Home Automation

I am a total newbie on home automation. Last year I tried adding a zigbee dongle to my home server and setting up home automate. I got so far as to pairing a couple of light bulbs throughout the house to propagate the signal. I have bought a few temp/air quality sensors that are still in the box. But I kind of burned out feeling home automate was too complicated for me.

Jump to now. I bought a Homey Pro as an early Christmas gift to myself and have connected the light bulbs as well as my outdoor sun blinds. This weekend the sensors are going up.

Cut to my questions. Now that I have access to a bunch of different protocols, is zigbee the right way to go? What I don't like is that I cannot see the status of my bulbs. If the physical light switch is turned off homey loses control. Would this behaviour be better if I went for zwave or matter (or something else)?

I feel this is the time to choose what I really want to go for. I think the zigbee stuff will be kept as I believe the sensors should work fine(?) and it would be a waste to just scrap them.

Things I am considering adding down the line:

• smart light switches/dimmers
• Presence detection in rooms to control lights?
• Thermostats for our in floor heating water loops (I have so far only found zwave for this). Must work physically as well.
• door and window sensors
• Outdoor security cameras
• Outdoor light sensor for better control of the sun blinds
• Water sensors under the washing machine and sinks
• Smart plugs for things like heated blanket

I guess these are very different use cases. And I am open to mix and matching a bit. And things like security cameras is propably logical to use a connectable service for?

What would you choose if you were able to start over? The only caveat is that it must be supported by the Homey.

Other tips in general are also welcome!

cross-posted from: https://retrolemmy.com/post/29494979

Full issue on archive.org

I've got a couple of Kevo door locks that are about to become dumb locks. Looking to replace them with something that doesn't need to call home to corporate just to function locally, which I assume means I need to set up something more substantial locally. Taking a quick look around there appear to be 4 or 5 main control systems and about as many communication protocols. Where can I learn the pros/cons/functionality of each?

I plan to look for devices that support open protocols and open firmware, but in the meantime I need to vent about this.

Here's the only status I can find of the Wemo app/service:
https://downdetector.com/status/wemo/

While investigating not being able to login to the Wemo app for three days, I discovered that Belkin announced they're turning off their cloud services for Wemo in a couple months. They only announced it in July of this year.

https://www.belkin.com/support-article/?articleNum=335419 (archive.org)

Some of the light switches will still work with HomeKit, but I have one that doesn't have the necessary QR code. Belkin (Wemo) says to find an e-waste recycler. Companies should be required to provide a path to install open firmware when they stop supporting their products. Apparently you can install OpenWRT on these if you haven't patched an old exploit:
https://www.realmtech.net/2016-04/openwrt-on-a-belkin-wemo-easy-way

One more gripe: They apparently emailed their customers (but who reads email?) but failed to put an announcement in their app—the obvious place to put it.

It's such a "fuck you, we've got your money" move that I have no plans of buying any Belkin product again.

I guess I'll get to enjoy the journey I'll be taking to find out what the latest developments in open devices has been since I installed my closed-system devices. Thankfully the options and community has been growing.

We're running a mix of zigbee/matter as the network's been building out, but we're needing to expand both into the subfloor and basement brewery. Looking at possibly needing a hub to extend the signal (yay 60's brick and lead paint), anyone have any recs for Australia? I'm looking chiefly at Dialed In and while Tuya have several models they've rather shat the bed for me with their practises so eyeing off alternates.

Anyone in AU managed to mesh a code legal external smart socket with HA? Recommendations?

Just scrolling through random photos. Old hi-bay light reflector, a cheap metal screw auger, some old pipe and a random drill I had. ESP controlled with some customised firmware. Silly chickens also have an automated door, heater, light... hooked into home assistant.

They're not even my chickens, they just rocked up one day and started trying to sleep on my hot water cylinder... nekkminnit I've been tricked into building them a house!

I'm looking to replace an existing Hue setup and some dumb lamps, especially since Hue is hiding basic functionality behind a user account these days. I'm thinking of going with Nanoleaf instead.

What I have right now:

• Bridge: Hue bridge
• Living room: Hue pendant light + Hue E27 bulb, controlled by a Hue switch and optionally synced to a Linux PC running Huenicorn
• Bedroom: Hue ceiling light, controlled by two Hue switches
• Guest room: Dumb LED light
• Bathroom: Dumb LED light

What I want to install:

• Bridge: SLZB-06* for Matter+Thread, optionally talking to a Home Assistant instance
• Living room: 2x 3-pack Nanoleaf Skylight, controlled by a Sense+ switch and optionally synced to a 4D V1 camera
• Bedroom: Nanoleaf E27 bulb, controlled by two Sense+ switches
• Guest room: Nanoleaf E27 bulb, controlled a Sense+ switch
• Bathroom: Nanoleaf E27 bulb, controlled a Sense+ switch

Now there's a few questions I have:

• Would this setup work or am I missing something? Nanoleaf's website is quick to mention several home automation hubs, none of which I want to operate.
• Can I actually sync the Skylights with the 4D camera? The documentation only seems to talk about the corresponding light strips.
• Is there another option for screen syncing that works with Linux?
• Can I set a bulb to change its color temperature on a fixed cycle? If so, I could skip one of the Sense+ switches.
• If Nanoleaf's stuff is unsuitable for my needs, is there another alternative that isn't Hue?

