#hardware-archived

1 messages · Page 15 of 1

queen vessel
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The -ea has an external antenna for better range

cold moon
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and is there no workaround?

queen vessel
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I think it’s only the eqsmart thermostats

cold moon
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ah good to know i havent played with the olimex esp32 poe or any other poe yet

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i see

queen vessel
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That’s the only one I know of

cold moon
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when adding my xaiomi temp/hum sensors they needed a bind key to add securely but i suppose that isnt pairing

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although i do have bluetooth (built in using old laptop with haos)

queen vessel
cold moon
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i had to unhide my IoT ssid (i didnt do it for security through obscurity i just saw no reason to have it confuse people when searching for wifi) because the esp32 with esphome wouldnt connect because it tries to scan first and find best AP

queen vessel
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If you’re using a VM, I definitely would not recommend using a local adapter

cold moon
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i saw fast_connect: true as a workaround and taht worked, but then it joins to w/e AP it wants on boot and not necessarily the one with the best signal which to me is sub-par

cold moon
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i moved from a vm to haos on an old laptop cuz i figure fuck if my server is down i dont want smart home down too

queen vessel
cold moon
queen vessel
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Yes

cold moon
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thinks of nice way to say people are dumb / dont follow directions

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lol

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i've seen most issues here with vm and usb passthru are virtualbox users that followed some youtube tutorial

queen vessel
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It’s nicer when people use the proxies actually, since they are pretty painless, and no virtual box involved.

cold moon
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yea

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unraid makes usb passthru dead simple

unique lantern
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They're also just cheaper and more convenient. I was able to cover my house with 2 ESP32s

cold moon
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and easy to passthru the entire device if needed and mobo supports it / you buy a pcie card

tacit pilot
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Thanks so much!

cold moon
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and they can double as sensors or whatever

tacit pilot
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@uncut ridge ^

queen vessel
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I also like the proxies, because they can be powered over ethernet, and I have a few inside socket boxes in the yard to reach the gate locks. Hopefully to monitor the LPG soon

cold moon
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LPG?

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socket boxes?

queen vessel
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Liquid propane

cold moon
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sounds firey

queen vessel
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Flemoon Large Outdoor Electrical Box (12.5 x 8.5 x 5 inch), IP54 Waterproof Outdoor Extension Cord Cover Weatherproof, Protect Outlet, Plug, Socket, Timer, Power Strip, Holiday Light Decoration, Black https://a.co/d/78gQFie (example only)

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Not using that one

cold moon
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ah i see

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humidity doesnt creep in there?

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like permeate through the plastic

queen vessel
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At least the ones I have are sealed and I don’t have a problem with it going on the 8 years

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Ymmv. Depends on your climate

unique lantern
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IP54 is fairly well sealed

pearl glade
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Good to know! I have hue bulbs and I'm still shopping for switches. I'm thinking Lutrons no neutral switch. Given price I imagine it will work fine, but what can I look for to know if they will be compatible?

uncut ridge
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is there a reason to use this when its bluetooth 4 when that isnt the latest standard? I guess i dont understand how this is ranked as one of the best bluetooth devices to use but its only bluetooth 4?

tacit pilot
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I do have one BT "proxy", but it's actually a dedicated one for switchbot (different project)

uncut ridge
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what is a bluetooth proxy?

tacit pilot
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Otherwise the only BT devices I control are Valve Index base stations and they are the same room as my HA instance where I have the BT dongle plugged in

tacit pilot
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Was added recently

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I kinda purposely stay away from BT devices because of what I've heard and experienced with them

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Maybe I just have a bad dongle but my BT experience has been really poor

winged knoll
tacit pilot
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Wish I liked them more because there are some good devices out there. And I really appreciate the work draco has been doing

uncut ridge
queen vessel
winged knoll
uncut ridge
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thats what we are told to believe

winged knoll
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So, obviously you need to buy 5, not 4, because bigger is better

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I mean, that's why you should be buying WiFi 7 gear

tacit pilot
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I mean I wouldn't really say that's marketing is it? BT is "better" than 4, it's just that the drivers need to be smoothed out

queen vessel
winged knoll
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Marketing is also why so many people want a Pi for running HA when it's far from the best choice

tacit pilot
winged knoll
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Better to buy something that's stable and performs well than try to live on the bleeding edge

queen vessel
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Also connect everything with Ethernet.

tacit pilot
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Controller side I can, well, control. If devices are a crapshoot well then that's kinda the problem. I'm just not gonna risk it

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And hasn't BT as a technology been like way overloaded?

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Like it was never meant to be used for audio. Not sure if that is still relevant

real fractal
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Anyone know specifically which Roth SoftLine thermostat works with HA? Is it any of them but you need the WiFi add-on to make it work with their app? Is that the device with the API?

queen vessel
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Also need to add this to the docs: The Bluetooth integrations employs automatic failover and automatic connection path logic to achieve high availability. When adding multiple proxies to increase range or available connection slots, be sure to separate them enough to avoid interference with each other.

queen vessel
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Even if you have a working local adapter adding a proxy can help if you have a range issue. It will figure out the best path

tacit pilot
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Well the base stations are all the same same fairly small room as the dongle

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And they are what's filling up my log

queen vessel
uncut ridge
outer knotBOT
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@uncut ridge When using Discord's Reply feature it defaults to pinging the person you reply to, which can get frustrating for the target. Use Shift + click on the Reply option, or click @ ON to @ OFF to stop this - on the right side of the compose bar.

You have to change this every time (thank the Discord devs for that).

boreal vessel
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Not sure where to ask, but I've been using ISY 994 for Insteon device control and a ZWAVE USB stick for ZWAVE control. Should I look at upgrading to the eisy now that ISY is discontinued? I feel like having the ISY in the mix added something else to break, but I hate to give you my already installed devices

gloomy spoke
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there isn't any reason to change now if you don't need anything else from the ISY

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I'm essentially using my ISY994 as a GUI for Insteon linking/scenes and I have all logic involving them in HA

boreal vessel
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I just get that shiny object itch -- and trying to think ahead about what WOULD I be able to do with the newer tech

gloomy spoke
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I would get nothing out of upgrading to eisy

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IMHO, if you want to use PG3, you have to migrate. If not, you don't

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why someone would choose PG3 over moving that functionality to HA is beyond me

boreal vessel
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I love my ISY, it's been very solid. Just concerned I'll need to move away from Insteon sooner or later as things fail. But I think that Zwave is the current sweet spot, until Matter devices really start to multiply. Just hate to think that I'm making the same mistake that I feel like I made going with Insteon instead of Zwave 15 years ago

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What is PG3?

gloomy spoke
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Polyglot3. It's their "integration" store

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if you don't know what it is, moving to a newer box won't help you

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Your existing Insteon devices should continue to work fine until they fail, and then you should make a choice about whether to double-down on Insteon. Given their history, I would take that opportunity to move to something else, and HA supports ZWave, Zigbee, and will support Thread/Matter

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HA also supports Wifi devices, of course, depending on who makes them. Lots of options

glossy prism
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Reminds me...I can't believe Wink hasn't totally failed yet

gloomy spoke
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Really, the whole point of PG2->PG3 in the UDI universe is locking down the "integrations" and turning it into a real "store" where you can charge for them. There's nothing about it that interests me in the slightest

boreal vessel
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Thanks for y'alls advice!

cold moon
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You’re welcome

low nymph
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I've got my SkyConnect and I'm wondering if ZHA is recommended over Z2M. Especially considering the thread/matter support down the line. I'm currently using deconz with a conbee II so I'll be migrating either way

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I'd honestly prefer Z2M so the zigbee network will remain active through HA restarts, but if it's not going to work with matter / thread then it doesn't seem worth it

unique lantern
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#zigbee-archived but the short answer is that Z2M only has experimental support for the SkyConnect radio

low nymph
night atlas
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not sure if it's hardware or instalation, but a laptop's fancurve runs indepenant from HAOs right in most cases. as in it should just turn on the fan if the laptop hardware thinks it's to hot

muted wasp
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Hi all. would anyone have an idea on best way to acomplish this:
I have a wall switch with two switches. I just want to have their states reported into HA. the switches would not be connected to anything else in the house, just need their info in HA. in the wall cavity I do have 220v (L, N and earth)
I do have a zigbee network throught the house so maybe using that? but i havent found any hardware specific to reading switches states. I was looking at the sonoff Mini but that only has 1 input.

summer shell
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Sadly it looks like my old non-rolling code garage door opener is dying.... Going to have to get it replaced. I currently have a dry contact relay on the unit in line with my wall switch to close the circuit and open the door. I am reading this doesn't work with more modern garage door openers and I frankly want a local solution to make life easier. I found this little neat project and wanted to know if anyone is actively using it and their thoughts. https://paulwieland.github.io/ratgdo/

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Thanks!

tacit pilot
tacit pilot
winged knoll
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I'd suggest hitting up the search feature, it's been discussed to death in this channel

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The short answer is just about any PC from the last decade

queen vessel
tacit pilot
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Ok. Not saying I disagree, was just wondering what you thought

tacit pilot
queen vessel
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oh. the RTL8761BU one. Yeah the linux drivers are garbage.

tacit pilot
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:/

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It was in the list of "known working" before

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I had a small tplink one before that straight up didn't work

queen vessel
tacit pilot
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Yeah, just a bummer cuz I got it just for HA and there was no high performance list at the time

queen vessel
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It took a couple months to buy all those adapters and test them.

ruby harbor
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Can I use a microphone of either USB or 3.5mm jack style and get that working with HAOS on the Pi 4 B?

cold moon
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what's the end goal?

ruby harbor
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To listen to the sound of everything around where the microphone is placed.

