Home Assistant beginners

ShivP said:
I use aliexpress zigbee plugs with power monitoring, work really well...
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The CCP says hi :cry:

Slightly hypocritical of me to point that out as I have a mini pc from there. However, my approach is to block all WAN access for any questionable devices like that (and/or move to my IoT VLAN) and for a smart plug it shouldn’t stop anything from working if you have it integrated into HA. It’s concerning how many of these devices punch holes in the firewall by default and generally have poor security implementations. Hence why the UK is bringing in legislation for IoT devices.

Although with zigbee at least you have it separated from your main network :)
 
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RobTi said:
Any recommendations for smart plugs, I have a couple of innr, 10 meross and just returning a couple of onvis for dropping out, the meross randomly drop out over the years but not enough to bother replacing them, the innr have been solid over the years but have hue or ikea to extend the network but they are years old and wondered what is recommended now ?
Thanks
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There's a local meross addon available that cuts the dependency on internet connectivity.

If you're having dropouts though, that strongly suggests patchy WiFi.
 
RobTi said:
Any recommendations for smart plugs, I have a couple of innr, 10 meross and just returning a couple of onvis for dropping out, the meross randomly drop out over the years but not enough to bother replacing them, the innr have been solid over the years but have hue or ikea to extend the network but they are years old and wondered what is recommended now ?
Thanks
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I'm moving all my plugs (TP-Link and Meross) over to Innr zigbee ones.

Amazon have bumped the price, I did get 2 plugs for £30, now it's one for £25
 
nst68 said:
I'm moving all my plugs (TP-Link and Meross) over to Innr zigbee ones.

Amazon have bumped the price, I did get 2 plugs for £30, now it's one for £25
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Same here have two and ready to order more till I seen the price, now looking for a deal on hue, inner, eve to keep the signee network
 
Scarfacé said:
The CCP says hi :cry:
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a spies a spy, doesn't matter if it's zuckerborg, amazon or some Chinese company

No point in having some misguided loyalty thinking they are the good guys

No doubt these "Good western companies" sell your data to chinese companies anyway
 
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I have a couple of different ones: Tp link kassa and innr. The to link ones are nice as they have powers monitoring built in and the innr ones pair with hue and have lamps in them.
 
The1nonly1 said:
What are people using to calibrate temperature sensors? Notived that my Hive thermostat and Aqara sensor are 1 degree off despite being next to each other.
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I like to sit several sensors next to each other along with a thermometer/hygrometer I've had for ages. My reasoning is that if 2 devices agree they're probably right. So I let the devices accumulate a day or two of data and then decide which onesnate right and which needs adjusting. I estimate the correction based on normal temp ranges as for instance I've had humidity readings that get more wrong the warmer it is.
 
I am a HomeKit user I go to my home app before ha app and atm I have a mix of native home kit and zigbee smart plugs. So I received a voucher for more innr plugs and the only thing putting me off is if the zigbee network goes down so does my plugs. Any help one way or the other would you buy more zigbee plugs ?
Thanks
 
Why would your Zigbee network go down? I’ve run a Zigbee network on HA for a long time now for plugs, lights, radiator valves and sensors, and it’s been rock solid. Zigbee and HA are now mature technology that you can rely on. It’s only when you push the boundaries and involve esoteric devices that things can go skew whiff. And even then that’s rare.

TLDR - buy the plugs!
 
The only problem I've had with Zigbee has been range where a couple of devices would occasionally fall off the network. I've got quite a large house and my HA box is in one corner of the house.

I had an Ikea Trafdri extender sitting spare so I added that into HA and I've had zero problems since.

That shouldn't be a problem with Zigbee plugs as mains powered devices generally act as Zigbee repeaters so extend the range.
 
Hi All, HA noob here...

My GivEnergy battery is set to charge to 100% during the fixed Octopus Intelligent cheap period (between 23:30 and 05:30) by 'default', this is all fine except for when Octopus decides to charge my car outside of this period.

I've created a quick automation below to charge the battery whenever Octopus Intelligent kicks on and revert back to the 'default' times when it goes off. Could someone please sense check my handywork to make sure its actually going to work?

