Hi All
Hopefully this place looks like a helpful forum as I’m quite new to all this!
I’ve had a few devices all working separately /through their proprietary apps but we’re just finishing off a large house extension and this has added to the list.
I’d ideally like to be able to view/switch a number of different devices on one screen/head end but have no idea where to start.
The devices we have/will have shortly are as follows;
Zigbee Smart Sockets
Zigbee smart switches (for lights)
Heatmiser Neo Underfloor Heating (this runs from a Samsung ASHP but that part is automatic)
Samsung VRF air conditioning (currently using Smart Things App)
Hive (2xLTHW heating circuits in the existing house and Hot Water)
Ring (doorbell!)
Hik Vision PoE CCTV
We have lots of appliances (Neff N70) which we can control remotely but not too fussed about controlling those at the
Moment)
Any help/recommendations would be appreciated!
Thanks
Adrian
I have a legacy home automation set-up running on Windows XP. the computer and software have now died.
I have written a very nice Excel VBA program to replace the software and it can run on any modern Windows system.
My only remaining problem is to output the correct signal to a USB port to trigger the wireless switches.
Has anybody done a similar exercise. Please help.
Hi All,
Kind of new to Home Automation. Started off Using Amazon Echo units and added a Samsung SmartThings hub. I have mostly been using plug in modules for turning lights on and off. I live in a very rural area where the internet goes out a lot. I eventually want to change to to a non internet Hub so things will work without needing an internet connection. But I will post with those questions at a later date.
So, the task at hand is this: I have flood lights at each corner of my house. They are currently controlled by switches at the front and back doors. I would like to add Security Cameras to each corner also. I can easily find small Wifi switches to put into the electrical box where the flood lights are located, then I can terminate the leads together behind the Decora switch to have constant power. Then I can use the constant power up at the lights electrical box to power the security cameras. I would also like to have a wireless switch to take the place of the Decora switch to be able to turn the lights off and on.
I cannot seem to find a product like this. It seems I can find the small wired in switch boxes that will also come with external smart wall switches, but the wall switches are an external box that does not fit in or cover the existing Wall switch electrical box. I can also find Wireless Decora switches that come with a remote wired in small switch box , but they all seem to be RF and do not integrate with a Smart Hub.
I am hoping someone here knows of a product that matches what I am looking for. Any help would be appreciated.
Also any recommendations for Wireless Security cameras are welcome.
Thanks for any help.
Dear Forum,
I am just starting a smart home system. I've wanted to do this for 10 years at most and really would like to get a start. What I have are a couple of SONOFF wifi relays, some 433 (Hz/mHz) switches ( not wifi ) a couple of wifi lightbulbs, and I'd like to expand wifi thermostat, leak/water detectors, garage door openers and what ever else I can think of.
In the SONOFF items I have it's a particular app, the wifi bulbs are another app, and if I do a thermostat there might be another app. My wife is not a Luddite but she damn sure doesn't want to have to trouble shoot if/why a particular app breaks down.
So in what I do understand about smart home things is that I need/want a HUB. I spent 15 years doing some programming so I do have some computer ability, though I'd prefer to stay away from HAVING to line command operate the hub.
I would like a list of HUB's that people have found to be the best. Even better are links to let's say Amazon for that hub.
Regards from Noob Smart Home,
Barry
Hello lovely people. Long time and all that. Hope you're all doing OK.
Bit of a left field one here, looking for extra eyes more than an answer and you're the most logical bunch I know 🙂
Part of our HA system is a Logitech Elite hub and remote control.
This is programmed to control my Cyrus Stereo, our TV, and HDMI switch and our Virgin V6 box.
I've been away for a couple of days. Got back this evening to (eventually) work out that the V6 box appears to be not accepting any commands from the Logitech.
Everything has been rebooted.
Logitech uses IR to control
Cyrus: Fine
TV: Fine
HDMI: Fine
Remote control uses Bluetooth to control Hub.
