hardware-archived

[hazy carbon]

I have all the cables around the house that go down to the power plant(cellar), there I would use 2 smart plugs to turn on/off the lights

[slim lagoon]

Yeah, keep it simple... use an automation to just trigger off sunrise/sunset and call it a day.

[hazy carbon]

ok thanks

for the plugs do you have any suggestion?

[slim lagoon]

Ummm... Zigbee? WiFi? ZWave? What's your protocol of choice? 🙂

[patent river]

I used sun elevation below -3° as the trigger for mine; isn't quite dark enough at sunrise/sunset (0°), but too dark at the dusk/dawn point (-6°), which is the next "standard" time trigger

(This is for IR floodlights that exist only for the security cameras' benefit, just for what that's worth. The decorative outdoor lighting is on a different schedule entirely)

[hazy carbon]

now that you're talking about zigbee, I don't have a hub for that.

I was searching on amazon for a zigbee dongle and I found this

[slim lagoon]

Ahhh, the dongle-p. A good choice. Just make sure you put it on an extension cable (at least 3', but 6' would be better) (and no, I'm not converting to meters... I'm done mathing today lol)

[hazy carbon]

do you know how many meters/inches the antenna can reach? And why would I need an extenstion cable?

[slim lagoon]

Not sure I understand what you mean by that... but, the extension cable is to isolate the dongle from any possible EMI sources. You want it as far away from interference as possible, otherwise you're gonna have issues with your mesh.

[golden thorn]

See interference demonstration here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHqZhNcFEvA
And tips for better network here: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/advanced/zigbee/02_improve_network_range_and_stability.html
Range is usually stated as single digit meters indoors.

[hazy carbon]

oh okay thanks

[glacial oracle]

it very much depends on your interference
it can be anywhere between full house /multi floor coverage and not even reaching the next socket in the same room

[slim lagoon]

@hazy carbon if you want more zigbee info, pop into the #zigbee-archived channel and scroll up... I've been talking in there all day about mesh stability and such. 🙂

[hazy carbon]

ok thanks

[zealous isle]

Hi Everyone, I am new to this but I want to commit to Zigbee for this little project but I don't know what hardware vendors to look for. I want to install some smoke/CO sensors (I reckon there are some better sensors than smoke ones to prevent fire like heat sensors) in the house and outbuildings. I could wire the ones in the house but the ones in the outbuildings I would prefer wireless / battery powered (Sub-GHz?). The distance between the outbuildings and the house is 8m and 28m respectively. What would you recommend?
I will be installing them in stages but fire prevention is a priority

1. smoke/heat sensors
2. movement sensors
3. light and other switches

[jagged crypt]

zigbee is 2.4ghz and not wifi

[winged knoll]

1. See also the #zigbee-archived channel
2. You need to tell us your country
3. 28 meters is pushing it for Zigbee

[zealous isle]

1. sure
2. UK, Europe

[winged knoll]

I bought Heimann smoke/CO sensors, and Frient do a heat sensor

Movement... PIR: Xiaomi; mmWave: varies depending on expectations, budget, etc

The Xiaomi FP1 mmWave works well for me, and looks ok. Lots of people love #diy-archived solutions using ESPs (eg the EverythingPresence range)

[full frost]

Someone knows what I’m doing wrong here? I’ve got permanent power on this mirror light, decided to place an award t1 with neutral relais. If I’m set it up like this the switch will have power,, it will also switch but the light won’t go on/off it. The light however does have power

[glacial oracle]

well you connected the relay to power but no load for it to switch

[full frost]

Can it be done with just live and neutral?

[glacial oracle]

no

your switched load goes between N and L1

L and N just power the relay

[full frost]

Shit

There’s no third wire

Unfortunately I thought this would work

[glacial oracle]

you may be thinking about the installation for the t1 without neutral

i dont see why the first wouldnt work for you tho

[full frost]

But I thought blue was neutral therefor I bought it with neutral

[glacial oracle]

it does but you need to connect it differently

[full frost]

But then it should be possible with this switch aswell, can just neglect the N

Meaning i have to wire it differently

[glacial oracle]

not really, the t1 gets powered through this

you can however just wire your light between l1 and n

yea

[full frost]

Ill try again but that didn’t work either

[glacial oracle]

its sadly not too easy to identify how you did it on the picture

[full frost]

Wait

Can I dm you?

[glacial oracle]

no

[full frost]

Want better pics from the relais?

[glacial oracle]

that might help, but please keep them here so other people can use it as reference if they have a similar issue

[full frost]

This is it right now

[glacial oracle]

that does not seem right, potential destructive to the t1 even

[full frost]

You suggest to try the brown wire on L1 right? Lemme try that

[glacial oracle]

no

let me draw it

[full frost]

Ok

Need the pictures from the power source aswell?

I can provide a more clear view if you need that

[glacial oracle]

thats how it needs to be wired up

the circle is your lamp/mirror

the t1 gets placed on L & N of the wall/socket power, the lamp however just gets N from that source and L1 from the t1

[full frost]

And that L turquoise line you drew, I don’t have a third line

[glacial oracle]

you do have two wires to your lamp tho dont you?

[full frost]

Yes

[glacial oracle]

well then those are your line1 and neutral ones

if they are too short the t1 either needs to be closer or you need to extend them

[full frost]

It have them split front wago connector

[glacial oracle]

so yea you will need to connect the left side wire not to the wago but the l1 on the t1

sadly there arent wireless wires for that yet

alternatively if the wire in its entirety is long enough you may be able to double squeeze it in, but running a proper additional one would be the safe way of playing

[full frost]

Ok I’m going to extend the blue wire from the lamp to the L1 socket on the T1

[glacial oracle]

yes

[full frost]

It’s just a small ledlamp

Ok got it setup

[glacial oracle]

works?

[full frost]

My man

[glacial oracle]

[full frost]

Can I buy you a coffee?

[glacial oracle]

no thanks ^^

[full frost]

Alright well I’ll remember you for this, I’m very thankful for your patience and time

[cold moon]

can you tidy up the images here? a little electrical tape over the wire you cut off and snipping these two wires going into the holes until they push in flush with no exposed copper would be nice to see

[full frost]

hmmm

[golden thorn]

Don't forget the ferrules.

[silk basin]

you could be free of the wago connectors altogether, just connect source to L and N, and lamp to N and L1 directly on the module. tidy this way. did you put a meter on those lines to make sure N was the neutral wire? you don't want it powered backwards if ever you need to do any work downstream of the module.

[bitter heron]

Anyone know of a reliable smart (can be zwave zigbee matter wifi idc at this point) heavy duty indoor smart plug?

Tried the zen 15s from zooz but they both shit the bed with the same issue ok different devices and one of them never exceeded 400w and doesn't have startup current

[outer knot]

Looking for advice about a device to buy? Remember to provide guidance on:

• Which country you're in
• What your budget is
• What protocols you prefer (eg Zigbee, WiFi, Z-Wave)
• Any features you want (such as power monitoring, dimming, etc)

[bitter heron]

Must have power monitoring. No budget constraints.

US

[gloomy spoke]

what does "heavy duty indoor smart plug" mean to you?

[bitter heron]

Able to handle startup current on portable AC, washers dryers etc

Highest ive seen the AC unit go was about 12A

I'm sure it's briefly higher than that though with startup current

[gloomy spoke]

I can't speak for portable AC units, but this works fine for my washer/dryer with both plugged into the same outlet: https://www.amazon.com/Aqara-12LM-ZNCZ-Smart-White/dp/B07CJ2MM6Z

other plugs max out at 10A or so. This one claims "The Aqara Smart Plug supports any appliances with a maximum power consumption of 1875W."

[full frost]

Thanks for your feedback, im nowhere near a pro so no, i didnt meter my wires. All and all im pretty happy with the succes

[glacial oracle]

You most definitely want to check what the actual startup peak current is going to be

I would suppose portable gear to have soft starts but can't say for sure with how much stuff is out there that shouldn't be sold

[silk basin]

You probably should make sure neutral wire is truly neutral wire, it helps with lifespan issues when a circuit that is shut off is truly shut off when another nowhere near a pro wants to touch it or moisture (bathroom right?) closes the circuit to the frame of your mirror just when you're cleaning it. It won't be full current through water, but the unexpected surprise could make for an interesting story. Famous last words: Hey guys, watch this!

[rich venture]

I have used ledvanced outdoor plug for a year with load being 10a @230v (water heater)
It is still alive

You could always use a contactor and clamp meter

[drifting jetty]

Any of you guys use fingerprint door knobs or latches? I want one for my garage, but I keep seeing some reviews saying they die very quickly.

Mainly looking at the GHome or Geeksmart ones if any of you guys have one and can can comment on them.

[silk basin]

Avoid freezing or sunlight for fingerprint readers.

[granite acorn]

Im looking for few items, i need them to be fully integrated with ha but not expensive (low to mid tier) and available in eu

Dehumidifier with hepa filter - im using Inventor Comfort 16l, but there is no integration for it, thankfully it remembers last settings so i can control it with relay on power socket via arduino

Temperature/humidity/co2 sensor - im using sht31 for temp/hum, but i doubt its accuracy. Shows 20 when its obviously colder in room, am getting bmp280 but i think all sensors from ebay for cheap are rejected faulty sensor from factory that are useless, so i would like an alternative, hopefully a combo all 3 in one box

Ambient led strip - i have govee bluetooth led strip that only works with my phone so its kinda useless (need automations for when door open and alarm in morning), need rgbw 10m

Ceiling light - something with brightness and temperature (blue - yellow) control thats also pleasing to see

If anyone has suggestions, ill be grateful to check it out

[winged knoll]

Temperature/humidity/co2 sensor
Temp/hum: Aqara

Ambient led strip
Gledopto Pro controller and any strip that suits

[topaz pulsar]

I have been looking around already but I'm wondering if people have some first-hand experience / recommendations for good garden (soil) sensors. I want to at least be able to notify myself when it is time to water the plants/grass 🙂

[silver delta]

Guys, i've ordered this SSD while having a HA Yellow thinking that it could be easily plugged, but found out that given it is SATA, it cannot use the PCIE m2 interface: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZYPV5RW
Would buying a USB to SATA adapter work?

[winged knoll]

#yellow-archived could better answer that, but why not return that and buy the correct one?

[haughty dagger]

I have few pi4 with gsm hat, its seems like it won't pick the hat module connectivity, someone knows how to force it using HAOS?

[winged knoll]

#installation-archived can better help, but HAOS may not suppot those

[flint totem]

Hey everyone. Can someone shed some light on why I'm getting weird friendly names in Home Assistant for ESPHome devices? My YAML is this, mostly taken from the ESPHome devices database, with substitutions added, although I am not actually using the substitutions at all in the code lower down. I got rid of them in order to troubleshoot: https://pastebin.ubuntu.com/p/WMRR2f3y5k/

But once I add the device to Home Assistant, it keeps showing up as "Son's Room Smart Plug Son's Room Smart Plug Power," etc. Any hints on how to have it just say "Son's Room Smart Plug Power?"

[winged knoll]

More for #integrations-archived really

The answer will depend on how you've integrated them

MQTT, ESPHome integration, etc

[flint totem]

I'll take it there. But it's all native ESPHome. Tried on the ESPHome server, too, but it's quiet over there.

[cold moon]

https://dpaste.org/6wcrG here's my esphome yaml for sonoff s31 wifi plugs flashed to esphome. looks like you should swap to this 😛

