hardware-archived

[vagrant vigil]

Does anyone understand this..?
Got the Bluetooth connected to the Pi and it works fine with the GUI, got the VLC integration into HA…
How do I get HA to play audio to the bluetooth speaker?

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/bluetooth-speaker-as-media-player/194673/7

[slim lagoon]

@hallow summit I'm assuming you want Zigbee bulbs?

[hallow summit]

[from #general-archived]

Does anyone have any recommendations for multi-color LED bulbs at the 1500+ lumen range?

preferably with dimmer / three-way but not necessarily

Philips Hue bulbs are insanely expensive. They seem overpriced to me. Especially when compared to the Ikea equivalents

[hallow summit]

Yeah, Zigbee-compatible

Available in the US, preferably too

[slim lagoon]

Ok, so, as you mentioned, Ikea bulbs. I'm not a huge fan of them, but some people make them work. Personally, I ditched 90% of my Zigbee bulbs and went with Wiz WiFi bulbs. They're cheap, have pretty good output and do colors mostly well. Blues look a bit purplish, but that doesn't bother me.

[hallow summit]

Color acuity isn't super important to me, as long as it isn't like.. way off. I don't expect pantone-level or like, RGB additive value precision. As long as all my blues are the same shade within the same room, etc, I don't really care

(we'll see what my wife thinks, but I suspect she won't care too much either)

[slim lagoon]

There's also Sengleds which have pretty decent color, but not sure if they offer a 1500+lm light though. Wiz does offer a color bulb that goes up to 2550lm though.

[glacial oracle]

1500+ lm on RGB is probably not achievable unless you go with wall illuminators

[hallow summit]

WiZ do seem really excellent for the price

[glacial oracle]

WiZ is effectively wifi Hue

Same company and very likely same tech

The 1600lm ones however just do that on a specific white (2700k I think), rgb is much darker

[slim lagoon]

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-150-Watt-Equivalent-A23-LED-Dimmable-Smart-WiFi-Connected-LED-Light-Bulb-Color-and-Tunable-White-2200K-6500K-1-Pack-578716/320687469

[cold moon]

Wiz don’t do transitions at all do they?

[hallow summit]

Yeah, I suspected that lumens vs color would be an issue

[glacial oracle]

WiZ has more in built animations if I recall

[slim lagoon]

Not HA transitions, no, but they do support fade in/fade out times.

Yeah, they have a ton of animations.

[hallow summit]

Hm, the animations are a nice-to-have, but I'm less concerned with that

Good option to know though

[cold moon]

Are these like wled effects?

[slim lagoon]

I use some of the animations for status. So, like Party mode, which just cycles through colors, for when something happens, etc.

Not nearly as sophisticated. Mostly just color morphing on a single led.

[hallow summit]

Okay, I absolutely need you to follow up on "when something happens"

lol

what do you use the color change for? What kind of "happening" is it reacting to?

or are you manually triggering it to change

[slim lagoon]

lol, so like if my mailbox is opened, two of the bulbs in my office go into "party mode" for a minute and then transition back to normal.

[glacial oracle]

Party the bills are in!

[slim lagoon]

Other things like the washer, dryer, or dishwasher has finished... or if movement is detected at the front door... stuff like that. I usually have music playing in my office, so the lights are good visual indicator that something has happened.

[hallow summit]

Ohhh, oooooh... Hmmmmm... I never even considered setting any part of the IoT system based on triggers like that. What do you use on the mailbox for that? Proximity / motion sensor? Or is it something set on the mailbox door + body, similar to how home security systems work, where there's a pair of detectors that send a signal when they grow too far apart?

[slim lagoon]

Aqara door/window contact sensor in the mailbox. 🙂

But I do have a PIR sensor in the carport so that if someone walks up to the back door, and I'm in my office on the other side of the house, I get a notification and the lights blink red.

[slim lagoon]

Wait... who still gets bills in the mail?! lol

[cold moon]

The mailbox 📪 is super simple to setup if you have a zigbee bulb to repeat

[slim lagoon]

The mailbox 📪 is super simple to setup if you have a zigbee bulb to repeat

(Or any routing device)

[glacial oracle]

Most medical stuff or deliveries comes per mail around here

Or pretty much anything that needs to be signed

[cold moon]

Who doesn’t have a front door light bulb tho

[hallow summit]

I've moved half a dozen times in the last decade, so paper bills are always a good thing to have on-hand whenever you need to notify every single last goddamn service on Earth that your address has changed. lol

[slim lagoon]

Me? All my outdoor bulbs are Wiz 😉

[hallow summit]

Now that we've bought a house I really ought to switch to exclusively digital billing

[slim lagoon]

I have a couple:

I don't think I've gotten a paper bill in probably the last 5 years, tbh.

[hallow summit]

My mailbox is almost definitely too far away to catch signal though. Hm.

[slim lagoon]

That's why you put a routing device (or devices) in place.

[hallow summit]

Big front yard, long driveway. Box at the end. I'm assuming they sell solar-powered outdoor stake-lights for the yard which are IoT enabled?

cuz I could just line the driveway with a few of those. Though it would make mowing more of a pain

[slim lagoon]

My mailbox is probably 100+ feet from the house, but I have a couple of routers between the mailbox and the house.

[fringe crater]

I've sometimes been curious what a LoRa solution would look like for the mailbox. Are those devices feasible on battery? What would it cost to set that up...
Maybe zwave LR could work too.

[hallow summit]

by routers do you mean a dedicated device? Or just an end-device that's part of the mesh so it can repeat signal?

[slim lagoon]

Routing device => Pretty much anything mains powered (plugs, switches, most bulbs, dedicated routers, etc).

[hallow summit]

gotcha, figured.

[slim lagoon]

@patent river is my local expert on LoRA

[cold moon]

That’s what @patent river uses

[hallow summit]

I'm considering having a few cameras placed around anyway. Not video, just motion-sensor that can snap a picture. I have a NAS but use it just to host my Plex server and my media takes up 90% of the drive, so I don't want to use it to save security footage. lol

So maybe one or two cameras could also serve to pass the signal along

[cold moon]

We’re talking zigbee not Wi-Fi dude

[slim lagoon]

Not really. I don't know of any Zigbee cameras.

[cold moon]

You’d use zigbee bulb out front for example

[slim lagoon]

But, getting something like a ThirdReality plug and placing it in some outdoor safe thing would work.

And yeah, bulbs too

[cold moon]

Or some zigbee uplighting etc

I want to try the innr ones out front

[hallow summit]

Unfortunately I don't have any outdoor outlets on the house yet

[cold moon]

Like these or the other variant

[hallow summit]

so outdoor powered devices have to be either solar or battery at the moment

[cold moon]

My front porch light is what I use

[slim lagoon]

So, first thing I would do is get your electricity situation sorted out. THEN get on the outdoor stuff 😉

[hallow summit]

Ahh, those Innr ones are nice

but yeah, def need an outdoor socket first

RIP

[cold moon]

Tbh I’d have to confirm they’re repeaters but they should be

[slim lagoon]

Innr bulbs are routers.

[cold moon]

Those are the outdoor things

[hallow summit]

how are the indoor versions? Has anyone used them? These guys here

[slim lagoon]

AFAIK, Sengled and some Ajax bulbs are end devices.

[cold moon]

Not a bulb so I’d have to confirm

[hallow summit]

I see they're only ~800 lumens which isn't exactly great but

[slim lagoon]

I have a couple of Innr bulbs. They're ok? But often seem dimmer compared to other bulbs.

[gray latch]

any bulb connected to a dumb switch, I'd prefer not be a router

[hallow summit]

Hm, okay. That's gonna be a nail in the coffin for Innr indoor bulbs for me then

thanks for letting me know

[cold moon]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BPJXDDW

[slim lagoon]

Sure. I threw mine up in my attic sockets. They're bright enough when I go up there, but compared to my other bulbs, they just seem dimmer.

[cold moon]

These are want I think I prefer

[cold moon]

Dude buy once cry once get hue only

[hallow summit]

LOL

fair

I'm just balking at the Hue ones being like... twice the price of a lot of other bulbs on the market

if not more

Would you say that they're worth it?

[cold moon]

No

Not the rgbw

Hue in general yes

[hallow summit]

Hmm

Okay

[cold moon]

A white or ambient white (color temperature control) are $10-15 each instead of $40-80 each

[slim lagoon]

Hue bulbs are worth it. They are the most rock solid of all Zigbee bulbs.

[cold moon]

That’s a lot easier to uhh swallow

I use diy led strips for color

[gray latch]

most bulbs don't need to be colorful

i have about 70/30 white/rgb

[slim lagoon]

That's part of the reason I went with Wiz. I went color on pretty much all of them because they were so cheap.

I can disco up the whole house if I want to.

[cold moon]

@hallow summit you also can’t kill power to zigbee repeaters or they can’t do their job and the mesh goes to shit

[gray latch]

bedroom lights are rgb so they can come on dim and red at night, lights with cool diffusion are rgb

[hallow summit]

Isn't the whole idea of the mesh that another node can cover the gap? Or do you just mean in the sense of chaining them, eg: spacing a few 5ft apart down the driveway to reach the mailbox.

[slim lagoon]

Yes and no. The mesh can self heal, but some devices (like some Aqara devices) won't reroute if a router goes down.

[hallow summit]

favorite part of talking with you guys is that I have so many new brands and devices to google/amazon. lmao

[cold moon]

The whole idea of the mesh is to have known next hop routes

Not to be able to survive sudoku

[glacial oracle]

Me who turns of the smart bulbs heheh

[hallow summit]

"huhuhu... dumb bulb now."

[slim lagoon]

The other reason I got rid of my Zigbee bulbs... Someone comes over and flips the power on them and then I have to spend the next day rebuilding routes. Fun times.

Wiz DGAF about power outages 😉

[cold moon]

I have all smart switches in smart bulb mode

[glacial oracle]

Sadly can't fit smart switches here

Luckily hue doesn't frick around with reconnecting to the mesh so stuff works within a second or two

[hallow summit]

Jesus Aqara sensors are ridiculously cheap compared to what I was expecting. Looks like the P2 motion & light sensor is a hair over $30. I was expecting like... $130.

Though

I have to see if they're Zigbee compatible I guess

[glacial oracle]

Well that's not really, cheap for how cheap the tech inside actually is, but aquara gear usually works

[hallow summit]

You mean it's a markup from manufacturing/parts costs? Or just that the internals are cheap quality-wise?

[glacial oracle]

Related to the price, not necessarily the quality., you may shoot such stuff from not Amazon for about half the price. And there is really nothing expensive on the hardware,

[slim lagoon]

Aqara gear is my favorite. Compared to other brands, I can rely on Aqara about 99% of the time.

[glacial oracle]

It's maybe a 5 bucks assembly, but if you actually buy something for 5 bucks like tuya based gear the stuff in them is significantly cheaper than that as well and you start to trade quality

[hallow summit]

looks like some of the Aqara stuff is Thread-exclusive. Seems like Thread is a bandwidth/signal type. For any Aqara devices that rely on Thread, would I need like, an Aqara hub that gets looped into HA?

[glacial oracle]

Most stuff shouldn't be and will work just fi e with standard zigbee

[slim lagoon]

Yeah, you would need some sort of Thread border router. Personally, I avoid Thread and Matter.

[hallow summit]

I'm seeing mixed stuff on Thread/Matter

[glacial oracle]

They usually call stuff x compatible as that compatibility is gained through their hub

[hallow summit]

so it seems like you're not alone in that @slim lagoon

[slim lagoon]

Nope 🙂 Plus, Aqara is like the only brand that sells the curtain motors that I like that are also Zigbee.

[devout parrot]

Yeah it's still basically in its infancy and will probably not provide what all these tech companies are promising. We'll probably just end up with another competing standard that may or may not be universal when it's all said and done.

[hallow summit]

I'm assuming it's typical of new HA users that they hit the "galaxy-brain" point realizing how in-depth sensor integration and triggers can get, and go mad with power?

[slim lagoon]

hahaha yup.

