• Breaking News

    Sunday, July 5, 2020

    Home Unlabelled Home Automation My home automation network (Pi4/NodeRed powered with ESP8266 nodes and Google integration)

    Home Automation My home automation network (Pi4/NodeRed powered with ESP8266 nodes and Google integration)

    July 05, 2020

    Home Automation My home automation network (Pi4/NodeRed powered with ESP8266 nodes and Google integration)

    My home automation network (Pi4/NodeRed powered with ESP8266 nodes and Google integration)

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 05:40 AM PDT

    Having a house built, recently got interested in home automation and have been reading tons of posts but have some questions

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 07:21 PM PDT

    house build will be two stories with an unfinished basement. It will be wired with cat 5 in 5 locations of my choice and will have a smart temperature gauge for heating and cooling.

    I started getting interested because I'm planning on finishing the basement eventually and having a theater room as well as a gaming room and would love to add some features to enhance the experience. I also have been looking at adding some cameras or possibly a ring type camera for the doorbell, but I specifically do not want to have monthly fees. The Eufy doorbell camera seemed to be a pretty good option for that, and I'll be looking at other things to boost security.

    My goals are to have low maintenance solutions (no batteries if possible)with no monthly fees and allowing for as little of our data going to big corps as possible. We are pretty adamant against having any sort of mainline voice control such as Alexa.

    Any advice is much appreciated!

    submitted by /u/Hatlessspider
    [link] [comments]

    Night light with WiFi and motion sensor?

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 04:06 PM PDT

    I need a night light for the kid. I can find either smart night light without motion sensing, or "dumb" ones with motion sensing. Is there anything that do both? Basically trying to get a free "motion sensor" in that corridor.

    submitted by /u/Chou_marin
    [link] [comments]

    Smart thermostat recommendation

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 08:35 PM PDT

    I'm in the market. Have a large house and looking to save money on air conditioning.

    submitted by /u/Tenesmus83
    [link] [comments]

    Smart Mini Split AC?

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 05:12 PM PDT

    Hi,

    has anyone installed a smart mini-split AC system? I am looking at mini-split systems but would only install something that can be integrated with my current home automation.

    Many thanks

    submitted by /u/bdrrr
    [link] [comments]

    Looking for matching third-party 2-gang plates for Kasa / TP-Link WiFi switches

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 07:41 PM PDT

    I've installed dozens of Kasa WiFi switches in my house, and they're all working great. However, many of my switches are located in 2-gang boxes, which means I am using the original plates I had on the wall instead of the nice plates that come in the Kasa box. Kasa does not make 2-gang sets, unfortunately.

    As such, I'm looking for wall plates that will match the Kasa & TP-Link style AND color. I was wondering if anyone has gone through this process before and found something that matches perfectly?

    (I have seen a number of plates that look similar, but I'm worried about the colors, gloss and width not matching.)

    Thanks in advance.

    submitted by /u/trnzone
    [link] [comments]

    DIY Smart Garage Door Opener using Wemos D1 Mini (ESP8266) with Home Assistant integration (custom code)

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 07:05 PM PDT

    Best Android Universal Remote For WiFi Bulbs (EasyBulb)

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 06:59 PM PDT

    I have 2 rgb easybulbs connected to an easybulb plus wifi hub (which is connected to my home network). Can anyone recommend the best android app that should work with this when I am on my home network? The app that comes with the bulbs is quite buggy and lacks features that I've seen in other apps.

    submitted by /u/jakey1995abc
    [link] [comments]

    Please help me to design a front door solution where Im living!

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 03:00 PM PDT

    We are 4 families and 1 small office in a very old 5 storey building. We want a simple yet powerful solution for our front main door. Recently the small office installed a Yale electric doorlock that I want to hook to a smart system. Maybe we can use the doorlock plugged to a RP Zero with a small camera and each of the families can open with a push analogue button with a remote alternative from their phones. Let me know if have done something similar or if you have an idea to point me in the right direction. I have never done anything similar but I understand most of this technology. Thanks in advance guys!

    submitted by /u/yacob101
    [link] [comments]

    [xpost] Lawn mower?

