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    (Last Updated: October 30, 2020)
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    • Apple Homepod mini

      rafale77

      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 = WOW

      Howdy 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...

      General Discussion
    • Starlink Available in Some Areas

      toggledbits

      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. 🙂

      General Discussion
    • My Turn! Suspended at Ezlo Forum

      M

      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

      General Discussion
    • Controller shift - How do you do it ?

      parkerc

      A while back the z-wave module on my veraplus stopped working and as it couldnt be fixed, I bought an external usb z-wave dongle UZB1 (which I plugged in and setup on ‘port’ /dev/ttyACM0 ) which made it operational again, and I’ve been using it again since.

      Recently I picked up a new (well 2nd hand) VeraPlus unit and tried to do a full system/zwave network restore from the original one, but it didn’t work.

      The restore looked like it worked fine, as it brought everything over, but when nothing worked, I checked the z-wave ‘port’ settings on the new unit, and it too had been set to use an external usb (/dev/ttyACM0) which it obviously doesn’t have , but when I changed it back to the onboard zwave module (/dev/ttyS0) all the z-wave devices disappeared.

      To fix this, it sounds like I need to do a controller shift to get the details off the UZB1 key and onto the zwave chip on the veraplus board ?

      However not having done one before I’m not sure if the process is - any ideas ?

      General Discussion
    • Raspberry Pi - Cron Jobs for Lua scripts ?

      parkerc

      Hi,

      I’ve got a few Lua scripts that I’d like to run periodically on my Pi, and I’ve tried to get them to run via Cron, but I can’t seem to get them to work..

      Does anyone have anything similar set up that works ?

      Crontab -e

      I’ve tried it a couple of ways based on the forum posts I’ve read, but neither have worked..

      0 0 * * * home/pi/shared/TS_cabin_graph_email_24h.lua 0 0 * * * /usr/bin/lua /home/pi/shared/TS_cabin_graph_email_24h.lua
      General Discussion
    • Would you use a self-hosted geofencing solution?

      toggledbits

      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)?

      General Discussion
    • SiteSensor triggered my both sirens

      S

      Installed Sitesensor yesterday. Defined a http request towards yr.no for the weather.
      Default it only sends requests when the device is armed. When I armed the sensor both of my sirens started bleeping. Not funny with at night with two kids asleep.

      Simultaneous with arming the device, the first http request probably is send and my first http request did not have the Useragent http header so the result was a 403; this probably made the sitesensor device being triggered.

      I unchecked the box "only send requests when armed" and disarmed the sitesensor. This works ok but only one slight mistake with thick fingers and I have armed it again.

      I see the sitesensor device is being configured as a SecuritySensor (as it implements the securitysensor serivce?). This makes that sirens react when the sitesensor trips. I have a leakage sensor as well and I know this one triggers the sirens as well. Do not have any doorsensors right now but hope these will not trigger sirens as well.

      Is there a way to tell Sirens to ignore Sitesensor and/or other specific devices. Or should sitesensor not be configured as a security device?
      Is there an easy solution?

      Grtz Swiddy

      Some details:
      -Vera Secure box with built in siren (siren is a separate device)
      -POPP Smokedetector with siren
      -Upto-date with Vera firmware and Not on Openluup yet but don't think this would make a difference here

      General Discussion
    • Connected Home Over IP. (CHIP)

      rafale77

      Yet another attempt to create the one standard to rule them all. "The ring of power".

      What Is “Project Connected Home Over IP” for Smart Homes? What Is “Project Connected Home Over IP” for Smart Homes?

      Project Connected Home over IP is a new industry group announced by Apple, Google, Amazon, and the ZigBee Alliance. The group will create a new unifying standard for smart home devices, and that’s a big deal. Here’s why.

      I am very skeptical about this. I don't feel it is needed and I think it will only add to the confusion but I am probably not a typical consumer. Thoughts? It seems to want to do the same thing as what a lot of us have already achieved through open source but commercializing it. It's not so different from Apple's HomeKit.

      General Discussion
    • Alexa TTS troubleshooting

      C

      Evening (at least here)
      Alexa TTS has suddenly stopped here (mid afternoon)
      Normally I'd replace the cookie.
      When I went to the domain, I was forced to change my password. Did that and exported the cookie. But still no voice.
      I can't see anything at all in the logs:

      2021-02-12 18:05:02.869 luup_log:0: ALTUI: runLua(local GardenTemp = math.floor(0.5+luup.variable_get("urn:upnp-org:serviceId:TemperatureSensor1", "CurrentTemperature", 20415)) luup.call_action("urn:dlna-org:serviceId:DLNAMediaController1", "Say", {Text="The temperature outside is" ..GardenTemp.. "degrees.",Volume=40,GroupZones="Everywhere"}, 22)) 2021-02-12 18:05:02.870 luup.call_action:: 22.urn:dlna-org:serviceId:DLNAMediaController1.Say 2021-02-12 18:05:02.870 luup_log:22: VeraAlexa: addToQueue: added to queue for 22 2021-02-12 18:05:04.035 luup_log:0: ALTUI: Evaluation of lua code returned: nil

      But I'm sure I need to look somewhere else and damned if I can recall where. Someone give me a pointer?

