Home Automation and Security Systems

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

stevewm: May 10, 2005

If you don't mind rolling your own, there are a few open-source and free HA packages out there that will run on multiple platforms. Domoticz, HomeGene, and OpenHAB come to mind. Though OpenHAB is more of a framework with multiple GUIs available.

The three I mentioned happen to work on the Raspberry PI 2, so I got one and have been playing around with Domoticz (http://domoticz.com/) and Z-Wave using a Aeon Labs USB Z-Wave stick. Its actually pretty easy to get started. Download the pre-made RPi SD card image, flash it to your SD card, and then boot the Pi. It doesn't rely on a external web service, works with most Z-Wave devices, and the interface is simple. The automation aspect of it can be programmed using a drag & drop if/then block style interface, or LUA script if so desired.

Only have a single door sensor and plug-in switch module right now.

I am also going to give HomeGenie a try...

# ¿ Mar 19, 2015 16:56

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 02:04

stevewm: May 10, 2005

I just waded into the home automation pool.... Put up some new LED lights in my garage and figured since I was running all new electrical I would give home automation a try as well.

Decided to go down the Z-Wave route since that seemed to be the most widely supported among the various HA systems & software. Bought 2 EcoLink Door Contact sensors and a GE non-dimming SmartSwitch. Since I already have a server computer running Windows that I keep running 24/7, I decided to give HA software a try instead of a dedicated hub. I also really didn't want a system that relied on "cloud" services. So I got a Aeon Z-Wave stick and started with the open-source systems. What I wanted to do was simple; turn some lights off/on when various doors where opened. Send me notifications if certain doors where left open for X amount of time, etc... And not have to learn a programming language to do some simple automation.

HomeGenie - This definitely has the prettiest looking GUI of them all. Has apps for all the mobile platforms. I had problems though getting it to see my door sensors as contacts instead of light switches, which was a bit annoying. So it would say "On" for open, and Off for closed. Cosmetic issue, but it annoyed me nonetheless. Automation is done by writing scripts in various languages such as Python, Ruby or Javascript. There is a way to do automation without writing scripts using a Script Wizard and macro recording, but I found it somewhat cumbersome to use and limited.

Domoticz - Simple and to the point. Has apps for iOS and Android. Along with several 3rd party apps. Had no issues including any of my Z-Wave devices. Automation scripts can either be written in LUA or created using a drag & drop interface called Blocky. I did run into one issue where it kept declaring my GE switch as a dead node, but that appears to have been a radio signal problem. Putting the z-wave stick on a extension cable and putting it up higher solved it.

OpenHab - Way too complicated for the novice user. Expects everything to be done via config files. Some GUIs available, but not everything can be done via them. If you like tinkering with text files and doing everything manually, then this might be the one for you.

I also trialed a paid-for piece of software called HomeSeer. It appears to be quite powerful at first glance, however the interface is AWFUL. Its web based, but appears to contain every bad web design element from the 1990s. The documentation available was apparently written for a older version of the software, as much of what it describes is either no longer present, or in a completely different place in the current software. It took me more than 30 minutes of screwing around before I figured out how to even configure my Z-Wave stick and even longer to figure out how to include a device and add it into the software. The jumbled interface does not really help in figuring it out. Once I did get my devices included, the door sensors would not work at all instead throwing some cryptic error message. Found some references to it on their forums, but no solution. Gave up and uninstalled it. Frankly if I had gotten it working, there is no way in hell would I ever pay for something with such an awful interface and documentation.

At the moment I have settled on Domoticz. I much prefer its simplicity. I also love the Blocky "programming" interface. You drag&drop if/elseif/do puzzle pieces around to build events. Makes it easy to visualize events.

stevewm fucked around with this message at 03:00 on Mar 16, 2016

# ¿ Mar 15, 2016 21:41

stevewm: May 10, 2005

The Gardenator posted:

Ubiquiti has a new dome interior/exterior model UVC‑G3‑DOME that is not yet released. It is on presale at B&H: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1244763-REG/ubiquiti_networks_uvc_g3_dome_unifi_g3_series_2mp.html
Only thing is it is apparently only 2 MP. That may or may not be a bad thing if I am going with that NVR or a similar priced one, apparently (from further reading) the cheaper NVR's cannot handle all of the channels @ maximum resolution. I may just have to re-purpose my old i5-750 computer and install blue iris with a POE switch. Although I am only looking at one camera right now, I would like the option of 3-4 cameras @ maximum resolution.

