Home Automation and Security Systems

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That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

Does anyone have a good primer, article, video etc on how to setup a decently secure network that contains some basic home automation stuff? Preferably something that at least starts with a small disabled child's level of network knowledge and goes from there?

My ISP is Verizon FIOS and I have a TP-Link AC1900 Wireless Router that arrives tomorrow.

Wife and I have recently gotten into the smarthome stuff after a few gifts and we have the following hardware:

3x Nest-E thermostats
2x Echo Dots
1x Echo
1x Philips Hue Bridge w/ 4 lights
3x cheap chinese wifi plugs (1 at least runs through the Kasa app).
1x Fire Stick HD

Other connected stuff:

Dell wireless printer
Couple computers, mixed bag of apple / PC
Couple tablets, Apple and Amazon
Android and Apple cellphones.

Neither of us run a VPN to work or stuff like that. Basically I'm just trying to figure out how secure is enough and what is a decent initial setup that I should try to implement.

In the past I'd just made sure that my routers were updated, SSID and password defaults were all changed and depending on where I lived hidden the SSID etc but I don't know anything about security concerns once automation / IoT stuff comes into the mix. Any advice?

# ¿ Feb 6, 2019 01:59

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 00:10

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

Maneki Neko posted:

Have a strong unique password on your service (Nest, Amazon, etc) logins and use 2 factor authentication whenever possible. Most of the stuff in the news about people having their nest cameras hacked is people breaking into their Nest account because they reused a password from somewhere else and didn’t have two factor authentication on.

You could pretty easily set up a guest network and put your “smart home” devices on that but for what you’re describing it’s probably more of a pain than it’s worth.

Would putting them on a separate SSID matter or help at all?

Thanks for the other advice. I am reasonably sure the other accounts are on a separate strong pw and I use 2-factor when available but it might be time to go update all that anyways to be sure.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2019 13:01

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

1-3 are normal, 4-7 are just being a dick.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2019 12:25

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

does the irobot stuff integrate into alexa skills at all? So far had just been using the irobot app standalone and didn't think to try it.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2019 18:50

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

I haven't looked at the landscape for any of this in a good while and was wondering. What (if anything) is the most secure (or least worst) way to do the following:

Voice activate controls for lighting and some smart plugs.

Right now we have Alexa at the house and use that to drive a couple of Phillips Hue bulbs and a few TP-link or other (Kasa?) smart plugs. We had those tied into some Nest-E thermostats, but we've found that we don't really use the smart thermostat options much at all, and I don't feel strongly about having that be part of another home automation system.

I've got the Nests, the Echo and Echo Dots and all the smart plugs and Hue Bridge etc on a guest network separate from anything we use for our own computers etc. I'm interested in expanding some more smart lighting, especially voice activated but figured I'd see if anything new came out recently, or any further guidance on better security if needed etc. Any suggestions?

# ¿ Feb 2, 2021 21:15

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

I didn't even know that Home Assistant existed until this thread and I have a couple of questions about moving over to using it. I have an Alexa household with a mix of Sylvania and Hue smart bulbs and several random Kasa / TPlink or other brand smart plugs.

Right now we do everything via voice commands through Alexa and all the smart devices are on a separate wireless 2.4ghz guest network. Ultimately I would like to get rid of Alexa from the house but retain some of its functionality. I really only need the voice command ability in 2 rooms in the house.

I have an UnRaid NAS file server hardwired to my router that is always on and it looks like you can run Home Assistant through that in a VM so I think I will set that up initially to see how it goes. Any cautions / issues on this method?

The Sylvania color-LED bulbs I have look like they will not integrate into Home Assistant at this time. In that case I would be happy enough to use a zigbee hub and zigbee switches to control them as half of them are on old dimmer switches that need replacement anyway. We don't use the color feature other than setting the right white balance anyways.

We also have a few Nest-E thermostats but don't really do much with them automation wise. Do those work with Home Assistant? If not no big deal really.

As for voice activation, I saw some stuff on reddit so far about people using pi-ZeroW setups with a mic as a voice interface. Is there a better method by now or does this method not work well enough to bother with for now?

The last thing is does Home Assistant have any kind of specific ways to know when specific users are home? Ie could the phone app alert the server when a users phone is in proximity and turn on lights / turn off when the reverse is true etc?

# ¿ Apr 8, 2021 14:19

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

Less Fat Luke posted:

That's a lot of questions, I don't know about the Nest stuff but just check the Integrations on the site for what systems work.