I also have this as a single automation, am I better off separating it into 2 automations, one covering when OI turns on and another where it turns off? Is there anything else I can add to improve it?

alias: Octopus Intelligent Charge Battery
description: Charges batter when Octopus intelligent is on
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id:
- binary_sensor.octopus_energy_intelligent_dispatching
from: "off"
to: "on"
condition: []
action:
- device_id: 93a8e230f005d01c8cabfc51dadcd47a
domain: select
entity_id: e02e935dc2fa5444ce1c3cad21db488a
type: select_option
option: "00:00:00"
- device_id: 93a8e230f005d01c8cabfc51dadcd47a
domain: select
entity_id: 286f174895739014d4dd2d741933d302
type: select_option
option: "05:30:00"
- wait_for_trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id:
- binary_sensor.octopus_energy_a_844c4b13_intelligent_dispatching
from: "on"
to: "off"
continue_on_timeout: true
- device_id: 93a8e230f005d01c8cabfc51dadcd47a
domain: select
entity_id: e02e935dc2fa5444ce1c3cad21db488a
type: select_option
option: "23:30:00"
- device_id: 93a8e230f005d01c8cabfc51dadcd47a
domain: select
entity_id: 286f174895739014d4dd2d741933d302
type: select_option
option: "05:30:00"
mode: single
mode: single

It seems the HA UI has used the code names for the devices/entities, they are as follows:

93a8e230f005d01c8cabfc51dadcd47a = GivTCP AIO CH2330G386 Timeslots
e02e935dc2fa5444ce1c3cad21db488a = Change GivTCP AIO CH2330G386 Timeslots GivTCP AIO Charge start time slot 1 option
286f174895739014d4dd2d741933d302 = Change GivTCP AIO CH2330G386 Timeslots GivTCP AIO Charge end time slot 1 option
 
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So yes it is simpler to use two automations one for ON and one for OFF.
There is no need to also use a time-based automation as Off Peak will be ON during 11:30-5:30 anyway.

I use both:
Electricity [your Octopus ID] Off Peak
OR
Octopus Energy A-[your ID] Intelligent Dispatching
from OFF to ON to enable grid charging and anything (blank) to OFF to disable grid charging (blank in case there is an issue and it goes unavailable for a period I don't want to be charging on peak). On my LUX the grid charging timer is set for 24 hours, you may need to do similar on the GivEnergy as you are just using the ON / OFF toggle.

I hope this helps. This has been flawless and it also stops the addition off-peak slots when I unplug my car from the Zappi.
 
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SBo said:
So yes it is simpler to use two automations one for ON and one for OFF.
There is no need to also use a time-based automation as Off Peak will be ON during 11:30-5:30 anyway.

I use both:
Electricity [your Octopus ID] Off Peak
OR
Octopus Energy A-[your ID] Intelligent Dispatching
from OFF to ON to enable grid charging and anything (blank) to OFF to disable grid charging (blank in case there is an issue and it goes unavailable for a period I don't want to be charging on peak). On my LUX the grid charging timer is set for 24 hours, you may need to do similar on the GivEnergy as you are just using the ON / OFF toggle.

I hope this helps. This has been flawless and it also stops the addition off-peak slots when I unplug my car from the Zappi.
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Thanks for this, I'll make some tweaks.

GivEnergy is the same in that you have to use charge/discharge timers rather than a force charge toggle or back up power % like on a Powerwall.
 
I’ve had GivTCP (GivEnergy solar inverter integration) on running flawlessly for a few months and suddenly the add on does not want to start. Well it starts, the little green dot comes on and then immediately stops again.

The only thing in the log is:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/app/startup.py", line 6, in <module>
import zoneinfo
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/zoneinfo/__init__.py", line 10, in <module>
from . import _tzpath
ValueError: source code string cannot contain null bytes

I’ve tried removing the config files in homeassistant/GivTCP and removing and reinstalling the add on and I still get the same issue.

Any suggestions on where to go next?
 
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