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Even recording it.

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It would be nice to go into the dashboard and hear what is going on. Also, to be able to go into files to see audio tracks that got record when motion detection went off.

copper juniper
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i use a pi zero w for that ryu

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uses usb mic and rec

cold moon
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might be worth just buying a phat dac tho

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or knockoff

ruby harbor
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I see several people talking about getting a USB and 3.5 mm jack working and I assume they are using it on HAOS but they don't mention how they are using it.

copper juniper
cold moon
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Not cool

copper juniper
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yeah; dedicated pi zero

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record to ram drive

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move to smb for later use

cold moon
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Careful tho. Even single party consent states say ‘reasonable expectation of privacy’ and it’s illegal to record someone where they live without consent

ruby harbor
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I have homeassist on this Pi. Will these commands work the same?

copper juniper
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outside?

ruby harbor
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Bascially, does this OS swap mess with the method you linked which seems to rely on the original OS.

copper juniper
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probally

cold moon
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It depends on each state. It would be worth paying a lawyer or at least searching for past cases to see how it was ruled for your state

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I worked at a security camera company and our in house lawyers wouldn’t let us have mics on for any cameras cuz it wasn’t worth dealing with litigation

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And this is in Texas with single party consent laws

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I’m not sure the best course of action sans running away from crazy people

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Even if that isn’t an option

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You could get crafty and set them up but I wouldn’t suggest talking about it with anyone if you feel that’s your only recourse

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🤐

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Sorry you’re going through that tho

copper juniper
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so unless yelling happens i don;t care

blazing hawk
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Ok, installed Ubuntu, set up the VM and started configured Home Assistant. That wasn’t so bad. Anyone else have issues discovering LIFX bulbs?

static sapphire
unique lantern
idle escarp
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Sorry, thank you. I'll delete my message.

tacit burrow
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Hmm, anyone remember the magic spell to make lenovo thinkcentre book from usb OK? Something about bios/uefi?

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AH I think it's "secure boot" setting.

hard tinsel
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Are there any decent robot vacuums yet? By decent I mean, some form of local integration and isn't a paperweight if the manufacturer drops support or goes offline

zealous dune
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anything flashable with Valetudo

hard tinsel
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haha true, I do currently have a Dreame D9 with Valetudo, was just thinking about buying a second vacuum, and was curious if anyone is actually doing it right yet

zealous dune
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nope

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the closest is local control of xiaomi vacuums

hard tinsel
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fair enough, at least we have that, thanks 🙂

blazing hawk
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Would someone mind explaining the different types of firmware you can flash? Tuya seems to be the most popular but apparently newer wi-fi chips don’t support flashing. How does ESPHome compare?

winged knoll
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Tuya ... you probably mean Tasmota

blazing hawk
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Ah yes, my primary use right now is for lightbulbs not supported by a HA integration like Feit Electric and Sengled.

winged knoll
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Sengled do Zigbee bulbs too

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Tasmota requires MQTT, ESPHome doesn't

blazing hawk
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I see, so it looks like Tasmota can be done wirelessly while ESPHome requires disassembly and soldering?

winged knoll
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No

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It's usually down to the hardware whether you can OTA or not

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#diy-archived can tell you all about both of those, and if you tell them the hardware in question (make and model) they can tell you about what's possible, and how

blazing hawk
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Thanks!

frozen arrow
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Hiya. I'm trying to use a few bluetooth LE devices through my home, but it's old brick construction and I can't get much distance from the central cupboard before the signal drops off. I'm using the xiaomi temp/humid sensors with flashed firmware and they work great from close proximity. Is there an adapter anyone can recommend, maybe with an external antennae that would be more likely to give whole home coverage?

frozen arrow
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if anyone has an idea please tag me so I don't miss it, as I need to change offices now

sand oxide
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Hello, I'm noticing that SkyConnect is missing drivers in Device Manager (Windows). Do I need to install those?

winged knoll
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You should just be able to pass the USB device through to the VM

sand oxide
winged knoll
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Then maybe you do shrug

sand oxide
outer knotBOT
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@sand oxide When using Discord's Reply feature it defaults to pinging the person you reply to, which can get frustrating for the target. Use Shift + click on the Reply option, or click @ ON to @ OFF to stop this - on the right side of the compose bar.

You have to change this every time (thank the Discord devs for that).

winged knoll
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I have no idea...

gloomy spoke
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You may need the cp210x driver for the USB to serial converter

sand oxide
gloomy spoke
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Doesn't sound like it

sand oxide
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Sorry, the cp210x reference got me thinking that might be it. In other news, SkyConnect has finally shown up in the virtual box.

tacit pilot
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Is there any consensus on power-line ethernet? Like would it be preferred to wifi? I know if you can do ethernet in general that's the recommended approach, but wondering if that recommendation would carry to PLC.

winged knoll
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Powerline can be good, if your wiring is up to scratch. It can also be anything but

tacit pilot
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Might give it a shot. But if I were to say if it were good or not, I'd say not since it's an old apartment lol

cold moon
tacit pilot
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Kinda surprised by that

winged knoll
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I used it in my last house, because of brick walls, lots of WiFi, and the challenges of running cables. Worked flawlessly.

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The problem is, it's got ... issues. If the wiring isn't good enough you lose a lot of speed. Older generations also screw with amateur radio.

tacit pilot
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Seems like it has the potential to be the perfect combo with POE

tacit pilot
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Can you do powerline and poe at the same time?

winged knoll
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You do know what PoE is?

jagged crypt
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my powerline story is from the mid 00's, where i bought a system to connect living room up in a rental unit. Connected one part on, hooked up my laptop and promptly got DHCP from a neighbor who was using a powerline adapter also. We living in stand alone houses next to each other.... 🙂 I returned the unit.... I suspect things are a little more secure currently.

gentle fossil
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Fiber > Eth > MoCa > Wifi > Powerline for me

jagged crypt
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later, in a different location i ran ethernet because the wifi interference in the building complex was so bad, I could barely stream ISO files 50 feet with line of sight.

north trellis
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I'm looking for a good HA integrated outdoor irrigation system, what do you suggest?

jagged crypt
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I'm a huge fan of WIRED connections for anything important. Wifi is low bandwidth solution, but 99% of what people need are low-bandwidth.

cold moon
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Coax can die a fiery death

gentle fossil
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ey they do 5gbit nowadays

cold moon
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Only thing coax is good for is it doubles as a whip

tacit pilot
stoic falcon
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Careful with PLC, some implementations are only good with low data volume applications, e.g. they can only handle 10Kb/s

gentle fossil
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even having a steady connection was troublesome for me with these powerline adapters,
once a month they just disconnected and didn't see each other until plugging one of them out and back in

tacit pilot
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Just chain it with a smart plug 🙂

stoic falcon
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If you need more distance then a mesh tech would be something to consider. e.g. Zigbee

gentle fossil
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I chained them to the bin

tacit pilot
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lol

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My roommate at my old place was using it for his xbox so I assume he was able to get fairly high bandwidth

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It was a newer building though

cold moon
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I’m sure the dropped packets helped him rubber band and avoid getting shot

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giggle

stoic falcon
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Descipher is trying to hold back the bad jokes

tacit pilot
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George is gettin upset!

sand oxide
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Alright, so I have to ask, is anyone here successfully using the SkyConnect with a VM on windows? I feel as though I've gotten the VM to recognize the device, however, I can't add it to ZHA. As far as I understand, it should automatically find it. If not, it will ask you to manually enter some values (which I've done with no success). If anyone can provide pointers, it would be much appreciated. During my research I've found plenty of horror stories about SkyConnect being unreliable or not working at all and that's mostly without even adding the complexity of running HA in a VM.

valid frigate
mossy hemlock
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Whats everyone's options of running hassio on a server in docker as a VM or a seperate device altogether? Thinking of splitting hassio from my unraid server incase the server dies or fails to come back online?

winged knoll
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You don't run "hassio in docker"

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Hassio is the (3 years dead) name for Home Assistant OS, you run that in a VM or on dedicated hardware

gloomy elbow
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Also, considering what's happening in #general-archived right now: not using Unraid seems like the way to go 🤪

tacit burrow
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@mossy hemlock HAOS in a VM on justabout anything works great.

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vmware, virtualbox, proxmox, kvm, etc

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Yes, it's a VM that runs supervisor/docker, but you don't need to worry too much about it, and all the add-ons will run in the VM too.