      filters:
        - throttle_average: 60s
``` this part is really important. without it, it spams your network and home assistant

here's what they look like in home assistant

also with my version you can run OTA updates without the plugs power cycling which is really nice

he already had a conversation in #integrations-archived about it

[jagged crypt]

I had wierd stuff like that based on the name vs friendly_name, ended up doing this:

substitutions:
name: apollo-msr1-01
friendly_name: Apollo MSR1 01
packages:
ApolloAutomation.MSR-1: github://ApolloAutomation/MSR-1/Integrations/ESPHome/MSR-1.yaml
esphome:
name: ${name}
name_add_mac_suffix: false
friendly_name: ${friendly_name}

[runic tinsel]

Ive been using the MiFlora ones from AliExpress. They are Bluetooth so you’ll need some way of picking up the signal from not too far away. The soil moisture sensors seem pretty good and the temperature ones too. They also have illuminance which are accurate but don’t tell you very much if they are shaded by the plants’ leaves, and soil conductivity, which is correlated with nutrients but very dependent on humidity and temperature and soil type, so not sure if they are useful in the end. They last about a year in passive mode. I use them on the balcony, so they don’t get much rain on them. Formally they are not waterproof.

A different approach: I am using the Planta app. It allows you to enter your plants, geolocation, exposure to sun, etc and it tells you when to water. It’s been pretty good for the plants and knows roughly if it’s not rained for a long time or how strong the sun is.

[patent river]

I have one watching the plants in our glasshouse. Obviously knowing the local weather conditions only gets you 50% of the way there in that particular case.
Sensor is one of these https://www.milesight.com/iot/product/lorawan-sensor/em500-smtc

[topaz pulsar]

The thing I was hoping a
sensors could help me with is also how much to water/when to stop watering.

[topaz pulsar]

Thanks for the tip! The bluetooth makes it more suited for indoor potted plants I thought? I have also been looking at the ecowitt W51.

[topaz pulsar]

These look very fancy!

[runic tinsel]

None of these things will be real time — it takes time for water to percolate to where the sensor is so you only reach a stable reading after 20-30 minutes. You can learn over time that 10 minutes of watering is moisture from 20->60%

A good rule of thumb for me is that the different between too dry for plants and maximum water content is about 10% by volume. So for root dept of say 50 cm you need about 5 cm of water

[patent river]

I needed it to work a long distance from the house (glasshouse is 30 metres or so from the LoRa gateway it's transmitting to). The 10 year battery life is certainly nice too

[topaz pulsar]

Yeah that's what I meant. Just to be able to measure the effect of a watering session and be able to learn from it. I have a feeling I tend to over water when it is dry out.

[topaz pulsar]

Could you explain a bit more how this relates to a soil moisture percentage?

[topaz pulsar]

Yea seems overkill for my application in the back garden.

[runic tinsel]

At some point I ended up on some farming irrigation portals. But roughly soil has some maximum volume of water it can absorb, which seems to be about 60% moisture. Any more than that and it flows out of the bottom — in the garden it goes deeper below the root level so is inaccessible anyway. Sandy soils do worse — about 35% moisture.

On the other end of the scale you have the minimum water content at which the plant can’t gets the water from the soil — about 15-20% depending on the plant

So you want to water when it’s at the minimum and water to no more than the maximum

Roughly it’s about 1 l of water per square metre

[rustic lance]

Hey guys, since a few days (especially after adding lots of sensors from my solar and home battery setup) my home assistant setup slowed down considerably. I'm running ha on an raspi4 with 4gb ram. CPU usage usually never goes above 20% and ram not over 2gb. Yet slowdowns are still occurring. When I click on a sensor the graph takes about 10 seconds to load. Also sometimes it takes up to 10 seconds until pop up windows open. Could it be that due to the amount of sensors my SD card is on its limit? It's a U3 128gb Samsung SD card. Is there a way to check if this is the problem or any fix for it?

[brittle tangle]

Hey, I am trying to marry Smart switch with smart bulbs.
How I see it: with smart switch I manage if bulb is on or off. After IT is on it connects to network (wifi/bluetooth) and I can further customize it (set color, dimm, etc).
The question is which protocol/manufacturer should I use to minimize connection time? I want to avoid zigbee since bulbs won't be on all the time.

[tepid heart]

That's a terrible way to automate. Operate the switches in detached mode so that the bulbs are always powered and ready to be automated by the switches.

[winged knoll]

#voice-assistants-archived can help with the non NabuCasa voice assistants

Assuming you're using HA anyway

if you're not using HA at all then... good luck

[winged knoll]

Again... #voice-assistants-archived

[tall ermine]

👍🏻

[tacit burrow]

Sd cards really aren’t great for an active HA. You’ll wear them out super fast. I swear by cheap+used mini pcs. Like $100 on eBay, and soooo much more powerful than rpi

[tacit burrow]

Eg https://www.servethehome.com/introducing-project-tinyminimicro-home-lab-revolution/

[half raptor]

Ok, so I got a few of the sonoff smart switches with matter intergration already on them… I am really tempted to not go through the hassle of trying to flash them with ESPHome since they’ll never hit the cloud cause it’s just using matter, am I wrong? If so, why should I?

[half raptor]

Ok, new question: I have a "3 way switch" for a light on a fan, is there a "solved" smarthome way of handling it?

[jagged crypt]

was looking at the new samsung fridge's with displays on them, but think it's probably better to keep the display on something that can be more readily replaced in 5 years than a fridge door. Anyone have any favorite 21" or larger touch screens/tablets for kitchen mounting?

I'm working on the assumption that a simple touch based browser window on a pi/cheap-x86 makes the most sense for something like this.

[tacit burrow]

I have one of those fridges @jagged crypt . Never really did anything with it. Locked ecosystem

Didn't intend to buy such a fridge, in fact bought another side-by-side, but it failed in first week, and this was the urgent replacement.

I can get some power info from it..

Not entirely sure I believe it's consumption - IIRC it was lower than measured from a smart plug

[shell falcon]

Hello, how to connect a Wiegand keypad reader to an ESP32 running ESPHome? Are D0 and D1 of the reader "ready" to be used by RX / TX pins of the ESP? Thanks!

[outer knot]

@shell falcon ESPHome is a system to control your ESP8266/ESP32, with a native integration for Home Assistant.

You can find their documentation here, and get help with ESPHome itself here in the #diy-archived channel (#integrations-archived for the Home Assistant side integration with it). They also have their own Discord server too.

[dense lance]

Just got an Aqara H1 EU no neutral double rocker switch. Can't figure out how decoupled mode actually works or if mine is just broken.
I have set it to decoupled in Z2M but it still flicks on and off the physical power

[slim lagoon]

Any errors coming up from Z2M when you click the refresh or set it to decoupled?

[dense lance]

nope, had an issue when I installed it first where I needed to turn it on and off at the breaker and repair it as it stopped working for whatever reason. Haven't got any errors since then

[slim lagoon]

Hmmmm interesting. I can't reproduce it here on my US version. If you try flipping it to control relay and then back to decoupled, does it do the same thing with no errors? Also, are you seeing activity in the action property?

[dense lance]

yeah I do get actions

[slim lagoon]

Device sounds like it's faulty then. I have 4 of them and none of them do that. decoupled is decoupled. 😦

[dense lance]

weird

I mean I could just work automations off of the actions but then the switches will look like they are permenantly on

[slim lagoon]

One thing I will state is that if you are toggling the switch from HA, it WILL toggle power regardless of decoupled state. At least on mine. I always use the action property in my automations and hide the switches in the device settings page.

Ahhhhh, ok. So, then the hardware is fine, it's just how Z2M is working with the device.

[dense lance]

oooh ok

cause if i press it when its set to decoupled

the power wont go

but i still get an action ok

[slim lagoon]

Yup. That's the behavior. For whatever reaason, toggling the switch ALWAYS toggles power regardless of the decoupled state.

[dense lance]

im just misinterpreting what Z2M is telling me

right gotcha

so I should just run automations off of the switch actions then?

[slim lagoon]

Yup

[dense lance]

cheers

right its somehow done the thing it did earlier where the switch completely stops working

2024-05-03 14:19:31Publish 'set' 'state' to 'Office Light Switch' failed: 'Error: ZCL command 0x54ef4410008b1ec5/2 genOnOff.off({}, {"timeout":10000,"disableResponse":false,"disableRecovery":false,"disableDefaultResponse":false,"direction":0,"srcEndpoint":null,"reservedBits":0,"manufacturerCode":null,"transactionSequenceNumber":null,"writeUndiv":false}) failed (Timeout - 13653 - 2 - 151 - 6 - 11 after 10000ms)'

[slim lagoon]

Pop over into #zigbee-archived and we can try to figure it out

[dense lance]

idk if its zigbee

it might be the switch itself

as that error is more than likely the switch just being off

[slim lagoon]

Eh, if it's timing out on command, most likely it's something in the mesh.

[dense lance]

nah because I can't even repair the switch

holding down does nothing

[slim lagoon]

Well, that's interesting... So, it just pretty much dies?

[dense lance]

yeah

the first time all I had to do was flip the breaker for the circuit its on to basically turn it on and off

the circuit isnt dead or anything like other lights on the same circuit still work

[slim lagoon]

Huh, then maybe you do have a faulty device... which sucks.

[dense lance]

that would be really annoying as its the 3rd day in a row where I have had something go wrong with this installation

first I found out that the office is the 1 room in the house that dosen't have a neutral behind the switch so I had to buy a non neutral, then I accidentally bought a single rocker instead of a double and now I'm having issues with it again :D

[lunar tapir]

any recommendations on the best android tablet to work with Fully Kiosk/Home Assistant? I currently have a Fire HD8 and want something that is slightly larger, slimmer bezels, faster, better resolution/screen

[dense lance]

oh okay one more thing, If I were to accidentally trigger an automation i set up earlier that toggles the switch while its in decoupled mode would that be the reason it dies, because i think thats what just happened

[slim lagoon]

To me, that would suggest something wrong with the switch itself. I tested it here and I can toggle the switch multiple times (can hear the click of the relay) and no issues there.

[dense lance]

yea I have just hit the breaker and it worked for a bit but having the light turn on and off (using the actions as a trigger for the light) has for some reason killed i again

[slim lagoon]

Unforuntuately, I would just RMA that switch. There's something wrong with it. 😦

[dense lance]

it's also considering these events as power outages, im up to 8 now

[cold moon]

buy a touchscreen android kiosk from aliexpress

[rose rain]

Anyone here have a Samsung G9 Odyssey by any chance? I'm trying to set up an automation to switch inputs, but it only shows "HDMI" and "TV" - trying to get it to show the Display Port

[dense lance]

just checking, do you have a neutral on your version? Because I think what might possibly be happening is whenever the light connected to the switch goes off the switch dosen't draw enough power to work because it dies consistently after the ceiling light is turned off using decoupled mode

[slim lagoon]

I have both neutral and non-neutral versions... However, you just jogged a memory... hold on, there's a forum post where we had something similar. Let me find it.

[slim lagoon]

FOUND IT: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/aqara-switch-trigger-works-only-when-light-on/720413 (tl/dr, the user had to add a capacitor to the circuit because the switch wasn't getting enough power).

[dense lance]

I'll take a look

[dense lance]

might be the way to fix it, I'll cancel the return then.
What should I be looking for when trying to find a resistor?

[slim lagoon]

I have no idea actually. Might be worth adding a thread to that post and asking there and see if the OP or @fathom kelp might know.

[dense lance]

yeah its specifically decoupled mode on the light that the switch is powering that is causing the issue

the other switch on it is fine on decoupled mode to turn on and off my lamps

atleast for now it seems fine with the light being on relay mode

but obvs that isn't ideal as its a smart light and it's just going to show as unavailable all the time

[fathom kelp]

You can just buy these bypass things on aliexpress. Usually a capacitor, sometimes a resistor, goes across the load in a no neutral smart switch circuit to allow enough leakage to run the smart device.

[dense lance]

something like this?https://www.amazon.co.uk/SAMOTECH-Dimmer-Bypass-Low-wattage-SM107

[fathom kelp]

That's not coming up in my browser but the title looks good.

[jagged crypt]

was going down that path (via amazon) but was poking at raspberry pi w/ android on 21-27" touch screens. Looks like same price and possibly more supportable.

[cold moon]

i dont think most of the kiosks from alie are on amazon

[jagged crypt]

Yeah, was looking at $500-600 USD for the ali ones, assuming a 75-100 "tax" if I build it with a pi.

Not sure I want a 21" android tablet made by a no-name with no ability to update after 2 years, etc

[glacial oracle]

Back in the day that's all you got from named brands

I'll be enough to have it be on limited network access to display the dashboard

[jagged crypt]

in that case I'll just pay for the unit in the fridge, which has a ~$350 cost

[dense lance]

oops sorry, accidentally deleted the important bit whilst getting rid of the trash on the end https://www.amazon.co.uk/SAMOTECH-Dimmer-Bypass-Low-wattage-SM107/dp/B0BMNVXHQY

so that would go between the live in and the live out on the switch right?

[fathom kelp]

That goes across the line and neutral of the load. It becomes part of the load of the circuit. Not in series.

@dense lance

[dense lance]

What do you mean by across the line and neutral, like I only have live and load

[patent river]

At the bulb, not the switch

[golden compass]

anyone know of a good relatively cheap solution for a simple sound effect/TTS sound box? i've dug around a fair bit & though I keep coming back to making my own ESP32 device, still not quite sure where I'd start with that & don't think I'd have the free time + patience to figure out something Arduino-like lol

