HavocXphere
Honorary Master
A raspberry cut in half still boots...soooo...
Tried setting up a jump server today...didn't get very far. MS's implementation of SSH seems pretty crappy
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Share your current setup and future plans
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Tried setting up a jump server today...didn't get very far. MS's implementation of SSH seems pretty crappy
Cool thread!
Currently have:
Core
- 2nd hand Lenovo ThinkCentre M700 mini-PC with a 6th gen i5, 8GB ram, and a 1TB SSD, which runs my Home Assistant, Docker with camera person detection, etc. Bought this one from Geewiz and works well, the Intel NUCs were just too pricy for me and the Pi 3 had issues...
- Ubiquiti Unifi AC long range access point. 2nd one on the way.
- Ancient Mikrotik router handling fibre connectivity, VPN access, firewall etc. Totally in love with this one.
Switches & lights:
- Couple of Sonoff Basics running lights, all Tasmota'd
- Couple of Sonoff POW / POW2s, running plugs (such as fridge, microwave, etc.) as well as my borehole pump. Tasmota.
- Couple of Shelly devices (1's, 2's, and PMs) running lights and custom-built "smart plugs" -- for lights and monitoring power consumption of certain devices such as TV and PC. Tasmota too.
- A couple of Ulink / Bneta smart plugs, running Tasmota. Used for power monitoring of other kitchen appliances, such as dishwasher and washing machine.
- 2 sonoff SVs, one connected to my gate motor directly and one connected to a spare remote for my other sliding gate (was too far from Wifi reception).
- Couple of Yeelights (some basic white dimming, 2 tunable white and some RGB)
Cameras:
- 7 Hikvision cameras, each running with SD cards for local recording, with 2nd / 3rd streams fed into a Docker container running Frigate with a Google Coral USB TPU, scanning the feeds in real-time and looking for persons around my yard.
- 3 Wyze cams, 2 of them RTSP'd and connected to HA
- Cheap Chinese cam that had ONVIF and connected to HA
Sensors:
- Xiaomi Aqara gateways (x2, blocked from calling the internet) that I use to connect to a bunch of Zigbee sensors
-- motion sensors,
-- door sensors (connected to doors),
-- door sensors connected to Takex outdoor PIR's,
-- door sensor connected to a wide-gap magnetic reed switch, monitoring my sliding gate
-- door sensors connector to a rain gauge,
-- temperature and humidity sensors,
-- and a couple of buttons.
- Sonoff RF Bridge, connected to
-- 2 Sonoff remotes,
-- a Sonoff motion detector,
-- and my doorbell.
- Magnetic reed switch connected to one of the Sonoff Basics to monitor my other sliding gate
- ESPHome running on a Wemos D1 Pro, with an analog temperature sensor. This is connected to the thermistor in the geyser to get geyser temperature monitoring.
Solar PV & Inverter
- Victron Multiplus 1 5000VA, PV panels, and 3 Pylontech US3000s and a VenusGX. The latter is connected to Home Assistant locally via ModbusTCP, allowing me to monitor consumption, battery SOC, grid usage, etc. in almost-realtime (updates every 30s). I can also force grid-charge of the batteries, which is very useful for energy management (thanks @Sinbad for that one!)
- Sonoff Basic connected to a contactor that is connected to my solar geyser's element for manual control. Tasmota.
- Solcast sensor, to estimate solar radiance for my PV system for the remainder of the day. I also feed data back to Solcast for more accurate predictions.
Other:
- Broadlink IR blaster for controlling my ancient TV and DVD player
- Chromecast TV and Chromecast audio, connected to old speaker systems. Mostly for music but also for some HA announcements.
- Couple of Google Home speakers, but honestly mostly using these for speakers too (been a while since I said "OK Google").
To-do (soon):
- I have a Sonoff Zigbee bridge and Sonoff Zigbee motion detector, that I still want to flash with Tasmota and then move all my Zigbee devices over to, away from the Gateways. These tend to lose connectivity with the Wifi, and thus whole range of sensors go offline.
- Second Unifi AP on the way, my 2.4GHz network is pretty hectic...