I don't believe BlueIris will work with Ubiquiti cameras. From what I can see you are limited to 4fps JPEG snapshots using Ubiquiti cams with BlueIris. Ubiquiti uses their own proprietary protocol and don't provide any RTSP streams.

While nearly every other IP camera on the market thee days provides either a RTSP stream, ONVIF (a industry standard protocol), or both.

# ¿ May 27, 2016 21:36

stevewm: May 10, 2005

For those of you going the DIY route with HA.. The open source software Home Assistant recently added a feature to emulate a Philips hue bridge.

This allows devices that support the Philips hue local API to be able to control any switchable device on your Home Assistant system.

It is primarily meant to allow the Amazon Echo to integrate with zero work, and for that it works perfectly. The Echo immediately discovers all switchable or dimmable devices. It will also allow you to activate scenes or scripts you have setup in HA if you have them set to be exposed on the emulated hue bridge.

# ¿ Sep 16, 2016 15:05

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Keystoned posted:

Could you explain this on very simple terms? Does this mean I can run the hue lights without buying the additional controller or something and if so how?

No, to control actual Philips Hue lights you still need the bridge.

This feature in Home Assistant fakes a hue bridge and allows other devices or systems to control devices inside the Home Assistant software via the Hue API.

For example I have ZWave controlled light bulbs in my Living Room lamps on my Home Assistant system. HomeAssistant exposes these via it's fake Hue Bridge, so the Amazon Echo can see them and I can control them with voice commands to the Echo... for example: "Alexa, turn on living room lamps". As far as the Amazon Echo is concerned, it is controlling Philips Hue lights.

Before this feature, getting Alexa/Echo integrated in Home Assistant was not an easy task.

For those of you who don't mind a little coding and messing about, I really recommend Home Assistant. It is so flexible and supports soooo many devices. https://home-assistant.io/components/ It does have a somewhat steep learning curve due to the configuration being done via YAML text files. But this also allows it to be extremely flexible.

# ¿ Sep 16, 2016 15:25

stevewm: May 10, 2005

WhyteRyce posted:

How is HA vs. OpenHAB? I've got OpenHAB controlling my ZWave switches and working with a bridge to Echo, but I couldn't figure out how to get the dimmers/fan switches to do anything other than just be Off/On with Echo.

Only thing I can say is I briefly tried OpenHab. I quickly got frustrated with it. Not to mention couldn't find a decent GUI for it at the time. I found HA and never looked back. Getting ZWave working was a little hairy since it uses a separate OpenZWave library for it.

Getting the Echo working is as simple as adding "emulated_hue:" to your configuration.yaml. (Though I think for new installs it is there by default.) Once you have done that and restarted HA, tell Alexa to discover devices. It should find all switches and dimmers by default. Dimmers automatically work with commands such as "Alexa, dim left lamp to 50", or "dim left lamp to half", etc... Dunno about fan controls as I don't have any of those.

As a side effect of using the emulated Hue bridge, you can only use On/Off/Dim commands. So to activate a Scene or Script you have to use the ON command. For example I have a scene called "Movie Mode" To activate it, I say "Alexa, turn on Movie Mode".

I used these instructions: https://home-assistant.io/getting-started/installation-virtualenv/ to install HA on a headless virtualbox Ubuntu 16.04 VM running on my home server. Alternatively they also have a all-in-one script that will install everything in one go on a Raspberry Pi 2 or 3. (3 recommended) https://home-assistant.io/getting-started/installation-raspberry-pi-all-in-one/

# ¿ Sep 23, 2016 14:07

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Droo posted:

I also use the Netgear ProSAFE PoE switches and they work OK, but one word of caution is that you can't remotely "reboot" a PoE device that is plugged into it by cutting power to it temporarily. Even if you force a firmware upgrade, or reboot the whole switch - it maintains power to the device through all of it.

