Home Assistant beginners
- Thread starter katie279
- Start date
Wasn't really sure where to post this but are Sonoff the go to for a smart light switch? I'm looking to have an outdoor light on a schedule. There isn't a neutral in the wiring that goes to the current switch. Looks as though that rules out the WiFi versions. Are there ones that don't require a Zigbee hub? If it works with HA, would be nice but not essential.
Got this working in end. Some of delay before it activated.
Re outdoor lights, I am looking at same I am looking at going with Zigbee
I'm sure I've seen Zigbee smart switches. I think Shelley may have them. I'm not 100% on that though. You asked if there are Zigbee switches that don't need a Zigbee hub. All Zigbee devices need a hub of some sort to channel the comms. For HA you'd get a Zigbee dongle and use HA as your "hub"
I got a similar question. Would this work
I have home assistant green
Or is this better?
Thanks, I'd seen the Shelly. Seems like I'd need a 1L Gen 3 for a no neutral setup. I wasn't sure if a Zigbee switch would need a hub or not.
Although having just seen the dongle that @devil84 just posted, they aren't expensive. Could I just plug that into the Pi that I have HA on? It's tucked away in a walk in wardrobe where the router and switch are though, so not sure how good a signal it would get.
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The Nabu Casa one is made by the company behind Home Assistant so for that reason I’d go for that one. It’s also compatible with Matter and Thread which is a nice bonus.
Both of those dongles will plug into the HA Green and the Raspberry Pi. It’s been many years since I set up a USB dongle with HA so I’ve no idea how HA deals with them. I THINK it’s pretty much plug and play these days. The big question for you is whether to use ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT to control your Zigbee devices. I personally use Z2M as a few years ago ZHA couldn’t handle many devices. Do your own research here as ZHA may have caught up. Its big advantage is that it’s an integrated part of HA whilst Z2A is an add on.
Both of those dongles will plug into the HA Green and the Raspberry Pi. It’s been many years since I set up a USB dongle with HA so I’ve no idea how HA deals with them. I THINK it’s pretty much plug and play these days. The big question for you is whether to use ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT to control your Zigbee devices. I personally use Z2M as a few years ago ZHA couldn’t handle many devices. Do your own research here as ZHA may have caught up. Its big advantage is that it’s an integrated part of HA whilst Z2A is an add on.
You're already doing well with styling - the curly hair on the "Toilet downstairs" card is a nice touch 
Start with themes. You can install them via HACS and then apply them to the dashboard as a whole (affects background and general styling) and/or the individual cards (affects detailed styling).
There are a million "Themes for noobs" videos out there - try to find the newer ones as HA keeps changing stuff.
Start with themes. You can install them via HACS and then apply them to the dashboard as a whole (affects background and general styling) and/or the individual cards (affects detailed styling).
There are a million "Themes for noobs" videos out there - try to find the newer ones as HA keeps changing stuff.
I was playing around with one in Currys the other day - was immediately put off by the quality of the touchscreen and/or the processor speed - everything seemed to need a prod rather than a tap, there was a delay before responding and animations looked like they were running at 4fps. Presence detection worked eerily well though, even in a busy store environment.
This is a nice card for displaying solar generation forecasts. https://github.com/AshGSmith/solar-forecast-card