hardware-archived

[sudden kettle]

Cameras are not allowed GDPR issues

[copper hill]

afaik the sensors that are better at sensing multiple people or where in the room you are, are worse at static presence detection?

[winged knoll]

Cameras are fine if you don't keep recordings and keep them all local

That's quite possible with HA and other software

[sudden kettle]

Unfortunatelly this will confuse things as there is a new rule from APRIL 30th that does not allow any kind of device that records video or audio inside rental apartments

[winged knoll]

Well, that rules out most sound sensors too 😉

Otherwise, mmWave and/or beam break sensors either side of a door to estimate occupancy

[sudden kettle]

Imagine this has to be in one Plaque

to be placed inside the living room

not in multiple places inside the house

[winged knoll]

Then one mmWave sensor and guess

[sudden kettle]

ok

[copper hill]

ld2450 can detect multiple people i think, but it's not as good at detecting people that are standing still
some people use a combination of ld2450 and ld2410 to get the benefits of both
cheap on aliexpress, but also used in the screek one and the everything presence lite i think

[sudden kettle]

What about Sound level sensors, what you would recommend it has to be able to get noise data and then we will create a logic to identify different scenarios like parties

@copper hill you know what multiple people means? Also does it neglect moving objects like fans and other?

[winged knoll]

You can probably #diy-archived a sound sensor solution

And no, mmWave can't tell fans from people from pets

[copper hill]

fans could be problematic but since the ld2450 can tell you appropximately where it's detecting presence, maybe it's possible to exclude it
but it can only track a limited amount of people (..or objects)

[winged knoll]

What's your actual goal here? Why do you want all this?

[sudden kettle]

To protect my houses from different activities

when i rent them

[winged knoll]

Like?

[sudden kettle]

Like parties

[winged knoll]

So, most mmWave sensors top out at a handful of people/objects, you won't be able to tell the difference between 4 (say) and 40

For a single device then a sound level sensor is your only realistic option, at least if they don't have a silent disco

[sudden kettle]

Can you elaborate more on the sound sensors as they are more important on the project, I understand from information that I have received from you and the internet that if i try to do the number of people recording

what are the different technologies and given the scenario presented which would you recommend?

[winged knoll]

I'm not aware of any commercial solutions for what you want. You're almost certainly going to have to build your own from ESPs and some sensors

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/esphome-decibel-meter-hw-484-ky-037-ky-038/487071
https://github.com/stas-sl/esphome-sound-level-meter
https://thibmaek.com/posts/detecting-sound-level-using-esp8266-and-esphome
etc

#diy-archived could help you, if you have the skills and patience to build them

[sudden kettle]

House Assistant can facilitate any hardware device if implemented? I mean am i restricted to the hardware that I can use on my plaque?

Home*

[winged knoll]

Maybe

HA doesn't support everything, it can't

If you #diy-archived with ESPHome then it'll work. If you buy a #zigbee-archived or #zwave-archived or even #thread-archived device it should work. Anything else WiFi is a roll of the dice

Research before buying

[fringe siren]

@sudden kettle Also, if you're renting the house, you're going to really want to watch out for wire tapping laws, if it records in any way you may run afoul if you're not part of the conversation in some locales, some locales require 2 party consent regardless, and many don't allow for it at all if you're not actually in the conversation yourself

[vernal gyro]

anyone use OpenSpinkler and HA? or an alternative?

[agile zealot]

hi,
i try to setup a conbee III. Steps i have already done:

• updated to latest firmware version of my conbee III stick successfully: https://deconz.dresden-elektronik.de/deconz-firmware/deCONZ_ConBeeIII_0x26510900.bin.GCF
• updated my Home Assistant Core to the latest version: 2024.5.4
• I'm using the Supervised installation method.

After setting up "Zigbee Home Automation" i see Conbee III with: Failed setup, will retry. If i hover over the message i see: Failed to deliver packet: <TXStatus.APS_NO_ACK: 167>

Any ideas how to proceed?

[winged knoll]

The #zigbee-archived channel can help there

Do make sure you put the stick on a USB extension cable (see the pinned messages in #zigbee-archived)

(though hopefully you meant HAOS, and not Supervised)

[agile zealot]

Thank you i will post there

[spring cypress]

Hey all, Has anyone worked on the HIHI Phone 2 (HIHI-40HK-TAB) before? I have recently got a few of these and was wondering if anyone has gotten around there weird phone app and contacts? I have started using these as a dashboard but would like the phone to work around the the 5 devices i have and maybe externally?

There are also pins on the bottom and looking through the diagnostics app on it, they are for power, ethernet and GPIO. It seems to have a "handheld on cradle" sensor that would be nice to pull into HA.

It would be a plus to use them for calling but i did just get them for dashboards and at £16 per unit im happy with that.

Im also facing an issue with the 2 notifications in the pictures that cannot be dissabled. Any help with that would be great!

[drifting mulch]

Are the mmWave sensors accurate enough to tell where someone is walking in a room? (and are the Home Assistant integrations capable?)

I'd like to use one on the wall of our bathroom to see if the person entering is going to the closet, the toilet, the shower, or a sink.

[glacial oracle]

wouldnt that simply be a zoned detection

[slim lagoon]

Depends on the sensor. Some of them have zones that you can setup while others just use energy gates. AFAIK, only 3 mmWave sensors support zones, the ETO sensor, The Apollo MTR-1 and the Aqara FP2. There might be others, but I don't know of any.

[drifting mulch]

Cool, so you configure the "zones" in the sensor itself, then react to it in HA?

[slim lagoon]

Correct. The ones I have, the Apollo MTR-1 and the FP2, you define the zones and then there are sensors that tell you when someone is in that zone.

[drifting mulch]

Sweet! Thanks!

[cold moon]

You’re welcome

[twilit lake]

im not sure where to look, but im looking to hook up a 4-20ma pressure tranmitter to Home Assistant. my thought was to use esphome, but im really not sure what im doing. I was going to convert the 4-20ma to 0-3.3V if need be to use a esp-32. Any ideas?

[patent river]

Signs are not looking good: https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/611098/4-20ma-current-loop-and-esp32

The ADC has appallingly-bad characteristics (linearity, stability, noise, tolerance) and is only worthwhile because of the price (which is zero). You should research this before going any further down this path.

Good news is it looks like an external I2C 4-20mA input isn't expensive: https://shop.m5stack.com/products/ain4-20ma-unit

[twilit lake]

So i would use that and connect that to an esp32?

i bought a 4-20mA to 3.3V adapter. So really i just need to figure out how to program an esp32 with esphome and incorporate it with home assistant. I fairley new and learning all this. I feel like this might be above my level

[glacial oracle]

Are there any good outdoor light sensors? (Preferably zigbee)I feel like I could do the math on light levels <--> power output but that feels a bit too hacky to me

[pliant forum]

https://www.eyezon.com/uno-m1.html - anyone tried this? Looks like a good replacement for a wired security system if you still want monitoring and local HA API

Seems to be based on a DSC system, and the monitoring with LTE is dirt cheap @ 12.50/month

[grand yacht]

just check yeelink.light.lamp1 no longer bypass the lan control due to manufacture updates ?

[patent river]

The assertion of that post is the analogue to digital converter in the ESP is garbage and you won't get reliable readings.
Turning current into voltage with a resistor voltage divider is a time-honoured method, but if you can't get a good measure of the voltage, ain't gonna help.

Curiously what are you measuring the pressure of? Air? (atmospheric pressure, or other)? Water?

[topaz quail]

Does anyone here use a PA system sort of thing? Like to talk from one room to another?

[wispy snow]

Does anyone here have the Homewizard WiFi watermeter in the UK? Interested to know how it performs on battery mode, anyone's experiences and also how it handles being in a watermeter chamber in the UK - my perspective is that it doesn't look exactly weatherproofed, but I might just be being cynical

[glacial oracle]

From not being in the UK I cannot really make a statement on the later. While battery operation works as advertised, both the update interval and the 35l per minute max measurement amount is not really enough for if you try to meter a house (think flushing the toilet while watering the garden)

Since then I just run it off USB C power which gives near realtime updates into ha including current flow measurements

[visual temple]

Does anybody have any recommendation for a window AC unit that supports local control either through its own integration or a peripheral? (US-based)

(We’re finally in the market to replace one of our ancient little units… due to it dying of old age, haha)

[lyric mortar]

After a string of good luck with cheap Zigbee generic / 'Tuya' sensors from AliExpress, I think I finally got a dud - this temp sensor seems to report 32F for long stretches in between (seemingly pretty accurate) readings (see image). What would y'all do - try to write something to ignore the 32s and take a recent average of readings above that, or toss it and wait weeks for more to arrive from China?

[winged knoll]

Toss it and buy something not Tuya or Sonoff

[lyric mortar]

But theyr'e so cheap, and they work well (excpet when they don't, haha)

[winged knoll]

Buy cheap, buy twice

Buy Tuya, buy thrice

[slim lagoon]

™️

[lyric mortar]

I'm in the early stages of my HA journey and seem to be learning age-old lessons frequently

(Looks at device list full of dozens of Tuya sensors, shudders)

[slim lagoon]

Eventually you’ll come to hate them and start replacing them bit by bit. Happens to a lot of people.

[winged knoll]

I bought one Tuya device, knowing it was likely to be bad. It hasn't disappointed

[slim lagoon]

Or maybe one day in magical fantasy land, Tuya will require certification and testing of their devices.

[winged knoll]

I will say that it's great to get temperature reporting every few seconds with a precision of 0.01C

Very handy

[slim lagoon]

My WiFi ones are behaving well… but Zigbee. Nope. Been there, done that.

[lyric mortar]

I'll search, too, but if anyone has a rock-solid temperature / humidity sensor they recommend, feel free to share.

• In the US
• Budget: under $30, ideally under $20, since I'd like to eventually have more than a few
• No "must have" protocol, though I suppose I prefer Zigbee over anything else
• No necessary features other than must be battery-powered, and temperature and humidity sensing with a reasonable polling rate ...

