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    (Last Updated: April 12, 2021)
    • Smart door lock

      D

      Hi! I want to install a smart lock on my front door, but I don't know which one to choose. There are many different models available on the market. Do you have a reliable model to recommend?

      General Discussion
    • Lua - Code to encrypt / decrypt with AES 128 CBC

      parkerc

      Hi

      I’m looking to rework some code I found online so I can use it on Vera, and while I’ve managed to translate / convert a number of things, I’ve got stuck on a few things it does, around encryption/decryption etc.

      All the original Lua code is here - > (https://forum.logicmachine.net/showthread.php?tid=232&pid=16580#pid16580 )

      Plus there looks to be a python version too here - > (https://github.com/florianholzapfel/panasonic-viera/issues/9#issuecomment-476919658)

      Here’s an extract of the code where AES 128 CBC is required?

      function encrypt_soap_payload(data, key, hmac_key, iv) payload = '000000000000' n = #data payload = payload .. string.char(bit.band(bit.rshift(n, 24), 0xFF)) payload = payload .. string.char(bit.band(bit.rshift(n, 16), 0xFF)) payload = payload .. string.char(bit.band(bit.rshift(n, 8), 0xFF)) payload = payload .. string.char(bit.band(n, 0xFF)) payload = payload .. data aes_cbc, err = aes:new(key, nil, aes.cipher(128, 'cbc'), { iv = iv }, nil, 1) ciphertext = aes_cbc:encrypt(payload) sig = encdec.hmacsha256(ciphertext, hmac_key, true) encrypted_payload = encdec.base64enc(ciphertext .. sig) return encrypted_payload end function decrypt_soap_payload(data, key, hmac_key, iv) aes_cbc, err = aes:new(key, nil, aes.cipher(128, 'cbc'), { iv = iv }, nil, 0) decrypted = aes_cbc:decrypt(encdec.base64dec(data)) decrypted = string.gsub(string.sub(lmcore.strtohex(decrypted), 33), '%x%x', function(value) return string.char(tonumber(value, 16)) end) return decrypted end

      I can get to the point where I can create the parameters for the payload encrypt request (example below), it’s just the encryption/decryption I cant do..

      data="1234" key="\\S„ßÍ}/Ìa5!" hmac_key="¹jz¹2¸F\r}òcžÎ„ 臧.ª˜¹=¤µæŸ" iv=" {¬£áæ‚2žâ3ÐÞË€ú "

      I’ve found this aes.lua (https://github.com/openresty/lua-resty-string/blob/master/lib/resty/aes.lua ) module online, but that requires loads of others modules too, most notably ffi.lua. Which I’d ideally like to avoid.

      I also came across this aes128.lua (https://github.com/somesocks/lua-lockbox/blob/master/lockbox/cipher/aes128.lua ) but i’m not sure how that handles all the other parameters e.g specify the cbc aspect etc.

      Finally there’s this aes256ecb.lua script (https://github.com/idiomic/Lua_AES/blob/master/AES.lua) , could that be converted to aes 128 cbc and then used in the above?

      Any help/advice on this would be appreciated..

      General Discussion
    • Seeking experts for implementing Modbus TCP

      Crille

      I just upgraded the firmware for the inverter for my solar panels and that made it possible to enable Modbus TCP.
      At a glance that would be perfect for live production data fed into my home automation environment but my lack of knowledge about the protocol and how to put the data where I want it failed me.

      What I have:

      MSR
      openLuup
      Vera Secure
      Ezlo Plus
      Mosquitto
      Homebridge
      Windows Server
      Ubuntu Server
      Quite decent PowerShell skills
      Enough Lua knowledge to write my own functions and handlers
      The inverters Modbus interface definitions

      What I want to achive:

      Something that can be run by systemd och anything else monitoring the status and keeping the Modbus connection alive.
      Publish readings over MQTT or whatever fits my setup, the goal is to feed the data into openLuup in someway so Historian can log the data for Grafana and display current production to HomeKit (as a mqttthing light sensor, since there is no other accessory suitable at the moment).

      Anyone implemented Modbus TCP in similar projects or have any guidance on how to reach my goal?

      Open for alternative solutions as well, all suggestions are appreciated!

