Home Assistant beginners

dlockers said:
The thermometers via Bluetooth and ESP32 have been a trying experiment though....
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I've got 20 or so temperature sensors of different makes, some also with water leak detection or humidity and they've been rock solid on Zigbee with the channel set to avoid local networks and the Hue lights which still connect to their own hub. A couple of these sensors are 25m+ down the garden from the nearest hop.

These are connected to a PoE Zigbee coordinator but even before on a USB coordinator they were reliable other than on rare issues with VM USB passthrough dropping out on certain host events (hence the switch to an Ethernet based coordinator to avoid that).
 
dlockers said:
Haha, nawh, I still believe in full redundancy and it is totally wife proof. It hooks up to Alexa really nicely too.

The thermometers via Bluetooth and ESP32 have been a trying experiment though....
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ZigBee all the way IMO, however you choose to integrate it. I just like the low energy, reliable/embedded style. WiFi would busy up a network and Bluetooth doesn't seem the sort of technology I'd like to rely on for smart home.

I've so far only used ZigBee. Bought my first WiFi light fitting this week and it was a pain to add.
 
Not sure the ‘not busing up the WiFi network’ is much of a selling point these days.

If you are using 2.4ghz for anything other than cheap IoT devices, you are probably doing it wrong anyway.
 
I'm moving my server and network equipment in cupboard under the stairs, any recommendation for zigbee smart fire alarm, preferably that can show temp and humidity.
 
Of all the things that can be automated, a fire alarm is the one thing I would keep dumb and basic. That’s something that your life (and others) may depend on. You don’t want to die cause your network is down or a hard drive decided to go kaput at a crucial moment.
 
Bluecube said:
Of all the things that can be automated, a fire alarm is the one thing I would keep dumb and basic. That’s something that your life (and others) may depend on. You don’t want to die cause your network is down or a hard drive decided to go kaput at a crucial moment.
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Agree as a generalism. And specifically, if the server sets alight and shuts down before the alarm has a chance to sense it, then it won't have any effect right?
 
LuckyBenski said:
ZigBee all the way IMO, however you choose to integrate it. I just like the low energy, reliable/embedded style. WiFi would busy up a network and Bluetooth doesn't seem the sort of technology I'd like to rely on for smart home.

I've so far only used ZigBee. Bought my first WiFi light fitting this week and it was a pain to add.
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Definitely agree with ZigBee. I value what the Hue Hub does too. Luckily it all coexists lovely. Agree re the WiFi stuff. I cheaped out on the eaves gu10s and got govee. They work but the WiFi is nowhere near as good imo.
 
dlockers said:
The thermometers via Bluetooth and ESP32 have been a trying experiment though....
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I use ESPHome for many things, of which a couple of uses are thermometers (via wifi). I have had precisely 0 problems with getting reliable temperature and humidity readings from these for years now, I wouldn't bother looking at anything else. Prior to these I used the Meross temperature sensors which are garbage in comparison.
 
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Has anyone got any suggestions on how to get started with setting up the dashboards? I've seen plenty of examples but don't really know ... where to start slicing stuff up. I've got nearly 200 devices and over 800 entities (obviously don't need / want these all surfaced!). I've been using it for years but just really been coping with the default, messy overview page as it hasn't been too painful and getting started on setting up proper targeted dashboards never jumps to the top of my priority list!
 
DRZ said:
I use ESPHome for many things, of which a couple of uses are thermometers (via wifi). I have had precisely 0 problems with getting reliable temperature and humidity readings from these for years now, I wouldn't bother looking at anything else. Prior to these I used the Meross temperature sensors which are garbage in comparison.
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Which Bluetooth thermometers are you using? That is the lowest common denominator across my install (all Govee).
 
