Smart Home Automation

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Carhole

Carhole

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  • #241
    I’ve been meaning to add a bit of success story to this thread as I’ve recently jumped in head first and gone all HomeKit with our farm. I’m kicking myself for not having done this sooner, however the two primary products which have been incredibly useful for us have been VOCOlinc L3 bulbs and Merosi 15A smart outlets. I do also employ some Merosi flood lights and they integrate well enough but not as seamlessly as the L3s, howeve the trade off being lumens where needed for say security spots and whatnot.

    Thus far I’m not doing too much automation aside from people arriving and leaving the home, and have some basic “scenes” set. I’ve become quite fond of the ability to use Siri to change brightness levels, and colors for backlighting in my office space, and then probably the most fun yet is just ticking zones on and off at random to make the place feel a bit more occupied.

    I have had one Merosi outlet drop Wifi. Everything else has been flawless for about two months now and the convenience factor massively outweighs the tiny cost of entry to get the functionality. Even better is that teh Spousal Unit picked it up immediately and was thrilled to have the whole house at the control of her hand.

    Next steps will be a different layer of security cam and dog monitoring integration as I’m not very thrilled with how Ubiquiti has been steering their camera lineup and their product availability is usually 100% shitbad.

    Edit, and for those wondering, HomeKit seems blocked by Indonesia’s national firewall. They’ve opened up a bunch of Apple services such as FaceTime but the Wife cannot manipulate the house while that far abroad. She sees Home display all devices as in their off positions. Is there a geofence setting thst I can widen?
     
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    Carhole

    Carhole

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  • #243
    Defenestrar said:
    If you've got Ubiquiti stuff for networking as well, there's a decent chance you just need to flip a switch or two to set up a personal VPN. That should let her get through the national firewall as mostly they fly under the radar of any detect and block services.
    Click to expand...
    Sadly, I’m using a commercial router with Ubiquiti switches, NVR, APs, etc on top but I’d like to drop a UDMp in there for that and many other reasons. Thank you for the suggestion though, it is one thst should stay on the to-do upgrade list. That and hosting a black hole right on the UDMp would make a fun project on its own.
     
    von Chaps

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  • #246
    Yea, as the artice says the physical implementation is important.

    Also, the HA team are going to have to sort out their dev process if they expect to onboard significant numbers of people who aren't geeks. Their breaking changes and deprecation policy is appaling, but they wont be told. Still they've done well to get where they are, so who am I to criticize? It'll break them though in the long run.
     
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    Drizzt321

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  • #247
    Hm, well, the last year or so my HA updates have been flawless. Although they certainly could build on better backup handling, and as I said, better handling of multiple possible storage endpoints. Ended up finding a Samba backup client AddOn. Trigger that every early AM to make a config backup. Which fortunately I haven't had to use yet.
     
    von Chaps

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  • #249
    Updates are far from flawless for a lot of people. Perhaps you don't use many integrations, or have been lucky.

    Here's a list of the breaking changes in 2022.12.

    Don't get me wrong, I love it, but there's a lot of pain expressed in the forums (a lot of joy too). It's acceptable for a free open source project, but the Nabu Casa people should expect more as will incoming non-geeks. IMO.
     
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    Drizzt321

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  • #250
    Ah, yes, I see what you mean. Should I actually setup the custom entities and dashboards and such that I keep meaning to, I'd probably start running into more breaking changes. Yeah.

    And yeah, they need a stable VS quick moving branches. Stable can be depended on for 6 months or a year, quick moving can keep making breaking changes and be month to month. At least from Nabu Casa. I'd say it's now massively matured, and now time to start acting more like a mature and often used piece of software. Ideally.
     
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  • #251
    I don't visit the Maker forum much and just found this thread. I've been doing HA since the early 90s with X-10, but moved to Insteon after that and now run a mix of Insteon/Z-Wave as I migrate to Z-Wave.

    Setup is Indigo running on a Mac server with an Insteon PowerLinc Modem and a Aeon Z-stick. Currently showing 184 devices configured.

    • Light switches - mix of Insteon and Z-Wave(GE)
    • Outlets (inline, in-wall outlets, and plug-in modules) again a mix of Insteon and Z-wave
    • Fan Controllers (Insteon)
    • Sensors (Aeon Multisensor 6s, Z-Wave), 8 or 9 of these
    • WeatherStation integration (high end Davis), integration through WeatherCat and XML files
    • Thermostat integration (Ecobee - native plugin) and GE Window units for workshop (HomeKit Bridge plugin)
    • Nanoleaf light integration
    • Garage Door sensors (Z-wave by zoom)
    • Native integration in Roomie Remote
    • Mac control through AppleScript/Python (restart iTunes on media servers, or reboot media servers through Inidgo)
    • Live sensor ploting through a plugin (Matplotlib)
    • Live (internal network) webpage floorpan for control/status of select items
    • Issue notification via PushOver
    Screenshot 2022-12-28 at 6.02.09 PM.png


    Screenshot 2022-12-28 at 6.03.51 PM.png

    I am having a bit of trouble with WeatherStation comms. It's a 12 year old WeatherStation, probably time for replacement.

