Home Automation and Security Systems

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Home Automation and Security Systems

Hed: Mar 31, 2004; Fun Shoe

CheddarGoblin posted:

That is a configurable setting, you can make it as fast as you want. Separate settings for ramp rate when using the physical switch as well as z-wave.

I would love to be wrong on this so please tell me if I'm missing something. For the Jasco ones, there's "Dim quickly" and "Dim slowly" but it already comes set to quick and it easily takes 4-5 seconds to ramp from the moment you press the flipper on.

For the Leviton models, you can set a numeric value of seconds for the ramp and 0 makes it "instant on":

I would love to be able to use more Jascos because they're easier to work with in my opinion but if there's a way to make them more instantaneous I haven't seen it.

# ? Nov 24, 2021 21:08

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# ? May 11, 2024 17:18

CheddarGoblin: Jan 12, 2005; oh

Hed posted:

I would love to be wrong on this so please tell me if I'm missing something. For the Jasco ones, there's "Dim quickly" and "Dim slowly" but it already comes set to quick and it easily takes 4-5 seconds to ramp from the moment you press the flipper on.

That says Honeywell 39351? I'm not sure what that is, but my actual GE/Jasco dimmers (14294) have more options, including ramp rates.

e: I've since replaced all my dimmers with Inovelli ones, before zwaveJS came to HA, so I can't show you a screenshot unfortunately. But I promise it was A Thing.

Is there a reason you can't use Inovelli? They wire up exactly like the Jasco ones.

CheddarGoblin fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Nov 25, 2021

# ? Nov 25, 2021 23:25

IUG: Jul 14, 2007

I just picked up the Eufy Security 2 camera set as it�s $150 today. I basically wanted it because of HomeKit integration, to see when the Mail is delivered, and sadly/ironically to see if my nosy neighbor tries to do my yard work again.

# ? Nov 26, 2021 15:11

RoboBoogie: Sep 18, 2008

any one seeing good deals on zigbee stuff?

# ? Nov 26, 2021 15:46

Hed: Mar 31, 2004; Fun Shoe

CheddarGoblin posted:

That says Honeywell 39351? I'm not sure what that is, but my actual GE/Jasco dimmers (14294) have more options, including ramp rates.

e: I've since replaced all my dimmers with Inovelli ones, before zwaveJS came to HA, so I can't show you a screenshot unfortunately. But I promise it was A Thing.

Is there a reason you can't use Inovelli? They wire up exactly like the Jasco ones.

It looks like there are some unmarked parameters that set # of levels and time to transition, but it's a tradeoff.

Ok the Inovelli looks great, I'll take a look. Thanks for the help.

# ? Nov 26, 2021 17:54

Henrik Zetterberg: Dec 7, 2007

I need to add a keypad doorknob lock to a door inside the house. Would greatly prefer HomeKit compatibility out of the box, but it looks like the only Schlage HomeKit-compatible lock is a deadbolt instead of just a regular doorknob. Anything like this exist?

# ? Nov 26, 2021 18:21

BrianRx: Jul 21, 2007

Does anyone have experience building a private, completely local system? I only have Hue lights and a couple Ring cameras, but want to get away from subscription services that may or may not sell or share my data (which Ring does with my local PD). I have everything running through HA on a VM and will probably switch to a Raspberry Pi or other dedicated hardware at some point.

I'm sure someone sells standalone cameras that don't phone home, but I haven't found them at reasonable price points yet. I'm not so sure about lights. Is there an open-source application for controlling ZigBee or similar lights that doesn't require a secondary service like Hue to register the lights? Regarding cameras, I want to be able to view a live stream as well as save recorded events to local storage. Neither the light control or video needs to be accessible when I'm not home.

# ? Nov 26, 2021 23:28

Motronic: Nov 6, 2009

BrianRx posted:

Does anyone have experience building a private, completely local system? I only have Hue lights and a couple Ring cameras, but want to get away from subscription services that may or may not sell or share my data (which Ring does with my local PD). I have everything running through HA on a VM and will probably switch to a Raspberry Pi or other dedicated hardware at some point.

