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CheddarGoblin posted:I use a Sensative Strips z-wave one for my gate and it's super good, though a little expensive, and ultimately disposable since you can't replace the battery when it dies. Thanks! My Aqara ones got here today, and I've already set up events in HA (chimes for gate open/closed, and a verbal warning and phone notification if either gate stays open for more than five minutes). Waterproofing doesn't look too hard. The only seam is around the sides, so I should be able to wrap it in a strip of weatherproofing tape. I'm going to put them up tomorrow if it stops raining long enough, and I'll report back once I've had some time to try them. If they're not great, I'll try the ones recommended above.
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# ? Oct 3, 2021 05:54 |
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# ? May 11, 2024 14:39 |
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My project of using ESP8266 boards to connect my pellet stoves to home assistant went so well that I just ordered 5 ESP32 boards with PoE to diy some temperature sensors. I'll use DHT22 and a PoE switch and then I should theoretically save a bunch of money over getting zwave/zigbee/wifi temperature sensors. Plus I won't have to use an external power source or a battery. I don't remember if I shared a pic, but here's the thing connected to the back of the pellet stove. I really should get boxes or something for these. odiv fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Oct 5, 2021 |
# ? Oct 3, 2021 19:08 |
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Moving into a new place and I'm looking at seriously digging into home automation. Is there a good general guide to where I should start. I've hosed with hues, ge zwave switches and SmartThings/Google home integrations etc, but want to do things properly. New place will have a security system which is something I've never touched, and my dream has always been smart blinds, occupancy sensors, intercoms etc. I'm a software developer so I'm happy to gently caress around with diy solutions, but don't really know what best practices are since I last bought into zwave switches 4ish years ago w00tmonger fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Oct 4, 2021 |
# ? Oct 4, 2021 06:48 |
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w00tmonger posted:Moving into a new place and I'm looking at seriously digging into home automation. Is there a good general guide to where I should start. There are more/better devices available since last time you looked at it, but overall it's still a Zigbee/Zwave world for most people. "Properly" is kind of an odd concept with this stuff, because there are a million ways to implement it, and they all have advantages and shortcomings. I've found what works best for me and my house, but there are a ton of knowledgeable goons in this thread who have done things completely differently. This article on Ars Technica is what got me started down the Home Assistant rabbit hole early this year. It's not actually a great beginner's guide; they don't explain (or even mention) the Zigbee or Zwave protocols, and the first item under "recommended devices" is building your own ESP8266 device. Umm, sure, you can totally do that, I guess. But they do go over some of the neat things HA is capable of, and that inspired me to buy some stuff and give it a try. There are good device suggestions in this thread; HA has very good integration with most Zwave and Zigbee devices, so if you stick with one/both of those protocols, most everything should work. My personal home setup is below. I didn't want to re-wire any of my wall switches, so I went with an all-wireless solution using Lutron Aurora dimmers. I love them so far. - Home Assistant running on an old Raspberry Pi3+ - HUSBZB-1 USB Zigbee/Zwave Combo Hub - Innr Zigbee RGBW LED Bulbs - Innr Zigbee White LED Bulbs - Lutron Aurora Zigbee Dimmer Switches (they pop over a wall switch and can pair directly with bulb groups) - Aqara Zigbee Mini-Switch Buttons - Aqara Zigbee Door/Window Sensors There are 25 Zigbee devices in the network, including 16 smart bulbs. I have everything integrated with Google Assistant, so I can do plain-language voice commands and custom routines from my Android phone. I've also done some useful automations. Living-area lights automatically start to fade up a little while before sunset, and all outdoor lights react to local sunrise/sunset times. I have a "ready for bed" command that turns off most of the downstairs lights and illuminates a path to my bedroom, turning on the bedroom lamp. Then a double-tap of the button on my nightstand turns everything off except for a couple of dim nightlights. Currently I'm working on adding sensors to my backyard gates, which will give us audio chimes when the gates open/close, and it will fire off a warning and a phone notification if they're open for more than five minutes (dog-proofing the yard is a priority). All of this was created with HomeAssistant's built-in functions, with the exception of the audio stuff (sounds and text-to-speech), which required a HA plug-in and a little bit of tinkering. If you're willing to do some DIY work with scripting, HA is a great option for doing some awesome stuff. Edit: If you look at the devices I linked, ignore the "Requires Aqara Hub" nonsense in the descriptions. All of them are standard Zigbee devices and should work with any Zigbee hub. They work perfectly with my HUSBZB-1 stick. WhiteHowler fucked around with this message at 08:17 on Oct 4, 2021 |
# ? Oct 4, 2021 07:45 |
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awesome,. Im going to dig through zigbee standard etc. Is there a brand worth jumping on for light switches/dimmers etc nowadays? I think the math is still on doing smart lights at the switch vs the bulb for big runs of lights.
