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

[xrapidx]

Very cool. But why not simply use an off the shelf switch?

This was more a proof of concept, and quite a bit cheaper than readily available solutions.

 

[MidnightZA]

Where you you folks get your ESP8266 or ESP32 boards from? I want to dive a bit deeper into the IoT world.

I've seen the Wemos D1 Mini on Amazon. Just under R700 shipped here for a pack of 10
Also, Bangood has a pack of 5x ESP8266 NodeMCU v3 for R400 shipped here (also about R700 for 10)

I cant find anything local that will be as cost effective as those. Locally I've only found it sold in singles and it works out to about R400 for 10 units

 

[xrapidx]

Where you you folks get your ESP8266 or ESP32 boards from? I want to dive a bit deeper into the IoT world.

I've seen the Wemos D1 Mini on Amazon. Just under R700 shipped here for a pack of 10
Also, Bangood has a pack of 5x ESP9266 NodeMCU v3 for R400 shipped here (also about R700 for 10)

I cant find anything local that will be as cost effective as those. Locally I've only found it sold in singles and it works out to about R400 for 10 units

I bought off banggood, was one of their weird specials that come up, think I paid R30 a board

 

[MidnightZA]

I bought off banggood, was one of their weird specials that come up, think I paid R30 a board

Damn. I guess Ill wait for that to come up again.
What board was it? I will save it to my watchlist

 

[Speedster]

Where you you folks get your ESP8266 or ESP32 boards from? I want to dive a bit deeper into the IoT world.

I've seen the Wemos D1 Mini on Amazon. Just under R700 shipped here for a pack of 10
Also, Bangood has a pack of 5x ESP9266 NodeMCU v3 for R400 shipped here (also about R700 for 10)

I cant find anything local that will be as cost effective as those. Locally I've only found it sold in singles and it works out to about R400 for 10 units

I got mine from banggood. Communica has decent local pricing if you're only looking for a couple, or need it quickly.

 

[xrapidx]

Damn. I guess Ill wait for that to come up again.
What board was it? I will save it to my watchlist

It's not linking to the same one, it was the 10pc, but v2.2 of this one. It was $22.99

Not sure what changes between their versions, I see they have a few up to v3.0

But yes, keep an eye out, some of the stuff half's in price, I have a little bluetooth amp I paid almost R600 for now in my card for R320

 

[MidnightZA]

It's not linking to the same one, it was the 10pc, but v2.2 of this one. It was $22.99

Not sure what changes between their versions, I see they have a few up to v3.0

But yes, keep an eye out, some of the stuff half's in price, I have a little bluetooth amp I paid almost R600 for now in my card for R320

I have that same 5pc in my cart at the moment.

I also have have this in my cart. https://banggood.app.link/qW7KKzOSlhb

Waiting for whichever one gets discounted first

 

[xrapidx]

I have that same 5pc in my cart at the moment.

I also have have this in my cart. https://banggood.app.link/qW7KKzOSlhb

Waiting for whichever one gets discounted first

I have one of these running my irrigation tank.

 

[MidnightZA]

I have one of these running my irrigation tank.

Which is better between the two options? Im guessing they are in essence the same thing just the form factor and pre soldered pins will be the deciding factors?

 

[xrapidx]

Which is better between the two options? Im guessing they are in essence the same thing just the form factor and pre soldered pins will be the deciding factors?

I like the D1 Mini more, but thats purely because its smaller - function wise, both have been able to do the same thing, but - I haven't done anything complicated yet.

Going to use two of the Mini's now for WLED lamps I'm making.,

 

[MidnightZA]

Anyone here using Sonoff zigbee motion sensors?

The sensors itself has a delay of about 1min, ie. it stays in the ON position for 1 min then goes off.

It seems like an hardware config, any way to change that 1 min delay to maybe 5 - 10 sec?

 

[tRoN]

Anyone here using Sonoff zigbee motion sensors?

The sensors itself has a delay of about 1min, ie. it stays in the ON position for 1 min then goes off.

It seems like an hardware config, any way to change that 1 min delay to maybe 5 - 10 sec?

What’s your application for this ?

 

[deesef]

Anyone here using Sonoff zigbee motion sensors?