I'm sure someone sells standalone cameras that don't phone home, but I haven't found them at reasonable price points yet. I'm not so sure about lights. Is there an open-source application for controlling ZigBee or similar lights that doesn't require a secondary service like Hue to register the lights? Regarding cameras, I want to be able to view a live stream as well as save recorded events to local storage. Neither the light control or video needs to be accessible when I'm not home.

Home Assistant, zwave devices, whatever cameras you want that output standard format (I'm using reolink) on a jailed vlan so they can't talk to the internet, Blue Iris as a DVR.

Nothing in my home automation requires the internet. It's not allowed to touch it other than pinholes to gather things like weather data.

# ? Nov 27, 2021 00:57

Endymion FRS MK1: Oct 29, 2011; I don't know what this thing is, and I don't care. I'm just tired of seeing your stupid newbie av from 2011.

Ok I have to be missing something. I have my home setup through Google Home. With a Nest thermostat. I recently switched to an iPhone. Even with Google Home and Nest apps set to always have location access and background refresh, they do not update when I leave for work. Is this a known issue?

Edit: I just checked the Home app and it somehow wasn�t set to use my phone for presence sensing. I swear I set this up earlier. Maybe I�ll just wipe my old Pixel just to be sure it can�t switch back somehow

Endymion FRS MK1 fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Nov 27, 2021

# ? Nov 27, 2021 20:41

Partycat: Oct 25, 2004

PBCrunch posted:

Cut the ends off those cable ties! Someone is going to poke their eye out!

I did, it looks real tidy - that's just the only picture of it I had, and it was pre-trimming things.

After putting the official adafruit USB adapter there, I still have problems with Z-WaveJS2MQTT needing to be restarted periodically, but it is in the realm of days and not hours now.
Not clear on how to debug that, nor am I convinced it's a power problem.

# ? Nov 27, 2021 23:05

Rescue Toaster: Mar 13, 2003

Motronic posted:

Home Assistant, zwave devices, whatever cameras you want that output standard format (I'm using reolink) on a jailed vlan so they can't talk to the internet, Blue Iris as a DVR.

Nothing in my home automation requires the internet. It's not allowed to touch it other than pinholes to gather things like weather data.

I'd be interested in any more of a rundown of your setup you feel like posting.

I grabbed a couple reolink 410's on sale. Hopefully I can do something useful with this raspberry pi 4 I have sitting around (I have a NAS for storage). It looks like motioneye is the way to go for linux NVR, though I don't see an obvious easy docker compose for motion daemon & motioneye.

# ? Nov 28, 2021 16:49

Motronic: Nov 6, 2009

Rescue Toaster posted:

I'd be interested in any more of a rundown of your setup you feel like posting.

If you have an specific questions feel free to ask.

But for the most part the entire idea was "can automate, still works without automation, definitely doesn't need the internet to function". There are no switches or devices that you can't manually use like normal switches/thermostats, period. If HA is down, it's a fully functional house, just like you'd expect a house without smart devices to be/operate.

So it's a bunch of levitton zwave switches and some zwave sensors. A couple of zwave thermostats, a bunch of monoprice zwave window and door sensors, and an old school wireless driveway alarm with relay contacts that I have attached to a zwave door/window switch. Schlage zwave deadbolt on the back door. I've got a couple of other things on there like a Tank Utility monitor (propane level), which at the moment requires the internet until I stop being lazy and figure out how to make HA hit the local API, and I'm working on some other sensors for things like salt level in the water softener using ESP boards/devices. I've also got it toed into a Sense for power monitoring - yet another thing that needs the internet to work, but you're not losing functionality if it not working since I do'nt do any automations based on it. There is also a Monoprice 6-zone amp that has some airplay devices attached to it and connects to HA via serial so you can stream audio to the various zones in the house.

This is all tied together running HA with an Aeon Labs zwave dongle running on a VMWare ESX server. The Blue Iris instance is also on the ESX box.

HA lives on an "IOT" VLAN that only has pinhole access to the internet. I also have a bunch of cheap Fire tablets on that VLAN that have various pages per area:

The Sense and Tank Utility boxes also lives on this VLAN, and and anything else like that that might get added later. The ESP sensors will be on it too.