    Honestly, except for updating schedules or fixing a power outage issue (Insteon modem), it's mostly set it and forget it.
     
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    Hap

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  • #252
    I should note that many of those 184 devices are not actually devices - some are "virtual" devices, some are devices for "plotting", etc. I'm pretty sure my actual device count is around 80 or so. What I like about Indigo is that it is initially pretty simple to use but hugely expandable by user created plugins, or just applescript/javascript/python coding. The pricing model is a yearly maintenance model, not really subscription. In other words, if you don't renew - it keeps working, you just don't get updates. I run on macOS because I'm far more familar with that platform, including command line than I am Windows or Linux although I do use both, but mostly as a user, not a power user.
     
    Carhole

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  • #253
    Apple Home gripe: a power outage happened today for emergency maintenance on our town’s grid and that resulted in all devices defaulting to their on position. Actually that’s incorrect, I had two lights fail to negotiate when wifi was restored and non of the smart outlets defaulted to on/closed. All of the lights tried to default to full power and on would be a more accurate gripe.
     
    von Chaps

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  • #254
    Carhole said:
    non of the smart outlets defaulted to on/closed.
    Click to expand...
    Seems to me this is a manufacturer/model-specific feature. Some do, some don't. Certainly, it's something I check before buying smart plugs. That said, what I actually look for is "resume previous state" on power on. I don't want a bunch of devices powering on that were previously off.
     
    Hap

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  • #255
    Carhole said:
    Apple Home gripe: a power outage happened today for emergency maintenance on our town’s grid and that resulted in all devices defaulting to their on position. Actually that’s incorrect, I had two lights fail to negotiate when wifi was restored and non of the smart outlets defaulted to on/closed. All of the lights tried to default to full power and on would be a more accurate gripe.
    Click to expand...

    I have not been fond of the reliability of HomeKit stuff - it's been FAR less reliable than my Insteon/Z-Wave devices.
     
    stevenkan

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  • #256
    Drizzt321 said:
    As have I, but it's Windows only AFAIK, and my NAS is Freebsd with VMs for services, traditionally Linux. I suppose I could get a Win10 Pro license and use that in a VM, but that's a PITA IMO.
    Click to expand...
    I bought a refurb ("renewed") Win10 Pro box for $350 two years ago, and now it's down to $200. The Win10 Pro license is worth ~$100 by itself. Core i7-6700 with QuickSync, which Blue Iris uses to great advantage.

    It's a very good Blue Iris box. I've paired it with an external 4-bay drive box that I've set up as a JBOD storage space, since none of my video footage is especially critical.

    I have 20 cameras of varying resolutions from Wyze 2 all the way up to modern 8 MP cameras, and my CPU usage is typically ~25%.

    I liked this solution so much that I built 3 more, for my office, my parents' house, and my ex's house.
     
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  • #258
    stevenkan said:
    I would like to monitor temperature and detect water in a server closet, without a subscription. Can anyone suggest a very basic solution that doesn't require building anything?
    Click to expand...
    That's kind of a hard ask. As far as I know your choices are:

    • Simple, standalone - generally requires a subscription (there used to be a few standalone, but IIRC, they were pretty expensive)
    • Build your own with something like a raspberry
    • Utilize a home automation system with Z-wave/Zigbee/Insteon (one that doesn't require a subscription)
    EDIT: My sensors are all Z-Wave, Davis Weather Station, or Ecobee.
     
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  • #259
    stevenkan said:
    I would like to monitor temperature and detect water in a server closet, without a subscription. Can anyone suggest a very basic solution that doesn't require building anything?
    Click to expand...
    I monitor temperature and humidity in a server closet with a Sonoff Zigbee device in conjunction with Home Assistant. Don't know about water, but perhaps humidity would help in the first instance.

    If you don't want to build anything, the Sonoff app should work for you.
     
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    Drizzt321

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  • #260
    Or an ESPHome/Tasmota ESP8266 with the appropriate sensors soldered on. Pretty cheap and easy, a ton of examples out there.

    stevenkan said:
    I bought a refurb ("renewed") Win10 Pro box for $350 two years ago, and now it's down to $200. The Win10 Pro license is worth ~$100 by itself. Core i7-6700 with QuickSync, which Blue Iris uses to great advantage.