[hallow summit]

because I think I'm starting to tip over that edge

lol

[slim lagoon]

Hell, 8+ years in and I still consider myself a newb sometimes when I figure out something else that HA can do that I had no idea about.

[hallow summit]

I wonder how many people in here are developers

[slim lagoon]

raises hand

[hallow summit]

not for HA, I just mean in general. Like, overall IT presence

[slim lagoon]

raises hand higher

[hallow summit]

lmao

[slim lagoon]

It's in my profile even 🙂

[hallow summit]

I, too, do bad things with code. But "bad" as in quality, not as in purpose. lmao

[slim lagoon]

Oh, yeah, no. I do bad things for sure.

[gray latch]

I make developers cry, does that count?

[glacial oracle]

So you do qa?

[slim lagoon]

Quality is usually ok, but I'll do things like mess with my coworkers and write a script that pulls random records out of DB table, wait 5 minutes and then insert them back again.

[glacial oracle]

[slim lagoon]

That was gonna be my question too

[gray latch]

server admin/ops

[slim lagoon]

Psh... that's fine... QA makes me cry.

[gray latch]

"no, we can't open the firewall to the world"

"yes, this is a failed deployment so we have to roll back"

[slim lagoon]

I mean, we could, but should we? lol

[glacial oracle]

As someone who does both, doing QA tasks also makes people cry

[slim lagoon]

I tried my hand at QA. It was not a good week.

[glacial oracle]

Like ?? Of course I can verify that some calculation is now divided by some amount, I just gotta prepare the whole system to go there which takes twice as long as doing the development

[slim lagoon]

We've been slowly moving over to selenium for things like that.

[hallow summit]

I have a guy working under me that I wind up QAing constantly. Does that count? Lol

[slim lagoon]

MY boss has even been talking about the devs writing selenium tests instead of unit tests.

[glacial oracle]

selenium ono

[cold moon]

No I think it’s more typical to be overwhelmed and follow guides to do simple stuff

[glacial oracle]

Terrible

[hallow summit]

I feel like the amount of time I spend QAing his stuff and turning it back to him for fixes is probably about the same amount of time I'd just spend sitting the code myself

[hallow summit]

To be fair, I haven't even ordered any hardware yet. So I'm not yet up to the point of tutorials, troubleshooting, debugging setups. Right now I'm at the wide-eyed, "I can track what with sensors?" phase wherein I plan my little Eureka house

[slim lagoon]

Eureka the TV show? lol

[hallow summit]

Yeah

[slim lagoon]

hahaha I haven't heard anyone make reference to that in a LONG time.

Well played sir... well played. Bonus points for that.

[hallow summit]

Loool thanks. I think I only caught a few episodes here and there. It was airing right around the time I was applying to colleges and graduating and in college, so I kind of missed it mostly by way of being busy

But any time I think of smart homes and iot, that's the first thing that comes to mind

[kindred vale]

Does anyone know how to automate window air vents ?
Was thinking ESP32 with some actuator , but don't quite know the appropriate actuator that can do this ...

[slim lagoon]

I watched every season at least 3 or 4 times lol

[kindred vale]

https://imgur.com/a/xAN1YqY These type of vents

[cold moon]

Wait til you learn about frigate

[slim lagoon]

#diy-archived might know? I'm not reallyy certain to be honest. Pretty sure it can be done, but I'm not sure of the specifics.

[hallow summit]

This Frigate?

I need a Frigate add-on that'll automatically pokedex my local wildlife for me. Lol

Snap a picture of a beastie crossing through my backyard, ID it, drop it into a directory on a local drive by taxonomy...

That's the dream lol

I do actually really appreciate Frigate's FRONT PAGE, HEADER, FIRST WORD style declaration that this is EXCLUSIVELY LOCAL AI. They really want it to be known to A Certain Kind Of Person (me) that they're not sending a video feed out to Google to analyze. Your surveillance footage isn't going anywhere you aren't already putting it, yourself.

[vague jetty]

anyone care to help me setup the bluetooth on my pi ? I've set it inside a docker container and can't seem to be able to connect the Bluetooth integration properly :/ please help T-T

[slim lagoon]

Try in #bluetooth-archived

[vague jetty]

thanks

[hallow summit]

Sorry to keep throwing myself in here for really trivial things but I just want to make sure before I start placing orders that I'm not dicking over future-me with anything.

so I'm covering as many bases as I can think of

https://a.co/d/3tZP60L

Can someone verify for me that these should be accessible via a Zigbee USB dongle?

Most of the Sengled devices I've found seem to be wifi-only, or allege to only be functional specifically with a Sengled hub

[gray latch]

I use those with my sonoff 3.0 dongle

[hallow summit]

Perfect. Hows the brightness on them?

[gray latch]

I got a WAY better price than that though

[hallow summit]

On Amazon?

Oh I guess your purchase was 3 years ago. Markup (unfortunately) makes sense.

[gray latch]

i paid $38 for the 3 pack

here's $52 for a 4-pack https://us.sengled.com/products/zigbee-color-a19-e26-4-packs-hub-required

[wheat jacinth]

Do you already have other Zigbee devices? Or starting fresh

[gray latch]

plus there's a code for 10% off

[hallow summit]

starting completely fresh

[wheat jacinth]

might want to consider matter thread if your looking to future

[gray latch]

make sure you have a bunch of routers sprinkled around, because those bulbs are not.

[hallow summit]

I've heard very mixed things about Matter

here and elsewhere

[gray latch]

these are a good cheap way to spread your mesh and get some control and power monitoring https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BPY5D1KC

[hallow summit]

Oh very interesting. Thanks for the heads up.

[wheat jacinth]

it is a mixed bag. but I had great results with the nanoleaf matter bulbs

[gray latch]

I personally think bulbs shouldn't be routers if they have a dumb switch, which is why I chose those, but I have like 70 zigbee devices

[hallow summit]

What do you primarily have these hooked up to? I'm just thinking about the devices I own, and besides lamps all the devices that come to mind feature individual power-on buttons; activating them by remotely toggling the outlet power wouldn't work since I'd still need to physically press the switch on the device

Also I'm assuming you probably shouldn't chain a power strip into one of those

[gray latch]

I have my stove on one in the kitchen, mostly so I can reset it when the stupid capacitive touch doesn't work; I have a lamp on one in the front room that needs a weird bulb; I have a power strip on one in the garage for an automation with my tool battery chargers; I have the washer and dryer on one for a power automation; I have an 1940s philco radio on one in the TV room that I don't really trust to be plugged in all of the time; I also have the garage lights, the patio string lights that connect into the garage for power, and a couple of fans in the garage on them

you can, they handle my washer and gas dryer just fine. I didn't use a strip though, just a 3 outlet thingy

[hallow summit]

Okee dokee. Still just an overall good idea to strew those around so they can help the mesh

thanks

[gray latch]

I really like the charger automation.

hmmmmmmmm and now I see it didn't get re-created and I've been relying on it for months 😦

[slim lagoon]

Second vote for the ThirdReality plugs... Love those things....

[lilac thistle]

Hey, heard about home assistant on the amp hour. Looking at setting up a server and heard voice recognition is slow on a pi. I do have an intel NUC i7 mini computer available. Wondering what the best USB zigbee and z-wave adapters are currently. Or a smart hub? Hard to find good posts that are recent. I’ve heard there are issues with 700 series z-wave or something. I currently don’t have any zigbee or z-wave devices (unless maybe Lutron caseta can be used without the Lutron gateway).

[gray latch]

what's "the amp hour"? I don't know if there's a specific best, but I'm doing ok with a sonoff 3.0 dongle and a zooz 800 dongle.

voice recognition probably shouldn't be happening on the pi itself, should it? I think that's a question for #voice-assistants-archived

[slim lagoon]

So best for Zigbee is a lan coordinator. Not a USB stick. Obvs that's opinion, but I know I could never go back to a USB based coordinator. If you look at the pins in #zigbee-archived there's a few recommendations there. For #zwave-archived they also have pins there with recommendations. I agree with Tom about the 800 dongle.

[gray latch]

also, I have them connected to a powered USB hub that puts them about 3' away from the rack that all of my home server/network gear is in, and that dramatically improved reliability

[devout parrot]

Probably also depends on where your server is located. Mine does great on a USB extension but my HA box and whatnot is roughly in the middle of the house.

[slim lagoon]

Yes and no. Typically the lan coordinators have better chips in them too. Better chips = more devices being supported in the same mesh. Typically, a cheaper USB stick can handle 30-40 routing devices. A lan coordinator can typically handle >50 (and some like the MGM24 can supposedly handle over 100 routing devices).

[gray latch]

this guy? https://tubeszb.com/product/efr32-mgm24-poe-coordinator/

[slim lagoon]

YYYEEESSS

I've been drooling over that for months now, but I need my existing one to die first.

[gray latch]

hm

[slim lagoon]

My current one is actually Tube's first coordinator. It has the CC2652P2 chip in it, which is fine for my mesh now (47 routing devices), but I'm nervous to really go much higher than 60.

But, I've had it for 4 years now and it just keeps...on...going... lol

[lean tendon]

Can the ZBMINI be configured to run in a detached relay mode so that the switch is an input to HA, and the relay is an output?

[cold moon]

eh?

[slim lagoon]

eh what?

[cold moon]

lots of same chipsets in usb and PoE / eth coordinators

[slim lagoon]

Yup, but constrained by USB2 standards. Plus, the sticks still have the interference issues, the USB3 issues, etc. Lan coordinators solve all of that. But, yes, some of the newer sticks are getting more powerful. But, typically, the lan ones also have more memory on board as well along with better CPUs.

[cold moon]

my issue was with you saying the lan coordinators have better chips in them but i guess i misread that as chipset not chips now that i'm re-reading it

[slim lagoon]

Right. 🙂 You know me well enough... I choose my words carefully.

(sometimes... most of the time... lol)

[cold moon]

my adhd likes to make as many smart assumptions as possible to start thinking about new things and autocompletes wrong every so often (in my head)

[slim lagoon]

DUDE SAME... I don't have ADHD, but still SAME...

[cold moon]

generally speaking, from a technology standpoint, the more you assume (correctly) the better you are at diagnostics

really same with other stuff like fixing cars i'd say

"fuel or fire" ruling out 90% of non fuel or fire related issues for example

my brain just cant do it with code so i closed that door a long time ago

[slim lagoon]

I used to get accused of being a walking computer. Never liked the term, but whatever. But even if you can't code, that doesn't make you illogical either. You just express it differently 🙂

[cold moon]

i actually got an A in my first C class and changed majors to business... i internalize struggles and there arent enough rubber ducks in the world to keep me sane trying to understand where i fucked up in the logic

[gray latch]

i changed mine to philosophy

and ended up as a film student eventually

because ADHD, yeah

[slim lagoon]

Rubber ducks reminds of a Hazbin Hotel reference... lol But yeah, I get it. I do the same thing. But, I learned a long time ago how to kind of map out my thinking process into code. The problem with that is I end up with something that literally no other human can understand, but it makes perfect sense to me. Sooooo then I get frustrated because I get it totally and no one else does. The struggle is def real.

[halcyon harbor]

Got it working with two different switched outputs

[glacial oracle]

[cunning veldt]

Hi, instead of smart plugs, I bought a number (like 15) of these smart switches at Ali Express. At least half of them broke within a year. I used my last few to replace a broken one, but they too broke within a few weeks. Are they really that bad, and would you recommend an alternative? I'm happy to consider Zigbee instead of Wifi, although I like Tuya because it works straight away from Google Home

[ancient talon]

Sonoff are a good brand, I assume you are not switching big loads

[cunning veldt]

True, just dumb lights for example

[glacial oracle]

This is kinda a buy cheap buy multiple times thing.

Tuya being inside is usually a good sign to avoid a purchase

[tidal finch]

Can someone help tell this newbie if he's on the right page for his hardware, starting from scratch?
The goal is to have soil moisture sensors in 6 planters on our patio, maybe eventually leading to some automatic watering system
So I need the sensor for each, with an arduino (uno?) with a wifi shield to send the data to a gateway?
A power source that can supply all 6?
Then a raspberry pi running home assistant?

