Home Assistant : Q&A, Tips & Tricks, Your Configs

[Speedster]

Hi Guys.

Still learning about HA

I have a coffee machine which is already integrated into HA and can be switched on and off via HA.

I have a Sonoff Button which I have added to HA via ZHA.

I want to use the button to toggle the coffee machine on & off.

How do I do this exactly?

I haven't worked with Zigbee but I'm guess a simple automation with the button press as trigger and the coffee machine turning on as action?

 

[tRoN]

I haven't worked with Zigbee but I'm guess a simple automation with the button press as trigger and the coffee machine turning on as action?

Tried that.

Seems like that button is visible in ZHA but not as an actual “switch” so this is where the automation becomes a problem.

I’m exploring some blueprints for this.

Sjoe. The learning curve is steep

 

[Tinuva]

Tried that.

Seems like that button is visible in ZHA but not as an actual “switch” so this is where the automation becomes a problem.

I’m exploring some blueprints for this.

Sjoe. The learning curve is steep

The butron press will be an event which you can trigger the automation on. And yes it is not a switch with on off state.

Search ha forums for zha and button event. I don't use zha myself but I know buttons are not switches and that you can trigger on the event.

 

[tRoN]

The butron press will be an event which you can trigger the automation on. And yes it is not a switch with on off state.

Search ha forums for zha and button event. I don't use zha myself but I know buttons are not switches and that you can trigger on the event.

Ok thanks.

Any alternative physical switch/button solution?

Essentially the coffee machine needs to be turned on and off without me having to open an app all the time.
There are schedules set but we need to sometimes override this.

 

[Tinuva]

Ok thanks.

Any alternative physical switch/button solution?

Essentially the coffee machine needs to be turned on and off without me having to open an app all the time.
There are schedules set but we need to sometimes override this.

No use the button.

Trigger on button event
Action is light.toggle or switch.toggle for switch connected to coffee machine.

That is how I use the button.

You can do it, I am sure you will figure it out.

 

[MidnightZA]

Ok thanks.

Any alternative physical switch/button solution?

Essentially the coffee machine needs to be turned on and off without me having to open an app all the time.
There are schedules set but we need to sometimes override this.

Sonoff switch SNZB-01 (Zigbee) is missing entities

Awesome! glad to have helped being a newbie here!

community.home-assistant.io

Maybe this will help.

My zigbee switches are on the way and I've been doing some light reading.

The learning curve is steep with HA but it's a drug I'm addicted to

 

[tRoN]

Sonoff switch SNZB-01 (Zigbee) is missing entities

Awesome! glad to have helped being a newbie here!

community.home-assistant.io

Maybe this will help.

My zigbee switches are on the way and I've been doing some light reading.

The learning curve is steep with HA but it's a drug I'm addicted to

Woweeee!!

It works!!

Thanks.

Now I’m also addicted to HA!!

 

[xrapidx]

What would be the correct device to use to make a custom multi-toggle switch box? Basically six or so toggle switches in a box.

 

[deesef]

What would be the correct device to use to make a custom multi-toggle switch box? Basically six or so toggle switches in a box.

A flashed sonoff sv has 6 inputs, if you also use the switch and the rx and tx connections. Just ensure that these 3 are not earthed on power-up, else the device won't boot.

 

[MidnightZA]

I got an old broken laptop from my parents. The keyboard and trackpad doesnt work. I want to try use this for my setup. I first want to open it to see if I can install one of my spare SSDs.

If so, what are my options of getting HAss installed? Is it possible to just install the Home Assistant OS from the NUC image? Or is there a better way to get HAss running?

I know nothing about linux, ubuntu, docker and other methods of installation

 

[SauRoNZA]

.

Any alternative physical switch/button solution?

The one on the coffee machine?

Why on earth would you want a smart coffee machine? It’s not like it can park the coffee cup under the machine for you etc. There’s still lots of manual labour involved.

 

[SauRoNZA]

My 2 solutions if it were to be of interest to anyone:

1. I deleted the router integration and I dont need to monitor my network traffic. Its uncapped

2. I found this about binary sensors:

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/binary_sensor/

I created a binary sensor using the device class as occupancy and its exactly what I needed
View attachment 1083181

I dont like the fact that it says "Detected" and "Clear". I can put "Home" and "Away" if device class is set to "presence". I would have liked "Occupied" and "Unoccupied"

Code for anyone interested

binary_sensor:
  - platform: template
    sensors:
      people_home:
        friendly_name: "Home Occupancy"
        entity_id:
          - device_tracker.[YOUR DEVICE 1]
          - device_tracker.[YOUR DEVICE 2]
          - switch.guest
        value_template: >-
          {{ is_state('device_tracker.[YOUR DEVICE 1]', 'home')
             or is_state('device_tracker.[YOUR DEVICE 2]', 'home')
             or is_state('switch.guest', 'on') }}
        device_class: occupancy

That seems like a hell of a lot of extra work for something that's already built-in otherwise.

Go to Configuration > People and create the people you want and link their relevant devices etc, and then makes a groups.yaml to put them all together.

groups.yaml

people:
   name: People
   entities:
    - person.name1
    - person.name2
    - person.name3
    - person.name4

Now simply use the status of group.people for whatever you need. It will be home whenever someone is there and otherwise not_home.

Call "people" whatever you want if it doesn't work for you.

@MidnightZA

 

[tRoN]

The one on the coffee machine?

Why on earth would you want a smart coffee machine? It’s not like it can park the coffee cup under the machine for you etc. There’s still lots of manual labour involved.

Ay ay ay. The peeps on this forum….

Now I feel compelled to explain myself.

