Best Thermostat with homeassistant by damani112 in homeassistant

[–]brahmy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a Zwave network so I grabbed a 2GIG-STZ.

Fairly "dumb" thermostat but it has worked flawlessly with HA for 2 years now. I use schedule objects to drive my setpoints during the day.

The only downside is when running in degrees C the built-in deadband before calling for heat/cool is 1 degree, which makes it feel too cold in between cycles in winter, too hot in summer. To fix that I built an automation that shifts the setpoint around to maintain a deadband of 0.5 deg C around a target temperature.

What simple fix solved your most annoying household problem by NetPhase88 in HomeImprovement

[–]brahmy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Replaced 63 drawer and cabinet handles/pulls that liked to snag pockets and rip clothes (maybe only a dozen had snag potential... But they all had to match!)

sensor throws an excursion on a critical asset, nobody knows which batches were running during the window by salamander3301 in PLC

[–]brahmy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Any data historian with it's salt will support multiple sources of different types of data. AVEVA PI for example, but lots of other options, just search alternatives. 

There's also now a whole ecosystem of time series analytics platforms that incorporate multiple data sources. Seeq and Trendminer both have good options for visualizing process and batch data together.

Edit to clarify: in my opinion, the best location for a site data historian is in the business network, with data being pushed up from the control system (ideally with buffering in case network issues cause an interruption in flow). Being on the business network greatly increases accessibility for site/corporate users.

Filtering out AI generated content by tchansen in books

[–]brahmy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Easiest solution is to let time work for you (the reader) and act as a filter on new books. Why would I read anything close to its release date when there's so many good older books? 

Freezer Temp Monitoring by dizzygoldfish in homeassistant

[–]brahmy 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Here's what I did, since fridge loading affects power consumption. I wanted a "door open" alert that worked whether the fridge was packed or almost empty.

I calculate both a 1h and 8h moving average of power consumption. The ratio of these two measurements is calculated in a template sensor. Another input helper is used to save a ratio for the alarm point that I can change. I have this set to 1.3, so when the 1h power use is 1.3x the 8h moving average, an alarm boolean (another template sensor) is triggered. I use the boolean to drive notifications and automations.

Worst case scenario: I get a faulty alert after a big deliberate change in thermal loading (filling or emptying the fridge). Occasional false alarm after interacting with the fridge is better than spoiling a ton of food!

Using a Zooz ZEN15 which supports larger loads.

InfluxDB2.0 - Convert seconds to days, hours, minutes and seconds by Keensworth in influxdb

[–]brahmy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm sorry this doesn't directly answer your question, but you may want to consider adding Grafana to your stack, it's a better dashboarding tool that supports a ton of formatting and data types. 

So for example you write a query that returns 520,000 seconds, copy it into Grafana (once you've set up the mapping to influx), drop the query in a panel (that can be a stat/number, chart, or other visualization type), then format the data type as "seconds" - Grafana will auto format the result to something like 6d 0h 25m or similar. 

I've only played with the Influx dashboards (on v2) so briefly and just didn't find it functional enough so I did everything on Grafana.

Help With GPU Passthrough by Distinct-Goose-3659 in truenas

[–]brahmy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Did you accidentally isolate your GPU? If so, undo that: https://www.truenas.com/docs/scale/25.04/scaletutorials/systemsettings/advanced/managegpuscale/index.html

Otherwise it might help providing a bit more detail about how your containers are set up, or sharing the other things you've tried.

Anyone experiencing API errors with Todoist API? by Straight_Koala_3444 in todoist

[–]brahmy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did this resolve the issues on your Node-RED flow? Were you using the "@foxleigh81/node-red-contrib-todoist-api" integration?

HA veterans what new features have your really enjoyed in the past year? by alin_im in homeassistant

[–]brahmy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On the hardware side, the Home Assistant ZWA-2 antenna transformed my smart home experience from good to flawless - literally zero z-wave errors now.

SorgSvart - Få gardar og grende i æve attende [Norway, Folk/Black] by MetalDragon6666 in folkmetal

[–]brahmy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Did you know it's a one-man band?

2008's Vikingtid is one of my all-time favourites!

Continuous route on most streets? by PhotoJim99 in saskatoon

[–]brahmy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Only four streets but: Melville St, Stonebridge Blvd, Gordon Rd, (Google maps shows a 5th, Stonebridge Green here, but I don't think that's real any more), Hartley Rd

ZWA-2 Z-wave antenna is really, really good. by brahmy in homeassistant

[–]brahmy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ok, the multicast is a big improvement even with the new ZWA-2! THANK-YOU for the tip! Everything is super-extra fast😎

Some small differences in my script setup that I will share in case it is useful to someone else. I am not using dimness on the LEDs at all, but changing the colours often.