All commands from the Remote to the hub are executed (one might assume correctly) as the activity LED responds, and if you're controlling (say) the Cyrus, all works fine.
iOS App can be used to control Hub over the WLAN:
All commands from the App re executed (one might assume correctly) as the activity LED responds, and if you're controlling (say) the Cyrus, all works fine.
Native remote (that uses as far as I know bluetooth) to control the V6 box works fine.
V6 box refuses to acknowledge any command other than from the native remote. Remote or app provoke absolutely zero response from the V6 box.
This is annoying, but damned if I can think of any logical reason. One might assume a firmware update on the V6 box, but given that the Hub simply emulates the native remote, that seems unlikely.
I'm struggling to think of where even to start troubleshooting this, so any random thoughts would be appreciated.
My initial approach is to buy another hub in case there's a different radio set that's failed in the hub...
TIA!
C
I currently have an HVAC system in the attic - for heating and A/C. 120v is supplied to the unit to run the gas heating. A/C uses 240v. I have an ecobee thermostat...which sometimes goes offline....not often. When it goes offline, I need to turn the 120v power to the HVAC system off and then back on (the ecobee gets its power from the HVAC system). That resets the ecobee and all is fine. I spend the summer away from this house and if the ecobee goes offine..I have no current method to reset the HVAC 120v power remotely. My idea is to replace the current 120v plug in the attic with a smart plug...then I can remotely turn the 120v power off and the ecobee will reset and come back online. I use Wyze and Lutron Casita in the house currently and was hoping I could find an in-wall smart plug from Wyze or Lutron. Obviously, I don't need diming, etc...just the ability to turn the plug power on/off. I've seen some options...but one problem I have is the attic can reach up to 135F in the summer...many of the smart plugs I've seen are not rated for that temperature. Might any of you have any thoughts on a smart plug I might want to look at? I don't want to invest in anything that would require a new hub - so either WiFi based or Casita HUB based. I need 120v and 15amp ratings. Thanks in advance.
I am trying to run a reaction that turns on lights if a sensor has not been tripped for 2 minutes. Basically, when a garage door is open, turn on inside lights if nothing has been sensed for 2 minutes. My question has to do with the expression/variable for "Last Seen". The variable never gets updated over time since the last seen event never changes.
Screenshot 2024-09-02 191632.png
In the screenshot above, the reaction checks for any garage door as well as the variable called "GarageLastEntry". The expression for this variable is displayed below:
Screenshot 2024-09-02 191651.png
The problem that I am experiencing is that the variable never changes over time. I understand that this is because the "last seen" variable does not change over time when there is no activity. In this screenshot, the value shows 0.029... This can also be seen as the current value in the original reaction screenshot above. After 10 minutes, this value should be 10. However, when a garage door is opened, the variable does not get updated and thus the rule does not become true since .029 is less than 2.
When I go to the variable and click on the > icon, the variable then gets updated as expected as seen below:
Screenshot 2024-09-02 191711.png
So the ultimate question is, how do I use a rule that can use a variable such as "last seen"? Do I need to create another variable or reaction that multiplies this by 1 every minute? From what I read in the manual, a variable is evaluated every time it is included in a reaction. But this is not what I am seeing.
I also want to ask another question related to this variable. It seems like Reactor continuously deletes this variable and I have to keep recreating it? I have never experienced this with MSR so wanted to ask if this is a common problem or if my definition is causing this.
Any info is appreciated!!!
BACKGROUND
I have been using 4 x Yale Contactless Connected Door Locks for several years (they use either a rfid tag or code to enter)
I have also been using 1 x Yale L1 Door Lock on the main front door and this connects via Yale Software
Yale contacted me to advise the L1 Lock software was being withdrawn and I needed to install a Yale Access Module into the existing lock and a Wi-Fi Bridge to link it with the newly released software
ALL of the above was working just fine.
