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General discussion on all things MQTT.
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Hi,
Is there a guide somewhere on how to submit images/attachments from a smart device ?
As someone who accesses this forum from an iPad/iPhone, I don’t have the ability to drag / drop images into any posts.
What are other people doing (who are not using a traditional PC/MAC) ?
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I am a pretty active forum user over on the QNAP forum and there has been a number of viral threads there and on reddit about the spread of ransomware on these NAS.
I wanted to post here to say that this is a fresh reminder to be very cautious with the current state of the affair when it comes to smarthomes and the trend towards IOT we are observing from all these companies attempting to make our homes cloud dependent, opening so called "secure tunnels" to their servers which can turn into very real exposures to your LAN (home network).
In order to mitigate it, QNAP released a firmware which now has autoupdate enabled by default (reminds me one other company...) and IMHO is the climax of absurdity but in fact when I come to think about it is how the amazon echos and ecobees work for example without even offering the ability to disable.
I am in no way a security expert but have had enough exposure and interest about it to recommend using a real firewall for your home network to block these backdoors if you have a smarthome and avoid these cloud oriented platforms and devices as if they were COVID.
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Ezlo have made an announcement about their new web GUI.
Apr 26 EZLO WEB UI in Beta EZLO WEB UI in BetaEzlo WEB UI Beta release notes: We are releasing ability to do backup of all user data for Linux controllers with Ezlo WEB UI. It will be possible to: Create a backup. Restore from the backup Have the visibility for backup creation progress Settings Ezlo mobile apps already have support for...
Its very alpha however. Hopefully their dev's can get it in to shape and add our feature requests ?
Can you banned guys still see the screen shots on the threads?
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Hi,
I have a piece of code that returns the Watts used by all the PoE devices on my home network. I’m trying to set it up on Vera so that can retrieve that value in a similar way I would retrieve a Vera variable via a http request.
The function works returns the total value when run via LuaTest, but when I try to retrieve it via luup.register_ handler, for some reason it returns the entire UniFi json file ??
Please could some help me with what’s wrong, my goal is to be able to retrieve the value , like an api so I can use it elsewhere ..
luup.register_handler("UnifiControllerPoE","UnifiWatts") function UnifiControllerPoE() local unifi_username = "unifi" local unifi_password = "unifi" local unifi_controller_ip = "192.168.1.207" local unifi_controller_port = "8443" local cookie = "/tmp/unifi_cookie_lua" -- Temp cookie file local tempfilename = "/tmp/UnifiController.tmp" -- Temp JSON output file local device = 'api/s/default/stat/device' local f = io.popen("stat -c %Y " .. tempfilename) local last_modified = f:read() --if (os.difftime (os.time(), last_modified) > 30) then -- URL for logging in, query and logging out url_login = 'curl --cookie ' .. cookie .. ' --cookie-jar ' .. cookie .. ' --insecure -H \'Content-Type: application/json\' -X POST -d \'{"password":"' .. unifi_password .. '","username":"' .. unifi_username .. '"}\' https://' .. unifi_controller_ip .. ':' .. unifi_controller_port .. '/api/login' url_open = 'curl --cookie ' .. cookie .. ' --cookie-jar ' .. cookie .. ' --insecure -s -o '..tempfilename..' --data "json={}" https://' .. unifi_controller_ip .. ':' .. unifi_controller_port .. '/' ..device url_logout = 'curl --cookie ' .. cookie .. ' --cookie-jar ' .. cookie .. ' --insecure https://' .. unifi_controller_ip .. ':' .. unifi_controller_port .. '/logout' -- Execute url -- Execute url read_login = os.execute(url_login) read_open = os.execute(url_open) read_logout = os.execute(url_logout) --end local line local file = io.open(tempfilename, "r") if file then line = file:read("*a") file:close() end return line end --print(UnifiController()) local readings = {} local total = 0 local json = require "dkjson" local u = json.decode( UnifiControllerPoE() ) --print('\n') for key,value in ipairs( u.data ) do for n, p in ipairs( value.port_table ) do --print('\t'.. tostring(p.port_idx), p.poe_enable, tonumber(p.poe_power)) -- print(p.port_idx) table.insert( readings, { value.name, tonumber(p.poe_power)}) -- populate readings table end end for _, reading in ipairs(readings) do local Variable = reading[1] local Value = reading[2] or 0 total = total + Value if Value ~= 0 then --print(Variable.. " - ".. Value, total) end end print("Total watts = " ..total) local html = "<html><head>" .. "</head>" .. "<body>" .. "<b>" .. tostring(total) .. '</b>' .. "</body></html>" return html, "text/html" -
Has anyone successfully incorporated incoming call(er) information** within an automation workflow?