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 05:59 PM PDT

    How does Shelly 1 function with toggle switch

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 01:43 PM PDT

    I'm interested in purchasing some Shelly 1's to make some generic switches smart. I am in the US with standard 110v lighting. I understand the wiring diagrams and how to wire the switch terminal on the Shelly to the load of the toggle switch. My confusion is how it operates. If the switch is physically flipped on and it toggles the relay turning the light on and then through HomeAssistsnt I switch the relay off the toggle switch will still be in the on position. What happens if I then flip the switch off, does it now act like a 3 way switch and turn the light back on or does it remain off then requiring the switch to be flipped back to the on position in order to turn on? What if the light is on through HomeAssistant but the toggle switch is in the off position and it is flipped on, does the light stay on or does it shut it back off?

    submitted by /u/g4m3r7ag
    [link] [comments]

    Does anybody know how to set up email alerts for IP cameras?

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 03:21 PM PDT

    Philips Hue Dimmer Switch to call external API (https) with JSON payload

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 04:12 AM PDT

    I'm struggling to connect the dots here. I'm looking for the easiest way possible to press a button on my Philips Hue Dimmer Switch and then have 'something' send some JSON to an endpoint on the web.

    I'm playing with Home Assistant which I have running via Docker on a Synology NAS but it's not making sense to me yet. I've got a ConBee II stick coming today but from the looks of it I don't really need this with Home Assistant is interacting with my Hue Bridge.

    So please could someone help me to go in the right direction? Really keen on triggering external endpoints when I either click switches, detect motion and things like that. Thank you!

    submitted by /u/gordi555
    [link] [comments]

    Initial impressions (partial review?) of Narwal mopping robot. Awesome mopping, plus some pros/cons with our first use.

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 10:59 AM PDT

    Hi all,

    I just received my Narwal mopping robot. With COVID and other issues, the delivery was delayed. I hesitate to call this a review because I'm not 100% clear on a couple things yet, and I'm not expecting to get a response quickly on those questions in the midst of all this confusion.

    (Some people have been pretty entitled about the process, tbh. It's a start up. You'll always get the first generation late with a start up. Isn't that common knowledge? Sorry, but some people were really rude online. I digress).

    So: Background info:

    • It starts by making a map of one floor of your house from the base station. This is actually pretty cool - it seems to have both visual and tactile technology for this and doesn't need to physically enter every area. For example, there's an over 1" transition between two floors that the little guy couldn't make it over (more on this later), but he was able to map what was within his view (not around a door). Other transitions were fine. It creates "rooms" on a map (I have not figured out how to redefine these rooms in any way, but you can tell it which "rooms" you want cleaned). For example, in our case, one "room" is just a small area behind a couch.

    • I have a large, long-haired, double-coated dog going through the end stages of his seasonal coat blowing (where all the under fur just comes out at once - like, you're combing out a bucket of it daily for a couple weeks). In general, he creates large hair balls.

    • We recently renovated, I also have not installed the toe kicks in our kitchen yet, and let's be honest, I wasn't cleaning under there. What I didn't know was the Narwal would just go right on under the cabinets. We had everything from dirt to kibble to dog fur to toy balls (14 dog balls were manually rescued, in the end). Extreme robot off-roading.

    • it has a literal bumper on the front that presses in so it can get out of a jam if needed.

    • The base station is taller than I anticipated and hold water/cleaner and waste water. I put it under an end table.

    Pros: - The map is badass. It does the edges first, then zig-zags the floor very efficiently.

    • It gets under stuff really well. Under our kitchen cabinets, it wasn't 100% (I grabbed a couple fur balls it sort of made and left behind), but given how nasty they were and how complicated to navigate, I wasn't expecting it.

    • it is really good at getting itself out of difficult situations (under kitchen cabinets with different flooring, legs, cords - it got stuck once in a pretty ridiculously complex spot. I just cut the extra underlayment sticking out from under the vinyl floor and it was fine after that. Obviously we plan to get the toe kicks done soon. These situations are not normal, and it performed perfectly everywhere else.

    • The mopping is freakin fantastic. The mopped floors look awesome - better than ever. It has two pads that swivel, it cleans an area, returns to the base station, cleans the pads, then returns again. The used mop water was DISGUSTING - keep in mind, the floor had recently been hand mopped, although not under the kitchen cabinets.

    • It is from China, so there are some cute mistranslations that I love. The used mop water is called "sewage", for example. There was also an adorable error message when it got stuck once in that really tight spot under the cabinets between legs and that underlayment - something like, "the robot is trapped".

    • Instead of wasting time cleaning the floor yourself, you and your spouse can waste time watching the robot and talking about how cool it is for way too long...

