My name is Derek Brooks

Check out what I've been up to below, see what I did yesterday, read about me, or browse my photos!

broox

I can’t stop thinking about how rad New Mexico was during last week’s road trip.

It was like a little Colorado with more indigenous culture…

I wanna visit again.

Driving cross country in a vehicle with adaptive cruise and lane keeping is much nicer than driving cross country in a 2-door solid axle Jeep without those things.

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How I do home automation

After 20 years of tinkering with home automation, I thought it'd be fun to blog about how I've come to approach things.

First, the background

My entry into home automation was tinkering with old school, X10 powerline/RF lamp and outlet modules that were paired with remotes, motion sensors, and a "smart" module that you could program via a PC to begin adding automation.

Since then, I've played with tons of brands and ecosystems, but I've primarily used Zigbee, Zwave, wifi/mesh, and PoE devices.

I've gone pretty deep with Hue, Lutron, Arlo, Ring, Nest, NuHeat, Sonos, Amazon, Google, Apple, Liftmaster, Bond, and other random generic smart devices.

To tie the ecosystems together, I've mostly used SmartThings and HomeAssistant, but …

Last seen in Des Moines, Iowa

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We drove down I-25 through Santa Fe and Albuquerque, then across I-40 on the way to Phoenix.

Spent one night in Santa Fe on the way back and then left on route 56 into Oklahoma. Beautiful drives!
@RIOzay @broox Cheetos and bacon bits.
need to know the other toppings