how smart has your home gone?

andy_mk3 · 2 Jan 2022 at 16:33

The_Arbiter said:
Rather than start a new thread for a light bulb...

My place is not smart, and i don't want a Alexa etc.
I would like a light that comes on at a set time in the morning. I know you can get bulbs that do this but then the light switch doesn't work, does that apply to them all?

The light alarm clocks are a rip off. Much cheaper to get a lamp with a mains socket timer.

Given we've had radio alarms for decades, why does this still seem like new tech.

Any ideas?

Most hald decent smart bulbs can still be used normally, although obviously need to be left on to work on a timer.

If you were to use a Hue bulb, you could replace your switch with the Hue smart switch to control the bulb(s) for that room.

volt9291 · 2 Jan 2022 at 17:38

I currently only have an Echo Dot and a Nest.

Thinking of expanding slightly, has anyone used the Aqara kit?

Its looks quite good and is compatible with Alexa and Apple Home Kit (i have iPhone, Apple Watch, and a Macbook).

Think I would get the Hub, some smart bulbs, and door sensors, start off will hall lights coming on as you open the front door, warning when the front and the back door has been opened, etc. then expand from there.

Thoughts?

andy_mk3 · 2 Jan 2022 at 17:51

volt9291 said:
I currently only have an Echo Dot and a Nest.

Thinking of expanding slightly, has anyone used the Aqara kit?

Its looks quite good and is compatible with Alexa and Apple Home Kit (i have iPhone, Apple Watch, and a Macbook).

Think I would get the Hub, some smart bulbs, and door sensors, start off will hall lights coming on as you open the front door, warning when the front and the back door has been opened, etc. then expand from there.

Thoughts?

All my sensors etc are Aqara they're brilliant. I'm not using the hub though, it's all integrated with Home Assistant using a Conbee II.

volt9291 · 2 Jan 2022 at 18:09

andy_mk3 said:
All my sensors etc are Aqara they're brilliant. I'm not using the hub though, it's all integrated with Home Assistant using a Conbee II.

Good to know, thanks.

Maybe I will look at other hub/controller options, what I don't understand is what smart bulbs I can use. Is there a recommended LED bulb that would work?
I assume Phillips Hue only works with Hue Kit and other brands with their own hubs/controllers? or can you mix and match items?

Bluecube · 2 Jan 2022 at 21:53

Ignore…

Semple · 2 Jan 2022 at 22:20

The_Arbiter said:
Rather than start a new thread for a light bulb...

My place is not smart, and i don't want a Alexa etc.
I would like a light that comes on at a set time in the morning. I know you can get bulbs that do this but then the light switch doesn't work, does that apply to them all?

The light alarm clocks are a rip off. Much cheaper to get a lamp with a mains socket timer.

Given we've had radio alarms for decades, why does this still seem like new tech.

Any ideas?

I think you'd still need some sort of bridge to turn it back on at a scheduled time. Frankly what you're after isn't something particularly "smart" so I'd suggest just sticking with an old fashioned timer on the plug.

volt9291 said:
Good to know, thanks.

Maybe I will look at other hub/controller options, what I don't understand is what smart bulbs I can use. Is there a recommended LED bulb that would work?
I assume Phillips Hue only works with Hue Kit and other brands with their own hubs/controllers? or can you mix and match items?

No, Hue uses ZigBee, so as long as you have a ZigBee controller then you can use any ZigBee bulb. The Hue bridge is essentially a ZigBee hub but I'm not sure how compatible it is with various bulbs. Like Andy I use a conbee2 with HA to connect everything ZigBee to it.

I would suggest sticking with ZigBee bulbs rather than WiFi ones.

volt9291 · 3 Jan 2022 at 10:48

Got it thanks, I'll look at some of them.

dirtychinchilla · 4 Jan 2022 at 14:55

Probably an annoying question, but I've seen on here before the little blocks that go in the back of your light switch to make them smart. Does anyone know what they're called?