      General Discussion
    • http relay activate with username and password authentication

      D

      Hi to all,
      I am user of vera controller. I have a dahua door intercom with relay. Relay activates with username and password authentication. I can activate the relay http://admin:a1234567@192.168.1.111/cgi-bin/accessControl.cgi?action=openDoor&channel=1&UserID=101&Type=Remote

      As you can see intercom username admin and password is a1234567 I build a scene with luup code luup.inet.wget( "http://admin:a1234567@192.168.1.111/cgi-bin/accessControl.cgi?action=openDoor&channel=1&UserID=101&Type=Remote" ) But can not activate relay. Is there any idea?

      General Discussion
    • Vera Secure usage without mios

      D

      Hi to all, I have a bricked vera secure that is replaced with new one. Old vera secure serial numbers are deleted from vera servers so I cannot use it. Vera secure's are orginally Sercomm's NA502 model devices. Recently I install openwrt to the old vera secure unit without problem. Is there any way to use it any automation system with internal z-wave. I install domoticz but I cannot setup internal z-wave unit, it only accept usb zwave radios. Is there any ideas?

      General Discussion
    • An electricians or wiring experts here?

      cw-kid

      I ordered a Fibaro Dimmer 2 and Bypass device for my upstairs landing / hallway lights.

      I have 2 light switches one at the bottom of the stairs and another one upstairs on the landing.

      But I am struggling to make sense of my current wiring, more details / photos on the Vera forum.

      Jan 27 Anyone good at electrical wiring for light switches? Anyone good at electrical wiring for light switches?

      Hi I ordered a Fibaro Dimmer 2 and Bypass device for my upstairs landing / hallway lights. I have 2 light switches one at the bottom of the stairs and another one upstairs on the landing. I have no neutral wires in the house behind the light switches. These are photos of the light switch...

      Thanks

      General Discussion
    • Looking for ideas on how to implement an automation.

      R

      Hello,
      Looking to all the dev's and tinkerers on this community for ideas on how to implement a solution to my problem. Kind of a long intro, sorry.

      Problem statement:
      I have a geothermal heat pump that has a loop that is slightly undersized. During the cold weather months in the Pacific Northwest (one or two months of the year), the loop can get below 32 degrees. If it goes on for a few days, it can generate significant frost heaving in my yard and under the flagstone deck, Actually fixing the issue is cost prohibitive.

      Current mitigation:
      I have DS18B20 tied into Home Assistant and monitoring the temp of the fluid coming out of the loop and if it drops below 35 degrees, MSR triggers a Fibaro Implant to add a resister into the external temp circuit and fool the Venstar to think the outside temp is below 32 degrees and issue a Heat Pump lockout and switch to AUX heat. While this is working fine and the AUX heat is only coming on once or twice a day, I would like to simplify the setup so it runs on something other than HA and MSR. I think they are overkill for my issue. Also want this to be independent of anything else in the house so it can stay behind if I am not around to maintain.

      I only have two inputs and one output:
      Inputs: Loop temp, Furnace running
      Outputs: Switch relay to drop resistance to external thermostat connection on thermostat.
      Logic is super simple:
      If temp is below 36 degrees and furnace is running, turn on relay
      If furnace stops, turn off relay.
      I am sure even I can figure that out on Python.

      Trying to determine the best platform for a set it and forget it black box that works with as close to zero maintenance as possible.

      Options I have thought of are:

      Pi zero with a GPIO controlled relay ESPHome (Not very knowledgeable about that platform, but willing to explore) Arduino Anything anyone else suggests

      Any ideas are appreciated.

      General Discussion
    • Is Hubitat to HA Bridge possible?

      D

      Greetings,

      I’m researching a migration from Vera+ to Hubitat C7 and want to know if anyone has successfully connected the Hubitat to the “HA Bridge” for local Alexia calls.
      The HA Bridge does not callout Hubitat natively from what I see.

      Thanks for your assistance.

      General Discussion
    • New Developer - What I should know/do ? (Vera/OpenLuup)

      parkerc

      Hi all

      Having some time off i’ve been able to invest a chunk in creating some plug-ins for Vera/OpenLuup, and will do what I can to post them in GitHub and add links on the Vera Community and here, for anyone who is interested.