Poolybit said:
Has anyone got any suggestions on how to get started with setting up the dashboards? I've seen plenty of examples but don't really know ... where to start slicing stuff up. I've got nearly 200 devices and over 800 entities (obviously don't need / want these all surfaced!). I've been using it for years but just really been coping with the default, messy overview page as it hasn't been too painful and getting started on setting up proper targeted dashboards never jumps to the top of my priority list!
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Turn off the setting where all new entities get added to the overview tab.

Delete everything on the overview tab.

Start by surfacing what you want, you can spend hours making it look pretty, personally I wouldn’t bother. Function over form and time!
 
I use Xiaomi Bluetooth temp (and humidity) sensors flashed with BTHome. They’ve never given me any issues since I set them up but I do have three ESP32 based presence sensors dotted around the house with Bluetooth Proxy turned on to provide coverage.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Turn off the setting where all new entities get added to the overview tab.

Delete everything on the overview tab.

Start by surfacing what you want, you can spend hours making it look pretty, personally I wouldn’t bother. Function over form and time!
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Yeah, you're right, I really do need to turn off that setting, it just makes it easier for me to be lazy when playing around with new devices or making some new mqtt entities, they're just ... there. Function over form (and time) is probably a really good mentality to go into a redesign with! Cheers
 
dlockers said:
Which Bluetooth thermometers are you using? That is the lowest common denominator across my install (all Govee).
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I'm not - I am using ESP32 boards running ESPHome with a DHT11 temp/humidity sensor physically plugged into the board (amongst other things). These talk to HA via wifi. If you've already got the ESP32 boards then stop messing around with Bluetooth, get ESPHome on them and get them on the wifi.

The added bonus is that you can connect a vast array of sensors and other things to them so you can do "stuff". I have relays and RF TX/RX and all sorts hanging off them, they are very useful.
 
DRZ said:
I'm not - I am using ESP32 boards running ESPHome with a DHT11 temp/humidity sensor physically plugged into the board (amongst other things). These talk to HA via wifi. If you've already got the ESP32 boards then stop messing around with Bluetooth, get ESPHome on them and get them on the wifi.

The added bonus is that you can connect a vast array of sensors and other things to them so you can do "stuff". I have relays and RF TX/RX and all sorts hanging off them, they are very useful.
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I'm not fully informed here - I have a basic esphome install used for Bluetooth really. I hadn't considered I could plug stuff into the esp directly.
 
Chaps,

What's the best device to monitor onvif streams? Home assistant on a cheap tablet? I just want a screen I can glance out when in the garden room.
 
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b0rn2sk8 said:
Not sure the ‘not busing up the WiFi network’ is much of a selling point these days.

If you are using 2.4ghz for anything other than cheap IoT devices, you are probably doing it wrong anyway.
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Still a major issue on cheap routers / ISP supplied routers. Even if you split bands, these routers can still only manage a limited number of devices.

dlockers said:
Definitely agree with ZigBee. I value what the Hue Hub does too. Luckily it all coexists lovely. Agree re the WiFi stuff. I cheaped out on the eaves gu10s and got govee. They work but the WiFi is nowhere near as good imo.
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Get yourself an smlight coordinator - PoE variant if you have the means to power it. Think they're only about £20 delivered on AliExpress and are an absolute game changer. Nice big antenna too so can hide it away in the loft and still have good range - something my conbee2 struggled with.

dlockers said:
I'm not fully informed here - I have a basic esphome install used for Bluetooth really. I hadn't considered I could plug stuff into the esp directly.
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Wow ... Opening yourself up to a whole new world here. Have a look at the popular esphone projects on the HA forums.
 
jonneymendoza said:
^^ :) @dlockers
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Should be able to use a WLED controller and any suitable PSU to drive most of these addressable products, even if the manufacturer doesn't allow/supply it. Govee AFAIK do not sell additional controllers.


I have 90M of their outdoor permanent lights 2, it has 18 x 5m segments, and I'm driving 3 x 10m runs using a WLED controller and a 36v PSU.. no issues at all, they are just standard LED ICs you are interfacing to..
 
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