RECENT
Yale emailed to advise I should add a Yale Access Module to each of the 4 other locks as this would link with the updated software via the Wi-Fi Bridge.
They offered a deal of just £4 each for these Modules so I got them.
THE PROBLEM
I found that only 2 of these modules would slot easily into the locks - two of them bent the pins and one of those snapped the female part in a lock (I do have a spare lock but thats not the point).
Anyway, I began to set-up the two fitted Modules with the Wi-Fi Bridge and I eventually found (thanks Google, NOT Yale) that I now need 1 x Wi-Fi Bridge PER LOCK (£50 each).
QUESTION
Does anyone know of a compatible Wi-Fi Bridge which works with Yale AND can handle multiple connections (ie 5 all 5 of my locks) ?
THANK YOU
Hello,
I had an iCOMEN boiler switch that worked for many years. And I used iCOMEN app on my phone to manage it. Short time ago app started to have an error message that it cannot connect to the server, and after some time the device also stopped working.
Some of you may know that I took at shot at building an alternate geofencing solution for Vera. The core of it was system agnostic, using the OwnTracks application and AWS lambdas to track devices and keep a central data, then disseminate that to the Vera via a websocket-based plugin. It worked with other apps as well, including Tasker and GPSLogger, but of the dozen people that were testing it, most used OwnTracks.
A lot was learned in the process, not the least of which is that the success of any such solution is highly dependent on the phone and its settings. Phone manufacturers love to set things up for the longest battery life, of course, but that's usually very anti-geofencing behavior. In the case of at least one brand, it was unusable and the settings could not be modified. It was also cost-prohibitive to maintain on Amazon, as AWS grabs a dime here and a dollar there and before you know it, it added $100/month to my AWS bill, which my wife deducted from my Scotch budget. Unacceptable.
But it's quite reasonable to use OwnTracks to a local endpoint, and I could pretty easily replicate the functionality as a local application, or maybe even as an additional endpoint built into MSR's API (still separate port and process, but in the package).
So the question really is... would you do it, or would you be too concerned about the security risks associated (e.g., dynamic DNS and NAT mapping in the firewall necessary for the phone to contact the service when not on LAN)?
Hello forum instigators.
Not sure who host/runs the forum software but a couple of challenges:
The chat is not currently usable, as the scrolling is all not right and it's not possible to read chats or send chats reliably.
There are a lot of female members that should perhaps be on another forum; where they can advertise their skills more appropriately. Note: I agree it's a job, like any other.
Whoever you are - thank you for your invaluable work.
I run a B&B and am looking for a way to turn the lights off whenever a room is unoccupied for X amount of time. The guest should still be able to turn the lights on and off manually, but should not be able to disable the auto turn off feature if the room is unoccupied.
I guess I am looking for a light switch with a built in presence sensor? I guess a presence sensor would be better as if it is a motion sensor, the lights may go off unwanted if the guest fails to make sufficient movement e.g. if the guest is lying down watching a film.
Are there any products on the market that would work for my application?
Hello,
I am in search of a device capable of using Bluetooth to connect with a smartphone and serve as its primary sound source on demand. This device should function similarly to conventional Bluetooth headphones, which automatically become the phone's sound output upon activation. However, this device should differ in that it transmits the audio signal to an amplifier via a jack, SPDIF, or similar connection. Alternatively, it could be an integrated amplifier that directly sends the signal to passive speakers.
The control of this process should be manageable through an API such as MQTT, REST, MODBUS, or similar. Are you aware of any devices that operate in this manner?
The concept is as follows: upon entering the bathroom, I would press a wall-mounted switch. This switch would send a signal to the Bluetooth device, prompting it to connect to my smartphone and seamlessly continue playing the audiobook I am currently listening to. Instead of using the phone's speakers, it would seamlessly start playing through ceiling-mounted speakers.
Many thanks 🙂
Hi folks,
I currently have some cheap Zigbee hub and some Amazon Alexas running my smart home which mostly consists of Zigbee power strips and Zigbee battery powered switches.
