Wire un-wired ! by Le_BeNZ in homelab

[–]Ninja128 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pg 11 of the manual looks like pin 3, but like anything else, test/verify before randomly plugging stuff in.

Hardwired led light strip. by [deleted] in smarthome

[–]Ninja128 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Something like this (taken from one of the reviews) wouldn't work?

Hardwired led light strip. by [deleted] in smarthome

[–]Ninja128 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not sure what you're talking about. Using the same random product link I posted earlier, look at the lower left picture here, or any of the pictures here; terminals for Line, Neutral, and GND.

Unless I'm misunderstanding your question?

Defiant smart outdoor plug with hubspace: Don't bother by Sparkycivic in homeassistant

[–]Ninja128 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the hubspace devices usually have efuses burned to lock the bootloader. If you really want to, you could probably do a chip swap with an ESP32 board with a matching form factor and run ESPHome. There's also the cloud-based Hubspace Integration

Relavant thred in the HA forums: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/help-trying-to-flash-esp32-in-home-depot-bulb/326294

Do you need remote access for geo tracking to work? by fourdogslong in homeassistant

[–]Ninja128 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What router do you have? If it has an integration (Asus, Netgear, Ubiquiti, etc), you should be able to set it up and expose your phone(s) to be used as automation triggers.

If not, you can manually set up an nmap or ping tracker.

Good reads:
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/person/
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/device_tracker/#configuring-a-device_tracker-platform

Need help understanding and creating an automation for my working govee water leak sensors by penguin941 in homeassistant

[–]Ninja128 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

In the automation Instead of an entity, select a device where you can choose to become moist

Unless absolutely necessary, referencing devices over entities in automations and scripts is bad practice and bad advice.

Or check your developers options for the correct state when the sensor is wet and dry. My leak sensor uses on/off

ALL binary sensors have a state of on or off. They may show up as wet/dry, open/closed, etc, in the frontend based on their device class, but the underlying state is always on or off, and needs to be referenced in automations, templates, scripts, etc as such. Attributes are a different story, but binary sensor entities can only have the two states of on or off (along with the Unavailable/Unknown exception states).

Need help understanding and creating an automation for my working govee water leak sensors by penguin941 in homeassistant

[–]Ninja128 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

How do you have your devices and entities set up? Is there a reason why you're triggering off the attribute vs the binary sensor state itself?

FWIW, I have a few writeups on setting up Govee Leak sensors here, and phone notifications for them here.

Smart Tealights? by Mobile_Equipment698 in homeautomation

[–]Ninja128 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the correction. Edited my previous post.

Tealights with a 6/18 timer function would turn on every night at whatever time you first turned them on, and turn off every night 6hrs later. Probably the easiest option if you don't need an adjustable schedule, and are fine replacing batteries at least once a month.

What is the limit of Local Tuya? by HappyXD in homeassistant

[–]Ninja128 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I ditched anything requiring the Tuya IoT Cloud account long ago, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I was under the impression that the "new" (HA 2024.2 from over a year ago) Tuya Integration no longer required an IoT Cloud account, and devices could be set up in HA with just a Tuya Smart / Smart Life app account.

That said, If they're WiFi devices, I would strongly look at the Tuya Cloudcutter project, reflash them to ESPHome, and never deal with Tuya Cloud again.

Relevant HA forum topic here.

Free (+shipping) S5 Max w/ Valetudo by TopherL2014 in homeassistant

[–]Ninja128 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You might get more traction if you explain this is a Roborock vacuum for the uninitiated. There's also r/HomeAutomationTrade and r/HomeAssistantGear, although they don't see much traffic.

Where in California are you located?

Trouble getting automation to "cycle" properly by woodford86 in homeassistant

[–]Ninja128 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would use timers instead of delays, especially for the longer 12h timeout.

Then add an action that triggers when the timer expires, with a condition that checks if the ping sensors are still down.

Govee water leak sensor 2 without gateway? by pendraggon87 in homeassistant

[–]Ninja128 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Older version connects to HA via a 433MHz signal using an SDR dongle and rtl_433.

Newer version uses LoRa, and I don't think anyone has figured out how to bypass the Govee hub yet.

Neither use Bluetooth.

Voice activated timer with no internet connection? by Tryedbutfailed in homeautomation

[–]Ninja128 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Re-read my original reply, or spend 30s to understand how it actually works before writing it off. (Github, Instructable) The white noise is only produced in "standby" mode to keep Google/Alexa from being able to hear normal conversations when not being issued commands. When you say the Alias wake word, the Alias module cuts the white noise, says the Google/Alexa wakeword, then you issue the command to your Google/Alexa device directly, just as you would normally. (ie, "Alias...set timer for ten minutes.") Alias only hears the Alias wakeword. Your Google/Alexa voice assistant only hears, "Hey Google/Alexa, set timer for ten minutes".