[fringe crater]

Are you planning wired sensors, and to supply power and wires to all your planters?
Wireless/BLE is often used for soil moisture sensors, where its not feasible to run wires all over the place.

[tidal finch]

I guess no wires would be preferable - it's a garden, so there's sun - but there is an outlet if necessary

I'm not planning anything so much as figuring out where to start

[fringe crater]

Sure, I guess the first step would be to decide if you want wired or wireless.
In both cases, I would suggest ESP32 over an arduino, they have very good HA integration.
If wired, the ESP can run several ADC, or SPI, or whatever protocol your sensor uses.
If wireless, ESP can pick up BLE broadcasts from compatible sensors.

You might need more than one ESP, but they're only $5.

For wireless I think maybe Xiaomi MiFlora works, but I haven't tried one.

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/xiaomi_ble/

[tidal finch]

yeah, I saw some battery powered wireless sensors, but they were $30 each and I need 6, so was looking for a better option

[fringe crater]

I was thinking those were closer to $20, but haven't really checked.

Wired ones are probably only a couple bucks

[tidal finch]

maybe, can look around more. might make things simpler if those could phone home directly to the gateway

[fringe crater]

I've used this kind with some success, I think you can find them from a lot of sellers

[tidal finch]

so connect each of those to its own ESP32?

those look super cheap, which is great. I can break a few figuring them out

[fringe crater]

I think you could run a couple from a single ESP

I think an esp32 has 4 ADCs, but I might be misremembering

[tidal finch]

even better

and I imagine if I power the ESP by battery, that lasts plenty long and lets me stay wireless?

[fringe crater]

hmm, that would be difficult

most esp are not really battery optimized. I'm sure it's theoretically possible to rig some big battery to one, but I don't think it would last long

[glacial oracle]

if you write it up properly, they support enough low power states that should suspend things enough for it to last quite a while on fairly acceptable battery sizes

but that would end up being in a way where the measurements and broadcasting of them wouldnt be continous

while you can massively downsize the microcontroler needed for this task, the connectivity will be what drains the battery

[terse pebble]

I just integrated my second Xiaomi Flower Care sensor. They are indeed 25-30 EUR each.

[fringe crater]

there's always bparasite for the masochists 😂

[tidal finch]

so if I want realtime - neat, but not really necessary - I want continuous power. I imagine a moisture sensor could check in just twice/day

[tidal finch]

feel like a masochist trying to get into this at all, so I might as well try bparasite!

[fringe crater]

https://github.com/rbaron/b-parasite

[tidal finch]

for masochists because it's fully diy making the board?

[fringe crater]

yep

and you're on your own for bootstrapping the firmware onto the microcontrollers you have to source

which requires its own hardware, unless you build that too 🤣

[tidal finch]

I'm sure there's a tradeoff between out of the box and affordable and I'm trying to find that line

bracing myself for this becoming an expensive hobby

[stable tapir]

Hello i have problems to use zigbee2mqtt with skyconnect or sonoff dongle e i think they need a firmware upgrade. is this possible by any home assistant? i dont wont use websites and prefer a local possibility like a home assistant add on 🙂

[terse pebble]

#zigbee-archived can help with that

[stable tapir]

Ok, thank you for fast answer 🙂 i ask there

[gray latch]

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803197087179.html they're less than 20/ea if you buy a few at a time

and can BT to a single esphome device nearby

[tidal finch]

so I can get 6 of those and a single esp32 that I can leave plugged in nearby?

[gray latch]

I have 3 of them that (when they're in use) connect through a single esphome device

you have to deal with BT ranges and stuff, but 30' is pretty good

if your things are spread out more than that or behind walls, you might need two esp devices

[fringe crater]

do they work out of the box or you have to change the firmware?

I always saw those and had some confusion like maybe ones of certain colors work, and some do not, or it has to be a specific firmware version or it might not work

I'm a bit hesitant

[tidal finch]

probably less than 30ft from planters to outlet to rpi inside

[gray latch]

i guess I don't know? the ones I had just worked but the link from my order is dead

every 1" of wall adds 1' to the distance for that calculation, and going through a wall obliquely can be 20"

[tidal finch]

sliding door probably helps with that, but still should be ample margin

[gray latch]

bluetooth is not very energetic.

worth a try anyway

I think you need white or green, since that link says black has no app

it's just BLE though, it's not magic.

[tidal finch]

No Smart!

[gray latch]

yeah

lol

a friend of mine has a bunch of them in his plants. I just have the 3 and none of them are currently in use, for reasons

[tidal finch]

do xiaomi products actually require a xiaomi account like it says? or is that just the option if you're not connecting them another way?

[gray latch]

I don't remember

you might need to set them up first

remember that they're a consumable though, only meant to last a few years at most

they're measuring the soil by being shoved into the soil and then measuring a current through that. they're basically designed to corrode

[tidal finch]

all the more reason to find cheap ones like ones above

if I had a single bed, spending more on one wouldn't be so bad, but we're using those planter bags - 6 to start

[gray latch]

are you planting similar things in them?

[tidal finch]

its a mix of plants

[gray latch]

my friend started with separate ones in each plant area of his garden and then realized that he basically waters the whole thing by sections and not by section so he pulled 2/3 of them out for use elsewhere

k

[tidal finch]

we started it recently and have noticed the kale gets sad more quickly. we could be more scientific in how much water we use, figure out which planter is hungriest (probably the one with the kale) and then give the others proportionately less water

[fluid garnet]

Hey all, hope this is the right channel. I just replaced a GE 14287 / ZW4002 with a Jasco 14314 / ZW4002. The old switch had 3-spd low/med/high and the new switch is displaying variable 0-100%. I've seen some posts saying the variable speed is hard on the AC fan motor, anybody know if there is truth to that? If so, is there documentation on forcing the switch to a three speed?

[glacial oracle]

if its proper pwm speed controlled, no it will not have any truth to it

by spec the jasco one also has three speed options

so this may or may not change anything

[fluid garnet]

I saw that on the Jasco spec but it isn't displaying that way in the card. I've reinterviewed a couple times to see if it picks it up but hasn't

[vestal linden]

Hello,

My 3-year-old daughter has started to develop a fear of the dark. After discussing it with her, we thought that some lights under her bed might help alleviate her fears. I’ve looked on AliExpress and found a variety of light strips and different controllers. I'm a bit overwhelmed by the options and could use some help in choosing the right materials.

Since the rolls seem to come in larger formats, I’m considering using them for my other kid's bedroom and our master bedroom (with motion detector) as well. Could you assist me in selecting the appropriate products?

Thank you!

[gray latch]

I have lights under my bed. it was pretty easy

[glacial oracle]

selecting the right strip and control depends a lot on what you want it to do, how much money you want to spend for it and how nice it should look like

[gray latch]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09P7ZY2XJ I used this and some 4 pin LED strips I had lying around. if you don't have zigbee then you probably don't want these

[vestal linden]

I don't need hue ambilight but souldn't be ugly too ^^'
I don't plan to play it with music or multimedia, it's more relax light when you are in bed or when you wake up to go to toilet

[glacial oracle]

if color isnt needed, those spotless/cob strips in warm white will look great

[vestal linden]

zigbee mesh isn't an issue 😉

color is needed for my kids

[gray latch]

note that's a 12v controller, so you'll need a 12v 4pin strip

i needed color for night

it glows red under the bed when motion is detected at night so I don't stub my damn toe

[glacial oracle]

the next question probably would be which strip is the right one

[vestal linden]

they don't sell in europe

[gray latch]

12v, 4pin. like https://www.amazon.com/SUPERNIGHT-Non-Waterproof-Flexible-Lighting-Multi-Colored/dp/B00KQHQJ5C

[glacial oracle]

personally i wouldnt totally diy it but buy it as a set

[gray latch]

i'm sure you can find that same one on aliexpres

I do most of my shopping in the US, since it's conveniently located.

[glacial oracle]

if i am not mistaken innr sells complete packages of the strips, controller and power supply

as this likely uses tuya chipsets, aliexpress will have them under different names aswell

[gray latch]

shows up in Z2M as "giderwel"

[vestal linden]

I don't see anything called giderwel in ali

but I found out GIDEALED in europe (I did a typo in the name)

If I understand with this pack I can cut the led in 2 and do 2 lightstrip ?

oh it's 2x5m

[spark granite]

Hello is there a list somewhere of bt adapters that work with HA, that’s running as a VM? I’m having some issues with the intel one that comes with my pc whether it’s directly connected to the VM or shared with the host and guest. Was thinking of getting a different external adapter that can just auto connect.

[patent river]

ESPHome devices connected over Ethernet are also an option: https://blakadder.com/gl-s10/
Apparently come highly recommended.

[spark granite]

I have to look at that, I don't have many devices that connect via bluetooth but the ones that do loose connection especially since I'm not 100% monitoring my HA server, it's running on a mini thinkcentre behind vmware.

[patent river]

For what it's worth though, the ones on this list do seem to work fine: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/bluetooth/#known-working-high-performance-adapters
I picked one up at a local computer store for like $9 which has the same chipset as things on that list, works fine

The Ethernet option is a heck of a lot easier when you're using a VM though 🙂

[ashen gazelle]

what smart bulbs are people using that have great dimming? looking for sunset / sunrise simulation

[tacit burrow]

Get a lan based coordinator and connect to it via Ethernet. Better than dongle.

Like a tubez

[floral sun]

Is there any good 2 way doorbells working with HA yet?

[cunning veldt]

Then what do you recommend as an alternative?

[glacial oracle]

Stuff that doesn't require a cloud connection to setup/configure/run

Or stuff that's good enough quality to be worthwhile flashing to software that falls in that category

[cunning veldt]

Be specific please

A brand?

[glacial oracle]

Which connection standard do you want

For wifi, Shelly seems to be like a decent choice for relay switching
ZigBee would be aquara and maybe some of the sonoff gear

Later is a bit of a mixed batch

[cunning veldt]

I like wifi and tuya because it works with Google Home immediatly, which my familymembers (including a 6 y/o) know how to use. If you know a way to get out of the cloud, I would be happy with zigbee (although that seems more expensive)

Yes, sonoff was recommended here

[glacial oracle]

There is pretty much no easily accessible way anymore to cut the tuya cloud on more recent devices

[cunning veldt]

Therefor I have accepted the cloud. Like many did years ago with hotmail and with internet banking. The cloud can work

[glacial oracle]

I think a lot of the stuff could be brought to Google home and friends even through some ha magic, but I am not up to date with how that works

The cloud can work unless your local inet connection goes down, they decide to stop providing the service or simply the chinese gov says no

All of those will leave you with possibly inoperable devices

[cunning veldt]

True, and then we can't bank, can't watch netflix, no more messaging, so I believe there is much at steak nowadays to keep it all working

[glacial oracle]

There is, just that not being able to turning off your lights, control your heating or various other appliances is a bit silly when you have the device in a room with you

Sadly it's not always obvious that a ton of devices are cloud connected

[cunning veldt]

I agree

These sonoff devices look exactly the same as what I was using.

The ones that keep breaking at my home

Interesting how Neutral and Live seem to have switched places

I have always assumed they are the same on the inside, with just different branding. Do you guys believe there is a difference?

[glacial oracle]

They may use different boards on similar cases

There is a lot of reuse of such things going on

Easiest to know would be to buy, open and compare the internals

[cunning veldt]

And talking Tuya (=Wifi) versus Zigbee: Has anyone here created some sort of virtual Tuya devices that Google Home can switch (virtually), so that HA detects that and in turn switches a Zigbee devices?

[glacial oracle]

Not that I heard off but there are ways in which people use the common Alexa/Google voice assistants to control whatever device ha knows

#voice-assistants-archived should have the experts on that

[cunning veldt]

I will dig into that, and choose zigbee devices then. Although it makes my stack more vulnerable once again, with HA being another link in the stack

[glacial oracle]

Realistically you just trade the wifi/network connection going down with ha going down

There are ways to even run the ZigBee part away from home assistant if you choose to use z2m

[cunning veldt]

That wifi still needed for all the Google Mini's

[glacial oracle]

Right

[cunning veldt]

I dug into these. Do I understand well that they allow for a very dumb switch to be connected. And that switching that dumb switch triggers the relais, despite it being switched on or off? (So you can switch a light on via your phone, and switch the light off again at the dumb switch on the wall).

