Home Assistant

Manion · 22-12-2022 1:57am

Yep, I saw a chappy doing that on YouTube. Might be a good option for some people but the unit appears large in comparison.

Manion · 22-12-2022 6:04pm

Getting there. I have most of the sensors set up I'll need. Word of advice to anyone going down this road, pick a naming convention, it will make it a lot easier to reason about and make sure you're not missing anything. Next I need to add meters for the data coming off the Solis inverter.

mp3ireland2 · 26-01-2023 11:45am

Anybody got any tips on an outdoor motion sensor? I have a ZigBee usb connected to my system. Most of my searches end up with only indoor ones.

paulbok · 26-01-2023 11:55am

I have a Philips Hue one. As is always the case, it's pricey, but works very well. Have automations using it running from HA as it controls non Hue lights.

Also a Ring Floodlight cam and doorbell. The doorbell seems to work ok but is awful slow with notifications, the floodlight is awful, so hit and miss. Had a notification of movement on Saturday, took 3 views of the footage before I spotted the cat that triggered it, a few hours later, my friend drove in with a huge jeep and him and his family all got out, walked over to the door, but I got no notifications. Will be replacing both Ring devices in the near future.

Hope to install a couple of Reolink CCTV cams in the spring and use the motion detect off them.

bittihuduga · 27-01-2023 3:18pm

on the similar topic of outdoor sensors, does any use outdoor door sensors?

i am in a semi d house and i have a side gate to get into garden.

can i get some door sensors that work outdoor?

for indoor doors i use xiaomi door magnet sensors which are very good for the last 3-4 years.

i am looking for something similar for the garden side door outside. any suggestions pls?

paulbok · 27-01-2023 7:49pm

I asked a similar question somewhere a few years ago, best suggestion at the time was a diy sensor using a reed sensor. Never attempted it, and the pressing need at the time (have/have young kids, wanted it for a side gate as didn't have any front gates, but now far more secure) is gone but would get an off the shelf device if available.

Nelbert · 27-01-2023 7:59pm

Ring do a z-wave outdoor door sensor but it's pricey from memory.

I've seen people put the Aqara door sensor inside a small ip65 box pressed against the side. Some needed stronger magnets to get it to work properly.

redzer_irl · 03-02-2023 4:32pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120019893#Comment_120019893

Thanks for sharing your config. I managed to get the configuration.yaml file updated (with my shelly sensor) and couldn't paste the tarrif automation in directly (it wouldn't save) so started one manually and then pasted in the missing pieces

I can't figure out what settings I need to input for the Utility Meter helper though. I would appreciate any guidance you can give on this.

iwb · 07-02-2023 9:41pm

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask: Is there anyone on here would would be willing to take some time and answer questions I have about Home Assistant? I'm happy to pay something for their time.

Nelbert · 07-02-2023 9:55pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120213108#Comment_120213108

In what areas of interest?

Send a DM and I'll help if I can.... Slightly worried about the number of questions you have if you're willing to pay someone for their time though!

Jonathan · 07-02-2023 10:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120213108#Comment_120213108

Post them up. Chances are the hive mind will answer them for free, and the next person along behind you will learn too.

Raoul · 07-02-2023 10:07pm

Get the questions up here. I'm sure people will help.

Gerry · 09-02-2023 9:39pm

Probably this has come up before.

I changed broadband provider and long story short, ended up having to change ip address of my shellys. I locked myself out of the shelly in the process but the reset wasnt too bad. home assistant was much worse.

I would have made more effort to avoid the address change if I'd known what a pain it was to update their addresses in home assistant.

its in /config/.storage/core.config_entries

which is not easily editable as that is a hidden folder which the file editor wont show you.

I installed visual studio code but that is quite unusable on the phone.

ended up making a typo and home assistant wouldnt load on boot.

plugged in hdmi and keyboard, eventually got a shell from the ha cli by running "login" which is not listed in the ha cli help.. and then was able to edit the file.

utter pain. lesson is don't change IPs of your devices.

on an upside ha itself was relatively easy to reconfigure to the new network.

iwb · 12-02-2023 11:24pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120213108#Comment_120213108

Thanks for the replies all. It does make sense to put the questions up here I suppose. It will help others later maybe.

So, first of all I would like to know if Homeassistant is the right platform for me to use;

This is what I have right how

I wired my light switches with Cat5e back in the day and for now, all the lights are switched by 12V relays.

I have solar panels an Eddi energy diverter and an EVBox car charger

I use a Hikvision DVR for home security.

I have very basic heating controls.

What I would like

I want a system that's very configurable and not too difficult to set up

It would be great if it works with all the systems I have in place now.