    It's a very good Blue Iris box. I've paired it with an external 4-bay drive box that I've set up as a JBOD storage space, since none of my video footage is especially critical.

    I have 20 cameras of varying resolutions from Wyze 2 all the way up to modern 8 MP cameras, and my CPU usage is typically ~25%.

    I liked this solution so much that I built 3 more, for my office, my parents' house, and my ex's house.
    Click to expand...
    Sure, but then it's yet another physical machine to keep track of and maintain. I've had my NAS a good long while, with no plans to replace it.
     
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  • #262
    stevenkan said:
    I would like to monitor temperature and detect water in a server closet, without a subscription. Can anyone suggest a very basic solution that doesn't require building anything?
    Click to expand...
    Are you looking to do this in an automated fashion? Since if you just need something that you can glance at to monitor what is happening in there any of the temp/humidity things you can find at the home improvement box stores would likely work for this. If you need something that you could pull data off of some of the higher end weather stations offer them. While I don't use the data connection for it I have this unit so I can see what the temp/humidity is at different points in my house at a glance. I imagine there are other units like that as well that have a way to pull the data from them if you needed to record that outside of the system.

    I also have a bunch of Z-Wave Zooz temp/humidity sensors along side the others for monitoring in HA. Certainly duplicative, but I went the HA route later and just haven't felt like decommissioning the other system. Plus it gives me a check to see if the two sensors are in rough agreement and the remote sensors in the Ambient Weather system had displays so easier to glace at those in the room as opposed to opening up HA on the phone.
     
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  • #263
    Visigoth said:
    Are you looking to do this in an automated fashion? Since if you just need something that you can glance at to monitor what is happening in there any of the temp/humidity things you can find at the home improvement box stores would likely work for this. If you need something that you could pull data off of some of the higher end weather stations offer them. While I don't use the data connection for it I have this unit so I can see what the temp/humidity is at different points in my house at a glance. I imagine there are other units like that as well that have a way to pull the data from them if you needed to record that outside of the system.

    I also have a bunch of Z-Wave Zooz temp/humidity sensors along side the others for monitoring in HA. Certainly duplicative, but I went the HA route later and just haven't felt like decommissioning the other system. Plus it gives me a check to see if the two sensors are in rough agreement and the remote sensors in the Ambient Weather system had displays so easier to glace at those in the room as opposed to opening up HA on the phone.
    Click to expand...
    I don't need any logging capability, but it's in a locked room, so I'd like to be able to check on it remotely.
     
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  • #264
    Guess another thing that would determine which kind of solution you need would be the distance between the room and where you want to monitor it. Since those monitors, like I linked, have decent range I'd suspect due to the location the range would be reduced from advertised ranges. So if the two places are a bit away you might need something that could talk across your network instead of being wireless. Which then can get more complicated due to security and other concerns with attaching stuff to your network.
     
    Hap

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  • #265
    Visigoth said:
    Certainly duplicative, but I went the HA route later and just haven't felt like decommissioning the other system. Plus it gives me a check to see if the two sensors are in rough agreement and the remote sensors in the Ambient Weather system had displays so easier to glace at those in the room as opposed to opening up HA on the phone.
    Click to expand...
    I have a lot of Aeon Z-wave Multi-sensor 6s scattered all over the place, but just bought a bunch of standalone temp/humidity sensors to have that "at a glance" information without opening an app/webpage. Despite the fact I just bought a bunch of those standalone, this unit intrigues me. How much do you like it?
     
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  • #266
    Hap said:
    I have a lot of Aeon Z-wave Multi-sensor 6s scattered all over the place, but just bought a bunch of standalone temp/humidity sensors to have that "at a glance" information without opening an app/webpage. Despite the fact I just bought a bunch of those standalone, this unit intrigues me. How much do you like it?
    Click to expand...
    It's pretty decent. I've had it for about a year and a half now and it's been solid the whole time. I might have had to change the batteries in one the remote sensors so far which is also pretty good. The sensor I have outside held up when we got into the subzero temps at night and didn't stop working so seems pretty hardy. Sensor range seems good, but hard to say since I imagine all of them are within 60' of the unit. It's been better than the unit I was using before, which was from La Crosse, though this one is quite a bit more costly so might explain some of that.

    If I had to pick on it the first would be the labels for the remote sensors are a little limited so couldn't match them up exactly for where they are located. The other would be that there's no sensor in the base unit itself so if you wanted to monitor that area you'd have to use one of the remote sensors for it.
     