The cameras are on their own VLAN. The Blue Iris instance has one NIC in that VLAN, and is the only thing other than cameras that is in there. That VLAN is 100% blocked from the Internet and anything at all else. You can't even route to/from it internally. BI also has a NIC in the HA/IOT VLAN so HA/tablets can pull video.

I have another HA instance on a Pi in the barn. It controls some lights, a temp/light/motion sensor, an outlet that turns the block heater of the tractor on if it's cold out and going to snow (I need to rework that automation since I switched off of dark skies for weather) and another Schlage zwave deadbolt.

Motronic fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Nov 28, 2021

# ? Nov 28, 2021 17:26

Gyshall: Feb 24, 2009; Had a couple of drinks.
Saw a couple of things.

What are you using for the radar card?

# ? Nov 28, 2021 18:54

azurite: Jul 25, 2010; Strange, isn't it?!

Motronic posted:

Oh, hey neighbor! Cool setup!

# ? Nov 28, 2021 19:06

Motronic: Nov 6, 2009

Gyshall posted:

What are you using for the radar card?

That's the now standard weather forecast card. Real simple:

code:

type: weather-forecast
entity: weather.<airport_code>_daynight

My weather provider (in integrations) is NWS, set up with the same airport code but I feel like there was somewhere I choice "windy" as a weather source/provider, I just can't seem to find it. Maybe that's different than just having NWS as a source.....

ninja edit, nope, the NWS integration has the "weather.<airport_code>_daynight" entity in it.

Another edit, that was the top card. I was looking at the wrong one. The "windy" one is:

code:

type: iframe
aspect_ratio: 50%
url: >-
  [url]https://embed.windy.com/embed2.html?lat=40.278&lon=-75.111&detailLat=40.278&detailLon=-75.111&width=650&height=450&zoom=10&level=surface&overlay=wind&product=ecmwf&menu=&message=&marker=&calendar=now&pressure=&type=map&location=coordinates&detail=&metricWind=default&metricTemp=default&radarRange=-1[/url]

Motronic fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Nov 28, 2021

# ? Nov 28, 2021 19:57

devmd01: Mar 7, 2006; Elektronik
Supersonik

Hell yeah, now to set up the scheduling. Outdoor lights will happen next year, I didn�t feel like spending $400 on the exterior zwave outlets and extra icicle lights we need for the second level of the roof. Last year I put in a circuit with outlets right under the eaves where all the Christmas lights need to plug in, to hell with running extension cords.

# ? Nov 29, 2021 00:34

Motronic: Nov 6, 2009

devmd01 posted:

Hell yeah, now to set up the scheduling. Outdoor lights will happen next year, I didn�t feel like spending the $400 on the exterior zwave outlets and extra icicle lights we need for the second level of the roof. Last year I put in a circuit with outlets right under the eaves where all the Christmas lights need to plug in, to hell with running extension cords.

Nice! I use a bunch of these for holiday lighting: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DD7KL3M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I even have one on an outside outlet with an in-use cover and it's been doing it's thing for 3 years.

# ? Nov 29, 2021 00:37

Gyshall: Feb 24, 2009; Had a couple of drinks.
Saw a couple of things.

What's a good place to look for automations w/ home assistant/alexa/etc? I currently use home assistant to do small things like when I open a door, having it play a chime throughout the house. But I'm interested in best practices and how to limit latency/coordinate across devices. Haven't even started with lighting yet either - like turning on lights when opening doors and things w/r/t timers and actual energy savings.

# ? Nov 29, 2021 03:10

devmd01: Mar 7, 2006; Elektronik
Supersonik

Motronic posted:

Nice! I use a bunch of these for holiday lighting: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DD7KL3M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks, I�ll add those to the list for the future, they are slightly smaller than the ones I got for the indoor lights. I did just order a dual-outlet outdoor plug, there is one spot right outside the front door that needs one for lights and one for a gutter heater cable.

I get bad ice dams in the gutter along the walkway up to the house because of how the downspout/extender flows as well as the attic dead space in that last 6 feet of roof. Before I put lights up I installed the cable through the entire gutter and downspout/extender. Once the plug arrives, I�ll turn it on only if necessary instead of having it burn power all the time when it is already freezing out but no precipitation. I�ll probably just set up an automation and scene to trigger it on for 8 hours on demand, maybe a longer one if I know more snow is coming overnight.