[slim lagoon]

My preference is Aqara t/h sensors. Fairly cheap, stable, but occasionally one or two of them will have weird battery reporting issues.

[glacial oracle]

For the battery life you can simply ignore the reporting and change them once they drop off the network. Or regularly once a year, even tho they somewhat last longer than that

[lyric mortar]

Just confirming that you're referring to these? And, if so, that the 'not support third party hubs' does NOT mean that you can't add them to home assistant with a Zigbee controller? https://www.amazon.com/Aqara-WSDCGQ11LM-Temperature-Humidity-Sensor/dp/B07D37FKGY/

[glacial oracle]

We do refer tho those

You can simply ignore that, usually that just means that custom features do not work, which there are kinda none on a temp reader

[slim lagoon]

Yeah, that's what I do now (along with availability in Z2M). I've only had one drop off and that was because I dropped 4 routers at the same time lol

[lyric mortar]

Cool, and can also probably ignore the "Requires a secured 2.4 gigahertz Wi-Fi network" in the description? (SMH)?

[glacial oracle]

Yes because that relates to the hub or some cloud service

I think, it most definitely has nothing to do with the ZigBee talking sensor

[lyric mortar]

Oh I see - sorry for all the questions. Thanks! Last one (for now, hopefully) - anyone have experience ordering these off of AliExpress (where they are like $7 vs $20 on Amazon)? My sense is that for some products, you get the same thing, just skip the premium for fast delivery / Amazon tax / etc, and for others, they're not the same product?

[glacial oracle]

Yes that should work for aquara aswell

[lyric mortar]

Thank you all; all your help is very much appreciated.

[lost sierra]

I am looking for a long term solution for a VPN for Chromecast/smart TV. From what I have heard they try their best to prevent them on device.
So my idea is a in router VPN, for just the one Chromecast device.

Any ideas for this? I want to be able to control it with home assistant, so even my partner can say turn on the VPN.

I am a I'm ciziten living abroad craving for some British TV.

Not sure if HW is the right category, but assuming some custom built router will be required.

[winged knoll]

Something running OpnSense or pfSense would be the easiest

[lost sierra]

I tried googling it, but all I found was accessing HA though a VPN.

[winged knoll]

OpenWRT may be an option too, but I've not looked at that for years

Well, put the HA part aside

HA isn't relevant to your search here

Start by finding routers that have a VPN client - then narrow down that by checking they have a RESTful or SSH API

As long as they support one of those HA can contol it

[lost sierra]

Ah ok, so with opensense or pfsense setting up the HA part should be easy?

[winged knoll]

Should be, from memory

https://docs.opnsense.org/development/how-tos/api.html

[lost sierra]

I'll check if my current flashed router supports those functions.

[hollow condor]

I made a multiroom audio system with RasPi 3A (audio jack) and snapcast/mopidy + some speakers as clients. I love the software but this way of doing the hardware causes a lot of dangling cables. Is there anything ready to buy that's a little more specialized / pretter / better home acceptance factor, but still able to run snapcast/mopidy (so linux based I guess)?

Building/printing a case for the whole stuff crossed my mind but is not really an option due to lack of time for another hobby right now.

[potent patio]

I'm not sure if this is the right channel. But did anyone ever use shelly wifi button?

[drifting mulch]

I'm using those exact ones to monitor the humidity of my showers and trigger the exhaust fan. They work really well in ZHA.

[lyric mortar]

Awesome. Thanks! Getting one next day shipped to test it, and will probably buy more from Alibaba if they work well for me. I appreciate you sharing!

[zealous thicket]

Looking for some help on how to solve a small issue, trying to update my Athom PS1 and getting an error: ERROR Error binary size: Error: ESP does not have enough space to store OTA file. Please try flashing a minimal firmware (remove everything except ota).

Is my only option serial flash?

[winged knoll]

#diy-archived can better help there

[gray latch]

I bought a couple of broken 1940s and earlier radios on marketplace for <$50 each, gutted them, and put my audio system inside the gutted case with just a power cord coming out.

[acoustic yoke]

Add motor to cellular window blinds

[sinful mirage]

hey everyone. im trying to get my voice assistant to work with a USB speaker. anyone done this before?

nm i got it to work

[hard lynx]

Heya folks. Am I in the UK, and I'm trying to figure out how to connect a Sonoff zbminil2 behind a 2-way switch on the end that closes the loop. Due to shitty construction, I can't open the switch that comes from the live, and I can't figure out where I would put what here. Any ideas or anyone who has had to do the same?

[delicate shell]

I am using espHome. I currently have 3 devices that I actively keep up to date but soon will be adding a lot more. Is it possible to use a VM to compile the images for the devices? It takes a long time on my Pi CM4.

[winged knoll]

The experts in #diy-archived would know more

[cold moon]

You don’t have to run the esphome dashboard inside haos but the better option is simply migrating off a pi4 to a mini pc for your entire haos install

[short portal]

Does anyone have any reolink panning/rotating cameras? Does HA let you control the camera pan/rotate?

[cold moon]

Reolink cameras aren’t suggested here except for their doorbell. Jump to #cameras-archived for specifics

[short portal]

shot them a message

[acoustic dew]

Hey yall, looking for HA compatible bulb suggestions, A19, 1000 lumen or more LED bulbs either color temp adjustable or bright white, that arent hard to integrate. I have HA OS running in a proxmox vm. I have zibgee and zwave working, along with BT. I tried several brands, singled wifi were nigh on impossible. The current bulbs I have, flicker all the time.

[cold moon]

Buy once cry once and get hue bulbs and pair them to your zigbee mesh

Just don’t kill power to them as they act as routers on your zigbee mesh

[acoustic dew]

Cry because of the price?

[cold moon]

Yes

[winged knoll]

Hue are kinda the gold standard

Innr are a close second

Gledopto aren't that far behind

[cold moon]

Is innr the company that hue employees split off from or is that third reality

[winged knoll]

Ikea's whites are ok, but their colour bulbs are meh

[acoustic dew]

well going cheap got me this mess and a Wirelessradio thermostat, so I am over being cheap LOL

[cold moon]

It’s not about cost

It’s about the protocol used, the brand, the actual product itself

Sengled bulbs are widely considered not great, especially in terms of colors and flickering. Plus their zigbee bulbs don’t route which goes against the zigbee protocol

[acoustic dew]

ick

[cold moon]

Transitions with hue bulbs are so nice

30 seconds just perfectly dims without you even being able to detect it in a one second window with your eyes

You’ll want to pair the hue bulbs with a zigbee light switch such as inovelli blue which are $50 each

So more crying

I’m a fan of smart bulbs + smart switch combo for full control

[acoustic dew]

hmm what about just intgrating a toggle action with another smart device?

[cold moon]

If you don’t need color you can do dimmer smart switches

[cold moon]

Problem is two fold

[acoustic dew]

cause I am in an apartmet

[cold moon]

Sucks

You can tape the lights up

Or get some adapters that screw in over the old light switch

[acoustic dew]

are the hue generally ok in enclosed fixtures?

[cold moon]

And have a zigbee battery powered switch over it

[winged knoll]

Depends on the enclosure - any LED bulb needs airflow

[acoustic dew]

Yeah I have several single button zigbee buttons with no use could mount them on the switch plate

[winged knoll]

Cooking bulbs shortens their lifespan

[cold moon]

These work fine and there’s adapters to go over light switches

It’s not ideal but you’re in an apt

[acoustic dew]

yeah they already will be mad about the T6 thermostat but oh well

[cold moon]

I’ve had one hue bulb die out of 40 and it wasn’t the ones baking in Texas summers..

[acoustic dew]

Thats pretty good, I have has several non smart cree led bulbs go bad so thats good to know

Thanks yall!

[jolly cobalt]

Hey I just got ESP32-S3-BOX-3, I installed the voice assistant from this site: https://esphome.io/projects/index.html?type=voice , it succesfully installed, but now the device has a frowning face and No Wi-Fi, with QR code there that leads to https://www.home-assistant.io/voice_control/troubleshooting_the_s3_box/#error-unable-to-connect-to-wi-fi . I still have no idea what to do there, the 1. 2. point is weird. I have nowhere to select the wifi.. it just goes straight to "No Wi-Fi" on the display. I also don't see a new device even when I keep it connected to USB and going to ESPHome dashboard. Even after reseting the device. What do?

Is there like, no way to set the wifi ssid and password like in the normal ESPHome code?

[glacial oracle]

the people on the esphome discord can help you further on that

https://discord.com/invite/KhAMKrd

[shell solstice]

what type of hardware do you need for recognizing when someone clap?

[cold moon]

https://thibmaek.com/posts/detecting-sound-level-using-esp8266-and-esphome

[shell solstice]

the only way is with ESPhome?

no other devices?

[cold moon]

why would you think this?

[shell solstice]

idk, you sent me an ESPhome device

so i just asked if theres other types or only with ESPhome

[cold moon]

i sent you a link showing you how someone made a device using a sensor

you can then google that sensor lol

[glacial oracle]

Detecting a clap would work somewhat different in code but the hardware will mostly be the same

[shell solstice]

no one actually sells an actually ready up device?

[glacial oracle]

For multiple decades there has been the clapper

[shell solstice]

yeah i see that, but ahah i doesnt look really good HAHAH

[glacial oracle]

It doesn't for rather obvious limitations

Most of which you would also experience with any newer tech

[shell solstice]

why no one makes them? no one really buys them?

[glacial oracle]

Compared to voice assistants or simple remotes that's just not convenient

It doesn't work properly enough

a clap simply isnt easy to differenciate from other noises

[gloomy spoke]

you have to sing the whole song

[cold moon]

https://github.com/ChuckMash/WLED/tree/Smack_That_Usermod/usermods/smack_that you can pay someone to make you one

[glacial oracle]

smack that uuuu

[cold moon]

i take full credit for the name of the usermod

#718943978636050542 message and #718943978636050542 message

[glacial oracle]

i saw the video

the clapping didnt stop

[potent patio]

errmm so

After reading back since my last message. It seems like there is a mix and match mostly for zigbee because of easy compatiblity than wifi. Is that correct?

