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?
Not so quiet around here :)
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@elcid said in Not so quiet around here
:Just for info - I have no idea what the reason for my suspension
Its bonkers, when did you get suspended then?
So you have not been a rebel on the forum? Seems you can get banned for any reason. Top people being kicked off.
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@librasun said in Not so quiet around here
:I have the long list of banned Forum members but it has grown since Feb. 27 when I made it.
It starts... "ElCid, HSD99, Matteburk, Mai_Pensato, Crille, eonnet, hienry_k9, Forzaalfa, TomD, LibraSun, Shoktronic, DesT, Catman, kfxo, Pabla, slelieveld, akbooer, rafale77, matsohl, tunnus..."
Wow, have to say I’m in a good company
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@cw-kid I have not been able to login since the 28/03.
As to rebel, just a little more blunt than you. As I see it someone was on a purge.
Shame they are purging people that help others, specially vera support, still plenty of support here though. -
I've spoken to him at length this evening in PM and told him in my blunt way, at this rate there won't be any experts left on the forum.
Can't say I'm happy about some of the names recently gone either.
Apparently it was over whatever was said between you two in that thread about previous forum members being banned.
That thread should of been shut down well before now and what was said about it all was said back then at the time, Good or bad, right or wrong, it doesn't help anyone to keep going over it all.
I'd stopped reading that thread as I was tired of the drama so I was avoiding that thread.
Told him you were one of our top coding experts and you'd helped a lot and other Vera users on the forum and that I'd not seen you speak out of turn on any other threads that I have seen.
Also suggested he should not get so engaged with it all and let some of it go.
But I can see both sides and some of his concerns also.
But what can you do. Both sides have done things to upset the other.
I know he wasn't happy about the PM that apparently went round promoting this néw forum. Not sure if I got that PM can't remember.
I think he feels you are all against the Ezlo platform and its future success and you just want your Vera firmware as is, to hack.
I think he thinks this forum and its users are a competitor and I can't really see how as the Vera firmware is legacy anyway now and you here are not a corporate entity
It's his sand pit to play with at the end of the day.
So what can you do. I'm keeping an open mind. If the Ezlo hubs are decent when ready I'll use them as a radio only or maybe with their own dashboard app and engine.
If not I'll look else where. We have MSR now and I am running a killer Home Remote dashboard app right now, which does support other platforms.
Z-Wave.me Z-Way some of you are already using might be a good replacement.
Time will tell as Bob Marley once said. Peace go smoke some
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@cw-kid said in Not so quiet around here
:I think he feels you are all against the Ezlo platform and its future success and you just want your Vera firmware as is, to hack.
I think he thinks this forum and its users are a competitor and I can't really see how as the Vera firmware is legacy anyway now and you here are not a corporate entity
I just find it funny how Melih thinks we are trying to hack Vera when its legacy now. What difference does it make if a Vera is 'hacked'? If anything it may even attract more users since they have a platform they can change to their liking.
Second how are we competitors, like it was mentioned on this forum theres nothing here that you can buy. Its just DIY stuff that experienced users can set up, I can't even set up OpenLuup. I am just here cause id rather be posting in a neutral space with no crazy guy attacking people that helped more than he could have.
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@cw-kid
I am not that bothered about it. I am not against ezlo, the plus i have shows future promise, but is still beta. My posts in that thread were to point out that who ever is doing the banning is being unfair, as you said yourself, 1000 year suspension is not a suspension, and no form of appeal. As to hacking vera, i think that ezlo has done nothing for vera users over last 2/3 years, it would have been nice if ezlo had upgraded the vera skill, for alex/google, when they brought the ezlo skill up to date. Would of been simple to use what they learnt bring the ezlo skill upto date, and applied that to the vera skill, as they were actively still selling vera units. As you say it's his sandbox and he may foul it if he wishes, the man is delusional. -
Been trying to refrain myself from replying but here we go...
Instead of repeating what I have said in the past, my view is that ezlo and its leader have a very different view of the market and possibly do not understand what they bought by merging vera.But the basics are:
"But what can you do. Both sides have done things to upset the other."
Sorry but one has to put the context as to who is who back in place here. There is no circumstance under which a business owner should ever treat their customers this way. For anyone running a business, if a customer is upset, you should first asking why. Instead the guy keeps doing what upsets his customers and starts insulting and calling them names. That's unprofessional and unheard of."I think he feels you are all against the Ezlo platform and its future success and you just want your Vera firmware as is, to hack."
Again, instead of feeling this way, he should be asking why? Being the one who tore down the firmware down to the OS level, I think I can speak of it. Certainly "as is" is incorrect. The whys:
- Because it's broken
- Most of the fixes are trivial
- They significantly improve the vera
- They are not fixing it themselves.
Now on the understanding of this home automation market. If you run a market survey, you will see that the vast majority if not all platforms today rely to various degree on community development of external integration, cloud or local, and run on increasingly more powerful hardware. When they bought vera, they inherited a community, a small remnant of hardcore users who have extended the life of the vera to its limits trying to maintain the platform on par with the competition but still somewhat behind. A large number of people have already jumped ship quietly. The most vocal people on the forum are the most loyal supporters of the platform and many stay because of the technical migration barrier to other platforms. I think we were all excited about the prospective of a new hub and an updated platform. I was all in. There are however two bare minimum critical requirements to a new hub:
- Functional equivalency, including all the integrations the plugins supported
- An ease of migration from a vera installation to the new hub.
Sadly what I have observed is a complete disdain of these basic requirements and a development strategy aiming straight down the toilet (excessive focus on mobile app and cloud base processing, disregard of the critical wireless stacks and repeat of past mistakes in conception of the API) while the current product gets increasingly far behind competitive platforms, including open source ones. I kept an open mind, not being an expert on the software side but expressing a lot of concerns. The increasing amount of spamming of the forum with "exciting breakthroughs" and "pure innovations" of things the community has been able to do and better/faster/simpler for years combined with the release of an underwhelming hardware for the new controller, clearly pointing to a focus on minimum cost at the compromise of extendibility and reliability and you can clearly see my disappointment. That was the last straw for me. I predicted last year that the platform would not be ready in a year because of their approach... look at where they are now.
In the meantime, I have moved my zwave network to z-way. Stunningly, the migration is easier than to go from vera to ezlo and it felt like jumping from the stone age to science fiction. Everything became lighning fast... All my secure class problems and latency issues gone. I can no longer find any unsupported devices... etc... And all of my previous integrations are retained and more. So yeah I can see why he is upset but he can only be so at himself. Taking it out on his most loyal customers is... well you're the judge.