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Just One Thing to move around

mossy hemlock
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Oh is that all the VM is. I was hoping for something a little more direct without any sort of virtualization involved

cold moon
tacit burrow
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@mossy hemlock I doubt you'd ever notice the overhead, on anything except a pi. There's basically no overhead in docker, but a little in VM. But HA itself doesn't use/need much.

mossy hemlock
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@tacit burrow I am looking to get an old thin client and run HA on that with zero tier and ombi

tacit burrow
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🤷‍♂️ I never used zero tier or ombi. Have lots of love for SFF boxes from ~5 years ago, with proxmox.

amber frigate
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the pc I was intending to use for HA came in today but I hadn't considered the fan noise of a machine running 24/7. Thus I'm kinda considering sending it back and getting a pi or something like it after all. I know some people's smart homes outgrow running on a pi, but considering I have zeor interest in running frigate or anything like that, should I really be concerned?

tacit burrow
amber frigate
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it's a hp elitedesk 705 g2

tacit burrow
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pi are gutless, and hard to get right now; better with a sff box. THat one looks OK?
Does it have SSD? What's making the noise?

amber frigate
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cpu fan, I don't know if something is wrong with it but it drove me insane after 2 hours already

tacit burrow
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I can barely hear my pretty-similar lenovo box, which is right on the desk next to me

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There's a few good videos on how to make those quieter. At least adjusting the power/fan settings in bios. It might be set to max-crank

amber frigate
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I tried to have a look in bios but it only lets me bump the minimum fan speed, not reduce it 🥲

tacit burrow
amber frigate
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max crank is absolutely unbearable but even when it's fairly low it's just unbelievably annoying because it's a tiny fan I think. It's noisier than my full tower on idle 😐

tacit burrow
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Maybe google, see if other people have the same issue? Maybe your fan just needs replace.

jagged crypt
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?

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these should all be silent, if you just bought the unit, ask the seller to buy you the replacement fan maybe

amber frigate
tacit burrow
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@jagged crypt I just bought my second thinkcentre. Was supposed to be a 6500t, but got a 7500t instead. Small Win 🙂

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But I had to buy a DP cable, so. Meh.

amber frigate
unique lantern
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That sounds like a bad bearing

gloomy elbow
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Replacing fans isn't too bad. Noctua has good reviews 🙂

cold moon
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Arctic are a good cheap alternative to noctua without the price gouging

amber frigate
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do any of them make something that would fit the format?

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its obviously sort of laptop form factor thing, kinda seems very proprietary

zealous dune
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You can probably find replacement fans

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AliExpress and eBay

amber frigate
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yeah probably could. Just annoying as I bought the machine specifically for running HA etc. Came in today so could just as well return it. But it's cheaper than a pi 4gb with a lot more power...

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bit of a dilemma

jagged crypt
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I thought you bought a SFF not a laptop

amber frigate
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it is an SFF

jagged crypt
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oh, i was looking at the video

amber frigate
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Yeah sorry that's not my vid

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It just kinda sounds the same

jagged crypt
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sorry, didn't pay attention and notice it wasn't yours 🙂

amber frigate
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No problem lol

jagged crypt
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just get a replacement $12 fan

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ask the seller for a discount

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or a replacement unit. You don't expect cosmetically perfect, but fans need to work for these to be functional

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Not sure on your location, so $12 may be 12 euro, gbp, or ?

unique lantern
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The question is, is it worth going through the hassle of returning a working machine and buying something else to save the cost of a replacement fan?

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Personally, I'd rather spend the $12 and get a working fan than pack the thing back up, send it back, wait for a refund, then start the process of buying a new machine all over again

jagged crypt
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i would probably just order the fan, and then ask for a discount, and go from there.

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but time/money questions are different for everyone

cold moon
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Was it ordered on eBay? If so the guy has to make it right or eBay forces him to..

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They’re so buyer friendly it’s gross

mossy hemlock
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I was hoping to run hasso as the core os which is docker and then have an addon for swag duckdns and ombi. So these would always be up if my server had issues like the array failed o start the docker system corrupted

tacit pilot
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I'm kinda shocked to find that two nearly identical ESP32 devices have significantly different BT signal strength. I'm playing around with ESPresense and there's over a 2x difference in the reported distances with the beacon right next to the devices. Even with the ESP devices swapped out for testing in the same physical spot. These are the two ESP32's:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08D5ZD528/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0718T232Z

jagged crypt
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the first link i bought an returned for horrible (<10 feet clear view) wifi signal strength

tacit pilot
jagged crypt
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it's the same antenna

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i was trying to to the pressence detection, and could never get anything consistent

tacit pilot
jagged crypt
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i haven't reinstalled the esppresense on the second units yet

tacit pilot
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Also what's the difference between those two units? The "WROOM-32U" and "ESP32-DevKitC"

jagged crypt
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the newer units are esp32-wrover-e (that i bought, not in general)

tacit pilot
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Seems like it's ESP32-WROOM-32U vs 32D. I'll have to look up what that means

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Ah no I think I see, one has an external antenna connector

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You got the one with the built in antenna though it seems

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Well I guess I'll give these a shot then. Even the one you pointed out you had problems with hasn't had the best strength

jagged crypt
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yeah, and the camera unit (which works at low quality right now)

tacit pilot
jagged crypt
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i'm just playing with esp32 stuff to see if there is anything i want to do with it

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so yeah, the camera works, but nothing special 10fps 640x480 maybe

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i got more fps when i turned the quality to "crap"

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i wanted to do the bt presence thing, but realized I don't actually carry my phone (the only bt beacon) around all day, so may stick with motion sensors for stuff for now. But do want to play with the boards to see if there are other things i can do with them.

tacit pilot
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Yeah I eventually hope to use this with a smart watch. But yeah I have the same concern about not actually having a tracker on me

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I wonder why

zealous dune
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Because it's built by Adafruit and not an unknown factory in China

sage topaz
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Woah, you can use an internal layer in a PCB to run a max length trace, and then dump a load of power into it to heat the board up to be self-soldering: https://youtu.be/r0csHZveVvY 🤯

tacit pilot
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That's pretty cool

sly owl
#

Anyone found a way to make Samsung Smart Tags ring without going into the SmartThings app or visiting findmymobile.samsung.com?

north fossil
#

Anyone ever had a sensor battery randomly dip incredibly low? I have a Tuya door sensor connected by ZHA to. Sonoff zigbee dongle and the battery has randomly dropped 70% of its battery in literally just a few hours.. I don't think it's a correct reading.

I rebooted HA and tried new batteries. No change. So weird.

amber frigate
plucky drift
jagged crypt
floral sun
#

Hello. I'm having trouble adding my Sonoff Zigbee 3 stick. But the error message isn't very descript. Anyone have any ideas?

#

Oh I can't post pictures. it just says "Error"

winged knoll
floral sun
#

thanks

north fossil
frosty field
#

Hello,
Not my best ever idea, but I'm trying to conserve cash right now. I am considering using my old PC-Engines/Netgate APU1D4 as a Frigate box. My Zimaboard is starting to get overloaded with all of the stuff I'm trying to run on it.

#

It has 2x MiniPCIe slots, so I'm considering dropping in a Coral AI card and a Crystal HD video decoder.

#

The APUs have no video console, only Serial. Setting up something like Debian might be a bit daunting, but certainly possible.

winged knoll
#

You can create an install ISO that auto-installs and reboots the host

frosty field
#

The part I'm not sure about is the Crystal HD Video decoder - it's a really old card for one thing, so have drivers been maintained? Also, I don't know if it'll correctly do video acceleration for FFMPEG any more, due to it's age.

#

That is, does FFMPEG even support it, even if there is a working driver?

elfin jackal
#

Has anyone had experience integrating smart curtains into their Home Assistant setup? I'm looking for recommendations on which devices/brands to use and any tips for the integration process.

gloomy elbow
#

Aqara #zigbee-archived curtain motors are excellent, though you need thick enough curtain poles as I discovered on one curtain. Switchbot bluetooth ones are good, but I find Bluetooth to be a trickier protocol than Zigbee.

cold moon
#

Trickier or evil

kind wind
#

reading through old posts about zigbee light switches brings me to a new question: If you have a smart light switch, must you also have a smart bulb? (seems redundant but thought I should ask).

gloomy elbow
#

No. It's usually either or

#

If you have a smart switch and a smart bulb the switch needs to be in bypass/smart bulb mode where it doesn't turn the power off

cold moon
#

it's the superior solution just also way more expensive

kind wind
#

ok. I was thinking smart dimmer switch and dimmable LED bulb. maybe I should look at smart bulbs tho as the switches are pricey.

gloomy elbow
#

You can get covers for regular switches that you can stick smart buttons on/in which solves the "person wants it to work like it did before" problem.

kind wind
#

when I search for zigbee switches I find a lot of "reviews" of the top 10 "zigbee" switches and more reading reveals some are not using zigbee. it's a bit frustrating.

gloomy elbow
kind wind
frosty field
#

Ok, could someone please refresh my memory: is it the Sonoff R2, the Shelly 1+, neither, or either that I can use with a reed switch (and custom fw) to both sense if my garage door is open or closed and be able to open and close my garage door via HA?