[slim lagoon]

Technically, yeah... there's a bunch of different options depending on what you want and where you are in the world. I think you said power monitoring?

[potent patio]

Yes. I did. I'd like to monitor my Home lab consumption. I'm starting to change my mind and stop getting wifi and get zigbee instead i'm over it

[slim lagoon]

Eh, the ThirdReality plugs are good and available on Amazon (US only though, I think).

[winged knoll]

Innr do power monitoring plugs everywhere

(well, maybe not Aus, nobody seems to like making stuff for them)

[slim lagoon]

Yup. True.

[potent patio]

ah innr again i hear things

so between hue or innr

[winged knoll]

Hue's the pure gold standard, Innr's like 9 kt gold standard

[slim lagoon]

It really depends on your budget. Hue: $$$$, Innr: $$$ (I think last time I checked). 3rdR: $.

[winged knoll]

Yeah, spend the money on the stuff that really matters, and go cheap-n-good-enough for everything else

Routers matter

Door/window sensors you can go cheap-ish on

Don't buy Tuya

Don't buy Sonoff

[storm wren]

I have a question about the eve water guard https://www.amazon.com/Eve-Water-Guard-Notifications-Bluetooth/dp/B09TB72Z5N, because I might want to buy it.

If it's added to home assistant, does it have a switch to turn off the alarm sound? Because I don't want to scare the neighbors with that loud sound😅

[winged knoll]

That's more a question for another channel

[outer knot]

The topic of this channel is:

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

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

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

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

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

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)

[winged knoll]

Depending on the integration it uses you want either #integrations-archived or #bluetooth-archived

Oh, it supports #thread-archived

So you probably want that or #matter-archived

[storm wren]

Yep it supports thread (homekit)

No it's not matter

[winged knoll]

Well... thread is part of matter

[storm wren]

It says on the site it doesn't support matter

[winged knoll]

Not sure you can do thread and not do matter, but they'll know over in #thread-archived

[storm wren]

OK I will ask there

Thnx

[tropic knot]

Hey I had a quick question about a speaker/alarm for my house when a door is opened after a certain time. I have the zwave sensors, just need a good way to alert the house.

[cold moon]

oh boy do i have the link for you

https://smarthomescene.com/guides/alarmo-make-your-own-alarm-system-in-home-assistant/ really easy to follow guide using alarmo in home assistant and w/e sensors you want

works amazingly

[tropic knot]

So do I just need to get a zwave speaker or something and itll play out of it through alarmo?

[cold moon]

oh

sorry i guess i misunderstood

you just want a zwave siren? get the aoetec one

https://www.amazon.com/Aeotec-Speaker-Wall-Mounted-Security-Intruder/dp/B07P8ZRWQM check if there is a newer model 7

or even 8 idk

[tropic knot]

Oh okay awesome! Thank you

After looking at alarmo

Could I just have our phones/tablets be the "speakers"?

[cold moon]

yes

so here's my setup

[tropic knot]

That's cheaper and prefered.

[cold moon]

alarmo - various zwave and zigbee sensors (including on my gate and doors) - ring v2 keypad (zwave connected not ring cloud bullshit)

i then pass alarmo to homekit (siri) so when the alarm goes off all my phones/tablets go off

plus the ring alarm v2 keypad goes off

plus w/e you setup in hass automations or alarmo

you could go a step further or 10 and do things like make lights flash red and blue

one guy has a custom script playing like "welcome to the jungle" on all the speakers in teh house

[tropic knot]

You read my mind sir lol

[cold moon]

@wild swift remind me what is your "come and take it" song when alarm is triggered?

[cold moon]

you can also do neat things like trigger on a sensor (such as a frigate camera detecting a person in a specific zone such as driveway after midnight)

[tropic knot]

This is awesome. Thank you for the link and saving me $80 lol

[cold moon]

i get half right

https://tenor.com/rvgoNAAMkMg.gif

if you are buying the siren and i would buy the ring keypad v2 as well. it's actually crazy how well everything just works together

i have home assistant arm the alarm when i leave the house and disarm when i get back

if i disarm the alarm via siri it's instantly shown on the keypad as disarmed and announces it

it's just fucking great

[tropic knot]

I have a Schlage keypad Im really liking. This will be for my sliding gladd door in the back.

[cold moon]

that is a zwave device or a cloud device?

schlage are notoriously bad with zwave firmware and are not suggested :x

https://www.amazon.com/Ring-Alarm-Keypad/dp/B07ZB2DFMB this is what i have and suggest if you pair it with alarmo and join it to a zwave mesh

[tropic knot]

Its a zwave device. I never knew that. I even got the recommendation from here lol

[cold moon]

oh you're using it connected to some cloud service provided by them then?

https://tenor.com/bXtam.gif

[forest pike]

https://www.homedepot.ca/product/dalton-locks-dalton-smart-locks-fingerprint-wi-fi-keypad-black/1001821886

Found a new one of these in clearance today so got it dirty cheap. Is there any way to integrate it into home assistant? I attached the manual for it

[tropic knot]

Nope. Just to diy zwave hub I made

No internet at all

[cold moon]

chances are low

[forest pike]

Apparently it uses tuya wifi and the smart living app.

[cold moon]

thanks i hate it

then look into tuya local or local tuya or w/e the cool kids use now

[strong dragon]

LocalTuya4lyfe

[cold moon]

well the cool kids dont use tuya

they dont buy or support random chyna shit :x

something something make firmware great again

[strong dragon]

Some of us didn't get a choice with what chip is in their aircon 😛

[forest pike]

I'm kind of curious, why is this not blown open? Why can't it just be hacked or reverse engineered so don't need any tuya nonsense

[cold moon]

it used to be

they started using new chipsets that couldnt be flashed over

cuz they want user data

cuz evil

[forest pike]

So there's no way to fake the tuya side locally?

[cold moon]

there is

google the thing he said above

local tuya i guess

i think there's some initial chyna app fuckery to get a token

[strong dragon]

my bad, localtuya is the pain in the bum, tuya local is the one that works

[cold moon]

i see

https://tenor.com/ObR4.gif

[strong dragon]

but yes, you need to make a dev account and stuff to get the details for it

[forest pike]

Oh I thought that was still tuya provided by the actual tuya people. Let me review it

[cold moon]

tuya people lol

[forest pike]

Hahaha you know what I mean

[cold moon]

tuya is a mainland chinese "company" that anyone can go to and say "i have money make me this DaDdY"

and then they add it to their chinese wifi/zigbee/bt hub so it works with anything smart life

[cinder jasper]

Is it correct that motion sensors should keep checking for updates and the log for that sensor would update? I have a zibee motion sensor that doesn't consistently update. I can force an automation to run and I will see it update in the log.

[cold moon]

does the state go to unavailable? what sensor

[strong dragon]

it depends on the sensor, but most only update on state change

or sometimes will send an update every (e.g.) 10 minutes otherwise to let you know they're still alive

[cinder jasper]

The state will go unavailable . I was just under the impression it would keep checking

[cold moon]

then you might have an interference issue or a lack of a mesh

are you using a usb based coordinator?

[cinder jasper]

I'm having an issue with an automation and I'm trying to pind down if it's the automation or the sensor

I'm using a skyconnect

[cold moon]

is it on a usb extension cable? https://youtu.be/tHqZhNcFEvA this 30second clip shows what can happen

[cinder jasper]

It is

They shipped it with one

[cold moon]

how many mains repeater devices do you have and how far away is the sensor

i.e. light bulbs, plugs, switches

[cinder jasper]

Right now 1 and it's about 20 feet away through a wall

[cold moon]

that's probably a problem

[cinder jasper]

I'm going to be added more soon

[cold moon]

zigbee is a mesh protocol

one sensor way far away that is battery powered isnt going to net you a lot of success

the solution is literally throw money at the problem

[cinder jasper]

I've got about 20 Sengled bubls on order

[cold moon]

noononon

[cinder jasper]

It's powered

[cold moon]

https://tenor.com/bO98G.gif

https://tenor.com/e2H2KgNCDPm.gif

https://support.sengled.com/hc/en-us/articles/115010871308-Do-any-Sengled-Zigbee-devices-act-as-Zigbee-repeaters here's them explaining why they break zigbee spec

also they are generally considered a bad device

colors bad, transitions bad, lifetime of bulb low, just bad

[cinder jasper]

Well right now I have Govee and they're worse for home automation

so it's that or hue

[cold moon]

you buy hue bulbs

[cinder jasper]

which is 4x the cost

[cold moon]

and you add them to your mesh

and you never power them off

profit

rgbw bulbs from hue are rough at $50+ each

the white/white+color temp arent terribly expensive

[cinder jasper]

I need 12 candelabra lights

[cold moon]

yikes

[cinder jasper]

$45 a pop

[cold moon]

and they must be rgbw?

you'll regret going sengled

i've helped so many people and most do

[cinder jasper]

I can see that

and honestly they don't change often

color wise

[cold moon]

i use led strips for color

specifically DIY led strips using wled

[cinder jasper]

however the wife loves the scenes

[cold moon]

i might have too many of them

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/397426163649216512/914682412099850280/video0.mov?ex=664f3e21&is=664deca1&hm=50c3edd90b93a9b3a1a3c5fe4754a77981c06bacf0d261f4b396e16054364059&

[cinder jasper]

These are like front door, hallway lights

She has like mist green and other colors

They don't really change

[cold moon]

idk man the best thing i can say is buy once cry once

next i'm gonna tell you to buy $50 light switches to pair them with

https://inovelli.com/products/zigbee-matter-blue-series-smart-2-1-on-off-dimmer-switch

killing power to mains repeater devices breaks routes for other devices

[cinder jasper]

We never turn off switches

[cold moon]

so the only real way to setup smart bulbs with rgbw is to also have smart switches in smart bulb mode

[cinder jasper]

Everything is controlled through Alexa or motion sensors

[cold moon]

well you can tape them off or put covers over or just not touch sure

[cinder jasper]

The issue is I have IR sensors right now and I'm trying to switch to mm sensors

[cold moon]

but i also use switches as overrides

i.e. double tap = 30% brightness in all rooms

another popular thing is people use the led bar on the light switch above to act as a status light for door locks or alarm systems whether armed/disarmed

[cold moon]

motion sensors but not zigbee?

