how smart has your home gone?

[arknor]

The point of a smart home is to not need to do either

then surely it's innefficient turning on lights for rooms you might not enter, turning on heating you might not want.


wear a pullover or hoodie I'm going to heat the houise to 20c then leave for work, then have this automated thing heat the house to 20c before I get back.

if it cooks you a sunday roast though count me in

 

[LuckyBenski]

then surely it's innefficient turning on lights for rooms you might not enter, turning on heating you might not want.


wear a pullover or hoodie I'm going to heat the houise to 20c then leave for work, then have this automated thing heat the house to 20c before I get back.

if it cooks you a sunday roast though count me in

You've really missed the point very very hard and I'm amazed

 

[arknor]

You've really missed the point very very hard and I'm amazed

what your all reffering to how smart your wife is? why replace her with technology won't she feel unloved

or is it just to cleap like a seal to turn the lights on like a party trick to impress friends?

 

[alphaomega16]

Anybody here have any personal experience with one of these?

geo Minim Energy Monitor with CT clip?

 

[andy_mk3]

A couple of updates on my smart home. Firstly, I've had a Nest thermostat for the past few years, it's been fine. Nothing outstanding but it worked well and did all that could be asked of it. But I moved house end of last year and our new house has dual zone heating, which either meant having the Nest only on one floor, buying a second one or looking at other options. I decided against buying another Nest as they're not exactly cheap, plus it's another thing running in the cloud which I don't really like. So I decided upon using Sonoff Basics to replace the thermostats, flashed with Tasmota and connected to Home Assistant giving me local control and using any temperature sensor I want, in this case I am using Aqara's Zigbee temperature sensors.

After getting my head around the wiring, got the two Sonoffs linked up to the system. The PSU on the right fitted also, more on that in a bit!


A quick demo on them working via Home Assistant.
https://i.imgur.com/iKp4Pr5.mp4

Now back to that PSU, I have wanted a wall mounted tablet for a long time for Home Assistant, and now was the perfect opportunity, and the reason for the PSU above, it's a 5v PSU and hooked up to the existing wiring for the old thermostats. Using an Amazon Fire 10 (7th Gen I think), with the battery ripped out and the power wires hooked up to where the battery was, to avoid any issues with the battery. It's running Fully Kiosk Browser, and uses the front camera to wake the screen when motion is detected.


I'm currently working on updating the dashboard but have at least got the thermostat controls available for now. The thermostats are also on timers via a schedule thanks to a community addon.


When I decided to go for a 'DIY Thermostat' I thought it was going to be a pain, but thanks to Home Assistant and its communuty, it's been an absolute breeze of a job. Now I have fully smart thermostats with local control. The sky is the limit with what you can do with it thanks to Home Assistant also, with geo location etc.

 

[Uhtred]

A couple of updates on my smart home...

Looks good, I share your dislike for cloud integrated stuff. At my last house I had a butchered 2 channel timer which I connected to a buffer circuit and esp 8266 to 'press' the advance buttons and integrated it into home assistant using esphome. It didn't have a high WAF though.

In the new house I've got a hive which is linked to my zigbee mesh and integrated to home assistant with zigbee2mqtt. The advantage is that the thermostat can still talk to the receiver even if home assistant is down. It also means I don't get awkward questions when we get the boiler serviced (i doubt they would care tbh).

Since getting it installed I've learnt about load/weather compensation and opentherm which hive doesn't support and my boiler (bosch) has very limited support for without using their own cloud smart solution.

I can't do anything about it now but it is annoying that I paid extra for the bosch!

 

[Semple]

A couple of updates on my smart home.

Awesome work.

I haven't yet looked at smart heating (despite everything else being smart), i almost pulled the trigger on Nest, and then their old API was closed down for new users, so i was already peeved that i could integrate my Nest Protect into Home Assistant. So decided to hold off. I know there's the new API, but still doesn't have support for Nest Protect, so i'm still a bit hesitant on splashing out on more Google/Nest stuff.

