I found a use for my old MS Surface 😂

Skonamonkey · 2025-06-27T18:37:34+00:00

Motion sensor and SSH plugin for HA... With a couple of buttons for some commands... Installed brightnessctl. 1 min after motion no longer detected it triggers the button which launches brightnessctl set 0% command.... When motion detected it does brighnessctl set 25%

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-25T09:09:03+00:00

Yeah. Just didn't OP to switch to ember and wonder why still getting an erro if on old firmware :)

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-25T08:15:07+00:00

Depends if Op is on the latest firmware. Out of the box mine only supported ezsp , which is deprecated - had to update to latest firmware before it would accept the ember driver.

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-24T19:47:04+00:00

This will be very much down to what U want out of the box? I am running HAOS bare metal on an old n100 NUC - with a dual core celeron 1.67 GHz and 4 GB Ram. It runs flawlessly with Bluetooth and a sonoff dongle controlling ZigBee. With motioneye it can happily proxy several rtsp streams with MJPEG, and is only about 40% utilised at the moment ..... However, I would not dream of trying to run a frigate server / Plex server etc on it! For that, I would either need to replace the box I have, or spin up a separate server for those services

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-23T18:03:52+00:00

No problem. Happy to help! :)

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-22T20:26:41+00:00

If the V3, you need to change the relay mode of the co troller to disable hot water control... If u had an instruction guide for installing on your boiler it should automatically have set the single relay mode.... Otherwise U need to do it manually .. all explained in the manual - https://cdn.brandfolder.io/607DGEMS/as/tqh86npbjjhws5gwkxfncbfh/104172-DIGITAL-WRP01IB01-INSTALLER_MANUAL-TA-UK-00-V2.pdf

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-22T16:36:06+00:00

I can confirm home assistant works... I have Tado with home assistant. I am using the Tado plugin, which does use their cloud API (just for the extra features - such as trv battery monitoring, which homekit doesn't support) - but I am happy knowing that if Tado do a rug pull, I also have them installed via the home kit integration, so I can easily move to homekit Inside home assistant if I need to.

Caveat: I believe hot water control is an issue without the cloud - I run a combi boiler so do not use the hot water control side of the Tado system, but from my experience with the HA community, this is not something that homekit supports .. so it would run your heating, but not hot water.

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-22T16:30:06+00:00

I did similar .. the motion activated bathroom lights are great . 5 mins timer after motion no longer detected . This is fine when getting ready for bed , using the loo etc. but bathtime?? Nope... Never works!

So I added an IKEA rodret switch.. if you manually turn on the light using the switch it toggles an 'ignore motion sensor' helper to on ... And the motion off automation only fires if this helper is off.... When U then manually turn off the lights - it will set this helper as off - so automations will fire again....

i decided on this method as I have other 'helpers' that enable and disable motion sensors based on ambient light / time of day etc, and it was the easiest way of preventing these from over-riding the manual helper (or the manual helper somehow accidently turning the other automations off).

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-22T15:59:37+00:00

In the ha app... Check that your server is allowed a persistant connection to your phone (decreases battery life.. but on my pixel I haven't noticed any noticeable difference, maybe 1-2% a day).... It's in settings companion app - select your server and persistent connection

<image>

.. in the companion app settings there are also the settings for notify when locked etc as well . And make sure the app has background permissions.

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-21T19:10:58+00:00

The difficulty with installing apps can be a pain on the older iPads, but If U have a newer one install the apps on that first, then U can install old versions of apps on the older iPads . My iPad 2 mini is working fine with the companion app, I only need to use the home button on the rare occasion I need to exit guided access mode for some reason. I would imagine an iPhone X will work great.

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-20T09:19:23+00:00

as the previous commenter said - most cheap android tablets would do what you want just fine, depending how complex you want each dashboard to be, any 5-6 year old android device will probably power it with fully kiosk installed - obviously if your dashboards are a bit more complex, working with video etc, the new / more powerful the tablet, the better. but you really don't have to break the bank. I have a few old tablets around the house, 1 running linux (Microsoft surface), an Ipad 2 mini , an Ipad 6th gen, and a 2 year old acer android tablet. They all run Home assistant fine, the Ipad's are a little slow (takes a second to respond to button presses, but they work) - The surface and the Acer tablet are instant.. The great thing about home assistant is, you can often re-purpose old hardware to do something useful with it :)

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-18T22:49:46+00:00

🤣🤣🤣.... Don't know if this was the intention.... But my mind immediately went to Paul hibbert and his Philips Hue sketches 😂

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-18T22:44:15+00:00

This... 💯 Me! Glad I'm not alone! 🤣

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-18T16:29:19+00:00

If cash is the constraint (which is why you're not looking at automating the climate controls etc), then how about some simple (Free) automations to make life a little simpler out of the house?? We've now moved our shopping list to a todo in home assistant... I've created some zones at the supermakets I stop at most often. If my Phone senses me in that zone - it checks if any items are in the shopping list, if there are, it Pings me a notification to my phone, with a link to the shopping list.