Ordered Serena shades on the 31st, and the same shades were +12% more expensive today.

I'm glad I got in under the wire. Those things were expensive.

Hi!

I have a MINI-Z1-3CH smart relay (link) that seems to have low voltage inputs for the switching.

I'd like to use it for my kitchen lightning, and have several momentary push buttons wall switches wired to S1, S2 and S3 to control 3 zones, but I haven't found many (86mm standard), so I'm writing here in case someone would have suggestions.

What I've found is often switches meant for AC high voltage with led lights included in the button, so I'm guessing these won't be a good fit. But maybe I'm wrong and something can be done with these (example here)?

My house was previously multiple units, and has nice sounding chime doorbell for two floors. I've set up a relay board so family members can ring one or the other bell from HomeAssistant. If someone comes to the front door, I'd like them to press a button to ring both.

Obviously I can use a smart button and a simple automation to trigger two relays. But is there some way I'm overlooking to have a dumb, standard wired doorbell button that will ring both chimes without causing either relay to also ring both?

Maybe there's a DPST weatherproof push button out there that would look nice on the wall?

It's a proprietary, long-range, low-latency wireless protocol. I won't be adopting it even though I have a bunch of Unifi equipment, but it's interesting to see what protocols are springing up.

I hate the cloud.

So much empty here. Let’s get this party started :D

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.crimedad.work/post/172853

I'd like to set up three or four cameras on the exterior of my house, but I'm not sure where to start with this project. Ideally, these cameras would get power over Ethernet and record to a hard drive in my house that I could access remotely with a decent user interface. If the system could notify me when movement is detected that would be ideal as well. I don't like the idea of using a Google, Amazon, or similar product because I don't want to pay a subscription and I want to have control of the footage. What are you using that more or less accomplishes what I've described?

I'm looking to get some smart light switches/dimmers (zigbee or matter if that's relevant), and one of the requirements for me is that if the switches aren't connected to the network, they would behave like regular dumb switches/dimmers. No one ever advertises anything except the "ideal" behaviour when it's connected with a hub and their proprietary app and everything, so I haven't been able to find any information on this.

So my question: is this the default behaviour for most switches? Are there any that don't do this? What should I look out for given this requirement?

Edit: Thanks for the responses. Considering that no one has experienced switches that didn't behave this way nor heard of any, I'm proceeding with the assumption that any switch should be fine. I got myself some TP Link Kasa KS220 dimmers and it works pretty well. Installation was tough due to its size. Took me about an hour of wrangling the wires so that it would fit in the box. Dimming also isn't as smooth as I'd like, but it works. I haven't had a chance to set it up with Home Assistant yet since the OS keeps breaking every time I run an update and I haven't had time to fix it after the last one. Hopefully it integrates smoothly when I do get to it.

I'd like to make our front entryway lights motion sensing. However the wiring is a little complicated. And I'd like the lights to be operable normally if the automation doesn't work for some reason.

There are three light switches: one by the front door, one up the staircase at the landing, and one at the back of the entryway at another interior door. My favorite switch is the CloudFree motion sense switch, running Tasmota, but I don't see it or a similar switch available for three-way wiring.

There are two light fixtures: One hanging lamp, and one track light. The bulb in the hanging lamp is hidden, so although I could swap it out with something smart, it wouldn't be easy to just put a motion sensing bulb in there. And the bulbs in the track light are some small/unusual base, not something I can upgrade.

How would you automate the lights? Grateful for any ideas!

Here, we provide the way to add any Philips Hue devices on Google Home app for smart Home Automation.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20112075

I have two type-k thermocouples with breakouts from Adafruit, attached to a ESP8266 (Huzzah I believe). My oven was very old and didn't come with a temperature readout or any kind of preheating status (but thankfully also no builtin WiFi). The Tasmota device reports to HomeAssistant, which stores data in InfluxDb, which I can then chart in Grafana.

Here you can see the internal temperature got to 151F, and I was surprised to see how much the oven's temperature rebounded after I took the cakes out, despite being off.

The recipe is "Chocolate Lava Cakes For Two" from NYT Cooking. It's one I make semi-regularly, pretty quick on a weeknight and delicious. I have small ramekins so the recipe makes three and they cook a little faster than the recipe's would.

SwitchBot has released a new firmware update (V1.4-2.3) for the Hub 2. The previous version was V1.4-2.2.

Key improvements:

1. Resolved some known issues (unspecified)