But i may entertain going the DIY route. Is it easily reversible though? Just thinking long-term that if you end up selling the house then you'll want to just be able to swap it back easily enough (and remembering how).

 

[SimonR]

Great work but I wouldn't trust anything to Sonoff, its uncertified Chinese junk. I have asked them 5 times for the documents (Declaration of Conformity) to back up their 'alleged' CE marks - 5 times I have received fake documentation, or garbage from Chinese test houses. Given their history of devices melting and catching fire, it only validates how bad / dangerous their kit is. Am I qualified to make these statements - Yes, I am a Certified Machinery Safety Engineer, registered with a Notified Body. - CAVEAT EMPTOR

 

[martin363]

A couple of updates on my smart home. Firstly, I've had a Nest thermostat for the past few years, it's been fine. Nothing outstanding but it worked well and did all that could be asked of it. But I moved house end of last year and our new house has dual zone heating, which either meant having the Nest only on one floor, buying a second one or looking at other options. I decided against buying another Nest as they're not exactly cheap, plus it's another thing running in the cloud which I don't really like. So I decided upon using Sonoff Basics to replace the thermostats, flashed with Tasmota and connected to Home Assistant giving me local control and using any temperature sensor I want, in this case I am using Aqara's Zigbee temperature sensors.

After getting my head around the wiring, got the two Sonoffs linked up to the system. The PSU on the right fitted also, more on that in a bit!


A quick demo on them working via Home Assistant.
https://i.imgur.com/iKp4Pr5.mp4

Now back to that PSU, I have wanted a wall mounted tablet for a long time for Home Assistant, and now was the perfect opportunity, and the reason for the PSU above, it's a 5v PSU and hooked up to the existing wiring for the old thermostats. Using an Amazon Fire 10 (7th Gen I think), with the battery ripped out and the power wires hooked up to where the battery was, to avoid any issues with the battery. It's running Fully Kiosk Browser, and uses the front camera to wake the screen when motion is detected.


I'm currently working on updating the dashboard but have at least got the thermostat controls available for now. The thermostats are also on timers via a schedule thanks to a community addon.


When I decided to go for a 'DIY Thermostat' I thought it was going to be a pain, but thanks to Home Assistant and its communuty, it's been an absolute breeze of a job. Now I have fully smart thermostats with local control. The sky is the limit with what you can do with it thanks to Home Assistant also, with geo location etc.

I love what you have done, very clever, and looks professional, makes me thing about the opportunities, I would luv to deliver something similar.

 

[katie279]

Great work, love the thinking - have been pondering the same for my house - have tado thermostats on radiators too, so Home Assistant would be able to control them easily also!

What's the template/theme you're using there to get the time/date on left? Nice idea, so I might pinch....! I also 3d printed a magnetic cover for my wall mounted tablet so it looks completely built in!

 

[andy_mk3]

Looks good, I share your dislike for cloud integrated stuff. At my last house I had a butchered 2 channel timer which I connected to a buffer circuit and esp 8266 to 'press' the advance buttons and integrated it into home assistant using esphome. It didn't have a high WAF though.

In the new house I've got a hive which is linked to my zigbee mesh and integrated to home assistant with zigbee2mqtt. The advantage is that the thermostat can still talk to the receiver even if home assistant is down. It also means I don't get awkward questions when we get the boiler serviced (i doubt they would care tbh).

Since getting it installed I've learnt about load/weather compensation and opentherm which hive doesn't support and my boiler (bosch) has very limited support for without using their own cloud smart solution.

I can't do anything about it now but it is annoying that I paid extra for the bosch!

I didn't know the Hive was Zigbee, that's decent. The load and weather compensation is something I'll lose from the Nest, but to be honest I didn't find them amazingly useful. Still annoying that you can't use it though.

Awesome work.