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# ? Oct 4, 2021 15:28 |
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w00tmonger posted:awesome,. Im going to dig through zigbee standard etc. Is there a brand worth jumping on for light switches/dimmers etc nowadays? I think the math is still on doing smart lights at the switch vs the bulb for big runs of lights. Philips Hue bulbs are high-quality, but they have a price tag to match. IMO they're not worth the extra features, so I've been using Innr bulbs for both color and white. I've been happy with them. For dimmers, Lutron is the go-to recommendation in this thread. Lutron Caseta if you want a hard-wired switch, Lutron Aurora if you want a wireless dimmer solution. I can vouch for the Aurora, though one caveat is that they get a little grumpy if you have two dimmers bound to the same bulb/fixture. I've seen several positive comments about Inovelli switches. They seem to be less well-known, and I believe they only sell direct from their website, rather than through normal retailers. I know some goons in this thread have used them, so hopefully someone can provide more info. One warning: Avoid TP-Link's hardware. While it used to be compatible with Home Assistant, recent firmware updates for many of their devices have broken compatibility. I got bitten by this recently -- I had a smart outlet that used to work, then just stopped responding one day. A quick Google search showed that they updated my model and disabled HA integration. Grrrrrr. I agree that smart switches usually make more sense than smart bulbs, if you don't care about RGB color capability. If you want to do neat color things, you'll need smart bulbs. The downside being that your wall switch becomes basically useless, since smart bulbs are only smart when they have power. So then you end up like me and spend twice as much money buying bulbs and switches. I'm happy with my setup, but it's probably overkill for a lot of people.
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# ? Oct 4, 2021 16:09 |
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I have a schlage Zwave lock which is great - however, it currently says "Open" when the door is shut for the status in my Home Assistant install. Is there a way to easily re-calibrate this?
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# ? Oct 4, 2021 21:00 |
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Gyshall posted:I have a schlage Zwave lock which is great - however, it currently says "Open" when the door is shut for the status in my Home Assistant install. Is there a way to easily re-calibrate this? Doesn't it only track the status of the bolt?
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# ? Oct 4, 2021 21:38 |
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text editor posted:Doesn't it only track the status of the bolt? That is correct. It has no way of knowing if the door is open or not.
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# ? Oct 4, 2021 22:10 |
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Motronic posted:That is correct. It has no way of knowing if the door is open or not. Needs a compass.
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# ? Oct 4, 2021 22:33 |
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The only bolt in question is me, for not realizing this. I'm truly a moron
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# ? Oct 5, 2021 01:01 |
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Now that I have my Z-wave switches in place it's time for a Z-wave/machine interface... if I search for Z-wave usb on Amazon I get some Zooz stick and Aeotec Z-Stick. What's the recommended USB stick? I'm just going to pass it through to my VM or container.
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# ? Oct 5, 2021 15:17 |
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I've been using the Aeotek since I started out with HA (3 years ago) and it's been solid. Worked through all the zwave stack changes, etc and I am also just passing it through to a VM (on vmware esxi).
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# ? Oct 5, 2021 15:18 |
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If you don't have one already, you might consider getting a combo Zwave/Zigbee stick, like this one: https://www.amazon.com/GoControl-CECOMINOD016164-HUSBZB-1-USB-Hub/dp/B01GJ826F8 (note this model is US frequencies only). This expands the sensors and devices you can use quite a bit. Combo sticks show up as 2 different devices you have to pass through.
