Hey , Share a little project I pulled off this weekend that genuinely surprised me with how smooth (and cheap) it went. Been dipping my toes into smart home stuff lately — very much a newbie — but I finally managed to automate the lights in my living room and hallway using just a couple of Aqara motion sensors and a smart plug combo.
Here’s the deal: I didn’t want to pull wires or shell out $$ for fancy switches. So I placed an Aqara motion sensor near the entrance and another by my couch. Paired them to an Aqara hub and set up some basic automations via the app — lights turn on when motion is detected after 6PM and off after 10 minutes of no activity.
Total cost? Under $50. Setup time? Maybe 30 minutes.
I now walk into a lit-up living room without touching a thing, and my hallway lights shut off without me yelling at my kids. Not bad, right?
Curious if anyone else has done similar low-budget setups? Any cool ideas I should try next?
It’s awesome how you kept things simple, budget-friendly, and still got such great results. Motion sensors + smart plugs are such a killer combo for entry-level automation, and your setup is super practical (especially the no-yelling-at-kids perk 
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