I'm talking about having Alexa speak out the name and/or phone number of a caller, or activating a routine/scene based on that info.
Always been a dream of mine. Wouldn't know how to achieve it! Do they make an Ethernet/WiFi-connected CallerID box?
**from a LANDLINE, not a MOBILE PHONE (although in the case of my Google Voice #, both lines ring, and if my smartphone is home and turned on, I could see invoking Tasker somehow)
REFERENCES:
NCID - Network Caller ID
[Please file under proper category, as you see fit]
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Hi all
I’ve recently started to build out my own ‘Homer’ dashboard (https://github.com/bastienwirtz/homer) and I must admit I really like what it’s given me.
Thinking about future use-cases. I can see potential for this being an alternative (albeit simple ) UI for Vera/OpenLuup..
Is anyone else using Homer ?
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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)?
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After having optimized my video processing integration of 8 cameras into my openLuup based automation, I have been wondering what I could possibly improve on my setup. Instead of pestering @akbooer with petty localized console optimizations I am looking at these Apple Homepod minis as a potential improvement from my alexa based voice command system. openLuup is presently already bridged to both platforms using habridge and homekitbridge.
I am seeing two issues with Alexa:
Speed. The cloud processing of the voice commands takes ~1s (I don't use anything cloud to cloud) and I would really prefer it to be local. These devices can go a bit crazy when they lose DNS connections and sometimes do random things. Privacy because all the recordings go to the amazon cloud all the time.I have been exploring open source solutions for this but I would lose the benefit of optionally being able to go to the cloud for search information.
The downside of the homepods are that siri is not nearly as good in terms of helpfulness as alexa at this point. They also don't have a version with a screen which I found to be very useful at a couple of locations on the other hand, the sound quality of the homepod minis seem to be better than the echos...
What do you guys think?
This thread from longtime vera user @dJOS inspired me
Feb 4 Hubitat + HomeKit + HomeBridge + HomePod Mini = WOW Hubitat + HomeKit + HomeBridge + HomePod Mini = WOWHowdy all, I got a HomePod Mini very recently for my study (the audio quality is great and hand-off is magical) and to replace my iPad as the main HomeKit controller for my house (we use HomeKit mainly for Presence detection which is IMO best in class). We also have a dozen Amazon Echo's of...
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Hi
Go with me here... I recently pick up a unresponsive Vera Secure from eBay for next to nothing, thinking I’d could have a go at trying to restore it, if only as a play thing..
Situation - The power led comes on, but the internet and service leds just flash - no connection made (and even using a direct cable and Wireshark, I can’t see an arp request being made to see if it has a default in address) - I’ve also tried various reset button combinations - no luck.
Perhaps this post is a long shot, but seeing so many familiar ex Micasaverde/Vera forum names - i thought I’d at least ask - just in case anyone had any guidance/advice etc. I could use ..
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Whistleblower: Ubiquiti Breach “Catastrophic” Whistleblower: Ubiquiti Breach “Catastrophic”
On Jan. 11, Ubiquiti Inc. [NYSE:UI] — a major vendor of cloud-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as routers, network video recorders and security cameras — disclosed that a breach involving a third-party cloud provider had exposed customer account credentials. Now a source who...
Reposting an article I got from a reddit thread.
I won't stop advocating against cloud dependence and unnecessary cloud reliance especially in the field of smarthomes.
I divested from a fairly large ubiquiti unifi system almost a year ago and I never connected my controller to their cloud service but as some may have sensed, it was a direction they were going towards. What got me off of it actually was the large disparity in product performance and a decreasing trust in the company with large amount of dubious advertising, inconsistent products for some of which the hardware could obviously not meet the marketing promises. -
So have been migrating a bunch of automations to MSR from Hubitat and no I feel like I want to have an SSD instead of SD card on my Pi3.What is an Easy way to convert to SSD from SD card on Pi with MSR. What files do I need to copy to keep my rules?
/Mattias
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I want to set something up natively if possible on Vera, so a virtual motion sensor device is tripped / not tripped by following the tripped variable state of a real device.
This LUA code works if I run it manually but I don't know how to have this running all the time and watching for that "tripped" variable to change ?
local istripped = luup.variable_get("urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:SecuritySensor1", "Tripped", 100) --Real Device luup.variable_set("urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:SecuritySensor1", "Tripped", istripped,101) --Virtual Motion Sensor Device return trueHow do you add something like this in to Vera's startup LUA feature ?