It all worked OK originally, but now whenever I press a Zigbee switch the light in the corresponding plug switches on then immediately off again.
If I ask Alexa to turn the light on it works fine. Likewise if I switch it on from my phone.
Any ideas what the issue could be?
I've tried unplugging the hub a number of times but that doesn't seem to fix it.
I was thinking about getting a Homey Pro 2023 to speed things up (tmas the Zigbee hub seems to be really slow now as well, for some reason) but I'm not sure about that either.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated!
Looking for a recommendation:
Locksmith is trying to talk me into the Yale Assure Lock Touchscreen with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth - the original 1st generation because they said it's built better than the Assure Lock 2. Any thoughts on this? Which would you recommend?
I see Mul T Lock makes a cylinder (KW-KIDYRL) for Yale Smart Locks. Would this fit the 1st gen Assure Lock, as well as Assure Lock 2? Has anyone tried replacing the cylinder with this on either lock?
Other smart lock I was considering is the Schlage Encode Plus.
Thanks!
Hi. So when I had my house build I ran a bunch of stuff, one of which being two pairs of speaker wires to each bedroom and to 4 spots around my living room… Over the years I have used them here and there with different success.. But today they sit in my walls just unused.
I converted all the cat6 or 5e (I don’t remember) over to basically eithernet jacks. The cable coaxial well it’s there but now unused. But I was thinking there has got to be some use for two pairs of speaker wires to each room. Can I make them usb plugs? Not sure so looking for ideas.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this.
Kevin
Hey guys...
We are replacing the heat pump and furnace this week and I will also need to replace my nest thermostat at the same time 'cause Nest is ending the cloud thing end of the month.
Anyway, I'm looking to use the
That's what the heat pump installer recommend BUT, using Nest I was also using it to control the home humidifier using a single wire connected to nest... but no low voltage thermostat is able to do that, I checked all of them...
So I need some help on how I can do that, to connect the home humidifier using zwave also....
Hi
We are looking for a solution where we can detect presence of a «thing» (people , car , dog, cat, and more..
We need:
fast detections, 1-3 seconds in range from 0 to 20 m from «base» fysical «client» , chip , transmitter , unit. base , receiver placed at a door, gate, house, etc uniq Identifying wirelessThe client:
no need for pressing any thing (no buttons) battery , hoply 2-5 years battery time.Have someone done anything like this?
What technologi will be best?
Controller shift - How do you do it ?
-
How is the controller shift instructions provided by Vera above , differ from your suggestion to manually grab the latest dongle backup file from the old vera (in /etc/cmh-ludl) and move it to the new vera, into the same location and then run ‘touch /etc/cmh-ludl/dongle.restore’
The both seem to be copying the Z-Wave network from a original (primary) controller to the new one ?
-
No it is actually very different.
The controller shift is an actual zwave protocol function, not a vera function. What it does is:
- include new controller (meaning add new controller to network and give it a new node ID, send network data to new controller over zwave (RF))
- assign new controller as master, unassigned current controller master flag.
The old controller will remain node 1 until you use the new controller to exclude it. Actually I can't remember with if it actually excludes itself. I don't believe it does. You end up with 2 controllers on your network. One master, one slave and you have shifted the master from one to the other.
The process I gave you clones all the data from one controller chip to the other using the backup file over the serial API of the zwave dongle. It means that they will both have the same node ID "1" and you don't need to do anything to your devices. You however have to take down the old controller or your network will be confused with 2 controllers with the same ID. Or if you tinker like me, keep the old USB dongle as a backup in case the internal one fails so you can stick it in just in case but in any case, you should unplug it and not use both at the same time.
The whole upnp think they ask you to do is to make sure the two vera see one another so they can transfer your user-data... including your security key but you can do that using backup/restore.
-
The vera upgrades from SDK to SDK very well(unless the new chip has an even newer firmware which the vera did not know of). It is part of their firmware update process. It is downgrading which is more of a challenge. I don't think you'll have any problems.