The sensors itself has a delay of about 1min, ie. it stays in the ON position for 1 min then goes off.

It seems like an hardware config, any way to change that 1 min delay to maybe 5 - 10 sec?

Search on YouTube. There is a video that shows how to mod it to reduce the time activated

 

[MidnightZA]

What’s your application for this ?

An on/off toggle for a staircase. One sensor at the top and the other at the bottom.

So far I got 4 automations for it using light.turn_on and light.turn_off commands.

Up On - If the LED strip is off, and motion is detected at the bottom then it comes on
Up Off- If the Bottom motion sensor is ON and LED is on, and motion is detected at the top then the LEDs go OFF
Down On - If the LED strip is off, and motion is detected at the top then it comes on
Down Off - If the Top motion sensor is ON and LED is on, and motion is detected at the bottom then the LEDs go OFF

Now if I walk up and someone else walks down within the same minute then things go faulty.

If I can set the delay to 5 sec then I can just use it as a light.toggle. So each sensor will toggle the strip whether its off or on

Edit: Pic of Stairs at night

 

[TedLasso]

An on/off toggle for a staircase. One sensor at the top and the other at the bottom.

So far I got 4 automations for it using light.turn_on and light.turn_off commands.

Up On - If the LED strip is off, and motion is detected at the bottom then it comes on
Up Off- If the Bottom motion sensor is ON and LED is on, and motion is detected at the top then the LEDs go OFF
Down On - If the LED strip is off, and motion is detected at the top then it comes on
Down Off - If the Top motion sensor is ON and LED is on, and motion is detected at the bottom then the LEDs go OFF

Now if I walk up and someone else walks down within the same minute then things go faulty.

If I can set the delay to 5 sec then I can just use it as a light.toggle. So each sensor will toggle the strip whether its off or on

Edit: Pic of Stairs at night
View attachment 1096569

But once again , why so complicated? It feels complicated to me.

Why not, just trigger light(s) to come on and then turn off after 2 minutes , or whatever?

Hass automation has the ‘restart’ option if the same trigger is hit again while a specific automation is running.

I use this successfully to turn on led strip lights or normal hue lights when the PIR detects motion in a room /area. If I keep on walking in the zone, during the trigger time period, it keeps on ‘restarting’ that light turn on, and works until motion is no longer detected and then turns off. I have a 2 minute timer for passage and 5 for front of house.

 

[MidnightZA]

But once again , why so complicated? It feels complicated to me.

Why not, just trigger light(s) to come on and then turn off after 2 minutes , or whatever?

Hass automation has the ‘restart’ option if the same trigger is hit again while a specific automation is running.

I use this successfully to turn on led strip lights or normal hue lights when the PIR detects motion in a room /area. If I keep on walking in the zone, during the trigger time period, it keeps on ‘restarting’ that light turn on, and works until motion is no longer detected and then turns off. I have a 2 minute timer for passage and 5 for front of house.

I dont want the staircase to be lit up for so long. Just for the walk up/down which takes less than 10 seconds walking normally. I may just leave it at the 1 minute timer and group the 2 motion sensors so if either is on then the light will be on.

For my other motion sensor, I have it set up like you said. The light will only go off if no motion is detected in the zone for 30 seconds. That is working nicely, so far I haven't felt the need to extend that 30 seconds delay

 

[deesef]

I've gotten round that in the past by using template sensors... so basically the template sensor has all the conditions - and when it changes status, the automation kicks in.

e.g. for my pool pump automation, I have a single binary template sensor that has various conditions, time, weather conditions, position of the sun, current pool temperature, etc - if they all evaluate to true, the pump turns on.

How can the temperature sensor be physically connected to the swimming pool water, without dangling it over the side of the pool?

 

[Speedster]

How can the temperature sensor be physically connected to the swimming pool water, without dangling it over the side of the pool?

Weir?

 

[Priapus]

Weir?

I considered this. But didn’t want to dig up the lawn to run the cabling for said sensor.
The alternative is to build a sensor on a floater that is solar powered. Might do this one day.

 

[deesef]

Weir?

That is way too far from the pump. It's on the other side of the pool.