Eventually I will install an actual z-wave outlet there, it�s a great spot to have a permanent repeater.

It�s also probably worth exploring a temperature/precipitation forecast based automation down the road once I see how the cable works this year, there has to be someone out there who has figured that out.

Goddammit, you were all right, this poo poo does sneak up on you.

devmd01 fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Nov 29, 2021

# ? Nov 29, 2021 16:20

Motronic: Nov 6, 2009

devmd01 posted:

It�s also probably worth exploring a temperature/precipitation forecast based automation down the road once I see how the cable works this year, there has to be someone out there who has figured that out.

That's exactly how I had the block heater outlet for my tractor set up (only really gets use in the winter for plowing snow). I lost that with the upgrades/changed to the weather provider but it's on my list of things to re-create/steal from someone else's work.

Edit: NWS "daynight" forecast looks like this:

code:

temperature: 39
humidity: 59
pressure: 29.93
wind_bearing: 290
wind_speed: 7
visibility: 10
forecast:
  - detailed_description: Partly sunny, with a high near 41. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph.
    temperature: 41
    datetime: '2021-11-29T10:00:00-05:00'
    daytime: true
    condition: cloudy
    precipitation_probability: 0
    wind_bearing: 315
    wind_speed: 12
  - detailed_description: Mostly clear, with a low around 25. West wind around 5 mph.
    temperature: 25
    datetime: '2021-11-29T18:00:00-05:00'
    daytime: false
    condition: partlycloudy
    precipitation_probability: 0
    wind_bearing: 270
    wind_speed: 5
  - detailed_description: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 41. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
    temperature: 41
    datetime: '2021-11-30T06:00:00-05:00'
    daytime: true
    condition: cloudy
    precipitation_probability: 0
    wind_bearing: 225
    wind_speed: 8
  - detailed_description: Partly cloudy, with a low around 31. Southwest wind around 5 mph.
    temperature: 31
    datetime: '2021-11-30T18:00:00-05:00'
    daytime: false
    condition: partlycloudy
    precipitation_probability: 0
    wind_bearing: 225
    wind_speed: 5
  - detailed_description: Partly sunny, with a high near 47. West wind 5 to 10 mph.
    temperature: 47
    datetime: '2021-12-01T06:00:00-05:00'
    daytime: true
    condition: cloudy
    precipitation_probability: 0
    wind_bearing: 270
    wind_speed: 8
  - detailed_description: >-
      A slight chance of rain showers between 7pm and 10pm, then a chance of
      rain and snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 33. Chance of
      precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts less than a tenth of an inch
      possible.
    temperature: 33
    datetime: '2021-12-01T18:00:00-05:00'
    daytime: false
    condition: snowy
    precipitation_probability: 40
    wind_bearing: 225
    wind_speed: 2
  - detailed_description: >-
      A chance of rain showers before 7am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 54.
      Chance of precipitation is 40%.
    temperature: 54
    datetime: '2021-12-02T06:00:00-05:00'
    daytime: true
    condition: rainy
    precipitation_probability: 40
    wind_bearing: 225
    wind_speed: 8
  - detailed_description: Partly cloudy, with a low around 36.
    temperature: 36
    datetime: '2021-12-02T18:00:00-05:00'
    daytime: false
    condition: partlycloudy
    precipitation_probability: 0
    wind_bearing: 270
    wind_speed: 8
  - detailed_description: Mostly sunny, with a high near 49.
    temperature: 49
    datetime: '2021-12-03T06:00:00-05:00'
    daytime: true
    condition: partlycloudy
    precipitation_probability: 0
    wind_bearing: 270
    wind_speed: 8
  - detailed_description: >-
      A slight chance of rain showers between 7pm and 5am, then a slight chance
      of rain and snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 34.
    temperature: 34
    datetime: '2021-12-03T18:00:00-05:00'
    daytime: false
    condition: snowy
    precipitation_probability: 0
    wind_bearing: 270
    wind_speed: 2
  - detailed_description: >-
      A slight chance of rain and snow showers. Mostly sunny, with a high near
      48.
    temperature: 48
    datetime: '2021-12-04T06:00:00-05:00'
    daytime: true
    condition: snowy
    precipitation_probability: 0
    wind_bearing: 270
    wind_speed: 5
  - detailed_description: >-
      A slight chance of rain showers before 7pm. Partly cloudy, with a low
      around 28.
    temperature: 28
    datetime: '2021-12-04T18:00:00-05:00'
    daytime: false
    condition: rainy
    precipitation_probability: 0
    wind_bearing: 315
    wind_speed: 5
  - detailed_description: Mostly sunny, with a high near 44.
    temperature: 44
    datetime: '2021-12-05T06:00:00-05:00'
    daytime: true
    condition: partlycloudy
    precipitation_probability: 0
    wind_bearing: 270
    wind_speed: 5
  - detailed_description: >-
      A slight chance of rain showers between 7pm and 8pm, then a chance of rain
      and snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 32. Chance of
      precipitation is 30%.
    temperature: 32
    datetime: '2021-12-05T18:00:00-05:00'
    daytime: false
    condition: snowy
    precipitation_probability: 30
    wind_bearing: 180
    wind_speed: 2
friendly_name: KDYL Daynight
attribution: Data from National Weather Service/NOAA