- Setup my old GPU based miner to get going again, with power monitoring and API control, so that I can use excess solar power to mine crypto
Future plans
- Couple of network-related things I want to do to better protect the network
- buy some solenoids and automate the sprinkler system
- pull through more neutrals and put in more Sonoff mini's or Shelly's, so that I can restore some lightswitches to their intended functionality (currently have a couple which must be always one, where the Yeelights are or where there's a Sonoff in the light fitting).
- considering a Google Nest Hub (the one with the display) to see if I can use Home Assistant cast to put focus on cameras (especially when people are detected)
- build a pool and put a Sonoff POW on it and monitor/control it
Currently have:
Core
- 2nd hand Lenovo ThinkCentre M700 mini-PC with a 6th gen i5, 8GB ram, and a 1TB SSD, which runs my Home Assistant, Docker with camera person detection, etc. Bought this one from Geewiz and works well, the Intel NUCs were just too pricy for me and the Pi 3 had issues...
- Ubiquiti Unifi AC long range access point. 2nd one on the way.
- Ancient Mikrotik router handling fibre connectivity, VPN access, firewall etc. Totally in love with this one.
Switches & lights:
- Couple of Sonoff Basics running lights, all Tasmota'd
- Couple of Sonoff POW / POW2s, running plugs (such as fridge, microwave, etc.) as well as my borehole pump. Tasmota.
- Couple of Shelly devices (1's, 2's, and PMs) running lights and custom-built "smart plugs" -- for lights and monitoring power consumption of certain devices such as TV and PC. Tasmota too.
- A couple of Ulink / Bneta smart plugs, running Tasmota. Used for power monitoring of other kitchen appliances, such as dishwasher and washing machine.
- 2 sonoff SVs, one connected to my gate motor directly and one connected to a spare remote for my other sliding gate (was too far from Wifi reception).
- Couple of Yeelights (some basic white dimming, 2 tunable white and some RGB)
Cameras:
- 7 Hikvision cameras, each running with SD cards for local recording, with 2nd / 3rd streams fed into a Docker container running Frigate with a Google Coral USB TPU, scanning the feeds in real-time and looking for persons around my yard.
- 3 Wyze cams, 2 of them RTSP'd and connected to HA
- Cheap Chinese cam that had ONVIF and connected to HA
Sensors:
- Xiaomi Aqara gateways (x2, blocked from calling the internet) that I use to connect to a bunch of Zigbee sensors
-- motion sensors,
-- door sensors (connected to doors),
-- door sensors connected to Takex outdoor PIR's,
-- door sensor connected to a wide-gap magnetic reed switch, monitoring my sliding gate
-- door sensors connector to a rain gauge,
-- temperature and humidity sensors,
-- and a couple of buttons.
- Sonoff RF Bridge, connected to
-- 2 Sonoff remotes,
-- a Sonoff motion detector,
-- and my doorbell.
- Magnetic reed switch connected to one of the Sonoff Basics to monitor my other sliding gate
- ESPHome running on a Wemos D1 Pro, with an analog temperature sensor. This is connected to the thermistor in the geyser to get geyser temperature monitoring.
Solar PV & Inverter
- Victron Multiplus 1 5000VA, PV panels, and 3 Pylontech US3000s and a VenusGX. The latter is connected to Home Assistant locally via ModbusTCP, allowing me to monitor consumption, battery SOC, grid usage, etc. in almost-realtime (updates every 30s). I can also force grid-charge of the batteries, which is very useful for energy management (thanks @Sinbad for that one!)
- Sonoff Basic connected to a contactor that is connected to my solar geyser's element for manual control. Tasmota.
- Solcast sensor, to estimate solar radiance for my PV system for the remainder of the day. I also feed data back to Solcast for more accurate predictions.
Other:
- Broadlink IR blaster for controlling my ancient TV and DVD player
- Chromecast TV and Chromecast audio, connected to old speaker systems. Mostly for music but also for some HA announcements.
- Couple of Google Home speakers, but honestly mostly using these for speakers too (been a while since I said "OK Google").
To-do (soon):
- I have a Sonoff Zigbee bridge and Sonoff Zigbee motion detector, that I still want to flash with Tasmota and then move all my Zigbee devices over to, away from the Gateways. These tend to lose connectivity with the Wifi, and thus whole range of sensors go offline.