Thanks in advance

SimonR · 4 Jan 2022 at 14:58

There are lots of manufacturers of smart modules.

Semple · 4 Jan 2022 at 14:58

dirtychinchilla said:
Probably an annoying question, but I've seen on here before the little blocks that go in the back of your light switch to make them smart. Does anyone know what they're called?

Thanks in advance

Shelly or Sonoff.

They're essentially a smart relay so they can bypass the light switch regardless of the position (on/off).

dirtychinchilla · 4 Jan 2022 at 15:01

Semple said:
Shelly or Sonoff.

They're essentially a smart relay so they can bypass the light switch regardless of the position (on/off).

Thanks very much. Yeah it's always bothered me that a lot of smart bulbs etc make your light switch redundant or could easily be ruined by someone touching the switch.

Do you need a bridge for these sorts of things? I guess that would make sense.

Semple · 4 Jan 2022 at 15:45

dirtychinchilla said:
Thanks very much. Yeah it's always bothered me that a lot of smart bulbs etc make your light switch redundant or could easily be ruined by someone touching the switch.

Do you need a bridge for these sorts of things? I guess that would make sense.

I think you'd need a bridge for local control, but Shelly does also work with the cloud, so as long as it's connected to your WiFi then all is well. Can't comment on Sonoff as i don't have any of their relays.

dirtychinchilla · 4 Jan 2022 at 16:24

Semple said:
I think you'd need a bridge for local control, but Shelly does also work with the cloud, so as long as it's connected to your WiFi then all is well. Can't comment on Sonoff as i don't have any of their relays.

I wonder if you can keep it off your wifi? Would the bridge do that?

Tbh, I looked around those sites and quickly realised it was all pretty expensive and don't know how much I care. Need to have noe obsession at a time really.

I did buy a couple more smart plugs though as they're relatively cheap and convenient to use.

Semple · 4 Jan 2022 at 16:35

dirtychinchilla said:
I wonder if you can keep it off your wifi? Would the bridge do that?

Tbh, I looked around those sites and quickly realised it was all pretty expensive and don't know how much I care. Need to have noe obsession at a time really.

I did buy a couple more smart plugs though as they're relatively cheap and convenient to use.

No it would still need WiFi for control. A bridge would just allow you to control the device remotely without Shelly needing access to the internet. The bridge would still require internet for remote control.

If WiFi was a complete no-no you could probably build a relay and use an esp32/8266 with ethernet. But hiding that all behind a light switch could get messy.

Edit: re-reading your question "keep it off your wifi" - if you had a separate wireless network for IoT devices then yes you could keep it separate from your main wifi, but you'd need some way of connecting to that network in order to control the relay. Which complicates things further. In most cases people just create a separate vlan for these devices.

dirtychinchilla · 5 Jan 2022 at 15:39

Semple said:
No it would still need WiFi for control. A bridge would just allow you to control the device remotely without Shelly needing access to the internet. The bridge would still require internet for remote control.

If WiFi was a complete no-no you could probably build a relay and use an esp32/8266 with ethernet. But hiding that all behind a light switch could get messy.

Edit: re-reading your question "keep it off your wifi" - if you had a separate wireless network for IoT devices then yes you could keep it separate from your main wifi, but you'd need some way of connecting to that network in order to control the relay. Which complicates things further. In most cases people just create a separate vlan for these devices.

Ah right. I think mentally the goal would be to avoid filling my current wifi network with stuff that would affect the other devices. I don't know if that's limited more by the router or by the frequencies...? As you say, linkin the networks woul dbe a PITA. I don't know what VLAN is sadly - I mean I can understand the acronym but don't understand the practical implication.

I'll probably stick with wifi plugs for now as I find it difficult to want to shout at Alexa all the time when I could hit a switch. It only seems convenient to me when you have lots of lights i.e. living room.