It was but between you and WhiteHowler most of it is covered. I've got enough now to go head and dive in with it and I'll read up more on voice activation stuff. I did see the paid integration service with Alexa but tbh I would prefer to not have the devices hooked up at all.

Thanks very much both for the replies!

# ¿ Apr 8, 2021 14:50

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

Yeah that's a good set of features. I might go with that but still get rid of Alexa devices. Just not trusting of them tbh (I know there's probably a dozen other things that are capable of being as potentially intrusive).

# ¿ Apr 8, 2021 15:46

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

I'd be interested in those same garage door sensors also since we can't remember to close ours at least once a week it seems.

Thanks to the previous answers and guidance I've gotten Home Assistant up and running in a VM on my file server and it's pretty nice to work with / I've gotten a lot of the basic functionality I wanted already. I want to buy some new hardware to replace some older TPlink plugs that are now incompatible and wire in some switches for some Sylvania bulbs that do not work with HA.

Going by some posts above I was thinking about grabbing the Honeywell Zwave plugs and switches:

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07B3HKTZY/
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07P5PJND2/

And this zwave interface:
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01GJ826F8/

Does that still seem like decent hardware? I was gonna run just the above and if they install easily / play nice then probably buy a bunch more of the switches and sockets.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2021 17:56

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

I need someone to point me at the right things to read up on as I am not sure what parts of Home Assistant are necessary to make this work so a bit lost on where to start.

I have a pi ZeroW driving a range of temp sensors and also trips a relay to close and open a door on my chicken coop. It's a self contained solar thing that connects to my home network via wifi.

Goal: To have the coop notify me somehow (SMS, push, ???) each time the coop door opens and closes. OR even better might just be a lovelace card that shows the coop door status (open, shut) and how long since it was last updated.

The coop door is open or closed by separate shellscripts that is directed when to open / close based on a crontab schedule. The script simply fires off the relevant python script and spits out the time when it was activated to a log. The Pi is running Raspbian lite and is headless / remote and I just ssh into it as needed for updates etc.

Can someone point me in the right direction for this? Just not sure what way to go about setting something like that up.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2021 15:18

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

CheddarGoblin posted:

Is the pi zero also where you'll be running HA, or some other device? Because raspi GPIO is natively supported by Home Assistant, you can likely ditch your python/shell scripts and have HA handle everything. A basic automation can open/close the door based on whatever criteria you like.

Push notifications are part of the HA android/ios apps.

No, it's out in the backyard and while connected isn't always at good strength on the network. My HA is run on a VM on my home fileserver.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2021 20:59

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

CheddarGoblin posted:

In that case, if it were me I'd swap the pi zero with a nodemcu and run ESPhome on it.

It's tempting but id rather not given how it's installed, wired etc and has been functioning perfectly for a year already.

Unless it's prohibitively difficult to do what I want to. The thing I am unclear on the most is how to get the pi to talk to HA.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2021 21:42

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

Thanks. I'll read up on it.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2021 21:45

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

Does anyone have a rough idea of the range on devices like these?

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D37VDM3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Also, thanks very much for all the advice. I have HA running on my NAS as a VM and have also managed to hook up several sensors, got MQTT running on my Pi in the chicken coop and have it pushing a notification to HA etc each time it opens and closes the door.

One annoyance about that is while I get a notification when the script fires off to open / close the door, the actual door status is not reflected so I want to have a direct sensor installed to show the status instead. Thus the question about range above.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2021 17:42

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

WhiteHowler posted:

Zigbee range is rated at 10-100 meters, but generally falls around 10-20 meters in real-world applications (ie. you're going through walls and have other 2.4 GHz interference nearby).

Note that Zigbee uses a mesh network, so the sensor doesn't have to be within 10-20 meters of the hub; it just has to be within range of another device already connected to the network.

Thanks. It's gonna be cutting it close but not too terrible. I only have the hub I am using for Z-wave at the moment so have to get zigbee configured right on it.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2021 17:53

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

WhiteHowler posted:

Zigbee range is rated at 10-100 meters, but generally falls around 10-20 meters in real-world applications (ie. you're going through walls and have other 2.4 GHz interference nearby).

Note that Zigbee uses a mesh network, so the sensor doesn't have to be within 10-20 meters of the hub; it just has to be within range of another device already connected to the network.

