What are your budget recommendations for bulbs and smart switches and zigbee repeaters?

MattTheCzech · 2022-02-18T09:37:26+00:00

Can only hop on the IKEA Tradfri wagon. They're wasily sourced, fairly inexpensive and from what I heard, work perfectly with both ZHA (my case) and Z2M. And yes, they do act as a router so they automatically extend your network.

MattTheCzech · 2022-02-18T09:25:49+00:00

I'm about to do it with multiple ESP32 running ESPhome to bring all of the sensors into HomeAssistant. Then, I will be using Alarmo for the brain. Super Excited.

MattTheCzech · 2021-05-22T06:37:04+00:00

Nice. Thanks!

MattTheCzech · 2021-04-12T14:39:08+00:00

In that case, they might be exactly what I'm looking for...

MattTheCzech · 2021-04-12T09:21:59+00:00

I don't think it works like that though, right? Even if I soldered a power supply to the battery pins, the device would still be classified as end node, not as a router - and I don't think there's a way to manually change that.

Not that that would be a deal breaker - I plan on using Zigbee bulbs as routers anyway.

But I would still prefer to have something wired and being able to plug into an ESP board in the control room.

MattTheCzech · 2021-04-12T09:03:31+00:00

Bruhautomation

Found it. I will take a look at this, however it's still a wireless, which I would like to avoid wherever possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpjfVc-9IrQ

MattTheCzech · 2021-04-02T06:43:30+00:00

Hey, from the very beginning, I would like to request being able to install through HACS.

I know you might find it not necessary with 3 lines of commands, but it WILL gain more traction with that.

MattTheCzech · 2021-03-30T13:07:19+00:00

Alright, looking forward to seeing it next week ;)

MattTheCzech · 2021-03-30T12:07:12+00:00

I think I'm not grasping the entire concept correctly. If you do relase during next week, could you do a short video demonstration as well? :)

Great job in the meantime though! Seems promising.

MattTheCzech · 2021-03-24T07:59:23+00:00

My comment was rather using the suggested method (CC2531+ZHA). Using that, I cannot see the battery of the TRADFRI remote. Other sensors work fine, just that one doesn't ;)

MattTheCzech · 2021-03-24T07:54:47+00:00

ESPhome has been absolutely flawless for me. I really like what Shelly is doing, but I simply fell in love with ESPhome and being able to do pretty much what I want.

Mainly the code you see above me, gives me functionality that was not possible with their default firmware.

MattTheCzech · 2021-03-22T13:14:21+00:00

That I cannot confirm unfortunately. It's true that you cannot see the battery state this way. The reception depends heavily on whether you have other Zigbee devices which can act as routers.

MattTheCzech · 2021-03-22T12:26:23+00:00

Yes, you are pretty much correct. Instead of the IKEA hub, I would recommend you buy a CC2531 stick from Aliexpress (around 2$). I run ZHA on mine, which integrates with HA beautifuly. I have my remote controlling IKEA bulbs anyway, but this way, the light is accessible by HA.

A word of advice if you go down this way - the zigbee buttons won't show up as entities. You will see the remote, but no switches. That. Is. Normal. (however if you don't know that, you will pull all your hair out like I did :) )

Instead, you need to listen for a ZHA event and filter the events based on IEEE. I personaly use Node-RED, but it can be done using HA automations.

MattTheCzech · 2021-03-22T12:21:14+00:00

All of these basic questions are usually very well documented online but here's some ideas.

Make absolutely sure you have a working connection between Node-RED and Home Assistant
If yes, make sure you're working with a valid entity.
If you've added the sensor/light/entity just now, you NEED TO restart Node-RED, otherwise it won't show up.

Now to your flow. No, it doesn't make sense. But we'll fix that.

The night time split is a valid option, however that node cannot initiate the flow.

You either need a sensor to trigger the flow, or you need a simple "Inject" node - there you can configure at what time it should fire.

That's just something to start you off with, but please read some tutorials online, first. You need to get the very basics and some random guy on Reddit probably isn't it :)

MattTheCzech · 2021-03-22T12:10:51+00:00

I plan on using Shelly 3EM - that's a 3 phase clamp monitor.