I don't want to keep buying bits and pieces of different systems, like a Hive or Nest for heating controls, Dali for lighting control and so on. I would like a single system to do as much of this as possible.

I'm an electrician by trade from years ago and I'm comfortable running cables and working with mains.

The Question

Does Homeassistant do all of this?

Nelbert · 12-02-2023 11:39pm

Homeassistant works with most things.

Those 12v relays, you can probably swap them for ones that work with homeassistant. The shelly relays may be a good fit. Edit: Shelly's are mostly 24v not 12v for DC make sure you buy correct ones if going this route.

It works with Eddi.

Homeassistant gives you the opportunity to buy the best thing for the job and have it integrated....

For me I've a combination of shelly in wall relays (shelly wifi modules) and smart bulbs (ZigBee) for lighting - using a USB ZigBee controller plugged in to home assistant.

Have heatmiser neohub for my heating which integrates with home assistant.

My mitsubishi heat pump has an integration to allowing me to control my water heating.

A few tp link plugs with energy monitoring for key appliances.

Use the Android TV plugin in to detect fire TV doing things and dimming lights etc.

RGB controller for recessed lighting integrated.

My Ring alarm (and all its sensors) integrated along with the doorbell (make lights flash if doorbell rings etc).

There's very little smart home wise I've even thought of that I can't find a homeassistant compatible thing to buy.

Over in the renewable energy forum you'll see people have integrated their solar inverters and battery etc to allow them control when to charge battery, when to heat water with Eddi etc.

emaherx · 13-02-2023 9:07am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120233901#Comment_120233901

This is what I have right how

I wired my light switches with Cat5e back in the day and for now, all the lights are switched by 12V relays.

I have solar panels an Eddi energy diverter and an EVBox car charger

I use a Hikvision DVR for home security.

I have very basic heating controls.

Are all of those relays centralized? If so you are already way ahead of most starting off.

I don't use Eddi or EVBox so no experience, but I believe, both should be possible.

I use Hikvision DVR here with no issue, I use Home Assistant to view cameras and events like line crossing can be sent also.

Had very basic heating controls here, I replaced time clock with a smart switch and thermostats with wifi enables stats. HW and Immersion are controlled by smart switches also (Contactor with Immersion), some arduino based temp sensors for the hot water tank. Home Assistant controls my heating system completely and does not rely on any other APP or Smart ecosystem.

What I would like

I want a system that's very configurable and not too difficult to set up

It would be great if it works with all the systems I have in place now.

I don't want to keep buying bits and pieces of different systems, like a Hive or Nest for heating controls, Dali for lighting control and so on. I would like a single system to do as much of this as possible.

I'm an electrician by trade from years ago and I'm comfortable running cables and working with mains.

Home Assistant is very configurable the options are basically limitless, but not too difficult to setup is somewhat subjective, you have a lot to configure, it's much easier if you research the components you buy have been integrated successfully already by others first (ie an integration already exists). Having some experience installing / configuring OS's and network devices would be a big advantage, but anyone can learn and there is loads of support in the community.

In theory it will work with everything, if an integration exists it makes things easy, but it's open source and community developed so you rely on others to have tried similar devices. Alternatively you can always take a stab at integrations yourself, sometimes that may not be very difficult especially if the hardware you have conforms to open standards or provides an open API.

Home Assistant relies on you buying the bits and pieces of different systems (unless you want to make your own?). It's HA's main of advantage, being entirely agnostic of any ecosystem allowing you to buy all the bit's you like from the different manufacturers and then control them all from a single controller.

The Question

Does Homeassistant do all of this?

Yes, but it's definitely not an out of the box solution, sometimes maybe not as simply as you might like, configuring some devices can even get a little frustrating at times. I think when it's all up and running it is well worth it, research how well each device will work with HA before buying will keep it simpler though. Configuration has got much simpler over the years, many devices now are auto detected plug and play, or simply configured via the UI but still plenty needing more work.

WildCardDoW · 15-02-2023 2:50am

I've been having a good run on HA.

I'm paying for their Google Home link but plan on setting up the local version with DuckDNS etc.

Buying IKEA bulbs working well and have a variety of devices for LED strip control (and led strips lol).

Will go for a few Sonoff controllers for spotlights eventually (as smart spot lights are expensive ha).

Have a few smart sockets.

Everything running on Zigbee.

Last step will then be tto look into the truly local home speaker setups and the best presence detectors (see a Scottish guy who made some really good ones).

emaherx · 15-02-2023 7:49am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120242357#Comment_120242357

I'm paying for their Google Home link but plan on setting up the local version with DuckDNS etc.