- Second Unifi AP on the way, my 2.4GHz network is pretty hectic...
- Setup my old GPU based miner to get going again, with power monitoring and API control, so that I can use excess solar power to mine crypto
Future plans
- Couple of network-related things I want to do to better protect the network
- buy some solenoids and automate the sprinkler system
- pull through more neutrals and put in more Sonoff mini's or Shelly's, so that I can restore some lightswitches to their intended functionality (currently have a couple which must be always one, where the Yeelights are or where there's a Sonoff in the light fitting).
- considering a Google Nest Hub (the one with the display) to see if I can use Home Assistant cast to put focus on cameras (especially when people are detected)
- build a pool and put a Sonoff POW on it and monitor/control it
AlphaJohn
Honorary Master
Thanx but erm no thanx... I did manage to clean the TV Cabinet by moving all the PI's onto the Media PC as VM's. Sadly Media PC consume a lot more power so not a permanent home. Looking for a Mini-ITX board seems harder than I thought.
Looking at something similar to this but a tad more recent (close to J4025 maybe) All I can find is pre-built cases that cost more than a laptop.
AxField
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Yeah, you kind already committed to going the PC route. Else I'd suggest the DeskPi as said earlier.
Tinuva
The Magician
How much do you want to spend?
If you can go 5k then this is epic I think: https://www.loot.co.za/product/inte...x-3235-g140?referrer=googlemerchant&gclsrc=ds
AxField
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Very very comprehensive setup you have there. Nice!!!
I just bought a 3rd one. Also having issues with too many devices on the 2.4 band.
This sounds very interesting. Can you tell us a little more about it? I want to use this for my pool pump automation.
I just bought a 3rd one. Also having issues with too many devices on the 2.4 band.
This sounds very interesting. Can you tell us a little more about it? I want to use this for my pool pump automation.
AlphaJohn
Honorary Master
DeskPi is nothing but a case, and I already have plenty of those running of USB 3 2.5 SSD's
Not gonna magically boost Ram and CPU power on an existing Pi.
Thanx but that is the same price as a complete laptop
AxField
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DeskPi is nothing but a case, and I already have plenty of those running of USB 3 2.5 SSD's
Not gonna magically boost Ram and CPU power on an existing Pi.
Yeah sure, it won't do anything to boost CPU and RAM, but it'll have everything nicely contained in one enclosure. For just running HA, you really don't need more than a Pi 4. If you gonna do other stuff, then it's irrelevant.
Thanks!
I'm running 66 wireless clients, of which most are on the 2.4 GHz band, and then I have a bunch of Zigbee devices on 2.4 GHz too. Most of the time everything is going perfect, until every now and then when it literally feels as if the 2.4 GHz band just falls over -- most devices are unreachable and it takes a couple of minutes for everything to get back.
It is! It is a web service that estimates solar radiance for utilities but also for small-scale PV systems. They have a free "home-user" tier where you can register one system: https://solcast.com/
They also take into account cloud coverage, so you can get an estimate like this:
You can also feed data from your own system and it "tunes" their model to fit the real-life data. Currently, their model correlates with my system with a correlation of 0.98:
Somebody on the Home Assistant community created a custom component for it: https://github.com/dannerph/homeassistant-solcast
Home Assistant discussion here (with a representative from Solcast): https://community.home-assistant.io...ils-on-post-to-external-url-solcast/143238/41
The component gives you a history and a forecast sensor. The forecast gives you the kWh for the rest of the day, as well as tomorrow and the day after. There's also a Home Assistant service that you can call to update the forecast (hobbyist home user accounts get 20 free API calls per day, the component automatically does one call at midnight).
So I have an automation that, when my batteries are fully charged, it calls the Solcast update service (you can see I did so a couple of times during the day). That gives me an estimate of how much PV power I can generate for the rest of the day. At this point I can now decide whether I want to:
1) Boost my geyser's temperature
2) Run a crypto miner
3) Turn on an aircon
4) Run the pool pump (if I had a pool!)
without dipping into my batteries, as it gives me an idea if there's enough solar power available to run the load purely from PV power, or at least have enough to recharge my batteries again if I do dip into it a bit.
