Home Automation - Smartkit

[Tinuva]

I've come to realise that using the "sunrise" IFTTT routine turns off my lights too early now that it's Winter, even though I've got my city listed as CT. Seems I have to go back to using fixed times.

Ouch @ fixed times...it changes all year round.

I was lucky stupid and bought a Xiaomi zigbee gateway, which funny enough have an illumination sensor. I turn lights off in the morning based on how much light it detects. Great on cloudy days because it turns the lights off much much later.

 

[riscbroker]

I've come to realise that using the "sunrise" IFTTT routine turns off my lights too early now that it's Winter, even though I've got my city listed as CT. Seems I have to go back to using fixed times.

I had the same using IFTTT and eWeLink. I was notified a couple of weeks ago that the eWeLink /IFTTT hookup will become a subscription service, I think from July, so I loaded up Home Assistant. I now use the native weather app on Home Assistant and the automation allows you to specify an offset when linking switches/lights to sunrise/sunset.

 

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

What disappointment?

Asking as I considered HA but after looking at coding still sometimes required, decided to stick with Google Home for now

I just use the Sonoff light switches and the eWelink app. The eWelink account is linked to my Google account so I can use voice commands to control my lights and the other switches. With the original firmware the devices came with, you'd need to have been online to do anything, but they've since released LAN mode, so if you're connected to your LAN, it will prioritise that. It only makes use of the eWelink account when it detects no WiFi connection. Nice and convenient to sit on the other side of the globe to control your appliances.

And there's no coding required whatsoever. You just set up the scenes you want (example, if I manually turn on my bedroom light, it automatically turns on the downlights in my kitchen - this is because I like to either snack in the middle of the night, or have some water or a smoke or something).

 

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

I had the same using IFTTT and eWeLink. I was notified a couple of weeks ago that the eWeLink /IFTTT hookup will become a subscription service, I think from July, so I loaded up Home Assistant. I now use the native weather app on Home Assistant and the automation allows you to specify an offset when linking switches/lights to sunrise/sunset.

It's already a subscription services...if you have a moerse number of homes. I only have one, so the free service is fine for me.

 

[alqassam]

What disappointment?

Asking as I considered HA but after looking at coding still sometimes required, decided to stick with Google Home for now

I have never coded in my life. Yaml is like baby coding I think. Most stuff can be done in the gui including the automations.

Btw you can run both at the same time. And devices found in HA can be found in home.

 

[alqassam]

For the people using PAI can you use the indoor sensors for automation?

it sends updates to HA automatically when the sensor is activated.

 

[riscbroker]

It's already a subscription services...if you have a moerse number of homes. I only have one, so the free service is fine for me.

The eWeLink service remains free for up to 5 homes, its the IFTTT link that will become/is subscription based, as far as I understand.

 

[riscbroker]

For the people using PAI can you use the indoor sensors for automation?

Indeed it sends it updates to HA automatically when the sensor is activated.

PAI?

 

[alqassam]

PAI?

Paradox alarm interface

 

[JacoBushy]

For the people using PAI can you use the indoor sensors for automation?

it sends updates to HA automatically when the sensor is activated.

Yes I use my indoor sensors for automation through PAI. They are a bit slow sometimes to pick up motion, so I don't generally use them to turn on a light as there is a 2 - 3 second delay, but they work a charm to turn off lights when no motion was detected for a while. High priority areas I added a Sonoff PIR with a Tasmota RF Bridge to turn on the lights in combination with the paradox PIRs

If you add them, let me know if you also have a delay. Might just be a setting on my side.

 

[xrapidx]

Yes I use my indoor sensors for automation through PAI. They are a bit slow sometimes to pick up motion, so I don't generally use them to turn on a light as there is a 2 - 3 second delay, but they work a charm to turn off lights when no motion was detected for a while. High priority areas I added a Sonoff PIR with a Tasmota RF Bridge to turn on the lights in combination with the paradox PIRs

If you add them, let me know if you also have a delay. Might just be a setting on my side.