    Cons:

    • Two part issue: Although the mapping is cool, you can only do one floor/level of your home (I THINK!). I haven't figured out how to do more than one level if mapping is based on the base station (which you aren't supposed to move). Plus, for the area that it couldn't get to (because the floor transition between one room and the next was over one inch high), I put it in there and pressed start, and it did vacuum, but not as good as with mapping, and it asked for the base station. I did the same thing in a larger room upstairs, and had to hit start 3 separate times because it stopped and asked for the base station because it was confused about where it was. This is my most major issue with it: a) It deploys from the base station, so I think you need one per floor of your house, and b) I'm not sure what to do if it can't access the floor on its own because of extreme floor transitions (it was able to make smaller floor transitions).

    • You definitely need the base station to mop because it periodically returns to the base station to clean the mop and I assume refill with fluid and get rid of the waste water. As you are not supposed to move the base station, I THINK that limits you to just one floor of your house.

    • The first time I ran the vacuum on the floor, i paused it 4 times to empty the dust bin (it lets you know it is full). The total amount of stuff I cleaned out from the dust bin over those cleanings was probably grapefruit sized or larger, mostly due to the dog hair and crap from under the kitchen counters. However, after that initial cleaning/mopping, I ran it today without needing to clean the tray out at all. So it may be fine if you keep up with using it, especially if you have extreme hair conditions like we do. Also, a huge bunch of long fur got wound around one of its sweepers at one point, but probably again because the first cleaning was extreme.

    • Along the lines of the previous comment: it has trouble with lots of long hair when it goes over our rugged floor mats (entry way mats). It leaves the tuffs of hair there that were pulled from the machine. I just grabbed them after. I think that with the dog not blowing his coat as much and now that it's really gotten under everything a couple times, this issue may be less if I keep up with the cleaning.

    • They currently do not have the recommended detergent available in the USA because of customs. They recommend you use only their detergent. I used 90% water and then filled the rest up with Bona wood cleaning solution (safe on all floor types, unlike Bona tile). This was after the spouse insisted 3x that it would be ok. It was fine.

    I'm not sure how much I'll be online today, but feel free to throw questions my way if I missed anything. That's guys!

    EDIT: By the way - there are a bunch of places selling fake knock offs. You cannot currently purchase this anywhere, but they claim they will have it available "locally" in the future.

    submitted by /u/Depressaccount
    [link] [comments]

    Linux or Android for control panels?

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 02:28 PM PDT

    Yes, I know Android is Linux, but... I have 3 x64 based tablets that currently are running Win 10. I would like to use them as control panels throughout the house to interface with Home Assistant on another device. I have gone round and round whether to install a Linux distro or Android x86. I am leaning Linux, but if there's a "WOW" app or two out there, then I could go Android. I will be interfacing with hass.io, Zone Minder, and Plex Server at minimum. In the future, I'd like to get Mycroft or Ada voice working on them and cut Google out. Any advice would be appreciated.

    submitted by /u/Mr_S_7th_Math
    [link] [comments]

    Non-Cloud hub systems and devices

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 04:44 AM PDT

    I'm looking to the future for when my wife and I move into a new property. We're actively looking and planning to list in Q1 next year, and be on the hunt for a new property around Q3, with a short term rental in between if we can swing it - unless the perfect house pops up the same time we find a buyer, but I digress.

    Current state, we have SmartThings controlling some lights, a few Echoes, two Ring cameras, and a DIY home security system that integrates through IFTTT. I'd like to move away from these cloud-based for security and reliability reasons, and maintain as much of the functionality in a local setup. Is HomeSeer the best option, or are there other choices out there?

    Additionally, I had an interesting conversation with a co-worker about his home set-up with Ubiquiti UniFi, and I'm curious if that can be integrated in some way.

    submitted by /u/Helassaid
    [link] [comments]

    Evaluating smart thermostats with remote sensors and geofencing

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 10:40 AM PDT

    I currently have a 2 story house with 2 separate HVAC units, one on each floor, currently both set up with older Honeywell WIFI "smart" thermostats.

    The existing thermostats work fine for letting me manage the schedules on the mobile app but the capabilities they're missing that I would like to get is geofencing so the system turns off when no one is home and remote sensors for the upstairs unit in all the bedrooms that would allow me to control it based on the temps in the bedrooms instead of the hallway where the thermostat is.

    I've done some searching and it seems that my best options are the Ecobee3 and Honeywell T9. Both have geofencing capabilities and both allow you to install remote sensors in multiple rooms.

