, i find HomeKit more intuitive and easy to use.
I got things setup so that when i leave, my phone detects i left and shuts off things, and when i arrive back home, it turns on things, like my my entryway and kitchen lights...also have set automation for my AC units, that uses some random IR blaster i got on Amazon that kinda works with Homekit, but just basic on/off, anything more, have to use Google to set.
HA is pretty amazing, and has integrations for almost every smart device you can think of. I have pretty much everything in my house connected. I started with Apple HomeKit and eventually moved all of my automations into HA because it is so much more powerful.
Just be careful - it can become addictive! Before you know it, you've spent a small fortune on smart devices!
The HA forums will be your best friend:
There are tons of super smart and super helpful people there.
So I haven't jumped into home assistant yet, but it's looking more and more like I'm ready to, or close anyways. Right now I'm just testing the mainstream ecosystems and building up the number / diversity of devices before I go all home assistant OCD anal about getting everything to work together. Guess I thought the smart home stuff was far enough along that each ecosystem will mostly support all devices, at least the big brands but I guess not. Google Home sees the ecobee temperature / presence sensors but can't use them for any automations, while SmartThings can. Google Home can adjust the temperature of the ecobee thermostat, but again, it can't be used in automations. Philips Hue lights work 100% in both. SmartThings can't do anything with the Nest Battery doorbell, and also doesn't have any eufy robot vacuum support but GH does. Nest protect doesn't work in either one. I have to have a separate nest app just for that. I'm disappointed about all the red tape between brands to try and sell more stuff / spite the other brands all at the users' expense. It's sad. Typical selfish greedy garbage. I'm tempted to try Apple Homekit only having an iPad to work with just to see if the BS is all across the board. Anyone have any Lutron Caseta smart switches that can comment on compatibility with GH? I'm guessing they will work in automations just fine, but want to confirm that somehow since that's the next purchase, a bunch of smart switches. So far we have the following devices:
Ecobee 3 lite w/ 2 sensors (had this before I decided to smart home or else I would have gotten a Nest)
Nest protect (had this before)
Nest Battery doorbell wired
2 Philips hue bulbs with bridge
eufy 25c vacuum
These work 100% ?
Nothing ever works with 100% reliability...but yes, i have had excellent success with Lutron Caseta with both iOS and Android.
You need to buy the Smart Bridge thing to make them smart, which, u can buy a dimmer, remote, hub kit for $99 at say Home Depot, or, if already have these dimmers installed, can find people just selling the smart bridge on ebay for a decent price.
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If you are considering using Home Assistant and also considering Lutron Caseta switches, I highly recommend getting the Caseta Pro bridge rather than the standard one. It looks and functions exactly the same way as the standard bridge, but it also enables telnet support.
So what does that do for you? If you are using the Pico remotes, you can configure Home Assistant to capture button presses and create automations. In other words, you can use the Caseta pico remotes to control ANY device that is connected to HA. It is incredibly useful.
They also sell brackets that allow you to place the Pico remotes into a light switch plate, so they blend seamlessly with your other switches.
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I have stopped using Caseta switches. I don't like fumbling with them in the dark. Plus I like the good old fashioned tactile feedback of rocker switch. So I use Shelly products to make my standard switches smart.
However, I keep my Caseta Pro bridge exclusively for Pico remotes. Most Pico remotes have five buttons and each one can be used to control whatever you want. I have one mounted to my bedside table that controls lamps, overhead lights, and ceiling fan. I keep another on the table beside where I watch TV to control various lights and the ceiling fan. My favorite is a two button Pico by my side door that controls my garage doors (pictured below).
The bridge was $100 and the Picos run around $15 which seems like a lot to spend on buttons but the zwave and zigby buttons I tested costed more and it seemed I was always changing their batteries. I can't yet vouch for the claim that the Pico's battery lasts ten years, but I'm two years in with no issues.
I highly recommend Picos for anyone who's tired of barking orders at Alexa.
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So funny! We also have a pico set up to open and close our garage door! I have also considered using one as a "key" for when we are out of town and we have someone coming over to take care of the pets. One button can unlock the door and turn off the alarm, and the other button can lock and re-arm. Then we don't have to give out a key or a code, and if it gets lost I can just disable the automation. But we haven't gone anywhere since covid, so I haven't tried that out yet...
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I’ve been very pleased with the Lutron Caseta stuff. Of course I’m a HomeKit guy. Works great. I also use homebridge to bring in a handful of things that aren’t HomeKit native.
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Yes, I wish I knew about the Pro Bridge earlier. Got one a few months ago and being able to use Pico remotes to adjust Hue lights and set HomeKit scenes is a game-changer! They are the simplest and most affordable remotes/buttons I’ve found.
I used the Pro Bridge with picos all over a house and it's a game changer. Combined with Home Assistant, It means you can use them to control anything, not just your Lutron Caseta things.
I used them to control Haiku fans across the house and Hue lights in certain rooms.
All while having the same normalized switch and dimmer controls across the house, it's fantastic. No one knows the difference. And the latency is basically nil, it's impressive.
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This seems like a good segue to asking whether more Channels functionality will be added to the HA integration. Asking for a friend.
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I'm an enormous home automation geek but I am not sure what I would ask for. I guess if Channels could feed functional events to HA, that could have a broad range of uses to the users. For instance, if a recording fails, and that event is forwarded to HA, then HA could be configured to do whatever -- like fire off a notification. And as On Later continues to improve, that could be part of the feed, then maybe some actions could be available. For instance, a new series is on one of your favorite channels and you get a actionable alert on your phone with the option to set a pass with one click. If the event flow were detailed enough, we could use the HA database to tease out useful info like most watch channel, screen time per client, or (on my personal wish-list) how much time do I actually spend watching content from that pay service I think I can't live without. I'm sure the data junkies out there would come up with all sorts of things to share.
I guess I know what I would ask for after all. 
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Ultimately, it would be great to have everything available in the Channels API also available in HA. But my current use case is adding ghost/zombie videos to my HA Halloween automations. I am doing it now in Plex, but it is super clunky.
You can also use Hue light switches with HomeKit to trigger scenes, similar to the pico remotes from Lutron. In case anybody out there already has Hue and not Lutron.
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I’m pleased that you appear to me a proper geek and aren’t (maybe) a big tech manufactured facsimile (perhaps).
@Macnbaish We have a 100% Apple house. And I fell in love with HomeKit when I first started adding devices and automations. I later moved on to Homebridge, which allowed me to add some additional devices into HomeKit. But I reached the point where Homebridge couldn't support all of my devices, and there were more sophisticated automations that I wanted to create but could not due to HomeKit limitations.
I eventually decided to give Home Assistant a chance. And have not looked back since. It blows away anything you can do in HomeKit because you can write your own customized automations from scratch. There are integrations for just about every device you can imagine. And you can push everything in HA back into HomeKit, so you and your family can still use the Home app as your front end.
HomeKit is great, but if/when you are ready to move on to something bigger and better, I HIGHLY recommend HA!