Welp, didn't work but that was the only zigbee device on the hub so far. I ordered a pair of smart plugs that act as repeaters and I'll put them on 2 diff receptacles on the back wall of the house closest to the coop and see if that makes a connection.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2021 01:55

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

I run my HA instance on a VM which is on my Unraid server / NAS that I use for all my :filez:

and PLEX etc. It was really easy to get up and running and I am happy that it can piggyback so easily onto an already 'always on' device.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2021 16:39

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

I can't help you with Synology. I use a homebuilt NAS running Unraid. You might Google around and see if people run a VM on those if not docker.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2021 01:53

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

I've got a setup issue I can't figure out for Home Assistant.

I bought a couple of Honeywell Z-wave smart switches and got them set up and running on my Z-wave hub yesterday, so I know the process is functioning. Those H-well switches are practically unobtanium though so I bought a GE version and it looks like they get pumped out of the same factory tbh. I got this model:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RRBT6W5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

I've wired it up and it works, neutral wire is connected, blue LED is working, manual controls work.

However I cannot get it to detect by my Z-wave hub. Location is not an issue as it's just across the room from other Z-wave nodes that are functional and it's <20ft away from the server.

I am using the OpenZwave integration. I have tried doing a factory reset on the hardware as well but nothing seems to click.

Any suggestions?

# ¿ Apr 28, 2021 20:28

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

TVGM posted:

I just installed some of those last week, but I'm using Hubitat to control them.

For those that set up was Device Discovery -> Z-wave -> Start Z-Wave Inclusion. Then I pressed the switch on and it showed up in the results, but I had to re-run discovery and hit the switch again to actually name it properly.

Thanks.

I tried the factory reset on the switch, also rebooted HA etc. At best I can get a new node to show up, but no new devices or entities and when looking at the node itself in OpenZwave config its just blank and I can't seem to query it so far. This is an odd one.

e: looks like someone else has the same issue. Not encouraging.

https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/cyhsci/openzwave_config_not_fully_recognizing_a_new/

That Works fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Apr 28, 2021

# ¿ Apr 28, 2021 21:04

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

For HomeAssistant folks what are you using for your Zwave integration?

I had OpenZwave running and it was up for 3-4 days and after a server reboot it's not connecting to any of my devices / I can't even load up the integration configuration anymore. The VM running HA has the USB passthrough set up correctly and the USB hub I am using is running Zigbee just fine off of the same device so I am fairly sure it's a Zwave software issue.

I'm open to ditching OpenZwave for something else if I can't fix it so was curious what others use.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2021 19:04

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

HomeAssistant question.

I want to have something in my lovelace dashboard to turn on a smart plug that then stays on for 60 minutes and then turns itself off again and do this every time.

I can figure out how to automate one to come on at a set time per day and stay on for 60 min, but for some reason can't get my head around how to set it up by me pressing a button. Kinda new to HA still so probably just missing something super obvious.

This setup is to turn on a pump from a rainwater barrel to my drip irrigation system in the garden. Needs to be manual because I want to visually inspect the amount of water before turning the pump on so it doesn't run dry and destroy the pump.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2021 11:31

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

DaveSauce posted:

Maybe this helps:

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/easiest-way-to-trigger-an-automation-with-one-tap-from-lovelace/108564

Alternatively, using the device's "ON" state as your trigger might work? Lovelace should already have a toggle switch for the plug, so I think you could just make an automation using "outlet = on" as the trigger and then for the actions you'd set a 60 minute delay and then turn the pump off.

Here's something to that effect:

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/turn-on-rf-outlet-for-one-hour-help-please/29126/3
code:
  - id: heater
    alias: 'Heater'
    trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: switch.heater
      to: 'on'
    action:
    - delay: '1:00:00'
    - service: switch.turn_off
      entity_id: switch.heater
The benefit of this approach is it ALWAYS turns it off after 60 minutes. So whether you trigger it from lovelace or some other method, once it's been on for 60 minutes it'll turn off. (edit: I see this as a benefit, since the concern is running the pump dry. You might consider this a bug since it'd be hard to manually override) (edit again: another bug would be if you turned it off manually, then back on before the 1 hour delay, I don't know how that behavior works... not sure if it re-triggers and starts 1 hour, or if the original 1 hour controls).

That said, IMO use a sump pump float switch as a backup. I've had issues with delay timers in automations not following through and turning things off properly. A sump pump float switch should cut off power to the pump once it gets low, so at minimum you won't trash the pump because HA poo poo the bed.

Thanks a lot, I will try this out.