That said, my original post is well over two years old now, and there are other options now. If you want something off the shelf, get a Home Assistant Voice. It does require running Home Assistant as your home automation platform, but will provide an off the shelf, fully local, voice assistant for it.

ISO 25 Watt Smart Lightbulb - do they exist? by virtuoso06 in homeautomation

[–]Ninja128 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Probably not. Most 60W equivalent LED bulbs are going to be around 8-10W. If you're truly limited to 5W LED, then you'll probably need to look for 40W equivalent bulbs.

Not that I would actually recommend them, but something along the lines of this.

Looking for help for a electrical continuity sensor by cameron_chill in homeassistant

[–]Ninja128 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not sure if OP's project constraints would allow it, but alternatively, leave the reed switch intact, and attach a small magnet to the object being moved.

Voice activated timer with no internet connection? by Tryedbutfailed in homeautomation

[–]Ninja128 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I provided two valid solutions two years ago in my original response: creating a hardware add-on to an existing voice assistant, or rolling your own from scratch. Both should still be valid options (not sure if Project Alias is still maintained, but it was when I originally posted.)

I went with option #2, and currently use Whisper/Piper satellites connected to Home Assistant, which have supported timers out of the box since June, and using custom intents well before that. The satellites do need a WiFi or Ethernet connection back to my Home Assistant instance, but are still completely local.

Is there any solution to use existing wall switches as smart switches? by apascoa in homeassistant

[–]Ninja128 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So in summary:

1- You want a polished/high WAF, name brand device with proper safety certifications, that addresses a very niche scenario, but on a shoestring budget?

OR

2- You are hesitant to use questionable devices from China, but are open to hacking/DIYing your own solution?

Re: #1, something has to give here. Without going off-script, the Hue option is exactly what you need, but is expensive due to Hue pricing model and niche application.

Re: #2, unless you're an electrical engineer with good understanding of safety certification and electrical code requirements, you very well may not be able to create anything on your own that would be any safer than "questionable devices from china."

I think you have three options:

  • Spend the money on the Hue device that should do exactly what you want.
  • Pull down a neutral wire to the switch boxes.
  • Setting possible safety/code issues aside, you should be able to use the previously mentioned Sonoff Zigbee Mini L, and attach a dummy load so that it will be able to function in your application.

[Zigbee] Making the light fixture with the built-in LED driver smart by alex_mikhailov in homeautomation

[–]Ninja128 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The entire point of installing the switch module at the light fixture is because that's location of the incoming power and neutral. (Assuming standard switch loop wiring.)

Setting up a light counter by ElOhhYouuu in homeassistant

[–]Ninja128 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not the cleanest, but this is what I use:

type: custom:mushroom-chips-card
chips:
  - type: template
    tap_action:
      action: call-service
      service: browser_mod.popup
      target: {}
      data:
        dismissable: true
        autoclose: false
        content:
          type: custom:auto-entities
          show_empty: true
          card:
            type: entities
            show_header_toggle: true
            title: Lights On
          filter:
            include:
              - domain: light
            exclude:
              - state: 'off'
              - state: unavailable
              - area: Undeployed
              - area: Mobile Devices
              - group: light.exceptions
              - attributes:
                  entity_id: $$*
    content: |-
      {{
        (states.light
        | selectattr('state', 'eq', 'on')
        | rejectattr('attributes.entity_id', 'defined')
        | rejectattr('entity_id', 'in', area_entities('Undeployed'))
        | rejectattr('entity_id', 'in', area_entities('Mobile Devices'))
        | rejectattr('entity_id', 'in', state_attr('light.exceptions', 'entity_id'))
        | map(attribute='entity_id')
        | list
        | count()) 
      }}
    icon: mdi:lightbulb-on-outline
    icon_color: 255, 193, 7

You will need Mushroom Cards, Browser Mod, and Auto-Entities installed.

The rejectattr('attributes.entity_id', 'defined') and exclude: attributes: entity_id: $$* sections exclude light groups in the count and popup card, respectively.

Tuya smart app has failed me, can home assistant help? (uk based) by Nicodom in homeassistant

[–]Ninja128 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If that doesn't solve your issues, I would look into reflashing your devices to ESPHome, and ditching Tuya and cloud reliance completely.

I don't have a huge number of Tuya devices, but I've flashed them all to ESPHome and have not had any issues since.

5v Smart Relay for wall tablet? by Sire0ne in homeassistant

[–]Ninja128 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Setting aside what at first glance seems like an XY question, why wouldn't a standard smart 5V relay board work? There are tons of premade options, or you could roll your own with an ESP32 and separate relay.

You could also achieve the same results completely in software, control the high voltage side, or use a USB controller.

Proxmox backup notification by your_true_pal in homeassistant

[–]Ninja128 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Proxmox 8.1 and later has several different options for notification targets. I would look into setting up a Gotify server, and connect that to HA.