#

I just ordered a heavy duty reed switch, and a Shelly 1+, and now panicking as to whether It was supposed to be the Sonoff, and wondering if I should cancel the Shelly order?

rancid lion
#

I have these rgb led pit lights that use an app called homelinking. the lights are ble and 'work with alexa'. I don't see any integrations listed, nor can I manage uo figure out how to see them.. has anyone ever heard of these? I took one apart and have a pic of the brain, but none of the numbers return any google results I could find

cold moon
#

Nah

#

It’s possible they’re some tuya rebrand or something

#

Do they have a dedicated r/g/b or just ground vcc and data or?

rancid lion
#

there is rgbcw onbthe led strip and +

#

I have homeassist running on an rpi4, and one of my esp32 has bluetooth proxy enabled

#

it was suggested to me from someone to rebrain them, but not sure what to use, or how.. and being rgbcw I haven't found anything really...

cold moon
#

Take a close up pic and upload to Imgur then post here

#

My question above was leading there

#

The best way to use led strips is buy ones you want (such as ws2812b) then buy an esp32 and a psu and diy it

#

Your way works too but then you’re at the mercy of whatever shit china quality you bought usually

#

https://kno.wled.ge/ tons of info here including hardware suggestions, wiring guides and calculator, etc

rancid lion
cold moon
#

Yea it’s an analog strip

#

Rip

#

Needs mosfets to drive those

#

Complicates it

rancid lion
#

oh. so, I am sol

cold moon
#

No

rancid lion
#

or, just making things more harder

cold moon
#

Look at the diagram there

#

Then scroll a bit ‘For analog LEDs, the MOSFETs IRLZ44N or STP55NF06L are good candidates. Partial, example circuit...’

#

And the microcontroller in your pic doesn’t look like an esp device

rancid lion
#

since I have 8 of these in my 1 room, could I make 1 brain and wire all 8 off it?

cold moon
#

Technically

rancid lion
#

I'm thinking I need more time to wrap my brain around this... but seems possibly doable

unique lantern
rancid lion
cold moon
#

I prefer wled with Wi-Fi and all the features wled has

#

There are premade controllers if diy is too scary

unique lantern
#

The 5-in-1 will do RGBCW. Just be mindful of the output limit

rancid lion
#

I am diy my home at the moment. I just learned about esp32, starting to monitor temp humid and motion in all my rooms, hjusg made a high/low water sensor for my sump pit, and a floor water sensor.. sending to mqtt, and i have a pho/laravel app listening and alerting me on thkngs

#

going to write code to servo controls on the dampers of my furnace ducts

#

and relays to shut the dark bathroom exhaust fan off instead of running all darn day

unique lantern
#

This is the one I bought, works great. I use it for single color strips but it's easily switchable between different types. If you want to DIY it though, that's understandable
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09SZ5VC63

cold moon
#

Esphome plus whatever motors you find will be a pretty cool project for dampers

#

Way simpler than arduino sketches

rancid lion
cold moon
#

Yep

rancid lion
#

then I stalled home assist, it does most of the stuff I want, but I'll write the code in php to do what I need... since I know php as that's what I do

cold moon
#

You gotta work on calling home assistant by the right name lol

#

We’re in their server after all

rancid lion
#

it probably will do all I need, if I dive deeper into it

#

and sorry, on my phone, in bed..it's 130am and this is all I am thinking about and can't sleep now... lol

cold moon
#

Lol

#

I have three of those I use around the house

#

Plus like 20 esp32 diy wled installs

#

My disco kitchen

#

I use individually addressable strips not analog though

rancid lion
#

I'm new to all this... thought about doing this for a while, but couldn't figure out what to use, and never looked further... wasgunna use rpi, but that was going to be expensive

cold moon
#

One dig quad can control up to 8 strip ‘segments’ aka different outputs

rancid lion
#

then at Xmas, found out about esp32 and its been all I think about

cold moon
#

Although it’s technically 5 unless you buy an expansion board hat thingy

#

Pi’s have lost their usefulness to me almost completely

#

Then I got into 3d printing and now use one pi per printer for network control of them

rancid lion
#

I'm going to pull my pot light apart again tomorrow, measure voltages and see what all is up, and go from there...

#

octopi was what I used back when mg 3d printer was going

#

but it's been like 4 or 5 years since I did that

#

ok, thanks guys... lots of things to think about... going to explore wled route... I think I need to order more esp32 boards.. lol

#

but I think ditching the app that it cane with, is something that needs yo be done

cold moon
#

Later dude

midnight ibex
#

Morning (or evening depends on your location and your mood)
Is there anyone from here, who has remeha boiler and managed to integrate it to HA?
Based on my research I can get info out of it via the rs485 and opentherm with different hardver, but I have few dark areas.

serene steppe
#

hi
i'm in the market to buy 10m of addressable leds
i would love a 10m addressable RGB+W string that can be controlled with home assistant
do you guys have any recommendation?
afaik i can buy an AIO kit or the string, controller, and power supply separately right?

what do you advice?

I've also find out this https://kno.wled.ge/ that should be compatible with hassio right?
so, if not mistaken, provided that i buy like a WS2812B, WS2811, SK6812 string, with a wifi compatible controller i should be able to control the string through hassio right?

midnight ibex
#

WLED! use wled. It is that best thing that could happend to adressable leds. 😄
You need to do some thinkering though.

slate stream
#

anyone got a vGPU running on Home Assistant OS? Im using Frigate NVR so i could use a nvidia card

cinder sentinel
#

is there a widely recommended kit for ambilight LED TVs? I've noticed there are kits that do it using a camera and visually matching colours, and others use HDMI ports to extract them. I'd like to go with the most recommended options around.

cold moon
#

Hyperion-ng or hyperHDR + led strip of your choice + esp32 running WLED + android Hyperion grabber + nvidia shield tv is the route I went

#

If you don’t have a shield or other android tv box then you need a hdmi capture device or a router LG TV

wispy shale
#

my journey to ambilight DYI has been a disaster so far...

cold moon
#

Not me

wispy shale
#

kept ordering wrong components because i thought i understood how it works and didnt really research

#

and then to top it all off i burned my led strip cuz i thought that it could handle 5v and 12v just fine like normal rgb ones would..

#

think i got it figured out now tho lmao, just waiting for right stuff to arrive

cinder sentinel
cold moon
#

Watch YouTube videos showing off how each looks

#

Then compare that to Hyperion-ng or hyperHDR

#

Night and day

wispy shale
#

i wanted to buy one of those things at first as well

cold moon
#

But your name looks familiar I think I already had this convo with you a few months back lol

wispy shale
#

but then i realized how stupid the whole thing is with having to use a webcam to capture video

#

better build it yourself

cinder sentinel
cinder sentinel
cold moon
#

It was wled

#

Not wled + Hyperion my mistake

cinder sentinel
cinder sentinel
cold moon
#

My way doesn’t require a capture card

cinder sentinel
#

I have a Chromecast with GTV, not sure if that's useful. Not sure what's the NVIDIA shield for tbh

cold moon
#

Sends it over the network to Hyperion addon in haos

#

Then you need to go the hdmi route

#

You can google what an nvidia shield tv is tho

#

Highly recommend them

cinder sentinel
#

I slightly know what it is and don't see the use for it tbh :S

cold moon
#

Ok

cinder sentinel
#

I stream whatever I want to my Chromecast, even PC games with controller, and I can play from the TV. AFAIK that's what the Shield do.

#

anyway, what's the point in the LED setup?

wispy shale
#

i just saw them flash for split second and that was it lol

cinder sentinel
#

ah well, kinda makes sense xD

wispy shale
#

it does yeah but i was so used to using plain RGB strips for years and they can handle both easily

#

so it didnt even occur to me

#

another leasson learned... now im getting the right components

cinder sentinel
#

Im pretty noob too tbh, won't fault you

wispy shale
#

i barely know what im doing lmao but its good fun

cinder sentinel
cold moon
#

Esp32 controls the individually addressable leds (ws2812b in my case) running wled firmware

#

Some use a pi instead

cinder sentinel
#

but doesn't HA with Hyperion do that? Or I got that wrong?

cold moon
cinder sentinel
#

if there's a YT video that explains all this that you can suggest, please do

cold moon
#

I thought about making one

#

Everything smart home made a video on it using a pi and hdmi capture box

unique lantern
cold moon
cinder sentinel
cold moon
#

Also I use hyperHDR now

cold moon
cinder sentinel
#

but honestly haven't see too many examples, so can't really compare

cold moon
#

Also it’s not perfect with black bars but it’s gotten much better

#

And hyperHDR fork makes colors show up that used to not make the leds light up before

cinder sentinel
#

cool. Ok, I see I have yet to understand all the components and its purpose, but I'll search a bit about them to get myself a better idea.

cold moon
#

Hue and govee just “blend” the colors

#

Which looks a shitload worse

cinder sentinel
#

why is the Android app better than an HDMI capture though? Network instead of electricals seems like it's adding delay more than any benefit.

cold moon
#

4k capture cards aren’t cheap

cinder sentinel
cold moon
#

Nvidia shield does 4k so nothing else needed to be able to handle it

cinder sentinel
#

I really thought HA was the one controlling the LEDs. Not something else. What's the connection with HA then? Just to override the controls manually? Or to do the setting remotely?

fervent knoll
#

is there any way to monitor CPU, etc. on HAOS?

outer knotBOT
#
Hardware

Open your Home Assistant instance and show hardware information

cinder sentinel
#

haven't tried tho

unique lantern
#

Two different use-cases, but yeah that will give you metrics over time. The hardware page is for real-time monitoring

copper juniper
fervent knoll
cold moon
cinder sentinel
#

why is 4K needed? LEDs don't have that much resolution tho

drifting grove
#

Hi I'm trying to install home assistant on rasbarry pi 4 but once the image with whale etcher is written on sd trying to reach it between browsers it can't find it, through the app it finds it but from this message error code:-1001 can someone give me a but no?

proud aspen
#

The first boot may be a bit long, try again with your browser 5 to 10min after you powered the pi.

unique lantern
twilit relic
#

is there a general "performance benchmark" i could run on my HAOS RPI4?