i currently have a hacked Yi camera in my living room, replaced by a Tapo C200 already but I still have the Yi cam out there, as the audio playback quality with the Tapo cameras is outright horrendous & unfortunately audio playback is a concern for me - only 8khz audio is supported with the Tapo, apparently, and whatever audio the Tapo cameras play often has the first 1 or 2 seconds cut off... not useful for playing sound effects, as they're usually not even a second long!

as for what odd use case I have? the sole purpose I have for this is for my family's special needs adult: for example, he's not allowed to use the living room TV past 12am. as for how I stop him & communicate to him that he can't do that? have Home Assistant shut off the TV and play "klaxon.wav" - specifically using the "incorrect buzzer" sound is less likely to make him act up than being verbally told no

what I'm ideally looking for is something that I can connect to a 20w Lepai amp, but I'll also be okay with a standalone box that has a speaker - there's one in my living room for the TV, I think I can tap into its secondary stereo input & have sounds/TTS play through it, just with reduced output volume from whatever device plays the sounds. all I really need is at least 16khz audio, preferably full 44.1khz if it's reasonably possible, doesn't need to be capable of playing lossless files as it's just for various SFX and Google Translate TTS lol

[cunning kayak]

i have a speaker connected to the pi(by aux) thats running the HAOS how can i make that an entity in HA

[tender aurora]

suggestions for non-invasive diesel tank measurements?

[glacial oracle]

measurements of what?

if it's a fuel level the that's something you may be able to solve with ultrasound or visual distance sensors inside, assuming there is no external measurement point you can interact with

[tender aurora]

the tank is dug firmly in the ground, but we should be able to get to either the top of it or one of the sides

[glacial oracle]

Unless it can be opened up there isn't much that would be affordable that can do it

You could check if externally attached ultrasonic ones would fit the bill, tho from what I've seen they are more for fuel tanks on trucks

[tender aurora]

there is a pipe for the ventilation of the tank, so i was considering lowering one of these down that: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005494339504.html

[glacial oracle]

If those reach that may work aswell. Could imagine esphome being capable of handling that

[tender aurora]

yeah, i have already used one of those successfully for a different project

[glacial oracle]

Not sure if the wiring and plastics are stable around fuel

But that would be my only concern

[tender aurora]

Non-corrosion Liquid

i'll ask

[silk basin]

For flammables don't put any wires into a fuel tank, they can be encased in metal if completely sealed but that metal should be connected to the tank so as to not conduct a static discharge or any voltage differential into the tank or even to the opening of the tank.

[shell solstice]

hey guys

would u say that the door sensor “parasoll” from ikea is worth?

compared to like an aqara?

[slim lagoon]

Nope. At least not from what I’ve seen on the forums.

[hazy carbon]

Can I get information like consume from tuya with a smart life plug?

[shell solstice]

you are saying its bad?

what could the differences be betweens door sensors?

[slim lagoon]

I’m not a fan of IKEA kit, but generally I’ve seen problems in the forums with the Parasol and other newer sensors.

[shell solstice]

mh, what are the problems if you know?

[slim lagoon]

lol zigbee chips, firmware, etc. Aqara is good, but still has issues with some routers and coordinators.

[shell solstice]

i just bought these, bulbs were at 4$ 💀

[slim lagoon]

Mostly pairing issues and staying connected to the mesh.

[shell solstice]

ah i see mhh

alr, the sensor for what i know, its being working great

the one that i already had at home

[slim lagoon]

Yeah, ikea kit for some people works great. Others have issues. I prefer Aqara simply because I’ve only got devices known to work well with their sensors.

[shell solstice]

i see, i really like aqara designs and all, but very expensive

i mean 4$ smart bulb is a steal imo

[slim lagoon]

Honestly, since you already have the IKEA, try them out. If you have issues, return them and try something else.

[shell solstice]

well next time i will get door sensors, i just bought these lights for the price, i dont even know where to use them

[slim lagoon]

That’s me. I just ordered 4 more presence sensors (Apollos) and I honestly have no idea where I’m going to use them. Hahaha

[hollow marsh]

Guys, i don’t know if this is the correct group to ask, can you suggest me a low cost 8inch tablet to place at the wall and use as home hub with home assistant dashboard ? I need a good touch response and ui refresh, and a way to automatically dim/turn screen off and on when i’m near (or touch the screen if the first is not possible), and also be able to automatically show the home assistant dashboard on wake up, instead of the tablet/android home. Anyone did try some tablet and can suggest me ?

Or if you have a link of forum posts/articles about that

[shell solstice]

do you by any chance know a good 3 switch like this?

or what do you think the best option is to make them smart?

[slim lagoon]

I'd put relays behind the switches. Or replace that 3 gang box with something like Aqara rockers and a new faceplate.

Those look like American switches, so I'm assuming you're in the US?

[shell solstice]

i am in us

[shell solstice]

aqara rockers is basically their switches?

[slim lagoon]

Ok, so my "preference" is the Aqara double rockers (https://a.co/d/it86AaX). You should be able to fit 3 of them into that gang box and then just get a 3 gang decora plate. You then get 6 buttons. Or, alternately go with either Aqara, Sonoff, or some other relay if you want to keep the existing switches.

Shelly makes REALLY good relays as well.

[shell solstice]

existing switches are ugly af

so would be cool to change

[terse pebble]

Maybe putting googly eyes on them?

[shell solstice]

still remain ugly lmao

[shell solstice]

you mean put 3 of double buttons?

why would i then need 6 buttons?

[slim lagoon]

Yup! That's what I did in all my switches.

[shell solstice]

and gad damn if that is expensive

[slim lagoon]

Psh... that's the wrong question... why WOULDN'T you need 6 buttons?!

[shell solstice]

one button is on and the other is off?

[slim lagoon]

lol, Aqara kit does run a bit pricey, but tbh, the look and build quality is mostly worth it.

Nope. Not with the doubles. The top is a single relay and the botton is another relay. Both independent of each other.

You could go with singles, obvs.

[shell solstice]

https://a.co/d/ehevb9X

and an already made 3 switch all together no?

[slim lagoon]

But with mine, I have different automations and scripts run with each button press. So, my 4 kitchen buttons all do different things (controlling outside lights/devices, dining room lights/devices, and other stuff). None of my "switches" actually control lights though... because I like to confuse people lol

[slim lagoon]

Yup, that works too, but Moes is usually rebranded Tuya kit and I highly distrust Tuya Zigbee stuff. But, that's my personal opinion.

[shell solstice]

distrust in what?

quality or company

[slim lagoon]

C) All of the above

[shell solstice]

😂

[slim lagoon]

They typically use crappy Zigbee chips and there's almost no standard when it comes to their devices or if they even follow the Zigbee 3.0 spec.

[shell solstice]

is there any other all together?

that have a shape of 3 instead of a one with 3 buttons?

[slim lagoon]

Dunno 😦 All my gang boxes are 2 gang

[shell solstice]

i see

is tp link also bad?

i have one for the kitchen, and idk, it works😅

[slim lagoon]

From what I've heard, tp-link/kasa seems to work well. I've never tried them though.

[shell solstice]

but they are wifi

[slim lagoon]

I was just about to mention that

[shell solstice]

i should i void that yeah..

🥲

[slim lagoon]

Um, no? WiFi devices aren't bad as long as you have the network to support them.

[shell solstice]

well yeah the best would be aqara and get 3 of them

[shell solstice]

?

how can i know if they support them like, wdym by that

[slim lagoon]

That's my opinion, yeah. Good looks and good functionality and well supported too.

[shell solstice]

arent wifi always slower then like zigbee

[slim lagoon]

Like, if you have a crappy modem/router, chances are, you're only going to really be able to support about 25-35 devices well. If you have somethhing better (like a good quality router), you can support more devices. I have Unifi here, so I can literally support 100+ devices with room to spare.

[slim lagoon]

That's a myth.

[shell solstice]

well, we bought modem and router just a month ago

with verizon

[slim lagoon]

Yeah, that's consumer gear. You might get away with like 50 devices, but the traffic routing will probably suck. But for a few switches, sensors, bulbs, etc, it would be fine.

[shell solstice]

i think i have like 25 devices that are connected at the wifi

like in total with phones and stuff

and alexas

[slim lagoon]

Yeah, you'd be fine with that. You could even add more and probably still be ok. I just wouldn't go crazy with stuff (like I have lol)

[shell solstice]

idk what crazy is 😂😂 but ye

well i will go with tp link then, i really like aqara but tp link is less expensive

[slim lagoon]

I have around 130+ smart devices on my network. lol that kind of crazy.

[shell solstice]

wait if i have like philips hub connected with ethernet

does it count just as one or it still counts all philips devices connected?

[slim lagoon]

Nope. That's just a single device (the hub). The bulbs all connect to the hub over Zigbee.

[shell solstice]

cool then ty

i will see ty again

[slim lagoon]

Anytime! 🙂

[weak dust]

Odd issue. I have hardwired dimmer switches. I have tuya bulbs in my ceiling lights.

When I have Tuya, they drop connection after a few hours.n

But, when I add 1 normal dimmable bulb together with the Tuya. They stay connected.

[wraith bluff]

Quick question everyone, I purchaed an odroid n2 Home assitstant in 2021 similar to this device here, I have since moved to my new house and new network but am having a hard time getting my Home assistant to login or even reset at this point.

[golden thorn]

Can you run ha network info on it? You might need a keyboard and monitor. Please elaborate on the issues and what you tried.

[shell solstice]

hey sorry, is LQI like how good the connection is? for zigbee

[tired bridge]

So...this might sound dumb
but i have some IR led's that i just cloned the remote of using an ESPHome device, and now i'm stuck with 22 buttons. Is there any way to "convert" them into a LED strip entity?
When a certain color is requested, press the button corresponding to the nearest one on the spectrum
*not even sure if this is the right channel

[distant yacht]

1. yes, kinda, not a straightforward topic -> google a bit
2. #zigbee-archived

[shell solstice]

no cuz i was wondering why my automation is way slower compared another automation that i have with the same device

[slim lagoon]

Ish? LQI/RSSI is an indicator of connection quality, but it’s a point in time reference and can not always be accurate.

[slim lagoon]

Off topic for this channel, but are you using event state triggers or device triggers?

[shell solstice]

i used the ikea motion sensor to turn on lights in bathroom, and its pretty good, now i tried to use another one in my basement and it takes several seconds

[shell solstice]

device...

device motion and device light

[shell solstice]

#automations-archived message

[rapid swallow]

Hi guys, I need some advice... Looking for a solution to automate my window shutters... for various reasons (including cost), it needs to be a "belt" based solution rather than an integrated motor... any suggestions? Tried googling it, but ultimately didn't find any more or less supported solution...
I am located in Germany, I'd like to spend no more than 200€ per shutter and zigbee would be my preference, followed by WiFi.

[outer knot]

@fringe jasper I converted your message into a file since it's above 15 lines :+1:

[fringe jasper]

😔

no dice with this configuration...

if this is too far afield from home assistant stuff just let me know, apologies in advance...

[fringe jasper]

I have verified that I have properly installed the coral drivers fresh

[past summit]

Hi and hello. I’m looking for a water flow meter, CE marked or otherwise approved for EU markets. Any suggestions? I don’t really know what to look for. Not even sure where it’s installed, inside or outside

[outer knot]

@sinful rover I converted your message into a file since it's above 15 lines :+1:

[clear aspen]

Hi @toxic granite I have the same problem - I have no PC, only a mac, so cannot just look at the sd card, see the boot folder and find the config.txt. Also there is no folder /mnt/boot. Just to say I installed HA on a RPi 4 using the installation guide from HA. It works well - it's just the fan runs stop! Any help appreciated. Thanks!

[tiny prawn]

Hello everybody. I’d like to ask if there are any devices (plugs?) that use zigbee and report the current voltage that is being used? I’d like to detect when the coffee machine is done brewing coffee 🙂 thx in advance

[gloomy spoke]

Voltage isn't a thing to be used

You want power in W

And there are lots.

[tiny prawn]

Oh. Yeah. Okay, W is fine too 🙂

Any good devices u could recommend?

[gloomy spoke]

ThirdReality and Innr make good ones

I can't speak to what's available in Germany

[tiny prawn]

This one?

[slim lagoon]

Just FYI, If going with ThirdReality, don’t upgrade to the 0.74 firmware. Stay on the 0.71 firmware. 0.74 seems to have some issues that one of the regs on the forums is working with them on.

[gloomy spoke]

All of mine have been on 74 for a while

I can't even remember when I updated

They do sometimes have issues, but they also update fairly often

[tiny prawn]

Any stable products maybe?

Is this the correct one? Doesn’t mention power measurement

[slim lagoon]

They’re stable (I have 10 of them). But the few I have on 0.74 drop occasionally. Simple to repair them, obvs.

[tiny prawn]

So, buy n hope the are < 0.74

The ThirdRealty show W usage within home assistant? Rly don’t want to use the app

[gloomy spoke]

Yes

Make sure whatever plug you're using can handle the current draw of your coffee maker.

My 0.74 plugs have been working fine. I had one plug that used to get stuck reporting the wrong state and couldn't be controlled until I unplugged it and plugged it back in. Haven't seen that with the 0.74 firmware 🤷

[tender aurora]

i'm not sure where else to ask, so i try here. on a rs485 bus, and using modbus, do all devices have to have different addresses?

[shell solstice]

@slim lagoon you know what might be the problem with ikea motion sensors?

i think they dont have a big angle of degrees of "seeing"

they really just see whats in front of them straight

not on the side

i mean idk

[slim lagoon]

That sounds about right for ikea sensors (and a lot of PIR sensors in general). It all depends on the chip that’s used. Sounds like you need a presence sensor versus a PIR sensor.

[shell solstice]

well a presence is always the best, but its literally 80$ bru

[slim lagoon]

Some PIR sensors have a greater field of view (and/or sensitivity), but not all.

[shell solstice]

mhh

[slim lagoon]

Eh, you can find some that are not as expensive. I got some of mine for $35 US that work well.

[shell solstice]

from who?

[slim lagoon]