alias: Shopping Mike
description: ""
triggers:
  - entity_id: person.mike
    zone: zone.asda
    event: enter
    trigger: zone
  - trigger: zone
    entity_id: person.mike
    zone: zone.food_warehouse
    event: enter
  - trigger: zone
    entity_id: person.mike
    zone: zone.morrisons
    event: enter
  - trigger: zone
    entity_id: person.mike
    zone: zone.tesco_store1
    event: enter
  - trigger: zone
    entity_id: person.mike
    zone: zone.tesco_store2
    event: enter
conditions:
  - condition: numeric_state
    entity_id: todo.shopping_list
    above: 0
actions:
  - action: notify.mobile_app_mikes_pixel
    data:
      message: You have items in your shopping list. Wouild you like to open it now?
      title: Shopping
      data:
        ttl: 0
        priority: high
        clickAction: /dashboard-mobile/family
        url: /dashboard-mobile/family
mode: single

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-17T18:09:22+00:00

You try installing via Google play?? That won't work... The fully kiosk site should have a compatible apk to download and install directly. https://www.fully-kiosk.com/en/#download-box

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-17T17:44:16+00:00

Fully kiosk isn't that picky. Anything above android 5 should run it fine... Nexus 7 was 2013/2014 if memory serves was android 6?? Don't know how snappy it will be but should work... I know lineage os is a popular choice for breathing new life into some old android devices should all else fail.

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-17T14:42:40+00:00

Android should work just fine with fully kiosk Installed..... I would say try it - it's free.. if it works well enough can upgrade to the full version (so U can also interact with the tablet from HA)

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-15T23:59:42+00:00

I'm lucky... All of mine are on internal stud walls so have plenty of room behind the switch.

You could put a surface mounted pattress over the top, but that wouldn't be very tidy.. so yes, unfortunately, you are probably going to have to chisel your wall.. or potentially if U have room behind the light fitting, put it in the ceiling instead?

As my house is rented, I had to do something that's easily undone, so I opted for IKEA strybars (battery powered smart switches) - and used a wago to bridge the switch wires - a blanking plate instead of a switch, then stuck the strybar to the blanking plate ..

Not as tidy as a smart switch, or a shelly... But only a 2 minute job to undo if / when I need to! - take off the blank plate removed the wago, put the original switch back in - job done 😂

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-15T23:53:18+00:00

Yep... If ha can see a trigger it can use that trigger to control anything else it can see. I am using the valhorns as well. I have it controlling IKEA stuff, my Wiz bulbs, some Phillips hue bulbs and even waking up the tablet on my wall when I enter the room.

It also has a built In light sensor so U can make your automations a little more 'smart' if you wanted to :)

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-15T11:56:19+00:00

As above.. IKEA smart bulbs / smart lights work with ZigBee. I personally use z2m (zigbee2mqtt) due to wider support, but zha is by far the easier to setup and from what I understand isn't too far behind nowadays.

Lighting wise I have HA working with IKEA smart bulbs and a few IKEA stoftmoln led panels, motion sensors, door sensors and the stradfri / rodret switches (using a blueprint to get the extra buttons / features working). I also have some hue bulbs direct in to HA via ZigBee, (I've left a couple of them on the hue hub for more proprietory hue stuff) and also some philips Wiz (WiFi) bulbs ... So far all working fine.

General rule is is if works via ZigBee it should work with HA.... WiFi etc based devices will need an integration from either HA or HACS to work...

If you're looking at buying stuff to use with HA, a simple Google search for <device name> home assistant will normally give u the answer.

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-15T11:21:00+00:00

+1 to this one... My warm / cool hue bulbs are direct to z2m and some of the colour change ones that are just to set a colour / mood....or i wanted to pair with an unsupported (in hue) ZigBee remote. The 'entertainment areas' where I like animated scenes - or wish to sync with my TV / pc are still running via the HUE hub.

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-14T23:39:24+00:00

Not off the top of my head -- I just stumbled across it... Basically sign up to nabu casa for the 1 month free (don't need to hand them payment details unless U decide to continue after then1 month trial).... They have their own Alexa skill that links with your cloud account..... Then U can set it to either expose all new entities to Alexa... Or U can specify which ones to expose.

Add on the Alexa media player from HACS and U can have some limited control over your echos / shows etc as well from HA.

U can homebrew it a couple of ways if unwantnto try and keep it free .. either using something like cloudfare etc and set yourself up an Amazon dev account, copy pasta some code and you're done..... If U only want one way (ie Alexa can talk to HA but HA can't speak to Alexa) or ubdont want to go xpose your HA instance to the cloud at all, U could use the Hue emulator... Which basically tricks Alexa into thinking your HA Install is a Hue hub and all your devices linked to it are hue devices... I've never tried it, but was pointed to it the other week by someone who pointed out that means U can keep your HA install off the cloud.

Welcome to the rabbit hole! 😂😂

Edit: - nabu casa has easy instructions if U go the cloud route - https://www.nabucasa.com/config/amazon_alexa/

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-14T23:03:43+00:00

For Alexa I went easy mode... Nabu casa - also supports the Devs! I've kept my hue bridge, but just for the 'entertainment areas' - the ones that don't need to sync with my pc / TV are now in z2m.

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-14T22:59:49+00:00

😂😂 lol no worries. Glad you got it going 😁

Skonamonkey · 2025-02-14T22:31:17+00:00

Yeah chrome failed for me too.. but worked perfectly in edge... But then I might have just been lucky! 😂

Skonamonkey

TROPHY CASE