But do I understand also they require a neutral, so it won't work in old houses?

[glacial oracle]

There are non neutral ones

[cunning veldt]

Yes, I found them too

[glacial oracle]

Those will however not act as ZigBee routers and won't work with certain types of low/no loads

[cunning veldt]

How are they powered when the light is off? With an inductor?

[glacial oracle]

They don't fully disable the output

[cunning veldt]

aha, that is smart

So led bulbs may flicker?

[glacial oracle]

Low wattage ones might

But it's more like they have some afterglow

[cunning veldt]

But did I guess right that the relais will switch when it sensed that the old dumb switch is flipped?

[glacial oracle]

Yes

Either via a switch or via software

[cunning veldt]

Sounds like a smart product for old houses then.

And for visitors not understanding smart homes

[glacial oracle]

Surprisingly many people don't have neutral wires in their walls for whatever reasons

But yes, having the good ol switch is just easier

[cunning veldt]

I understand that, that was a very smart way last century to save on copper

[glacial oracle]

Saving always comes to bite you, even decades later ^^

[gray latch]

you can install it behind the fixture instead of behind the wall switch

There's always neutral there

[rugged latch]

does anyone know a good smart watch that i can make button on that can trigger automations or turn on or off devices

[glacial oracle]

there is a ha app on the play store i guess that could work on a watch with access to it

[hallow summit]

Does anyone have experience with, or recommendations for, relatively cheap but accurate temperature probes?

I have a reptile and I'm thinking about tracking temps and setting up a program to statistically map temp fluctuations in her terrarium throughout the day

[narrow garnet]

Hey, my friend is building a new house and he wanted to make it smart. In my home I use zigbee boxes bechind switches for light control and other zigbee devices such as presence sensors. Is there some kind of alternative where at least light switches would be hard wired so it wouldnt have to relay on zigbee? I heard something about smart circut brakers but normaly brakers are intaled per several light and i don't know if they have some kind of connector to connect to a switch? Do any of you have some recomendations for something that would have those features?

EU braker rails

[flint narwhal]

good afternoon

I wonder if anyone can help me:
I have a garage that is 8 floors bellow my appartment, I have internet in there by user a power line adapter, and i was wondering what is the best way to get a zigbee hub in there in order to get some sensors

[golden thorn]

There are ethernet coordinators available. Don't expect your zigbee devices to be able to communicate across 8 floors though.

[flint narwhal]

I'm trying to get one, but there are many options and and don't see anyone recommending a specific one

of course not, i do understand that i need a second zigbeee network

[golden thorn]

I just recently bought a SLZB-06. It hasn't arrived yet but I heard good things about it.

[flint narwhal]

but i also need it to report to HA and allow iterations with it

[flint narwhal]

and how are you goint to integrate with HA, via zigbee2mqtt?

ok, i'll gi it a go. for the price diference i was also seeing aqara m3

but integration seams a little...fragile

hit or miss

[golden thorn]

I'd pick something listed here depending on what you want to use:

• https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/guide/adapters/
• https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha/#known-working-zigbee-radio-modules
  But there's #zigbee-archived (also see pins there) if you want zigbee specific advice.

[stark shadow]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a weather device that I can install that will provide real time data for Rain, temp, Wind, Humidity, etc? I would highly prefer something that is powered and will not require battery changes. (PoE preferred, Solar ok, Battery changes nope)

[glacial oracle]

you could have a look at those ecowitt weatherstations and gateways/hubs

or similar

[patent river]

Someone in a different channel was talking about these a day or so back, just can't remember where
https://tempest.earth/tempest-home-weather-system/

[gloomy spoke]

#the-water-cooler message

[patent river]

Ah it was there, I couldn't find it by scrolling

[halcyon gull]

Has anyone ever seen a Zigbee (or similar) relay like the Sonoff zbmini but for multiple switches? My home is filled with 3 gang switches and I don't want to buy and shove 3 individual zbmini's behind each switch plate

Ignore me, I think I just stumbled onto these, which seem to be what I'm after:
https://moeshouse.com/products/zigbee-104c-interruptor

[hazy imp]

I have used senseCAP s1000 and sensor hub before, but no PoE. https://www.seeedstudio.com/SenseCAP-S1000-10-in-1-Compact-Weather-Station-p-5654.html

[glacial oracle]

1200$ and it doesnt even make the weather good

[tacit acorn]

Hi all, new to HA but moderately competent with gadgets. I used to be "good with computers" back when it was cool to overclock the Celeron 300a to 450, but I've been a filthy mac user for 15 years now and haven't kept up with PC tech.

We're building a house, already have most hardwiring done similar to @pliant forum 's guide. Cat6a throughout, house speakers wired back to network rack, hoping to finish up 4-wire for security this week.
Planning on a miniPC HA hub, Ubiquiti networking, Reolink cameras, Zigbee switches\misc.

For the Mini PC: I'm thinking about a Beelink N100, starting out with HAOS for simplicity then later building out containers for additional functionality such as media library & streaming. I read that true Intel NUCs have a faster internal bus, but I don't know if that will matter for our use case - at most, we'll have a couple music streams and a couple video streams. I think Reolink hardware can do plenty of binary sensors for AI people, pets, etc; so I don't think we'll need frigate.
What am I missing?

[slim lagoon]

The Beelink N100 should be fine for that with something like Proxmox on it.

[gray latch]

i would not use an n100 for both haos and streaming, and if you're ever considering frigate then make sure it has a spot for a tpu

i'd at least bump to the n305

you're building a house fresh, an extra hundo for the PC controller won't kill you.

[slim lagoon]

Didn't they discontinue the N305?

[tacit acorn]

In all my browsing, I think I saw one with dual ethernet ports, one 1gb and one 2.5gb, but I can't find it again

[gray latch]

beelink might have stopped doing one with that, but it's still a current intel chip

[tacit acorn]

Thanks, I'm trying to find the right balance. Don't want to drop a grand on something that doesn't need it, but also don't want to be underpowered from the start.

A rpi green would be "easy" but it's barely more for a proper computer. And my wife wants zoned music streaming someday

[gray latch]

n100 has 4 efficiency cores and an iGPU. n305 has 8 efficiency cores and an iGPU. neither is going to win any races, but both are more than a pi or green could ever do. Frigate and streaming both will use the iGPU if you don't have a TPU, and that won't make either of them very happy

in old terms, basically the n100 is an Atom and n305 is a Celeron. Both are just fine if you don't overload them. Since you're starting fresh and going big, drop a little extra on this part and you'll be happier in the long run

[tacit acorn]

Thank you!
Seems that BeeLink doesn't produce a N305 any more, but I've read OK things about Topton brand, and they're in stock on Aliexpress. N305, dual 2.5G ethernet

[gray latch]

you only really need 1xethernet and I doubt it would ever saturate even a gbe connection

[tacit acorn]

Thanks! My only reason for looking at the dual ethernet is that someone(?) had recommended a zigbee hub that plugs into ethernet instead of the blue USB dongle.

But I don't remember the reason for that, and I' can't imagine a scenario where zigbee/mqtt will need more bandwidth than usb.

[glacial oracle]

It's about noise mostly + more flexible locating

[slim lagoon]

You're talking about a lan coordinator and they don't need to be plugged into ethernet on your HA device. It gets plugged into your network/switch.

[glacial oracle]

(they also might require Poe depending on the model)

[tacit acorn]

Thanks, that makes sense.

[earnest charm]

Zooz combo dimmer and relay is pretty slick for bathroom use- dims lights and controls on/off for fan.
Only quirk so far is minimum brightness doesn't seem to work as intended but the single tap to X brightness, double tap to full brightness, and hold down to Y brightness cover most use cases. Threw a temp/humidity sensor in the bathroom to start gathering data to automate later.
old switchplate was bigger and stuck a bit- so paint touchup needed, ugh

[fringe crater]

what's wrong with the minimum brightness?
I use an automation for mine to set the turn on brightness to low every night, and turn it back on to full during the day, I like that

[earnest charm]

I'd like to to operate like the low end trim on Lutron Caseta where the configured minimum is now the 1% dimming value. To prevent low end flickering or a dead zone before the bulbs illuminate.

[thin cairn]

Hi does anyone know if you can connect a Sonoff THS-01 to a ESP32 through ESP home?

i have a bunch of ESP boards and would like to make a couple of Temp sensors, and the THS-01 is decently priced for a sensor.

[gray latch]

where are you finding topton brand for sale?

[gray latch]

i can find them on Ali, and this thing right here is SUPER tempting for me https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805855974956.html?

but...

that 1340p is 80% faster than my current 6800k based system and 1/40th the physical size. I have nvme drives and happen to have 64gb of ddr5 sodimms that got ordered by mistake, so the fact that it's barebones doesn't even bother me.

and it's not e-cores like the n100/n305, which is a big bonus.

[tacit acorn]

I got this one, with the N305, 32gb ram, 512mb NVMe

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806665188246.html

with sales and discounts, $287.92 shipped to Florida

[raven tapir]

hi is there around here a recommended air purifier without cloud service , that can be used in home assistant both for reading sensors and activating funcitonality ? the philips ones seems nice but there is a big warning about stability in the main github api client here : https://github.com/kongo09/philips-airpurifier-coap

[gray latch]

ah, ok. I've not ever spent this much on a thing from Ali, but that seems like a solid deal.

the only thing I'm not 100% sold on with this is that it's gbe instead of 2.5...

and that only matters because the rest of my home office gear is on 2.5

[tacit acorn]

I've bought a lot from Aliexpress and had good results with almost everything. Mostly electronics components such as switches, arduinos (knockoffs), addressable LED strips, simple LED strips and 5mm bulbs. Hand tools that I don't need to be high-end: chip brushes, scrapers, etc. Neodymium magnets. heat shrink and silicone-jacket wire in big spools.

Some knockoff legos too 🙂

The site is just a storefront for a zillion individual sellers, like eBay or Etsy. The few times I've had problems, the site's customer service made it right.

[gray latch]

yeah, that last part about it being a storefront is what has me hesitating

lol, like this one says "we will install oem cracked windows 11 for you" https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806095847812.html

[tacit acorn]

As long as you go in with reasonable expectations, you'll be fine. There are a few shady sellers, but you can see the individual sellers' history and reviews

lol, they tell you exactly what you're getting

[ancient carbon]

you guys know of any smart switches that can work with smart bulbs

[outer knot]

The pinned messages of this channel are:

• "docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LNONZXsLi-R9ejamD9Bd2Ufz..."
• "embeded content"

[winged knoll]

Second pinned message

[ancient carbon]

Smart switches to work with smart light bulbs
USA
$50
WIFI

[hard vale]

the white series of smart switches from innovelli is due to release any day now... they have a special mode that is meant to facilitate smart bulbs

but that's not out yet so!

your requirement that they're wifi complicates things. i would point you towards innovelli's red series if you could deal with zigbee

[gloomy spoke]

red == zwave, blue == zigbee, white == thread/matter

[hard vale]

ah right, anyways that means none of their options fit the requirements so what am i even talking about

it's the requirement that they connect via wifi and that they act as buttons to trigger smart bulbs that kinda kills you here

to come from the vendors' perspective, you don't want to force your customers to go get a home assistant installation
so to trigger smart bulbs without turning them off you would want a way for the switch to talk to the bulbs.
z-wave and zigbee give you ways to bind two devices together so that one controls the other.
both of these are different wireless specifications, not wifi
matter works with both wifi and thread
but device binding is so new to the spec that there's, like, one device that uses it. it's a smart button, not a light switch, and it runs on thread, not wifi
innovelli's white series is a light switch but it's like an year late at this point and it too will be thread-only

honestly, my personal solution is i got a zigbee coordinator stick and bought a bunch of those smart buttons from ikea because they're dirt cheap

[acoustic quest]

wow. I have two schlage encode pluses and they were terrible to install. the threading on the bolts that go through the door is abysmal and if you get it slightly off then you wreck the threads.
i just put an aqara u50 on my front door and it was like a dream. homekeys just work™️ and it has something going on inside that can figure out if its closed or not. going to get it integrated into HA next but it's awesome

aqara has some great shit rn. the FP2 is amazing (but I can't figure out a good way to mount it discreetly) and would solve all of my presence sensor dreams

i just put a Door and Window Sensor P2 on a bathroom door (which has matter support etc). Going to see if it's fast enough to use with my caseta dimmer/fan switches

i paired it with my apple tv 4k first and the lights take about 2 seconds to turn on. not sure where the lag is. i imageie a bunch is the apple tv -> lutron hub

[hard vale]

i just want to know why i don't even get a battery indicator for my u200 over matter

[acoustic quest]

😔

are there any lever locks that supoprt home key? i can't seem to find one

i guess i could drill a hole for a handle or something, but that would suck

[hazy imp]

lol, it tooo expansive yep, looked at the requirements we also can choose s500 v2.