Linptech presence sensors. I think you can find them on Aliexpress. There’s also the Tuya ceiling mounted ones that have been reported to work well (despite being Tuya)

[shell solstice]

https://www.amazon.com/Presence-Occupancy-Security-Automation-Compatible/dp/B0CN14BWTT?th=1

you mean this?

[slim lagoon]

Yup. They also have Zigbee ones as well that act as routers. I have a couple of the Zigbee ones.

[shell solstice]

and they have presence, so they can see you even if you are not moving?

[slim lagoon]

They CAN be a few milliseconds slower in detection versus PIR, but WAY more accurate and continue tracking even if there’s no movement.

Yup

[shell solstice]

mhh, can i show you a vid of what i need to do?

[slim lagoon]

Ummmm sure? Post up a link.

[shell solstice]

one sec yeah

[shell solstice]

its kinda annoying that if you use it for motions that are like 1 meter away its very good

but when its further it has difficulties

[shell solstice]

anyway this is the place i need one, we want those lights to turn on every time one is in the corridor and when someone comes down the stairs

[slim lagoon]

To me, that looks like lag coming from the PIR sensor. That could be for a lot of reasons though. Personally, all my PIR sensors in high traffic areas are Hue sensors. They're ffast, clear quickly and are pretty customizable. For my lower traffic areas (where I'm not using presence), I use Aqara P1s. The Ikea sensors, IMHO, just aren't good for high traffic areas. But, that's from my experience with them from a few years ago.

A presence sensor might not help in this type of situation (since you're not really looking for presense, but more for transient movement).

[shell solstice]

oh wait the lights didnt turn on cuz they are not smart

😂😂

[slim lagoon]

omg... lmao

[shell solstice]

i have set those up, so dont worry

havnt

HAVMT

omg

[slim lagoon]

Remind me to verbally assault you some time. lol

[shell solstice]

those lights are being turn on by the 3 switch i want to change

thats why

[slim lagoon]

ok ok... so, you're basically looking for movement in a high traffic area with a fast response?

[shell solstice]

well yeah i guess? 😅 but they need to be able to catch movement from far

[slim lagoon]

Ditch the Ikea PIR and go with something better. Sometimes (more often than not), you get what you pay for in home automation. 🤷‍♂️

Or put the Ikea PIR in a low traffic area that doesn't need a wide detection area.

[shell solstice]

see if i have it right there in front of me it works great i guess

[slim lagoon]

Yup. Ikea kit isn't that great compared to other hardware. I'll keep saying the same thing, not all sensors are created equal 🙂

No settings for occupancy timeout and sensitivity is going to hobble what the sensor is capable of.

[shell solstice]

wait tho

it worked great from far now, wtf

let me give it a 2 try

[slim lagoon]

(and make your bed! lmao)...

[shell solstice]

too hard

bro

its actually working…

i think its just cuz its pointing straight to me

if it has some angle it wont work i guess

[slim lagoon]

This is where presence sensors > PIR sensors. But, they are a tiny bit slower (usually).

[shell solstice]

exactly… now it aint working after i tried to angle it a bit

[shell solstice]

honestly for my room, this is ok, for the stairs its a problem, i need something wide and that sees from far

[tiny prawn]

Hello there. Anybody else having problem with SONOFF ZBMINIL2? I just installed one behind a light switch. I was able to toggle it on and off a couple times, but now it completely stopped responding and HA gives me a "Failed to send request: Failed to enqueue message after 3 attempts: <EmberStatus.MAX_MESSAGE_LIMIT_REACHED: 144>" message

[slim lagoon]

Buy yourself a Hue PIR and you will see a HUGE difference. Better angle of detection and more configurable. The only two PIR sensors I trust are Hue and Aqara P1.

[shell solstice]

hue? thats full name?

[slim lagoon]

Ask in #zigbee-archived That's a mesh issue probably.

[tiny prawn]

thanks

[slim lagoon]

Hue motion sensor

(yes, they are pricey. Usually around $30+ US, but WORTH EVERY PENNY (imho))

[shell solstice]

Ikea motion sensor

[sinful rover]

We’ll I tried asking questions following the pinned post about giving background etc and the bot made it a text file attachment because it was more than five lines 🤪

[cold moon]

so you need help with picking a PoE zigbee coordinator and want help picking some mains-powered usb outlets in the wall?

[sinful rover]

That sums it up.

[cold moon]

https://tubeszb.com/product/cc2652p7-zigbee-to-poe-coordinator-2023/ i use and can recommend tube's PoE coordinators with z2m

usb outlets for UK i have zero idea

[sinful rover]

Do the Tube's PoE coordinators have wall mounts or would I be better just hiding it in the attic? (It'll be a single-story house)

Also, I can't see anywhere to buy those in the UK 😦

[golden thorn]

You can 3D print one or use good ol' double sided tape 🙂

[sinful rover]

I don't have a 3d printer. CNC, yes. Laser cutter, yes. No 3d printer (yet). ... and the wife hates me sticking things to walls with double sided tape :/

If I zip-tie it to a beam in the attic near the middle of the house's footprint would that work ok? It's a single story house so it wouldn't have to travel multiple floors.

[golden thorn]

Zigbee range is a lot less than WiFi: #hardware-archived message
I'd put it somewhere close to routers and where you can easily access it if needed.

[sinful rover]

What is "a lot less"?

I plan on using smart light switches (or relays - depending on the wife's aesthetic choices) and intend for each one to be a zigbee router. From what I've read, this should provide an ample mesh to cover the house since each room will have its own router.

[golden thorn]

See link.

[sinful rover]

I understand about interference. The 2.4g wifi will be configured to avoid crossing channels with zigbee. That doesn't help me understand it's potential range though.

Like, if I put the coordinator in the attic, just above the ceiling of the single story, and have a device that acts as a router in the hallway below it (~1-2m away) is that any different to having the coordinator stuck on a wall 1-2m away? How big of a difference will it make?

[golden thorn]

If you read starting from the link there you see others chiming in on what range to expect. I also mention single digit range but it just depends.
Depends on the structure of your ceiling, orientation, other devices near it and such.

[cold moon]

@marsh lichen ships worldwide

[cold moon]

you wouldnt want it in an attic in texas but maybe in the uk 😛 but in a closet up high would be good

[cold moon]

no in most situations a PoE coordinator "perfectly placed" isn't required or going to net a ton of improvement over a usb based one or relying on an end device to need a hop to a repeater before hitting the coordinator. A lot of us have just been burned with interference before and seen it a lot here so we go out of our way to limit interference and suggest others do the same.

[sinful rover]

I'm planning a fairly large PoE setup in the new house anyway since it'll be running to 2 x Unifi APs, doorbell, chime, multiple cameras, etc. I'll be filling most of a 48 port PoE switch so adding a PoE coordinator makes sense to me over a USB.

After a lot of research, I also plan to run HA Container, Mosquitto and Zigbee2MQTT in Docker on my existing Ubuntu server using Coolify to manage Docker - I already tested this and it works nicely (even detected a load of my devices out of the gate in the current house which was nice to see). I've also worked with Docker in my day job for the last 7 years so am pretty confident with it.

The main bits I'm unsure about are the hardware for the coordinator... so I'll take a look at Tube. What are the shipping times like to the UK for them?

Also looking to repurpose some Amazon Fire 7 tablets I have as HA dashboards in various rooms and want to mount some of them on the wall. For those I'm looking for a USB charging port I can hide away in the back-box behind the tablet... any recommendations welcome on this. Doesn't need to be smart as the tablet batteries are already borked - it just needs to provide enough power to the tablet to operate it.

[drifting grove]

Hello, I am making a weather station and I want to add my arduino to home assistant except that I have never used home assistant before

[cold moon]

For Amazon fire tablet I 3d printed a case that I found on printables.com I have a PoE splitter to usb-c to power it and it’s running fully kiosk browser in kiosk mode launching the home assistant android app

[sinful rover]

Looking at these for wall mounting - https://the3droom.co.uk/product/amazon-fire-7-2022-gen12-wall-mount/

Can get a stand too from same site to sit on tables if wanted

[cold moon]

https://mbmounts.com/collections/tablet-mounts/products/amazon-fire-tablet-wall-mount

mounts by mike is popular too

[sinful rover]

The power issue is that my Fire 7's are older micro-usb and not usb-c.

[cold moon]

so

https://www.amazon.com/UCTRONICS-802-3af-Splitter-Ethernet-Raspberry/dp/B01MDLUSE7

that ^ will take PoE in and give you micro usb out

just hide it in the wall behind the tablet

[sinful rover]

Yes... but is PoE enough to power the tablet - bear in mind the batteries are pretty much dead in these old ones 😉

[cold moon]

yes of course

it's taking 48 volts and bringing it down to 5v for usb so..

[sinful rover]

Good point. After messing with these fire 7's all day and just getting the dreaded reboot loop I'm about ready to launch them out the window and just bite the bullet and buy some new ones tbh

I'm thinking Fire 7's for "in room" dashboards and then maybe a 10" tablet in the main corridor as a main control panel. If I can run PoE to the back boxes and just power them all from that it would be great... though the PoE switch only has 195W total PoE availability so might need to consider the total draw.

All of the cameras, the doorbell, chime and wifi APs would be drawing a combined 60.5W leaving 134.5W to be divided between 4 or 5 tablets ... sounds like it might be ok? I was never very good at working out power usage

ok.. onto the lights.

My wife is very choosy when it comes to how things look in the house and she really doesn't like the look or feel of most of the smart light switches we've tried so far.

The only one she's been able to "live with" has been Lightwave RF.

I'm considering getting Zigbee relays instead so she can choose whatever light switches she likes. This will have the added benefit of not confusing guests that stay over as all the light switches will work just like they normally would.

[cold moon]

i'm a fan of pairing smart switches and smart bulbs for full control

[sinful rover]

Any recommendations for relays?

Would probably need 2-3 that support dimming, then maybe 7-8 simple on/off

[cold moon]

single taps like on/off still do as expected for guests or wife approval

[sinful rover]

The problem is that most smart switches hit one of these negatives that puts my wife off:

• Audible click as it flicks on/off
• Flimsy feeling mechanical switches
• She hates touch-sensitive panels - they don't seem to work well (or at all in some cases) for her

[cold moon]

i would buy an inovelli blue zigbee switch and test with it

i think you'll both be pretty impressed

i use zwave zooz switches but i guess i'd call them "flimsy feeling mechanical switches" compared to a nicer switch. they're a lot cheaper than the inovelli blues tho

[sinful rover]

We're UK 😉

[cold moon]

ah fuck ya

you guys get chinese switches only pretty much

[sinful rover]

I also still need to find out if the switch boxes in the new house ahve a neutral in them or not as that will make a chunk of difference

[fringe crater]

Inovelli has better tactile feel?

[cold moon]

that's the word on the street i still cant justify buying one @ $50 each to test lol

when compared to zooz i've heard multiple people say inovelli feel nicer

[fringe crater]

Yeah it's a lot. One of my zooz seems to have physically crapped out and now it just has like a smush when you press the button, it doesn't really click anymore, feels terrible :\

[sinful rover]

So far the "least offensive have been the Aqara ( https://www.aqara.com/en/product/smart-wall-switch-h1-eu-no-neutral/ ) for "normal" switches and the Candeo dimmer ( https://candeo.io/product-category/dimming-switches/ ) ... but they're both white and she likes the brushed metal look for light switches.

Hence looking at relays

[kindred pelican]

is there a recommended non-cloud network-based (PoE and/or wifi?) zigbee & zwave controller? or maybe a way to pass usb devices from a rpi to a VM?

[cold moon]

the nice thing about smart light switches is you can do double tap/triple/hold/etc if supported

[sinful rover]

Typically you want a Zigbee coordinator and something like Zigbee2MQTT or ZHA

@kindred pelican where are you based?

[kindred pelican]

right, and my coordinator is USB. I want a network-based one so I don't have to worry about HA/failover for my VMs

USA

[sinful rover]

Yeah.. but tbh, that'll be what the in-room tablets will handle

[cold moon]

For the most part I don’t interact with switches much tbh

[sinful rover]

Someone earlier recommended one to me #hardware-archived message @kindred pelican

[cold moon]

They’re just there for people who want to use them

I threw a ton of hue zigbee bulbs in every socket in the house

[kindred pelican]

actually this is what I am looking at currently. any experience with it tho?

[sinful rover]

tbf I'm the same. Most of our current lights are smart bulbs or lightwave setup in Alexa... I just want to ditch the cloud in the new house

[cold moon]

Ya I’m basically cloudless maybe couple left

[sinful rover]

Several people here chimed in above saying they are good. I don't have any personal experience with it.

[cold moon]

Tube provides support in #zigbee-archived and is a good dude. I have and like his coordinator

[kindred pelican]

I kinda hate zigbee lately. Maybe it is the bulbs I have (ikea) but it is so buggy

ty both of you

[cold moon]

Both my zigbee and zwave meshes are flawless

[sinful rover]

I might shell out for HA cloud just to let Alexa control HA stuff and retain the voice control of lights etc... but I'm hoping that with automation it wouldn't be needed as much.

[compact gale]

it's useful for sure. Could also go the DIY free route if you have a few hours to kill for figuring out the process but honestly it might just be easier going with HA cloud

[cold moon]

No Alexa for me

I expose hass myself with nginx

[sinful rover]

I'm just in the process of setting up ... but from what I gather it's all about reducing interference on the 2.4GHz frequency and making sure you have decent wired zigbee devices that can act as routers.

A good video I watched that helped me understand was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY-aD1hvwr4&t=115s

[kindred pelican]

thanks

[sinful rover]

hass?

[cold moon]

Home assistant

[sinful rover]

ok... two extra letters lol

[kindred pelican]

I may have seen that vid and followed it

[sinful rover]

He did this one too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-gw7kURXCk

[kindred pelican]

ill have to watch in a bit. i think there is only so much i can do due to being in an apartment complex with a ton of RF locally

[sinful rover]

I would love if "hass" (why not just "HA"?) could do voice stuff more easily.

[cold moon]

Tbh the biggest deal after doing the basics like best channel is just not joining shitty devices to the mesh

