---
title: "Community Highlights: 7th edition"
description: "A 'Dad status' board, illuminating the steps of your stairs and the most beautiful thermostat you've ever seen"
date: 2020-12-01 00:00:00
date_formatted: "December 1, 2020"
author: Franck Nijhof
author_twitter: frenck
categories: Community
og_image: /images/blog/2020-12-01-community-highlights/social.png
---

The 7th edition of the Home Assistant Community Highlights! Some interesting
things popped up around our community, we thought was worth sharing.

Troy Hunt has jumped into our wonderful world and shared his journey
in a blog post series. Some nice examples on a DIY solution for mounting a
wall tablet and how to arm your alarm with a toothbrush!

## Troy Hunt is unraveling IoT using Home Assistant

If you have never heard of Troy Hunt before, he is a web security specialist
and mostly known for creating ["Have I Been Pwned"][hibp] ([Home Assistant integration](/integrations/haveibeenpwned/)).

Troy has been diving into the world of IoT and started automating his home,
using... Home Assistant!

<blockquote>
    <p>I'm massively impressed with HA and nothing else I've seen along my IoT journey comes even close to comparing. If you're going to do IoT in any meaningful way, you start with HA.</p>
    <b class=source>Troy Hunt</b>
</blockquote>

In 5 blogs, he writes about his journey in the big
world of IoT:

- [Part 1: It's a Mess... But Then There's Home Assistant][p1]
- [Part 2: IP Addresses, Network, Zigbee, Custom Firmware and Soldering][p2]
- [Part 3: Security][p3]
- [Part 4: Making it All Work for Humans][p4]
- [Part 5: Practical Use Case Videos][p5]

The 5th part Troy made 11! short and quick videos, showing actual use cases in
his home. Really cool and inspiring!

<div class='videoWrapper'>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/videoseries?list=PL7LAAxaabizMcH3kueW9Ub0oif0FngweI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>

[hibp]: https://haveibeenpwned.com/
[p1]: https://www.troyhunt.com/iot-unravelled-part-1-its-a-mess-but-then-theres-home-assistant/
[p2]: https://www.troyhunt.com/iot-unravelled-part-2-ip-addresses-network-zigbee-custom-firmware-and-soldering/
[p3]: https://www.troyhunt.com/iot-unravelled-part-3-security/
[p4]: https://www.troyhunt.com/iot-unravelled-part-4-making-it-all-work-for-humans/
[p5]: https://www.troyhunt.com/iot-unravelled-part-5-practical-use-case-videos/

## Framing a wall-mounted tablet

If you are a bit like me, you probably want to wall mount a tablet someday
(or you already have it of course 🥴). Doing that in a nice, elegant and pretty
way is often the hard part. Especially if you only have brick walls (like me),
which makes it hard to hide cable or recess the tablet.

Next I came across 2 posts on on the [Home Assistant subreddit][reddit], which,
if you haven't done already, should totally join.

This one popped up, made by ialex87, which uses a
[3D printed frame from Thingiverse][stl] to which he glued a wooden frame
to make it look like a photo frame.

<blockquote class="reddit-card" data-card-created="1606506563">
<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/joncw6/nothing_much_but_my_honest_work/">Nothing much, but my honest work!</a> from <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant">r/homeassistant</a>
</blockquote>

Next, Invinciberry shared his version:

<blockquote class="reddit-card" data-card-created="1606506801">
<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/jw6g9m/now_lets_wall_mount_this_thing/">Now let's wall mount this thing.</a> from <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant">r/homeassistant</a>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//embed.redditmedia.com/widgets/platform.js" charset="UTF-8"></script>

Both look very slick! Thanks for sharing!

[stl]: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2853298

## Arm your alarm by brushing your teeth...

Automatically arm your alarm, when Home Assistant detects you are
using your toothbrush... Why? Because we can! 😎

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Have you ever seen a house alarm system controlled by a toothbrush? Here our <a href="https://twitter.com/VanderbiltInd?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VanderbiltInd</a> alarm is integrated into <a href="https://twitter.com/home_assistant?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@home_assistant</a> . Our toothbrush is ble enabled, it’s state is read by an ESP32 chip and sent into <a href="https://twitter.com/home_assistant?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@home_assistant</a> <a href="https://t.co/T9XGi1Zjmb">pic.twitter.com/T9XGi1Zjmb</a></p>&mdash; Ian (@imduffy15) <a href="https://twitter.com/imduffy15/status/1329569523855478784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2020</a>
</blockquote>

## Home Assistant Conference

This isn't a highlight yet, but without a doubt, it is definitely is going to
become one of the highlights of this year: The Home Assistant Conference.

Sunday, 13 December, we'll be looking back at last year; but more importantly,
lots of great talks are planned by speakers from our community about all
different kinds of subjects:

<a href="/conference"><img src='/images/conference/schedule.png' alt='Home Assistant Conference Schedule' class='no-shadow'></a>

Above all, some new and exciting stuff is going to be announced as well! So,
ensure you don't miss it.

<a class="btn" href="https://hopin.to/events/home-assistant-conference">Get your $1 ticket</a>

Or, check the [Home Assistant Conference page](/conference) for other ways on
how to watch.

## Got a tip for the next edition?

Have you seen (or made) something awesome, interesting, unique, amazing, inspirational, unusual or funny, using Home Assistant?

[Click here to send us your Community Highlight suggestion](/suggest-community-highlight).

Also, don't forget to share your creations with us via Social Media:

- Twitter it! Be sure to mention [@home_assistant][twitter]
- Share it on our [Facebook group][facebook-group]
- Post it to our [subreddit][reddit]
- Tag [@homeassistant][instagram] on Instagram
- Or via chat, drop us a line in the [#lounge at Discord][chat]

See you next edition!

[chat]: https://www.home-assistant.io/join-chat
[facebook-group]: https://www.facebook.com/groups/HomeAssistant/
[instagram]: https://www.instagram.com/homeassistant/
[reddit]: https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant
[twitter]: https://www.twitter.com/home_assistant