I don't have a delay, if I do - its usually a delay from the lights side.

 

[hellfire]

If I want to start taking home automation seriously, is HA the way to go?
What's the best hardware platform for HA to run on?

 

[SAguy]

If I want to start taking home automation seriously, is HA the way to go?
What's the best hardware platform for HA to run on?

OpenHab and HA are probably the two most popular open source home automation solutions, given that though they are more for tinkerers - so if you're keen to learn new things and play around then moving over to one of these will give you a lot more flexibility.

The biggest motivation for me moving over was two things... 1) Having multiple devices each having their own platform/app. 2) Not being able to have those devices interact with one another.

Some guys run HA on raspberry Pi's, I prefer something a little more robust, so I run mine on an i3 intel nuc.

 

[hellfire]

OpenHab and HA are probably the two most popular open source home automation solutions, given that though they are more for tinkerers - so if you're keen to learn new things and play around then moving over to one of these will give you a lot more flexibility.

The biggest motivation for me moving over was two things... 1) Having multiple devices each having their own platform/app. 2) Not being able to have those devices interact with one another.

Some guys run HA on raspberry Pi's, I prefer something a little more robust, so I run mine on an i3 intel nuc.

Did you already have the nuc or you bought it specially?

 

[SAguy]

Did you already have the nuc or you bought it specially?

I bought one, but I'm using it for a few things. It's running docker with containers running for:
Plex
Home Assistant
OpenVPN
... and others

 

[SauRoNZA]

What disappointment?

Asking as I considered HA but after looking at coding still sometimes required, decided to stick with Google Home for now

No no, not disappointed by Home Assistant.

Disappointed by the setup using Hass.io actually making life infinitely harder/more complicated than the individual Docker based setup I already have.

Will rather just stick to my setup and ignore Load Shedding than switch to a Pi with Hass.io

 

[SAguy]

No no, not disappointed by Home Assistant.

Disappointed by the setup using Hass.io actually making life infinitely harder/more complicated than the individual Docker based setup I already have.

Will rather just stick to my setup and ignore Load Shedding than switch to a Pi with Hass.io

I never really used hass.io, but I do feel sad when I see how much easier it is to install some integrations/components when you use hass.io.

Maybe I just haven't found the trick to it yet, but adding things take a bit more effort when running a docker HA setup.

 

[SauRoNZA]

I never really used hass.io, but I do feel sad when I see how much easier it is to install some integrations/components when you use hass.io.

Maybe I just haven't found the trick to it yet, but adding things take a bit more effort when running a docker HA setup.

But that’s just it, it’s not at all easy and rarely well documented.

Sure you can click the install button easily enough but the configuration is messy or documentation is lacking.

Also getting access inside the dockers for more advanced stuff is a different nightmare of its own that I just gave up on.

All seems much more trouble than it’s worth over my Unraid setup.

About the only benefit I can see would be access to components that aren’t otherwise available to be custom installed and I can’t really think of any of those I need desperately.

 

[Tinuva]

No no, not disappointed by Home Assistant.

Disappointed by the setup using Hass.io actually making life infinitely harder/more complicated than the individual Docker based setup I already have.

Will rather just stick to my setup and ignore Load Shedding than switch to a Pi with Hass.io

The supervisor setup?
If so, thats interesting. I don't have any issues adding stuff to it.

 

[SauRoNZA]

The supervisor setup?
If so, thats interesting. I don't have any issues adding stuff to it.

Specifically the Pi version of it.

I would imagine the version you run in Docker wouldn’t have any issues as likely you wouldn’t be running dockers inside Docker inside Docker and use them directly on your platform.

But simple stuff like getting to the shell of a Docker to map network volume to it required so many loop holes I just gave up.

Setting up subdomains for Letsencrypt/Nginx also proved problematic as you can’t access the Docker directly.

If you need to hack something to make it work then it’s not the right tool for the job.

There’s just not enough simple access to the core system and the way it operates.