I haven't yet looked at smart heating (despite everything else being smart), i almost pulled the trigger on Nest, and then their old API was closed down for new users, so i was already peeved that i could integrate my Nest Protect into Home Assistant. So decided to hold off. I know there's the new API, but still doesn't have support for Nest Protect, so i'm still a bit hesitant on splashing out on more Google/Nest stuff.

But i may entertain going the DIY route. Is it easily reversible though? Just thinking long-term that if you end up selling the house then you'll want to just be able to swap it back easily enough (and remembering how).

Yes that left a sour taste from Google with the API. I'm not a Google hater but I really don't trust them with products like that, they just randomly close down projects or pull API support and it's not ideal.

Yes it's very easily reversable, especially with a few pics saved of the original setup! But each thermostat is 3 wires so it's very simple all in all.

Great work but I wouldn't trust anything to Sonoff, its uncertified Chinese junk. I have asked them 5 times for the documents (Declaration of Conformity) to back up their 'alleged' CE marks - 5 times I have received fake documentation, or garbage from Chinese test houses. Given their history of devices melting and catching fire, it only validates how bad / dangerous their kit is. Am I qualified to make these statements - Yes, I am a Certified Machinery Safety Engineer, registered with a Notified Body. - CAVEAT EMPTOR

I think Chinese Junk is a little harsh. The crap on ebay that has 5v USB ports referenced to mains while plugged into AC, that's Chinese Junk. These may not be certified or of the highest quality, but I've not heard of any failures in particular rating to them, and the home automation community uses a lot of them. I feel they're safe enough to use, perhaps not to much for high current draws, but these are switching loads in the range of <1A. Been using them for years so far for other things without issue.

I love what you have done, very clever, and looks professional, makes me thing about the opportunities, I would luv to deliver something similar.

Thanks. It's quite rewardingwhen it all works.

Great work, love the thinking - have been pondering the same for my house - have tado thermostats on radiators too, so Home Assistant would be able to control them easily also!

What's the template/theme you're using there to get the time/date on left? Nice idea, so I might pinch....! I also 3d printed a magnetic cover for my wall mounted tablet so it looks completely built in!

I looked into the Tado thermostats, they seem very expensive though. I think having dual zone heating helps a lot with room control as we barely have the upstairs heating on which allows us to keep the bedrooms cooler anyway.

Sidebar card is that I was considering 3D printing a cover of some sort, would help it blend in.

A few days in and it's all working perfectly so far, pleased with it. Got some more WAF too! Tablet is working really well, the motion detection to wake the screen has worked every time really nicely.

 

[5punk3monk3y]

Have about 30 smart devices between Hue, smart things and nest. I would like to move across to HA even have a Pi with dongles ready to go but I also have a Samsung Hub fridge and find smart things and the camera integration useful on it so haven't moved across as it makes the hub a bit redundant :\ can't have it all I guess.

 

[matt100]

Have about 30 smart devices between Hue, smart things and nest. I would like to move across to HA even have a Pi with dongles ready to go but I also have a Samsung Hub fridge and find smart things and the camera integration useful on it so haven't moved across as it makes the hub a bit redundant :\ can't have it all I guess.

I tried it, I found it very fussy and really not very welcoming.

I'm sure I could have persevered, I got it all up and running with nest, hue, ring, smartthings, eufy, my tvs, plex, spotify etc etc etc all added.

Then I tried an automation and got a stupidly vague error, googled it, found the usual forum type answers with people basically being rude and figured my life is too short.

I would have stuck with it years ago but it seemed way more powerful, significantly less user friendly than not having it all integrated.

 

[katie279]

I tried it, I found it very fussy and really not very welcoming.

I'm sure I could have persevered, I got it all up and running with nest, hue, ring, smartthings, eufy, my tvs, plex, spotify etc etc etc all added.

Then I tried an automation and got a stupidly vague error, googled it, found the usual forum type answers with people basically being rude and figured my life is too short.

I would have stuck with it years ago but it seemed way more powerful, significantly less user friendly than not having it all integrated.

