Home Assistant

katie279 said:
Yes of course, quick photo below.

This one has an Amazon Fire 10 inside. Made a wall mount that sits flush with the wall and has 5mm magnets in 8 or so places that clip the front frame to it really neatly (means I can easily pull out the tablet if I needed to). Reckon the cost of filament / printing was around £2-3 vs your Vidabox mount..... ;)

Happy to print one for you if you were doing it again...! Although for £100 a pop you could get yourself a decent 3d printer for a few of those!

I've kept the sensor on the right uncovered as I use that to display a screensaver of family photos by default and then when it detects someone moving in front of it, it flips to wall panel mode.

87uVHoo.jpg
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Okay I'm sold on home assistant but not the energy meter.

There is literally nothing I need to know how much power it uses when I think about it. I turn everything off anyway that I don't need on.

However I am sorely tempted now to get smart trvs.

I take it a wide range are compatible with home assistant?

Also the tablet you have wall mounted is it running an application or are you simply using a web browser and pointing it to home assistants IP?

How does it get power? Have you installed a usb socket behind the wall mount and use a short lead?
 
Home assistant integrations:
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/

Pretty much everything I've seen has an integration - even obscure ones, so all your trvs should be fine.

Tablet:
Lots of options, I'm running fully kiosk simply because I wanted a photo frame screensaver, but yes a full screen browser would do the job and set the tablet to natively turn off screen etc.

Wires:s
Just chased a 2m usb cable in conduit down the wall and plugged in under the stairs - l so did this in a couple of hours. The conduit runs down from the middle of the tablet holder...glad you weren't able to spot any traces, obviously fooled you with my plaster repair job..... ;)

I can share a screenshot with the cover off if it helps?
 
Thank you. Looks like a neat pro install.

Mine aren't flush as the Vida boxes house the iPad then screw to the wall. The only things which are recessed are the pattress boxes to fit the POE splitters (ethernet chased in, back to the switch)

Might take you up on your kind offer, or if not pick your brains later if I get tempted to buy a 3d printer.

Cheers

katie279 said:
Yes of course, quick photo below.

This one has an Amazon Fire 10 inside. Made a wall mount that sits flush with the wall and has 5mm magnets in 8 or so places that clip the front frame to it really neatly (means I can easily pull out the tablet if I needed to). Reckon the cost of filament / printing was around £2-3 vs your Vidabox mount..... ;)

Happy to print one for you if you were doing it again...! Although for £100 a pop you could get yourself a decent 3d printer for a few of those!

I've kept the sensor on the right uncovered as I use that to display a screensaver of family photos by default and then when it detects someone moving in front of it, it flips to wall panel mode.

87uVHoo.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Yeah, I thought flush would look much nicer, hence did the embedding - effectively printed a custom pattress box for the tablet with same screw mounts etc.

No worries - was pleased with how it came out, although big advantage of a 3d printer Vs buying one is that if you don't like any element of it or have a better idea, you can just print a different design (plus you've wasted pennies, not £100!)
 
katie279 said:
Sorry, what are you using the ZigBee for exactly? Is this for certain devices or something? There's no server dependency I've got, hence confused - open source raspberry pi and then it connects to devices without needing to bounce outside the firewall. Ive got lots of esp8266 devices I've programmed in Arduino to control things internally also
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Sorry late replying. My zigbee dongle connects to my aqara components - temperature sensors, door contact sensors, and push buttons - will eventually add in some motion sensors and water leak sensors. I could also add in my Hue/Tradfri bulbs and do away with the hue bridge, but it integrates very well and i like the redundancy that if HA goes down, i can still use the hue bridge to control the lights.

You'd need something that sends out zigbee commands to control zigbee devices.
 
Anyone bought any of the Lidl lights/sensors/gateway? I was in there this morning and in true Lidl style a £5 shop turned into £45. Bought two E14 colour bulbs and a gateway. I'm not entirely sure if I need the gateway and/or would be better off getting a different gateway that is more fit for other devices too. Time to do some research.
 
I've got a couple of the white bulbs and the sockets and have them paired up to home assistant using a usb zigbee dongle. the bulbs worked straight away but had to change to the dev branch of zigbee2mqtt for the sockets to work.
 
Vauxmad said:
I've got a couple of the white bulbs and the sockets and have them paired up to home assistant using a usb zigbee dongle. the bulbs worked straight away but had to change to the dev branch of zigbee2mqtt for the sockets to work.
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Do you think there's any real advantage/disadvantage with the Silvercrest gateway vs a more standard USB Zigbee?

I'm not sure I see any value in the ethernet and it would take up an extra power socket + space.
 
Lethal` said:
Do you think there's any real advantage/disadvantage with the Silvercrest gateway vs a more standard USB Zigbee?

I'm not sure I see any value in the ethernet and it would take up an extra power socket + space.
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Only reason would be for firmware updates.

I would just keep it to one side and then use something like conbee2 to pair your devices to.
 
Lethal` said:
What do I gain with a conbee 2? (considerably more expensive)
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It's less likely other zigbee devices would be able to connect to the Silvercrest gateway - or at least less control/functionality.

If all you have at the moment are Lidl devices, then agreed there's no point swapping to another zigbee gateway. But if you have, or plan to expand with other zigbee devices, then you'll likely want something that can control them all.

*One of the real downsides to smart home tech and it wrongly puts people off is they assume you'll need a dozen apps to control various manufacturers devices. When in fact you just need a hub/gateway that they can all communicate with. Pretty much every smart device in my house can now be controlled with Home Assistant (I've still got a few to add), so i only ever need to open the HA app to control them. I do keep the other apps installed for update purposes etc.
 