    One concern I have about the Honeywell is the geofencing is completely managed by the mobile app and doesn't use motion data from the remote sensors to determine if someone is home. Probably won't be an issue most of the time but occasionally my wife and I get a babysitter for our kid and both leave the house and I wouldn't want the system to go in away mode because both of our phones have left.

    One concern I have with the Ecobee3 is according to a review I read it can only set a home temp, away temp, and sleep temp and if we wanted different temps at different times of the day while home we couldn't do it I guess?

    One concern I have with both options is if we can combine the geofencing with scheduling to make it so while we are home doing the day the downstairs thermostat keeps the temp at our preferred comfort setting while the upstairs thermostat is allowed to go warmer. Then at night when we are home the opposite happens, the upstairs goes to our comfort setting and downstairs gets warmer. Additionally when no one is home both units go to an away temp. Can either do this?

    I don't care about voice control. Perhaps it's blasphemy here but I don't have any sort of smart home controller so I'm not particularly concerned with what it can integrate with. I'm not particularly interested in thermostats that try to learn your habits and temp preferences. I'd rather just program it myself than hope it figures it out correctly.

    Thoughts on my concerns and are there any other pros/cons I should consider?

    submitted by /u/Jr712
    [link] [comments]

    Smart photocell sensor?

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 01:57 PM PDT

    I'm trying to replace my "Sun" sensor from HA (based only on sunrise/sunset time) with a Photocell so my lights are turn on/off based on real light availability. However, I could not find any decent smart photocell for outdoors that I could integrate easily. I have Home Assistant running on a PI and a Elelabs shield with Zigbee support.
    I would like to have something using either zigbee or directly WiFi to talk to my HA. Could be running on batteries or also plugged in. Any suggestions?

    submitted by /u/iflew
    [link] [comments]

    Controlling a light switch remotely from a switch plate

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 01:48 PM PDT

    I would like to be able to turn on the lights in a backyard gazebo from inside the house. Currently there is a light switch in the gazebo only. Ideally I would like to control the lights from a switch on a switch plate indside the house without rewiring. Does anyone know of a product that will do this? I don't currently have any type of wireless lighting setup. Thanks!

    submitted by /u/seinfeldquoter
    [link] [comments]

    What smart lock would work with this existing condo door? I can’t change lock as per condo rules.

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 09:40 AM PDT

    Temperature Sensor on Raspberry Pi?

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 12:08 PM PDT

    I want to create something that will allow me to monitor the temperature and send me an alert if the temperature goes outside of a particular threshold.

    I've ordered a DS18B20 temperature sensor. My original idea was to hook it up to something like a ESP8266 arduino but I'm not sure if that's the best approach or will offer the flexibility or ease of setup I need?

    It seems like a Raspberry Pi may be a better approach. I am comfortable loading whatever Python scripts are needed onto the unit to actually monitor the readings and send the alerts, I'm just a little confused on the best and most practical way to connect everything together.

    Are there good tutorials out there for this particular setup? Or any advice that anyone can give on the best way to get this done?

    submitted by /u/FleetEnema2000
    [link] [comments]

    Smart fireplace switch?

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 11:58 AM PDT

    Thanks in advance for everyone's help and I'm sorry if this has been covered before. I searched around and couldn't find anything that was like my situation. My fireplace has a switch to turn it on. I would like to make it smart. The problem is that the wires going to the switch are just signal wires. Is there is a smart switch that I can put in that would allow me to add the fireplace to a routine? There is only a white and black wire in the box, and there are they don't seem to be carrying any voltage.

    submitted by /u/breaz2c3
    [link] [comments]

    Overview of Zigbee devices working well together

    Posted: 04 Jul 2020 11:26 AM PDT

    Is there a list anywhere (or another easy way) to find out which Zigbee devices are working well together in a mesh network?

    I am using Zigbee2MQTT to operate devices from different brands together, mostly Tradfri light bulbs and Aquara sensors. Most devices are directly in range of the coordinator but some are closer to a router (the light bulbs). It seems like (especially lately) they are sometimes having problems communicating via the routers.

    I remember reading somewhere that especially those two brands are having trouble due to using different Zigbee profiles. What about other famous manufacturers like Hue? I am having a hard time finding information about this (maybe looking for the wrong keywords...)

    submitted by /u/TheSmartHomeJourney
    [link] [comments]
    Read more
    at

    No comments:

    Post a Comment