I had a camera that would occasionally freeze up and there was nothing I could do except physically unplug it for a few seconds from the switch. Ended up replacing the defective camera and everything has been fine since then, but it was annoying that there was literally no possible way to cut power to it remotely. Fully managed switches would have been able to do that, but they cost a lot more.

Edit: they also don't do true link aggregation, but they have a fake version of it they use to talk to eachother so it kind of SEEMS like they do it if you don't read too closely before you buy it.

I have several of those switches (unfortunately) with PoE cameras, and there is in fact a way to cut power through the admin interface.

On the PoE port settings tab (the one that shows power consumption) each port has a "Admin" setting. Why it is called this I have no idea, but this is actually the PoE power control. If you disable "admin" on a port, it cuts PoE power to it.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2017 17:27

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Droo posted:

Thanks, but I don't have a PoE tab at all. I have two of these switches - one is a GS108PEv3 with firmware 2.00.08, and the other is a JGS524PE with firmware 2.0.1.26. Which exact model do you have?

This is what my web interface looks like. Is it in there somewhere and I just can't find? I tried the desktop app once and it looked identical to the web interface, no extra options.

Oh wow... they have totally butchered the web interface on the newer firmwares then. Mine are FS/GS series Prosafe switches with 1.x firmware. The interface looks a little different, but I have many more options available.

On my switches I have a "PoE / Advanced" option under System.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2017 20:05

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Many modern cars have replaced the key with a RF keyfob that allows you to unlock doors by just walking near the car with the fob.

Are there any door locks out there that can do the same for your home?

# ¿ Feb 17, 2017 05:36

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Hmmmm.. The Kevo looks like it would fit the bill. Was mainly looking for something so I didn't have to dig my keys out of my pocket when walking up to the door carrying stuff.

Recently bought a car that does this, and I really like it. Walk away from the car for more than 10 seconds and it locks. Walk near the car and you can unlock it by just pushing the button on the door handle.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2017 14:39

stevewm: May 10, 2005

HomeAssistant is also an option. You just need an Aeotec ZStick.. Home Assistant can run natively on a Raspberry Pi. However it doesn't currently have a GUI configuration. It has to be done via text files. But it is not that complicated and they have very good documentation on their website.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2017 21:36

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Leperflesh posted:

.
Installed Foscam's weand after running the plugin installer, nothing happens, there's no plugin installed (firefox).

Both Firefox and chrome recently dropped support for NPAPI plugins,. So basically the only plugin that still works in Firefox is flash.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2017 21:50

stevewm: May 10, 2005

uPen posted:

Hue trip report: When your power goes out at 2am your lights will all turn on full bright when it comes back on and won't turn off until your internet comes back online and the bridge connects and turns them all off ~10 minutes later.

Stupidly this is standard on a LOT of smart bulbs and often cannot be changed. I can only assume this is so they will act like a normal bulb if you have them on a physical switch.

The ZWave bulbs I have in my living room lamps are also like this. And for some stupid reason will also on occasion turn on to full brightness after a Zwave network heal event. (part of maintenance that a zwave controller does from time to time)

# ¿ Jul 12, 2017 18:44

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Thermopyle posted:

The only problem I have the MyQ is a problem I have with a lot of stuff that uses notifications. I guess you'd call it notification fatigue.

If my daughter is playing outside for hours (which happens a lot of the time), I'll get a bunch of notifications that the door is open. I also get notifications each time the door opens. Eventually I just stop paying attention to the notifications. A couple of times over the past few years we've left the door open all night even though I'd gotten a notification the door was open...just because I was so used to the notifications I didn't pay any attention.

This is why I added some logic to my notifications in Home Assistant for my garage door.