If you are considering DuckDNS, you should also look at Cloudflare. It's probably simpler to setup with the Cloudflare addon, it's far more secure, requires no open ports and is more reliable. You will probably need to pay for a domain name but these can be got very cheap.

I was using DuckDNS for years but lately there were a number of times when my URL would not resolve as DuckDNS was down and I was relying on the connection to monitor cows due to calve which was a major issue for me. I can also serve less secure applications through this but add an extra layer of security in front of them using common Authentication Services like Google/Github/ Facebook etc or a one-time pin via e-mail.

iwb · 17-02-2023 11:59am

This is great. Thanks for all the replies. I'll be back with more questions soon.

Nelbert · 17-02-2023 3:34pm

Just to clarify. Your lights are 12v at the switch and then you've a relay back at board or somewhere that controls the actual light?

Have a look at esphome based controllers and compatible relays. Not as familiar on the low voltage stuff but you could potentially have an easily avenue if you can get smart relays to fit in the space you currently have them.

iwb · 18-02-2023 12:35pm

Heating system:

@emaherx I like your heating setup as it sounds more configurable and probably cheaper. I have two heating zones in my house. My simplistic view of it is that I can replace my very basic wired thermostats with something that detects temperature and displays info. That is wired back to Homeassistant and it does the rest. If that's the case, can I locate relays and temp sensors locally to the heating and hot water tank and connect back to Homeassistant? (We built our house with a conduit system, kind of like an office so I can pull cables almost anywhere in the house and garage). Are there relay/sensor boards that talk to the Raspberry Pi over a simple connection, either ethernet or other simple wired protocol? If not, do I need maybe one Zigbee hub in the house and one in the garage (where my tank and oil boiler are located) and are there wireless relay/sensor boards?

Lighting system:

I have 30 relays located at the main fuseboard for the house. Do I need to get smart relays, or can I get an I/O board that talks to Homeassistant with at least 30 outputs? I have an old Arduino Mega that has 54 outputs for example? Could it be wired back to the Raspberry Pi and made to talk with it to control the relays? Woud an Arduino work as a universal 'local' I/O board for the thermostats and relays that need to be in different places around the house?

Nelbert · 18-02-2023 12:54pm

An Arduino or a couple of esp32 would do the job.

Basically you'd put the smart bit in between the switch and current relays. That way you'd be able to control the lights with either the switch on the wall or the smart switch.

The esp32 has 16 usable gpios from memory so you could use 8 as input from the switches and 8 as output. I've not used an Arduino.

Principal is the same for the thermostats. They are just switches from an electrical point of view (not news to you I'm guessing). There's loads of options though so depends what you want but I'd suggest making sure you can still call for heat manually at the thermostat in the event of smart bits having a hardware failure or downtime.

I've heatmiser neo stats and neohub on that side of things and am happy to have both full integration but manual override options.

ZigBee thermostats could work if you find ones that work at whatever voltage you'll have at thermostat spots.

There's also the radiator valves but I've read there's issues with getting temp right as they are so close to the rad they think room is warmer.

iwb · 18-02-2023 4:10pm

The house is heated with a forced air system, so no radiators or underfloor.

Is there a particular Zigbee gateway that works best with Homeassistant or that's available in Ireland generally? I bought a gateway from Lidl on a whim a while back but don't know much about it and I'd need at least two anyway for garage and house.

Are there esp32 or arduino devices that come with a screen and a few buttons maybe? Easier to set them up as thermostats and other devices. If not, am I better with arduino, esp32 or some other platform? Are they always ethernet (my arduinos are old and don't have an ethernet port) or can they be wired with something slower like rs232 or whatever?

Nelbert · 18-02-2023 5:53pm

The Conbee II usb stick works well or if you prefer something with future in mind the Homeassistant branded skyconnect USB does both ZigBee and Thread. Just plug in to your Homeassistant machine (via a USB extension to prevent radio interference) and you are good to go.

Esp very flexible but I'd imagine the grief of rolling your own thermostat Vs buying one for a similar price as all the components might not be worth it (unless you enjoy the tinkering element).

emaherx · 18-02-2023 6:19pm

@iwb I'd love the conduit and centralised relay setup you have, personally I'd avoid the wireless devices as much as possible (I use plenty myself and have no real issues, but if you can go wired do.)

