{"id":50,"date":"2026-03-24T17:20:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T01:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/satchnet.io\/?p=50"},"modified":"2026-03-24T17:23:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T01:23:35","slug":"google-ha-adventure-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/satchnet.io\/?p=50","title":{"rendered":"How I Paid Google $5 to Access My Own Devices, Then Fought Their Console for 6 Hours"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A tale of OAuth hell, quota purgatory, and the sweet victory of saying “Hey Google, turn on Test Switch”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The Mission<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It started innocently enough. I wanted to connect Google Home to Home Assistant so I could voice control things that Google doesn’t natively support. Maybe yell at my Tesla to charge. Perhaps get a sarcastic weather report from my local Ollama instance. You know, normal homelab shit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I didn’t realize was that I was about to enter the ninth circle of Google Console Hell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act I: The $5 Shakedown<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First, you need to understand that Google charges you $5 to access the Nest Device Access API. Five dollars. To access devices you already own<\/strong>. Devices sitting in your own house<\/strong>. Google looked at the smart home market and said, “You know what this needs? A cover charge.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fine. Whatever. I paid the $5. I’m a professional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act II: Pub\/Sub? More Like Pub\/Suffering<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Setting up the Nest integration requires something called Pub\/Sub, which is Google’s way of saying “we’re going to make you create a messaging queue just to know when your doorbell rings.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The setup instructions said to add a service account as a Publisher. Easy enough. I pasted in cloud-device-manager@system.gserviceaccount.com<\/code> like a good boy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google:<\/strong> “Email addresses and domains must be associated with an active Google Account.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What? It’s YOUR service account, Google. YOU made it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three searches later, I found the magic incantation: sdm-publisher@googlegroups.com<\/code>. Because of course it’s a Google Group. Why would anything make sense?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act III: Project Quota: A Horror Story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With Nest working, I moved on to the Google Assistant integration. This requires creating a project in the Google Home Developer Console. Simple, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google:<\/strong> “Resource has been exhausted. Check quota.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had two active projects. TWO. Apparently, Google’s definition of “exhausted” is different from mine. I’ve seen my toddler’s toy box more exhausted than my project quota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started deleting old projects like a madman. “My First Project”? Gone. “BMC Services Group” from a business I forgot existed? Terminated. I was a project-killing machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google:<\/strong> “Resource has been exhausted.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT. I just deleted projects!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turns out, deleted projects go into a 30-day “soft delete” limbo where they still count against your quota. Because Google hates you specifically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act IV: The Quota Increase Request<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I submitted a quota increase request. Google’s form asked why I needed more projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Setting up Home Assistant smart home integration.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translation: “Please let me control my own lights.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They approved it in about an hour, which was genuinely shocking. I had prepared myself for a 2-week wait and a blood sacrifice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act V: The Console That Wouldn’t Save<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Project quota? Fixed. Time to create my cloud-to-cloud integration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I filled out all the fields. Device types? Selected all of them because I’m not doing this twice. OAuth settings? Configured. Fulfillment URL? Entered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I clicked Save.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The page hung. And hung. Chrome asked if I wanted to kill it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I switched to Firefox. Same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The console just… didn’t want to save. It would spin for 90 seconds, then dump me back to a blank form. I watched my carefully entered data vanish into the void three times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the fourth attempt, it hung for two full minutes. I was about to throw my laptop out the window when I noticed something: the integration had actually been created. It saved. It just didn’t bother telling me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google’s UX team, if you’re reading this: what the actual fuck?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act VI: “Light” Is The Only Device Type<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Remember when I said I selected all device types? Yeah, Google only saved “Light.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went back and selected them all again. Saved. Checked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still just “Light.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point, I had been at this for about five hours. I decided Light would be fine. Most voice control is lights anyway. I’ll fight this battle another day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act VII: The Attic of Misfit Devices<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Finally, I linked Home Assistant to Google Home. It worked! Devices appeared!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…including duplicates of things Google already controlled natively. My Nest thermostat showed up twice. A Wemo switch I forgot existed emerged from the depths. A light named “Shrek” in my kid’s room decided to make an appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tried to delete the duplicates. Google wouldn’t let me \u2014 they were coming from Home Assistant now, so I couldn’t remove them from Google Home directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My solution? I created a room called “Attic” and dumped all the duplicates there. Out of sight, out of mind. They can live in the attic with the Christmas decorations and my broken dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Payoff<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After all that suffering, I created a test input_boolean in Home Assistant, synced my devices, and said the magic words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Hey Google, turn on Test Switch.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it fucking worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six hours of wrestling with OAuth, quotas, hanging consoles, and mysterious Pub\/Sub permissions \u2014 all for the privilege of toggling a virtual switch with my voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here’s the thing: now I can voice control anything<\/strong> Home Assistant touches. Scripts. Automations. Entities. I can chain voice commands to Ollama and get sarcastic weather reports. I can yell at my Tesla (once I set up Tessie integration). The possibilities are endless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was it worth it? Ask me again after I build that voice-activated weather roast system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lessons Learned<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. Google charges you to access your own devices.<\/strong> Accept this and move on.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Deleted projects haunt you for 30 days.<\/strong> Plan accordingly.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Google’s Developer Console will hang.<\/strong> Don’t panic. It might have worked anyway.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Create an “Attic” room in Google Home.<\/strong> You’ll need it for duplicate devices.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. sdm-publisher@googlegroups.com<\/code> is the Pub\/Sub publisher.<\/strong> Write this down. Tattoo it on your arm. You’ll need it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Always add input_boolean<\/code> to your exposed domains.<\/strong> Your AI assistant will forget to tell you this until you’ve already restarted Home Assistant twice.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    What’s Next<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • Voice-activated sarcastic weather reports via Ollama<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Tesla voice control through Home Assistant<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Probably more fights with Google’s console<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Therapy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
      \n\n\n\n

      Dave runs a homelab at where he documents his adventures in self-hosted chaos. He paid Google $5 and regrets nothing. Mostly.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      A tale of OAuth hell, quota purgatory, and the sweet victory of saying “Hey Google, turn on Test Switch” The Mission It started innocently enough. I wanted to connect Google Home to Home Assistant so I could voice control things that Google doesn’t natively support. Maybe yell at my Tesla to charge. Perhaps get a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-assistant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/satchnet.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/satchnet.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/satchnet.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/satchnet.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/satchnet.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/satchnet.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53,"href":"https:\/\/satchnet.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions\/53"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/satchnet.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/satchnet.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/satchnet.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}