[cinder jasper]

I just got the new zigbee motion sensors

That's what is starting my HA journey

[cold moon]

cool

what model

aqara p1 or hue ideally

[cinder jasper]

nope

chinese generic name company

linptech or something

[cold moon]

sadcat

[cinder jasper]

I can't drop $1k to start this going

[cold moon]

it is what it is

[cinder jasper]

I'd love to get all aqara, and hue stuff

[cold moon]

buying low quality random chinese stuff and throwing it on your mesh will lead to trouble

[cinder jasper]

it's a double edged sword

I have to show qol improvements

then I can slowly ramp up

[cold moon]

i get it

that's the whole reason you want to do it right the first time

not "deal with it" til you can afford better by sacrificing quality for quantity

that doesnt mean you have to start with $1000 worth of hardware

it means compromise until you can afford to do otherwise

[cinder jasper]

yeah it would be nice if there were other quality bulbs other than hue though

[cold moon]

you can try ikea they are like hue lite

i'd expect them to die sooner / slightly worse in every way

like doesnt support a thing or three in firmware you wish it did 6 months from now

[cinder jasper]

yeah

Right now my biggest issue is just the learning curve

[cold moon]

about?

[cinder jasper]

HA

[cold moon]

ask questions man lots of people around to help

[cinder jasper]

Right now I'm trying to figure out why my automation isn't running the first step

[potent patio]

@cinder jasper definitely research......This is the way

[cold moon]

well

your automation doesnt matter if the motion sensor goes unavailable cuz the coordinator cant reach it man

[potent patio]

What kind of automation?

[cold moon]

that's what our whole chat has been about lol

[cinder jasper]

It was until I changed the sensor from occupied to motion

[cold moon]

share the automation yaml

[outer knot]

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

[cinder jasper]

wait that's my old one

[outer knot]

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

[cold moon]

https://dpaste.org/ use this and select yaml at the top

it gives us pretty colors

[outer knot]

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

[cinder jasper]

It's not pasting the snippet

just screen shot it?

[cold moon]

share the link it gives you

[cinder jasper]

https://dpaste.org/ee1h7#L15,24

[cold moon]

before going through the logic of the code can you explain your end goal

or rather expectation of the logic of the automation?

[cinder jasper]

someone walks in the kitchen those lights turn on, when no motion is detected they turn off

[cold moon]

okay

well first let's start with using entities instead of devices

trigger:
  - type: motion
    platform: device
    device_id: 8b33c82d8eb4750360d15ad690e8bab5
    entity_id: 036187f0c685e1492f785646218794a0
    domain: binary_sensor
    id: Kitchen On
``` this turns into
```yaml
platform: state
entity_id:
  - binary_sensor.kitchen_motion
to: "on"
id: Detected
alias: Kitchen motion detected

way easier to read, but also it allows you to replace any sensor or light or whatever and just rename it the same as the old one. with devices it uses that specific device_id that is unique to every device, a "UUID"

[cinder jasper]

Is on the attribute?

[cold moon]

huh?

[cinder jasper]

I was in the editor

[cold moon]

sorry i misread lol

my brain has to translate yaml

it's just from: or to:

[cinder jasper]

only options are unavailable and unkown

[cold moon]

that's because of our convo above

you can edit the yaml and type it in

it wont auto fill cuz those arent available cuz.. the device isnt available to home assistant.. cuz you need a zigbee mesh 😛

[cinder jasper]

I just did a simple test of if occupied turn on light and it worked

[cold moon]

cool

[cinder jasper]

so it's communication

is ok

[cold moon]

or maybe just that specific communication succeeded

[cinder jasper]

So should HA recognize that status

[potent patio]

@cinder jasper it's easier to do one step at a time. That's how I learned the hard way for setting up scripts

and REVIEW LOGS!!! Logbook is your best friend to take advantage of devices

I might hit you up though. BEcause I'm gonna buy prensence muwave

[cinder jasper]

I don't see an aqara mm wave sensor for zigbee only wifi

[cold moon]

aqara has a fp1 that is old for zigbee

if you want mmwave buy a msr-2 or mtr-1 from apollo automation

wifi not zigbee and plug in only but they're making good products

[cinder jasper]

The issue we have is that the sensors I have now won't detect people if they're not moving a lot

so I read mm wave solves that

or I would have gotten the P1

[cold moon]

you want both depending on scenario

if you want to track a person walking into kitchen you use pir aka motion sensor

if you want to track a person sitting on a couch, or even multiple, you use a mmwave sensor

or ultrasonic but that's oldschool

but mains powered mmwave react pretty fast now

so dual dedicated PIR + mmwave arent really necessary per room in most scenarios

[cinder jasper]

That's what lead me to a tuya mm sensor

I was ignoring the hues bulbs I currently have

so I have more devices in the mesh

[potent patio]

This is what I was looking at v

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BZCVHYR8/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_2?smid=A1H5CSGOPH64FO&th=1

[cold moon]

nah

you get that it will fuck you

[cinder jasper]

I got basically the same thing in a different package

[cold moon]

the tuya mmwave zigbee sensor sends 3x packets a second shitting on any mesh it's a part of

[cinder jasper]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C7C6L66J/

I got 3 of those

[cold moon]

and that's directly from the zha maintainer

[golden thorn]

Everything after the last / can go.

[cold moon]

if it's the same sensor inside then you have a problem

[cold moon]

yea we arent big on tracking links bb

still could use a lil trim lmao

[golden thorn]

Sorry, my bad, everything after L66J/.

[cold moon]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C7C6L66J anything after that first / when there is no more random digits

thx

but yeah

honestly it's very product dependent if you can just buy from amazon

for a lot of stuff you can... but also for a lot of stuff you cant lmao

[potent patio]

like aliexpress?

[cold moon]

or specific vendor sites

[cinder jasper]

Yeah at least with amazon you can send it back easy if it sucks

[potent patio]

oh

[cinder jasper]

rather than fight with vendors

[cold moon]

https://www.thesmartesthouse.com/collections/memorial-day-sale-2024/products/zooz-z-wave-plus-s2-double-switch-zen30-white-for-light-fan-combo

like this is $25 and they are selling the 800 series new version on their website

or you can spend $39 and buy the 700 last gen series on amazon (prob their old stock)

[cinder jasper]

I don't have any zwave

[cold moon]

it's just an example

the protocol is irrelevant

[cinder jasper]

So I have 11 hue bulbs already

so 12 zigbee devices with that sensor

[cold moon]

ya just one bulb between it would be enough

[cinder jasper]

well

I may have screwed up

I have a hue bridge and the skyconnect

So that would be 2 meshes?

[cold moon]

lol

you didnt screw up

you just have more work to do

which is fun

[cinder jasper]

I assume fun means pairing each one individually to the skyconnect

[cold moon]

specifically starting with closest to the skyconnect, yepperz!

but first

can you post your skyconnect debug log dump? it will show what your channel utilization is

basically here's what happened: you had hue, you added skyconnect, it did a zigbee energy scan where it saw the hue bridge, your wifi APs, your neighbors, etc, then it decided on what channel to use

now you are unplugging the hue bridge, which means you will be removing interference on some zigbee channel

[cinder jasper]

that's in ZHA?

[cold moon]

so i'd like to confirm you arent currently on a zigbee channel which has high interference

zha is zigbee home automation, it's what is built into home assistant and what you most likely setup when you plugged in your skyconnect

i dont use or suggest it, but it works well for those who use it

[cinder jasper]

I don't see the skyconnect anymore

Should I still see it under integrations?

[potent patio]

for HA?

[cinder jasper]

yeah

[potent patio]

I think it's not supposed tos how up because since it's a device you would use ZHA and it'll pick up your skyconnect. That's ate least according to my research

[cold moon]

you might want to move to #zigbee-archived and ask the people there who use zha

i didnt push you there cuz we kept going back to hardware lol

[cinder jasper]

I was just trying to find the log you wanted

[cold moon]

You can download integration diagnostics by going to Settings -> Integrations -> then clicking the three dots next to ZHA -> download diagnostics.

[cinder jasper]

ok I've got the json

[cold moon]

look for the lines with all the ############

or search channel

or something

[potent patio]

@cold moon what's your motion presence sensor?

[cold moon]

motion is PIR presense is mmwave

which one

[potent patio]

I know. but what do you have?

[cold moon]

i use hue PIR/motion sensors plus one aqara p1 zigbee 3.0 motion sensor

for presense i have two fp1 (dont buy these, old)

i have one msr-1, one msr-2, one mtr-1

[potent patio]

I just came off the website. I dno't see the Hue sensor ones?

[cold moon]

from https://apolloautomation.com/

[cinder jasper]

hue are pir

[cold moon]

what website

[cinder jasper]

https://www.amazon.com/Philips-Hue-Motion-Installation-Free-Exclusive/dp/B01KJYSOGI/ I have these they wook good for initial detection

they however don't work well for occupation at all

[cold moon]

yep

[cinder jasper]

you really have to move around

So even eating at the table the lights will turn off

[cold moon]

that is what the msr-2 and mtr-1 are for https://apolloautomation.com/products/msr-2 this can track one person and ignore things like a cat or fan at different lengths (i have one on my stairs it works flawlessly)

it is paired with a hue PIR sensor

so whichever triggers first starts but i will be removing the PIR cuz the msr-2 is just as fast

not zigbee but fully local with esphome over wifi

[cold moon]

if you go mtr-1 instead you can track up to three people and denote zones to track

https://wiki.apolloautomation.com/books/mtr-1-ImK/page/zone-configuration-using-home-assistant

i havent played with my mtr-1 yet to be honest

[potent patio]

I'm gonna take up on that that is SOOOO SMALL!!