LuckyBenski · 5 Jan 2022 at 15:55

dirtychinchilla said:
Ah right. I think mentally the goal would be to avoid filling my current wifi network with stuff that would affect the other devices. I don't know if that's limited more by the router or by the frequencies...? As you say, linkin the networks woul dbe a PITA. I don't know what VLAN is sadly - I mean I can understand the acronym but don't understand the practical implication.

I'll probably stick with wifi plugs for now as I find it difficult to want to shout at Alexa all the time when I could hit a switch. It only seems convenient to me when you have lots of lights i.e. living room.

Just a heads up and sorry if you've addressed this earlier in the thread - there are several wireless protocols for smart stuff. Two of the most popular are WiFi and ZigBee. ZigBee uses 2.4GHz but isn't WiFi so won't busy up your router or network and is arguably more secure.

Personally for now I'm planning to use ZigBee only until I have no other choice. You could do the same. ZigBee needs a hub type device to manage all the devices, but they're easily found e.g. Aqara or similar. For example Philips Hue runs on ZigBee.

dirtychinchilla · 5 Jan 2022 at 16:26

LuckyBenski said:
Just a heads up and sorry if you've addressed this earlier in the thread - there are several wireless protocols for smart stuff. Two of the most popular are WiFi and ZigBee. ZigBee uses 2.4GHz but isn't WiFi so won't busy up your router or network and is arguably more secure.

Personally for now I'm planning to use ZigBee only until I have no other choice. You could do the same. ZigBee needs a hub type device to manage all the devices, but they're easily found e.g. Aqara or similar. For example Philips Hue runs on ZigBee.

Thanks for that, very helpful

I have more things running on wifi at home than I would like

SimonR · 5 Jan 2022 at 16:32

There are actually 4 common protocols for HA

Zigbee - 2.4GHz, Meshing technology

ZWave - 900MHz - Meshing Technology

BLE (Blue Tooth Low Energy) - 2.4ghz Scatternet

Wifi - 2.4Ghz and 5 Ghz P2P Technology

There is also a new Technology on the Horizon called Matter or formally the Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP) which is an alliance of Amazon, Apple, Google, Samsung SmartThings and the Zigbee Alliance. Matter is an IP based protocol that can run on existing network technology: Wi-Fi, ethernet, and Thread. Matter devices will also be able to use Bluetooth Low Energy to simplify setup. These devices will also be able to tell each other what they are and what they can do, so that they can work with each other without the user needing to do a lot of configuration work.

Matter will be launching in 2022 and will hopefully become a common standard for IoT devices

ScoobyDoo · 8 Jan 2022 at 11:41

Ive been running Domoticz at my house for 7yrs now. Using a mixture of lightwaverf stuff to control lights, fans, security etc.
Currently have a number of ring products inc the Ring Alarm .

I had an old samsung 7inch tablet lying around and so decided to look into Home Assistant.
Using Fully Kiosk browser on the tablet ive setup home assistant and send most of my data from domoticz to home assistant via mqtt to have control via the tablet of various items around the house.
It was a steep learning curve setting up Home Assistant but well worth it.
Fully Kiosk browser is excellent and im using the voice activated option to wake the tablet from sleep on sound and also using various mqtt plugins to automatically charge the tablet when the battery drops below 20% and to stop charging it when it reaches 80%.

Heres a few pictures from the tablet.

I 3d printed a mount and have this installed on the wall in the hallway. Everything is bright white but took these photos at night with the camera flash.

Pigeon_Killer · 11 Jan 2022 at 22:52

Jumped ship from Android to Apple after seeing how many bugs the latest Pixel had, dumped my Nest Thermostat in November and went back to a manual thermostat because it refused to stay connected to the base unit and now my Nest Speakers have now lost the ability to control the volume of my two TVs and I'm back to a manual remote. How is it possible to destroy so many products so consistently?

'It no longer works' should be Googles slogan :mad:

Apart from a smart lightbulb in my bedroom I'm almost smart home free and back to where I was 5 years ago.