Fun fact, I had even upgraded my vera's zwave chip firmware far beyond what vera officially supported and had no problems.
-
Hi @rafale77
With your help, could we make this ‘shift’ run almost like a batch like process on the same device, by that I mean.
After doing a backup of the old Vera and a restore onto the new one.
Could I move the UZB1 USB dongle onto the new VeraPlus, ensuring it’s operational and working first under /dev/ttyACM0
Then is there a set of commands I could run that does the cloning straight off from /dev/ttyACM0 (UZB1) onto to /dev/ttyS0 (onboard) ?
And then ideally at the end of that, could it update the new Vera z-wave config to now look at /dev/ttyS0 (onboard) allowing me to move the UZB1 dongle (and store it away) ? -
It's not a very hard thing to do but I unfortunately gave away most of my veras and only have a couple of bricked ones left so I can't test this.
There was another way which was to manipulate the zwave serial port inside your backup user-data.json which is what I had to do but it takes decompressing your backup and the user-data.json.lzo and the compress it back and then restore that backup.
The silliness of the backup restore process is that it is very rigid and doesn't allow you to restore to a different serial port than what your original backup file. What I gave you should work though... manually grab the last dongle file from one unit, move it to the other one and with your UI already showing the new target serial port, start a dongle restore.As I previously said, I also highly recommend you stay with the usb stick. It likely has greater range and upgradeability.
-
@rafale77 said in Controller shift - How do you do it ?:
I also highly recommend you stay with the usb stick. It likely has greater range and upgradeability.
I’d actually seriously consider that, but the upgrading route for the z-way UZB1 dongle, seems so unnecessarily complicated .
One of the reasons for getting the new Vera was because a Fibaro RGBW Module was appearing as many multiple nodes, and Vera support had a look and seemed to suggest it was due to the z-wave version I was running.
parkerc said in Controller shift - How do you do it ?:
My UZB1 usb stick is on 4.05 L:1 - Role: Suc SIS: YES PRI: YES
The new Vera is on 6.01 L:1 - Role: Master SIS: NO PRI: YES -
upgrading firmware on a UZB is actually quite easy...
what is the brand of your stick?
Updating firmware on Silicon Labs Z-wave UZB USB sticks
There may be occasions when it becomes necessary to update the firmware of Silicon Labs Z-wave UZB controller USB sticks. Firmware updates may be needed when new SDKs are released or a change in UZB functionality is required. UZB firmware can be updated using Silicon Labs Windows based Z-Wave...
-
Ahhhhh then this is what you need:
https://z-wave.me/zmeserialupdater-manual/
and it is indeed a little more complicated due to the need of following this crazy map:
-
@rafale77 said in Controller shift - How do you do it ?:
What you need to do now that you changed the zwave serial port back to the vera onboard chip, is to manually grab the latest dongle backup file from the old vera (it's in /etc/cmh-ludl) and move it to the new vera in the same location. Use SFTP to do this.
Then SSH into the new vera and run
touch /etc/cmh-ludl/dongle.restorethen reload luup. It should normally restore your previous zwave network configuration into the new vera zwave chip
Hi @rafale77
Picking this up again as i have managed to find a bit of time - and looking on my Vera I can’t see that a
dongle.restore.shfile, plus the dongle files seem to be in/etc/cmhrather than/etc/cmh-ludlsee below..root@MiOS_55100454:/# find -name dongle*.* ./etc/cmh/dongle.4.5.dump.0 ./etc/cmh/dongle.4.5.dump.1 ./etc/cmh/dongle.4.5.dump.2 ./etc/cmh/dongle.4.5.dump.3 ./etc/cmh/dongle.4.5.dump.4 ./etc/cmh/dongle.4.5.dump.5 ./ezmi/cmh/dongle.4.5.dump.0 ./ezmi/cmh/dongle.4.5.dump.1 ./ezmi/cmh/dongle.4.5.dump.2 ./ezmi/cmh/dongle.4.5.dump.3 ./ezmi/cmh/dongle.4.5.dump.4 ./ezmi/cmh/dongle.4.5.dump.5 root@MiOS_55100454:/#Any ideas where the dongle.restore file might be or if it’s called something different ?