[cold moon]

it is lol

you can get their custom adapter and a usb c power supply and it sits on the wall taking up no space

let me get a pic

https://tenor.com/bQ6iq.gif

[cold moon]

they have their own discord server and are really friendly. I cant recommend them enough

ultimately they are using open source firmware and off the shelf components but they're building custom PCBs, keeping it fully local, and providing free updates for life. plus they just seem like good people

[cinder jasper]

energy_scan": {
"11": 95.12234809209261,
"12": 95.69133648577223,
"13": 95.69133648577223,
"14": 92.0598007161209,
"15": 95.12234809209261,
"16": 78.25348754651363,
"17": 95.12234809209261,
"18": 84.164247274957,
"19": 46.26944564832987,
"20": 97.39286236923465,
"21": 96.19660508390695,
"22": 97.39286236923465,
"23": 97.39286236923465,
"24": 97.97769123383605,
"25": 73.50699819621309,
"26": 87.33047519856483

Was that what you were wanting earlier

[cold moon]

damn bro

we're gonna file that under shit's fucked

the lower the number the less interference on the band out of 100%

and you only want to care about 15/20/15

so 95% on 15, 97% on 20, and 73% on 25 makes it an easy decision (this is still pretty bad dude)

can you check what zigbee channel your hue bridge is using?

[outer knot]

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

[cold moon]

please move to #diy-archived

and use dpaste.org to share code so we get pretty colors and no text wall ❤️

[cinder jasper]

I had put it on 19

[cold moon]

dont do that

you change channel everything disconnects

also you use ZLL channels only

11/15/20/25 ONLY but 11 is right in the middle of wifi so rarely useful

so 15/20/25 ONLY

[cinder jasper]

ZHA says 25 now that I put it back on auto

[cold moon]

good

make sure your stuff still reacts and isnt unavailable

[cinder jasper]

It's only the one sensor

the hue bridge is still setup

[cold moon]

ya

i member

either way man

you will lose hue scenes cuz you arent using hue integration

you can remake them

but if that matters, fyi

[cinder jasper]

trying to find the hue channel

20

channel": {
"status": "set",
"value": "channel_20"
},

[cold moon]

ya

unplug the hue bridge

and run an energy scan

i think just rebooting home assistant OS maybe even just a restart will do a new scan with ZHA

it would be good to get on the lowest interference channel

[cinder jasper]

energy_scan": {
"11": 92.95959997754716,
"12": 95.12234809209261,
"13": 95.12234809209261,
"14": 91.05606689948522,
"15": 96.19660508390695,
"16": 62.257682586134884,
"17": 82.35373987514762,
"18": 78.25348754651363,
"19": 62.257682586134884,
"20": 65.26028270288712,
"21": 97.97769123383605,
"22": 97.7033852118351,
"23": 95.69133648577223,
"24": 96.19660508390695,
"25": 73.50699819621309,
"26": 80.38447947821754

No hue

I should check what my wifi channels are

[cold moon]

that's the overlap

the coneheads are zigbee the sombreros are wifi

more touchy bad

[cinder jasper]

2.4 is on 11

So the rest is just suburbia signal overlaps

[cold moon]

well

[gloomy spoke]

if, by 2.4, you mean WLAN, that explains the high numbers for 21-25

[cold moon]

that's the worst option

11 wifi is the orange tophat to the far right above lol

easy fix

[cinder jasper]

Not at the moment it's not

well changing zigbee channel is easy I guess

[cold moon]

no

changing wifi channel is

you want the least interference possible for zigbee and wifi.. figure out what is best

1/6/11 wifi, 15/20/25 zigbee

round peg round hole square peg square hole

https://tenor.com/bkgm7.gif

i think it's called the honeycomb pattern for wifi

ye

[cinder jasper]

See you would think that

[gloomy spoke]

WLAN devices will adapt to whatever channel you're using, while Zigbee requires re-pairing

[cinder jasper]

The problem lies in the fact that I have Comcast

[cold moon]

https://tenor.com/r6HG.gif

[cinder jasper]

and I haven't gotten my second AP yet to setup pfsense again

[cold moon]

well

you've got the knowledge now

[cinder jasper]

I have to repair all the hue lights anyways

so I'd just be adding 1 item more

[cold moon]

well

add them starting closest to skyconnect

[cinder jasper]

Yeah

[ashen apex]

Random one for the brains trust: rechargeable button batteries - are these a thing? My BLE plant sensors chew 2032s pretty quickly and would love to just chuck rechargeable batteries in them.

[patent river]

"ML2032"

They are 3.6V rather than 3V though, and I've read that can play havoc with some sensors

Or apparently "LIR2032"

[rose zealot]

Hey everyone. I have a Beelink N100 with 500GB SSD. I just bought an SSD Sata III with 2TB to put on the extension case they have inside and I also plan to have a usb external HDD for backups.

My question, is the internal 500GB enough for proxmox? Or should I wait to install it on the extented SSD with the 2TB? Will proxmox will be able to use the 2TB for new VMs if I install it in the 500GB SSD?

[golden thorn]

Yes 500G is enough for PVE. Yes you can add the 2TB later and use it as additional data store.
Most of my nodes have their own boot drive and another one for the VMs/CTs.

[rose zealot]

Great. That will save time. I have the beelink for a week now and I just waited for the new SSD to come. But now I can start playing with it without further waiting 😛

[golden thorn]

You can actually start right away and migrate the VM, or rather its disk, to another data store later.

[rose zealot]

I plan to follow this guide for installation. Is there a better one or that's fine? https://www.derekseaman.com/2023/10/home-assistant-proxmox-ve-8-0-quick-start-guide-2.html

[golden thorn]

It's okay. I recommend setting up everything yourself rather than using the helper scripts though. It greatly hinders the learning experience in my opinion.

Also see here: #1236830688859390003 message

[rose zealot]

You mean about the actual VMs like HAOS and not the proxmox. Right?

[golden thorn]

Skip all those wget things basically.

It think you learn quite a lot it you have to research all the options you have when creating a VM and what to pick and why.
I explained how do add the HAOS image to a VM here: #installation-archived message

[rose zealot]

ok. Good to know. I have a software background, but I have never got into hardware, so all those terms are like totally new to me

[broken swallow]

Guys when building hardware to recognise noise inside an apartment specifically parties, is MEMS microphone the best technology around?

[winged knoll]

#diy-archived can help you with building stuff

[potent patio]

@slim lagoon let me double check my understanding. Hue and innr are made by same people yes?.....

[slim lagoon]

No. Not at all. Innr was started by 2 ex-Philips engineers though. But, it's its own company.

[potent patio]

OH!

[slim lagoon]

lol stop that

[potent patio]

Sorry. I had a question but I changed my mind!!

[slim lagoon]

Fine. Be that way... 😛

[terse pebble]

https://tenor.com/view/columbo-one-more-thing-another-question-peter-falk-jsut-one-more-thing-gif-17115938070953019028

[potent patio]

lol ah come on

[cinder lark]

Hello, I've been looking for LAN controlled smart AU plugs. Seems like the best option is to flash Tasmota onto cloud controlled smart plugs. Any suggestions for a 1st time flash with an FT232 FTDI USB adapter?

Think I'll buy Shelly (appears to be best quality) in-wall mini relays for power sockets, but some individual devices on 8xpower boards need individual control.

Also, any tips for smart LAN lights and finally LAN garage door controller (possibly also a Shelly relay, but I'm unclear how that would work)?

Best to order in 1 go, to reduce shipping costs.

[brittle breach]

Are people using Tasmota a lot here? I've never heard of it until I joined this Discord. So cool.

[golden thorn]

I don't have any stats but you get over 9000 results if you search for it here 🤷

[brittle breach]

So to integrate with Tasmota... you have to setup an integration in HA to a MQTT broker? And then you can control Tasmota devices in HA?

[rich shuttle]

I've had ok results with the Meross ones - no need to do any flashing . Meross integration is in HACS (https://www.amazon.com.au/Monitor-Control-Function-Compatible-Certified/dp/B07MNL86JJ/ref=sr_1_5_pp)

[rich shuttle]

I have a Meross Garage door opener sitting here that I've just not installed. (i need a slightly taller ladder)

[golden thorn]

If you want something you don't need to flash I recommend either pre-flashed tasmota ones such as ones from athom or just simply use zigbee plugs.

[rich shuttle]

Zigbee is fine for on/off but not for power monitoring.

[golden thorn]

Why not?

[rich shuttle]

doesn't really like that many updates.

I prefer wifi as my house has good wifi coverage as well.

(I do have zigbee devices but have found bits of my house hard to get a signal to due to various walls - whereas I can put APs on the other side of those walls and have no issues)

[rich shuttle]

thanks for tip on the Athom ones though - had not seen those

[golden thorn]

I don't have any issues with multiple plugs.

[sinful rover]

Sounds like you just need more Zigbee devices that also act as repeaters to fill out the mesh

[rich shuttle]

We have some challenging walls (thick brick and stone). I have tried many combinations of zigbee devices to try and fill the gaps. In the end since we have Ethernet it’s easier to do it with wifi.
My day job is network engineering and ive built various kinds of networks for 30 years

[cinder lark]

Thanks, but I'm trying for the small round form factor. Looks like Wi-Fi is needed as voltage measurement would be good to see when devices like fridges are about to break. Think I'll have to learn how to flash Tasmota.

[rich shuttle]

I am curious what you end up with. My use case is similar - power measurement on pool pumps, fridges etc

[cinder lark]

Could be a handy warning system with some type of phone shortcut/notification if a home device voltage shoots up, warning the fridge or whatever is on the way out.

[sinful rover]

Have you considered Z-Wave instead? Its lower frequency allows for better penetration of walls and other obstacles.

[rich shuttle]

Or use the wifi I already have.

[sinful rover]

I was just giving options. Personally, I like to minimise the traffic on my wifi network & lan so I can use it for media streaming and gaming... and so that I know for sure that my smart home devices are not calling home or requiring cloud services to function.

[rich shuttle]

Sure, but I've made a trade off for one less new RF network to maintain/debug/etc for a few WIFI sensors in one part of the house. I don't want to buy it just to have it not work or have another quirk.