[flat scarab]

Does anybody have any ZHA-compatible light/dimmer switches they'd recommend? I'm looking for ones with presence sensors, ideally

I was looking at Inovelli's dimmer + presence switches initially, but their Zigbee-compatible models aren't out yet

[flat scarab]

Honeywell's newer models of air purifiers connect via BLE. I also briefly looked into some B-Corp called Smart Air which sold air purifiers for smart homes, but I never found out what protocols they used, or whether or not a cloud service was required.

@acoustic quest I'm wondering whether or not you've considered using an electric strike plate as an alternative to a smart lock before? It's a bit more work to install and design, but decoupling your lock and smart home integration concerns gives you a lot more flexibility

[flat scarab]

By the way, I'm having a similar issue. I don't always have outlets near where I want the sensors mounted, and I also don't want to have to deal with routing power cables to those sensors. Right now, my solution is to look into 802.15.4-compatible options that are integrated with smart light bulb switches.

It would also be great if those switches acted as zigbee routers, since they're already connected to line voltage. Keeps me from having to spend more on smart bulbs with router functionality

[tender aurora]

i'm looking for a LED dimmer that can handle high loads. talking about up to 400W

any suggestions? and that can be remote controlled and preferably integrated into h-a

[modern raft]

I am also looking for a light fixture than I don't need a wall switch, like remote control. I plan to put closet in front of the switch. Does anyone recommend some? If possible using Matter over Thread =p

[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)

[modern raft]

I am in europe, budget can be flexible, I am using mostly matter over thread but wifi is acceptable, only feature I want is to have the receiver on the ceiling where the light bulb is, not on the wall

[gray latch]

They're shipping next month

[runic vigil]

Do you know cheaper (and if possible as good…) option than the Hue outside sensor in order to have a Zigbee outside light sensor ? I don't really need the motion and other sensors from the Hue and don't really want to pay 50/60 € for it. I'm in France.

[winged knoll]

If you can put it somewhere sheltered Xiaomi do (Aqara and Mijia) a really good lux sensor

[halcyon harbor]

Do not get the fp2 though, had to send that back as it just would not pair no matter what

[oak vortex]

Probably doesn't help you. I'm in europe, over zigbee / z2m. Most (if not all) smart bulbs "work" with smart switches. The problem is, once you have the bulb soft off (with the switch ON), the switch won't receive sufficient power (or current / tension, I'm not an electrician) to operate it's logical board. Which results in the switch becoming un-operable, especially if you intend to run it in decoupled mode vs relay switching.

The solution for me (Aqara H1, no neutral switches), was eventually to attach a condensator to the bulb / lamp. That fixes the issue when the switch is running in decoupled mode.

Also, I went through several bulbs while testing, and for me - the ones that behaved the best were Emos GoSmart. What I mean by that, is I wanted to run certain scenes via single/double click, where the brightness value would be reduced, along with color change. Other bulbs would stop giving back sufficient power to the switch as soon as you decreased the brightness, even by a little bit. The Emos ones were the ones that allowed for the brightness to go as low as 75% before crapping out.

In short, look for anti-flickering devices (really it's just a simple condensator)

And attach those to the bulb / lamp.

[gray latch]

I think you're addressing a different problem than he's asking about

smart switches for use with smart bulbs provide power 100% of the time, regardless of how switched, and are just paired with the bulbs to switch on/off

you're talking about the problem with no neutral wire

[oak vortex]

You are right

[gray latch]

and then after that the problem with dimmers and LED

all good info, of course.

[oak vortex]

I did not know the full extent of his circumstance, so I thought I'd share a bit from my experience as well. Might or might not help.

Protocol should not have anything to do with it (I think), Should not matter wifi over zigbee / zha / thread, etc

And even in the US, situations where there's no neutral are frequent.

[gray latch]

yeah, I'm in the US and have no neutral for about 2/3 of my switches

[oak vortex]

Also, do note that most (if not all) bulbs are also routers.

Not pertinent to wifi, ofc.

[gray latch]

the protocol matters for him, based on what he has coordinators for. I'm not sure if anyone makes a wifi smart bulb smart switch though. I've certainly never seen anything

and my bulbs are not routers, on purpose.

most of them are in table and floor lamps, which all have dumb switches that would be non-trivial to remove. Since turning them off that way drops them from the mesh, I bought Sengled bulbs that are end devices rather than anything that is a router

[runic vigil]

I'm using many Aqara devices inside, I did not thought about that option. Besides direct contact to rain, do they really handle outside temp and humidity ?

[gray latch]

they have published temp/humidity ranges

it's probably 0F-120F, give or take 10 on each side

[oak vortex]

Just thinking out loud, if you have cameras, could you not pickup on the light intensity from the cameras? (if they even provide that)

[native pilot]

Did you pair it to HomeKit then bring it over to HA with the HomeKit integration?

[native pilot]

$90?!

[gray latch]

i think the link someone posted here said $75

but it's a switch and a presence sensor. how much are those each?

[halcyon harbor]

no nothing worked

[runic vigil]

I'm using a FP2 inside Home Assistant without any issue since almost a year, so it can work.

[runic vigil]

Indeed, -10℃～+55℃ and 0 ~ 95%RH, no condensation for the P1, which is good enough for me in Britanny. So I may try that idea, thanks !

[halcyon harbor]

Yeah heard from multiple people that sometimes one works flawless and the other won't work whatsoever

Mine didn't

[boreal pivot]

Gents, I would like some guidance from the hive mind. Have HAos running on a CM4. For some wird reason I can't remember the password for my admin user. To reset it, * need to connect monitor and keyboard to the CM4 and use the CLI interface to run a command.
Here is my issue: for the life of me I can't make HA to detect my keyboard. I have a Zigbee dongle connected, so the usb ports are working. But keyboards, these do not work. Anyone got any ideas?

[glacial oracle]

Have you plugged in the keyboard and then restarted the system

[boreal pivot]

Yes, did that. No change. Also tried on usb 2.0 and 3.0 ports, still no joy

[glacial oracle]

Can we exclude the keyboard being defective?

If yes than that's pretty odd

#yellow-archived (if that's the device you are talking about) or #installation-archived may be a better place for guidance in that regard

[boreal pivot]

Yes, we can. Tried 2 wired ones and a wireless one

Alright, let me take that there

[urban abyss]

i'm looking into dimmable lights for my new home, i want to put zigbee modules for the lights, how do you usually control the dimming with these? is there a configurable long press to dim the light?

[gray latch]

do you want zigbee modules for the switch or for the light?

[humble parrot]

Hi
Intel NUC is good for HAOS ?
Model : NUC7CJYHN2
Intel Celeron J4005 (Dual-Core 2 GHz / 2.7 GHz - Cache 4 Mo)
DDR4 4Go

[gray latch]

does it have uefi?

[humble parrot]

i dont know

[winged knoll]

HAOS requires it

[urban abyss]

uhh i don't think i got that question. relay modules usually have the output for lights or whatever and can be controlled through zigbee, but they usually also have a switch/button input to comtrol the output phisically
i'm looking for a relay module that can also act as a dimmer for lights and is controllable via physical buttons, i tried looking online and it seems some of these can only turno on and off the light via the switch, not also dim it

[gray latch]

you said you wanted zigbee modules for the lights, which could be interpreted as you say here to mean smart relays but could also mean smart bulbs. I was clarifying. You just have to a) make sure the LED bulbs are dimmable and b) that you buy a smart dimmer. if you don't have a neutral, you probably have to get an inovelli. if you do, then there are several vendors

they generally work the same as dumb dimmers, which is to say that you hold down the button to go up or down

[urban abyss]

yeah i'm looking for a module, i'm going to have neutral so yeah

[urban abyss]

informations about that are conflicting for some aliexpress models i saw, can you suggest a brand or model that's known good?

[gray latch]

if you don't want to replace the switch, you might not be able to manage dimming from the wall switch

i have zero experience with that. maybe try the zigbee channel if that's the route you're going, but I don't know if anyone else has experience with the non-switch relay modules or not

[urban abyss]

i have tgo install everything from the ground up, i'm in the process of building my house 🙂
but i prefer to have discreet in wall modules and just use dumb switches so that i can have everything look the same

[gray latch]

my smart switches look very close to exactly the same as the dumb switches next to them

[urban abyss]

if everything goes accorging to plan i'll have this type of switches, so i think it's gonna be hard to find something that matches them

[gray latch]

seriously though, #zigbee-archived

[urban abyss]

thanks, i'll head there

[native pilot]

I also am not having issues. LOTS of people are not having issues.

[rustic temple]

With ecobee seemingly being locked down by Apple, what is the next-best open thermostat? Honeywell?

[gloomy spoke]

What do you mean by "locked down"? Connecting through HomeKit is a fine way to integrate Ecobee with HA

it doesn't require any Apple equipment and you lose almost nothing

[candid wigeon]

so i hear zwave is better then zigbee?

Anyone got any decent lighting intergrations? I'm looking to move all lights/swithes

[gloomy spoke]

you heard that from a biased source

they're both fine

selection depends on where you live

[gloomy elbow]

Step 1: define your requirements. E.g. "local control", "total budget XXX", "needs warm white to cool white" , "must be at least X lumens", "need bulbs with AB fitting for A, B, and C"...
Step 2: Look at what fits into those requirements, and the protocols they use.
Step 3: If you find something TuYa/SmartLife/one of the offshoots, go back to 2.

[rustic temple]

Perhaps I’m being misled by internet comments then. Is the full functionality available through the HomeKit protocol while still being 100% local? That’d be great news if yes

[gloomy spoke]

just about everything

more was added a few months ago

[rustic temple]

Is there an authoritative reference for this?

[gloomy spoke]

I don't use the cloud API anymore

[rustic temple]

So I can find out what specifically is available or not?

Perhaps I’ll give it a try, buying from somewhere with a good return policy

[gloomy spoke]

I don't see one, but I think it exposes whatever Homekit allows (which expands from time to time)

I'm not missing anything

[candid wigeon]

I mean the main swing for me was zwave is longer range and better connection?

[gloomy spoke]

it's neither

[candid wigeon]

i was thinking for normal bulbs with a zwave switch lol

[gloomy spoke]

these are just vague talking points

[candid wigeon]

hmmmm ok so your recommendation is not to pay any attention and just get whatever works for me better?

[gloomy spoke]

of course, always

[candid wigeon]

perfeccto!

[gloomy spoke]

pick one that has the device selection you want in your location

along with the pricepoint for devices

[rustic temple]

OK cool, thanks

[hallow summit]

Has anyone had any experience hooking up one of the Amazon Basics Dimmable Switches to HA?

I bought one with the impression that integration was simple and it wouldn't require Alexa

[gloomy spoke]

It's not at all a sure thing that Wifi/cloud devices will integrate with anything other than what they advertise

[hallow summit]

I think the issue is that I read elsewhere that it was.