-
Have looked here too, which has helped a bit.. https://smarthome.community/topic/199/problem-migration-z-wave-nw-from-vera-to-uzb1-dongle?_=1632067117298
The issue seems to be the
dongle.restorefile requirementsIf it helps, i found this within the ./mios/www/cgi-bin/cmh/restore.sh file
if [ "$FORM_dongle" == "1" ]; then # LuaUPnP will restore the Z-Wave backup file if it finds the 'dongle.restore.go' file. # To prevent LuaUPnP from restoring a dongle backup until the next boot, # we'll save the file as 'dongle.restore', and the 'Start_cmh.sh' script will rename it to 'dongle.restore.go'. log "Create $MIOS_CONF_PATH/dongle.restore" touch "$MIOS_CONF_PATH/dongle.restore" 2>>$log_file fiAnd then looking in
./usr/bin/Start_cmh.shthe reference there is..# to prevent LuaUPnP from restoring a dongle backup until the next boot, # the web ui saves .restore and LU looks for .go mv /etc/cmh/dongle.restore /etc/cmh/dongle.restore.go || /bin/trueSadly not much further forward…
-
Yep, I have made a local back up. (Inc z-wave network) and have it stored locally
Both Veras are on the network, I first went into the veraplus with the usb zwave dongle and did the full backup, saved it locally and then logged into the VeraSecure and did the restore.
Everything but the zwave devices was restored and based on what @rafale77 had said before my issue is that it’s trying to restore back to an /dev/ttyACM0 dongle, rather than the onboard one /dev/ttyS0
I somehow need to get the zwave records onto the right tty..
-
-
@catmanv2 said in Controller shift - How do you do it ?:
So from memory, if you just create the dongle.restore.go file in /etc/cmh and reboot.....
Hi @CatmanV2
That’s the bit I’m not sure about , so do I just create a blank file , with nothing in it and call it a
dongle.restore.go?Also, just to confirm do I copy over the dongle back up file
dongle.4.5.dump.0into /etc/cmh tooOnce both are in there (making sure the a-wave settings are set to the correct onboard zwave chip etc.) I can just do a reboot or luup.reload ?
-
I believe that's exactly it. Although if you create dongle.restore.go you'll need to reboot, not just luup.reload.
Clearly you might want to keep dongle.4.5.dump.0 as a copy somewhere, but I guess it depends on the current state of the Vera you are restoring to
C
-
Ok, i gave that a go, but sadly no luck..
FYI - The Veraplus (with external a-wave dongle), dongle dump files are already on the VeraSecure in the /etc/cmh folder - I assume they must have come over during the restore this morning.
On the VeraSecure I ssh’d on to it and run that file creation command -
touch /etc/cmh/dongle.restore.goSo, all file are in
/etc/cmh/now..-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16383 Sep 19 10:16 /etc/cmh/dongle.4.5.dump.0 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16383 Sep 2 03:00 /etc/cmh/dongle.4.5.dump.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16383 May 29 03:00 /etc/cmh/dongle.4.5.dump.2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16383 Mar 15 2021 /etc/cmh/dongle.4.5.dump.3 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16383 Mar 11 2021 /etc/cmh/dongle.4.5.dump.4 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16383 Feb 27 2021 /etc/cmh/dongle.4.5.dump.5 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Sep 19 19:48 /etc/cmh/dongle.restore.goI did the full reboot, a few luup.reloads too, but still the same now zwave devices are shown or being picked up.
Any ideas ?
and I think you even helped me a while back, as that ‘crazy map’ was doing me head in.