      TIA

      C

      General Discussion
    • Vera TTS and negative temperatures

      C

      Hi all. Well winter is coming and temperatures are below freezing. I currently have this snippet of Lua:

      local GardenTemp = math.floor(0.5+luup.variable_get("urn:upnp-org:serviceId:TemperatureSensor1", "CurrentTemperature", 20415)) luup.call_action("urn:dlna-org:serviceId:DLNAMediaController1", "Say", {Text="The temperature outside is" ..GardenTemp.. "degrees.",Volume=40,GroupZones="Everywhere"}, 22)

      When we turn the house on. Anyone help me to get it to say 'negative' or 'minus' when the temperature is actually sub-zero?

      TIA

      C

      General Discussion
    • Z-Wave Plus (ZWP) & Z-Wave Long Range (ZLR)

      Black Cat

      I've only recently read that ZLR is not a mesh network, below is quoted from Dr Zwave, which I found interesting and opens up a range of questions. I had assumed that ZLR was similar to ZWP, but it isn't.

      Z-Wave Long Range supports FLiRS types of devices but it doesn't support Associations. Z-Wave Long Range is a star network so all communication has to go thru the hub. Then the hub forwards the message on to the FLiRS device after Beaming to wake it up. There is no way for a Long Range end device to send a frame to another end device, it has to go thru the controller.

      I found it interesting that Associations have been given the 'flick'

      My question is regarding the compatibility of ZWP & ZLR in the same network.
      From my understanding ZLR devices can't communicate directly with ZWP devices, this could get interesting as it seems to indicate that there is no backward compatibility.
      Perhaps Z-Wave has abandoned Mesh networks and is working towards simpler systems?
      Any thoughts?

      General Discussion
    • Starting with smart home development

      H

      Hi,

      I hope this is the correct place to ask. I wanted to start with developing smart home systems where I use a raspberry pie as a server and communicate through a phone or tablet.
      But I do not know where to and how to start, I have knowledge in developing Web Application, Java and a bit react native.

      But which Development Language is good for smart home development? Would it be possible to achieve smart home projects with Webapplication and smarthphone app if they communicate with the same server?

      Which additional knowledge do I need except development language? I looked on the internet a bit, but kinda got lost with all the information in it right now about smart home.

      General Discussion
    • Recover an ‘assumed bricked’ Vera Secure

      parkerc

      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 ..

      General Discussion
    • New to the forum

      Q

      Hi!
      I was tipped off about this forum while bitching about my Vera on the Vera forum, as I had grown accustomed to over the years. I know that's not very nice, but that thing brings out the worst in me (and has even driven me to drink on occasions 😉 )!
      Anyway, how about a little intro in case anyone is actually interested? I did odd jobs, saved up for and built my first PC from components by the time I was 15 (back when you had to know how to get around a DOS prompt and a 120Mb hard drive was a big deal). Within 6 months I had my own BBS up and running. The internet wasn't really a thing back then -- did AOL really count? I only really discovered home automation almost a decade later, again before it had really taken off. Back then I was using X10 because it was still one of the only consumer options and I had no electronics background. Over the years I have experimented with several home automation technologies, 90% of them ending up as useless scrap and a waste of money. Today I feel like not much has changed, but things are moving in the right direction (wide scale adoption -> more money invested in improving tech to try to get us to part with our money, am I right?). I've never really had the funds to go all out or to get the more expensive gear, but I've found some products that have been worth sticking with -- namely my Elk-M1G and one or two other obscure devices. I recently was "renovicted" during the pandemic and decided to move from my modest apartment in the city to a house out in the woods in the middle of nowhere.
      So here I am, with an almost clean slate, looking to set this place up better than ever. The internet access sucks out here, but the house is mine to do what I will with it. I envision a keyless entry system even better than the last one I devised, walls that literally talk and eventually even roboticized structure & furniture (eg. Aquarium lids that rise for maintenance, hidden doors that slide open, a table that transforms into a bar, etc.).
      For the moment, though, I'd like to figure out how to replace this *&$%ing Vera. Funds have been tight lately, but at the moment I have several pieces of hardware I can start with: The Elk (as mentioned), ~20 LIFX bulbs/strips, a handful of Amazon Echos, a few Zwave devices, some IR and audio stuff, the Vera, a few other odds and ends.
      Ultimately, I'd like to set up a low-power system like a NUC or something that will always be on, running automation as well as handling audio (most likely multi-zoned). I built my last PC as a gaming PC, but I can use it to experiment until I'm ready to purchase an HA system.
      Where do I start if I want to learn about OpenLuup? I skimmed through the forums, but they seem quite advanced and are a little beyond my abilities. I do CAD/CAM, not programming, unfortunately!
      Thanks!!