      But, being knew to any of this, I wanted to ask for any guidance on how and when I should share stuff ? How best do I share it ? Am I liable for anything I share? Is GitHub the best place ? What licenses should I associate with them ?

      The latter is a strange one, as I don’t see how I can have any claim over the content/code itself, as I’ve learnt and leveraged so much from others..

      To get the ball rolling I posted this on the ezlo/Vera site..

      Jan 4 Luup Plugin - Energenie PMS LAN Switch Luup Plugin - Energenie PMS LAN Switch

      Hi To ensure I give back to this community, which has been educating me in all things Lua and Luup over the years (12+) I wanted to share some of the plugins I’ve built recently to see if any are of use/interest to others. The first one is for the Energenie PMS LAN Switch where I have built two...

      General Discussion
    • New to Smart Home

      M

      Hey guys,

      I just registered here in the forum and honestly… I’m new to the whole topic. I‘m a web developer, so I‘ve quite a bit experience with java, js, sql and so on. But that may not help a lot in this new field.

      I‘m looking forward to develop my own smart home device and I‘m looking for starting point. In General the specs are like:

      The device should work with WiFi, I want to integrate it into my network I want to write an own app to control it, it may find the device in my network I want the device to be offline usable, if possible (without internet connection) I want the device to broadcast information in my network like „water is empty“, so I can use push messaging in the App it should be ready to as well work with Alexa or Apple Home Kit or Google Assistant as I Plan to develop a skill for them.

      Can someone provide me with some information I could start with? Like - are there microcontrollers I could go with or is it to complex and I need a raspy? Which frameworks / languages / libs could I use? I know how to do the things on the app side but not on the device side.

      General Discussion
    • Amazon Alexa hosts

      CatmanV2

      Vainly trying to get to the bottom of the 10 - 15 second delay for TTS with the Alexa plugin (still) anyone have a list of the possible Alexa hosts? Just wonder if the one I have (layla.amazon.co.uk) could just be slow.

      Any thoughts?

      C

      General Discussion
    • Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays

      toggledbits

      Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays, if that's your preferred salutation, or...?), and also a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year 2022.

      General Discussion
    • Very newbie man looking for help

      P

      Hello. First, excuse my english, please. I bought a Vera Edge looking for some way to make a digital ambient thermostat that I could manage remotely without a phone home from the device side. I am very disappointed with that device because all the "official" help of the brand goes in the way of to sign in an account and work with their cloud. I have some computer, network and linux knowledge but all my tests with the hub and a Qubino Flush 1D Relay has been unsuccessful. I connected both and I got to make some basic functions but I see myself very far to get my target. This is my last try to get something before I log in an account in getvera.com and look if I can make some progress in my project following that way.

      Can somebody tell me some place where I can learn the basic concepts of this system? Guides, books, videos... Whatever it can help me in my project.

      Thank you.

      General Discussion
    • Help please with Node-Red "Lost connection to server"

      cw-kid

      Node-Red on my Linux Debian box seems to be having issues now. It keeps saying repeatedly "Lost connection to server, reconnecting..." in the web browser.

      I recently updated nodejs for MSR, I wonder if that might be related:

      "Bump recommended nodejs version to 16.13.0; versions 14 and 15 will continue to be supported through March 31, 2022"

      Nodejs version = v16.13.1

      I have tried updating Node-Red that is now version v2.1.4

      I also updated npm to version v8.2.0

      I am not sure how or where to look at the log file for node red?

      This is the contents of the nodered.service file in this directory:
      /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants

      # systemd service file to start Node-RED [Unit] Description=Node-RED graphical event wiring tool Wants=network.target Documentation=http://nodered.org/docs/hardware/raspberrypi.html [Service] Type=simple # Run as normal pi user - change to the user name you wish to run Node-RED as User=stuart Group=stuart WorkingDirectory=/home/stuart Environment="NODE_OPTIONS=--max_old_space_size=1024" # uncomment and edit next line if you need an http proxy #Environment="HTTP_PROXY=my.httpproxy.server.address" # uncomment the next line for a more verbose log output #Environment="NODE_RED_OPTIONS=-v" # uncomment next line if you need to wait for time sync before starting #ExecStartPre=/bin/bash -c '/bin/journalctl -b -u systemd-timesyncd | /bin/grep -q "systemd-timesyncd.* Synchronized to time server"' ExecStart=/usr/bin/env node-red-pi $NODE_OPTIONS $NODE_RED_OPTIONS #ExecStart=/usr/bin/env node $NODE_OPTIONS red.js $NODE_RED_OPTIONS # Use SIGINT to stop KillSignal=SIGINT # Auto restart on crash Restart=on-failure RestartSec=20 # Tag things in the log SyslogIdentifier=Node-RED #StandardOutput=syslog [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target

      Thanks

      General Discussion
    • Goodbye Brothers in crime!

      S

      Hi @ll, last days I migrated my last zwave device from Vera to zwave js in homeassistant. Out of 150 devices 1 did not go well initially but reinterviewing did it directly. Most work was to find the ex and inclusion procedure, 3 times, click, clack, whatever. I must admit that Vera is Lighting fast!!!!! With only 3 devices left, those were my under the floor switches I had to do last.

      Now I am totally gone from Vera, altui, luup, etc. There's nothing more left for me on this forum. And since it was one of my "routine sites" reading I will save a few minutes a day skipping it.

      I thank you all for all the kind help, warm words and laughter about the ezlo flop :-).

      I hooe you all will be safe and healthy and whish you all the best!

      I will stay on the homeassistant forum.

      Goodbye!

      General Discussion
    • Re-number on OpenLuup

      CatmanV2

      Morning all. Hope all are well. Been a bit of a trying time here, but nothing we can't deal with....
      .....apart from this!

      My coffee grinder went punk yesterday (wasn't even being used) and took out the main breakers. Once it was isolated I got everything back on line, except on TKB smart plug which was in the same double socket as the grinder.

      OpenLuup claims it's failed. Z-wave server can't see it but it responds to the button pushes physically as I'd expect. (i.e. the socket turns on and off, and the LED flashes to indicate it's in inclusion / exclusion mode)

      My plan is to see if I can exclude it then re-include it in z-wave server. If that doesn't work then I'll bin it, but if it does work can I then re-number it to match the original device ID and not have to trawl through my reactors? Any chance?
      TIA

      C

      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
    • "kinda smart" switch to put behind a normal light switch

      H

      Hello!

      I want to trigger an event (like switching on a smart Zigbee power plug) when a regular light switch (that switches regular non-smart LED light bulbs) is flipped. Is there something I can put behind a light switch to achieve this? Or something to splice in between the switch and the light bulbs? A good option would also be Hue compatible.

      Thank you!

      General Discussion
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    Apple Homepod mini

    General Discussion
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    • rafale77
      rafale77 last edited by 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:

      1. 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.
      2. These devices can go a bit crazy when they lose DNS connections and sometimes do random things.
      3. 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, 2021

      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...

      akbooer CatmanV2 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • akbooer
        akbooer @rafale77 last edited by

        @rafale77 said in Apple Homepod mini:

        Instead of pestering @akbooer with petty localized console optimizations

        Appreciate that! Nonetheless, if there’s something generally useful, then let me know. You’ll have seen that Shelly integration is proceeding, along with the MQTT server, which seems quite robust now. I’m rapidly divesting of almost all of my ZWave lighting.

        I’m not into voice commands or TTS, myself, and don’t have any of those things which record speech and send it to Amazon/Google, so can’t suggest anything for you there.

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

          🙂 , I am trying the best I can to make everything work offline. Even though I admittedly don't use ALTUI and the console for anything than configuration/scene changes, I have been gradually removing web dependencies.
          I have also long used localized TTS with near 0 latency and no internet dependency. I am just exploring how to do the same with voice commands.

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

            Alright I am pulling the trigger and will be testing this out. I am finding that the last frontier of reliability/latency I have is the amazon cloud.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • CatmanV2
              CatmanV2 @rafale77 last edited by

              @rafale77 said in Apple Homepod mini:

              These devices can go a bit crazy when they lose DNS connections and sometimes do random things.

              I've not had that with mine, ever...