[compact gale]

quick question: how often do manufacturers use hall effect sensors in stuff like contact sensors over reed switches? Disassembled a super cheap contact sensor that I got from AliExpress out of curiosity for a potential future project and I can't find a reed switch on it anywhere. I think I've identified a hall sensor in surface mount IC form factor, but I can't make out the part number printed on it to verify

[cold moon]

Inovelli switches or hue bulbs are a great zigbee backbone for other end devices to use

[sinful rover]

tbh I think the Ikea devices are just a bit rubbish

[sinful rover]

Can you use Hue bulbs without a Hue hub with HA?

[cold moon]

Yes

[kindred pelican]

that is my suspicion. I would have lights showing as "on" in HA while they were clearly off physically. triggered by nothing. it may be due to transitions and I thought I got around it, but it seems to have cropped back up again.

[cold moon]

that's what i'm using tube's coordinator for lol

[fringe crater]

hass has been common terminology for a long time
https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/glossary/#hass

[kindred pelican]

i looked on the site but dont see tubes coordinator for zwave. is it not a thing?

[cold moon]

tube sells a kit that doesnt include the zwave controller itself

[kindred pelican]

i want it all XD

[cold moon]

you buy it separate and put it on

[kindred pelican]

ah okay

ty

[cold moon]

https://tubeszb.com/product/z-wave-poe-kit/

https://www.amazon.com/Z-Wave-Module-ZAC93-Assistant-Raspberry/dp/B0BW4SRCXL

you buy those two things

this is my zigbee mesh with z2m and a tube cc2652p7 coordinator

[kindred pelican]

if someone wanted to control things over long distances, how is that typically done? multiple coordinators?

[cold moon]

well there is zwave long range in beta right now

[kindred pelican]

i mean like, 1/2 mile away

[cold moon]

that goes further than anything else other than like lorawan

zwave long range goes multiple miles in rural and like 1/2mile urban iirc

[kindred pelican]

damn!

[cold moon]

it's really new tho

like just got support in zwave js ui

📡 We just released support for Z-Wave Long Range! 🛰️

Z-Wave Long Range (ZWLR) is an addition to Z-Wave, that allows for a massively increased transmission range and up to 4000 nodes in a single network. There are a few key differences to classic Z-Wave one should know about:

• Z-Wave Long Range uses a star topology, where all nodes communicate directly with the controller. This means that ZWLR nodes cannot be used to route messages for non-ZWLR nodes.
• Both the controller and end devices need to be compatible. AFAIK all 700 and 800 series controllers support it, starting with SDK 7.15. At this time, only a handful of end devices do though.
• ZWLR only works in the US right now. To use it, set the controller region to "USA (Long Range)". EU support is coming soon.
• ZWLR node IDs start at 256. This can be used to distinguish between ZWLR and classic Z-Wave nodes.
• Inclusion only works via Smart Start. To include a ZWLR node, scan it's QR code, switch the protocol to Z-Wave Long Range, then activate the provisioning entry.

[sinful rover]

As I understand it, both z-wave and zigbee only support a single coordinator. That's why you need devices that act as routers.

Thread was supposed to support multiple coordinators, opening the door to more redundancy in smart home mesh but I think it's a way off yet

[kindred pelican]

well i dont have the distance problem yet, (if ever) - just being autistic and going through the "what ifs" in my head XD

[cold moon]

thread and matter are just so not ready yet i'd just ignore their existence

[sinful rover]

The trick with zigbee at least seems to be the order you pair them in - start with the routers and pair them from closest to farthest from the coordinator. Then pair the other non-router stuff in the place it'll be used

[kindred pelican]

right, but lets say there are 3 sites... ABC, and you had a coordinator at each site... and connected devices locally to them. could work, no?

I don't see why not, for reliability it may be better imo...

I think it is just a matter of, "can I connect 3x zigbee dongles to HA and use them all independently?"

[cold moon]

this is my zwave map. little bit smaller than zigbee above 😛

[kindred pelican]

thinking i may just set up a rpi to host the dongles for now for testing usb over the network.

I like the idea of having the tubes device for simplicity, but I like the idea of saving money.

[cold moon]

the PoE coordinator/controllers are nice cuz they are just running off a microcontroller not a full linux os off a microSD card

[kindred pelican]

yeah

[cold moon]

you can make your own technically lol

[kindred pelican]

i already have a pi sitting around doing nothing anyway.

[cold moon]

and the chinese smlight ones i think are fine i just have no experience with them. tube takes an olimex esp32 and adds on the zigbee coordinator and a uart adapter thing

[fringe crater]

rpi can just run zigbee2mqtt, and zwavejs, if you'd rather do that then networked usb. I use the former, never figured out the latter.

[kindred pelican]

okay I think I was misunderstanding what zigbee2mqtt was. gonna go google.

[cold moon]

basically if you want you can just run z2m and zwave js ui on the pi directly instead of sending via ser2net (overcomplicated for your use case)

[kindred pelican]

I am not seeing the big picture ...

everything i saw is about translating something. i dont see why id want to translate.

like to use cheap chips

[cold moon]

install raspi os on pi -> install zwave js ui and zigbee2mqtt on pi (like in docker containers) -> integrate to your home assistant install via your pi IP and port for each container

[kindred pelican]

ooo

ty for eli5 🙂

[cold moon]

https://zwave-js.github.io/zwave-js-ui/#/getting-started/quick-start

https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/guide/installation/02_docker.html

[sinful rover]

Any suggestions for speakers and microphones for home assistant? Ideally PoE

1. To play music through
2. I'd like to setup home assistant's voice assistant and have it be room-aware

[cold moon]

i'd ask in #voice-assistants-archived there has been a lot of changes recently

[drifting grove]

Hello, I am making a weather station and I want to add my arduino to home assistant except that I have never used home assistant before

[cold moon]

well honestly it would probably be easiest to remake your arduino project in esphome with an esp

and then integrate that with home assistant

[cold moon]

i use homepod minis in the kitchen/master/bathroom and use their play state for automations (like dont turn lights of if music is playing in bathroom cuz someone is probably in the shower)

i also use them for TTS with hass and have them play the old AOL jingle "you've got mail" when the mailbox is opened lol

[sinful rover]

Not a fan of the Apple ecosystem tbh... to expensive and doesn't interop well outside of apple stuff. We already have Amazon Echo devices but I want to move away from cloud in general.

Ideally I'd like recessed ceiling speakers in each room to allow for playing of music/audiobooks (both single room and multi-room) - spotify/audible.... as well as a mic in each room, again probably in the ceiling, to work with voice assistant

[cold moon]

pick your poison

i think sonos is a decent option (or the ikea knockoff sonos)

[sinful rover]

It's just a case of finding the hardware that fits the criteria, is compatible with hass and ideally is PoE

[cold moon]

whole home audio DIY is a whole lot of stuff glued together i think

i've just decided not to play lol

[patent river]

Sonos stuff works great as an output, but I'm not sure how much fun you'd have trying to do anything with it as an input

[jagged crypt]

If you actually like yourself, I would split the concept of microphones from speakers for music.... 🙂

[spiral nexus]

Hi there I'm new to home assistant. In fact I still didn't setup mine yet.
I dont need a home server and im not gonna do anything with it other than control smart home stuff and create automations
I got a couple of questions and i need some help.

Do i have to build mine in a raspberry pi to get the full experience?
I have an old mini PC laying around collecting dust and if there is no deference other than power consumption i would rather use it.

What extra stuff do i have to buy ? I know about zwave and zigbee dongols do i need anything else?

[jagged crypt]

use you old mini pc, it'll probably be faster than the pi, and since you already own it, it'll be cheaper in the short run 🙂

[spiral nexus]

If i go that route and used home assistant OS what dongles do i have to buy ? I want it to be able to control all of these

[drifting grove]

i dont have the time

[spiral nexus]

Never mind i just pre-ordered linknlink super gateway

[raw nexus]

Check in here for some of the integrations, if not there may still be externally made intergrations for them.

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/#all

[glacial oracle]

Is any of you aware wether or not a Deye inverter would work nicely local with homeassistant? With hoymiles switching to wifi cloud variants the supply of non wifi ones seems to be dried up

[glacial oracle]

ugh i hate it, the wifi one is like 60 bucks cheaper

[jagged crypt]

Don't know, but first look, the ones i recognize are all wifi. So no additional dongle required.

[sinful rover]

So my wife has decided that she doesn't like any of the smart switches on Amazon. Nor does she like the Aqara H1 or the Candeo dimming switches.

The only one's she's said she likes at the moment are the LightwaveRF switches which are a proprietary RF system with their own hub and cloud account 🤮

Can anyone suggest UK smart switches (ideally that have options for neutral & non-neutral) that work with Zigbee2MQTT and act as routers?

[raw nexus]

This site may help you

https://zigbee.blakadder.com/switches.html

[glacial oracle]

if its just about switch faces you could diy it with the in wall relay ones

that way there is no difference in usablity or looks

[sinful rover]

Yeah.. that's what I think I'll end up having to do. Was just hoping for another option.

They all seem to fall into one of three categories in terms of their looks/design.

1. "Panel" switches like the Aqara H1
2. "American style" tall/oversized switches
3. Glass touch panels (which look nice but are horrible to use and the wife hates them because of smudges & finger prints)

[glacial oracle]

yea the current selection is just horrific

no idea who actually likes em like that

[sinful rover]

Any recommendation on a relay that can act as a router for Zigbee - I want to make sure my mesh is solid

[glacial oracle]

usually any that have/utilize a neutral tab should do that

[sinful rover]

That's the problem... I'm not sure if the house we're buying has neutrals at the switches yet

[short trout]

Opinions on N100 8gb of ram for HA Container and Frigate with coral TPU for 4 cameras?

[raw nexus]

i see what you mean by "american style"

im from the uk aswell and could never stand with them

[glacial oracle]

where its a tiny switch on a large box i think

[raw nexus]

kinda like this yeah

[glacial oracle]

if you go for the diy relays, be aware that this may become very difficult to install depending on the space in your wall

[raw nexus]

when you say DIY relays is that putting the relay at the other side of the "dumb" light switch

[glacial oracle]

no it utilizes the switch to trigger switching of the relay

which can also be done through software resulting in them being smart

physically they get placed somewhere behind the switch

[raw nexus]

would that still work on a 2 way switch

[glacial oracle]

i dont see why not

it may be a bit different to wire in those cases

[cyan lichen]

at least some models of relay used for this application support having the state of the switch be separate from the state of the relay, such that multiple switches could toggle the same light relay via bindings or an automation.

[rose rain]

Anyone have any experience using Third Reality smart plugs? I have one that I've been using for months now with no issues, and randomly a few weeks ago it essentially stopped updating the power usage.

It still updates super randomly, but it's never quite right anymore. Like right now it's fully off and it's still reporting 174W

Plugs in question: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BPY5D1KC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[gloomy spoke]

I had to unplug one and plug it back in to fix tht

so far it's just the one misbehaving for me

[rose rain]

I tried that, and it worked for like a day. Hopefully taht's not a regular thing 😕

Ah, maybe I just got unlucky then

[gloomy spoke]

they update firmware fairly regularly. which version are you on?

You can try factory-resetting it at the plug and letting it rejoin the network to see if it helps.

[jagged crypt]

My suggestion would be to invest in motion sensors, some time to get them tuned, and then you can ignore your light switches 🙂 (Requires smart lights of some sort though)

[rose rain]

Oh that's a good question. Tbh I've never updated the firmware, and I may never have even downloaded the Third Reality app, I don't remember. I just connected it right to Z2M

I'll download the app now and check

[gloomy spoke]

you don't need their app

I've never downloaded or used it

[rose rain]

Oh nice, even better

Oh yeah I just checked. It says up to date and I'm on 1.00.74

[gloomy spoke]

yeah, all of mine on are that too

[dense lance]

@fathom kelp@slim lagoon The bypass worked and fixed the switch turning off when it was in decoupled, thanks :)

[tall hare]

how long will it take for ecobee and nest to be alive if its not powered by a 24v?

[slim lagoon]

Not sure about the nest, but are you running the ecobee on battery or something? AFAIK, they require either battery or 24v c wire for power.

[glossy prism]

The ecobee thermostat doesn't have a battery

[gloomy spoke]

right, it will die immediately 🙂

[sinful rover]

That's the plan... but need to make them smart first, hence looking at smart switches and relays.

Right now I just need to know how I can tell if a relay can act as a Zigbee router rather than just an end device

[tall hare]

I'm currently just doing research on what thermostat I should get. I currently have a Honeywell t8011 but from reading it more(the manual) there's a 24v wire. It was labeled weird.

Also should I buy used or new?

[jagged crypt]

if they are no-neutral, they won't act as router

[sinful rover]

That's guesswork. The Candeo no-neutral dimmer switch does act as a router. So clearly some devices can be a router even without a neutral

[jagged crypt]

have you been asking for this for a year? - https://community.home-assistant.io/t/looking-for-no-neutral-switch-with-repeater-functionality/585471

[slim lagoon]

Eh, personally I'd stick with Honeywell. They have some newer ones that are actually pretty nice and integrate easily into HA (although they are cloud if you go with the Lyric or Total Connects). They do have Z-Wave/Zigbee versions though. Ecobee terminated their dev subscriptions, so hooking it up to HA requires HomeKit now (and I'm not certain how well that actually works). Nest still has a native integration, so that might be better. As for new/used, if going with a Nest, used ones are usually too bad. Not sure about used Ecobees though.

[tall hare]

