Thanks for the assistance. I ended up restoring a backup onto a new SD-card and everything started working again. I think the SD-card died on me while I was away.
However, my system continued to stall once in a while, so I decided to get the Home Assistant Green in order to update my setup and go with something more official. It’s just too troublesome having constant issues when everything relies on this one box!
I like this thermostat except for one issue. When i manually change the target temperature with the HA thermostat card, it has a maximum temperature of 40 degrees. With Fahrenheit, this is obviously no good. it has something to do with the MQTT configuration but i cant figure it out. Luckily service calls in automations work fine.
I wish I could figure out the code to get my T6 to control the Confortotal mini split I got off eBay. I have to think they’re using some genetic code base, but I couldn’t find a matching one.
I’ve got a T6 Z-Wave also, controlling a 2-stage heat pump. I have it connected to HA through Zwave2mqtt. It’s been pretty great except for two things:
A. Changing the time has no effect, as if the clock is read-only due to a hardware issue. I’ve had to set up the daily schedule in HA instead, but it’s probably better that way anyway.
B. I can’t see the stage and aux heat status in HA. Looks like all it exposes is a ‘heating’ or ‘cooling’ state. Anybody know how to get more info?
I’ve actually been trying to implement something like this myself, but I’m trying to do it natively in HA. What I’ve done so far is make an automation for each appliance that calls a script (with variables passed through for messages and whatnot) which notified each member of the household in parallel, based on whether they’re home or not.
My eventual plan is to make each appliance automation flip an input_boolean that sends an initial notification which can be dismissed (either by sensor, NFC tag or notification action). Then every so often or based on a trigger (like door opening, toothbrush doing off, etc.) it triggers the notification script again.
I would spend the money on smart switches before smart outlets. I personally find that I want smart control over almost all of my lights/ fans but only some of my outlets.
Another reason for my avoidance of smart outlets is they are much more expensive than smart plugs and it’s rare that you want to control both plugs in an outlet anyways.
As far as wiring if you want window/ door sensors or motion sensors you might consider running power to those locations. Much better than changing button batteries constantly.
Use conduit to future proof any network cables you run…
I don’t get as much into automating for the sake of automating. Personally, I prefer technology that makes my life easier. Anything “smart” in our house has to be manually overrideable.
That said, one thing I’m working on automating is the HVAC. Eventually I’ll have the Central heat, central humidifier, and whole house fan controls all integrated with HA. My goal is to maximize both comfort and energy efficiency. Being able to maintain the comfort level by automatically switching between A/C or fresh air (via the whole house fan) would be pretty cool (figuratively and literally).
It might be easier to have the electrician install normal switches at first. That will give you time to figure out which ones you want to be smart, which ones you want on dimmers, etc.
Sensors will all be outside the wall, although you should make sure the thermostat wire has enough for a C wire.
I don’t know about smart outlets – I don’t think they’re very common. Most smart outlets are designed to plug in to normal dumb outlets.
If there’s a good spot on the ceiling, I’d have them run some ethernet cable to a box. You can leave it covered, but it’ll be there in case you decide to mount a WiFi AP there.
I love the automation screen updates. Makes it all a bit less “techie”. I’ve been assisting my non-technical sister with setting up her own instance on a Pi. This is going to make things much easier for to understand.
I simply use an USB conference speaker/microphone plus the Assist Microphone add-on. (in my case this one from Microsoft, it works great with my RasPi.)
I actually prefer that over the Echo or other embedded devices, as it is able to pick up my voice from further away and the output audio quality is much better. (My use case is something similar to commercial proprietary systems like from Amazon/Google.)
The M5Stack Echo I use on my night stand with push to talk for quick actions, for that it is enough.
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