#

it feels like I could be getting better performance

jagged crypt
#

you could by swapping out to more powerful machine 🙂

twilit relic
#

like what

jagged crypt
#

(you'll find a number of us here are SFF fans)

twilit relic
#

ah yeah, the SFF solution

jagged crypt
twilit relic
#

well, i'm speaking to other RPI4 owners and they are getting 10x faster performance than me

jagged crypt
#

$150 got me 16gig ram, i5-6500, 256g nvme, 15watt box to run HA on (in my case inside a proxmox VM)

twilit relic
#

so i feel like i need to optimize

jagged crypt
#

memory? things you are running, what's slow?

twilit relic
#

my Node Red Add-on performance

#

i can't get it to call ha service nodes faster than 300ms

#

and others are getting 50ms

jagged crypt
#

what's your memory on the 4?

twilit relic
#

ooo this page looks juicy

#

4GB

#

it sits around 33% usage

jagged crypt
#

i've only poked at node-red, but you are seeing 300ms latency on calls?

twilit relic
#

yep

#

between 300ms and 500ms delay between an event:state change node reaction and the service call node

#

however, if i use a pure HA YAML automation, it's instant.

#

side note - my logger DB in HA is 2.5GB...

#

is that normal?

unique lantern
#

Did you set the retention to something very high?

twilit relic
#

i don't believe i changed it at all, so it's default.

jagged crypt
#

all on SDcard i assume also?

worldly goblet
#

hello, i'm running hass, zigbee and influxdb on 3 different Pi. I'm looking for a single PSU for my 3 Pi. Any know a like to such a psu ?

twilit relic
#

yeah, @jagged crypt - an A2 micro (supposedly the "best" at the time 2020)

twilit relic
jagged crypt
#

i don't use node-red, so can't help you too much. I was looking for obvious OS level tunings.

#

where are you looking at your logger db?

cold moon
#

i used nodered on a pi 4 in the past and had similar cpu usage

#

pi is just not great

twilit relic
#

well it can apparently achieve 50ms service calls from NR, but my particular setup isn't getting that with the same hardware stats as @hollow scaffold

jagged crypt
#

my default home-assisant DB is 200megs

#

did you put "debug" in the logger: config?

gloomy elbow
jagged crypt
#

whoops, i forgot i pushed to mysql, so that DB file is old

twilit relic
#

yeah. working on that too. my original ask tonight was "is there a general benchmark i can run on my hardware"

jagged crypt
#

i don't think the pi's are going to thermal throttle from HA

twilit relic
# 
logger:
  default: warning
  logs:
    custom_components.average: debug
jagged crypt
#

my config, i forgot i installed mariadb
#Drop the recorder data into mariadb
recorder:
db_url: mysql://homeassistant:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

twilit relic
#

i was using maria db for a while, then in 2021 or 2022 it was recommended to go back to the builtin for better performance or compatibility

gloomy elbow
#

MariaDB is much more performant than SQLite

twilit relic
#

ugh. is it compatibile with long term history and all that newer HA core stuff?

#

also, would that cause significant performance changes?

gloomy spoke
#

You can use any of the SQL databases mentioned in the recorder docs. They all support what's needed

gloomy elbow
twilit relic
#

maybe it was a thing for memory card users or hAOS? i dunno. so it sounds like its best overall to switch back to maria db

gloomy spoke
#

Yes

#

Moving your database off of an SDcard is just good advice overall, regardless of the database software

jagged crypt
#

took me a bit, my mariadb is 400megs

gloomy elbow
#

Moving off an SD card is good advice

jagged crypt
#

default answers for optimizations, sd cards are slow for any db. get off sqlite if doing anything beyond simple. ram always helps (don't run influx/grafanna/ha on a 1gig pi3....).

twilit relic
#

how would i move it off the sdcard? a remote maria db on another device? i only have my "weak" little rpi4 here in the house

jagged crypt
#

you can attach SSD via a couple different ways

#

all of these things are why the SFF solution becomes the answer rapidly

twilit relic
#

i've heard horror stories migrating the pi4 to ssd

twilit relic
#

but i also have a nice little POE and power backup for my smart home

jagged crypt
#

time and money decision

unique lantern
jagged crypt
#

spare SD cards, you could backup the existing system, install a new HA on a different HA, restore onto that, and migrate back to maria and see what happens

#

cheap cost in $, couple hours in time

twilit relic
#

hmm. so i guess there's still no answer to, "is there a HA benchmark program i could run"

#

to see if my performance compared to others is normal or abnormal

#

fwiw, i am very time limited and budget limited

jagged crypt
#

your bare hardware benchmark is the same as everyone else with a pi4

#

you are looking for the actual issue or root cause of your difference

#

which is different

#

cpu, disk, configuration, what configuration, etc

twilit relic
#

it's hard to know what "normal or optimal" would be because it differs so much, yeah

jagged crypt
#

yup, you got it

twilit relic
#

i have X number of devices and entities. but how does one tell if it's normal for the scale of items or not - if it's a simple mistake in config?

#

a 7 day history for 350 devices/entities maybe be normal at 2gb, i dunno

jagged crypt
#

depends on what they are logging

#

one a second temp sensors, etc

twilit relic
#

i suppose, for the recorder at least, i could switch to an opt-IN policy rather than an opt-OUT one

#

i don't need temperature records or RSSI changes every 5 seconds from every sensor in my house for 7 days

#

but generally, i can't tell if i'm using home assistant "wrong" or if it's just the massive size of my smart home ecosystem

cold moon
#

massive size of smarthome ecosystem and you're still on a pi?

#

not worth the struggle

jagged crypt
# 
[core-ssh ~]$ time dd if=/dev/zero of=bigfile.delme bs=1G count=10
10+0 records in
10+0 records out

real    0m14.228s
user    0m0.000s
sys     0m10.932s

so i wrote 10gigs SEQUENTIALLY to my disk in 14.5 seconds so 10000/14.2=704megs/second

#

don't forget to run "rm bigfile.delme", and you can change count to something smaller

twilit relic
cold moon
#

i just think it's easy to justify spending a couple hundred bucks or w/e on a decent hardware solution instead of forcing yourself to live within the constraints of a pi4

twilit relic
#

i have 2,229 entities, and multiple add-ons doing stuff

cold moon
#

sincerely, previous pi4 ssd boot haos usersmile

jagged crypt
#

a much better way to get the perf number on your ssd:

[core-ssh ~]$ time sh -c 'sync; dd if=/dev/zero of=bigfile.delme bs=1G count=10 ; sync'
10+0 records in
10+0 records out

real    0m41.951s
user    0m0.002s
sys     0m11.272s
[core-ssh ~]$ bc -l
bc 1.35.0
Adapted from https://github.com/gavinhoward/bc
Original code (c) 2018 Gavin D. Howard and contributors
10000/41.951
238.37334032561798288479

238 megs/second, gets rid of ram cache in the total

#

i would change count=4 on your pi test

unique lantern
#

I have around 330 entities and I'm considering moving off my pi4. I can't imagine having almost 10x that and it still running reasonably

twilit relic
#

😬

jagged crypt
#

we may have cost your $150, but we saved you hours

twilit relic
#

i've been in a bubble for 3 years. i have no idea how many entities is too many for my pi lol

#

i'm just very frugal by nature

jagged crypt
#

nothing wrong with frugal, just need to add your time and mental anguish into the equation

#

if you have no money, then your time is your only commodity, so you spend it instead.

kind crater
#

It does fairly accurate represent the colours tho. Govee

cold moon
#

with my method and nvidia shield i dont see why i couldnt use dolbo vision etc

#

there's no passthru to rip away certain codec support

twilit relic
#

ok. i'll seriously consider an SFF.

jagged crypt
#

you could also buy the SFF, convert over, and sell the PI4 for more than retail

kind crater
#

I did a research in november prior to gettimg the govee, i read it would not support dolby vision then, at least.

cold moon
#

reread my hardware scenario above

cold moon
#

it doesnt have to be a specific sff device

kind crater
#

Very intresting read, is there a guide for that? Step by step n00b guide?

cold moon
#

probably

#

lol

kind crater
#

But havin the ambilight a little slower and a little blurryer is pleasing for the eye. Dont count out govee 🙂

cold moon
#

i disagree i find all govee products overpriced for what they are and diy led strips to be a much better solution for even the most novice person

twilit relic
#

I think I'll pre-order a HA Yellow Kit

#

unless that pales in comparison to a cheap SFF..

cold moon
#

it does

twilit relic
#

sigh. ok, there's choice paralysis in the SFF market which is why i'm hesistant

cold moon
#

Buyer protection keeps you pretty safe

#

You can’t go wrong with anything better than a pi really.. but you can post links here and we can confirm it

gloomy spoke
cold moon
#

Nice

gloomy spoke
#

Cheap, powerful, more than enough for HA

unique lantern
#

That's a bit older than I'd buy. 3rd gen is 10 years old at this point. You can find at least 6th gen CPUs for around the same price

gloomy spoke
#

Tiny

twilit relic
#

something around that price point that's newer / has nvme?

cold moon
#

You don’t need nvme really just sata

unique lantern
cold moon
#

Prices have been going up since the thin client revolution haven’t they

#

I swear this stuff was like 50 5 months ago

unique lantern
#

A lot of these don't come with power bricks for whatever reason, but they tend to use the same brand's laptop chargers as bricks, and those are easy to find

twilit relic
#

so it sounds like an i5 6+ gen lenovo style machien would be good?