My current one is just a programmable thermostat(weekdays and Sunday and Saturday) and that's it. Nothing "smart" about it. So new nest then?

[slim lagoon]

Sure. I'd go with a new Nest or something like the Honeywell T9 (if you have Zigbee or ZWave). Nest is also cloud as well. Not sure if that's important to you or not.

[fringe crater]

I can't stand Nest for HA and would not recommend. It's all cloud based and google make you pay a stupid $5 random to use it 🤮 .
They'll assuredly shut off the API on a whim at some point in the future when it's convenient for them.

[slim lagoon]

Wait.... what?! $5 to use a thermostat you bought?!

[fringe crater]

yeah they have some stupid "developer fee" or something

just to talk to their cloud API

[sinful rover]

At the moment I don't actually know if the house I'm moving to has neutrals at the switch or not. tbh, with a relay it may be moot anyway since the relays can be installed anywhere in the circuit so I could just send the electrician into the attic to put them up there... but I do want my relays/switches to act as routers to strengthen the Zigbee mesh network.

So again, my question is "How do you know that a relay or switch will act as a router before buying?" ... I've not seen it explicitly mentioned on any switch or relay store page on any website so far, nor in any of the "technical/installation" manuals I can download online.

II've looked at Aqara, Candeo and Mose primarily since they seem to be the favourites

[slim lagoon]

@tall hare Scratch what I said... go with the Honeywells then... At least they don't charge you to use the API.

[tall hare]

I have zigbee already so ig Honeywell t9

[tall hare]

Got it thank you!

[jagged crypt]

send email and ask customer service. or look here - https://zigbee.blakadder.com/

[slim lagoon]

BEFORE you buy the device, look at https://zigbee.blakadder.com/ or https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/supported-devices/

[slim lagoon]

Anytime!

[tall hare]

Prices isn't that bad either(Canadian)

[slim lagoon]

Nope. In all honesty, once my Ecobee dies, I'll be going with a T9 myself.

The damn thing just won't die (over 10 years old now lol)

[tall hare]

Really??? Lol

[slim lagoon]

Yup

[sinful rover]

Thanks. Not sure I'm looking for the right thing now.

Take https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/C205.html for example... this isn't listed in https://zigbee.blakadder.com/ and neither site tells me if it can act as a router or not.

I feel like I'm being especially dumb right now. It can't be this difficult to know if such an important feature is present or not on a device.

Another example: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/HK-DIM-A.html | https://zigbee.blakadder.com/Candeo_HK-DIM-A.html

This one I know DOES act as a router... but still not mentioned anywhere on either page.

[slim lagoon]

Huh, you are absolutely right. I thought Z2M had router listed in the docs... 🤔 A quick google search turns up that this is a VERY common complaint outside of the "if it's mains powered, it's a router" argument.

[slim lagoon]

tbf, my Ecobee was my second ever "smart" device that I bought. lol It just keeps going and going.

[sinful rover]

"if it's mains powered, it's a router"
This is not true anyway since, as some have mentioned here, many non-neutral devices are mains powered but are not routers.

"if it's non-neutral it's not a router"
This is the other one I'm tired of hearing that is also untrue as discussed above.

You'd think that what is arguably one of the most important features of a hardwired Zigbee device after its primary function - it's ability to extend the Zigbee mesh network - would be something manufacturers would want to shout about. It seems nonsensical to me that there's just no way to know until you buy

I guess too many manufacturers banking on wifi/cloud/own-brand-hubs to lock you into their own ecosystem and only throwing a random zigbee chip in to try to get more sales though 🤷

[slim lagoon]

I'm not disagreeing with you at all. But, until someone creates the docs for it (I think there are a few discussions on the Z2M website to include router/end device tags in the docs), it's not going to change.

[fringe crater]

yeah I'll guess its just not a well developed consumer market.

[sinful rover]

Yes, but with any other networking device the basics of what it can do should be in its own spec sheet right?

[fringe crater]

🤷

maybe there's a spec sheet written in chinese somewhere that has this info

[sinful rover]

Ok... stepping away from light switches and relays before I go mad...

on a different subject, does anyone here have the Hive smart thermostat?

Do you need the Hive Hub for it to work, or will Home Assistant Zigbee2MQTT take that role?

[slim lagoon]

Z2M has Hive drivers.

Unless it's some weird device that hasn't been integrated yet.

[sinful rover]

So that's a "No", I don't need their hub?

[slim lagoon]

Correct. You shouldn't. https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/supported-devices/#v=Hive

[rustic lance]

Thanks to your comment I finally made the move from a Raspi4 to my unraid-server, HA's running in its own VM and my gosh, it works sooo much better with some more computing power and an SSD. Night and day difference

Had some issues getting bluetooth and zigbee to work, but after some troubleshooting everything works!

[cold moon]

you can use bluetooth proxies to extend bluetooth mesh if you need to

[rustic lance]

Yeah found out about the little ESP32 boards, might use them in the future if I ever need to extend bluetooth. As of now most of my smart thingys run trough zigbee or WLAN, just a couple bluetooth devices near the server, so no range issues yet

[sinful rover]

I'm looking at the zigbee2mqtt.io site ( https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/SLT6.html ) and I'm confused. The linked smart thermostat says it exposes battery and linkquality ... does that mean that I can't control the temperature setting from Zigbee2MQTT?

[slim lagoon]

I'd wager that's just crappy documentation. I cannot imagine that it doesn't expose climate functions.

[sinful rover]

I'm sensing a theme today :/

[golden thorn]

Pretty sure the tools that generate the docs are supposed to gather the facts from the code: https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee-herdsman-converters/blob/ba31fde8de9795374a5b000293ec678a5dcc37df/src/devices/hive.ts#L520

[slim lagoon]

Yup. That's just what I was checking...

So yeah, amazingly it doesn't seem to support climate

[sinful rover]

So what's the point of even connecting it to hass then?

[slim lagoon]

Oh wait! That's just a remote for the thermostat.

[sinful rover]

Why even support Zigbee

[sinful rover]

No, it's the Hive Mini ... https://www.hivehome.com/shop/smart-heating/hive-thermostat-mini

[slim lagoon]

Huh... good question... I don't see why this device exists unless it does something specific in the Hive hub that isn't able to be replicated over Zigbee? Just a guess.

[sinful rover]

It's basically like Nest, just by British Gas instead of Google

So you are half-correct. When you buy the Hive Mini you get that device, and you get a "Receiver" that is wired into your boiler. I'm guessing the receiver is the bit with the climate settings

The problem is they don't tell you what the model number of the receiver is.

Found it...

The Hive Mini (SLT6 or SLT6b) is paired with either the SLR1c receiver (for combi-boilers) or the SLR2c (for conventional gas boilers).

I'm starting to understand why Home Assistant isn't prioritising simpler UI's over YAML ... anyone that can make heads or tails of all this has to be technical enough to deal with YAML anyway.

So I'd get a https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/SLR1c.html in the box since I have a combi-boiler

and that does ahve climate

So the SLT6 reporting it's battery & signal level is actually nice as it means that Hass can tell me when the batteries are getting low, or when the thermostat is too far from the receiver.

[golden thorn]

Actually: https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2020/04/14/the-future-of-yaml/

[sinful rover]

Yeah, but let's be honest here - I'm a pretty competent IT professional that's been working with servers, networking and software development for just over 25 years... and some of the stuff I've been dealing with just when researching what I need for my new smart home has had me close to quitting today and going back to a cloud ecosystem like Alexa.

Why? Because so much of this is just unnecessary. Why can't manufacturers just list router/not-router on the specs? Why is the smart thermostat that I buy as one unit split into two separate pages on the zigbee2mqtt docs? (I know why - they are technically different devices - but regular consumers don't know this. They know they bought/want-to-buy a product and they can't find the info they need.

I'm pretty stubbourn with stuff like this... I'll usually just do it until it works... but there is no way Hass is ever breaking into the [mainstream: ed] consumer market until the industry as a whole gets its shit together and starts giving users the information they need to make it all work together. /end-rant

[slim lagoon]

tbh, we are still very much in the Wild West of home automation and likely will be for at least a few more years. Standardization is still a foreign concept to a lot of manufacturers. But, in that same vein, it's a LOT better than it was even 5 years ago.

[sinful rover]

I just had a real 🤦‍♂️ moment. Looking at the Aqara FP2 presence sensor and trying to find out if it will work with Zigbee2MQTT... 45 minutes later I realise the FP2 is wifi based ... I'm going to bed.

[slim lagoon]

bwahahaha... actually, don't feel bad... when I first looked at the FP2, I assumed the same exact thing.

[sinful rover]

How much is the FP2 in the US?

[slim lagoon]

On Amazon, around $82, but Amazon usually has them on sale for ~$65ish?

I think I got all 3 of mine for about $65-$70 each.

BUT... I have a love/hate relationship with them.

[sinful rover]

Ok cool.. I just saw £82.99 here in the UK amazon and wondered if they were being imported and hiked

[sinful rover]

Oh?

[slim lagoon]

Yeah, they still have issues with ghosting which causes my lights to stay on longer than I would like. They've tried with 2 firmware updates so far to make it better, but in my house, it has only improved slightly. I've had to create a bunch of interference zones to compensate for it. When they do work (which is more often than not lately), they are great. But when they start ghosting, it annoys the hell out of me.

[sinful rover]

Does it rely on their servers to work given it's wifi?

[slim lagoon]

If I'm not mistaken, the detection and all that happens locally... but they do have an "AI" component to them as well... I've never blocked them from the internet, so I'm not 100% sure.

[sinful rover]

New question… anyone know of a device that will open/close the slats on window shutters?

[cold moon]

FP2 can be directly connected to home assistant via the homekit protocol over wifi. you have to use aqara app to setup zones and do some other shit but ultimately it can be directly connected to hass with no cloud

[cold moon]

there are multiple blinds/shutters products to take over existing mechanical stuff and turn them smart with a tiny motor basically. i'm not sure which ones are popular/good tho

i think the switchbot bluetooth ones are popular

[sacred flame]

Hey sorry if this is answered (I just joined), but what do people use as like small tablet remotes? I guess I can get a cheap $50 android tablet but was wondering if there is anything similar to elgato stream deck but wireless that I can connect to HA?

or like a loupedeck type device but wireless (https://imgur.com/mLKHKVs)

[fringe jasper]

found out eventually that it was because I needed the python packages installed as well; frigate uses those. And unfortunately my python3 version was too high; it doesn't seem to work with up to date python3. Just in case anyone else stumbles across this.

installing on another machine where I had an older version of python (3.9 as opposed to 3.11) got it working

[sinful rover]

I assume the app needs the cloud then? So if they go bust the sensors can’t be configured any more?

[sinful rover]

I can see loads for roller blinds but haven’t seen any for shutters.

[sinful rover]

I've been looking at the Amazon Fire 7 tablets as they're cheap and about the right size for an in-room control panel. I was looking at something a bit bigger like a Galaxy Tab A8 for a main panel in my hallway.

https://the3droom.co.uk/ does nice 3d printed wall mounts and has a stand you can mount them too for desk/table standing ones

For the wall mounted ones I plan to use PoE splitters to power them from my PoE switch

[slim lagoon]

Switchbot Tilt is supposed to be good. I'm going to be getting a couple of them in the next week or so to test. The only downside is that they need BT, which I've been avoiding for the longest time now.

[slim lagoon]

Yeah, but just for setting up the zones and firmware updates. TBH, I cannot see Aqara going bust anytime soon. They are one of the largest Zigbee manufacturers around.

[sinful rover]

I'd like to avoid BT if I can too... would rather everything be Zigbee as I don't want to have to have BT receivers/dongles everywhere.

Re Aqara, I agree but I am trying to avoid anything that requires any form of cloud account. I don't mind if they offer a cloud option. Like how Unify have the cloud UI.. but I need to be able to do everything locally as much as possible

Also, the SwitchBot is for blinds, not shutters :/

[winged knoll]

Aqara Zigbee doesn't require their hub, or their cloud account

No Zigbee devices require either of those, that's how Zigbee works

[sinful rover]

Aqara FP2 is not zigbee

It's wifi

[winged knoll]

FP1 is 😛

If you want a Wifi mmWave that's local then have a look at the Everything Presence One/Light

[sinful rover]

tbh I'm looking at probably ordering something like the Athom from AliExpress tbh.. it's had some good reviews and combines PIR for fast activation with mmWave for better detection... at least for areas we live in like my office, living room, etc. For transiant areas I'll prolly just use basic PIRs

Everything Presence Lite was the other option I was looking at.

[winged knoll]

I've found the FP1 reacts quickly to presence, very similar to any of the PIR sensors - though that's with the newer firmware and using the various sensors it exposes

[sinful rover]

These are shutters. Some have a tilt-rod like in the 2nd pic, but most newer ones don't, you just move the shutter.

[sinful rover]

Yeah... but you can't buy the FP1 anywhere, in the UK at least, since they released the FP2.

[winged knoll]

AliExpress is a thing you know

[cold moon]

Fp1 is too expensive for what it is these days there are better mmWave devices

[winged knoll]

Eh... it's Zigbee, doesn't suck (looking at you Sonoff/Tuya), and pretty small

There's better WiFi ones for sure though

[tender aurora]

anyone familiar with rs485/modbus? can this be wired in a star topology? or do they have to be wired as a bus?

[slim lagoon]

Ahhhhh, yeah, those... I don't really know of any good option for those.

[slim lagoon]

I ordered a few of the Apollo MSR-1 sensors to test out. I also preordered some of their MTR-1s as well. Small form factor, ESPHome integration and good reviews... I'm really interested in these. Plus, they just came out with the MSR-2 with an improved mmWave sensor.

[cold moon]

So that was the tradeoff we decided to go with.```