La Marzocco Linea Mini IOT - Online Coffee Shop

When using the app, the phone becomes a new display for the machine making it easier and more intuitive to adjust parameters such as temperature and pre-brewing.

onlinecoffeeshop.co.za

My machine has this retrofitted built in IOT wifi module and the smart features are to set schedules, brew temp, pre infusion etc.
It needs to stay in standby mode for it to be controllable.
The physical button “on the machine” will turn it off completely.

Turning it on from standby is done on the machine easily but to put it in standby needs the native LM app.

Someone managed to create a La Marzocco integration for HA so this gave me an idea.

I needed a “physical” button to put it into standby so yeah. Ok

 

[SauRoNZA]

Ay ay ay. The peeps on this forum….

Now I feel compelled to explain myself.

La Marzocco Linea Mini IOT - Online Coffee Shop

When using the app, the phone becomes a new display for the machine making it easier and more intuitive to adjust parameters such as temperature and pre-brewing.

onlinecoffeeshop.co.za

My machine has this retrofitted built in IOT wifi module and the smart features are to set schedules, brew temp, pre infusion etc.
It needs to stay in standby mode for it to be controllable.
The physical button “on the machine” will turn it off completely.

Turning it on from standby is done on the machine easily but to put it in standby needs the native LM app.

Someone managed to create a La Marzocco integration for HA so this gave me an idea.

I needed a “physical” button to put it into standby so yeah. Ok

Alright so basically it’s broken and they built it wrong and not a need for you to turn it on and off remotely.

Was just a question as there is an overriding notion to smart everything just for the sake of it without actually adding function which was the original point of smart automation.

If it’s actually saving you some real world effort or offering a value that wasn’t available otherwise then it’s all good.

****

For me personally the fact I still need to be there to put a cup in front of it and move it around etc means turning it on beforehand offers me zero value.

 

[xrapidx]

My replacement coffee machine will be automated one day... I hate standing up, walking to the kitchen and waiting for 5min.

I want to turn off the alarm and by the time I'm in the kitchen the coffee is waiting for me.

 

[TedLasso]

Just bought a Philips AirFryer which is connected. Never even knew it was a possibility but when I was sitting in the store , I saw it and it's old model NEXT to each other and it felt odd not to NOT to choose the connected one.

Already annoyed:-
I connected to my iOT lan, and I can't reach it from the private day to day LAN with the app. How does Philips who make hue lights get that wrong with their new stuff?? They already solved those issues with Hue so why did they not just adopt the same design principles?!

I have loads of hue lights and a Philips account but for the air fryer and their new incoming range of devices like blenders, I needed to create a new account. Why Philips why!!!

Anyway the connected bit could be interesting. Let's see when I can connect it to home assistant haha

 

[TedLasso]

Just bought a Philips AirFryer which is connected. Never even knew it was a possibility but when I was sitting in the store , I saw it and it's old model NEXT to each other and it felt odd not to NOT to choose the connected one.

Already annoyed:-
I connected to my iOT lan, and I can't reach it from the private day to day LAN with the app. How does Philips who make hue lights get that wrong with their new stuff?? They already solved those issues with Hue so why did they not just adopt the same design principles?!

I have loads of hue lights and a Philips account but for the air fryer and their new incoming range of devices like blenders, I needed to create a new account. Why Philips why!!!

Anyway the connected bit could be interesting. Let's see when I can connect it to home assistant haha

Edit: I can control it from anywhere. I guess their service was just slow to link everything up. But new annoying thing. Appears when I open the app (to look at receipes, etc and then touch the device, it turns on waiting for you to set parameters (temp, time). But you can't turn the device off from the app (or anyway that I can see how to do it).

The primary reason of the connected functionality, is to of course remotely turn on and monitor progress of the job at hand. I swear within 5 years, there will be a camera in there (like LG fridges) so you can see internally what's happening to your food ..

 

[MidnightZA]

Edit: I can control it from anywhere. I guess their service was just slow to link everything up. But new annoying thing. Appears when I open the app (to look at receipes, etc and then touch the device, it turns on waiting for you to set parameters (temp, time). But you can't turn the device off from the app (or anyway that I can see how to do it).

The primary reason of the connected functionality, is to of course remotely turn on and monitor progress of the job at hand. I swear within 5 years, there will be a camera in there (like LG fridges) so you can see internally what's happening to your food ..

I also got the new model air fryer and it has the same lcd panel but it's not the connected version. I would have loved to have a smart air fryer

 

[Saba'a]

Edit: I can control it from anywhere. I guess their service was just slow to link everything up. But new annoying thing. Appears when I open the app (to look at receipes, etc and then touch the device, it turns on waiting for you to set parameters (temp, time). But you can't turn the device off from the app (or anyway that I can see how to do it).

The primary reason of the connected functionality, is to of course remotely turn on and monitor progress of the job at hand. I swear within 5 years, there will be a camera in there (like LG fridges) so you can see internally what's happening to your food ..

Is it worth it in real life (IRL) terms? Just trying to figure out if it has any benefit IRL?

I have a smart LG fridge. Other than fast freeze and replace water filter and temp setting and (never used it but potentially useful) smart diagnosis of fridge.

Oh and door left open alert is cool but cant imagine someone leaving door open with loud alarm telling them to close it. But yes, just in case it does happen, its a cool but never used to date feature.

 

[xrapidx]

Not quite related to this thread - yet - but - is Tasker on Android still a thing? I see I don't have it "purchased" anymore.

Looking for a way to automate getting my mobile balances, and then push to home-assistant.

It seems it'll work - just have to figure out the how.

So - maybe every couple of hours I want to automate triggering a balance enquiry, then read the resulting SMS - and somehow publishing the results to home-assistant. Kinda tried of Vodacom wiping out my balance when the data expires.