      General Discussion
    • Status Board - What’s your HA Information Dashboard ?

      parkerc

      654a0b44-6cec-4466-8701-3566067abbd0-image.jpeg https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpanic.com%2Fblog%2Fpanic-status-board-2013-edition%2F&psig=AOvVaw1ERsyah34ZkmLnpWaYLgu-&ust=1600418906446000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCODol5Xn7-sCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

      I’ve always liked the idea of having a screen, located somewhere in the house that would allow me to see the status of pretty much everything. (Hardware wise I’m just think of a basic Rasp Pi, fixed to a vesa mount, screwed to the back of an old monitor screen)

      I’ve tried a number of tools/apps over the years, one of which was PanicBoard (where the above image comes from) - which seemed to have some potential, but the owners stopped developing/investing in that a while back.

      What are people using ?

      Is there something, perhaps a single tool/app that this community would collectively support/promote, one that no matter what HA you used, you could submit information to and have it displayed ?

      **** Just to be clear, I’m referring to status/information boards, not a touch based, control board where you can turn things on/off etc..***

      General Discussion
    • MQTT – setup and use

      akbooer

      General discussion on all things MQTT.

      General Discussion
    • z-way device removal

      C

      Not sure this is in quite the right place (again) but I have a device that exists in z-way that I simply cannot remove. It seems to be a zombie. I have no idea what it was.
      It claims to be a routing binary sensor that has not woken up since August
      I go through the 'Only do this if your device is broken' and it simply will not go.
      Any ideas (apart from ignore it)?

      Cheers

      C

      General Discussion
    • Discover IR codes for lost remote

      parkerc

      Hi all

      Possibly a long shot - but does anyone know of a way, (maybe you have some code or know of an app) that can help you discover the IR codes of a device when you’ve lost the remote?

      Looking online there seems to be a growing number of IR banks, yet I can’t find anything on the market that could cycle through a huge set of different codes (e.g just the power on/off) to let me know which ones are compatible ?

      When you consider so many things these days are made in the same place, and often thing can just be re/badges versions of other items - it’s likely that a sets of codes for one branded product will work in the most part with another ..

      General Discussion
    • The Home Automation Controller Pyramid

      rafale77

      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...

      Screen Shot 2020-05-14 at 07.11.06.png

      General Discussion
    • HTTP 400 error with Telegram

      C

      Hi all. Looking for some guidance as ever

      This

      luup.inet.wget('https://api.telegram.org/bot1225075966:AAHS5rwhCpOx0hwq3mOnNjtCSKiDeAS6B4/sendMessage?chat_id=@Coalport58&text=House mode is home')

      Works fine

      This

      luup.inet.wget('https://api.telegram.org/bot1225075966:AAHS5rwhCpOx0hwq3mOnNjtCSKiDeAS6B4/sendMessage?chat_id=@Coalport58&text=House mode is Home')

      Throws a 400 error:

      openLuup.client:: WGET error status: 400

      I have munged the bot key to post here, but just changing the 'h' to 'H' breaks it. Any ideas why?

      C

      General Discussion

    z-way device removal

    General Discussion
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    • C
      CatmanV2 last edited by

      Not sure this is in quite the right place (again) but I have a device that exists in z-way that I simply cannot remove. It seems to be a zombie. I have no idea what it was.
      It claims to be a routing binary sensor that has not woken up since August
      I go through the 'Only do this if your device is broken' and it simply will not go.
      Any ideas (apart from ignore it)?

      Cheers

      C

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • rafale77
        rafale77 last edited by

        Brute force would be to go edit it out of your configuration file as it is probably not in the zwave chip.
        Let me know if it bothers you enough to try editing.

        C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • C
          CatmanV2 @rafale77 last edited by

          @rafale77 How much brute? If we're just talking about vi on a text file then no worries.
          Otherwise I can probably live with it.

          Cheers

          C

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • rafale77
            rafale77 last edited by

            They are json files under z-way-server/automation/storage if the device you are seeing is on the automationUI.
            If the phantom device is in the expertUI then it will be an xml file in z-way-server/config/zddx/yournetworkid-DeviceData.xml

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • C
              CatmanV2 last edited by

              It's in both of them....

              C

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