I only get alerts for the garage door opening/closing if I am NOT home. And to keep me from leaving the door open overnight, if the sun sets and the garage door is open, I get an alert. And then it will repeat every 30 minutes until the door is closed.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2017 16:58

stevewm: May 10, 2005

n.. posted:

I've got several ceiling fan/light combos in the house, and they're each wired up with a single switch that turns the whole thing on/off and there's what I assume is an aftermarket RF remote that controls the light dimming and fan speed.

So far I can't seem to find a z-wave fan speed and dimmer control. I DO see separate z-wave dimmers and speed controllers, but they're a switch replacement which won't work for me given how they're wired. Does anyone know of one that will fit up into the canopy? Ideally I'd like to retain a wall switch, if nothing else to flip it off and back on again to turn the light on (like if I could set it to turn the light on full and fan off by default if loses power).

I'd like to know myself.. I have 2 ceiling fan/light combos wired up this way. Normally I would just run another wire, but in both cases the switch is on an external wall and would be difficult to fish a new line down the wall to it.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2017 21:47

stevewm: May 10, 2005

For those of you using Home Assistant..

Version .56 added Google Assistant support. (https://home-assistant.io/components/google_assistant/) This means you can control Home Assistant entities anywhere you can interact with Google Assistant, such as AndroidTV boxen, Google Home devices, etc..

It does require some manual setup work still. Nowhere near as much as before though.

One big requirement is that your Home Assistant installation is internet accessible and with a valid SSL cert. This can be accomplished with DuckDNS and LetsEncrypt.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2017 14:34

stevewm: May 10, 2005

n.. posted:

Finally! Been waiting for this. One thing I'm not clear on from the instructions is whether or not the gactions CLI has to be run from the home assistant host, which would be a problem for me since I'm running hassio and it doesn't look like there's a plugin yet. It looks like maybe it can be run from anywhere, though.

e: yep it's just a one time thing you can run from anywhere. already up and running, this is awesome.

You can install SSH on Hass.io.... Its in the addon store.

But yes it works well.. I really only use it from Assistant on my Shield Android TV box. Still married to my fleet of Amazon Echos.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2017 01:53

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Has anyone dabbled with building their own custom system with NodeRed?

I noticed it has Zwave ability, and can even work with Alexa using the same emulated Philips Hue bridge trick that Home Assistant takes advantage of.

The dashboard looks nice as well, and even looks much like Home Assistant.

I think I might start playing around with it and see what I can come up with.....

# ¿ Nov 10, 2017 15:08

stevewm: May 10, 2005

You need the Hue Hub to control the Hue bulbs. Hue bulbs use Zigbee to communicate, and while some SmartThings hubs do have a Zigbee radio, the Hue bulbs don't speak the same Zigbee protocol that SmartThing's supports.

A recent development allows Home Assistant to talk directly with Hue bulbs without a Hub, but you still need a supported Zigbee radio stick setup for HA. Honestly the hub is the easiest and cheapest way to communicate with Hue bulbs. On the plus side Home Assistant natively supports the Hue Hub and will automatically discover it and the devices paired with it assuming it is on the same network.

# ¿ Nov 27, 2017 18:24

stevewm: May 10, 2005

wolrah posted:

In theory Zigbee is the open standard for low-speed IoT type device mesh networking, with Z-Wave being a similar but proprietary solution offered by a single vendor.

In practice Zigbee is too open and allows vendors to be shitheads that lock their devices down to only officially talk with other approved devices. IIRC at one point the Hue bridge used to work with a lot more devices, then a firmware update intentionally disabled this. Z-Wave's single vendor solution turns out to be an advantage in that the vendor mandates compatibility.

Additionally, Zigbee was not originally designed for home automation. It was designed as general purpose, low speed, low power, mesh network. There originally was no standardized communications protocol for Home Automation devices; that wasn't introduced until 2007. Because of this many manufactuers went their own way, using Zigbee for the physical layer, and creating their own protocol ("profile" in Zigbee parlance) to communicate between their Zigbee nodes. This page puts it well: https://community.smartthings.com/t/faq-zigbee-application-profiles-or-why-not-all-zigbee-devices-work-with-smartthings/76219

ZWave was purposed designed for lighting control and automation with rigid command structures specifically for that purpose. Additional command sets for devices such as fans, switches, blinds, etc.. was added later. It is also developed and controlled by a single vendor as you pointed out which mandates compatibility for all ZWave licensees.