this is what trevor in apollo automation discord said about msr-1 vs msr-2. so i think the mmwave sensor is the same just an incremental change with other sensor

[slim lagoon]

Ahhhhh, ok. I had read that it was a new mmWave chip, but that makes more sense to me.

[tall hare]

@slim lagoon doesnt ecobee can be connected via zigbee?

or still api can be fucky wucky?

[slim lagoon]

Nope. It is a WiFi only device. The API works ok, but connecting it to HomeKit is pure local control.

[slim lagoon]

I’m totally stealing “fucky wucky” lmao

[tall hare]

😭

[tall hare]

got it

[jagged crypt]

pet peeve of mine "wifi device" has no bearing on local vs saas control. 🙂

[slim lagoon]

https://tenor.com/rOM1.gif

[vague tartan]

I have now gone through all types of setup of HA. while no have been rally bad, I would say HA should be "set and forget it". The most power for HA is given running it on a Homelab in docker, lxc or VM, but is that so clever as HA will go easily down with something happening on the homelab server. Then you have three other options for now. Buy a HA yellow (I am reluctant since I would like CM5 and maybe rather wait, use a PI5 with nvme or mini pc. The Mini PC from ali isnt always the best quality and they produce a lot of heat so not always the most stable. So I end up with three options. 1. run it in a VM 2. Buy (rebuy) a yellow 3. Run it on a PI5 with NVME. Any other options?

[winged knoll]

The one that's recommended so often I'm shocked your search didn't find it ||a second hand small form factor PC||

Also, don't buy utter crap from Ali - there's lots of ones that aren't also toasters

[vague tartan]

I have a small form factor right now actually, forgot to mentioned it. So I have two options there I got a 13 1215U, but it makes a LOT of heat, plus I have a NUC, nuc6i3syk that is getting older now

[sinful rover]

The problem here is that many times wifi means you need to install the manufacturers app to do the initial setup, giving them your details and having yet another app on your phone.

Even if the device itself can function entirely remotely after that, if the vendor pulls the app it's a useless piece of junk the next time you need to reset and reconfigure it.

[vague tartan]

so if the nuc6i3syk is a better machine than pi4/pi5 then I can use that (asking in the context that I already have all of them)

[winged knoll]

Pi4/5 on an SSD is ok, but they've got heat issues too

I've got a couple of SFF PCs, both run warm but quiet, not hot

[gray latch]

sff vs usff makes a big difference for heat

[jagged crypt]

that's not my experience., which is probably where my pet peeve comes from. In some cases, you need an app to get BT connection so you can configure the wifi so you can use local control. It's mostly that WIFI doesn't mean non-local, it just means wifi. ESP32 devices for example. I understand it's pedantic.

[sinful rover]

My plan is to run it in docker on my home server. I treat this as a production server that runs tools I use day to day for my work so if it goes down I have bigger issues than home assistant not working.

With all the research I've done, and testing so far, I find this to be the most flexible option and tbh it feels more robust than a lot of the other options. My take, ofr what it's worth since I'm also relatively new to home assistant, is:

• HA Green feels like a starter system I'll quickly outgrow
• Raspberry Pi 4 feels the same
• Raspberry Pi 5 might handle it, but I wouldn't want to run it on an SD card given how chatty HA can be on the drive. Leaves NVMe and then the price is starting to climb
• HA Yellow is basically a Raspberry Pi in a fancy box with a couple of dongles thrown in
• Preowned/refurbed SFF PCs are a possibility, but in my experience it's a pot-luck in terms of getting something that won't break in a few weeks. Also, I have a bunch of old desktop PCs I can stick in my home data cab if needs be instead.

I don't totally dislike Raspberry Pi... I have a 4 x Raspberry Pi 5 + NVMe cluster in a 2U rack case (with space for 4 more if I ever need them) running K3s as a mini Kubernetes cluster for my personal projects and to screw around with - if that breaks I have base images and just reflash the NVMe's and it's back to working.

[vague tartan]

will even a 6th I3 perform better than a pi5? I have not bench marked them

[gray latch]

Pi4/5 will boot from a USB SATA drive, in addition to NVMe and SD card options.

[vague tartan]

@Kyr then you just have to decide if it breaks it all breaks, unless its possible to keep a pi as a fallback in that kind of scenario, but then it should be 100% unattended

[winged knoll]

Depends on the specific i3, but Google will have you covered

[vague tartan]

its this one: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/89186/intel-nuc-kit-nuc6i3syk/specifications.html

[jagged crypt]

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/2627vs4078vs5893/Intel-i5-6500T-vs-ARM-Cortex-A72-4-Core-1800-MHz-vs-ARM-Cortex-A76-4-Core-2600-MHz if I have my cpu's correct, pi4->pi5 (though slightly faster mhz)

[sinful rover]

That's what backupsa re for. The server is backed up as bare-metal weekly (more than enough for doing a full restore onto new hardware) and 90% of the work stuff I have on it has configs, files, etc. backed up to my OneDrive.

I'll be configuring HA with backups to there as well.

If the whole server caught fire I can get another relatively easily and restore everything. Might take me a day.

In regards to HA being down, the plan for my smart home is to use relays rather than smart switches anyway for lights - so they'll just keep working in dumb switch mode. All of the important stuff (security cameras, etc.) work without HA - HA just enhances them. All the other automations and stuff we'd be able to live without if things went totally catawampus.

In fact, one reason to use docker for HA is that it lets you keep other things running in other containers when HA needs restarting.. such as zigbee2mqtt, mosquitto, etc... meaning you don't take the whole zigbee network down by just restarting HA

[vague tartan]

ofc keeping everthing on one machine is a pro, if we can live with the extra risk. I dont know why in my head I "need" a standalone HA og logging server, even if its plenty of resources on the server with a big UPS

maybe I should stop overthinking it

I also got tubes zigbee and zwave over ethernet so keeping those a bit from the server

[twilit elm]

sorry if this has been asked one too many times already but i was on amazon trying to find a decent 2m led strip that i can control locally with HA, any pointers as to what to get? there are some options but there's no information on what they are based on and if they are manageable locally or just cloud (spoiler warning: work with IT mainteanance and am NOT a fan of cloud 🙂 )

[sinful rover]

With docker you could have different things on different machines if you wanted to. I toyed with the idea of spreading it out accross a similar Raspberry Pi K3S cluster to my lab setup.

[vague tartan]

@Kyr on a hosted version I personally think a VM with HAOS is the best experience, but thats me. More pros than cons in my world at least

[sinful rover]

Of course. You have to asses it and pick the solution that works for you. I'm just describing my thought process and choices

[jagged crypt]

you should definitely make it super complex, instead of sticking with a single point of failure, multiple makes life more interesting 🙂 Ability to recover rapidly from a failure condition (crashed disk, or failed upgrade) should be a priority if you use this for primary functionality. If you are using HA to tinker and act as a hobby, then feel free to focus on whatever complexity level you want, since that's the goal 🙂

[slim lagoon]

This is actually how I run everything here. Docker swarm across multiple machines.

[jagged crypt]

everyone has a difference definition of the KISS principle in design (this is not sarcastic, as opposed to my previous statement).

[twilit elm]

that's the first time in a long time i've heard someone talk about swarm, didn't think it was still around tbh

[slim lagoon]

Alive and kicking! 🙂 If they ever remove it, I'll be PISSED. lol

[twilit elm]

aren't there helm charts around in case you want to run it through k8s?

[slim lagoon]

Supposedly, but I'm not a big K8s fan, tbh. I'm kinda stuck in my ways. lol

[twilit elm]

i work with k8s and i'm not a fan either 🙂

[cold moon]

DIY led strips are the best non cloud option. You can buy preflashed controllers and add wire and led strips. https://quinled.info/quinled-dig2go/ this is a decent option or https://www.athom.tech/blank-1/wled-esp32-music-addressable-led-strip-controller but it depends on use case to really give the best hardware suggestions

[sinful rover]

My home server has an 8-disk RAID5 SSD array with 2TB SSDs, two physical CPUs and a redundant PSU. I also have the entire rack split between 2 Eaton 5SC 1500 IEC UPS. I run docker compose and Portainer. I run a bunch of OSS software on there that I use in my day job, like PenPot.

I've only had to replace one drive so far a few weeks after setup and that was just hot-swap and the array rebuilt itself while everything was still running on the server. The drive was just a faulty one and the vendor replaced it FOC.

Most people don't need this level of redundancy for HA though.

[sinful rover]

I knew swarm existed but figured k8s had pretty much replaced it now. I really like my little 4-Pi5 k3s cluster and it just works flawlessly once you get to grips with NodePort and Ingress. It's basically docker compose on roids

[slim lagoon]

Oh yeah, I know... I deal with K8s/K3s at work along with docker containers in EC2 as well... I've just never been all that impressed by it, tbh and my home setup is complex enough as it is. 😉

[sinful rover]

lol... fair enough.

[jagged crypt]

everyone's KISS is different 🙂 I run HA in a VM on top of an SFF (running proxmox). It backs up to a 8-disk raid6 ZFS "NAS" that is on the local network. I have whole house battery (powerwalls) so no ups. Worst case, my light switches work while I rebuild the VM's.... And resync the zigbee network to a new stick.

I deal with tech on my day job, but don't mix work stuff on personal gear.

(Additional worst case, my wife has to use said light switches intead of the zigbee button when watching a movie)

[sinful rover]

TIL that mmWave used in presence sensors is the same microwave tech that everyone got so upset about in the 5G cellular towers lol

Worst case, my light switches work while I rebuild the VM's

That's my approach to designing my new smart home (we're moving house soon). I want everything to be able to just work normally and the smart stuff to augment it and add QoL

[twilit elm]

i think it's wise to consider what happens if parts of your smart home goes down. that's why i don't care much for cloud controlled equipment

[stray stream]

Has anyone ever played with this device from Athom? 🙂 https://fr.athom.tech/blank-1/wled-esp32-rf433-music-addressable-led-strip-controller

I was wondering hows the voltage drop thru it with 5V.

[silk basin]

How do you keep power going through a power outage? Do you have some transfer switch with a sin wave generator that keeps the powerwalls live, or do the powerwalls have this capability on their own?

[jagged crypt]

solar + powerwalls. Power loss results in transfer to solar+powerwall. Have already seen it in action, and disocvered that i don't want powerwalls maxed out when xfer occurs otherwise i have a different issue with no place for solar to go, so that kicks off also.

[silk basin]

so power outage at night is still handled by powerwalls without an extra transfer switch?

[jagged crypt]

I don't have to do anything, power is pulled from solar, grid, or batteries (made a thread to de-clutter images)

[neon rain]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but, does ordering Shelly products using their US store usually take a while for them to ship things out? I've probably placed an order a little over a week now and I have a deadline for when they need to arrive before a trip up north. Has anyone else experienced anything like this from their storefront?

(apparently their site suggests they're based in FL for their US operations, I could go door knocking if I wanted to drive 4 hours south of me 🤣)

[twilit elm]

is there no solution that's not DIY? i'm not quite comfortable rolling my own just yet

[winged knoll]

Depends on what you want - do you want single colour strips or fancy multi-colour ones like the ones he linked?

Plugging a strip into that controller is easy though, not really DIY

I also have some Gledopto (Zigbee) controllers and strips, those work well too

[twilit elm]

i'm fine with single colour strips

[winged knoll]

https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/GL-C-008P.html plus your chosen strip

If you can plug cables into sockets both that and the ones smarthomesellout linked are easy

[viral sphinx]

can someone recommend a power plug with zigbee or esphome already integrated from amazon? bonus if it has power meter... everything I can find on amazon is cloud based 😦

[twilit elm]

shelly has wifi based ones (plug s) that doesn't require a controller and they come with power meters and limiters, that's what i use. not sure about amazon integration though

[winged knoll]

Innr do great Zigbee plugs

[viral sphinx]

shelly can be flashed easily with esphome, no?

actually, I am not sure if zigbee will work. I want to add some automatic (embedded in firmware) reboot when PC doesnt answer to HomeAssistant

[unborn wraith]

I can’t install zoook app…is there any way to install any other app and see the power consumption?

[winged knoll]

They're Tuya, do they not work with SmartLife and the HA Tuya integrations?

[unborn wraith]

Will it work with smart life app?

I have connected it to zoook app

[sinful rover]

I’d probably go for Phillips hue smart plugs. They support zigbee and Bluetooth https://amzn.eu/d/i73ZZh0

[winged knoll]

It says Tuya in the image, so it should

Of course, Tuya's the wild west clusterfuck zone, so it may not, or may partially work

[unborn wraith]

Ok thanks

[real raven]

Shelly allows you to run javascript scripts on the ESP32

[viral sphinx]

I didnt know that. Probably ill go for shelly but flash with esphome anyway. thanks

[languid girder]

Anyone know of an Android tablet with a dock to run HA and some other android apps (baby monitor for example)?

Perfect example would be the Pixel tablet, but we all know Google and their product support

[ionic breach]

Any tips on how to fit it? Damn i did not check this before purchase.

[pliant forum]

Take a look at the Lenovo Thinksmart View

it can be found for $30-40 on eBay new and be flashed to Android 11

https://www.ebay.com/itm/166461250300

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/is-this-the-perfect-standalone-tablet-for-ha/658422

[glacial oracle]

most of those wont fit into standard euish type wall sockets

you could try removing the plastic case of it but i would at least recommend wrapping it in a foil or something

keep in mind that this isnt risk free tho

[ionic breach]

I guess. I think i will expand that socket. I dont know how yet but i will try

Thanks

[glacial oracle]

it probably requires a double one to properly fit

[jagged crypt]

or buy the correct sized item for your application?

[ionic breach]

problem is that, once i've put it all back, it barely fit, without remote switch. There are 4x3 0.5mm cables. two double switches for two sets of lights gather in that one place.