Heating system:

@emaherx I like your heating setup as it sounds more configurable and probably cheaper. I have two heating zones in my house. My simplistic view of it is that I can replace my very basic wired thermostats with something that detects temperature and displays info. That is wired back to Homeassistant and it does the rest. If that's the case, can I locate relays and temp sensors locally to the heating and hot water tank and connect back to Homeassistant? (We built our house with a conduit system, kind of like an office so I can pull cables almost anywhere in the house and garage). Are there relay/sensor boards that talk to the Raspberry Pi over a simple connection, either ethernet or other simple wired protocol? If not, do I need maybe one Zigbee hub in the house and one in the garage (where my tank and oil boiler are located) and are there wireless relay/sensor boards?

There are probably some pros and cons to this setup. Personally I like having the full control, but on the flip side Home Assistant is not really a "Heating Controller" and lacks many basic functions you might expect, but they can all be achieved either through custom components or by getting creative with YAML. This is my heating config https://github.com/Farmer-Eds-Shed/Home-Assistant-Heating-Schedule. It sort of grew legs over time but you can start much simpler and there are more custom copenets available since I started that project which may be worth looking at too.

My Heating was 2 Zones + HW + (Immersion and Solar HW), Controls were basic mechanical type. I started by replacing clock and thermostats and just emulated that setup initially, but later developed so that the thermostats became the main controls and the boiler switch turns on if any thermostat calls for heat. My main zone thermostats are basic WiFi enabled, I also use some Arduino based temp sensors to control / monitor the hot water and a couple of radiators in rooms that were getting too hot. The biggest consideration for me was also that my heating can still be used if Home Assistant fails for any reason, in this scenario I lose scheduling but can still press a button to turn on boiler and thermostats will still control zone temperatures.

There are loads of options for you for wired smart relays that you should consider, including ethernet and RS485. Arduinos and ESP32 don't typically have ethernet ports or RS485 but they can be added via simple modules but there are off the shelf relay boards with Ethernet or RS485 too. For wall controls / temp sensors you can either use a smart thermostat even a basic one like I did or go for something like a Sonoff NS panel, there are other similar ESP32 devices with touch screens you could consider also.

Lighting system:

I have 30 relays located at the main fuseboard for the house. Do I need to get smart relays, or can I get an I/O board that talks to Homeassistant with at least 30 outputs? I have an old Arduino Mega that has 54 outputs for example? Could it be wired back to the Raspberry Pi and made to talk with it to control the relays? Woud an Arduino work as a universal 'local' I/O board for the thermostats and relays that need to be in different places around the house?

Yes either way is possible, what are the relays you have like? Din Rail mounted? Logic inputs etc? If you are interested in Arduino's for integrating with Home Assistant I use the libraries from mySensors.org, I use it for RFM95 LoRa radio modules to connect to devices around my farm but they also support RS485 which may suit you.

Are there esp32 or arduino devices that come with a screen and a few buttons maybe? Easier to set them up as thermostats and other devices. If not, am I better with arduino, esp32 or some other platform? Are they always ethernet (my arduinos are old and don't have an ethernet port) or can they be wired with something slower like rs232 or whatever?

Sonoff NsPanel is basically that https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sonoff-NSPanel-Temperature-Thermostat-Environmental/dp/B09MS7JDVQ/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?keywords=sonoff+nspanel+pro&qid=1676740937&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1. But they are WiFi like all ESP32's, you could possibly add ethernet via a module depending on what GPIO is accessible but I suspect just using the WiFi would be far less hassle. There is also a more expensive android version.

Raoul · 19-02-2023 11:20am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120242427#Comment_120242427

Can sometimes get a free domain name at freenom.

emaherx · 19-02-2023 4:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120260426#Comment_120260426

Yes, but not at the moment it would seem. But you can get domain names under €2 for the year anyway.

WildCardDoW · 20-02-2023 5:48am

I've now removed one further hub from my house: Hive Hub.

I integrated the Hive receiver and stats into HA through Zigbee2mqtt.

There's a lot of setup still needed based on what I'm reading to better recreate the Hive scheduling (including some automations to handle going from auto/schedule to boost and back).

But its nice to reduce this.

Only hub left is the Ajax but I'm happy to keep that separate for now.

donspeekinglesh · 20-02-2023 12:29pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120242357#Comment_120242357

I have one of those EP1 sensors on order. They look great - so many features

Also have some Aqara FP1 sensors which work well.

WildCardDoW · 20-02-2023 1:37pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120264593#Comment_120264593

I'm looking at some Aqara sensors now myself. Must be fairly basic ones considering the price difference between these and the FP1 (there's no model number mentioned, they're €15 on AliEx.

I'm tempted to see if they're good enough to suit my purpose although I'd say there would be some delay with these ones!

Otherwise, I think I'll get the EP1 kit at some stage - I should get away with a small number.

Home Assistant

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