You can also use it to see if there won't be enough PV power to fully charge your batteries and perhaps charge it from the grid (if you fear loadshedding for example).
AxField
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No no, not at all. That is fascinating and seems like an elegant way of predicting usage. Nothing frustrating me more than the pool pump running when there’s cloud cover.Bliksem, sorry for the long posts!
AlphaJohn
Honorary Master
Bliksem, sorry for the long posts!
Well guess its waaaay more accurate than my system attached so need some getting into
Attachments
Wow nice setup, will be copying\borrowing\stealing some of those things!
HavocXphere
Honorary Master
Some good info on cables
blog.networkprofile.org
Load Testing USB Chargers and Cables
A while ago when I got some Raspberry Pi's, I had a ton of issues with power. I bought a YZXStudio USB power meter/analyzer and a USB load tester, and tested every charger and cable I owned. I found a TON of bad cables which I threw out Most
blog.networkprofile.org
Some good info on cables
Load Testing USB Chargers and Cables
A while ago when I got some Raspberry Pi's, I had a ton of issues with power. I bought a YZXStudio USB power meter/analyzer and a USB load tester, and tested every charger and cable I owned. I found a TON of bad cables which I threw out Most
Not sure it is the right thread, but interesting nonetheless.
Mista_Mobsta
Expert Member
One thing I realise from this thread is that I am VERY excited to get all the orders delivered for my IoT. I also realise that my wife and kid may not see too much of me after work from here on out...
What are you kinda looking for here in terms of cost? I've got a NUC6CAYH (Celeron J3455), 12GB RAM, 480GB SSD (although this could be swapped to either a 1TB regular HDD, or a 120GB SSD) that I'm wanting to migrate my stuff off of so will be listing it for sale soon-ish
Same here!
Although it usually is a joke, the WAF (wife approval factor) or HAF or FAF (husband/family approval factor) is important.
Start with automations that help the family.
Some light and security related ones are best. My earliest ones were
- turn on outside lights at dusk and off at dawn
- notify us if the sliding gates outside are open, as it means our dogs could run out.
Remote access ones are also useful, such as turning on/off lights, geysers or opening gates/garage for the domestic worker etc.
Another useful one in our home is the doorbell which is connected to HA and takes a picture when pressed, along with a notification on one of the Google Homes. The old doorbell did a super load DING-DONG which triggered the dogs' barking and in turn usually woke our baby!
Avoid replacing existing switches and remotes completely - people are used to light switches!
Although it usually is a joke, the WAF (wife approval factor) or HAF or FAF (husband/family approval factor) is important.
Start with automations that help the family.
Some light and security related ones are best. My earliest ones were
- turn on outside lights at dusk and off at dawn
- notify us if the sliding gates outside are open, as it means our dogs could run out.
Remote access ones are also useful, such as turning on/off lights, geysers or opening gates/garage for the domestic worker etc.
Another useful one in our home is the doorbell which is connected to HA and takes a picture when pressed, along with a notification on one of the Google Homes. The old doorbell did a super load DING-DONG which triggered the dogs' barking and in turn usually woke our baby!
Avoid replacing existing switches and remotes completely - people are used to light switches!
Mista_Mobsta
Expert Member
I already have a couple Sonoff switches around the house for small things here and there. POW for cutoff of loads on the inverters. I was planning on loading HA onto a Pi4 but eventually I want to run the CCTV with AI so I am repurposing an old laptop to be the HA server and future proof it a bit.
I am waiting on @Tinuva to check whether that CBI din switch can be flashed and added to HA so keeping an eye on that.
All below planned in HA:
In the meantime I want to do a full security setup to tie in with my DSC (old-ass system)
Window and door sensors monitoring + push notification (order pending)
PIR motion detect to trigger CCTV record with push notification
SV switches for garages and gate + reed switches (order pending)
Battery monitoring in HA + push notification if batteries are below certain threshold
Temp gauge in pool to control pool pump -> already have POW on the pump to monitor energy usage etc
Mini's on lights in ceiling