Thanks
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@mrFarmer I'm trying to add my Ezlo devices to Homebridge via openLupp Ezlobridge using the Vera plugin for Homebridge.
Do you or anyone else know why they are ignored. My devices provisioned by Verabridge is visible in Homebridge but not those from Ezlobridge. -
I have a Reactor set up to extend an outside awning when the OAT reaches 26C and it's after 1100, that part is straightforward enough, however I wanted to take it one step further and rather than it being either fully out or the reverse I'd like to have the ability to increment it either In or Out by a certain distance (typically 500mm) every 120 secs or so.
I had tried to do this with PLEG based on Sun position but failed miserably and never attempted to do this with distance and time.
I have looked at adding it to the current Reactor but not being fully fluent in Reactor I've hit a brick wall and don't see if it can be done - anyone point me in the right direction is is this something that Reactor can't do? -
Hello
I have a 64GB SD card in my Raspberry Pi.
I read some guides online and the ones that looked easy to follow use a program call Win32 Disk Imager to make an image of the entire SD card.
I shutdown the Pi and when I insert the SD card in to my Windows 10 PC, I can see drive letter D:\ appear and its label is "boot"
8094c349-baee-414a-b9e4-96f3d2e7c9c7-image.png
Looking at this disk in Windows Disk management it looks a bit strange however as it has a massive unallocated area.
f5eb87a7-cd83-4846-a7b6-c4315a691f58-image.png
Anyway I proceeded to backup the disk D:\ using Win32 Disk Imager program.
1d8e45d0-c38b-414f-b188-05d183d4baf4-image.png
It took a long time but it has created an .img file which is 27.4GB in file size.
57b59b29-1f56-4a54-923d-2b401129b3db-image.png
I then put the SD card back in to the Pi and powered it on.
Here is a "df" output from the Pi
faaf5744-45c6-459c-a2c2-8b1c63ff3801-image.png
Looks like I am not using the full 64GB of the SD card.
When I first setup the Pi I was using a much smaller SD card and then I bought a decent Sandisk 64GB card and followed some other user guide found online to clone my original smaller card to the new card and expand etc.
So have I actually just backed up the Pi's SD card and all its contents successfully ?
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My turn now... Shit Ezlo CEO is really on slipper ice.
I sak that in the thread that someone has contacted his wife and is Boeing concerened about his behavior.
When you read the mail you clearly read that its someone close to him at the Company...
Sad that he is ruining his Company and allt of peoples Jobs at risk.
/M
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Some of my favorite projects I have been using on my setup for over 5 years:
bwssytems/ha-bridge bwssytems/ha-bridge
Bridge the vera or openluup to amazon echo through a local hue emulator. A much faster solution than the vera native bloatware as the only cloud service is used by this alternative is the voice recognition. It was initiated for vera control but later expanded to many other platforms like the logitech Harmony and other controllers. No cloud to cloud so no need for mios servers:
Home automation bridge that emulates a Philips Hue light system and can control other systems such as a Vera, Harmony Hub, Nest, MiLight bulbs or any other system that has an http/https/tcp/udp int...
The equivalent for Apple Siri:
Hackworth/VeraHomeKitBridge Hackworth/VeraHomeKitBridge
Contribute to Hackworth/VeraHomeKitBridge development by creating an account on GitHub.
Alternative SONOS TTS implementation from all the plugin versions applicable for any platform since it is an API you can call. It is run also locally on a MacOS desktop in my case but can run on anything running nodeJS. For the TTS to be fully local though, you will need a mac or bear with the robotic voice of maryTTS. I have been hesitant to move my TTS to the amazon echos (project by @therealdb), but the echos lack synchronization and are cloud dependent which causes a 3-5s delay I do not have with this local solution, so this remains my choice:
jishi/node-sonos-http-api jishi/node-sonos-http-api
An HTTP API bridge for Sonos easing automation. Hostable on any node.js capable device, like a raspberry pi or similar. - jishi/node-sonos-http-api
Use my fork if you need to install on Catalina because some fixes are needed and my pull request from months ago has not yet been merged.
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Got banned quite quickly from Vera/ezlo forum, without any warning. I was kinda asking for it, but still, they could have some sense of humour over there 🙂
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This morning I signed up for Starlink internet. This is the Musk project that has been aboard many of the SpaceX launches for some time. I watched this morning's launch (60 additional Starlink satellites), and they announced that the Beta was open in some areas. I went to the site, and it was open in my area.
