I use mine for a jukebox with various playlists. Allows anyone in the house to scan a tag. You can also have them do anything a button can do (run a script, turn on/off devices, etc.

I used to use SmartThings up until the announcement killing off WebCORE. I well fully into Home Assistant using Zigbee and ZWave both. HIGHLY recommend it, though there is work to set it up.

I use quite a bit of NodeRed as well for some of my more complex automations, and use the native HA automations for things like button mappings or simple scripts.

I started to play around with WLED and integrated a whole mess of LED lights to HA. I’d also recommend ESPHome so you can build your own devices. Voice control, water flow rate sensors, etc.

Oh sorry, I meant that with an nfc tag reader you don’t need the smart phone. Apologies that I wasn’t clear.

Not if you build an NFC tag reader! Then anyone can scan tags! Great for music jukeboxes!

I think as long as the model you are looking for supports Z-Wave, you’re good.

I have Schlage locks integrated via Z-Wave. All local, can poll for battery levels, supports physical key unlocks ( and can differentiate logging events between key, code, and HA service unlocks)

I’m happy with the capabilities.

PiHole, Plex and the related “*arr” apps. I also self-host my home automation platform (Home Assistant).

Do you use Plex at all? One fun integration is to turn the lights off automatically when something starts to play, then turn them back on when paused/stopped. It’s fun to see the lights auto-dim as media starts to play.

It’s easier for me to control my Sonos devices through Home Assistant and dashboards I’ve created, rather than using the Sonos app itself. It’s like they hired some McKinsey consultants to make the app as useless as it can be.