Eventually the plan is to have some sort of sensor in the barrel to set up as a condition for a timed automation, ie, every day at 5:00am if the sensor is floated then turn plug on for 1hr kind of deal.

However I haven't even looked into options for a float sensor / how to get one set up in the barrel yet. Eventually I'll get there but for now just wanted to have something I can set and forget for starters.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2021 13:56

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

DaveSauce posted:

An emergency shut off sensor is definitely your best interest. If you don't have 60 minutes worth of water in the barrel, you're going to run the pump dry. One day in the future the barrel inlet will get clogged, or you'll forget to disable the automation during a drought or something.

Sump pump float switches are cheap and easily available and specifically designed to switch motor loads. As long as your rain barrel has a big enough diameter, it should be ideal.

Here's a random option from googling:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-Piggy-Back-Float-Switch-for-Sump-and-Sewage-Pumps-EBFSWPB/205618058

And the manual:

https://images.thdstatic.com/catalog/pdfImages/c4/c49f88c4-159b-4636-b13d-a9ba0ff8a875.pdf

Just about anything from your local LowesDepot should work.

Only issue is you won't get feedback from it so you won't really know the true status, but IMO it's most useful as a hardwired failsafe. Maybe if your smart plug has current sensing you can check if the pump actually turned on? Otherwise you'd need to buy a level sensor (I think SparkFun has cheap capacitive liquid level sensors) and then somehow tie it back to HA.

edit: you could probably also wire the float switch separately as a physical input to something, rather than being inline with the pump. So you'd use it now as a hardwired shutoff, and once you find a way to wire a switch back to HA you can just use it in that capacity.

edit again: one caveat I just thought of... the style of float switch I linked above is assuming that the pump starts when it floats. So it's not necessarily designed to stay in the up position for extended periods of time. Worse, if you tether it such that it shuts the pump off when the water is low, it might end up staying submerged for most of its life. Not sure it's going to be happy about that...

Having it start on float is fine I believe. In this configuration I have the smart plug at the outlet, then an extension cord to the sump switch above and the pump powered from that. If the smart plug turns on at a specified time for 1 hr then the only way the pump comes on is if the sump switch is floating.

Given that the sump switch seems to just be a ball bearing rolling between contacts on the float but not on the hang, I doubt there would be much issue with it floating for a long time while largely unpowered. Any reason that would be a problem you can think of? Not seeing one myself on 1st glance.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2021 15:37

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

DaveSauce posted:

I think the logic will work out in general. May not be what it's intended for, but it can be made to work. The float switch will be on all the time except when the level gets too low. Since the float switch isn't generally switching the load, it should last quite a while in that respect.

The issue I'm thinking of, however, is that the float will actually be submerged. Not just floating on the surface like it would in a sump, but in my head it'd need to be tethered low enough in the barrel where it's likely that it'll be fully under water for the majority of its life. I have no idea if they're designed to be submerged for long periods or not. It's one thing to be exposed to water or occasionally submerged, but it's another for that float to be just submerged continually and only dry when you run the barrel down.

That said, they're usually cheap enough where as long as it's a "every few years" replacement type thing then it's probably not as big of a deal.

Yeah the float switch costs as much as the pump does so even if it only lasts 3-4yrs I don't feel too bad about it. We only run the whole system for about 4-5 months of the year anyway and the entire system is only powered 1h per day, so maybe only 120h of total powered time per year.

I didn't know these kind of float switches even existed so this helps a ton. I was trying to figure out how to construct some kind of sensor that was a lot dumber/complicated than this. Thanks.

That Works fucked around with this message at 17:20 on Jun 23, 2021

# ¿ Jun 23, 2021 17:14

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

How difficult would it be to set up some kind of physical switch or button that once engaged blocked Twitter.com or other websites across my Wi-Fi network?

I know that's kind of home networking as well but I figure enough people here probably overlap to know how that sort of thing is done.

I'm just envisioning some type of system where I can flip a literal switch and cut off access to social media etc.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2021 22:05

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

Motronic posted:

You would need to have something that could do that on your router. Which probably means a PC/pi running something like Home Assistant to trigger it. And then any old zwave or zigbee switch/button.

There's nothing particularly difficult about it, but it requires a whole lot of stuff if you don't already have like....a working home automation setup and a router that can do this. And the home networking part gets increasing difficult depending on exactly how one would implement this in your particular router.