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# ? Oct 5, 2021 15:47 |
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I think I need a new Zigbee stick. I'm using that CC2531 transceiver with custom Zigbee firmware. My RPi was down over the night and now half of my things unbound. That's sure annoying as gently caress, and apparently doesn't happen with a proper Zigbee stick. Of course, they're now hard to get, too. SiLabs for instance bumped the delivery times of their EFR32 chips from 6 to 42 weeks.
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# ? Oct 5, 2021 15:58 |
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WhiteHowler posted:
I just finished installing about 25 inovelli switches so I can provide a little insight on their function. Their "killer feature" which as far as I know is not available in any other switch is the ability to disconnect physical control via buttons and control of the actual load wire, while retaining the ability to control the load wire via your hub/automations. This allows for some creative virtual rewiring that would not otherwise be possible. The way they market this is for better control of smart bulbs. Smart switch controlling a smart bulb (or bulbs) probably seems like overkill to many people, but by setting it so that the buttons on the switch don't actually turn off power to the load wire, but rather tell the bulbs to turn on/off or dim or change color or whatever, you avoid the classic problem of guests or SO or whoever flipping off the switch and killing your automations. If you set it up right the switch always works like people expect it to, while retaining full control of your bulbs. Other things I've used this ability for include: - A switch which previously controlled a light fixture which was rendered useless by changing the layout of the room is set to never provide power, but instead wirelessly controls smart plugs which turn on lamps. - Two switches in a 2 gang box each controlled half of a group of lights that you would realistically only ever want on/off together. One of the switches now is Z wave associated (linked) to mimic the other at the load control, but the buttons are set to control ceiling fan lights instead. - A useless 3 way switch in a location that you would never actually need to use. I physically rewired the common wire to the load inside that box, pigtailed off of a hot wire to power the switch, and now it controls z wave blinds near the switch instead. - 2 switches that you really wish were just swapped in position? Z wave associate them together but tell the switch to disconnect its own buttons from controlling the load wire. Bada bing Bada boom you've (virtually) switched their position. Dark Knight fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Oct 5, 2021 |
# ? Oct 5, 2021 16:22 |
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The notification LED on their Red switches can also be useful - I use it to show automation status for relevant automations. Eg there’s an automation that locks our door lock after a certain amount of time, which is controlled by triple taps on an inovelli switch, and the notification LED reflects status of the auto lock automation. Eventually will add one by the back door and have the LED show gate open-close status for dog purposes, etc.
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# ? Oct 5, 2021 18:16 |
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odiv posted:My project of using ESP8226 boards to connect my pellet stoves to home assistant went so well that I just ordered 5 ESP32 boards with PoE to diy some temperature sensors. I'll use DHT22 and a PoE switch and then I should theoretically save a bunch of money over getting zwave/zigbee/wifi temperature sensors. Plus I won't have to use an external power source or a battery. Oh crud I’d never even thought of PoE - going to get on that ASAP, I have drops that would be perfect for sensors
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# ? Oct 5, 2021 23:40 |
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Let us know what you end up getting. I ordered some boards that look like they may be more hassle than they're worth (LILYGO TTGO T-Internet-POE ESP32-WROOM LAN8720A), but either way should be fun finding out, right?
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# ? Oct 5, 2021 23:50 |
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As long as it doesn’t become on fire , yes
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# ? Oct 6, 2021 00:29 |
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WhiteHowler posted:There are more/better devices available since last time you looked at it, but overall it's still a Zigbee/Zwave world for most people. "Properly" is kind of an odd concept with this stuff, because there are a million ways to implement it, and they all have advantages and shortcomings. I've found what works best for me and my house, but there are a ton of knowledgeable goons in this thread who have done things completely differently. Thanks for this. I played around with HA a few years ago but found it really obtuse and confusing. Although it maybe didn’t help I was running it in docker on a NAS.
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# ? Oct 8, 2021 01:04 |
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Red_Fred posted:Thanks for this. I played around with HA a few years ago but found it really obtuse and confusing. Although it maybe didn’t help I was running it in docker on a NAS. It's quite a different animal now. Almost everything can be done with the GUI. Additionally the UI is heavily customizable, from the UI itself. And it has an actual onboarding process! The few remaining things that require config file editing are generally more advanced things, bleeding edge stuff, or unofficial integrations. Last year I started completely over with my setup. I didn't have to touch a single YAML file. I was quite surprised.