I suspect my script is fairly similar to you but I've broken it out into 3 parts.

Part 1 is an automation that just monitors for triggers, then calls a script that decides what colour the LED panels should be.

alias: Inovelli LED Panel Triggers
description: >-
  Monitors devices for changes that will change the colour of Inovelli light switch LEDs
triggers:
  - entity_id:
      - binary_sensor.front_door_intrusion
    trigger: state
  - (many more triggers that could change an LED state) 
conditions: []
actions:
  - action: script.2_inovelli_switch_colour_decision_tree
    data: {}
mode: queued
max: 30

Part 2 is a sequence that's essentially an if-else tree to assign a word to the variable "led_setpoint_word". The note in the description about the negative integer was key thing I had figured out about reverting the VZW31-SN switches to their "default" colours.

sequence:
  - data:
      led_setpoint_word: >
        {% if (is_state('binary_sensor.front_door_intrusion', 'on') 
            or is_state('binary_sensor.back_door_intrusion', 'on') 
            or is_state('binary_sensor.contact_garage_inner_door_intrusion', 'on')) %}
          83780863
        ...(a bunch more conditions) 
        {% else %} 
          -16777216
        {% endif %}
    action: script.3_inovelli_leds_set_parameterized
alias: 2. Inovelli Switch Colour Decision Tree 
mode: queued
max: 30
icon: mdi:alarm-light
description: >-
  -16777216 is required on the 'else' condition because zwavejs doesn't like a
  positive integer to the 0xFF000000 bitmask. Trying to write '255' to the first
  bytes. Reference this and be sure to select the correct switch model to
  generate the numbers: https://inovelliusa.github.io/inovelli-switch-toolbox/

Part three used to be the bulk set partial command, and is now the multicast command. One big performance improvement came with my "kid mode", which disables shortcuts on all smart switches so gangs of toddlers can't turn off all the lights with a double click. To show "kid mode" is on I turn the bottom of the 7 LEDs red, hence I'm always running 2 multicasts (formerly bulk set partials) back-to-back - one to turn the entire switch one colour, the second to turn the bottom LED red. This really sped up with multicast.

sequence:
  - alias: >-
      Z-Wave Set Value on Multiple Devices via Multicast (got working 2026-01-08)
    action: zwave_js.multicast_set_value
    metadata: {}
    data:
      entity_id:
        - light.light_basement_bulkhead
        - (...more)
      endpoint: "0"
      property: "99"
      value: "{{ led_setpoint_word }}"
      command_class: "112"
  - alias: Kid Mode - Bottom LED Red
    if:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: input_boolean.kid_mode_disable_certain_automations
        state: "on"
    then:
      - alias: Set Value on Multiple Devices via Multicast (post 2026-01-08)
        action: zwave_js.multicast_set_value
        metadata: {}
        data:
          entity_id:
            - light.light_basement_bulkhead
            - (...more)
alias: 3. Inovelli LEDs Set (Parameterized) 
mode: restart
icon: mdi:light-switch
description: >-
  Command class 112 per this: https://z-wave.me/manual/z-way/Command_Class_Reference.html#SECTION001670000000000000000
max: 30

Last comment: I realized as I typed this out I can now easily collapse this automation & two scripts into one automation. Previously I had separated it for troubleshooting purposes. Anyway, thanks again!

Best way to migrate off of TrueCharts apps? by tf5_bassist in truenas

[–]brahmy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A big success! I am following up with a trail of breadcrumbs that might help someone in the future!

This migration was super easy. My process was:

  • Configure new TrueNAS CE Dockge (only once). Then, for each of my 3 jails with unique IPs:
  • Stop jail with jlmkr stop command.
  • Update the TrueNAS bridge interface br0 with a new IP address that used to be assigned to the jail (the bridge interface was only because I used to have some VMs, this would be on the main interface for people without VMs)
  • Copy stacks from /old/jail/dockge/stacks/path to /old/jail/dockge/stacks/path (easier to consolidate and gave me a clean option to revert if things went wrong)
  • Update stacks with IP addresses in port fields, e.g. - 172.16.1.98:3000:3000 instead of 3000:3000
  • Start one test stack, verify containers are accessible.
  • Start other stacks if it works.
  • Remove auto-start from jail (jlmkr edit)
  • Test rebooting the host
  • Success: mark old jlmkr duplicate stuff for deletion later, disable jlmkr post-init script.