This is not as useful as what I was getting from dark skies for this purpose but if I can figure out how to parse for just the next day and set a boolean if the word "snow" is in there it should be.......okayish. Not great, but it's a start.

Motronic fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Nov 29, 2021

# ? Nov 29, 2021 16:28

Hed: Mar 31, 2004; Fun Shoe

I have two can light retrofits on a Leviton Z-wave dimmer... they visibly flicker unless at near 100% levels.

Even at full brightness these bulbs would only pull 25W, is the solution to get better lights or does one of these Aeoctec bypasses work?
https://www.amazon.com/Aeotec-AEZW150-Bypass-Z-Wave-Dimmer/dp/B017BK1MIA/ref=psdc_507840_t1_B08ZJQV7W2

# ? Nov 29, 2021 17:34

Motronic: Nov 6, 2009

Better lights. LED flicker on a proper PWM dimmer is an indicator that those are not dimmable LEDs. And even dimmables vary in quality and is most obvious at lower dimming levels.

# ? Nov 29, 2021 17:42

Hed: Mar 31, 2004; Fun Shoe

Any suggestions from the thread for 6" retrofit downlights? The current ones I'm having trouble with are FEIT from Costco, but the Lithonia equivalent doesn't look much better. I've had good luck with Lithonia fixtures for all my other LED needs though. Happy to spend more on nice ones.

# ? Nov 29, 2021 18:01

Henrik Zetterberg: Dec 7, 2007

Hed posted:

I have two can light retrofits on a Leviton Z-wave dimmer... they visibly flicker unless at near 100% levels.

Even at full brightness these bulbs would only pull 25W, is the solution to get better lights or does one of these Aeoctec bypasses work?
https://www.amazon.com/Aeotec-AEZW150-Bypass-Z-Wave-Dimmer/dp/B017BK1MIA/ref=psdc_507840_t1_B08ZJQV7W2

Lutron Caseta dimmers sometimes have a problem if your load is <20W or so. They sell an official capacitor that you can install behind your switch to work around this. I assume this is similar.

# ? Nov 29, 2021 18:04

Motronic: Nov 6, 2009

Hed posted:

Any suggestions from the thread for 6" retrofit downlights? The current ones I'm having trouble with are FEIT from Costco, but the Lithonia equivalent doesn't look much better. I've had good luck with Lithonia fixtures for all my other LED needs though. Happy to spend more on nice ones.

I'd start looking here: https://www.1000bulbs.com/fil/categories/selectable-5-6-inch-hardwired-led-downlights

Henrik Zetterberg posted:

Lutron Caseta dimmers sometimes have a problem if your load is <20W or so. They sell an official capacitor that you can install behind your switch to work around this. I assume this is similar.

I have levitton zwave dimmers on lower loads than that with no issues.

# ? Nov 29, 2021 18:04

Henrik Zetterberg: Dec 7, 2007

Hed posted:

Any suggestions from the thread for 6" retrofit downlights? The current ones I'm having trouble with are FEIT from Costco, but the Lithonia equivalent doesn't look much better. I've had good luck with Lithonia fixtures for all my other LED needs though. Happy to spend more on nice ones.