[rich shuttle]

yeah - the data is fairly noisy - I tried, for instance, to use power use to detect the washing machine been finished, but ours will stop and start (not sure why) a few times before completion so you have to wait almost 5 mins to be sure.

[spare wind]

Hi everyone,

I‘m interested in the Xiaomi Mi Flora Care Plant Sensor, and I'm wondering if anyone has experience using it outdoors. The specifications mention that it has an IP5X rating, which means it's protected against dust, but I'm unsure how well it performs in outdoor conditions, especially with exposure to rain and varying temperatures.

Has anyone used this sensor in their garden or on a balcony? How does it hold up in different weather conditions?

[cold moon]

I’d expect it to be consumable on some level

[gray latch]

hmm, I didn't notice that rating when I did things. I suspect you could fill it with hot glue to protect it from water, but that would make it a little more annoying to change the battery

we just moved the plant we have with one outdoors and I haven't moved a bluetooth endpoint close enough to it to get readings yet

[cold moon]

the leads off the sensor itself corrode

even if the PCB and all the components dont

[agile axle]

I want to make sure I'm not reinventing the wheel here: I have 6 Heat Pumps with WiFi, but not bluetooth. They are all Tuya controlled, and internet reliant, with registration and a proprietary app (Smart Life.) Since I was working on integrating them with TuyaLocal, I ended up with e Dev account, and now have access to all of the hardware and protocol specs.

It's just a wifi to serial adapter. I want to switch it to a Pi Pico W. There's 12v available to power the Pi, and the controller in the unit expects 9600,8,n,1@3.3v. I want to slap a micro web server for direct control, an API port to connect it to Home Assistant, and basic bluetooth serial control. I've done a bunch of searching but haven't come up with any similar projects. Does anyone know of anything similar that's already been done, or am I starting from the ground up?

[cold moon]

the nerds in #diy-archived do that kind of stuff or ideally the esphome discord server

most of us arent EE's by choice and sanity levels

plus i'd probably not trust the tuya documentation to be... good

i'd throw the idea of a pico W out the window as well in favor of an esp32

[agile axle]

The engineering side isn't hard. It's fairly basic. I'm just asking around to see if anyone had heard of anything similar.

[cold moon]

are you not familiar with esphome?

[agile axle]

I'm gonna use an old Pi 3B+ to wiretap it, and verify the signals being sent beck and forth.

[agile axle]

I have not. I'm gonna grab some familiarity, real quick.

[cold moon]

it will probably change your life

given what you said above i think esphome would drastically minimize you reinventing the wheel

it's like legos for microcontrollers "infrastructure as code"

so you either build a pcb with an esp32+whatever you want on it, buy one premade (there are many many many of them), or buy an esp32 or similar, connect a sensor or relay or leds etc to pins, copy paste template code, change pin assignments, profit

https://shop.svenar.nl/?tag=Heatpump neat

[agile axle]

It doesn't look all that promising for Tuya support. I'm still digging through the categories though. They might already have the software side of it mostly done in there.

[cold moon]

"tuya support"?

i guess i misunderstood, sounded like you were wanting to remove the tuya "smarts"

also if your shit is old enough you might be able to use tuya-convert

they stopped using chipsets that people could flash to open source fw cuz chyna

[runic tinsel]

I have a bunch that spent the winter covered on the balcony and survived ok (gets to around -5 here). I am risking one exposed to light rain on an uncovered flower box and it’s been fine for 2 months. Last year I had it in a plastic bag the whole season and there were no problems.

[merry robin]

General question. Looking to move away from meross garage door opener to something fully local. Based on research and conversations on here, I'm thinking my current setup is not a good fit for ratgdo as it uses security+ and therefore wouldn't expose anything beyond control of the door (I think). So I'm thinking of going with a relay. Can the shelly work entirely local and what's the best way to accomplish it? Or I could go with a zooz. Would honestly like to use a aqara as my zigbee network is strongest but they are hard to find at the moment.

I would like to use one where I could utilize the reed sensor that came with the meross as it's already up there. I assume cutting it would not be a problem 😄

[cold moon]

#zwave-archived message chat about using a zooz zen17 yesterday

[merry robin]

So then if the relay knows and reports the door status to HA, does it push to HK in the same way that a meross garage door opener displays?

[merry robin]

Awesome I'll take a look

[potent patio]

@slim lagoon @cold moon My research for mmwave presence sensor doesn't make sense. It's showing that wifi is better than zigbee in terms of performance. What say you?

Lik I was looking a aqara and I see FP1 is zigbee but FP2 is wifi

[slim lagoon]

Alternately, there is a Meross local integration as well that I use for some oil diffusers that I use: https://github.com/krahabb/meross_lan

[slim lagoon]

I agree with that. I have some of the Apollo MSR-1s and MTR-1 and they blow my zigbee mmWave sensors out of the water.

(and they are priced REALLY well too)

[cold moon]

Plus it’s less traffic on the zigbee mesh

[slim lagoon]

https://apolloautomation.com/ @potent patio

[cold moon]

The Apollo sensors can spam and be more accurate

[slim lagoon]

The gate energy tuning alone is worth every penny.

[cold moon]

Although they’re limited to save from taking up too much Wi-Fi airtime

[slim lagoon]

And just as I say that, this pops up: #1126969334565179473 message

sigh Guess I'm ordering more sensors this weekend... lol

[merry robin]

You mentioned this to me before and I think I forgot about it haha. Are you able to block your meross stuff from the internet then?

[cold moon]

https://apolloautomation.com/discount/Memorial2024?redirect=%2Fproducts%2Fmultisensor-mk1%3Fvariant%3D47743950291251 copy pasted their link

[slim lagoon]

Yup, but I haven't yet (my friggin' laundry list of stuff to do in HA is huge)

[slim lagoon]

I was trying to drive traffic to their discord 😉 lol

[cold moon]

But if they don’t click it they don’t see the discount sale

https://tenor.com/view/dogecoin-mark-cuban-elon-musk-night-at-roxbury-gif-21465754

[slim lagoon]

Dude... stop with the damn logic! It's too late in the afternoon for that. 🤣

[merry robin]

No kidding about the list. When I think of how much I want to do still it almost seems crazy that anything works right now.

[slim lagoon]

SAME... I'm on the struggle bus... the struggle is real... all the struggles belong to me.

[cold moon]

I recently added labels to my scripts and automations

Makes it easier to go find light switches etc and just feels more clean

Idk how I’d use labels themselves in scripts or automations tho

[slim lagoon]

I have some added, but categories have been a lifesaver... and the new data tables.

Oh that's easy... So, for me, I have a label called "Fan Manager" and I have an automation for every fan in the house... if I want to override the fans for whatever reason, I just call the automation.turn_off service and pass the label in. Works like magic.

[cold moon]

Oh shit

[potent patio]

I actually thought they are zigbee @slim lagoon @cold moon

[cold moon]

That replaces more complex template logic imo

[slim lagoon]

The Apollo ones? Nope Wifi esp32.

[cold moon]

Nah the only zigbee ones are fp1 and tuya (not recommended)

Well and off shoots of tuya I think

Maybe there are matter ones but I’m not a fan of that protocol yet

[slim lagoon]

Another one I did was labelled some lights based upon the mode they are supposed to be on or off. So, using the ToD integration, I have 6 modes in the house. As they turn on/off, I just pass the label to the light.turn_on/off services and boom... done.

Much easier than groups imho.

[cold moon]

I’m not picturing it

[potent patio]

alright. Grabbing it.

[cold moon]

The msr 1 on sale?

[potent patio]

Aye

[cold moon]

I think those can still use the custom pcb for a low profile mount

If so I’d get that

[slim lagoon]

Ok, so I have an early morning mode where I turn on some lights for my dogs. When the binary_sensor for early morning turns on, it turns on those lights by label. Then, I have a morning mode binary_sensor. When that flips on, it turns those lights off.

[cold moon]

So smol

[slim lagoon]

/gif tiny

lol

[cold moon]

Granted this is msr-2

[cold moon]

But still feature parity to calling a lightgroup right?

[slim lagoon]

Yeah, but I like just adding/removing a label versus editing the group, tbh. Especially since all my groups are still in YAML lol

[cold moon]

Ahh ok

[slim lagoon]

Helper groups it's the same LOE

[cold moon]

I’m using zigbee groups mostly but I could label those

[slim lagoon]

Yup. 100%

Most (like 90%) of my lights are Wifi... sooooo, no zigbee groups for me.

[potent patio]

what zigbees do you have @slim lagoon ?

[slim lagoon]

Like devices? Or coordinator?

[cold moon]

All the zigbees

[potent patio]

devices you said 90% lights are wifi so I'm curious of what zigbees you have

[slim lagoon]

https://tenor.com/bfnl7.gif

[slim lagoon]

Ohhhhh... gotcha... specifics!!! I have about 101(?) devices right now... mostly motion/contact sensors, water leak sensors, switches, plugs, some lights, curtain motors...

Oh, temp/humidity sensors and air quality sensors too.

[cold moon]

I’m at like 55 zigbee I think

59 gasp

[slim lagoon]

I kinda went crazy with contact and temp sensors recently. 🤷‍♂️

[cold moon]

I need to buy window sensors for every window still

I’ve been holding off cuz it’s just so low priority

Mailbox is covered tho

[potent patio]

whoa whoa whoa whoa

[cold moon]

And doors even coat closets

[potent patio]

mailbox???!

[slim lagoon]

lol I wanted to because spring and the windows should be opened...

Yup.

[cold moon]

https://tenor.com/view/spongebob-meme-fancy-driving-car-ride-gif-16720268

[cold moon]

Plays the old AOL you’ve got mail for me on the speakers lol

[potent patio]

THAT IS GOLD!!!

[cold moon]

Plus it dings my phone

[merry robin]

I have a Hue outdoor motion sensor in the back of my mailbox. Works like a charm.

[cold moon]

Nice

The only benefit with ours is we get a definite state of open or closed

Plus they’re like $10-$15 instead of $50

[slim lagoon]

Ugh, the outdoor ones worked horribly for me... plus it wouldn't fit in my mailbox.

