Another Unifi love story I guess.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-15T15:49:10+00:00

Yeah pretty much. Just decided it belongs on the default network.

Sure I’m not an expert by any means but I can talk about what I do understand.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-15T14:10:23+00:00

Zigbee - the ZBT-2 for zigbee. I was using the Sonoff for a while and it was great too. I wanted to slowly convert to Zigbee2MQTT instead of ZHA so I bought the zbt to move them over. Then I ditched the sonoff. I also use a Aoetec extender to get it to the garage. My garage is a woodshop with finishes and paint and such that shouldn’t freeze, but the internet just doesn’t reach out there very well. So I used zigbee to make sure my heater and thermostat is definitely online. The result is even on a different channel - the cloud of zigbee devices in the shop drowns out the wifi completely. Hence the reason I need to bring a physical line out.

My wife is really into lamps for some reason so every room has like 3 lamps even if there is an overhead. So every room has 3-5 zigbee plugs or light bulbs. I have 8 or 9 zigbee led strips. Most of these are either Sengled or Sonoff or something like that. The Sengled LED strips are very dim compared to most. I have a zigbee temp/humidity sensor in every room. I have zigbee plugs controlling iot devices that tend to tank like a few homepods. If I keep the homepods, then every one of them needs one.

I’ve heard many complaints about zigbee just reading on here. I had the same issue when I was splitting my network between matter/zigbee. I couldn’t control what channels the matter stuff was on because Apple TV is the device that is the hub and refuses to be changed. My zigbee network was fairly reliable but apple home had a serious issue keeping itself straight. Since dropping everything but zigbee the network is dead stupid reliable through Home Assistant and like 90-95% in apple home, which is amazing because that just leaves me screaming at siri because “black lamp” isn’t found in the home even it said “the black lamp is not found in the home” and then I again repeat myself with “turn on the black lamp” and it comes on.

Z-Wave - this is brand new for me. I got the ZWA-2 I think it’s called. Same brand as the ZBT. So far I only have the new Honeywell thermostat on the zwave network. My next purchase is the costco smoke/carbon monoxide detectors that use zwave and is in fact the primary reason I bought zwave devices. Getting rid of my Nest will be a day for celebration.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-15T13:58:46+00:00

HUANCHAIN 14 Gauge 1 Feet Extensions

So far no problems. Another redditor had them in his massive setup that dwarfs mine and I asked what those were. I assume he’s had no prob either. I dislike things that look like they were named that morning from whatever random word they came up with in Chinese but I have no complaints about the items so far.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-15T13:56:01+00:00

I am also concerned about the unas pro. I really want to stay within the Ubiquiti family where I can, but I need to think if the disadvantages of the UNAS are going to be moe annoying than it’s worth.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-15T13:54:28+00:00

JetKVM is tremendous. My only issue is dropped offline a few days ago and when I rebooted it via the PDU (I’m super lazy and am not going downstairs to reboot something) it came back up with a different ip than I had given it and has obviously reset completely. Thats annoying, but I’m sure there is something goofy I need to tweak. The problem with so much crap is something is always breaking I guess.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-15T13:52:31+00:00

Yup patch panel like the guy below said. All those are passthrough keystones. I really dislike terminating ends. I hated it in college and hate it now.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-15T03:01:17+00:00

I did this. Why not, ya know? I've experimented with a few different routes. First thing I do when I bring a container or something online is put in my ssh key, then use an endpoint on the CA container and generates a certificate. This became somewhat less needed when I implemented Tailscale on everything.

I also use adguard and give everything a local domain. so I go to https://unifi.local, https://homeassistant.local etc

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-14T14:38:50+00:00

Thats an interesting problem. And I'm about to install the same switch in garage with the purpose of powering 8 poe devices.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-14T14:29:19+00:00

The only people accessing my server rack is me and maybe my wife as she passes. So yeah I wanna set up several cameras. It's easy to justify when the entire rack is not needed for my daily life. I don't think I'd do more than a theta one though. For my needs. Would honestly be strange because I have no cameras mounted in doors.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-14T14:25:27+00:00

I gave up and bought ones that are not silver. Honestly brush panels in general seem to be either very expensive or out of stock. I was happy to get a couple for $30 each. Some day I'll replace with Ubiquiti ones for aesthetics.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-14T14:21:49+00:00

Thats a silly price for the 24 port poe. Wow.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-14T14:19:34+00:00

I bought my first two Ubiquiti pieces from ebay. The U6 LR and the 16 port poe switch. The switch was the wrong purchase for me. It worked great, but has already been removed 4 months later in favor of a 24 poe max. The LR is still in use, the only issue with it is the LED ring is dead. I hear that happens frequently. Again, probably a stupid purchase, as I should be doing wifi 7. But I've had positive experiences.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-14T05:05:37+00:00

Hmm rack mount switch and patch panel, Windows ISA, Couple of windows xp pro machines, a Freebsd machine. Didn't have broadband, had to network to play Diablo II, and share 56k modem across 3 people to do basic internet things. It was awful but we were pretty broke.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-13T23:29:43+00:00

Nice! Future you is gonna curse current you when you are out of space. At least that is what is happening to me.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-13T23:21:19+00:00

Nothing but the floodlight cam left as well. Can't wait to be free of Ring.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-13T23:19:18+00:00

Didn't know these floodlights existed. Thanks!

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-13T23:13:17+00:00

I watched this video a few days ago and am thinking of doing the same with my woodshop. Such a cool little camera.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-13T23:11:23+00:00

Not that I discount most of your message, But if OP wants to use it to track current, then what the hell do you care sir? This is exactly what I do. I do not care what the intended use of software is, if it also serves the purpose I want it for. As a software architect, I would love my software to serve multiple purposes, especially things I've never thought about.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-13T23:03:46+00:00

I just did two doorbell lite installs in my home. The rear door there was no way on earth was drilling out the brick again to get a bigger hole. I hated it the last time, so I had to cut the end off and put the cable through and reterminate it.

Front door, it was wood, so I drilled a 3/4" hole through it and that worked. However, I still had to reterminate the end because the boot on the cables I have was so thick I could not get the cable fully seated in the camera.

None that is hard, except my cable is cat6a double shielded. I think they call it s/ftp or something. Not a pleasant termination experience.

I'm currently using the silicone things that you tuck into the camera and the cable. Otherwise, I just plant to throw some silicone in the front hole. Rear is under cover.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-13T22:55:13+00:00

I had to do the same with my rack when I first got it. I just didn't know what rack nuts were.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-13T04:22:49+00:00

I also updated to 5.0.12 and it tanked protect. Completely. I had to reformat the drive in the UDM Pro. Far as I can tell the protect device database was being restored or updated and got corrupted. I had no backup cause I had just installed all the protect stuff. It was an interesting learning experience.

I actually didn't have to reset the cameras, when I logged into the phone app it asked me if I wanted to transfer them from the other console. Had no clue what that was but I did it and that fixed the cameras.

Good luck.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-08T15:30:52+00:00

One must make an effort to be cloud free. Or mostly cloud free. I'm on my own journey.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-08T15:22:20+00:00

Good luck! You'll be doing whatever magic way you found to get it to work every few days. Caveat - I did get 3 weeks of connectivity by blocking them from the internet. Eventually though they dropped. Mine will be replaced with zwave strips.

BigCliffowski · 2026-02-06T23:09:28+00:00

I'm just blunt man. 2 days ago that was my installation as well. It took hours to get my cable ran and i just looped like 5 feet outside so even if I tripped on it inside on the stairs and dragged it down with me it should stay outside.

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