I use Hue downlights in my kitchen and have absolutely no issues with them.
I had to snip off their bulb connector and wire-nut the leads directly into my ceiling though, but other than that, I love em.

# ? Nov 29, 2021 18:07

redreader: Nov 2, 2009; I am the coolest person ever with my pirate chalice. Seriously.; Dinosaur Gum

I have an ADT system that the previous owner put in and I'm not paying ADT anything but it seems to be hooked up to my smoke detectors and one time it said the 'basement glass' had an error but when I checked all of the windows in the basement were a-ok. I think he had a weed operation so maybe security was needed.

I have the override code for it and I cannot turn it off, because of course I can't. Anyone dealt with this before? I just want to get rid of this poo poo. We live in a decent suburb where the only crime is 'joe left his car running on the street and went inside and it was stolen oh no' and I'm like, why the gently caress would you ever leave your car on and walk away????' In San Jose we had people sleeping in our driveway and pooing in the small area between our house and the next. I think I'm good with security, there are very few problems here in suburban Denver (Thornton) and we park in the garage. In Cape Town everyone I know has a security system and burglar bars and poo poo and it's absolutely needed. But here lol no. All I have to do is make sure my doors are locked.

edit: also since I am a new owner I am interested in home automation. The thing I want the most currently is a 'garage door is open' indicator inside the house. Like a light that's on when it's open, or that starts beeping if it's open for more than 5 minutes. I can write code in most scripting languages but I have no hardware knowledge. One time the garage was open for about 4 hours because someone had the opener in their pocket while doing household tasks, and another time my wife drove away by mistake without closing it. Nothing was stolen of course but I like the garage to be closed at all times when I'm not using it.

redreader fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Nov 29, 2021

# ? Nov 29, 2021 18:44

TraderStav: May 19, 2006; It feels like I was standing my entire life and I just sat down

Hey all, I moved into a new home this year and ready to drop on a smart deadbolt. Building out HA the backbone with mostly Shelly devices for my switches. Point being, that I do not have Zwave up and running, but not opposed to doing so if needed. I see that August are the best ones to choose for compatibility with Home Assistant, but confused as to which one to get. The options are the Smart Lock Wifi and the Smart Lock Pro (which comes with a wifi hub to connect.

Googling is showing me some challenges in getting tight integration with HA. Comments mentioning that Homekit doesn't pass through all of the granular controls and in some cases won't work at all. For my situation, which should I pick up? Bit of a time sensitive question as they are on sale for Cyber Monday today and I'd like to get them purchased and sort it out technically, provided there's a solution that's possible.

Thanks in advance!

# ? Nov 29, 2021 18:54

TraderStav: May 19, 2006; It feels like I was standing my entire life and I just sat down

Motronic posted:

What kind of cameras? I've got a bunch of generic (ReoLink) PoE camera that I have pointed at Blue Iris which I then have displayed in HA as necessary. Been working great for years.

The only part I don't like is running a windows box to run Blue Iris, but there really wasn't a decent non-windows NVR option (ZoneMinder was a complete and total disaster at the time I looked at it and even ran it for a few months....it is hopefully a lot better now)

Catching up on the thread. Can you run BI on a Windows VM? I have an UnRaid server that could do the heavy lifting for that if so.

# ? Nov 29, 2021 19:32

FISHMANPET: Mar 3, 2007; Sweet 'N Sour
Can't
Melt
Steel Beams

redreader posted:

edit: also since I am a new owner I am interested in home automation. The thing I want the most currently is a 'garage door is open' indicator inside the house. Like a light that's on when it's open, or that starts beeping if it's open for more than 5 minutes. I can write code in most scripting languages but I have no hardware knowledge. One time the garage was open for about 4 hours because someone had the opener in their pocket while doing household tasks, and another time my wife drove away by mistake without closing it. Nothing was stolen of course but I like the garage to be closed at all times when I'm not using it.