#

bonus if it comes with a power brick?

cold moon
#

Don’t rule out broken screen laptops either

#

You can get much newer for cheap

#

I’m using one lol

#

I did have to get a usb c to Ethernet dongle to add eth tho 😦

twilit relic
#

ebay for that?

cold moon
#

Thing is new laptop screens are $100-200 depending on screen

unique lantern
#

Even an i3 is fine, like the i3-7100T. All of these should be fairly low power CPUs which will save you money in the long run on power

twilit relic
#

(i super appreciate this guidance btw, thank you)

cold moon
#

So working ones are sold cheap with broken screen for parts or whatever

#

Cuz it isn’t worth putting that much $ into a used laptop vs putting that $ towards a new one

cold moon
next sun
#

Does anyone know of a wifi smart light switch option for EU? I want to change the light switch in the garage, which is not attached to the house and has no Zigbee coverage?

#

I was considering ditching the switch entirely and replacing it with a shelly 1 in the wall.. but I kinda like the idea of a manual override..

sterile sapphire
#

Anyone use bluetooth on their setup? If so, for what? I'm looking at buying a mini computer and I'm wondering if it is worth paying extra to get one with the built in wifi (which I won't use) and bluetooth card/antennas. I know you can always got a dongle but my understanding is that dongles will never work as well as the nice intel ones with long antennas. So if I think I'll want bluetooth, I should get it now. But I'm skeptical that I want bluetooth and that's why I'm asking.

next sun
unique lantern
#

I use BLE temp/humidity sensors, but I also just use ESP32s as bluetooth proxies. You can get better coverage that way

next sun
#

Some people use Bluetooth for room presence detection.. but they'd have a bluetooth device in every room.

sterile sapphire
sterile sapphire
unique lantern
#

The ESPs just listen for BLE beacons and send them back over wifi to ESPHome and then to HA

sterile sapphire
#

ESPHome is another system made by the same guys as HA right?

unique lantern
#

Yep

sterile sapphire
next sun
sterile sapphire
next sun
sterile sapphire
unique lantern
#

It's not at all an oddball solution, they added it sometime last year and it's very much supported, with features still being added. Bluetooth range is very short, so having 1 single Bluetooth adapter isn't going to give you a lot of coverage. ESP32s are cheap and you can put 2-3 around your house for the price of a single adapter

next sun
unique lantern
next sun
#

Oh! Ultra small form factor 🙂

sterile sapphire
next sun
#

What do they cost to buy?

sterile sapphire
#

They are cheap because of scale.

#

Depends on how recent you want. I see them for $50 or less.

next sun
#

Wow! That really is cheap!

sterile sapphire
#

If you want something with a powerful, 10th gen intel processor, maybe $250

#

You wouldn't get that for HA....you would get that for HA plus 10 other VMs

next sun
#

I have 10 RPi 4B's in a drawer from a project a while back.. so I try to use them for as many things as possible (because they didn't cost me anything) - But they're just not stable enough for anything worthwhile.. so I just migrated HA onto my Synology NAS.

#

I'd like to move it again onto a proper home server though. So this may be an option.

sterile sapphire
next sun
#

Wow, on ebay I see, i5 2ghz, 8gb RAM, SSD with WiFi - £79!! ($97)

sterile sapphire
#

The RPI purists will tell you that it will use a few less watts....but it will also be slower and currently cost more money

next sun
#

I was burned by a RPi failing and I lost HA entirely.

#

The SD Cards are just no suitable for high uptime

sterile sapphire
#

The idea made a ton of sense as a cheap computer with IO. Just right now they are too expensive and there are alternatives if you don't need the direct IO.

next sun
#

Yeah, agreed. They're crazy expensive now and you can't really get them!

sterile sapphire
#

Look at the lenovo, HP, and dell options. If you are in UK, maybe add Fujitsu as well.

next sun
#

For now, I'm happy with it running on my NAS.. certainly more stable than a pi. But in time I'll move to a dedicated host.

#

I would like to run HA in Kubernetes.

#

So I'd probably run MicroK8s or something on a dedicated host, and run everything in K8s.

#

I don't think we really need direct IO to HA anymore, with the various hubs available - I don't think I'll need to use a dongle for anything anymore.

#

So I guess that in its self kinda adds fuel to your BLE fire... I don't think you really need it lol

sterile sapphire
next sun
#

I use the Aqara hub for Zigbee

#

But slowly trying to migrate everything away from Zigbee tbh.

#

Aside from hue of course.

#

Annoyingly I'm pretty much committed to phillips hue for lighting now 😦 It annoys me because it's so expensive.. but I just haven't found another solution which is as good. It just works! And works well

#

I have WAY too much hue stuff now to change.. some of this would be way too painful to change too.

unique lantern
#

A #zigbee-archived coordinator stick can consolidate all that stuff in ZHA or Z2M without the need for any proprietary vendor hubs

next sun
#

But that would require a dongle directly connected to HA and then repeater dongles around the house right?

unique lantern
#

No, (almost) every wall powered Zigbee device is a repeater. You just have a stick plugged into HA

#

Light bulbs, switches, smart plugs, they all act as repeaters

next sun
#

I'm trying to avoid having to plug anything directly into the HA box.

unique lantern
#

Why?

next sun
#

I run HA Docker on my Synology NAS.. and don't want to faff with IO pass through, and I'm planning to migrate it to kubernetes in time, which means I won't really be able to pass USB through easily.

#

I remember that Phillips Hue works on Zigbee right? But I seem to remember it's a different type or something? Which is why we can't use the hue network for our stuff?

jagged crypt
unique lantern
#

All those proprietary hubs mostly don't interoperate because it's not in their business interest to support other companies' products

#

I think there are standalone coordinators that don't use USB, but that's a question for #zigbee-archived

#

I have IKEA blinds, an Aqara motion sensor, and a Gledopto LED controller all going through one Zigbee coordinator instead of having 2? 3? different hubs

jagged crypt
#

or just run the phillips hue integration and leave the hue hub online

next sun
jagged crypt
#

correct

next sun
#

Which means you either need other hubs, or as @unique lantern said, something which can handle all

jagged crypt
#

either deal with passing through usb, or put it in a VM instead of a docker

next sun
jagged crypt
#

sure do whatever you want, my goal with any automation tool is to make my life easier... That's not the primary goal of everyone on this channel though 🙂

unique lantern
next sun
gusty sequoia
#

I wonder how much multiple zigbee-based hubs pollutes the RF environment. Doesn't seem good whether they run on the same channel or on different ones

next sun
#

My goal is to have HA running in kubernetes, for bullet proof resilience and see how it scales (it probably won't lol)

gusty sequoia
#

(and yes, always it's about what a given person wants to do with things, I'm just idly curious)

jagged crypt
#

k8s isn't going to give your bullet-proofness or scaling with HA

next sun
#

I'm sure it won't scale at all.

jagged crypt
#

how do you think k8s is going to make it scale?

next sun
#

I don't think it will lol.

jagged crypt
#

experiment, no complaints, just trying to short circuit some exploration to perhaps exploring k8s in a way that allows you to see something scale....

next sun
#

I'm a DevOps Engineer 🙂

#

Which is another reason for putting it in k8s, it's home base for me.

#

And putting it in k8s will mean I can handle ingress nicer, have an observability stack running alongside.

#

And I've been meaning to build a local k8s cluster for a while, for lab testing purposes.

#

I don't think HA will scale properly at all, because it's not designed to.. but running it in a mesh means I could easily have two instances running in separate pods, and I can traffic shape between them to failover instances when needed.

jagged crypt
#

are you going to sync the backend db's? configs? 🙂

#

or are you planning on doing rollback?

next sun
#

They would have to share PVs I suspect.

#

So the configs would sit on a lun on the NAS

jagged crypt
#

so you are now building multiple client boxes + nas, right? 🙂

next sun
#

I already have the NAS

#

Which has HA running on it already.

jagged crypt
#

(client boxes for HA would be your "k8s cluster")

#

unelss you are running HA in HA on the NAS... 🙂

unique lantern
#

If they're sharing storage, what do you gain by having more than 1 instance other than a headache?

next sun
#

Yeah, so I'd run something like MicroK8s or Kind on another box.

next sun
jagged crypt
#

good luck, I know this is a learning experiment vs a production goal

next sun
#

Ooh kids awake.. gotta go 🙂

next sun
#

Tbh, it’s more to keep things together and have all my apps running in one place than building in unnecessary resilience.

plucky drift
#

Can anyone identify the chip in these photos?
https://ibb.co/chNXRHy
https://ibb.co/zFJZQNT
It's from a smart LED flourescent light tube form "LEDvance". In HomeAssistant it's detected by the Tuya integration. I assume this chip is the controller.

magic island
#

Hey. I Just got my SkyConnect today. Does somebody know on which baudrate it should be running?