But it's possible that with my dozens of tabs open with similar products across different brands, I might've just mistaken something that was for another brand

[raven tapir]

thanks and they seems cheaper, i was looking at philips 2729/10 but it is like 350 euro , seem to expensive

[crystal fossil]

Not sure if it's the right place to ask...
I've been using HA for years but only recently started updating my installation more regularly.. I'm running HAOS on a sd card in a rpi4 and already I've gone through 4 cards... they seem to completely slow down the HA some days before crapping out..
it's such a hassle I don't want to hear about using microsd card anymore...
What's the next power efficient option that can use a msata or nvme drive? (no USB please, I don't trust drives running on USB for a device that needs to be available 24/7)
Is it only a rpi5 with nvme HAT that can work reliably?
I find the HA green a bit too basic and yellow a bit expensive but if no other options I may go for the yellow

[glacial oracle]

A mini pc

Or anything else that's in a sff

[rustic temple]

there are various little fanless, low-wattage celeron mini pcs that are popular for routers that would probably work well here

search for "N5015" on aliexpress for a sampling

[glacial oracle]

We generally recommend n100 equipped systems for their efficiency

But similar will do just as fine

[rustic temple]

I've had good luck with the "topton" brand for other purposes (firewall, low-end jellyfin server)

[crystal fossil]

Thanks guys.. So far the N100 seem interesting. Likely using more power than the rpi4 but as long as it's sub 10W I can stomach it.
The conundrum is it's similar in price to a Yellow with a rpi cm4 4GB.. which would use less power I assume
Finally, aren't there more addons for ARM than x86?

[glacial oracle]

Not that I would be aware off

[crystal fossil]

You are referring to the addon question right?

[glacial oracle]

Yes

Add-ons are simply preconfigured docker images of different software

As those usually come out of the x86 realm that's usually where they are available at first

Realistically you shouldn't really run into a situation where stuff doesn't work anymore (not really common)

[gray latch]

the n100 is a LOT more capable than the Yellow for about the same price.

[crystal fossil]

ok, seems like topton/cwwk are popular board brands that can be obtained on aliexpress.. might look into these considering a rpi5+nvme HAT would be a similar price

[tacit burrow]

Or second hand Lenovo thinkcentre or equivalent

[tidal finch]

came here to ask opinion on n100. luckily managed to scroll up a little before I finished my question

looks like it boils down to n100 or yellow for ~$200, rpi or green for ~$100

[golden thorn]

Don't forget about used PCs from eBay that also fit into the < 100$ bracket.

[sonic marten]

Hi, I'm looking into what would be the best way to integrate light switches with smart relays into home assistant. I have never done this and do not know which switches would be good for this.
The requirements for the switches are:

1. I can put them behind the currently installed light switches.
2. No Vendor Lock
3. Easy to integrate into Home Assistant (for a Programmer)
4. It needs to be Wireless

I'm thankful for any advice for the Hardware.

[glacial oracle]

With those specifications any available ones apply

Which country are you located in? which protocol would you prefer? is there even enough space inside the wall? with or without neutral wire?

[sonic marten]

I'm located in germany.
It would be nice to have the neutral wire.
I do not care about the protocol but thought about mqtt ore something else that goes over wifi.

[glacial oracle]

So you have a neutral wire on the switches or no? How much space is behind them

Plenty of gear will not fit into standard German type sockets depending on the switch depth

If you want it to be wifi then Shelly would be the way to go

Their mini line may be your best bet I suppose

[sonic marten]

https://tenor.com/view/love-hearts-cute-kawaii-pufflu-gif-9979211867500472341

They look great for what I plan to do 🙂
Thank you

[vestal linden]

hello, I ve install this device last week: https://shop.tynet.eu/en/rs485-bridge-diy-hoermann-mqtt-adapter-esp32-s3-dev-board
because it’s a esp32 I hear I can use it as a bluetooth proxy but I don’t understand how to do it, any Idea ? will would like to get info from an eve VOC captor.

[winged knoll]

Well... it needs the right ESPHome firmware - is that what's on it?

https://esphome.io/components/bluetooth_proxy.html

[vestal linden]

I don’t know :/

do you know something I can add to my nas to integrate this device : https://amzn.eu/d/9SxZv7x

I don’t have any other thread product at home so I m more interested with the ble connection

[winged knoll]

The #bluetooth-archived channel can help with Bluetooth devices, but you're likely to have far more luck biting the bullet and embracing #thread-archived

[vestal linden]

thanks

[fervent ocean]

I live in Ireland and I was thinking to buy a Nuki 4 pro. Did they finally release anything for the pull up handles typically installed in Ireland and the UK?

Also.. I have a thumbturn inside, will it work with it instead of the key?

[winged knoll]

https://www.ultion-lock.co.uk/ultion-nuki/

[fervent ocean]

I see in their FAQ that you still need to lift the handle, what's the difference with the regular Nuki then?

[gloomy elbow]

That's called a multipoint lock.

In general, you won't find anything that doesn't require you to lift the handle because the force required to do so would be much too demanding for a battery powered device. Unless you want something like a car battery wired to your door.

I got the Yale Conexis myself with the #zwave-archived modules and those are great.

[fervent ocean]

I was thinking to try to do a DIY project for that if I couldn't find anything, I just thought that with a gear system could do the job 😦

but then what's the point of ultion claiming it's specifically designed for multi point? from my understanding it would work the same way with just a Nuki without the specific handle, right?

[fervent ocean]

Unfortunately I don't have zwave and I'd like to avoid having to buy a dongle just for the lock

[warm totem]

Can anyone help me understand why the Tapo L530E is compatible with HA but the L530B is not? The only difference I can find is that E is for Edison fittings and B is for Bayonet fittings. Sorry if dumb question. Very new to home automation

[gloomy elbow]

There are other modules. But zwave is a solid standard, and if you got the stick that opens your system up to other hardware down the line. For me I got it for one lock, and now I have 3 locks and a doorbell running through it.

[gray latch]

I'd say you're in for 150-175 if you go with the 8gb pi5 or maybe 120 if you go with the pi4. you don't want to run off an SD card, so you need an SSD or nvme drive and a usb adapter with it's own power or an nvme hat, plus a case and probably a fan and the special power adapter

[tidal finch]

I think that's the argument for a nuc - better storage/reliability long term. so the cost of the base pi goes up. though I've also heard some nucs run hot and need things like external cooling

so you could spend less for the pi with some future/potential issue or spend more for the strong device from the start

[gray latch]

i think there are a lot of great reasons to buy and play with raspberry pi devices, but I don't think it's great for this

a USFF or SFF 6th and 7th gen intel core i series processor system should be under a hundred bucks with 8gb and no hard drive these days, what with Windows 11 not running on them.

that'll be at least as powerful as the rpi for, might have an m2 pcie slot for a TPU, and can be expanded to 16 or 32gb of RAM if you want to try running more than just HA via virtualization or containers

[tidal finch]

I've never wanted a media server, would want addons, so wouldn't put HA in a docker container. I think my choice is either keep it simple with green or start down the slippery slip of overspending for a device I can maybe find another use for

that said, I don't have a windows system at home right now

[gray latch]

it's easy to argue that you don't really need to do those things, but you'll probably keep it for 4-5 years and it's not considerably more expensive up front

[tidal finch]

not a working one anyway

[gray latch]

in fact, I think it's cheaper up front

i guess that depends where in the world you are

[tidal finch]

https://tenor.com/view/viralhog-gun-fire-murica-flag-america-gif-12183553

[gray latch]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/186505066926

[tidal finch]

wow super cheap

[gray latch]

that one might not be a great choice actually

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285403027871 this one though

[tidal finch]

having the OS installed is appealing so I don't have to deal with that

[gray latch]

don't use Windows for home assistant.

[tidal finch]

only one of us have the pirate icon

need to wipe it for linux?

[gray latch]

i had an eye injury and my friend drew the hat on my photo 🙂

need to wipe it for HAOS

[tidal finch]

oh, right, HA has its own OS

if I'm putting it in a docker container, is that necessary or is it actually the OS in the container?

though I know that had downsides with addons

[gray latch]

if you put it in a docker container, you don't get addons

you can put it in a VM and still get addons, but don't run that VM under windows

[tidal finch]

then if I have a system strong enough to do more than HA, how am I doing both concurrently?

[gray latch]

well, you can install proxmox or some other linux based thing as a hypervisor to do VMs

or you can handle those other things as add-ons or via the docker add-on

just starting out, I'd suggest running it on the "Bare metal", and if you decide you want more later then you can take a backup and restore it in a VM

[tidal finch]

my experience is old and extends as far as dual booting. I imagine proxmox lets me run VMs

[gray latch]

proxmox is a VM hypervisor, yes

[tidal finch]

I should really rip open my old system and see what components I can salvage

[gray latch]

These are just my preferences

[tidal finch]

all of my diy and HA experience is a decade old. I knew how to do it but now I feel like I should start with easy and build myself back up

[winged knoll]

Proxmox is good for when you want to run multiple OSs on the hardware

Of course, if you don't feel the need for add-ons, just go with Debian + Docker

[tidal finch]

just watched a video saying supervised is "for nerds that think that python is a decent programming language"

[winged knoll]

Supervised != HAOS

HAOS is good
Supervised is a clusterfuck

[gray latch]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/196440875193 this might not be a terrible choice. not really upgradeable, but it does have everything you'd need except radios right to start

supervised is for nobody.

[tidal finch]

he also says addons aren't needed. sounds like fighting words. doesn't go into detail though

[gray latch]

he who?

i'd say that addons aren't necessarily needed, but they do add some nice features

[winged knoll]

Add-ons are just one way of installing software

HAOS makes it easy, because that's the only way

If you're comfortable with Docker you don't need add-ons

[gray latch]

if you're comfortable with docker, then you're just handling the add-ons more manually

it's good to talk about them separately for vocabulary reasons

[winged knoll]

I've been using HA for nearly 8 years now, with no add-ons. Never felt I was missing out.

[gray latch]

but you can read guides that talk about add-ons and think "I can just do that with Docker!"

[tidal finch]

wait, that was the next video after it ended

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i72K1wyuTfg&list=PL4ed4sZb-R_8dJmakzfBywx1zL9HrFEOy

extra steps for the addons doesn't seem like it scales well. I guess it depends how often you need to add those

[winged knoll]

Entirely personal preference really, both choices are valid and sane

[tidal finch]

definitely analysis paralysis for me. I'll have to dive in. but it sounds like one way or another, I'll start with a mini pc instead of rpi or green, since there aren't huge downsides and there's some level of futureproofing

[winged knoll]

Sound choice

For HAOS vs Docker, you can easily go Docker->HAOS, so if you're at home with Docker start there

Otherwise, go HAOS

[blazing falcon]

I used this guide a few weeks ago to stand up my first Home Assistant setup. It's pretty detailed and covers nearly everything to stand up a mini PC running a hypervisor, with a home assistant VM, and a docker VM running containers for Zigbee and Zwave integration. https://youtu.be/BrrAPla7q8o?si=vu2aHi-RcSbTiTjd

[tacit acorn]

Security panel for hardwire sensors & monitoring

[brazen silo]

https://www.amazon.com/Beelink-Desktop-Computer-Support-Ethernet/dp/B0BVLPCDVW/ Are there other/better mini pcs that are also fanless?

US, low-ish budget (experiementing with IoT), just needs to run HA well

[cold moon]

i'd either do this one https://www.amazon.com/Beelink-Pro-Desktop-Computer-1000Mbps/dp/B0C89TQ1YF or used mini pcs on ebay if you want < $100

[slim lagoon]

SHS reads my mind... again

[cold moon]

it's just too easy to repeat

[slim lagoon]

nods

true true...

[brazen silo]

So that I understand, why that one and not the one I linked?

N95 vs N100?