# ¿ Nov 27, 2017 21:29

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Interestingly HomeAssistant started as Python script written by some guy to control the stuff in his house with a basic interface.

Now it has become a system second only to OpenHab in the amount of things it supports.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2018 22:45

stevewm: May 10, 2005

chocolateTHUNDER posted:

Do you really want to have to take out your phone EVERY time you wanna turn some lights on and off? Or when google home/alexa invariably says "Sorry I didn't understand you!" ?

This is exactly why I went with ZWave switches. There is still a normal switch for those that can't operate the HA stuff/Alexa. And also a backup for when those things invariably fail.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2018 15:07

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Alexa has a REALLY hard time with plurals. I have 2 lamps, named left lamp and right lamp. Both of those are in a group called "lamps". For Alexa to understand it correctly I have to say "turn on lampsssss".

Google Home/Assistant has no problems with this, it understands me 100% of the time without having to hiss.

I could change the group name, but... :effort:

. I've gotten used to it. I haven't been bothered enough to go into Home Assistant and change the group name.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2018 17:38

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Zigbee sounds like kind of a mess...

# ¿ Feb 21, 2018 16:05

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Granted I did have some issues with my Zwave network as well. But I eventually figured out it was simply a matter of signal reception.

The Zwave devices out in my garage couldn't reliably reach the rest of the nodes near the center of my house. I eventually put Zwave bulbs in some lamps that where close to the garage and this solved the problem. Gotta love mesh networks.

They even make specific Zwave repeaters for this purpose. Plugin devices that do nothing but act as a routing node.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2018 17:08

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Subjunctive posted:

Yeah, this got my attention. Which system exposes devices to, e.g., an Echo?

Home Assistant can expose basically any item to Echo utilizing its built in Hue Emulator. Basically it fakes being a Philips Hue Bridge. Via this route however you can only turn on/off or set things to a percentage. But if that's all you want to do, then it works fantastically.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2018 16:40

stevewm: May 10, 2005

enraged_camel posted:

What is the best z-wave repeater? I need something to extend the range of my SmartThings hub because my Schlabe smart lock can't detect it (probably too far?)

There are a handful of repeaters. They all work equally well.. but remember any mains powered zwave device is a repeater. So just adding another powered zwave device between your lock and the hub will also work.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2018 23:23

stevewm: May 10, 2005

eddiewalker posted:

What the last guy said, just add another z-wave switch somewhere between, BUT make sure that new device supports secure relaying. Locks need encryption that some cheap devices can�t speak.

If you get a zwave plus certified device I am fairly certain secure relay is a

eddiewalker posted:

What the last guy said, just add another z-wave switch somewhere between, BUT make sure that new device supports secure relaying. Locks need encryption that some cheap devices can�t speak.

Good catch on that, forgot a lock needs secure relay.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2018 02:42

stevewm: May 10, 2005

enraged_camel posted:

my favorite ecobee story is when i asked alexa to play some jazz music and the ecobee thermostat picked up the command and started playing john coltrane and i couldnt figure out a way to stop it (repeated "stop playing music" commands got picked up by the main alexa unit) so i had to shut off the power to the whole thing

Do ecobees still not support ESP? (Feature that multiple echos use so only one responds) Seems kinda dumb they wouldn't implement it.... I would imagine many people with a ecobee probably already have an Echo.

# ¿ Jul 20, 2018 23:25

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Finally got around to updating my HomeAssistant to .85.1 last night, and also switched to the new UI system called LoveLace.

LoveLace is pretty drat nice; being able to live edit the GUI from the GUI itself is pretty drat nifty. No more editing config files and restarting HA constantly! At this point they have nearly got it to where you don't have to edit config files at all, for anything.

