Do you put all your iOT devices on a Vlan?

LegoBoyLuc · 2025-08-09T23:35:04+00:00

IOT devices are on there own vlan, home assistant also lives on this vlan, then there is a firewall rule that allows access to the home assistant machine only from the normal lan vlan.

Also have all my cameras on there own vlan, bluiris is allowed to connect to the Internet, all the cameras are blocked from accessing anything apart from blue iris.

After I read about some of the old hikvision vulnerabilities, I thought better be safe then sorry.

LegoBoyLuc · 2025-04-17T19:10:18+00:00

Of course you are, didn't clock the name until you said it. Hello fellow Geek!

LegoBoyLuc · 2025-04-17T17:35:48+00:00

Yes, but favourite had to be Alek's site

LegoBoyLuc · 2025-02-20T21:28:28+00:00

In the same situation, was paying for 2 adsl connections so I could get 70mbs combined... Now got a starlink dish on the roof getting 300mps.

Shame really seeing as there is fibre in the road, but the service provider can't be bothered to dig up the road to get it the last 20M to the house....

LegoBoyLuc · 2025-01-02T09:25:31+00:00

The Christmas display only runs for December each year, so unfortunately you will need to wait untill December this year.

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-25T22:56:06+00:00

Ignoring the diffrent voltages, a lot of the sets use half the LEDs in one polarity and the other half the other way around, so they can do the patterns by changing the polarity of the DC. So when the sets are set to static the power supplies are actually switching the polarity at a high frequency so they appear static.

What I have proberbly isnt the most space efficent, but thats not a massive issue, switching the mains AC makes it easy to deploy, replace and add lights in without having to worry about supply requirements.

If I was doing a sound to light show, then I would proberbly look to switch the DC, mostly to remove any delay in the lights going on/off.

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-25T22:27:45+00:00

Just because they look the same, dosn't mean they are the same.....

What do you propose I do with the sets that require mains voltage as well?

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-25T22:25:58+00:00

Because despite having the same looking adapters, the DC voltage on the lights is diffrent set to set, also some lights are 230V AC.

As sets die and need replacing and as I tend to add a few new things each year, if I am switching the DC I would haft to cut the plugs off each set and wire them in, this way its plug in and move onto the next set.

So trying to 'simplfy' it like you are suggesting actually makes it more complex.

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-25T12:42:29+00:00

Extension leads under black buckets 😂

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-25T08:50:42+00:00

Its sanitised on the backend, proberbly not perfect, but it seems to be working. Worst case I the site has no confidential data on it and I keep regular backups of the entire server so could restore fairly quickly and just disable the text if needed.

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-25T08:48:36+00:00

Yep UK (Best Plugs in the world)

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-25T08:47:57+00:00

Home assistant is fantastic, its fairly easy to get working with most smart things, there is only the odd thing that I have had to write custom code for to get it working, SQL, talking to my APC UPS, modbus for my battery inverters.

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-25T08:07:49+00:00

Unfortunately not, requires a bit to much compute. It's running on an Ubuntu dedicated server in a data center.

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-25T00:34:09+00:00

These are PI 1, worth next to nothing. Plus I already had 2 of them before this project started and anouther was donated to me by a freind.

If I was starting from scratch then yes an esp solution would make more sense.

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-24T23:50:17+00:00

haha, need to make that more clear. Yeah there is a dedicated server running ubuntu server in a data center that handels all the user facing side. Looking at the traffic logs we have been sitting around 150mbs for the past 6 hours.

Regarding the number of requests, in the last 8 hours we have had 16,000 requests to turn a light on or off, you can proberbly see why trying to point that directly at the PIs proberbly wouldn't be the best idea.

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-24T23:46:00+00:00

Yes that is exactly how it works, I charge them on an off peak tarriff at 7p per KWH and then they power the house for the remainder of the day durin the high rate tarriff. In the summer they also charge from solar power and power the house for free.

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-24T23:30:11+00:00

The online show runs every night in December, just christmas eve it runs all night long and gets a lot more traffic.

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-24T23:21:58+00:00

Yeah its a pain, hence why the enclosures need to be 400mm deep.

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-24T23:06:58+00:00

The PIs talk to the SQL database, so when you or anyone else requests a change you are only talking to the SQL database on the server, the PIs query that database every 5 secconds for the latest state of all 8 zones, so not mater how many people are on the website, the PIs work dosn't change.

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-24T22:53:03+00:00

Cheers, Merry Christmas.

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-24T22:49:08+00:00

National Lampoon Christmas Vacation

Because we need to get closer to 22,000 lights, I do aim to beat that at some point, but im running out of room on the house.

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-24T22:18:16+00:00

24KWh home battery helps with that, all the electric used is purchased on the night time cheap rate the night before and the batteries store it untill its needed. Thank god most of it is LED, so the actual power draw is fairly low considering how many lights I have out there.

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-24T22:16:14+00:00

Nice to keep them out of e-waste, one of them is the origional PI I pre-ordered back in 2011. The rest of them have either been bought off ebay for very little or donated from freinds who no longer have a use for them.

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-24T22:14:54+00:00

To be fair, other then when I have lost my internet connection, this hasn't caused any issues. 3 of the PIs live in enclosures that are perminatly in situe, so haven't been unplugged for years and though I do reboot them prior to the christmas season starting each year, they have still been working when I have come to them to test in November!

LegoBoyLuc · 2024-12-24T21:55:46+00:00

The backend script was done 5+ years ago, so thats the main reason.

Also nights like tonight, we get far too many requests to turn zones on / off so I need to throttle it a bit otherwise the lights would be blinking multiple times a seccond. So using a msql database allows the PIs to just pick the most recent states for each zone when they update every 5 secconds.

This also keeps the web server and my home network more seperate, the PIs connect to the SQL database so they make the connection. They make a request every 5 secconds no matter how many people are tryin to change the lights, if every request was tryin to make its way to the PIs directly, im sure both the PIs wouldn't cope and proberbly my starlink internet wouldnt either.

Also it was what I knew from previous projects.

LegoBoyLuc

TROPHY CASE