Ive got a z-wave hub and it's on my home assistant VM on my NAS physically connected to my router. I would need to figure out how to get home assistant to talk to the router and also how to figure out how to make my router do this, which I guess I could find out pretty easily just on its own and then all I need to do is figure out how to get a switch to run a script to execute that something on the router.

I also have a pi separately running pi hole on the network. I've not looked at selective / transient blocking through pi hole, does anyone know if that is doable just from the DNS side? I can probably move this to the networking thread if no one has a short answer here.

This is just a little bit outside of my experience, but it feels like most of the pieces individually I could probably figure out.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2021 22:12

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

Motronic posted:

So any zwave button that works with HA will work. You need it to trigger two scripts, one to turn on blocking, one to turn off.

The networking part is a bit easier with pihole, but you'll still need to write a script to hit the pi hole API and insert DNS blocking like this: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JackCuthbert/pihole-twitter/master/pihole-twitter.txt and then another script to take it back out again.

Awesome thanks

# ¿ Aug 12, 2021 22:23

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

odiv posted:

Yeesh, it's going to be cheaper for me to buy Zigbee temp sensors and a Zigbee stick than buying Z-Wave temp sensors. I guess because Z-Wave has certification?

I want to stick with Z-Wave because I have it already and don't want to over-complicate things, but also money.

This was recommended up thread somewhere. You can run Zigbee and Z-wave off of the same hub. It was very easy to set up for both and once set up just add the hardware through it's relevant integration in HA and it all fits together well once paired.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GJ826F8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

e: I am using a mix of z-wave and zigbee based on price / availability for stuff. Mostly Z-wave switches and Zigbee sensors and plugs.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2021 00:14

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

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

If you want to run solely HA on it (because the wipe), installing their OS image might be an idea. It takes away control from the underlying OS, but you get automagic docker plugins and updates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG_f6cj7mEw&t=82s

# ¿ Oct 9, 2021 16:14

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

Scruff McGruff posted:

How is the range on Z-Wave or the HUSBZB-1 in general through floors? My HomeAssistant lives on a VM in my home server in the basement but all my Z-Wave devices are on my main floor. Now my house is pretty tiny so the distance between the devices and my server isn't that far, one is almost directly above the server.

I also have a RP4 on the main floor that runs Mycroft (Pircroft) and was debating trying to stick a Z-Wave hat or USB into and then maybe install docker and run ZWaveJS2MQTT and have that link to HA? But I'm not super skilled with HomeAssistant or even Linux in general so if I could still just put the receiver on the actual server and just pass it through directly to the HA VM that seems much simpler.

I have mine on my basement NAS on a VM running HA.

I just made sure I added a few lightswitches and/or plugs that also function as Zwave repeaters and range hasn't been an issue.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2021 18:53

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

Henrik Zetterberg posted:

Lutron Caseta, Hues, an AR-15

Pick 2

And or a dog

# ¿ Dec 25, 2021 14:04

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

Hed posted:

I had some cabinets made and put in some lighting. The day before the guy showed up to install them I made my plan and ordered the stuff. Since they are LED strips and connected to the smart home I wanted to do a little write up here in case y'all were interested:

This back wall is about 10' long and you can see with the soffett I had 11 cabinet "bays" to light. The bookshelves are about 12" deep and the workspace in the front is another 12".

Normally I would just get Warm white LEDs but since this was my office / posting den I decided to get RGB as well. So my plan was to mount them in aluminum channels with diffusers on the tops, about 1/3 of the way back so they could still illuminate the front of my books.

I was so late on this the carpenter didn't bring anything to cut dados so I just ended up mounting the channel with clips screwed to the shelf. I decided to do home runs for each light strip rather than daisy-chain. Since I had to land 5 conductors at each strip, I wanted to be able to know if something went wrong and easily identify/repair. I knew if I did not do this, I would screw something up. Anyway on to the BOM:

2 of these 24V RGB(warm)W strips

24V 120W power supply

this Zigbee 12-24V light control that would present to a Hue hub or HA

10x2m aluminum channels

My shelves after my carpenter left the second day and I tore some more holes and started routing cables. I went over a few different routing strategies with him but when he was gone I figured out the best way was to home run everything to the rightmost undercounter cabinet, where I had ample electrical outlets and it would be out of the way.

Here's where everything ran to, I mounted barrier strips to keep each light's conductors somewhat organized by position for troubleshooting. If I had to do this again I would probably just use some 66 blocks. You can also see my Zigbee controller in position.

