Home Automation - Smartkit

[Mzezman]

Which sonoff zigbee hub do you have lying around? I have a single sonoff (geyser switch) in a dead spot so it randomly drops off the WiFi - been wanting to see if a zigbee hub would solve the issue but don’t want to spend a lot just to test.

Sonoff ZB Bridge

 

[Dolby]

.

Ok.

 

[SauRoNZA]

If I get Siri - what can it do out of the box?

Apple don't like others.

I know you always disagree - but it's true of most their services. Everyone knows this.

Look at Apple Music and how limited it is because they've decided to keep it closed? It's the same as Siri - cool to many a few hardcore Apple users, but most would see it as inferior.

Apple plays very nicely with Home Assistant whereas Alexa doesn’t.

But I’ve always said HomeKit isn’t great stand-alone, I was just counteracting your point that Alexa isn’t great either.

Not sure what your Apple Music moan is about, it’s not limited at all.

In the context of Home Assistant Alexa is simply inferior.

 

[SauRoNZA]

On the point of Zigbee repeaters can I just use any of these hubs to do that? Is there any config required or does all Zigbeen simply forward all zigbee and the authentication lives at the source device only?

Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus E

The Sonoff ZBDongle-E is a universal Zigbee USB stick. It can be used as a Zigbee gateway in Home Assistant, openHAB, Zigbee2MQTT, or other open-source platforms to locally control all your Zigbee devices, so you don't need to invest in different brands' Zigbee hubs, all you need is a universal...

www.robofactory.co.za

I have one of those can I just buy more and put the "router" firmware on and just put them all over the place? They don't get bound to Zigbee2MQTT at all?

 

[Tinuva]

On the point of Zigbee repeaters can I just use any of these hubs to do that? Is there any config required or does all Zigbeen simply forward all zigbee and the authentication lives at the source device only?

Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus E

The Sonoff ZBDongle-E is a universal Zigbee USB stick. It can be used as a Zigbee gateway in Home Assistant, openHAB, Zigbee2MQTT, or other open-source platforms to locally control all your Zigbee devices, so you don't need to invest in different brands' Zigbee hubs, all you need is a universal...

www.robofactory.co.za

I have one of those can I just buy more and put the "router" firmware on and just put them all over the place? They don't get bound to Zigbee2MQTT at all?

You need to pair a router like any other zigbee sensor to the main hub. (after the router firmware on it)

 

[airborne]

For USB, the sonoff. See my post here: https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/threads/home-automation-smartkit.909279/post-27101500

As for the ultimate hub to get, I would try and source the one I posted about here:

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

Thanks. Will have a look.

mybroadband.co.za

There is a chinese clone of it now I see: https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt/discussions/17360
HamGeek HMG-01 https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006189123338.html or https://www.aliexpress.us/item/1005004862119892.html?gatewayAdapt=4itemAdapt

@Tinuva just before I order it, this is the correct Sonoff Zigbee USB Dongle?

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www.takealot.com

 

[Tinuva]

@Tinuva just before I order it, this is the correct Sonoff Zigbee USB Dongle?

Takealot.com: Online Shopping | SA's leading online store

South Africa's leading online store. Fast, reliable delivery to your door. Many ways to pay. Shop anything you can imagine: TVs, laptops, cellphones, kitchen appliances, toys, books, beauty & more. Shop the mobile app anytime, anywhere.

www.takealot.com

Looks like the correct one yes. I can't say 100% because I never bought the USB one myself.

 

[SauRoNZA]

@Tinuva just before I order it, this is the correct Sonoff Zigbee USB Dongle?

Takealot.com: Online Shopping | SA's leading online store

South Africa's leading online store. Fast, reliable delivery to your door. Many ways to pay. Shop anything you can imagine: TVs, laptops, cellphones, kitchen appliances, toys, books, beauty & more. Shop the mobile app anytime, anywhere.

www.takealot.com

That’s the right one but it’s much cheaper at Robofactory in case you were buying some other stuff too.

 

[SauRoNZA]

It’s utterly insane to me that I need to put “Room” in the name of Groups because Alexa is too stupid to put two and two together.

If my kid’s room is just named “Kid” and I say “turn off the lights in Kid’s room” I just get told sorry there’s no group like that.

How do people reckon this is good or better even?

In contrast Homekit knows it’s a room and doesn’t need to be actively told with perfect phrases how to do this ****.

I literally feel you need to drip feed Alexa every step of the way to make it work where Siri/HomeKit simply works organically with no deeper intervention.

It’s like everything is treated individually and there is no hierarchy or links between stuff whatsoever.

There’s also nothing clever stripping names away for things inside the same area.

So if it’s Simon’s Room then everything inside needs to be called Simon Bedside light, Simon Fan, Simon Light Strip, otherwise you can’t find it in the main list and you also can’t really use it.

HomeKit you make things similarly but it’s displayed intelligently. So you don’t need to say “Simon’s Room” but just “Simon” because it already knows it’s a room. And then it shows that as “Light Strip” or “Bedside” or whatever inside that grouping even though it’s named as “Simon Light Strip”.

So when you say “turn off all the lights in Simon’s Room” it uses its brain and does that instead of telling you a pre-made group like that doesn’t exist.

Am I missing something deeply obvious here? Or is Alexa just thar dumb that it expect me to manually create every little thing for it to make it work?