[merry robin]

Yeah I tried contact sensor first. I don't remember. Got knocked off a couple times I think? Anyway this has been flawless for me.

[cold moon]

Mine got knocked off once I had to move it a bit

They don’t have to touch so you can get away with weird angles

[merry robin]

It's definitely big! My mailbox is needlessly big lol. Have a zigbee light at the end of the driveway which works great to keep it connected.

[cold moon]

Like this lol

[slim lagoon]

lol I solved that with that double sided Gorilla tape... I'm addicted to that stuff.

[slim lagoon]

Huh, the nearest router to my mailbox is something like 45 feet line of sight? Something like that.

[merry robin]

I've utilized these weird angles to put contact sensors on the locks of our two sliding glass doors. No option for a smart lock but at least I can tell if I need to go lock them.

[slim lagoon]

The ONE time where Aqara devices hanging on to one route has actually helped me.

[merry robin]

Idk. Before I put a light there it had to travel further to the nearest router, but still not THAT far. But for some reason the connection would drop occasionally. I always wondered if the mailbox being metal was interfering.

[cold moon]

Well you start getting interference from neighbors Wi-Fi outside too

[merry robin]

Also the light looks nice so it all worked out in the end haha

[merry robin]

Very true. I understand zigbee a lot better now than I did then lol

[slim lagoon]

Amazingly for that distance (and through a couple of brick walls), the LQI is at 208. I don't know if I want to be impressed or know that Z2M is probably lying to me.

[potent patio]

that is interesting

[slim lagoon]

My full map is such a pain to navigate, so I just never look at it.

[potent patio]

This is interesting. Question not sure if it is considered intergration channel. But MQTT......it's basically for wifi right? not Z2M

[slim lagoon]

Eh, this is the one channel where all the topics seem to merge (aside from #general-archived) But, no MQTT is required for Z2M to work. MQTT is a message broker.

[potent patio]

The real reason I'm confused because Appllo sensor is wifi based.....but....where's the app so it can be absorbed into HA

[merry robin]

That's hard to follow but so much cleaner than what I get out of z2m. I must be doing something wrong.

[slim lagoon]

I always uncheck IsASibling. Gives a much cleaner map, imho.

[merry robin]

Hmm I'll try that next time

[cold moon]

Yea otherwise it’s line city

Someone should open a feature request to change the defaults to have it unchecked

1 2 3 not it

[slim lagoon]

Nope... pass 🙂

Last time I put up a FR, I got my head bit off. lol

[cold moon]

damn

https://tenor.com/0CsA.gif

[potent patio]

I'm confused. does MSR-2 have temperature/humidity or just only MSR-1?

[cold moon]

you dont really use them for temp/humidity anyways and the offsets of the sensors were too high so they switched to another sensor and lost humidity moving to msr-2

[potent patio]

Now I see why. gotcha

That would explain why MSR-1 is on sale probably trying to clear the shelf

[cold moon]

ya they mention it

[slim lagoon]

Yup... and also yeah, as @cold moon said... the temp setting is kinda meh (due to the heat of the esp board). Humidity seems to be good though.

[cold terrace]

I feel like horizontally mounting these looks slightly better than vertical

[slim wren]

I recently moved from a ubuntu docker HA install to a Full HA OS install - and while its been great - it broke my custom implimentation of a serial interface I custom made to control my old whole home audio controller
Wondering if anyone can either tell me the right group to post in or how to make a serial baud rate setting permenent first of all

[cinder lark]

How about this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUU_0oiAvtY

[hazy carbon]

Hi, do you know a staircase lights timer that works with zigbee in Italy? Currently I have something similar https://imgur.com/a/Ytxo81i ORNO CR-230 that doesn't work with zigbee. Thanks.

[distant yacht]

Hey, I want to put kind of an alarm to my garage door -> so I'd get notified when it's being open. I'd use a simple Zigbee/wifi contact sensor – but I want to know when the device is not active for some reason: it could be (radio) jammed, cut off power whatev.

Question: is there a device that would reliabily call home (or get ping-ed) like every 10-30 seconds? So that I get an alarm if I don't have answer from the device for longer than 30 seconds? Zigbee or WiFi. Or nothing like that, better to #diy-archived ?

[gray latch]

What's a staircase timer?

[hazy carbon]

staircase lights timer

[gray latch]

That's not really an explanation

Searching for it makes me think you just need a normal ZigBee switch and an automation to replace the automatic turn off feature

[hazy carbon]

when a button (of multple buttons) is pressed the timer starts the time and turn on the lights, when the timer finishes it turns off the lights

I'd like something like this that I can control with the zigbee protocol

[gray latch]

The timer and turning off can be handled by home assistant

[hazy carbon]

ok but I wanted to keep it separated as if something happens to my server I can't turn on the lights

[gray latch]

Every one of my smart switches still works when home assistant fails

[hazy carbon]

buttons are normal switches not smart

[gray latch]

You can replace one of them with a smart button instead of installing this staircase thing

[hazy carbon]

you mean that I keep all the same and I only change a single button with a smart one so I can turn on lights with ha?

[gray latch]

I haven't done it, but that's my understanding of how a smart switch works in multiple switch situations

[hazy carbon]

Ok thanks

[torpid peak]

can someone help me out connecting shelly 1pm mini to light switch, which controls the light and air mode? German layout.

[proper viper]

If I add a sonoff device through the ewelink app it will appear in the devices section of my HA or I need to do something from my side?

[slim lagoon]

You’ll need to reload the integration.

[proper viper]

Thanks again!

[earnest spoke]

Are shelly Relays sold in India? If not, are there any alternatives that work locally and integrate well with home assistant? I'm looking for some stuff for dad.

[slim lagoon]

AFAIK, you would need a package forwarder. Or, you could go with Sonoff relays.

[hot dew]

Not sure if this is the correct place to post this. I had ESPresense set up and working fine until I bought a new phone (my beacon). When I plug an ESP32 into my computer and go to the ESPresense web termainal to find my phone's ID, the web terminal doesn't detect the ESP32. However, Home Assitant appears to detect it, so I think I can be confident the ESP32 isn't the issue (maybe?). Any ideas?

[edgy spindle]

What are the commonly recommended smart plugs that have energy measurement and switching? Must be available with UK plug

my t-link kp105 smart plug works fine for switching so I was thinking of getting some Tapo P110

[forest pike]

kind of a long shot but does anyone know how to install this to wood studs? no drywall yet, new build

[glacial oracle]

Looks like a mill task if you want it to be inside a stud

This may not necessarily be the right one for this mounting job. The ones you screw onto stuff tend to have mounting points where the screws go into

[jagged crypt]

https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Switch-Electrical-Outlet-Single/dp/B07L12TF21 - looks like it's not designed for stud mounting?

[ornate cobalt]

Which smart switches are a better option for HA.

1. Aqara
2. Lutron
3. Any other ?

[native pilot]

I've heard great things about https://inovelli.com/ but I haven't been able to buy them. I have GE switches everywhere (without ANY issues) but 99% of people here would not recommend them.

[forest pike]

Ya looks that way. Do you know of a similar one for stud mounting?

[forest pike]

Any suggestions for any that are similar standard but that can be stud mount

[native pilot]

where are you located?

@forest pike

If in the US, you just need this (1 switch) https://www.homedepot.com/p/Carlon-PVC-1-Gang-20-cu-in-New-Work-Electrical-Outlet-Box-B120A-UPC/205319652 or (2 switch) https://www.homedepot.com/p/Carlon-2-Gang-32-cu-in-Blue-PVC-New-Work-Electrical-Switch-and-Outlet-Box-B232ACP/202065285

[forest pike]

I'm in Canada but I need the UK style boxes which are 86 mm by 86 mm

[forest pike]

I looked at these ones but these are American standard and the mounting holes are different.

[native pilot]

Just look at the canadian home depot site and search for "new work electrical boxes"

[forest pike]

I did, I mean I need wall boxes that are uk sized which are not sold here.

So I found the plastic ones and those are available here but I cannot figure out how to mount these to the studs

[gray latch]

why do you need the uk sized boxes?

[native pilot]

Got it sorry I misread the ask

[forest pike]

Np np

[forest pike]

Trying to use some devices which fits on UK sized boxes

[true yacht]

I don't know what exactly to search for, so please forgive my ignorance. My house came with a Samsung Smarthings V3 hub which apparently can manage Z-Wave, Zigbee, and Matter devices. If I don't at all care about using Samsung's software, should I figure out how to connect a local home assistant up so it can interact with Samsung, or do y'all think it'd be better to just pick up a USB Z-Wave & USB Zigbee dongle?

[gray latch]

why?

[forest pike]

Why not?

[gray latch]

I'm only asking because their power is different enough from US/CA power that you could burn your house down

[forest pike]

They look nice and it's something I want to do lmao

They are low voltage

[gray latch]

then they don't need a box at all

just 3d print one with the right tabs

[forest pike]

Sure, let's assume I want to use a box for proper mounting

i THINK I'm going to need something like this instead

[gray latch]

that's not a new construction box either

or new work, i've heard it called too

[glacial oracle]

Keep in mind that metal ones need to be grounded

[true yacht]

Those get used here. Just not as gang boxes.

[forest pike]

Cause it doesn't have the nailing connection like the blue ones above right?

[forest pike]

Oh no I didn't know that. Even for low voltage?

[true yacht]

they're typically in the attic / ceiling / walls

[gray latch]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Work-PVC-Electrical-Box/dp/B002YEY2PE

[glacial oracle]

Yes, you don't want something to accidentally short inside them and not trip the breakers

[forest pike]

I think you're thinking of junction boxes

[forest pike]

Gotcha okay good to know

[true yacht]

@forest pike that's the name, yeah. it's also what the photo of the plated box above was

[forest pike]

Is this UK sized? It doesn't look like it has the right mounting spots

[gray latch]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Carlon-B234ADJ-Outlet-8-Inch-Length/dp/B000BQT6NU

it's the UK amazon

[forest pike]

Sure but where would I mount an 86mm X 86mm device?

