Home Automation - Smartkit

Supercarfan said:
BTW, even with HSV you can still record locally to SD card. Handy in case of internet connectivity issues and as you then won't be reliant on the motion detection picking things up.
Click to expand...

Yeah I’m aware, which is why it seemed a pretty good deal.

As much as I love my Wyze came needing to pay for the extra features is more expensive over a year than buying these Aqara cameras.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Yeah I’m aware, which is why it seemed a pretty good deal.

As much as I love my Wyze came needing to pay for the extra features is more expensive over a year than buying these Aqara cameras.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Also switched from Wyze. Plus the ecosystem of relatively cheap Zigbee devices that can be paired to the camera and get exposed to homekit is a nice bonus.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Yeah I’m aware, which is why it seemed a pretty good deal.

As much as I love my Wyze came needing to pay for the extra features is more expensive over a year than buying these Aqara cameras.
Click to expand...

Oh so anything that talks to this gateway shows up in HomeKit?

Wasn’t aware of that, but could be really useful.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Oh so anything that talks to this gateway shows up in HomeKit?

Wasn’t aware of that, but could be really useful.
Click to expand...
Yup, and you can even pair Xiaomi Mi home Zigbee devices to it and they also show up in HK. The Xiaomi Mi contact sensor is only R170 on takealot these days, compared to R350 for the Aqara one.
 
Supercarfan said:
Yup, and you can even pair Xiaomi Mi home Zigbee devices to it and they also show up in HK. The Xiaomi Mi contact sensor is only R170 on takealot these days, compared to R350 for the Aqara one.
Click to expand...

Good to know.

This is my first foray into anything Zigbee so we shall see how it goes.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Aaah this would actually be magical as I do have PoE and this is literally in my garage where my rack lives.

Seems a bit pricey but will check what Banggood has.
Click to expand...
If you have passive POE you could build your own with a converter to go down to 5V. Active POE you will need one of the fancy adaptors probably.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Does anyone do anything special to get USB to more remote locations?

I’ve bought one of the Aqara cameras with Homekit support to try out and want to park it at the front of the house to monitor the comings and goings and kind of use it as a doorbell if the notification and detection work well enough.

I do believe there’s a 10m restriction on cable length so probably best to just put a plug socket there with USB, but thought maybe there are some creative solutions here.
Click to expand...

How remote, and how much bandwidth are the two big questions.

The geeky answer is something like:

 
SauRoNZA said:
Just remote in the context of not having power automatically at hand.
Click to expand...
If you only want the power, just cut a cable get some thicker wire spliced in to counter the voltage drop. You should be able to get a fair distance.

Be a lot simpler than getting a plug installed.
 
Düber said:
If you only want the power, just cut a cable get some thicker wire spliced in to counter the voltage drop. You should be able to get a fair distance.

Be a lot simpler than getting a plug installed.
Click to expand...

Yeah will do the measuring and if 10m will do I’ll just buy a pre-made cable.

If not I’ll consider these other options.

It was never going to be “getting a plug installed” but whether I add one myself.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Yeah will do the measuring and if 10m will do I’ll just buy a pre-made cable.

If not I’ll consider these other options.

It was never going to be “getting a plug installed” but whether I add one myself.
Click to expand...

Voltage Drop Calculator

This free voltage drop calculator estimates the voltage drop of an electrical circuit based on the wire size, distance, and anticipated load current.
www.calculator.net www.calculator.net
 
SauRoNZA said:
Does anyone do anything special to get USB to more remote locations?

I’ve bought one of the Aqara cameras with Homekit support to try out and want to park it at the front of the house to monitor the comings and goings and kind of use it as a doorbell if the notification and detection work well enough.

I do believe there’s a 10m restriction on cable length so probably best to just put a plug socket there with USB, but thought maybe there are some creative solutions here.
Click to expand...

You could also try usb over cat5
IMG_9875.jpg
 
Supercarfan said:
Superbalis
Click to expand...

Supercarfan said:
You do need the app to pair devices though. And apparently if you setup the app in homekit only mode (without an Aqara account) you can't do firmware updates anymore.

Must be noted though, even with my locally bought stuff, I think I still had to choose between creating an Chinese or EU Aqara account.
Click to expand...

Paul hibbert done a video on the aqara stuff - also had an issue with the chinese server


 
Can someone recommend a smart switch I can use at my Pool Pump thats HomeKit compatible?

Pref something where I can also set timers via Homekit or itself but also intergrate to Siri etc.
 
How does one verify if and which Tuya devices are LAN controlled?

Sonoffs easy to check as a setting available.

Below on website link at end:

Dear user, we are sorry for your inconvenience. Smart devices can be controlled in LAN. The device only needs to connect to the external network through the router and register to cloud server when it is added for the first time, but after the cloud server registration is completed, even if the external network is disconnected, it also can be controlled through the LAN.

Note: Not all smart devices can be controlled in LAN, such as: cameras, video doorbells and other smart devices that most of functions rely on cloud servers. Such as Zigbee devices, Bluetooth devices and some Wi-Fi devices (sockets, light bulbs, etc.) can all be controlled within the local area network (the local area network control function needs to be set by the manufacturer during production, if it is not set, it cannot be used).

 
Definitely a bit bullshit on their part.

We lost our internet connection yesterday, and while I even connected to home assistant via the tuya integration

I can't control the lights via either HA or the app. So my lounge lights are running with with orange lights until I can get internet again .

Losing an internet connection has fscked up so many things even with what I thought was local control. Screenshot_2021-08-09-12-10-38-868_com.tuya.smart.jpg
 
Eish why I am so reluctant to let the LTE go, as its a great backup to fibre AND vice versa.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X