/Nevermind.. got it working now (with 115200 btw.) 🙂

vernal marsh
#

Hello there. I'm currently setting my homeassistant from scratch (I discarded my previous config, it was ancient and most of the devices were gone anyway). I want to add temperature/humidity sensors with display to each room - I earlier wanted a smart wall thermostate, but I eventually realized it would be bad idea. So what is the best hardware to get in terms of reliability/ease of installation/cost?

#

I was thinking about zigbee devices, I have conbee2 stick plugged to my raspberry (configured it today, sadly no devices to test it with for now), but to deploy sensors in whole home I'd need some repeater too, right?

brisk pond
#

from what I could gather in my home automation adventure so far, and please somebody correct me if I'm wrong, zigbee is great to reach every place in the house, but devices are expensive, while wifi works great if you roll your own esp8266-based sensors (with esphome), works pretty well with things that have wifi integrations (but you will most likely depend on third party cloud services) and works terribly if the thing you want to integrate is too far from the wifi access point

vernal marsh
#

ugh I had used esp8266 based modules and they are very problematic. they cause lots of annoyance in my old home and I'd rather stay away from them.

#

I look on aliexpress for zigbee sensors, and they cost anywhere from 5 to 50 euro, and no idea which would work well

brisk pond
#

I used them with esphome and I was greatly pleased, amazing support

#

also I think there's a zigbee channel for detailed discussion about that, I've only now started integrating zigbee and one big challenge is actually finding compatible hardware for what I want

#

for instance amazon might have smart plugs with alleged power monitor functionality but sometimes the insertion may be wrong and you get an unsupported product, on aliexpress you have to be careful to check the model of what you are buying and to see if it's compatible with whatever you need

#

by the way I've been wanting to ask a question but maybe this is the right place, I have a wifi power strip from 2 or 3 years (model ZLD-34EU-W) ago that is listed as compatible with alexa and smartlife, I wonder if it's possible to skip these and somehow use it straight from home assistant somehow, but I haven't been able to find any info on the matter

rigid wing
brisk pond
rigid wing
#

Yep, Tasmota or esphome should work

brisk pond
#

but couldn't find any info whatsoever about esphome

#

also it seems like a lot of work, I wouldn't have any idea where to even start with that code

#

aaaand turns out that even through the official smart life app there's no power monitoring whatsoever in the plug

rigid wing
#

You can go from one to the other with OTA updates I think, so it doesn't really matter which one you start with.

brisk pond
#

I guess I'll flash it if I feel like removing the dependency on the external cloud service but it's a lot of work

#

now I wonder if there is a way to hack power consumption reporting into things

#

like some circuit that hijacks into things to get power data out of it, kind of like the shelly em clamps do, but in smaller form and cheaper

rigid wing
#

I know esphome supports EM clamps, haven't tried it myself

brisk pond
#

interesting, I'll have to look into it, find out if there's a small EM clamp I can solder on a circuit on an ESP

rigid wing
brisk pond
#

I'm still not sure what tasmota is

#

is it like an esphome alternative?

#

can they cohexist?

cold moon
#

basically

#

tasmota and esphome both let you install custom firmware and configure esp devices

#

esphome was acquired by home assistant and is generally just easier / simpler to configure in my eyes

brisk pond
#

I have two esphome devices and I love them

#

not having to do the program myself is so liberating

cold moon
#

and since home assistant owns esphome the integration is a bit better imo

brisk pond
#

plus wifi flashing and self AP

cold moon
#

yea tasmota does all that

brisk pond
#

oh man, the clamps are CHEAP

#

20€ for two clamps, esp is like 2 bucks, rest is components

#

I'm going to build a bunch

#

cheaper than zigbee plugs, the downside: it's wifi and as I said earlier reception may be spotty in some areas

cold moon
#

you should have multiple access points then

brisk pond
#

any idea if cheap zigbee modules with features equivalent to esp8266 are a thing?

brisk pond
cold moon
#

yea

#

electric cabinet?

#

sounds spicey

cold moon
brisk pond
#

it's actually a coat cabinet with an electric cabinet in it

brisk pond
cold moon
#

lol

brisk pond
#

I have 2 xbee modules I got 10 years ago and never used but other than that I can't find anything at an affordable price

cold moon
#

check this project

brisk pond
#

neat, thanks

cold moon
#

you can use that sensor for lots of other projects

brisk pond
#

chair occupancy? that sounds hilarious but I want it now

cold moon
#

just take amin and look at it

#

you'll see what i mean

brisk pond
#

I don't see images on that site for some reason, as if everything is classified as an ad by the adblocker

#

so are they hacking into an already existing zigbee sensor?

cold moon
#

weird i dns blackhole ad block too

#
  • ublock origin
brisk pond
#

I tried on mobile with no ad blocks and it's still broken

cold moon
#

oh weird all the pics are gone now

#

u right

brisk pond
#

I'll just accept the fact

cold moon
#

pic loads if i click it

#

it has two exposed pins on the back of the device that you can connect any sensor to

#

and it's a zigbee device

#

so you can use it for all kinds of projects

brisk pond
#

neat

cold moon
#

word

brisk pond
#

now I want to do these cheap wireless EM meters

#

much cheaper than shelly EM

unique lantern
#

The Emporia Vue 2 can monitor 16 circuits for about the price of 2 Shelly EMs

brisk pond
#

sadly that's not available for me on amazon, it seems

#

actually nevermind I found emporia energy den 2

cold moon
#

not everything worth spending money on is

brisk pond
#

I have a big supply of ESP8266 coming from china but it's taking forever

cold moon
#

i'm only buying esp32 going forward

brisk pond
#

I'm getting both

cold moon
#

unless i'm making cheap gifts for people

brisk pond
#

esp01 is great for buttons and binary sensors

cold moon
#

i havent touched esp12f or 01

brisk pond
#

I made an interior doorbell with it

#

and a sensor to detect when the cat is in front of the drinking fountain to turn it on

#

nevermind that the cat still hasn't taken a single sip from it

cold moon
#

cats dont trust running water

#

or they want to put their face under it

#

there is no inbetween

brisk pond
#

my cat only drinks from the faucet

#

but we got to turn it on manually

#

ok google how to hack cat

cold moon
#

so really he just wants you to submit

rigid wing
brisk pond
#

I'm not sure I understand what's going on in the first link

#

wow CC2530 is cheap, that's the missing link I was looking for, I'll definitely grab a bunch and experiment with them

cold moon
#

Well that’s an old chipset

#

So whether it’s ideal to put on your mesh or not is probably worth determining

brisk pond
#

does it have any crippling limitations?

cold moon
#

I’m not the guy to answer that

#

Maybe?

#

@fringe moon might know

fringe moon
#

I hath been pingeth from the depths

#

👁️

rigid wing
#

You should move to #zigbee-archived to discuss this in depth, there are more experts there

fringe moon
#

Don't use 2530 for anything except routers, and even then don't

#

DIY ZigBee is quite niesche, makes more sense to DIY matter / thread at this point in time

cold moon
#

I knew it

brisk pond
#

oh I see, thank you

#

ok let's move to the zigbee channel, I'm curious about what your recommendations are

cold moon
#

There aren’t any

rigid wing
#

Oh sorry

brisk pond
#

what is thread? is that another wireless protocol?

fringe moon
#

It's what all the kids talk about these days

#

Expect stable in 2025

#

Will probably be interesting though

brisk pond
#

oof

cold moon
#

It’s zigbee 3.1 as far as I can tell

fringe moon
#

More like zigbeev6

cold moon
#

3.16? Stone cold Steve Austin? Austin Texas? Illuminati confirmed.

twilit relic
#

I'm thinking quad core would be better/more future proof than dual-core for an SFF

#

at least 8GB

cold moon
#

Stop overthinking it just buy something lol

jade jetty
#

Soo slight issue with one of my Shelly Plug S. I tried over-the-air firmware change to Tasmota but now it's not coming on at all. Tried connecting it with USB-to-TTL as well but nothing pops up anymore. Anyone got ideas on what to check or do in this case? Since no lights show up anymore I can't even hold the button 10s to reset firmware 😔

Also please mention me if you respond

night atlas
summer bear
#

I recently converted to TubesZB Zigbee POE setup and love that it’s decoupled from my HA server. Anyone know of a similar option for z wave?

cold moon
#

There’s a z ember thing discussed in #zwave-archived recently but it’s out of stock

#

You can run a pi etc remotely for the same effect using zwave js

kind wind
#

Are there any PoE control panels that aren't stupidly expensive that you all are aware of?

night atlas
#

controll panels in what way?

cold moon
#

dmx controller i guess

kind wind
pliant forum
kind wind
#

at this point, i'm developing a plan for where I want ethernet cable routed.

pliant forum
#

check this out

tidal bridge
#

Any suggestion on how 2.4g antenna for zigbee should look like ?

winged knoll
#

(though, largely, it should be a 2.4 GHz antenna)

cold moon
#

there are no known radiation patterns and best antenna mounting suggestions that i know of

#

i've asked the same thing

tidal bridge
#

Well, it is hardware related… just opened my sonoff 3.0 plus dongle. Antenna connection has black spots around antenna and middle one is barely connected.

winged knoll
#

Yeah, but you're asking about Zigbee... and there's a dedicated channel for that

outer knotBOT
#
The topic of this channel is:

There's a channel for #yellow-archived if you have questions about it.