[forest pike]

The metal picture above is a gang box that's used in UK for new work

[true yacht]

interesting. looks nearly identical to our junction boxes. 🙂

[forest pike]

Those don't have the correct mounting points unless that are supposed to be installed vertically which doesn't make sense

[true yacht]

My coworker is in Berlin, and their in wall electrical fixtures are pretty wild.

[forest pike]

Yep for sure. I'm gonna check local junction boxes but I don't think they will fit

[gray latch]

probably easiest, since it's low voltage anyway, to just wait until the drywall is up

then someone who wants to remove it later can more easily do so

so what device is worth this trouble?

[forest pike]

Sure but my goal is trying to figure out how to mount it to wooden studs... I have the ones that can be installed after drywall already

[forest pike]

I feel like you're more focused on dismissing what I want to do rather than any actual help...

[gray latch]

you'll have to find an import something from the UK to do what you want

and I feel like you're being really cagey about it, so there ya go

[forest pike]

Right all the devices currently sitting beside me

[forest pike]

Appreciate the "help"

[gray latch]

help with electrical work isn't exactly help with home assistant hardware

i'd say that you'd do better in an electrical work discord, but I know electricians and they'd tell you to do something rude

are you embarassed about what you want to install?

[forest pike]

That would be more useful than then conversation to be honest. If the mods have an issue with my question I'm sure they can let me know. If you have a link to an electrical work discord I'd appreciate that. There's nothing to be embarrassed of, I just mean I think what I install doesn't really matter. My main question was if there was a way to mount that boxes to wooden studs

Again I appreciate the "help"but you're killing the SNR

[gray latch]

well, then go do something rude.

i'm actually pretty surprised at how difficult it is to get google to cough up an answer about this

[true yacht]

Are there any zwave/thread/zigbee network hubs that are local area only?

[forest pike]

If anyone else has any suggestions, open to hearing them. Someone else mentioned the circle on the back top left, maybe I can put some blocking behind it and just pop a nail through the plastic

[slim lagoon]

You mean as an all in one? That’s what HA is.

[true yacht]

@slim lagoon so, your suggestion is to add zigbee, zwave, and thread transceivers to my HA host.

[forest pike]

I'm personally against having extra layers to be honest. That just adds more points of possible failure. If you have the cash for it I'd recommend just getting the dongles. That's what I did

[true yacht]

alright.

As to your question about that grey plastic box. I assume from the conversation I caught, you're putting LV stuff inside the box, not mains voltage?

It looks kind of like the corners of the bottom expect someone to run screws through the plastic box, but I'm not certain.

[slim lagoon]

100% yes.

[true yacht]

I was kind of hoping there was a device for those three standards that worked somewhat like the Lutron Casetta hub.

House also came with a bunch of Casetta stuff, which I admit works pretty fantastic, both with the Lutron app, and via HA.

[gray latch]

I usually just buy the dongle when I have to buy the first device of that type.

i therefore don't have a thread specific one yet, though I think the Apple TV would handle that until I got a dongle if it came down to that

[slim lagoon]

That’s what HA is though. It’s a hub (of sorts) for various protocols. You could go with something like a Hubitat hub and bring that in through a custom integration, but…

[gray latch]

having tried the nortek (?) combo stick, I'd recommend separate sticks for zwave and zigbee

[true yacht]

Yeah, I'm running HA on Proxmox. Passing a bunch of USB devices into the VM is trivial.

[forest pike]

Ya it will all be low voltage stuff. In UK, it looks like they use the metal ones on new work and either mount them directly to the studs or put a telescopic mount behind them. Looks like that might be my only option. I was really hoping to use plastic though

[true yacht]

@forest pike Gotcha. Yeah, I think we have a bunch of junction boxes mounted on adapters in our attic.

I'm no in the UK though.

I actually prefer plastic boxes most of the time.

[gray latch]

my searching leads me to believe that they no longer build new in the UK at all

but it could just be google localizing me against my will

[forest pike]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIB0B_1KV7E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L3HmfxGehI

This is the electrician in the UK that I was referencing. I sent him a message earlier, maybe he has some tips.

[gray latch]

hm, he calls your box a "surface mount" one

so you could use that. just fabricate an L shaped bracket that connects to the stud on the side and has a plate behind the box for it to surface mount to

it could probably be wood if you aren't tooled for metal or plastic fabrication

doesn't even have to be an L if you can have it bridge between two studs

[forest pike]

Ya I was thinking I'll try putting blocking behind it and mount it to that rather than the vertical stud. I just don't know if there is a product like this but UK standard

[glacial oracle]

It's rather uncommon to work with large empty gap walls in the European space

Like they tend to be mostly flush to the actual wall

If you don't mind the mess, spray foam can be enough for the back fixing

[forest pike]

I thought about that but only the exterior walls are spray foamed.

[forest pike]

Interesting!

[glacial oracle]

Putting something solid in there is always the better long term solution, just be an idea for a quick and dirty fix that might work

[forest pike]

Right on. Okay so I have a couple of options then. I'll go to the site tomorrow and try them out while I wait for the metal ones to arrive

https://internationalconfig.com/icc6.asp?item=72350-F

Oh I found this very interesting site as well, maybe someone might need it in the future. Good reference point

[gray latch]

looks like the old work box is designed to be screwed into something behind it too, rather than something to the side of it

[native pilot]

Old work usually have tabs that when screwed tighten to the back of the drywall/sheetrock/plaster

[gray latch]

oh yeah, old work. no drywall up = new work

[native pilot]

Alright, so I want to revisit a topic started in integrations early last week— ceiling fan control. I ended up returning the bond bridge today, I tried each of the different work arounds we had discussed here and I still couldn’t get it working reliably. When I started thinking about buying more sensors (more than the motion sensor I already had) I’d be at over $220 invested— for something I couldn’t ensure would work 100% of the time. Dumb.

So I’m back for recommendations. I have 4 ceiling fans that all receive power via a dumb on/off wall switch but are actually controlled via an RF remote. 3 of the fans have integrated LED lights also controlled exclusively by the remote. 1 fan is rotation only. Each fan has a unique remote. I know that in-canopy modules exist— but I don’t have a good sense of what to actually buy or how they work (eg, do they actually report real states back to HA? Do the remotes still work? If the remotes are used will that update the state in HA?)

I’d prefer solutions that are Z-wave if possible as it’s my strongest “smart” network (followed by WifI, I have a zigbee antenna available but I don’t have any devices on it).

Essentially unlimited budget, US based.

(Link to original discussion #integrations-archived message )

[placid violet]

Hi how can I integrate a IR controller with localtuya?

[sudden mango]

I am looking for a humidity sensor, and air quality meter. I was thinking about the Aqara Humidity Sensor, and air gradient or airthings for air quality, are there better options?

[glacial oracle]

The Apollo AIR-1 one probably

[sudden mango]

any idea how accurate the tvoc readings are?

[glacial oracle]

You can look those kinds things up on the sensor datasheets

[slim lagoon]

Sonoff iFan04. They are zigbee based though. There’s also the Innovelli fan and light controller as well: https://a.co/d/9cv3IRI (but finding those might be difficult). Personally, I just replaced all my fans with DC Tuya (😔) based ones for about $120/each.

[native pilot]

Do all of those report status accurately?

[slim lagoon]

Yup.

[native pilot]

Sweet! Is tuya basically the only one that does dc?

[slim lagoon]

No, most modern fans are all DC, but I wanted to just be done and not spend a ton of time with flashing the Sonoff and such (I got lazy lol)

[native pilot]

I’ve just been seeing “ac only” on the inovelli and Lutron caseta

[slim lagoon]

BUT, pay attention to reviews… some of the Tuya fans beep when receiving a command (and you can’t turn it off ) and toggle the light temp through a single command.

[slim lagoon]

Yeah. They are AC fans with DC brushless motors.

What size fans are you looking for?

[native pilot]

I have the fans already but they are all around 54 inch.

[slim lagoon]

Ahhhhh gotcha. I’d just go with the Sonoff ones.

[native pilot]

Alright. I’ll look into that! I looked for a WHILE last night and it seemed like there is a ton of confusion on this topic for whatever reason. Lots of people ending up where i had (using bond and frustrated beyond belief).

Thanks code, may have more questions later but this is helpful.

[slim lagoon]

Yup. Agreed. This is why I went with the Tuya fans (even though I HATE Tuya).

[native pilot]

I’ve added tuya to my list of 4 letter words thanks to this channel

[slim lagoon]

lol yeah... I make sure that any Tuya devices I buy work both with localTuya and also the way I need them to. amazon and I are really good when it comes to returns (which is a pain in the ASS when it comes to ceiling fans).

[turbid raft]

Just found this amazing item on AliExpress. Check it out! $5.92 | Tuya ZigBee Signal Repeater Signal Amplifier USB Extender for Smart Life Tuya APP Works with ZigBee Gateway Smart Home Devices
https://a.aliexpress.com/_m092gui

has anyone tried these before?

thinking about getting this + some ikea smart plugs to act as network repeaters

[native pilot]

Cough cough

[slim lagoon]

The signal repeaters aren’t THAT bad, but they have issues with some Aqara sensors.

[gray latch]

the one from IKEA is $20 and works as a usb power outlet

[turbid raft]

yeah these are 1/4 the price lol

[slim lagoon]

I think they discontinued them though.

[turbid raft]

what sort of issues?

if i had a mix of these and ikea outlets would it be fine

[slim lagoon]

Sometimes you get what you pay for ™️

[turbid raft]

got me there haha

it’s wild how the same product is 4x the price on amazon tho

[gray latch]

oh. i searched and it came up, but I guess that one was in AU

[slim lagoon]

Aqara sensors are notoriously picky when it comes to routers.

[gray latch]

people import them from Ali and mark them up to sell on Amazon to people who don't want to wait 4 weeks

[turbid raft]

tbh i don’t have any aqara rn anyways

[turbid raft]

yeah lol

when i told my dad that he was amazed

[gray latch]

i still would choose "add aqara" over "add tuya"

[turbid raft]

oh

[gray latch]

why not just get a smart plug to control an appliance in that room