It is honestly easier to pull the app out and do it there than argue with the thing every time. And don’t even get me started on how idiotic the app structure is either…

 

[Dolby]

.

No disrespect - but do you think you're the issue?

I just find it hard to believe that you're the opposite of everyone else whenever it comes to technology?

I don't struggle nearly as much as you :/ I just name the lights I want to control *shrug* . I don't even think I have groups setup and haven't gone into the app at all. Things just work out the box without tweaks or flashing or hacking or other software ... which ironically, is what you've always say about the iPhone.

On another note - I read up reviews about Siri after our last chat and they say it's horrible. Terrible really. It was launched and nothing really happened after that, so it's about a decade behind . When you say it's brilliant - is that *only* with HA and you agree it's pretty outdated without, hence most reviews list it as really bad?

 

[SauRoNZA]

No disrespect - but do you think you're the issue?

I just find it hard to believe that you're the opposite of everyone else whenever it comes to technology?

I don't struggle nearly as much as you :/ I just name the lights I want to control *shrug* . I don't even think I have groups setup and haven't gone into the app at all. Things just work out the box without tweaks or flashing or hacking or other software ... which ironically, is what you've always say about the iPhone.

On another note - I read up reviews about Siri after our last chat and they say it's horrible. Terrible really. It was launched and nothing really happened after that, so it's about a decade behind . When you say it's brilliant - is that *only* with HA and you agree it's pretty outdated without, hence most reviews list it as really bad?

The difference is your needs are so basic that you’ll never see these issues as your requirement are simply so low that complexity doesn’t even enter into it.

If you aren’t even using/needing groups I don’t think you use nearly enough smart home stuff to even comment on the matter.

No idea what you are on about flashing or hacking, these are literally Amazon’s own devices right out of the box.

And again you are on about Siri in isolation…I don’t use it like that so it’s not relevant.

Stop addressing me and address the issues I’ve raised instead.

You don’t appear to disprove any of them, you don’t come up with any solution, but instead immediately go off topic and want to address the fact that it’s me having the problem.

The problems continue to exist, whether I’m having them or someone else.

 

[Dolby]

The difference is your needs are so basic that you’ll never see these issues as your requirement are simply so low that complexity doesn’t even enter into it

Maybe .

But I'm sure there are others out there somewhere in the world that can match your complex needs, right?
And yet I've still never really seen anyone complain about Alexa as much as you, and praise Siri as much as you?

Either you're the most hardcore user ever, or there's something else at play here

No idea what you are on about flashing or hacking, these are literally Amazon’s own devices right out of the box

I'm just trying to understand .

I meant Siri needs the workarounds to work correctly?
So you're comparing the Amazon out the box verses Siri with the workaround?

and again you are on about Siri in isolation…I don’t use it like that so it’s not relevant

I was just trying to understand why the reviews all say it's terrible ... but if they're all using it out the box, then you, me & all the reviews agree it's terrible

and want to address the fact that it’s me having the problem.

Whoa!

I'm just saying that you have a huge history on here with regards to Apple products which you have no issue with - but battle to understand everything else. I was only commenting that maybe it's the same situation. That's all

I hope someone can assist with the complex issues you're having

 

[Dolby]

The difference is your needs are so basic that you’ll never see these issues as your requirement are simply so low

Maybe that's the explanation as to what you can't see Apple Music or Apple TV issues either :/

 

[SauRoNZA]

I hope someone can assist with the complex issues you're having

And hence why I posted in this thread as I know there are others that use Alexa quite intricately and just want to be sure this is what’s expected.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Maybe that's the explanation as to what you can't see Apple Music or Apple TV issues either :/

It may very well be.

I’ve not run into a situation where my needs aren’t met.

Well I would have liked Apple to open up audio passthrough so I can watch Dolby Atmos rips on Plex…but I can also live with them not wanting to further piracy and instead I just buy the things on Apple TV I see having legs and other stuff on the native LG version of Plex.

Apple Music I’ve not had any need to complain or feel limited in any way.

But again, this is off topic bullshit.

 

[Dolby]

I’m looking at my app - I have groups that are essentially the rooms. So I have group called ‘living room’ with my devices in it ie lounge, TV, Echo Dot

 

[SauRoNZA]

I’m looking at my app - I have groups that are essentially the rooms. So I have group called ‘living room’ with my devices in it ie lounge, TV, Echo Dot

Yeah those have room in the name so by default they work because of it.

Remove the “room” from the name and it goes instantly brain dead because it simply can’t do colloquial conversation well.

It doesn’t apply any kind of lingual intelligence and only seems to work with absolute names and ignores absolutely everything else.

You also can’t be in the same room and tell it to turn of the light that is literally right next to it without using the light’s full name. Deviate even slightly away from the exact name and it just doesn’t work.

Which is also why it’s so terrible with kids compared to Siri as it simply doesn’t even try to find the next best similarly named thing.

 

[Dolby]

I’ve created a new group called Simon and put my lounge into it. I can switch it on and off

What should or shouldn’t it do?

 

[SauRoNZA]

I’ve created a new group called Simon and put my lounge into it. I can switch it on and off

What should or shouldn’t it do?

Tell it to turn off all the lights in “Simon’s Room” without putting Room in the name.

It will tell you there is no such group.

 

[Dolby]

Tell it to turn of all the lights in “Simon’s Room” without putting Room in the name.

It will tell you there is no such group.

It turns off the lounge .

No error at all