The site (starlink.com) quoted $99/mo with $499 initial equipment and setup. I realize that's pretty pricey compared to Internet access in many areas, but I currently pay a fair amount more (monthly) to my current cable- (TV) based ISP, quality and speed are inconsistent, and every year I have to fight their customer retention staff to keep my pricing from nearly doubling as my "special offer" expires.
Verizon, the dominant cellular carrier where I live, has been slow to roll out home-based Internet on 5G. This is another alternative I've been excited to investigate, but still waiting.
I'm pretty excited. Yes, I'm a Musk fan-boy. Don't judge me. 🙂
The Home Automation Controller Pyramid
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Since one member asked at one point about the "front end" and "back end", I drew this showing the controller from the base to the tip along with what I have found to be the best options from my testing. Almost every controller will try to integrate all elements, especially commercial ones but... they all have strengths and weaknesses so if one can have a medley of the best ones...
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Good picture, but isn't home assistant not also a bit of Front-end?
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You could argue the same for the Z-way, since there the possiblilty to create virtual devices and scenes.
@rafale77 said in The Home Automation Controller Pyramid:
Almost every controller will try to integrate all elements
...so there's bound to be some fuzzy edges.
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The controllers on the drawing are the best ones in that box in my opinion. As I said, almost every controller actually tries to fulfill the pyramid. Home Assistant has a pretty good GUI now though its controls of automation from the GUI is poor and the automation logic itself is pretty incomplete causing some people to run node-red as the front end for Home-Assistant. I run openLuup...
For the Integration layer, I run both Home-Assitant with all its integration component and openLuup and its many vera plugins, manually bridged together.
For the backend, I run z-way into openLuup and Bellows into Home-Assistant.All boxes are important but each box depends on the box below it. As an illustration, when I start my system, I have to start it from bottom to top. When a controller is built and tested, it should be done from bottom to top as well in order to make sense and be effiscient.
The z-way-server also does all three and each API: the zwave API, JS API, Automation API, pretty much corresponds to each of the APIs I drew in order from bottom to top. It is just very good at the bottom layer but not as good as others as you go up the boxes. The best part of vera was the middle box with the community plugins and pretty complete virtual device set and is what openLuup has improved on.
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From my reading of different forums it doesn't look like Homeseer is doing all that great with their HS4 release. So between them and vera going down dead ends, it looks like Z-way and the in beta openzwave-QT will soon be the only contenders for zwave and I would slide in hubitat as third in spite of their lack of S2 support... Pretty sad to see good choices get smaller and smaller.
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I think part of the problem is that there are too many standards to chose from. None of them have a complete offering in terms of the hardware, the big boys have tried to create closed ecosystems (also not complete, or lacking in some other way) and very few (none) of the current offerings are succeeding at supporting the whole shooting match.
Feels like there are no decent devs / architects out there with a focus on a clear end model and some decent funding that's not making bad technical decisions.
C
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I think also that there is a business problem issue. The controller is absolutely critical and getting the right hardware and software is a lot of work. However they are being sold as a very low cost to attract new customers into the ecosystem while the real business is actually in the devices. The controller is only an enabler. Homeseer was the only one selling theirs at a high price... And then there is open source... Vera tried very hard to differentiate from the rest, attempting self maintenance and trying to get a lot of smart in the zwave management, taking control away from their customers. It tanked because not only was it mostly unnecessary but above all, it was very poorly designed. Let's see how the others do...
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@rafale77 that's a good point.
However, I fear that seeing how the others 'do' is pretty much how they've 'done' I had a X10 system running off a USB 'thing' and Indigo automation software. That was about 15 years ago. If anything it was easier and more reliable than stuff today (let's talk about how my magnetic door sensors don't un trip if you don't have the door open for more than about 3 seconds).
There is a significant difference that I have more money to throw at it than I did then, but progress seems, well, erratic. What do we have? Switches, dimmers and thermostats really.....
C
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I run QT-openzwave... beta but very steady and very easy! After the holiday it will by bye bye vera... almost all logics are already transferred to home assistant and node-red just some pleg and the "garaga door plugin" running on vera... I moved all problematic devices to QT and since then it's rock solid. Even Vera is fast. And since zwave devices are included (secure) in qt zwave I did not even know they were also so good and fast
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Vera’s zwave is a mess and I’m giving them a compliment.
I still think the idea behind Vera was good, the execution made it what it is. With more attention to details and the ability to really fix bugs, it could have been a good solution.I still want a plug and play solution with easy customization, but maybe we’re just at the beginning and this market needs to reach its peak to become more mainstream.
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The closest to a plug and play local all in one is probably Hubitat at this point but they have their limitations in each area. For a large system with a lot of plugins, it seems like the RAM and CPU on their unit is a limiter.