              C

              The Ex-Vera abuser know as CatmanV2.....

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

                It seems to be specific to my set of gen2 echo dots.
                My wife got really upset the other day because I tried to open my garage door 3 times with it and instead it each time actuated some blinds and some other lights which made her freak out. I have seen this occasionally after I run a router upgrade for example whereby the echo lost connection to the amazon cloud and goes crazy switching wifi networks to see if it can reach a DNS back into its server again. I already had a bias against anything cloud dependent but this behavior of disconnecting its wifi in search of cloud server (It has multiple wifi APs on the same SSID to pick from) is just not good and the resulting craziness even worse. These will be the first ones to go.

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

                  Wow. Demon Seed experience 😉

                  Yeah, I get the cloud issue. But voice recognition just ain't that simple (used to be my metier) When we do lose connectivity, we struggle to remember how to do stuff by Homewave or AltUI 😄

                  C

                  The Ex-Vera abuser know as CatmanV2.....

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

                    Ha yeah indeed. Not everything can be automated so some human intervention is still required. The HomePod though seem to be doing most processing locally and only fail back to the cloud when its local voice processing can't resolve the command. That's why it is so much faster. I will be testing it and if it works out, I may consider taking out all the echos which seem to still be much too cloud dependent for my liking. The voice processing is also by far the slowest part of my system taking more than 1s to do anything.

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

                      @rafale77 said in Apple Homepod mini:

                      Ha yeah indeed. Not everything can be automated so some human intervention is still required. The HomePod though seem to be doing most processing locally and only fail back to the cloud when its local voice processing can't resolve the command. That's why it is so much faster. I will be testing it and if it works out, I may consider taking out all the echos.

                      I'm going to check a little closer but while we don't have a 100% hit rate with Alexa (sometimes the internet connection fails. More often she just gets the command wrong, and she gets confused by status not being where she is) but gut feel is response time is a lot under 1s. Granted it's not instant, but I would say sub 0.5 and by a chunk.
                      Will try and quantify a bit more (I guess I just found it so much quicker than Vera which was several seconds, if at all, it never worried me!)

                      C

                      The Ex-Vera abuser know as CatmanV2.....

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

                        Yes of course it's all relative. When you come from the vera even the ezlo feels fast of course and the speed of the echo was never a deal breaker as it is actually quite reasonable. But if it can be done locally and faster and with better privacy... I gotta try it.

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

                          @rafale77 said in Apple Homepod mini:

                          Yes of course it's all relative. When you come from the vera even the ezlo feels fast of course and the speed of the echo was never a deal breaker as it is actually quite reasonable. But if it can be done locally and faster and with better privacy... I gotta try it.

                          This way progress lies 🙂

                          C

                          The Ex-Vera abuser know as CatmanV2.....

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

                            I just tested a few commands from my mac mini which also provides the TTS service to my SONOS/openLuup and if the homepod is this fast, it will be a stunning difference... It is indeed processing locally first on macos for the homekit commands. There is no delay whatsoever that I can observe.

                            Edit:

                            An interesting read on local voice processing of the new echos:

                            Cameron Faulkner  /  Sep 24, 2020  /  front-page

                            Amazon’s AZ1 Neural Edge processor will make Alexa voice commands even faster

                            Amazon’s AZ1 Neural Edge processor will make Alexa voice commands even faster

                            Saving you hundreds of milliseconds per query.

                            Edit 2:

                            After further testing today, I confirmed the findings from the hubitat forum thread and have pretty much decided to wind down my echo installation. I have a device in every room and this will take some time but clearly the dots are pretty poor devices in terms of speaker and microphones, the cloud dependency is excessive to the point where they behave erratically when they lose connection to their servers. In comparison my macOS, iOS devices are processing locally, faster and with much greater privacy from what I observed from my firewall. Of all the HK devices I tested, only the apple watch seem to act at the same slower speed as the echos. ciao Alexa.

                            therealdb 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                            • CatmanV2
                              CatmanV2 last edited by

                              So given that we're mostly an all Mac house, can you point me at a tutorial, so I can try Siri etc?

                              C

                              The Ex-Vera abuser know as CatmanV2.....