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# ? Oct 8, 2021 01:27 |
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I had setup Home Assistant a couple years ago, also as a container on my NAS. At the time I was pulling in my SmartThings devices for Zigbee/ZWave just to give a trial, but didn't really end up doing anything with it and it ended up eventually mostly stopping working. Since ST has flipped over to the new app, imho that whole ecosystem has gone to crap, so I picked up that combo Zigbee/Zwave usb stick, installed the VM version of HAAS, and have been migrating all my devices over to HA and wow it really is a world of difference. Everything was super smooth to get into it, didn't need to touch a yaml file at all, including about a dozen Zigbee devices that needed custom handlers in ST... until I got to Google Assistant integration. Holy poo poo they really push the paid subscription by making that an insane hassle, eh? I was drat close to just returning the usb stick to Amazon and picking up a Hubitat to try out instead... Got it working, but gently caress absolutely everything about that process.
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# ? Oct 8, 2021 02:10 |
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HA’s documentation , particularly with addons, suffers from the “it’s someone else’s problem” issue of being out of date , out of sync , etc. Setting up HTTPS and acme with the duckdns add on took way more searching and guessing than it should have. That being said , if you know that going in , there’s a lot it can do for you in one place . Back it up frequently in case something you do upsets it .
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# ? Oct 8, 2021 02:41 |
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Currently we only have a handful of smart bulbs (BrilliantSmart brand which is some weird Australian brand I think?) and a tp-link plug but if I can get them all working out of one app rather than several that would be nice.
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# ? Oct 8, 2021 03:52 |
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Red_Fred posted:Currently we only have a handful of smart bulbs (BrilliantSmart brand which is some weird Australian brand I think?) and a tp-link plug but if I can get them all working out of one app rather than several that would be nice. Pretty sure Brilliant are just rebadged Tuya devices
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# ? Oct 8, 2021 11:58 |
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WhiteHowler posted:
WOW. Thank you for this heads up. I'm all in on TPLink both switch and plug wise but I have since moved to iPhone and added Home Assistant on an old iPad/RPi. This is annoying and concerning. I suppose the only upside is that I am completely integrated as far as this house is concerned so I'll just need to add an additional ecosysem moving forward if I need anything else. Crunchy Black fucked around with this message at 13:56 on Oct 8, 2021 |
# ? Oct 8, 2021 13:53 |
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Crunchy Black posted:WOW. Thank you for this heads up. I'm all in on TPLink both switch and plug wise but I have since moved to iPhone and added Home Assistant on an old iPad/RPi. This is annoying and concerning. Some of the comments I read on this said that the firmware was only pushed to devices for sale in certain countries (the UK?). But I'm in the USA and it definitely happened to me. There's a thread about it on the HA forums. On one hand, I'm happy when companies push out security updates for devices. On the other hand, I don't really want my wall outlets to be talking to the Internet at all without my knowledge/permission. WhiteHowler fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Oct 8, 2021 |
# ? Oct 8, 2021 16:10 |
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Is there a battery powered 2 wire smart thermostat , for literally "I only have two wires" , no fan, C, air conditioner, etc? It almost looks like there were from Radio Thermostats at one point, but the one they seem to have now will hoover up the batteries with the Z-wave module and no C wire.
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# ? Oct 8, 2021 17:47 |
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Partycat posted:Is there a battery powered 2 wire smart thermostat , for literally "I only have two wires" , no fan, C, air conditioner, etc? I have a CT100 (pretty old Radio Thermostat) and the batteries last for about 6-12 months via Z-Wave. It receives 4 commands per day from my hub (Hubitat), plus any manual changes I may make during hot or cold days.
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# ? Oct 8, 2021 18:14 |
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bobfather posted:I have a CT100 (pretty old Radio Thermostat) and the batteries last for about 6-12 months via Z-Wave. It receives 4 commands per day from my hub (Hubitat), plus any manual changes I may make during hot or cold days. Thanks - I found the guide for that one and it looks like it will do the business. They're available on eBay reasonably inexpensively too.