Questions about a hardware device (not their #integrations-archived with HA, and not the thing that HA calls devices)? Someone might have the same device and be able to help you out! If you've got a Z-Wave or Zigbee devices, see #zwave-archived and #zigbee-archived, #cameras-archived for cameras, and #diy-archived for making your own stuff (or if you're asking about Tasmota or ESPHome).

If you have problems with the Blue or your installation see #installation-archived.

If you want to share images, use https://imgur.com/ or similar.

Please use https://www.codepile.net/ or https://paste.debian.net/ to share code or logs

tidal bridge
winged knoll
#

Even directs you there in the channel topic...

pliant forum
#

@kind wind some other things not in the guide I should probably mention:

If you wire for a security system- you can use Konnected (or an Envisalink 4) to connect the sensors to Home Assistant and use them for automation. (For example: If it starts to rain you get an alert to close a window..)
If you want smart bulbs in the ceiling you can use an Inovelli Blue Zigbee switch and Zigbee Binding to have instant on/off/dimming and it will work without HA being online. This is good for colored light bulbs or different color temps throughout the day.
Smurf tube is one of the most important things in futureproofing your house, it will let you pull cables through later on, at a minimum i'd run it to the ISP box outside, but I'd really recommend running it to all your Ethernet locations.
If you do in ceiling/in wall speakers I'd recommend running all the streaming stuff centrally in the house.. run two fiber optic HDMI cables from the "server" room to each tv. They are one-directional so keep in mind the source and display side. I'd recommend running both ends to each location resulting in two cables.

#

Sorry for the rambling 🤣

vivid grove
#

Are there any 16x16 HDMI matrix switches that work well with home assistant?

kind wind
pliant forum
kind wind
#

if the outside fiber would already come to the tech room, do i need to bring it back to the tech room from the TV?

pliant forum
kind wind
#

oh, the company that provides internet is fiber to the home. They don't provide any TV so it's just streaming. However, I think if I wanted, I could do satellite. But anyway, fiber from the provider comes into the house.

pliant forum
#

I would just run a smurf tube from the outside "demarc" area (usually by the electric meter) into the tech room

#

That will bring the fiber into the house

#

also make sure you leave pull strings in every smurf tube lol

#

Then from the tech room you can run a smurf tube and a couple CAT6a to each tv/data location

kind wind
#

right, I was just wondering if I could tap into the fiber as it comes in to the tech room. I don't know what I'm asking (so anything is possible to me at this point 🙃 )

pliant forum
kind wind
#

Randolph Communications.

pliant forum
#

Alright not familiar with them but I'll describe the typical setup: Usually the fiber will enter the home and then go into a ONT (Optical Network Terminal) which terminates the fiber into an ethernet connection which then goes into your own router.

#

from the router all your CAT6 will go into switches

kind wind
#

sounds familiar

pliant forum
#

The switches will provide all the CAT6 with internet

#

I'd recommend using Fiber DACs to connect between switches

#

SFP+ to be exact (if the switch supports)

formal otter
#

I am considering building a simple doorbell without a "chime" myself or buying something that works great locally with Hass. I need a button and maybe just maybe a camera. Any ideas?

pliant forum
#

If you are wiring for in ceiling speakers- you should be wiring for a center channel underneath the TV also. I'd run 12/4 cable or 14/4 cable from the tech room

#

I wouldn't go below 14 gauge for audio cable

kind wind
#

so far, with smurf tubes and speaker wiring we are totally aligned.

pliant forum
kind wind
#

I had not considered 6a cable to each drop. was only running 6a to tv's and control panel. Yes, smurf tube to attic (for some rooms) smurf tube directly to other rooms and smurf to demarc point.

#

but in all rooms I will directly run ethernet

#

smurf tube is backup

pliant forum
#

compared to CAT6

#

I wouldn't go above CAT6a for ethernet

#

at that point run Fiber

#

Also shielded is likely more a headache then it is good. So i'd recommend unshielded

kind wind
#

i have read in several places that having an electrician pull ethernet cable is nominally $85 per cable. That is hugely pricey in my opinion. Is that an accurate estimate?

pliant forum
#

if you end up going with an electrician make sure you explicitly tell them how you want the cables ran.

#

They will want to do everything in series similar to electrical.. and leave you with a huge mess 🤣

kind wind
#

I'd love to do it myself. But I take my time and have high expectations for what good looks like. But I know i would hold up production.

pliant forum
kind wind
#

it's custom

pliant forum
#

If you're doing a custom build I would 100% recommend doing it yourself if the builder allows.

#

You can make sure it's right before drywall goes up which is a huge bonus.

kind wind
#

size of smurf tube? I read min 1.5 inch. I was gonna go with 2 inch. I imagine that is a challenge to route through walls.

pliant forum
kind wind
#

each room

#

not each jack

pliant forum
#

I'd price out how much it'd be to run to each room vs each jack (with a smaller smurf tube) it may end up being cheaper

kind wind
#

it's not too late for me to downsize the tube

pliant forum
#

2 in smurf tube is pretty expensive from what i've seen

kind wind
#

oh. I just googled at Lowes or HD and it didn't seem much more than 1.5

pliant forum
#

Yeah that also. It's hard to find 2"

#

Oops read wrong.

#

I would only run 3/4" to the demarc and ethernet jacks

#

if you were doing each jack

kind wind
#

and to be clear, the existing jacks would have ethernet (outside of the tube?)

pliant forum
kind wind
#

ok. I imagine 3/4 is much easier to run

pliant forum
#

For TV locations i'd run 1.25"

#

So you can fit future video cables in

pliant forum
kind wind
#

you sound like you've done this before. I appreciate the advice.

pliant forum
#

I'll be honest with you, I haven't. We built our house a couple of years ago and wired for some basic CAT6.. but once I learned about the smart home stuff I realized how much more we should have wired for.. lol. The guide is basically all the stuff I wished I had wired for.

kind wind
#

i will most certainly study it. I have to go pick up some medicine for a very sick puppy otherwise I'd be looking at it now. in fact, I should have left already but my car battery decided it was too cold to work.

pliant forum
#

I've done tons of research over the past few years and thought it'd be good to consolidate it into a guide.. so that's what I did haha

pliant forum
kind wind
#

Thank you.

twilit relic
pliant forum
twilit relic
#

blackbirds have been great for me (in general, not specifically HA)

wooden sundial
#

If I was looking for a boomer proof (for an in-law) smart switch that he can connect/control with Google Home, what would you all recommend? Just some sort of wifi switch? (Not sure I want to have to explain to him zigbee, zwave, separate hubs, etc.)

pliant forum
#

It can be implemented with Home Assistant and smart home hubs later on if he chooses

#

If he has homekit setup just get a homekit switch

wooden sundial
#

He is android. He has Google nests and knows how to use Google home. He has no other hubs or setups besides that

pliant forum
#

Yep!

#

The dimmer may be worth it if the lights are dimmable

#

should be only a couple of bucks more

wooden sundial
# pliant forum Yep!

Just watched a review video on it. Does that switch need to be pressed on its bottom half whether it's being clicked to turn on or off?

pliant forum
wooden sundial
#

Hmm. I think my in-law may prefer a paddle that you click up for on and down for off. That's how all their dumb paddles work, and they'd be fighting muscle memory. Is there another brand that has paddle up and paddle down?

pliant forum
#

Take a look at Leviton Decora WiFi

cold moon
#

Alternatively, don’t buy Wi-Fi switches lol

wooden sundial
#

What's the simplest non-wifi option for him then? I don't want to be playing IT for an additional hub he doesn't understand

#

I'm all zigbee and zwave in my house, so I'm well aware how wifi is not ideal

cold moon
#

Then you know the right path

#

A proper zwave or zigbee mesh isn’t gonna fall over

#

And if you want it foolproof you can nvm backup both zwave and or zigbee sticks and restore the nvm to backup sticks

#

And have a haos cold spare ready as well

#

Best I’ve got

wooden sundial
#

I will not be having him use HA. His literal ability limit is voice commands to the switch via Google voice. HA is not in the cards for him

cold moon
#

Since we’re in home assistant discord it was assumed you’d be using it…

wooden sundial
plush hatch
#

So i am updating my system and have a question. What motion sensors are you all finding work the best with HA that are fast reliable and worth the money? I will also be adding on door sensors and human body presence sensors. If you all can recommend any. If this is in the wrong spot please let me know.

cold moon
#

Zigbee or zwave or?

pliant forum
plush hatch
#

What information are you needing?

pliant forum
#

What protocol are you looking at?

#

Zigbee, Zwave, wifi?

plush hatch
#

i dont have one in mind yet i want to know what you all recommend.

#

i was using wyze but we know how that turned out. So i will be starting all over.

pliant forum
#

Alright, I run Z-wave and Zigbee at my house.. It really depends on your budget.. Zigbee stuff will often be cheaper than Z-wave but you may find Z-wave stuff is a tad bit more optimized

#

There's a lot of factors haha

plush hatch
#

sorry i am newbie i have been out of this so long.

pliant forum
#

All good. How much are you willing to spend?

#

just approximately

plush hatch
#

I dont have a budget i will grow it as i need but i know i will spend 75 or so on each body detector and around 25 on each motion sensor

pliant forum
#

Oh you want both?

#

Why not just run mmwave sensors?

plush hatch
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but i expect it to be atsrting out around 500.00 - 1k

pliant forum
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Zigbee sensors are super cheap if you are willing to buy off of ebay