I use Kasa switches all over my house and am waiting for them to release their fan controller (it was announced at CES last year, and a thread on the old place says it’ll be out at the end of the month)
I’m excited for my fan to shut off if it’s too cold in the bedroom. Already have a temperature/humidity sensor in there.
The ones I have are complete shit. Their firmware seems to lock up regularly and not even the buttons work. There is no reset button on them, so the only way to restart them is to flip the breaker. And half the time that doesn’t even work.
Not really common automation for HA, but I made medication assistant automations. Its super helpfull for people who take loads of meds. It tracks how many pills left, does android notifications or sets alarm and it also sends an email when its time to reorder meds. Its insane how usefull it is
Washer voltage goes from a high value to a low value, then in 30 minutes (when the cycle will be done) turn an rgb lightbulb in a conspicuous location a hellish magenta. No more funky forgotten loads of laundry. Passes the partner test, too.
To all of you reading this who are interested but don’t have home assistant (yet): I just set a timer for as long as the laundry takes. If I can’t go get it when the timer goes off I will place a “memento” somewhere (for example placing something on the ground in my way where it doesn’t belong) so I remember. The “set lighting to hell until I do it” solution sounds neat too, though. =)
A middle ground “normie-tech” I use: after picking the cycle, whip out your phone and start a countdown timer. Mine at least can save such timers and I can name them.
I got fed up that my washing machine lies on its timer: it doesn’t count the drying cycle and then it takes another 3 minutes to unlock the door. So I timed that once. For example a 42 min timer for the quick cycle (30 wash + 9 dry + 3 stupid lockout)
The reason for the stupid lockout. Pretty ingenious, but yeah they all lie. The worst offenders are heat pump dryers. I think they’re gaslighting their customers.
Ooh I’ve got a similar trigger! Instead of coloured lights, mine strobe every five minutes incessantly until I open the machine door (power usage goes down ~3W for some reason). Also notify the phones and put a banner on the TV.
If the furnace starts pulling more than 4,000 Watts, I get a telegram message that the auxiliary heat is running instead of the heat pump.
I have a sensor in my kindergartner’s bag that lets me know when he gets to school and when he leaves school, also via telegram message.
If someone loiters around my driveway for more than 30 seconds, I get a telegram message with an image.
I haven’t said it back up since I moved but I used to have one that used a combo sensor my washer and dryer doors. If the sensor moved enough for long enough it set a flag that the unit was running. If it want from running to not running for a long enough period of time, and the contact sensor wasn’t tripped, I would receive alerts every 30 minutes or so that the clothes were done and still in the washer/dryer.
Even something as simple as water sensors under the sink if saved my ass. Cabinetry these days is made out of fiberboard and if it stays wet for more than a couple of hours it does horrible things.
I have a binary sensor that turns on when I’m away from home for 30 minutes and off when I’m home for 5 minutes. When I open the door and the sensor is on, music starts playing and the living room lights turn on. Love it.
You can build out your Zigbee network with relays (anything mains powered usually works as a router) to reach the area.
If the area is too far away (say in another building), you could setup a Zigbee to MQTT router nearby and route the messages via another network back to Home Assistant.
or your could use WiFi devices if you have enough spare capacity on your network and are well within signal range.
I’ve so far not had much luck with Matter, so for me, that is an unnecessary complication to avoid. Trying to get Matter working, I mean.
In my case I would probably use either the first or second choice, depending, but your situation may be different. My WiFi already has too many devices on it.
If the area is too far away (say in another building), you could setup a Zigbee to MQTT router nearby and route the messages via another network back to Home Assistant.
Can you tell me more about this? Wifi is available in the area, which seems a better option than a chain of zigbee extenders.
Can I just get a zigbee to MQTT router and that bridges between a zigbee button and HA?
It sounds like you may be confusing how Zigbee works with how older WiFi works.
In WiFi you would have a single access point with a certain range. If you want to extend that range in a particular direction you would have to add a range extender, creating a chain or rope of range extenders.
Zigbee (and many modern WiFi APs) are more like a fishing net. The more relays you have the stronger your net is because if one relay goes down for whatever reason, another relay in range can pass along the message to where it need to go.
By the by, this is also how the internet works (oversimplified to the point of inaccuracy of course).
In building out a Zigbee network you do not want to create chains with a single path available for reliability reasons. It’s better saturate an area with Zigbee relays. The relays can be either bunched up or you can spread them out. The only limiting factor on the size (in sq meters) is the max number of devices of the protocol, which you are unlikely to hit, and the radio range of the individual relays. Each device (either a relay or end device) needs to be able to see at least one (but preferably more than one) relay.