[cold moon]

yeah the n100 is what we usually recommend

[brazen silo]

https://www.amazon.com/Beelink-Desktop-Computer-Support-Ethernet/dp/B0CRKD4YQL The 8G RAM, 256MB drive version should work, right? Just to save 50 bucks or so

[cold moon]

It’s $150 vs $169 with a $10 coupon taking it down to $160

I figured you’d rather spend $10 more and double the ram so I just linked that one

[brazen silo]

yeah i'm sorry. the one you linked was the larger one for $199. true, I could just grab the bigger one for $160 on the other page

wasn't paying attention

[lyric mortar]

My two cents: this may be an unpopular or even objectively wrong viewpoint, but I personally found the rigamarole of installing Linux and Proxmox and setting up a VM to install HAOS in so much additional work / frustration, it impeded my will to set up and learn HA ages. Again, this is just my personal experience, and I may be particularly dumb (probably am), but as a Linux novice, I found so much of what I was spending time on was beating my head against the Linux / Proxmox wall that I never really enjoyed or got to fully experience working with HA. It was only when I said "screw it" and bought a HA Yellow box, which allowed me to focus on HA work, that I fell in love with this system and started fully committing to it. I know that others' experiences may vary, and if I had it do over again, I might even go the VM route (I've got two mini PCs sitting unused here). And, Linux doesn't have to be that intimidating, I'm sure. But, if you're starting from nothing and find the work required to get Linux and Proxmox working on your machine to be particularly onerous, and money is no object, just buy a Yellow and try it out ...

[cold moon]

Haos bare metal is fine if you feel that way but downgrading to a yellow hardware doesn’t make sense

[brazen silo]

Lastly, this seems like a pretty beefy mini PC. Does anyone see an issue with virtualizing and running other network services off of it? HA + Pihole + ??

[cold moon]

No that’s a great option that many people do

[brazen silo]

Thanks very much for the help today. I have some new toys coming 🙂

[cold moon]

https://www.derekseaman.com/2023/10/home-assistant-proxmox-ve-8-0-quick-start-guide-2.html they follow this guide then either learn and use it for other stuff or just use it for home assistant

[cold moon]

https://helper-scripts.com these are popular scripts to get started with proxmox and test out some new things with 1liner scripts. for example, after you get done setting up haos following the guide, you can run ```bash -c "$(wget -qLO - https://github.com/tteck/Proxmox/raw/main/ct/pihole.sh)"

generally speaking you should learn more before just yoloing and standing a bunch of stuff up, but to play with it's a great resource

[brazen silo]

very nice

I can see myself needing to order a new PoE switch soon, too

Not necessarily a bad thing. I'm not super fond of the one I have

[cold moon]

Join the silver side

[brazen silo]

I'm a mikrotik junkie

[cold moon]

Too much cli

[brazen silo]

You can Winbox

Winbox is hands down the best router management GUI that I've ever seen

i hardly ever go cli

But..getting off topic. Thanks again and have a great evening ( / day 😛 )

[solid meadow]

hello, just a quick question, would a mini pc with 8gb ddr3 and 128gb ssd be good for running home assistant properly?

[cold moon]

if you already have it sure

or if it's cheap enough to justify buying something with ddr3 (old and inefficient)

[solid meadow]

no i find this pc for 53$

[oak vortex]

that's fine, but is it power efficient, or noisy?

both things you may care about in the near future

[gray latch]

if it has UEFI

[oak vortex]

if it's usff, it should have uefi

unless it's very old

[gray latch]

it's worth mentioning

especially since the previous machine he tried did not

[spare vigil]

What would you recommend for lamps, like power outlets or whatever or smart lamps? I'm thinking power outlets, or whatever they are called, what are cheaper brand ones?

Not sure if this is the right channel

[gloomy elbow]

If you don't want dimming, then any decent smart switch will be fine. I'm partial to IKEA which is #zigbee-archived and very affordable. They're not the smallest or prettiest, but they work well and you can just get your own Zigbee dongle and skip their hub.

[silent viper]

Ja c x x

[edgy bolt]

I'm looking for modern (as in post-store) instructions for enabling ssh access to the ha os on rasp pi.

[gray latch]

post-store?

[edgy bolt]

as in there is no store now.

so anything online does not help

[gray latch]

there's still an add-ons "store" and a hacs store

[edgy bolt]

hacs search bar finds nothing for 'ssh' nor 'terminal'

and ha os does not have a store

[gray latch]

this is from my add-ons (not HACS)

settings > Add-ons

[edgy bolt]

ahh, sorry. got lost somewhere. found it. thank you.

[gray latch]

np

[orchid merlin]

Can anyone suggest an affordable range of smart switches with a single gang 3switched light switch for the UK? Looking Aqara they don’t do anything for the UK more than 1gang 2way

[spare vigil]

Hmm, $32 for 1? 👀

[flat scarab]

Do you have any protocol requirements (Wi-Fi/BLE/Zigbee/Thread/etc?)

[earnest charm]

Huzzah, after reporting my issue to Zooz they're going to release a firmware update to fix the minimum brightness configuration issue! Not bad!

[cold moon]

Us nerds in #zwave-archived would use that info better

[orchid merlin]

I’m starting anew so best future proof option with a home assistant yellow

[winged knoll]

I'd hardly call lthe Yellow the "best future proof" option

It's a decent enough starter platform, maybe

[orchid merlin]

Ooh please help then. I’m a novice - only dabbled off the shelf stuff

[winged knoll]

Also, today's awesome Zigbee coordinator is next year's haz-been

Buy a second hand small form factor PC - old HP/Dell/etc

[orchid merlin]

Ah flash it with Linux and load the home assistant on it?

[winged knoll]

Then buy whatever radios you need - Zigbee, Thread, etc, but only when you need them

Well, flash with HAOS probably

[orchid merlin]

Ah okay didn’t realise it was an os - not looked that far

[winged knoll]

https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/#install-home-assistant-on-x86-64-machines

[orchid merlin]

Putting the radios in the loft space of a 2 story house won’t be a problem right?

[winged knoll]

You can get network connected Zigbee coordinators

[flat scarab]

@winged knoll I'm still getting my zigbee mesh built out, but as I understand it, one of the benefits of zigbee over other thread/z-wave is its mesh networking capabilities.

@orchid merlin many zigbee devices that are powered by line voltage function as routers, which can improve the range and reliability of your zigbee-connected devices.

[winged knoll]

No

[flat scarab]

You would only use multiple coordinators if you wanted to split your devices across multiple networks

[winged knoll]

All three are mesh networks

Z-Wave: Expensive but awesome
Zigbee: Cheap, and sometimes frustrating. Don't by Tuya or Sonoff
Thread: The new hotness. Try again next year 😛

[flat scarab]

Thanks for clarifying, @winged knoll . I would imagine that for zigbee, specifically, it would probably be easier to use multiple routers (light switches, power strips, etc) rather than set up multiple networks. Though I guess if there were enough devices, multiple coordinators could reduce interference by using a separate channel for each?

[winged knoll]

Not sure how you think that'll reduce interference

Also

[outer knot]

@flat scarab Discord isn't like IRC, you don't have to tag people on every response. Keep in mind that every time you tag somebody, they get a notification ping. That can very quickly become annoying and people may block you.
When using Discord's Reply feature it defaults to pinging the person you reply to, click @ ON to @ OFF to stop this - on the right side of the compose bar.

[slim lagoon]

There's no reason for multiple coordinators unless you are planning on having more than 100 mains-powered devices.

[winged knoll]

One mesh is good, at least until you hit >100 devices at which point your coordinator choice matters

MGM24 based coordinators are good past 300 devices

TI coordinators start having problems between 100 and 150 usually

Old CC253x coordinators will have died before you reached 100

[flat scarab]

@slim lagoon makes sense. I may have misinterpreted @winged knoll 's mention of network-connected coordinators to mean that he was suggesting using more than one coordinator in lieu of routers.

[slim lagoon]

Nope. Coordinator > Routers > End Devices.

[winged knoll]

And the point is that you can put the coordinator somewhere other than the attic

[slim lagoon]

lol putting a coordinator in my attic would melt it during summer.

[cold moon]

actively cooled esp32 incoming

[flat scarab]

Make one of your end devices regulate an LN2 drip to the coordinator :p

[short trout]

I'm looking for IR and RF rs485 transmitters that works with HA any recommendations? USA Based

[orchid merlin]

Also any suggestions on zigbee light switches then? Looking for anything 1gang 3way

[slim lagoon]

Depends on where you are in the world 🙂

[orchid merlin]

Uk

Forgot to put that in. 😂

All have neutral wires to as I just had a rewire

[slim lagoon]

No worries. So, Aqara switches are really good. Innovelli ones are as well.

[orchid merlin]

Kk

[frozen basin]

Anyone ever try making a light bulb? I’m looking for a globe shaped Edison bulb that is zigbee enabled and RGB controllable. This criteria is really specific so I was wondering if anyone has ever made their own bulb.

I tried sticking some LED strip lights into a hollowed out bulb but it doesn’t give out that much radiance.

[glacial oracle]

Ledvanced has somethat are Wifi, and if I recall Paulmann has some that are Zigbee

But they are decorative lights in the first place so they won't actually produce a whole lot of brightness

[frozen basin]

These are really nice and I appreciate the info. But also making my own bulb seems like a fun thing to do. All the guides online I’ve found just deal with creating a smart power supply to turn a dumb bulb off and on.

[glacial oracle]

Oh so you are looking for an empty bulb but with all the parts?

[native pilot]

Are you hoping it will screw into a fixture?

[glacial oracle]

Best bet then is to buy a bulb you like to empty out and buy bulb you don't like which provides the electronics and then somehow figure out a replacement filament that works

[native pilot]

Because you could make a complete lamp with led strips arranged in a helix?

[glacial oracle]

They tend to not be bright enough

[cold moon]

#hardware-archived message relevant conversation

[native pilot]

This is sort of what I was picturing, but controlled with wled. https://iliketomakestuff.com/family-treasure/

[glacial oracle]

That's not really an "edison bulb" kinda contraption

[native pilot]

I understand

[frozen basin]

That is a good idea. I already have the bulb I like, I wonder if the tradfri bulbs can be broken into without destroying the LED part of it

[native pilot]

But could be closer with a cob style strip. I don’t think he’s ever going to get a bright bulb in the bulb form factor though

[glacial oracle]

They should look a lot like the thing shs just mentioned so it's not too dangerous to cut

Just would be a bit of a search to figure out an adapter for a different glass bulb

Or a 3d printing task

[frozen basin]

I’m going to try this. The luminance isn’t a big deal. The fairy lights that I stuck into the hollowed out bulb were just pretty bad.

[glacial oracle]

They sometimes go under the name of being "spotless"

[frozen basin]

Thank you both

[native pilot]

Sure, looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[glacial oracle]

Consider letting us know in #diy-archived

[stoic lily]

Hey so I have a ultraloq, the wifi version with the bridge, not the zwave one. And I was wondering how I could connect it to home assistant

I know it'll be somewhat ass but that's ok

[winged knoll]

Hey so I have a ultraloq, the wifi

[hexed galleon]

I am new working with modbus

Planning to connect 7 hvacs , how should I leave each dip switch for each hvac

The 4-8

[crystal fossil]

I just realised I had a mini PC with a J1900 and it seems on par with rpi4 in processing power... it's pulling 8W from the wall which I guess will do for now.
Question though: Is it possible to use a tool like powertop or something else to further reduce the power draw?

[slim lagoon]

If you are running HAOS in a VM on the PC (or docker container), then you can run powertop. But, if you are running HAOS bare metal, then no. Plus, the savings with powertop isn't going to net you very much. You might save at most 1W of power, but I'd be surprised if you get that.

[glacial oracle]

Can confirm, the difference is close to 0 on those kinda systems

[crystal fossil]

Thank you! @slim lagoon I'm indeed running bare-metal for now. Did not want to add any overhead to such a weak system
@glacial oracle Are you implying you were able to run powertop while HAOS was running bare metal?