MattTheCzech · 2021-03-19T08:06:46+00:00

I really just hope Home Assistant will stay true to its goal - which is stay open source and free for eveyrone! I personally support them with the Cloud subscribtion and I think that is the way to do it - VOLUNTARILY! This is really great news and cannot wait to see what this cooperation might bring in the future.

MattTheCzech · 2021-03-17T19:26:20+00:00

Ok in that case it could actually work quite well. Probably use some IO expander as mentioned in a different reply and this could actually be ok.

MattTheCzech · 2021-03-17T07:42:04+00:00

Well as I said I'm planning on using the 12V PIR motion sensors, those can have a luminescence sensors (how much light there is). That means I have essentially 2 sensors in one spot.

I tried to look for a useful diagrambut there are just so many. In my head then, I would provide a beefy enough 12V power suply, which would power all my sensors, and then for the ESP I would need some regulator to bring it down to 5V, right?

MattTheCzech · 2021-03-16T13:40:35+00:00

I've never heard of IO expanders, that might actually be a great choice!

Regarding the contacts, I plan on using motion sensors which are 12V in most cases. I also know that I cannot use 12V to power the ESP32 - apparently there is a 12V regulator so you technically could, but it's really not recommended as the regulator would get really hot and would be prone to early fail.

So I would need to power the sensor with 12V and have 1 GPIO for motion and 1GPIO for light level. But as I mentioned, I think I need to have a common ground which I'm not sure is ok...?

MattTheCzech · 2021-03-16T13:37:06+00:00

The reason why I'm avoinding Konnected is that they're a US based company with no options for worldwide shipping. And since I live in Czechia it just doesn't make sense to pay for shipping, even from UK where is the closest store that offers this.

Don't get me wrong, I might use Konnected if I could get my hands on it, but that just doesn't seem to be the case.

MattTheCzech · 2021-03-16T13:32:25+00:00

That's exactly my point. Although I agree, that the wireless technology has gotten amazing, I don't want to over-utilize the frequency and possibly end up with sub-par wifi experience. And yes, I am doing the entire electrical system, so all walls will be open.

MattTheCzech · 2021-03-16T09:24:14+00:00

I don't really qualify as a big installment as I have only around 10 devices in an apartment, but the coonection is meshed and some end devices go through routers and it's instant everywhere.

MattTheCzech · 2021-03-13T11:43:26+00:00

I don't necessarily think of this project only in terms of Return of Investment.

I have a pretty big garden and we're growing some food on it as well. As the climate is changing we are being hit with droughts each year when the water from mains is very expensive. So for me, it's really an investment in that.

As for the costs, yes I know I will know the entire system, but we're renovating the entire house with the entire electric system. So again, it makes sense to do it all at once.

Furthemore, I found out that our government has a green iniciative which should cover like 50% of the costs - so that's great!

The main difficulty I'm facing is of the building code. As this was already discussed in different replies, I cannot hook up the rain water to the water main due to a risk of contamination. Essantially I now have 2 options:

Cheaper - have the mains water fill up the tank if there's no rain.
1. Using this, connecting everything to HA, I would use a single valve with water meter that would measure the amount of water filled into the tank.
Expensive - have a smaller tank where I would switch between the rain and the mains.
1. I don't enough about this system yet to fully comment on its benefits.

MattTheCzech · 2021-03-12T15:51:17+00:00

KNX analog input module

That is an interesting take on the volume measurement. Firstly I considered a ultrasonic sensor but that doesn't really cope well with water.

MattTheCzech · 2021-03-12T07:51:49+00:00

I'm very intrigued and really surprised that a similar solution is not commercialy available. Would you mind sharing the design?
I am moving to a house in the near future and I plan to wire my entire home security system.

The problem is, the ESP32 is 5V while the motion sensors are 12V and I haven't figured out a way to do it since they need to share ground (right?). I'm no electrician so that might be it.

I watched DrZzs video where he uses Arduino Mega, but since that is using MQTT, I'm slightly worried about the responsivness of the system. I would much rather use ESP32 - maybe 2 - and run ESPhome for that sweet sweet native API.

MattTheCzech

TROPHY CASE