[jaxbot]

Even on a lighter note, I'm getting more and more frustrated at cloud device providers changing features on a whim. For example, I own Nest products that I bought to integrated into my 'smart home'. Now Google is ripping out the API for Nest products and making us use Google Assistant. Google Assistant is repeatedly changing behaviors and breaking my workflow.

I understand I'm a tiny segment of the market, but it's hard not to want to switch over to fully owned, open source alternatives. Any suggestions?

[cr0sh]

Got the skills to build your own stuff (sensors, etc)?

Plenty of examples out there - plenty of instructables and other tutorial-like information to build these items.

For a camera - cheapest kit that I know of currently is what is called an "ESP32 Camera Module" (you can find them on Amazon, Ali Express, Ebay, etc) - something like a 5MP camera connected to an ESP32. Code, etc done up using (usually) Python.

Next cheapest - and easiest to implement and use - is a Raspberry Pi Zero W, a cheap RasPi camera module, and a copy of MotionEyeOS - note that'll make you a single IP camera. You can run MotionEyeOS on a more powerful system and have it monitor multiple cameras if you want. But the best system for that would by to build those same cameras using either the ESP32 solution, or MotionEyeOS, then turn on streaming mpeg for the camera, and use ZoneMinder on a powerful machine to monitor a larger number of cameras.

There are open source solutions (hardware and software) for controlling your thermostat (including zone-based AC), switching outlets on/off, watering your lawn, monitoring indoor/outdoor temperatures, plus tones of other possibilities.

A quick google search will bring up anything you want, but again, you will usually need to have some hardware and software chops to make it all work. The MotionEyeOS is probably the easiest thing to put together, as you are just taking a bunch of off-the-shelf components and assembling them, flashing the software and plugging it in.