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

                                I'm not sure this is a viable long-term solution, because Apple isn't reaching a real customer base and they'll eventually disinvest, imho. In fact, they just stopped selling the HomePod and they'll only sell the mini.

                                Alexa has already won this battle and Google has won the personal assistant one. No space left for Apple, imho.

                                All that said, I'm with you on privacy and local only control.

                                I think we're still too early to have full local processing, even if something is moving (part of my job is about AI/ML, so I'm obviously extremely interested in these evolutions). I'll probably get a Fiat 500e later this year (since I'm more local for the medium-term future, all electric makes sens to me), and they started integrating Alexa natively - and it's really cool. https://www.media.stellantis.com/em-en/corporate-communications/press/amazon-s-alexa-voice-experience-now-available-on-fca-s-new-fiat-500 They'll eventually add it to all Stellantis cars (Peugeot, Citroën, Fiat, Jeep and so on). even BMW has more integration with Alexa lately. even if I have CarPlay (and I'm loving it), Hey Siri is flakey and rarely her responses are OK the first time. I have to tell her every time who my mom is, she tells me that she's taken note, and the next time she's eventually ask again... Maybe things are better in english, but here in Italy Alexa and Google Home are hands down better in comprehension.

                                --
                                Vera+MQTT+HomeAssistant+my own framework all orchestrated via MSR
                                70+ Zwave Devices, a bunch of ZigBee light strips and a lot of code

                                My Luup Plug-ins => https://github.com/dbochicchio/vera

                                rafale77 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • rafale77
                                  rafale77 @therealdb last edited by rafale77

                                  @therealdb

                                  You might be right, though they stuck with the homepod for 4 years now and IMHO now really have a product entry for in this market with the mini. The original homepod was just too much of a speaker and not enough of a home assistant.

                                  One thing to think about and which actually made me decide this is the native integration of the functionality in the macOS and iOS devices. When I surveyed my home, I realized I could replace 12 echo devices with only 4 homepod minis... why? Offices already have a macos computer, some rooms have an ipad. For the rarely used rooms, I will have my phone or my watch. For the purpose of home control and basic vocal assistance, this got a much higher WAF for me. It was there all along and I only have a small number of locations where the addition of a device will be valuable. The echo shows will be replaced with much more capable and versatile ipads for example for similar prices.($250 vs $299). There is no question about Alexa's dominance but... for my use case, I had siri available all that time without realizing that it was superior. I haven't even received and tested the homepod yet... I just came to the realization that I could benefit from using siri a lot more and alexa a lot less... and in the interest of WAF, a fewer number of higher quality devices is better than a large number of cheap ones.

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

                                    @rafale77 said in Apple Homepod mini:

                                    a fewer number of higher quality devices is better than a large number of cheap ones.

                                    Where have I heard you say that before...?

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

                                      Hah, it's a bit like French food... I will take quality over quantity any day. 🙂

                                      It's a very similar design philosophy difference. Alexa and all its skills (and even more so Google Home) are cloud centric just like SmartThings. Moving to HomeKit for voice control is analogous to moving from SmartThings to HomeAssistant or Hubitat. It is not cloud free. It is just not cloud dependent or even centered.
                                      This is coming full circle for me actually since my first attempt at voice control was actually to use an iPad mini and the vera 6 years ago... The homekitbridge I am using for openLuup today is that old...

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                                      • akbooer
                                        akbooer last edited by

                                        So, to do this all I would need is Homebridge somewhere, say running in a Docker?

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

                                          @akbooer

                                          I didn't even go as far as running homebridge. I installed this 6 years ago and never touched it since. This was a very large thread in the old forum.
                                          I start the bridge server with a dependency on openLuup with a 3s delay. It starts and stops with openLuup running on the same machine.
                                          Note that there is a 150 device per bridge limit so my fork is preventing scenes from being bridged as I have over 150 scenes alone. I am also not bridging sensors for the same reason... but if you don't have that many devices, nothing prevents you from doing it. Note also that I am running on nodeJS10 without any problems. No need to go find nodeJS5. I should probably update the readme.

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                                          • CatmanV2
                                            CatmanV2 last edited by

                                            Looks very simple

                                            C

                                            The Ex-Vera abuser know as CatmanV2.....

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