If you haven't yet switched to LoveLace, do so now. If you are using HA via Hassio, there is a add-on that will convert your existing setup to LoveLace and then you can set the LoveLace page to be your default.

I am also interested in playing around with the new ESPHome stuff. Looks like it makes messing around with ESP based devices pretty easy.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2019 15:10

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Got to play around with the new ESPHome integration in Home Assistant.. Its awesome if you like doing DIY stuff. It is basically a easy way to configure any ESP32/8266 device using YAML. Said devices then integrate with Home Assistant. Changes can be sent via OTA to the ESP, and custom code running on the ESP can directly call into Home Assistant's API if you want to do so to trigger things.

Install the ESPHome addon in Hassio. (Instructions here: https://esphomelib.com/esphomeyaml/guides/getting_started_hassio.html) Plug your ESP device into the computer or PI running Hass.io The ESPHome dashboard will see it. Once your initial configuration is uploaded, you can disconnect your ESP device from USB, any further changes can be done over the air.

In Home Assistant, Configure the ESPHome integration by adding the name of your newly configured ESP device, all the configured sensors on the ESP device will automatically appear in Home Assistant.

I took a Adafruist Huzzah ESP8266 I had and connected a BMP280 Temperature and Pressure sensor to it.

Some screenshots!

ESPHomeYaml Dashboard with configured ESP device.

Editing ESP device configuration using YAML. Documentation here:https://esphomelib.com/esphomeyaml/guides/getting_started_hassio.html
Adafruit Huzzah with BMP280 I2C sensor and ESP Wifi signal strength exposed.

Soon as you upload any changes to the ESP configuration to the device itself, any new or changed nodes appear in Home Assistant immediately.

New ESP Sensors as they appear in Home Assistant.

ESPHome devices send updates to Home Assistant using either MQTT, or writing into Home Assistant's API directly. The latter is the preferred and default method. The api: flag in the ESP device config enables this.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2019 01:15

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Been messing with it all night...

Makes it really easy.

Have hooked up a button, a LED and a 10k POT, just to see how it worked.

Defined the config as such:

Which results in this in Home Assistant:

The OTA upload is really neat.. Change config, Validate, and then Upload. Depending on what you changed, you might have to wait for it to recompile the firmware. It uploads, and then reboots the ESP. Any changes to entities are reflected in Home Assistant soon as the ESP reports in the first time.

Thinking about putting this into a box and mounting it in my garage. The Huzzah has enough input/output pins I could hook up some door contact sensors to replace both Zwave door sensors (I have use for them elsewhere), and also add a small relay to toggle my garage door opener. Making a sort of "sensor hub" if you will.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2019 03:57

stevewm: May 10, 2005

MeKeV posted:

I'm looking to set up a couple of little led lights in my workshop that link back to my Home Assistant, to indicate when my wife is home/I have unread emails, that kind of thing.

Do you reckon this would be a decent start point interface for that?

I havent put much thought in to it so far, my original idea was to base it off a Pi Zero.

Perfect start point... Get a cheap ESP device, hookup some LEDs to the GPIO pins, set them up as a GPIO switch in ESPHomeYAML.( https://esphomelib.com/esphomeyaml/components/switch/gpio.html) They will appear as a normal switch in Home Assistant, which you can then turn on/off from any automations inside HA.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2019 15:58

stevewm: May 10, 2005

MeKeV posted:

But the one thing I'm wondering about is Pi-Hole, should I go with the hassio addon, run it in its own separate virtual machine, or leave it running in a docker on the PI?

Personally I ditched the Pi3 a long time ago. Just found it way too drat slow. Instead I bought a cheap Lenovo Tiny M53 system off eBay (we have a few of these machines at work, which is how I knew about it) and slapped a 128GB SSD in it.

Software wise, I installed Ubuntu Server, and then installed Hass.io on top of that. (https://www.home-assistant.io/hassio/installation/ - scroll down to "Alternative: install on a generic linux server".) I also installed the hass.io Portainer addon. Anything that isn't available as a addon, I just setup a Docker container using Portainer.