At a high level (I don’t run one myself), A Zigbee to MQTT server is a way to create a second “net” that is completely separate from the your original Zigbee network. In a nutshell, you take a second Zigbee cordinator and attach it to a MQTT server which then passes the information back to your Home Assistant. This second network doesn’t benefit from the first and the first doesn’t benefit from the second. Though, because they operate on the same frequency spectrum, they can conflict just as 2.4Ghz WiFi and Zigbee can conflict.
Can I just get a zigbee to MQTT router and that bridges between a zigbee button and HA?
It’s more something that you build than something you get, but, practically speaking, there is nothing stopping you from doing so. Though it doesn’t usually make sense to do so from an effort or infrastructure prospective for a single end device. Though of course, there are always exceptions. At a minimum, you would need a network connected computer running the MQTT server and a second Zigbee coordinator. Search for zigbee2mqtt.
Thanks, I was definitely confused! It does sound like the effort to run a MQTT server isn’t really worth it for one button. However, I don’t really know a good way to build a good zigbee network. My house has in-build LED lights, I can’t swap them for Hue bulbs or anything like that. The only other common extender I know of is smart plugs, and having a bunch of smart plugs all around the house that aren’t actually used is just annoying.
I’m not sure the effort is worth it for this one button at the moment. Maybe I will wait until I’ve added other things naturally extending the zigbee network.
Building a good, reliable Zigbee network is dead simple. Just have a whole bunch of devices scattered around the area attached to your Zigbee network that can act as relays. The network will do the rest.
Here’s some products from my notes that should act as relays. This should give you an idea as to what you can use. In general, if it’s mains powered it will probably act as a relay, and if it is battery powered it probably won’t.
You might consider asking around for what products others use that can act as relays.
It sounds simple in theory, but for the light switches and relays I’d need to get in an electrician, and I’m just not that invested yet. I don’t have bulbs I can swap out, as my lights don’t have bulbs. That leaves smart plugs and that last one you linked, the gateway.
Smart plugs are annoying. They are big and bulky, the plugs fall out of the wall easily when they get bumped by kids, and it’s an annoying extra thing for anyone wanting to use that socket.
That last link you have looks interesting. It doesn’t state what the range is, but the reviews have lots of comments about the great range. That might be an option. Any idea what kind of range it has? I need to make it about 10-15 metres and through 3 walls, so I suspect it’s a bit of a stretch but it would still probably greatly reduce the number of devices I need in between.
Out of the box, the Sonoff adapter is setup to be used as a coordinator, like the SkyConnect. To run it as a relay you will need to reflash its firmware. Sonoff has firmware available for that and I’ve seen guides floating around on how to do so.
Hardware side, best I can give you is a solid maybe, and I couldn’t tell you how stable the connection would be. I do know that it has better signal stock than the Nabu’s SkyConnect.
If you stuck it in front of a broad wave guide you might be able to eak out a little more range without limiting its visibility to the sides too badly. Like how satellite dishes work. A tin can would be too focused for this application but a metal colander or a foil lined dinner plate might work. Both the coordinator and the devices you are wanting to connect would have to be within “sight” of the Sonoff’s signal though.
Alternatively, and I don’t know if the parts exist to do this, you could split the single antenna off to 2 antennas, like CB antennas on heavy trucks here in the States. I don’t remotely understand how it works, but if it’s setup correctly, it would increase range to the “front“ and “back” while significantly reducing range to the sides.
I probably won’t go the tinfoil route, I’d prefer to keep it inconspicuous. Using it as a relay may do the trick, depending on range. I’ll think about what my plans are for future devices, as I don’t have many right now (hence not having a big zigbee network).
have a look at Shelley smart devices. They have a wifi button that’s fully compatible with Home Assistant. Not the cheapest in the world but the quality is excellent. No Zigbee needed.
Using Z2M doesn’t really sound like it’d be ideal for your use case. For most people (myself included) it’s to seperate your zigbee network from home assistant so if HASS goes down you don’t lose control of your lights too.
I made my own that used irrigation valves with a Zooz Zwave dry relay, with Home Assistant to control it. It was a giant pain to find and get everything hooked up right but afterwards it works well.
I’ve since found some zigbee-based irrigation valves in AliExpress that I’ll try out this summer. I think they’re about the same price as what I built per valve (considering all the parts and the time needed). I haven’t had a chance to try them yet as I got them at the end of last summer but they worked well in testing.
Rachio is supposed to have a local API coming soon. The Smart Hose hardware is great quality and I’m happy with their app in the meantime. Waiting to see how they open the integration before I commit heavily.
You might be able to do something with local Zigbee2mqtt or Zwave2mqtt proxies at the cabin, and tie those areas back into the main instance over Wirguard or Zerotier, but you’d need a pretty reliable internet service at the cabin to do so.
I don’t use those proxies myself since ai just use the one local hub, bit it should be possible. Maybe someone with more experience with those proxies could chime in?
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