Might be worth a try - I recall similar frustrations, but it has come a huge way in the last couple of years - far more stable, more professional releases, easier interface etc

 

[413x]

HA its just too much set up for me.

My only really smart things are


Tado - nearly all rooms
Google surveillance
Couple of Google nest minis
Smart lighting in my office.

I've decided it's not worth the outlay to make all the lights smart. Not really necessary

Still not convinced by fridges, washing machines, etc(white goods I guess) etc being smart

Only thing might be useful is a kettle!

 

[matt100]

Might be worth a try - I recall similar frustrations, but it has come a huge way in the last couple of years - far more stable, more professional releases, easier interface etc

This was like 2 weeks ago.

Nice idea. Not for people who aren't prepared to put the time into it.

To be honest I was hoping to slightly extend the functionality of my smart home, eg linking things like nest and other temperature sensors. But also to make it less frustrating/more robust particularly for my other half.

I can put up with smartthings and hue sometimes not working together perfectly but its a fair challenge from her that "why can't we just use light switches?"... I hoped to loop in other motion sensors or get better control of everything.

In the event, I went to try and recreate one of the simple automations I have "smartthings motion sensor sees motion, turns on hue light" and I got the sort of error message you get when you have a BSOD when I tried to apply it. Total gibberish, so I googled it and got forums full of neckbeards sneering about "READ THE WIKI" or similar.

How about no?

It's fine, it's not a consumer product, I'm a consumer. In exactly the same way I used to overclock things to breaking point and now just buy the more expensive part.

Horses for courses, it's plainly obvious going through the setup that it's very powerful and flexible and the amount of integrations was incredible but beyond that, not for me.

 

[Bluecube]

It sounds as if you’ve been unlucky. I’ve got motion sensors, temp sensors, smart lights, Hive, etc, etc and have set up many automations with them all. It’s very straight forward to set up automations with any combination I want ie turn lights on in lounge after 3pm but only when there’s motion; if temp is -2C outside then turn heating on early in certain rooms.

 

[SimonR]

A True smart home really should have minimum interface with people to make it 'smart'. That said it should still have common interfaces, like light switches, that people can still use to interact with the house. I run Homeseer and my wife has no interaction other than alexa (which runs locally on Homeseer) and light switches. Everything else is automated. Homeseer isnt cheap and has no pretty front end, but it is 100% stable and is very robust. It also runs locally and integrates Alexa / Google as local devices and allows them to control local devices without going out to the cloud.

All smart homes require some degree of maintenance and scripting / programming to make things work. I think I touch Homeseer backend at least once a month.

 

[matt100]

It sounds as if you’ve been unlucky. I’ve got motion sensors, temp sensors, smart lights, Hive, etc, etc and have set up many automations with them all. It’s very straight forward to set up automations with any combination I want ie turn lights on in lounge after 3pm but only when there’s motion; if temp is -2C outside then turn heating on early in certain rooms.

Perhaps. I started reading/checking youtube and to be honest I'm not alone.

For what it's worth, I am probably a target user. Eg, I have hue, nest, smartthings, eufy, blink and ring all linked together with alexa and running through a mesh etc. I also work for a tech brand so have both a work and personal interest. I actually enjoyed setting up the pi and adding everything.

In the end I spent bloody ages adding everything, paid for the google dev account to get my nest added etc.

I created a test automation to turn a light on at a certain time of day which worked fine.

Then yeah, creating other automations just went absolutely nowhere and after adding (at HAs suggestion) my frame TVs as DLNA devices etc all I achieved was non working automations with weird errors and TVs that frequently stopped talking to my soundbars.

I may go back, the PI I was using was a virtual machine just to test it out (I had full expectation to move to physical if I could make it work, I've learned from painful experience not to go balls deep straight away.. the house is already very automated... we never use the hue/nest apps etc) so the VM box is still there if I want to turn it on again.

Maybe.

 

[SimonR]

Hopefully with the wider adoption of Thread and Matter yours and many users frustrations will disappear as they will unify all of the IOT platforms.