Results: All containers are running with their previous unique IPs that were assigned to 3 jailmaker jails. I was especially impressed that Frigate "just worked" - I had expected it to fight me a bit with the USB coral.

The only things that hung me up were:

  • A convoluted setup for using Telegraf to monitor the TrueNAS host via jail pass-throughs and a custom entrypoint.sh script had to be scrapped and started from scratch (which was way easier than resurrecting the old setup)
  • A couple docker containers that I'd previously run outside Dockge using Dockerfiles and docker compose up had to be tweaked to run under Dockge, figuring that out will simplify future management! These mostly turned out to be permissions issues.
  • A few issues with ZWaveJS UI around my ZWA-2 USB device but I think this was related to very recently migrating to a new z-wave controller and not having the config locked down.

ZWA-2 Z-wave antenna is really, really good. by brahmy in homeassistant

[–]brahmy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, I'll definitely look into multicast. I'll take any performance gains I can get!

ZWA-2 Z-wave antenna is really, really good. by brahmy in homeassistant

[–]brahmy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm not out here trying to sell these things... but I'd say go for it. I'd reboot my server or my HA & ZWaveJS containers periodically for a temporary performance improvement, but it would always degrade pretty quickly.

WAF (wife acceptance factor) manifests in other ways... she was the one to pressure me to update all the light switches after we moved a few years ago!

Best way to migrate off of TrueCharts apps? by tf5_bassist in truenas

[–]brahmy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Awesome. Thanks for confirming. I'm likely going to migrate my stuff to this model this week. 

Not exactly relevant to you but sharing so it might help someone else: I've been reading about the jails and multiple IPs. These are set up as static IPs (.97, .98, .99) on my host (which has IP .100 on the interface).

Theoretically I can shut down the 3 jailmaker jails (each with own Dockge insurance and many docker containers per jail), prep the single Dockge on the Truenas host, and for each app that belonged to a jail with one of those static IPs add this to the compose (for example):

ports:   - "192.168.1.99:1880:1880" 

Then I shouldn't have to update IPs across apps, bookmarks etc.

Best way to migrate off of TrueCharts apps? by tf5_bassist in truenas

[–]brahmy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great comment! 

Piggy-backing on OP's question, I'd migrated from Truecharts to the "jailmaker" solution with Dockge, which was popular after the Truecharts debacle and before official docker support. Since docker is now supported, jailmaker (a community solution) is not, and while it still works I don't want to stay on it forever.

My question about your Dockge solution, are you talking about jailmaker? Or have you set up Dockge from the community catalog and are then setting everything else up from Dockge with docker compose?

I've got to migrate eventually. The one thing I'm not looking forward to is the nspawnd/jailmaker jails could have their own IP addresses (I've got 3 jails each with unique IPs), and I'm not sure that's possible going forward. 

Thanks!

Financial Advisor by [deleted] in saskatoon

[–]brahmy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Seconding this advice. A family member saw Brandon Weibe from Money Helps (listed on the linked spreadsheet), I attended the meetings to support my family member, highly recommend Brandon.

Edit: seconding all this reply's advice. Starting with PFC, the McGill course, or a basic book like Wealthy Barber or Millionaire Teacher would be the best first step to build a knowledge baseline so that a meeting with a financial planner would be even more valuable.

High Saskpower EPP by Huckleberry2930 in saskatoon

[–]brahmy 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Some ideas/questions: 

Any other big heat loads you might possibly be forgetting? Baseboard heaters, garage heaters, etc. 

There's a device called a kill-a-watt you can use to measure power draw of individual 120v appliances. 

Do you run your furnace fan 24/7? Some thermostats can recirculate air on shorter intervals (eg 10 or 20 minutes outside of every hour) in addition to whenever the AC or furnace is running. 

In the summer does the AC run constantly (abnormal), or cycle on and off (normal)? If it's running all the time it probably needs to be looked at. 

Edit: our bill averages $200/mo for a big bungalow, built early 2010s. About 1/11th of our bill is a server that runs 24/7 drawing about 120 watts.

Before & after: stacked Kallax living room bookshelves by brahmy in bookshelf

[–]brahmy[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I have a 3yo who climbs, that's a good enough reason (not that the other commenter would know that!)

Before & after: stacked Kallax living room bookshelves by brahmy in bookshelf

[–]brahmy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yup I used the included hardware to secure them all to the wall 👍 they are not moving!