    Defenestrar

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  • #269
    stevenkan said:
    +++ Sometimes the low-tech solution is the best!
    Click to expand...
    Time for a sling psychrometer! Those things are fun. Although I once had to respond to an incident where one was used in a classroom demo and the unit didn't quite hold onto one of the thermometers (mercury based of course).
     
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  • #270
    Spotted @Drizzt321 posting elsewhere about trying to build a voice i/o device to drive Home Assistant now that it's [drumroll] Year Of The Voice [echo, echo].

    There has to be legs here. HA has pretty much all the infrastructure, except the local hardware. Unless Alexa is ditched by Amazon and unlocked or someone else is secretly working on a modular tts/stt device, it's going to be some ugly-assed, janky lash up.

    It seems the HA people as going to use this to drive Nabu Casa, which is totally the opposite of what HA was supposed to be.

    I also get that "if you need voice input, you're doing automation wrong", but I kind of like the flexibility of voice.

    Any ideas? Anyone thinking about this aspect and possible solutions?
     
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    Drizzt321

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  • #271
    For me, voice input isn't "doing automation wrong", it's about "if I don't want to hit a switch or take out my phone". I also apparently need to write an instruction manual for my apartment. The ZigBee buttons I have setup are on/off with double press up/down and hold/release all having their own functions in special ways. sigh

    And keep it all local, so I don't require the internet, and have a literal spy doing potentially who knows what around me without me knowing exactly what's going on.

    As for Nabu Casa, I don't see it as totally not what HA is supposed to be, it's offering locally hosted, but adding easy and secure remote (when not at home) connection so you can control it. I don't see them trying to force it onto everybody. On the other hand...they do need $$ to keep funding development of the system and so on. This is one way to do that, and give people a feature many do want.

    The official recommendation, the way I understand it for HA installs, is Rhasspy, although AFAIk they aren't going to close off supporting any other ones in the slightest.
     
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  • #272
    I run the docker version of HA and it is not made at all clear how to install the addons needed to support tts/stt. It seems supervised or HassOS is now preferred. To be clear, I don't begrudge them trying to fund through subscriptions. I am always impresed by what they have achieved, but make no secret of the fact that I feel their aggressive approach (both literally and figuratively) can alienate people.

    Normally I would be all over something like this, but I'm taking a step back to see how it shakes out. I'm interested in whether other people have made this work successfully yet.
     
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  • #277
    Drizzt321 said:
    von Chaps said:
    I would like to be able to monitor temperature & humidity inside a metal box, but use Zigbee to get the results to zigbee2mqtt. Obviously the sensor will need to be inside the box and the transmitter outside. I can drill through the box for fly-leads.

    Are there off the shelf devices like this? Perhaps designed for a fridge? Otherwise, has anyone had any luck pulling say a Sonoff apart? Or do I need to build from scratch?
    Click to expand...
    That are ZigBee? No, nothing like ESPHome flexibility for ZigBee DIY stuff. I can't recall of any ZigBee devices that have wired temp probe. Check AliExpress, maybe there.

    Would be easier for you to use ESP8266 and ESPHome to do a wired temp probe. I think there are some good sleep/wakeup timing settings in ESPHome that's make it feasible to use with a battery, I'd that's your need.
    Click to expand...
    Just for closure here.

    I finally got round to lashing together an ESP8266 and a DHT22. I now am fully cognizant of the temperature and humidiy within my metal box and have surfaced same in Home Assistant. Of course, it's WiFi not Zigbee, but I shall monitor and, if it turns out to be bobbins, I'll look into adding Zigbee to the ESP.
     
    ChaoticUnreal

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  • #278
    Promise this isn't spam since I have no affiliation with them.

    Anyways saw this video about using a wifi plug as a bluetooth proxy (video has how to flash it to esphome from the base firmware) which got me thinking of an internal one (I currently have a esp32 hung off my computer as a bluetooth proxy) and getting some more coverage for the cheap bluetooth temp sensors

    I made a comment about wanting an interior one (the first video is for external plug) and they suggested the switchbot plug (Affiliate link for the video poster cause I'm lazy). It is slightly more expensive but doesn't require opening anything up and you do end up with 4 of them for ~8$ each. I'll probably be picking some up next time I get some spending money.

    Just thought it was something interesting that I figured I'd share
     
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  • #280
    Just a small FYI cause I didn't think of it prior through it makes total sense.

    I've been creating some more automations using NFC stickers recently. The normal / cheap ones do not work when attached to a metal water bottle. (Found a simple water tracker automation and wanted the sticker to trigger it) You need to get a special anti-metal NFC sticker that has an extra layer of protection. Good news is that it looks like you can get 20 for ~15$ on amazon.
     
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