I had a perfectly good LiftMaster opener, but I also had a tendency to leave my garage door open or open it by accident when my keys (with opener) are in my pocket. And because of that, I had ~$1200 of bikes stolen out of my garage when I left it open one night. I'd been trying to retrofit the existing opener with a smart controller from LiftMaster, but it never worked out. When I bought the house earlier this year (had been renting it for 6 years before hand) I decided to treat myself to a new opener that was smart out of the box. I also ended up getting the nicest opener my store sold, because it had the nicest wall control (an 880LMW). The smart stuff is nice, but what's really great is that fancy wall control, where I can do stuff like set it to auto-close after 5 minutes. Liftmaster was/is in the middle of a product refresh, so I ended up getting mine on clearance for $245. Looks like right now the 87802 or 87504-267 have the nice controller, though no idea how much those cost.

I have no idea how well it would integrate with something like Home Assistant, and I've seen DIY hardware things you can do to retrofit on an existing opener, but you might like the piece of mind of just replacing the opener with something that will solve your problems out of the box.

# ? Nov 29, 2021 19:33

TraderStav: May 19, 2006; It feels like I was standing my entire life and I just sat down

Tatsuta Age posted:

anybody taken over a house that has Insteon stuff before? it's all setup with an Insteon hub (and mostly fired through Alexa voice/actions), so should I just have them transfer the account to me? I'm going to move it to hass anyway, just dunno if it's easier to start fresh or what.

I have not taken over a house, but I left one behind just recently. It's going to be a tiny PITA to get it converted over, but not insurmountable. Google up the documentation on how to re-pair each switch, which uses some combination of button presses for with the button below them. Set the hub up first (which also may need a reset) and then build it up one by one. The hard part is done in getting those bastards wired up.

For what it's worth, I didn't love my Insteon set up and chose not to go with it in the new home. You CAN get it over to Home Assistant and/or HomeKit using some plugin which makes it much better. I wouldn't replace them as once you get that interface up and running they work pretty reliably.

Everytime you add a switch you will need to add manually to the configuration file.

Best of luck!

# ? Nov 29, 2021 19:42

Motronic: Nov 6, 2009

TraderStav posted:

Catching up on the thread. Can you run BI on a Windows VM? I have an UnRaid server that could do the heavy lifting for that if so.

I'm sure that will work. Mine is in a Win10 VM on ESXi.

# ? Nov 29, 2021 19:46

Kalman: Jan 17, 2010

Hed posted:

Any suggestions from the thread for 6" retrofit downlights? The current ones I'm having trouble with are FEIT from Costco, but the Lithonia equivalent doesn't look much better. I've had good luck with Lithonia fixtures for all my other LED needs though. Happy to spend more on nice ones.

We've been really happy with our Lotus lights on Innovelli dimmers. No flicker (with 9 on the circuit, anyway), reasonable low dim level, and good light quality from them. Bought them from PROLIGHTING and got them pretty quickly. (We got the 4" gimballed for wall-washing lights, so can't speak specifically to the 6" as a downlight, but I'd assume of the same quality.)

# ? Nov 29, 2021 19:48

TraderStav: May 19, 2006; It feels like I was standing my entire life and I just sat down

Motronic posted:

I'm sure that will work. Mine is in a Win10 VM on ESXi.

Terrific, thanks! I just caught up on the last 5 pages and saw that you detailed your set up pretty extensively above. I appreciate that as I'm in the design phase right now and figuring out what can and cannot work in this house with tons of switch loops. After catching up I think it makes sense for me to just grab a ZWave stick and open up the choice of devices that I have available to me (such as the Schlage door lock you recommend). I have stayed away from ZWave as many years ago I believe it was less secure. It could have been a false understanding that I made at that point, but now that I have a clean canvas won't be so obtuse.

# ? Nov 29, 2021 19:54

Motronic: Nov 6, 2009

TraderStav posted:

I have stayed away from ZWave as many years ago I believe it was less secure. It could have been a false understanding that I made at that point, but now that I have a clean canvas won't be so obtuse.

It's come a long way in terms of security. And wifi in general has......not really progressed much and with device vulnerabilities I kinda feel like something super short range that's not DIRECTLY connected to the internet is the way to go.