Here it is all wired up. I'd like this to look more organized but it's OK. The gamepads came later as that cabinet became much needed storage.

I didn't get a picture of me soldering the strips but I tinned the connectors and conductors, put heat shrink tubing over the cable, soldered, put liquid tape on the exposed parts, then put the heat shrink into place and shrank that up. All that got done and mounted before the carpenter came back to finish.

And then...

It works! Looks much more impressive than on the reel!

And bonus: I'm ready for when they reboot Ecto Cooler Hi-C!

I'm very happy with the finished product. And now it's on home assistant and the hue app so I can tie it to my other lights and mess with it. For Christmas I had it switch between red and green every 15 seconds. Very gimmicky but that's how I wanted it.

Yes I know my framing/finishers in this office are hilarious... it's amazing what you don't notice is square until you get someone meticulous up next to it.

Nice work! Thanks for this I am in the planning stages right now of a dining room wall built in that I wanted to wire up and light very similarly.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2021 14:22

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

Minor interest to some.

https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/s60fok/i_see_your_atmospheric_pressure_graphs_showing/

On the homeassistant subreddit theres a lot of folks posting their barometer data as far away as Europe showing a pressure spike after the Tonga volcano eruption on the other side of the globe.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2022 14:59

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

Hed posted:

I mean this in all seriousness as I am a weather nerd, but what do you guys use your weather stations for? Are there smart home automations I'm missing?

Aquara sells a pretty cheap sensor that does temp, humidity and pressure all in one so a lot of folks have them. I use one in my chicken coop to keep an eye on their condition, ends up being a bit of a weather station too I guess.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2022 00:05

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

wolrah posted:

This may be a relevant question, I've had this adapter in my "things to buy" list for a few years because at least at one point it was the standard recommendation for supporting both Zigbee and Z-Wave on a Home Assistant box with a single stick:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GJ826F8/

Is this still a good choice? I currently only have Hue gear which is Zigbee, would there be any benefit to using a single protocol adapter for Zigbee alone and then just adding a separate Z-Wave adapter if I ever want to get something from that ecosystem?

I bought that one 2 years ago, have had HomeAssistant running for the past 2 years and basically just buy either Zigbee or Zwave hardware based on sale pricing or specific application or style needs and both integrate just fine into HA. The only difference is how you add them into HA at the 1st step, after that I can't tell any performance difference between either types. I am mostly using lightswitches, some sensors for garage door, temperature interior/exterior and a couple of smart plugs.

Anyway, I see no reason not to get that hub personally, but more experienced users might have concerns I missed.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2022 17:36

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

Anyone got a preferred solution for a HA compatible switch to close a Craftsman garage door motor?

# ¿ Nov 16, 2022 12:10

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

calandryll posted:

I'm using the aforementioned Shelly1 relay with a simple reed switch to determine open and closed.

Great. I already have a garage door sensor tied into HA to provide open / closed status which I can use as a conditional to fire off the automation. Got the 1st Shelly ordered.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2022 15:05

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

Henrik Zetterberg posted:

There�s the whole giving your footage to cops or whatever thing

That's a hard pass for a lot of folks I imagine.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2022 18:52

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 00:10

That Works: Jul 22, 2006; Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy

HomeAssistant folks help me out. I started with an Echo / Amazon home automation system with a Hue hub. Then I started switching over to HomeAssistant and now have some mix of the both and during the winter break wanted to get rid of all the Echo/Alexa devices in the house and run everything through HA.

I decided I wanted to just go ahead and blow up the current HA instance and start over from scratch. Is there a good more recent guide(s), tutorial etc or anything anyone likes for this?

Also current plan was to keep running it in a VM on my Unraid NAS in the house (it's been quite stable there for a while). I have a USB hub for Zigbee and Zwave devices and I have the Nabu Casa thing for remote access. Is there anything that I need to take special care to backup or anything before starting over from scratch? Or any other headaches I might be walking into that I haven't foreseen?

My automation stuff is entirely some Hue bulbs, a bunch of Honeywell (or clones) Z-Wave or Zigbee switches, smartplugs and a few zwave sensors for the garage door and some temp/humidity Aqara sensors in a plant greenhouse etc. 2 users, both on Iphones and I am going to repurpose an old tablet for an interface in the home. I only have a few simple automations, mostly just letting me know when stuff has been running for longer than x hours or if the garage door is open, turn off the lights at 10pm etc kind of deal. Nothing super crazy time intensive to rebuild imo.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2022 00:34

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