Semple said:
If all you have at the moment are Lidl devices, then agreed there's no point swapping to another zigbee gateway. But if you have, or plan to expand with other zigbee devices, then you'll likely want something that can control them all.
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Thanks. This is pretty much what I feared. I do plan to expand beyond Lidl so I only bought the gateway thinking just in case I end up SoL with two bulbs and no way to operate them. Think I'll return the gateway if it's not required unless there's any real reason to keep it.

What are the viable alternatives to conbee 2?
 
Lethal` said:
Thanks. This is pretty much what I feared. I do plan to expand beyond Lidl so I only bought the gateway thinking just in case I end up SoL with two bulbs and no way to operate them. Think I'll return the gateway if it's not required unless there's any real reason to keep it.

What are the viable alternatives to conbee 2?
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Only reason to keep most gateways are for firmware updates, but unless there's a glaringly obvious problem, then firmware updates don't happen often. Absolute worst case scenario i'm sure someone on here will have purchased them, and you could send your bulbs/devices to them for a firmware update. Would be a mild inconvenience of having to unpair/repair, but not the end of the world.

I know there are other zigbee gateways available, but conbee2 seems to always be well recommended by the HA community, and has a big list of verified devices that it works with, so that tends to be what most go for. Can only suggest having a dig around on the HA forums and seeing what other alternatives there are.

Eddie2k said:
Can anyone recommend a Kw/h meter that can be monitored with HA?
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Lethal` said:
Pretty sure the HS110 from TP-Link can be although they had issues recently where they shut off local api access. Not sure if resolved fully yet: https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2020/11/23/tplink-local-access/

I got one for £15 or so on Amazon before that all kicked off. I've not tried it with HA yet (yet to even start HA).
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That was actually my next task, as i've got a HS110 sat right here and heard there were some problems getting the metering read back into HA, so i'll be having a tinker with that this week to see if i can get it working.

I've actually got some plugs by meross (although it seems they don't offer the energy monitoring anymore) that i've got working in HA - well i can get one working, but when i add the second device to the template sensor they both no longer show up - so more tinkering required there as well.

I should add, there's a developer working on implementing local control via MQTT for Meross, as there's been a spate of suspensions (myself included) from the Meross servers due to high number of API requests (flood control). https://github.com/albertogeniola/MerossIot/issues/1
 
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Semple said:
I know there are other zigbee gateways available, but conbee2 seems to always be well recommended by the HA community, and has a big list of verified devices that it works with, so that tends to be what most go for. Can only suggest having a dig around on the HA forums and seeing what other alternatives there are.
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For sure. Thanks. It's on my list. I only bought them (the bulbs) on a whim the other day as I bumped into them. Defo need to dig into the HA forums a bit more.
 
Lethal` said:
Pretty sure the HS110 from TP-Link can be although they had issues recently where they shut off local api access. Not sure if resolved fully yet: https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2020/11/23/tplink-local-access/

I got one for £15 or so on Amazon before that all kicked off. I've not tried it with HA yet (yet to even start HA).
Click to expand...

Semple said:
That was actually my next task, as i've got a HS110 sat right here and heard there were some problems getting the metering read back into HA, so i'll be having a tinker with that this week to see if i can get it working.

I've actually got some plugs by meross (although it seems they don't offer the energy monitoring anymore) that i've got working in HA - well i can get one working, but when i add the second device to the template sensor they both no longer show up - so more tinkering required there as well.

I should add, there's a developer working on implementing local control via MQTT for Meross, as there's been a spate of suspensions (myself included) from the Meross servers due to high number of API requests (flood control). https://github.com/albertogeniola/MerossIot/issues/1
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The type I'm looking for is like this https://loop.homes/ where it clamps around the live outgoing wire in the consumer unit so I can monitor my heat pump.

Loop looked like the best I could find but they too have stopped API access as of November
 
Oh right. Do keep us updated if you find a solution! I've pondered the same. I have a non-smart E7 meter (I think E7 Smart meters aren't that common) and I'd be interested in doing the same.
 
Eddie2k said:
The type I'm looking for is like this https://loop.homes/ where it clamps around the live outgoing wire in the consumer unit so I can monitor my heat pump.

Loop looked like the best I could find but they too have stopped API access as of November
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Yeah loop kinda fell out the picture as smart meters became the norm (even though in most cases you can't pull the data from them). Whilst they have/are developing a new product, it seems they're unable to do gas.

I came across this recommendation when researching: https://shop.glowmarkt.com/products/display-and-cad-combined-for-smart-meter-customers, although i can't vouch whether it works/will provide the data you're after.

The other alternative that i've seen people go for, and falls in line with having a smart home is Octopus have an API where you can pull back your half an hour readings.

In case you're not familiar with Octopus, they offer a smart tariff called Agile where pricing is dynamically priced in half hour intervals dependent on demand. The idea being that super off-peak (early hours of the morning) electricity is pennies, or on the rare occasion free, or even where you get paid to use electric! This is ideal in a smart home where your home takes control and can switch on things like dishwasher, washing machine, hot water, charge your electric car at a time when electricity is very cheap.

Probably not what you're after anyway, see if anyone has come up with solutions on the HA forums.
 
Octopus seem really decent. I read about the Agile tariff the other week. They even have a thermal camera free loan but when I checked prices they're considerably more for me on a unit basis and I use a lot of electric with heating :(
 
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