# ? Nov 29, 2021 19:57

TraderStav: May 19, 2006; It feels like I was standing my entire life and I just sat down

Motronic posted:

It's come a long way in terms of security. And wifi in general has......not really progressed much and with device vulnerabilities I kinda feel like something super short range that's not DIRECTLY connected to the internet is the way to go.

That is also one of the principles that I'm adopting when building this out.

Are there any door lock solutions that work by tapping my phone or Apple watch to it, like NFC or using Apple Pay (and not by solely detecting my BT/Wifi connection)? That's the only other feature that is attractive to me before dropping on a Schlage (presuming this one is the one to get: https://www.amazon.com/Schlage-Conn...180&sr=8-9&th=1)

TraderStav fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Nov 29, 2021

# ? Nov 29, 2021 20:00

Motronic: Nov 6, 2009

TraderStav posted:

Are there any door lock solutions that work by tapping my phone or Apple watch to it, like NFC or using Apple Pay (and not by solely detecting my BT/Wifi connection)? That's the only other feature that is attractive to me before dropping on a Schlage (presuming this one is the one to get: https://www.amazon.com/Schlage-Conn...180&sr=8-9&th=1)

Yeah, that's the one in whatever style. Same guts.

I don't know about prox card readers - I've only see that in pro level commercial systems and it's been something to trigger powered door strikes or door closure magnets, not a deadbolt or lock. And definitely not battery powered.

Considering some new phones can prox card even when the battery is dead it seems about time for someone to come out with something like that.

# ? Nov 29, 2021 20:05

azurite: Jul 25, 2010; Strange, isn't it?!

TraderStav posted:

Hey all, I moved into a new home this year and ready to drop on a smart deadbolt. Building out HA the backbone with mostly Shelly devices for my switches. Point being, that I do not have Zwave up and running, but not opposed to doing so if needed. I see that August are the best ones to choose for compatibility with Home Assistant, but confused as to which one to get. The options are the Smart Lock Wifi and the Smart Lock Pro (which comes with a wifi hub to connect.

Googling is showing me some challenges in getting tight integration with HA. Comments mentioning that Homekit doesn't pass through all of the granular controls and in some cases won't work at all. For my situation, which should I pick up? Bit of a time sensitive question as they are on sale for Cyber Monday today and I'd like to get them purchased and sort it out technically, provided there's a solution that's possible.

Thanks in advance!

I have a Yale lock with Z-wave, personally. I don't know how August implements their wifi stuff and that's the key (heh) issue unless you know someone who has done it before.

In general, I don't recommend wifi-enabled things because they generally require their own app and cloud to work. If they stop providing either of those things or if your internet goes down, then you have a brick. Z-Wave is reliant on a hub, but it doesn't need a cloud and it doesn't jam up your network. Also, HA is generally more compatible with Z-wave devices because it can talk directly to the device without having to figure out the vendor's network/cloud implementation.

# ? Nov 29, 2021 20:10

Kalman: Jan 17, 2010

TraderStav posted:

That is also one of the principles that I'm adopting when building this out.

Are there any door lock solutions that work by tapping my phone or Apple watch to it, like NFC or using Apple Pay (and not by solely detecting my BT/Wifi connection)? That's the only other feature that is attractive to me before dropping on a Schlage (presuming this one is the one to get: https://www.amazon.com/Schlage-Conn...180&sr=8-9&th=1)

You could make something like this in Home Assistant using an NFC tag and an automation, but it'd definitely be a little hacky. Honestly, the keypad is more than convenient enough for me, I really have never felt the need for a proxcard type setup.

# ? Nov 29, 2021 20:47

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# ? May 11, 2024 17:18

TraderStav: May 19, 2006; It feels like I was standing my entire life and I just sat down

Kalman posted:

You could make something like this in Home Assistant using an NFC tag and an automation, but it'd definitely be a little hacky. Honestly, the keypad is more than convenient enough for me, I really have never felt the need for a proxcard type setup.

Didn't even think about doing that, thanks for the idea!

I can't say that I have a NEEEED for it... just figured it'd be a cool feature that shouldn't be too hard to pull off with current tech. As my phone would be on my wifi it should work relatively quickly and easily with a tap. Once I get these guys installed and set up I'll look into it.

Would be helpful when arms are full or if I'm just being lazy.

# ? Nov 29, 2021 20:51

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