Performance is many times that of the Pi. A complete system reboot only takes about 9 seconds from power on until HA is ready. Restarting just Home Assistant takes maybe 3-4 seconds.

I had previously played around with running Hass.io in a VM, but could never get my ZWave USB stick to work reliably or at all inside a VM. With my current setup I've not had any problems. Docker has been good enough for me.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2019 16:01

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Are there any decent RGBW bulbs where the RGB part isn't 1/10th the brightness of the white part?

# ¿ Jan 19, 2019 20:34

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Welp put the circuit I had breadboarded to control my garage door onto a protoboard PCB.

Top view:

Bottom view:

ESP8266 drives the relay via a transistor. Relay is rated for 5v on the coil, but it triggers fine with 3.3v. Load side of the relay is connected across one of the existing door buttons in my garage. All it does is short the wire for a short time, just like the button itself does.

Hooked up to one of the existing buttons... it works!

Now I just need to print a box to put it in, and clean up the wiring.

It appears in Home Assistant as such:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxN6f_zxOtI

To get it so I could say "Alexa, open garage door" I actually had to setup a custom routine in the Alexa app. The Alexa integration in Home Assistant still exposes Cover type devices to Alexa as a on/off switch for some reason. But it works!

Next project is to take a ESP8266, hook it up to a PZEM-004 power meter (https://www.amazon.com/PZEM-004-Display-Digital-Current-Multimeter/dp/B074PJLRV4), and hook said power meter to my Volt's EVSE so I can see when the car is charging and monitor its power usage.

Integrated into Home Assistant of course. ESPHome has a module to talk to the PZEM-004 directly, but its not 100% working yet. So I'll just use one of the existing projects out there to expose the power meter via MQTT.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2019 02:27

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Installed .87 with no issues here... I had already switched to LoveLace a little bit ago, so the upgrade with off without issue.

Looking forward to trying the new energy meter stuff. Domoticz had features like that, I was bummed when I moved to Home Assistant and it didn't.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2019 22:26

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Personally after finding RPi performance lacking, I went and bought a cheap Lenovo Tiny PC off eBay for $100 with a 120GB SSD. It runs multiple circles around a RPi. A i3-4130 is quite a lot more powerful than a RPi!

I installed Ubuntu Server, and then used the Hass.io installer script to put Home Assistant/Hass.io on it. (https://www.home-assistant.io/hassio/installation/ scroll to bottom of page under "Alternative: install on linux") Once installed, it works no differently than Hass.io on the RPi. All the Hass.io functions like snapshots, reboot, updating, etc... work perfectly fine. And given that Hass.io is just Home Assistant stuffed into a docker container and you have plenty of power left. You can install something like Portainer and get a GUI to install other Docker containers for other services/functions. like PiHole, NodeRed, etc...

It is ridiculous how fast it is.. From power on to Home Assistant being ready is at most 8 seconds. I think half that is spent waiting for POST. It is also rock solid stable.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2019 21:24

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Butt Soup Barnes posted:

Hass.io with node red is a game changer.

Agreed...

And if you want something with plenty of power to run it, get something like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-Thi...bwAAOSwA05cdCab Or alternatively search Lenovo Tiny on eBay. They are great little low power machines for such a purpose. Personally I have a Tiny m53 and slapped a $14 120GB SSD in it.

Install Ubuntu Server on it, and then run the Hass.io installation script.

Many more times powerful than a RPi3 and with full Hass.io functionality (addons, host control, etc..) And with a SSD boots in about 5-6 seconds

# ¿ Mar 31, 2019 02:21

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 02:04

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Combat Pretzel posted:

An RPi3 not enough anymore these days for that sort of stuff?

It works... But certain things can be slow. Like retrieving data for graphs, restarting home assistant, and some add-ons.

Hass.io has a containerized addon system that lets you install things like Node Red, PiHole, Unifi Controller, Grafana, Influx, etc..

If you want to use a lot of add-ons, the pi just doesn't have enough power.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2019 17:12

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

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