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# ? Oct 8, 2021 19:00 |
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What's the suggested method to install HA on a Pi4? I currently have just Pi-Hole installed on mine so I guess I would need to wipe that and start from scratch? I can't see to find a straightforward guide to install via SSH anywhere though. EDIT: Do I just follow this from Section 2? Red_Fred fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Oct 9, 2021 |
# ? Oct 9, 2021 02:27 |
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If the nearby nuclear power plant blows up, I ought to get a notification before the news starts reporting (probably not really). Saw it on Youtube, I figured I can spare the euro of additional energy cost per year for this gag. That open source geiger counter kit attached to an ESP8266 running ESPHome Red_Fred posted:What's the suggested method to install HA on a Pi4? I currently have just Pi-Hole installed on mine so I guess I would need to wipe that and start from scratch?
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# ? Oct 9, 2021 13:35 |
Combat Pretzel posted:If the nearby nuclear power plant blows up, I ought to get a notification before the news starts reporting (probably not really). Saw it on Youtube, I figured I can spare the euro of additional energy cost per year for this gag. That open source geiger counter kit attached to an ESP8266 running ESPHome https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG_f6cj7mEw&t=82s
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# ? Oct 9, 2021 16:14 |
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Maybe not the best thread for this question, but does anyone have suggestions for if it is possible to get my desktop PC to play over my sonos devices easily?
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# ? Oct 10, 2021 17:01 |
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Looking for a reality check on starting babby's first smarthome. Really all I want to do is set up a few smartlamps/bulbs (with Alexa/Google controllability) without creating 30+ connections to our main wifi router, or interfering with our main wifi traffic. If I can avoid downloading a bunch of apps, even better, but not a dealbreaker. My first thought was to get a zigbee/z-wave hub, but I actually might have a cheaper idea. I have an old 2.4 GHz router that I can set up on a channel separate from our main wifi router, as to not interfering with the main wifi traffic. Wifi smartbulbs are seemingly cheaper than the zigbee/z-wave stuff anyway, making this a less expensive proposal overall, especially if I end up expanding. Am I missing anything? Anything else I should be considering?
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# ? Oct 10, 2021 20:30 |
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Presumably all of your main WiFi traffic is on 5 ghz anyways, so no 2.4 devices will interfere. You also want it to be reliable, so old router doesn’t sound optimal.
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# ? Oct 10, 2021 21:26 |
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I have all UniFi APs, and have almost zero issues with my variety of IoT Wi-Fi devices (current only offender is Lyric via HomeKit but I think that's more their lovely firmware + I'm about to give in and move it to my main network). Key things: * Must have a separate SSID that is 2.4 GHz only for all of these things, period. Most of them are ESP8266, ESP32 or other ubiquitous Wi-Fi MCU based and they work best when you have a SSID that is only 2.4 GHz and named as such. Don't have a network named 'home' on both 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz for the sake of your own sanity here. By having 'home_iot_24' its unambiguous what your phone / device you're using for setup is connecting too, and unambiguous for the connective device. * On that SSID, set everything to maximum compatibility -- speed doesn't matter, stability does. DTIM intervals, beacon intervals, everything -- relax it as much as possible. * In terms of lights / hubs... can't speak highly enough about the Lutron Caseta hub that sidesteps this entire problem by being an Ethernet <-> 315 MHz bridge, and still being physical switches that work if the Internet / network take a poo poo. Worth considering the hub / spoke model if you're gonna have a lot of devices connecting up.
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# ? Oct 10, 2021 23:27 |
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Hello, I am looking for a way to have a couple of different lights come on when I hit a switch. It is two lamps (on different outlets) and a wall sconce. I do not want these things to be connected to the internet and don't need any kind of automation aside from whatever happens between the switch and the lights. Is there a way to do this that doesn't involve letting google or amazon or apple control my electricity?
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# ? Oct 11, 2021 17:16 |
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# ? May 11, 2024 14:39 |
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I have a bunch of cameras etc coming with my new place but have never automated any cameras or hooked into a security service. Any recommendations on where I should be looking? Plan on hooking into home assistant and don't want to spend a fortune every month
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# ? Oct 12, 2021 20:06 |