I may be wrong, but I think best practice says it doesn’t matter how you name your whatevers, so long as the convention you use is consistant. Within HA I tend to use the format <DeviceType>.<Room>.<WhereOrWhat>.<NumberIfRestMatches>.
For example, the plugs that control my space heaters in my livingroom are switch.livingroom.heater.1 and switch.livingroom.heater.2. The controls for the lights in the livingroom is button.livingroom.wall. Please don’t ask why I call plugs switches and controls buttons, I don’t have an answer, I just do. 🤷
My setup is a bit different but I had a lot of fun putting it together. I have a D1 mini with a switch hat wired into the boiler.
The D1 runs a tiny web server that lets me turn the heating on and off. Then I have a bunch of ZigBee thermostats around the house that provide a fuzzy average temperature.
Then I have a custom dash in hass that displays pretty much what a hive would display.
Whole setup cost about $20 and has been running nonstop for over 5 years!
I got a Google Nest E thermostat off eBay from a charity shop for £12 and wired it in to where my old dumb dial thermostat was.
My ZigBee thermostats are just my ZigBee motion and door sensors that also have a temperature element.
I turned off the Nest smarts in Nest, and had HA come up with average temperatures for the whole house using the ZigBee things, then recreates the smarts in HA.
The Nest E smarts stopped working 6 months later but the heat link still worked, so I bought another off eBay for £20 and paired that.
I am gonna just get some ZigBee temp sensors at some point, but this works well enough for now.
Yeah, I suppose one could do a generic thermostat in HA and use just a few smart switches. However that requires some rewiring of the previously thermostat-controlled device.
In my previous house, the v1 prototype was wired straight to the boiler as there was no previous thermostat. In the current house, the v2 is wired to the Honeywell, so one can override the other as they are in parallel.
It was pretty finnicky stuff and I had to scour the internet for decade old wiring guides, but I like that sort of thing so it was good fun.
Every solution is a good solution if it makes your life easy and you have fun installing it!
I’ve been using the Sendled Sengled E11-N1EA bulbs available on Amazon for quite some time now. They have a bit of a cold white edge to them and could maybe be a bit brighter at times, but overall I’ve been happy with them.
Mine came in a 4-pack. I have two inside in table lamps, and two outside in coach lamps.
I’ve had 10 of the RGB ones, E21-N1EA, for a few months now and they’ve been working perfectly. Not the brightest or the most accurate color, but they’re simple, cheap, and local-only.
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…
This is the answer. I have a handful of notifications setup this way. My routing logic tends to be much simpler but that’s what “choose” is for.
The only tricky one may be to hold the notifications until later. I probably wouldn’t bother with that personally. Instead I use the do not disturb functionality on the phone.
The problem with a good running automation is you end up used to them, I forget they’re even there most if the time.
I end up appreciating my once-in-awhile automations more. A couple times a month I need to get up extra early, skip my normal routine and go straight to work. But I’m American, this can’t be done without coffee. The night before I prepare the coffee maker and scan an NFC on the top that turns off the plug and waits for my next alarm, then turns it back on. Once it runs it disables the automation, so I dont accidently burn the house down. Worth a million bucks
In the summer in the northeast US most evenings are cool enough to sleep with just a fan in the window. For the nights that stay too warm past bedtime I scan an NFC on my AC that triggers an automation to shutoff the AC and turn on the window fan at a specified outdoor temp. Saves on electricity and who doesn’t love fresh air??
I’m trying this now, I see it change the state to “printing” but I can’t bring up the device in automations to act on it. If I go into the IPP devices page and try to add an automation from the device page, it tells me no devics are available for automation.
Edit: got it, it was under entities, not devices, in automations. That’s one more thing out of Node Red now, thanks!
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.
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.
homeassistant
Top
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.