[jagged crypt]

solve the actual problem, not the one you are making 🙂

[cold moon]

https://tenor.com/view/yoda-star-wars-gif-424824508006372153

[jagged crypt]

just trying to prevent the next question of how do I automate my fire suppression system... 🙂

[sinful rover]

See what stands you can get 3D printed: https://the3droom.co.uk/

I plan to use Amazon Fire 7 with Fully Kiosk Browser and Home Assistant dashboard for in-room controls. You just need a USB cable then to power it.

[sinful rover]

FYI these are US only by the looks of it. There are a few on ebay.co.uk but they are £100+ and imported from the US :/

[static pulsar]

which platform would you guys recommend I run home assistant on?

rasp pi, yellow, green?

[pliant forum]

#general-archived message

Read the convo that just went on here.

[static pulsar]

:o

[cold moon]

none of the above

[static pulsar]

what would you recommend?

[cold moon]

pi is underpowered and overpriced, yellow is a pi in a trenchcoat, green is basically a pi

what's your budget

and what country do you live in

[static pulsar]

as far as budget goes, preferably under $50, and I live in the US

[cold moon]

for a used cheaper option a lenovo m910q or similar on ebay (can be had for around $50 but can go over $100)

for a newer option n100 based mini pc like the beelink ones off amazon

[static pulsar]

how about running haos on a vm on my pc?

actually no I take that back

[cold moon]

you would run haos in a vm on the mini pc

and could then run other things alongside it like plex or torrent downloads or whatever

you could run haos natively on the mini pc but these days all the cool kids virtualize haos with proxmox

https://www.derekseaman.com/2023/10/home-assistant-proxmox-ve-8-0-quick-start-guide-2.html

really easy setup tutorial^

[static pulsar]

Oooh

So it's easy to do?

So proxmox is the vm software for cool kids?

[cold moon]

it's a hypervisor

it's basically debian linux with a gui and some premade tools they've made to allow you to manage virtual machines / LXCs

[static pulsar]

But it's not an os...

[static pulsar]

Is that what virtualbox is?

[cold moon]

https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/virtualization/what-is-a-hypervisor it still runs bare metal like a traditional OS would

virtualbox is some devilspawn shit that i've never had to touch thankfully

[static pulsar]

But they're both hypervisors, correct?

[cold moon]

While Hyper-V is a type 1 hypervisor operating directly on the host hardware, VirtualBox is a type 2 hypervisor running on the underlying host operating system

type 1 vs type 2

[static pulsar]

Hmmm

[cold moon]

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9983666/

[static pulsar]

Is proxmox type 1?

[cold moon]

ya but this doesnt really matter

[static pulsar]

Mkay, this is all very confusing

[cold moon]

why

[vague tartan]

Not fitting in any other category as this is non tech relevant. I have been looking a long time for a connected rotary dimmer that can be used as a remote (it takes power to keep itself alive and rapid updated two way), so that it can control a smart bulb directly or via an automation. I found one zigbee dimmer, but since its just on battery if you turn on the light via an automation the dimmer have no clue and think its still off having me to click 2-4 times to get the lights back on or off. SO what I am just looking for is a dimmer that can be used with smart lihts (zigbee/zwave,matter etc) and be always updated. Need to fit in EU frames and frequencies

[sinful rover]

Would this work: https://candeo.io/product-category/dimming-switches/ ?

Seen good things about it but not used it myself. It doesn't require a neutral wire and does act as a zigbee router

[slim lagoon]

What dimmer are you talking about that isn't receiving state? That seems very sus to me. However, in terms of dimmers, you said EU frames, does this mean you want it wall mounted?

[slim lagoon]

I've heard some good things about the candeo dimmers and switches. But they seem pricey...

[sinful rover]

No neutral required + router is why

[slim lagoon]

Ahhhh, ok, that makes sense.

[sinful rover]

All the reviews I've seen also state that they make zero noise. Non of the silly buzzing you often get with dimmers, and the dial action is very smooth.

[sinful rover]

Regarding the Everything Presence One ... is it possible to set detection zones with it like some other mmWave sensors have?

[winged knoll]

They have their own Discord, you may want to ask them directly

[shell tide]

I have a light on the dock that is operated with by the lift remote which is connected to Insteon micro on/off that has an input for local control. I installed the the Zooz ZEN52 (double relay) that has the same functionality but given the distance doesn't perform well. Should I be looking at a Shelly for this? I have a fibre connected AP on the dock so Wi-Fi with low latency isn't an issue.

[hybrid lantern]

curious about smart deadbolts.. are there any without external keypads?

this is for a business, looking to actuate remotely or with key, and status indication

[languid girder]

i saw these, but im in the UK

[slim lagoon]

Probably something like the August or maybe the Switchbot Lock Pro? Although, I don't know if the Lock Pro is available to integrate into HA yet. All the ones I have seen have keypads on them.

[pliant forum]

Kwikset Convert - they have Zigbee, and Z-Wave versions. Avoid the Amazon Key version

[sinful rover]

What's the "go to" smart relay for Zigbee in the UK? Looking for dimming capable mainly.

[frosty crescent]

Cheers everyone
I require this your aid
I just found some philips hue lighbulbs (6 for ~40 euros) and would like to integrate them in my house
I am running hs locally, as anyone should when doing such things
But I am facing some issues regarding to my light switches. Other than the regular switches (that are 2 wires + ground), I have 2 sets lights that are controlled with 2 light switches (so basically 4 wires going into each of them)
And I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to replace them with smart switches.
I am really tempted to get the philips hue lightbulbs but it will really be an issue if I end up turning them off via the lightswitch
And so, I would like to do an automation. And so, I need to replace the lightswitches
Any advice would be amazing.
Thank you so much for reading this

[slim lagoon]

Instead of switches, get relays that you place behind the switches.

[frosty crescent]

ok cool. I thought of that but I had no idea what kind of relays to get

I'm not really an electronics person. I know how to wire it but I have no idea what to get

[golden thorn]

Search for zigbee module in your favorite shops.

[frosty crescent]

hmm.. ok. but the problem is, these switch modules only have 3 wires (basically 6 for passthrough)

[slim lagoon]

Ohhhhh you need one for a traveller... so, you have a 3-way switch setup. 🤔

[frosty crescent]

yeah, I tried to explain it to the best of my ability before. I was 99% sure it was called a 3-way switch, but I mistook the name for "2 way switch"

I can hack one light switch to be ignored (because it is basically behind a furniture item), but the second one is kinda important and I can't cheese it

[golden thorn]

There are x gang modules. Not sure whether that will work in your case.

[frosty crescent]

long story short: I'm kinda fucked
correct?

[fringe crater]

It's my understanding that these are known as 3-way in the U.S. and 2-way in the U.K., which is super confusing 😂

[frosty crescent]

why would they name it consistently

[fringe crater]

same for 4-way / 3-way

[frosty crescent]

I found this, but I don't know if thiss will burn my house down

or just trip the power in my house

oh nevermind. it doesn't have neutral

[native pilot]

According to their documentation, yes. But it’s just based on an inner and outer distance reading.

[rustic elk]

Best method for mounting a tablet to a wall? I don't have Sheetrock in yet, so options are wide open

[verbal hornet]

Other options: use one "no neutral" smart switch and use wireless remote buttons or decoupled smart switches in other places (with dumb bulbs). Or wire lights for always power, use smart lights and control all of them using remote buttons. There are several that look exactly like "real" wired dumb switches.

[hybrid lantern]

If you trust the adhesive, something like this
https://a.co/d/6S1ksCy

[rustic elk]

I was thinking of some sort of inset outlet "box" or something to house the power

[hybrid lantern]

good idea - they have 1-gang boxes with the outlet recessed that are pretty common

[sinful rover]

I like these https://the3droom.co.uk/product-category/tablet-wall-mounts-home-automation/

[rustic elk]

My brain is broken. Are these just floating in front of the outlet to allow for the hidden cord to go back into a box?

[native pilot]

pretty much

probably with a recessed outlet in most cases

[sleek slate]

Did you end up trying this out? Wondering if migro connects to local wifi i.e. operates in app during power outage - or if that requires a flash to tasmota

[sinful rover]

They are designed to be screwed to a standard recessed back box. They also have a stand for freestanding ones too

[zinc steeple]

Please Help! I'm trying to install some Sonoff ZBMINIL2 Relays to some of my no neutral wiring lightswitches, but I'm a little confused about what to do and hoping some of you experienced people can help a little. Am I supposed to:

1. Put the Black wire (currently connected to the switch terminal at the end of the red arrow) into the relay's L-in port
2. Then run another wire from the L Out back to the terminal at the point of the red arrow
3. Run the white wire (currently connected to the switch terminal at the end of the green arrow) into L OUT
4. Then run a new wire from S2 to the switch terminal at the point of the green arrow

That's kind of how I am interpreting it, and I asked an LLM for help, but it's giving contradicting info and that is no good for something this important!

[glacial oracle]

There are various other possibly more easy to install ways

Personally I would go with the (1) or (2) where the switch does not connect back to some in wall line as that would require adding another attachment point which wastes valuable in wall space

Also please don't utilize llms for things that can easily become safety hazards. That's an effective way to get badly injured and or burn down your house. Those models are reproducing language not knowledge

[silk basin]

i 3d printed my own wall mount, but my first thought was to buy a normal case for it and still mounting Holes into the back of the case, drop a Qi charger behind, inset on the wall, and a Qi charging sticker on the tablet

[fast bane]

Thinking of buying ceiling fan with tuya in it, realtek chip. Is tuyalocal any good, seems to get bad wrap vs tasmota / esphome. Is it truely offline i.e. can it be on dedicated VLAN without internet and work locally?

[slim lagoon]

I have 7 fans running under localTuya. It's a bit of a bear to setup (and not all of the fan controllers are created equal), but once you do, it's completely local. I have them all on my IOT VLAN blocked from the outside world and they work fine.

[fast bane]

@slim lagoon Perfect, thanks for the feedback. gives me the confidence to go ahead and buy the fan. Do you still need to do cloud setup to begin with?

[slim lagoon]

Unfortunately, yeah.

[cold moon]

Alternatively I’d never touch tuya and suggest a sonoff ifan04 flashed to esphome instead

[fast bane]

Ok fair enough, and I guess a FW update could mean this isn't viable at some point in the future (setup wise). i.e. initial cloud setup changes and blocks tuya local support?

[slim lagoon]

I wanted to actually go with the iFan04, but I couldn't fit them in the canopies of my old fans. So, rather than go with new fans AND the controllers, I decided to try the Tuya ones since the canopies and hangers are made for the controllers.

[cold moon]

I have one flashed but not installed

[slim lagoon]

Yeah, I bought one too, but when I tried to install it, there was just no way to do it and ended up returning it.

[past knoll]

Hey everyone. I have a question about a zigbee dimmer. I felt that even on full brightness it wasn't as bright as it should have been. So I just wired it up to a switch, one path going to the dimmer and the other to the bulb direct. This test confirmed my suspicion. Can anyone else think of a way to get the dimmer to allow the full current passthrough please?

[past knoll]

Bizarrely the voltage is reported as 115v 🤨

When I'm in the UK with 240v

[pliant forum]

What model dimmer? It sounds like it may be made for NA electricity standards.

[pliant forum]

Is your light using over 1.8A maybe?

[past knoll]

I can put a multi meter over it without the dimmer in use I guess. Thank you for the inspiration.

[shell solstice]

can someone help me with port forwarding?

how can i run two servers with the same IP but different ports?

i need HA IP to run a minecraft server and also to run Plex server

but when i try to add plex port forwarding it gives me this error: Conflicting Port Forwarding Rules: The Destination Ports 80 service conflict with an existing port forwarding rule.

[outer knot]

Please use imgur or other image sharing web sites, and share the link here.

Image posting is blocked in most channels to discourage people from sharing text as images. Sharing text as images assumes that everybody sees the world as you do, which isn't the case. Some people are colour blind, or have visual impairment that means they can't make sense of an image of text.

[winged knoll]

Show us what you're doing

[shell solstice]

i figured it out thank you!

i am just bad

[lofty nacelle]

Hi there!

Does anybody know of a WiFi-based 16A smart switch available in India that can be installed behind an existing dumb switch and works locally or through cloud with home assistant (preferably without HACS)?

[brittle breach]

Can I ask about networking set up here?

I have an ISP router. I have a mesh network (which doesn’t have VLAN capabilities). What are my options for creating VLANs? What additional networking hardware would I need?

I want to be able to re-use as much of what I have as possible. I have a Home Assistant Green arriving soon. I want to setup VLANs to keep IOT stuff isolated. 🙂

[golden thorn]

There's a few ways ways. I'd recommend a used SFF or other form factor PC that has at least two network ports for pfSense/OPNsense as your router/firewall.
Search firewall on aliexpress. They have Mini PCs with up to 6 ports. I suppose you can also get something OpenWRT compatible. You also want APs with VLAN functionality. And last you probably also want a (managed) switch with VLAN functionality.
Since VLAN travels through the whole network it's kinda hard to keep anything that dosesn't support it. Technically you can plug different APs into different network ports of your new router and separate the networks that way without VLAN but that's kind of messy.

[brittle breach]

@golden thorn I want to reuse my equipment as much as possible. But you're saying to scrap everything and start from scratch?

[golden thorn]

If you want to use VLANs I don't see another way but wait for second or third opinions.

[brittle breach]

If I start from scratch, I might as well just get a new mesh network that supports VLAN.

[golden thorn]

I'm happy with the Omada APs. I plug them all in via ethernet though.