[golden thorn]

Try powertop --auto-tune. It can often save more than 1W in my experience. 8W is already relatively low though. Also make sure to check ASPM and similar settings in the UEFI: #general-archived message

[glacial oracle]

No I've tried plain Debian and Proxmox

The difference is somewhere in the realm where you could spin down the fans and settle for higher temperatures instead

Those kinds of cpus are tweaked to reach very low power states when near idle, it doesn't do a whole lot

Id rather check the selected bios profile and tweak the boosting behavior a little to where it does take more of the edge out for certain workloads. Is especially applicable for virtualization without core pinning to avoid funky shuffling

[worthy crater]

Is it wise to pick WiFi presence sensors instead of Zigbee? I've heard issues about the Zigbee network being flooded, and I see the FP2 is WiFi only

[slim lagoon]

Personally, the FP2 is kinda crap (imho). There are MUCH better options available. You could go with Zigbee (limptech, Moes, all rebranded Tuya devices, but kinda decent-ish). Or go with something like an Apollo MTR-1 (my personal preference), EverythingPresence-1 or a Skreek. They are all Wifi and built off ESPHome.

[native pilot]

hurtful

[slim lagoon]

lol which part?

[native pilot]

The FP2, it's not perfect, but I like it. I really really think it just has problems in rooms with a ton of shiny surfaces (which I don't have). BUT, it's hard to justify the price when the apollo units exist.

[slim lagoon]

Exactly. I really wanted to like the FP2. But the ghosting and other factors (cloud reliance) just turned me off on it. Plus, the MTR-1 is so much nicer and tuneable. Plus the price point can't be argued.

[cold moon]

yeah ultimately the fp2 has been a disappointment and given the mtr-1's ability to do what the aqara fp2 was sold as from day 1 at 1/3 of the cost with fully open source fw and no chinese app it's an easy choice imo (disclaimer i get paid by the people who make the mtr-1)

[cold moon]

^ re: fp2 vs mtr-1

[steep hinge]

anyone know where i can get the full entities of my mmwave motion sensor from my ZHA integration. it does not have the full specs like my kids motion sensors?

[cold moon]

maybe it has events not entities

[steep hinge]

I purchased it here: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806004311568.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.22.79eb1802aVLaBf&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa

[cold moon]

btw i would not use that

tuya mmwave zigbee sensors are known to cause issues on a mesh

[steep hinge]

aww it was the only one thats batteyr powered that does not req a usb

[cold moon]

is what it is man

i'm not sure if this is the exact model but i was told by the ZHA maintainer (main developer) that they send 3x packets a second really inhibiting the mesh's ability to work

[slim lagoon]

That battery powered Tuya mmWave sensor is crap. Dodgy readings and sometimes just flat out wrong. But, it's a Tuya device, so can't say I'm surprised.

[steep hinge]

dang now i regret buying it

[steep hinge]

may i ask what the most reliable one you recommend?

[slim lagoon]

That's common with Tuya devices, unfortunately.

[slim lagoon]

#hardware-archived message

The Apollo MTR-1 is my personal choice. Works fantastic. If you don't need multi-target tracking, the MSR-2 is my other choice. HIGHLY configurable and very reliable.

https://apolloautomation.com/

Damn good prices too (unless you start adding the CO2 sensors in, then it gets a little pricey)

[cold moon]

the msr-2 is easier to configure imo

depends what you are doing with it

i just wrote this up for a guy in a support ticket one min

[native pilot]

I thought I read that Apollo was working on a battery powered mmWave sensor no?

[cold moon]

The MSR-2 and MTR-1 are both mmwave radar sensors. The msr-2 is very useful in scenarios where you want to detect motion including whenever there is "no motion" but a person present. Seen in the image below, you are able to easily edit these zones and then use them in home assistant automations. I use one to detect if i am at top/middle/bottom of stairs to then have an led strip react based on starting up and going down or starting down and going up.One example use case for MSR-2 (image 1) would be to use one to detect if someone is in the shower (the sensor can see through walls and shower curtains) or if the person is sitting on the toilet (but very still where a normal motion sensor would change to clear).

The MTR-1 (image 2) is a more advanced mmwave radar sensor where it can detect up to three people in up to three zones. This is useful in scenarios where you want to detect if multiple people are present to automate on, such as in a living room to detect if someone is sitting down at the couch. Another use case would be to detect if you were in bed, sitting at desk, or standing by closet in a room. These can be used for very very advanced automations or simple things like just turning the lights on automatically! I would suggest the MTR-1 if you feel like tinkering more and the MSR-1 if you want an easier to configure device

also this mounting option for msr-2 is pretty nice, especially for the scenario above with bathroom (outlets often face the shower/shitter)

[slim lagoon]

I don't know about that... But I DO know they are working on a ultrasonic sensor which I really, really, really, really want and need. Because I can't be assed to build my own. lol

[native pilot]

It may have just been a question on their product interest survey now that I think about it

[cold moon]

plant sensor*

[native pilot]

Aaaah got it

[cold moon]

i dont think there's a prototype yet or i dont have access to any info on it yet if so

[native pilot]

What’s the use case for this?

[cold moon]

parking a car

[slim lagoon]

I saw this and pinged Jordan about it (with my "opinions") hahaha https://apolloautomation.com/products/pa-1-garage-parking-assistant

[native pilot]

Oh! That’s awesome.

[gray latch]

why would you want a co2 sensor?

[slim lagoon]

Water levels primarily. I have aquariums with ATOs and also a RO/DI resivoir that I want to automate as well.

[slim lagoon]

I mean, high CO2 is bad... sooooo?

[native pilot]

I can finally take down my extensive tennis ball + pulley system for parking

[cold moon]

i wont tell him you called him the wrong name :x

[native pilot]

Oh that’s really cool too. Would be great for tracking water levels in a rain barrel by the sounds of it.

[slim lagoon]

I mean, the parking sensor DOES already exist in various forms... but, hardly anyone sells a quality ultrasonic sensor built on ESPHome.

[gray latch]

a CO detector would be great.

[slim lagoon]

Oh hell... did I do that again?!

I swear I've done that like 5 times now... Ugh, I feel horrible now.

[cold moon]

https://tenor.com/X9GC.gif

[slim lagoon]

My first alert smoke detectors do CO2... but they are ZWave and pretty much the only reason I even have ZWave.

FML... well, thanks for keeping me honest @cold moon 😉

[gray latch]

my first alert smoke detectors do CO... and are most of the reason I have zwave

[cold moon]

yeah that's CO not CO2

it's so easy to mix them i do it

[slim lagoon]

Mostly, I really want it for my RO/DI system. I always start making water and then forget it's running for like 2 days and kill my filters and overflows the resivoir. Fun times.

Huh... I always thought it was CO2... Eh, whatever it iis, supposedly it's bad.

[cold moon]

the ability to have a tiny sensor on the wall tell you if your room is too stagnant and needs airflow or fresh air to limit headaches etc is really useful

[gray latch]

CO is very bad and you need detectors for it

[cold moon]

CO = the one in smoke detectors or in the air-1, CO2 can be added to all apollo products

[gray latch]

i don't need a sensor to tell me that the air is stagnant, I can tell when I walk in

[cold moon]

you can smell CO2 parts per million?

or is it more of a 6th sense?

[slim lagoon]

Yeah, I don't think I need it. Ceiling fans in every room constantly on.

[gray latch]

I didn't say I could detect co2

stagnant air feels stagnant.

[cold moon]

well you replied to my CO2 graph and words

[gray latch]

I keep the hvac fan running

i replied to you saying that you had a tiny sensor to tell you when a room is stagnant

[slim lagoon]

Actually... duh, I have 5 CO2 detectors in the house right now I forgot about. The Ikea one, an Aqara one and 3 smart air purifiers.

(I think the Ikea one does CO2. I know it does VOC)

[gray latch]

VOC is definitely worth detecting too

not that I am doing that, but it sounds good

i have a couple of aqi sensors in a box waiting for me to solder them up to an esp

[slim lagoon]

Ok, so 4. The Ikea one does PM2.5 and VOC:

[terse pebble]

Is that via Z2M? Or the hacky ZHA/ZHA Tools way?

The VOC index is not really helpful. It doesn't show a concentration, but a deviation from the average (100 is the average VOC concentration).

[native pilot]

One this is for sure, the hardware channel on this server has severely impacted my wallet. I see why the YouTubers become shills 😂

[cold moon]

my issue with the youtubers in general is they broadcast "what to do" to a community instead of interact with the community and there's a very big difference

like even in good faith a youtuber might show 10 different temp/humidity sensors and all these neat comparisons.. when someone could come here and get straight up good advice based on historically-accurate information (if the right guy is talking)

i am just of the persuasion that being talked at vs being talked to when considering purchasing things has big implications (and probably why i made 3 videos and decided it wasnt for me)

[slim lagoon]

Z2M.

I only watch HA stuff on YT if I'm bored or I've run into one of them here or on the forums. Usually I just sit there and yell at the screen about them using device triggers and actions and calling them names. lol

[native pilot]

I agree. I typically just watch that stuff for general ideas and research a path forward that makes sense. But I realize a lot of people don’t actually research (hence why ChatGPT keeps coming up as being unreliable for any of this, or at all)

[terse pebble]

The more you do with HA, the less helpful many are. But sometimes they give nice inspirations.

[slim lagoon]

Oh, I don't disagree with that at all and I do sometimes get inspirations. But after supporting HA for so many years and seeing some content creator demonstrating how they built their automations with like a gazillion device triggers and such and "It's SO EASY" without saying anything about the fact that it's gonna break. Oh, that drives me nuts.

[terse pebble]

"And now I show how to set up HA Supervised"

[cold moon]

i have a customer who reached out today and brought up how on the esphome stream yesterday they talked about "how easy it is to get setup" and then pointing to his issues

granted, it ended up being mdns and self inflicted, but still from a lay-person they dont understand all that

[slim lagoon]

BE GONE SATAN

[cyan lichen]

keep in mind that some really cheap co2 sensors/meters are actually just voc sensors, and report estimated co2 levels based on the fact that co2 and vocs are often correlated :/

[random bane]

hey hey, really quick question: i just bought a philips hue smart outlet (so i could integrate a salt lamp with my lighting automation), and i'm trying to set it up on my HA instance, but it seems to insist that i need a hue bridge. any idea what's going on?

[cyan lichen]

philips hue stuff connects over a wireless protocol called #zigbee-archived - you either need a hue bridge or a radio dongle for home assistant to talk to it

[random bane]

oh gross. yet another Thing i have to buy :/

[cyan lichen]

yeah, if you want to avoid that it might be better to look for a wifi connected smart outlet instead. Double check on the HA integrations site whether a specific model will work - or look for one with a Matter logo, since that's a generic interoperable protocol.

[random bane]

ill just go and hope they'll let me exchange it

[native pilot]

anyone with the apollo stuff-- are the enclosures 3d printed or injection molded?

[cold moon]

3d printed and open sourced

made out of PLA right now we've only had a couple issues with breakage like due to it getting treated like a football during shipping

[cold moon]

you just bought the best zigbee hardware you can - take this time to invest in a zigbee coordinator and enjoy the ride

[native pilot]

perfect-- I just wasn't seeing any layer lines in the pictures, but then I saw the logo in the back and wasn't sure.

[cold moon]

it's cuz they have a bambu and it's white so hard to see the lines

[slim lagoon]

These are the questions that keep you up at night, aren't they? 😉

[cold moon]

ya i've pitched the idea of moving the logo (like on msr-2) cuz it can be facing the wrong way if you put the logo facing you.. and i told them most people would expect the logo facing you to be the correct orientation

[native pilot]

oh if you only knew.

[slim lagoon]

All I want and wish for is the USB port on the MTR-1 to NOT be on the bottom back of the device. 😄

Makes trying to stick it to a wall, kinda, well difficult. lol

[cold moon]

people are asking for a recessed mounting option so it might come

if you know someone who could model it they would probably be willing to pay for that

[gray latch]

that doesn't seem that difficult

[cold moon]

it does for nerds whos brains dont like cad software

[gray latch]

just print the back thicker and get a right angle usb cable

if you had the original file, that would take under a minutes

[cold moon]

if you could visualize the size of the mtr-1 you'd realize that adds a lot of size to a really small device

https://github.com/ApolloAutomation/MTR-1/tree/main/3D Files idk if we have step files i can ask

[slim lagoon]

The board would have to be completely redone I think. I don't think a right angle USB would cut it.

[cold moon]

https://apolloautomation.com/products/mtr-1

[gray latch]

it would definitely add the thickness of a right angle cable head