Home Assistant is also going through some strange strategic changes and is really not plug and play... though that's what they aim towards but the rate of breaking changes and tedious "templating" for automation has me much prefer openLuup at this point. It is a bit of pitching lua vs. python+yaml... -
@rafale77 said in The Home Automation Controller Pyramid:
much prefer openLuup at this point
AT THIS POINT ...?
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haha... yeah and for the foreseeable future. I just started learning a little python because all the machine learning libraries seem to have a python API so it makes things much easier... But for home automation, I for one am way too invested in lua and two, don't see python as being suitable... which is, I am guessing, why Home Assistant has supplemented it with yaml. Gosh and I am not even a coder/developer by trade... I just am enjoying the learning.
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to be fair, ezlo seems to have implemented Zwave (and Zigbee) stack in a modern way. but I'm not convinced at all by their new programming environment. they're adopting an approach very similar to HA's, where you can launch scripts to intercept events, instead of having services always executing. So, openluup it's probably the safest bet in terms of features and stability for luup refugees.
--
Vera+Zway+Openluup+my own framework
70+ Zwave Devices, a bunch of ZigBee light strips and a lot of codeMy Plug-ins => https://github.com/dbochicchio/vera (VeraAlexa, OpenSprinkler, Virtual Devices, MQTT and much more)
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and yes, I don't like python neither. I learned LUA quite easily (being a dev for the latest 25 years helped) and I was really tempted to build my own engine running C# (on Linux, it's xplat now thanks to .NET Core) at some point, and move all my logic there, and use some hub just to send ZWave commands. I have already tons of code doing integrations with Vera, MiLight, OpenSprinkler, MQTT running in my own C# service, but it was just for fun.
The real problem is more about building a compelling UI, today, and offer side services (Alexa/GoogleHome, remote access, etc) than anything else.
A couple of friends approached me (because you know, home automation addiction has grown in me) because they wanted to build something and I always told them to not do anything like I did, because it needs maintenance. I dream of a day when we'll get a real plug&play system. We're not there, clearly. -
@therealdb said in The Home Automation Controller Pyramid:
to be fair, ezlo seems to have implemented Zwave (and Zigbee) stack in a modern way.
But what they (appear) to be shipping a beta seems way too immature. When would you think there's a production product? Feels to me like 2021 some time?
C
The Ex-Vera abuser know as CatmanV2.....
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@CatmanV2 said in The Home Automation Controller Pyramid:
But what they (appear) to be shipping a beta seems way too immature. When would you think there's a production product? Feels to me like 2021 some time?
yes. current system is barely usable. They are targeting next September, and they can improve fast, because they want to release a new build every 2 weeks. The real problem is their priorities: in order to migrate, you have to unpair and pair again all your devices. It's impossible for me (70+ devices, sometimes buried into boxes I really don't know where, since they were first installed by my electricians when building the house) and for many more people.
The concerning problem is that it's quite impossible for them to have plug-ins ready, because their new runtime is completely different and porting is not easy. But from a Zwave standpoint, they seem to have learned the lesson, by decoupling devices from implementation, and by allowing device definition to be updated separately. We'll see, it's probably too early and a lot of customers will migrate to anything better when the product will be really ready.--
Vera+Zway+Openluup+my own framework
70+ Zwave Devices, a bunch of ZigBee light strips and a lot of codeMy Plug-ins => https://github.com/dbochicchio/vera (VeraAlexa, OpenSprinkler, Virtual Devices, MQTT and much more)
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@therealdb said in The Home Automation Controller Pyramid:
next September
2020 or 2021? 2021 seems more likely. Short sprints only means lots of progress if you're actually capable of writing code. Given the number of recurring issues, this seems something that may be beyond them.
And who's going to hang around for 2021?C
The Ex-Vera abuser know as CatmanV2.....
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@rafale77 said in The Home Automation Controller Pyramid:
I just started learning a little python because all the machine learning libraries seem to have a python API so it makes things much easier... But for home automation, I for one am way too invested in lua and two, don't see python as being suitable...
My view entirely! Python is a huge language compared to Lua. Its real plus is the vast number of libraries, but the huge minus is the size of the system. Parts of openLuup (the Historian's
graphite_cgimodule, and theWhisperdatabase were translated from Graphite's Python code, so I had to learn it a bit.@CatmanV2 said in The Home Automation Controller Pyramid:
I think part of the problem is that there are too many standards to chose from.
Indeed... always the problem with 'Standards'.
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Indeed... always the problem with 'Standards'.
Of course, we only need one. TCP/IP would do just dandy!
C
