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Discussion Forum to share and further the development of home control and automation, independent of platforms.
PablaP

Pabla

@Pabla
Condition for trend
T
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Multi-System Reactor
Set reaction triggering wrong z-wave device
T
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Multi-System Reactor
Can you run MSR on Home Assistant OS ?
cw-kidC
Looking at using Home Assistant for the first time, either on a Home Assistant Green, their own hardware or buying a cheap second hand mini PC. Sounds like Home Assistant OS is linux based using Docker for HA etc. Would I also be able to install things like MSR as well on their OS ? On the same box? Thanks.
Multi-System Reactor
RPi Alternative: Orange Pi 4 LTS (3GB RAM/16GB eMMC)
toggledbitsT
The last of four boards I'm trying in this batch is the Orange Pi 4 LTS. I purchased a 3GB RAM + 16GB eMMC model from Amazon for $83, making it the most costly of the four boards tried, but still well under my US$100 limit. This board is powered by a Rockchip RK3399-T processor, ARM-compatible with dual Cortex-A72 cores and quad Cortex-A53 cores at 1.6Ghz (1.8Ghz for the 4GB model); compare this to the RPi 3B+ with four Cortex-A53 and the RPi 4B with four Cortex-A72, this board is a hybrid that I would expect to stand in the performance middle between the two RPi models. It's available in 3GB and 4GB DDR4 RAM configurations, with and without 16GB eMMC storage. It has a MicroSDHC slot, gigabit Ethernet, WiFi and BT, two USB 2.0 type A ports, one USB 3.0 type C port, a mini PCIe ribbon-cable connector (requires add-on board for standard connector), two each RPi-compatible camera and LCD ports, HDMI type A, and can be powered (5VDC/3A) via USB-C or DC type C (3.8mm OD/1.1mm ID) jack (center-positive), an odd and perhaps unwelcome departure from the more common type A (5.5mm/2.1mm). A serial port for console/debug can be connected by using a (not included) USB-TTL adapter (3.3V) via pin headers like the Orange Pi Zero 2. The included dual-band antenna connects via U.FL connector to the board, so it's easy substituting for another if you prefer. The manufacturer recommends use of a heat sink (which was included in the box). A metal cooling case is also offered by the manufacturer (a bundle with the metal case and a power supply is sold on Amazon for $90 as of this writing). The Orange Pi 4 LTS is somewhat longer than the RPi 4B, and although the boards are the same width, the mounting hole placement is different both in length and (oddly) width. Between this and the differences in connector locations, neither board is a drop-in replacecment for the other and their respective cases are not interchangeable. The 26-pin header is a subset of the RPi 4B's 40-pin header, so some HATs for the RPi may work (although the mounting hole differences will make securing them "interesting"), and some HATs will surely not. Models with eMMC storage have an OS installed and boot immediately with SSH daemon running and ready for login. Mine was running Debian Bullseye, which would probably be fine for most users. It had clearly been on there a while, because it needed a lot of updates, but it's a current distro, so you're running out of the box with something that will last. A different OS can be installed by downloading an image (once again I chose Ubuntu Jammy) and writing it to a MicroSD card, then booting the system from the SD card. You can either leave the system in that state (running the OS from the SD card), or copy the OS from the SD card to the eMMC. The latter is done by a script; documentation for the process is best described in the downloadable PDF User Manual. This took about 10 minutes and went smoothly, and I was able to boot the system without the SD card after the process completed. I have lingering questions around the value of the eMMC storage. It's definitely faster than using MicroSD or USB-based storage (I got 311MB/s average on a 4GB write, compared to MicroSD performance around 15MB/s), but it would take a long-term test of this product to determine if the on-board eMMC option has the stamina to take the write counts typical of Linux systems, and if its wear-leveling and error correction are sufficient to assure a long, error-free life. Given the high premium apparently being paid for including eMMC on the board, it should be fast and durable, but only time and experience (perhaps painful) would tell the latter. A careful configuration with other Flash-friendly filesystems could be used to reduce wear, but this is an advanced configuration/cookbook topic and beyond the scope of this writing. This question is also not unique to eMMC — MicroSD cards are also known to fail with high write cycles, so the use of a "high endurance" product is recommended for any and all systems using MicroSD as primary storage. The board has Mini PCIe capability, and that may be a storage alternative, but read on... Also bear in mind that the eMMC storage is fixed-size forever; it cannot be expanded, and 16GB can run out pretty quickly these days. Users of MicroSD cards for primary storage can upgrade to bigger cards, but when users of eMMC primary storage outgrow it, the only choice is to add a MicroSD card or other "external" storage to the system, move part of the filesystem to it, and then manage both storage devices and deal with the limitations and risks of both. As I mentioned with the Orange Pi Zero 2, if you are going to use this board as a home automation controller/gateway or similar role, it should (IMO) have a battery-backed real time clock (RTC), and Orange Pi offers an add-on module that connects directly to the 26-pin header on the board. An available expansion board provides a standard Mini PCIe interface and SIM card slot (hmm...), but it connects to the main board via a short ribbon cable, and its mounting holes have no complement on the main board, so it seems like it would be a fragile dangly thing that's a nuisance to deal with. I want to like this board more, and it's very capable, but I'm concerned about value. The limited options for eMMC (16GB or none), the question mark of the eMMC's longevity vs cost, the strange DC power connector choice, the lack of 40-pin GPIO on a full-size (plus) board, the inconsistent hole placement, and the fragile Mini PCIe arrangement, are all "cons" that devalue this board in my view. The price point is clearly driven by the additional capabilities of the board (camera support, ports, six core CPU, extra RAM, on-board eMMC storage), but unfortunately, a great many of these features may not be useful for home automation, and therefore potentially a waste of money. In terms of overall value, I still believe the Libre "Le Potato" seems a better choice to me, and the Orange Pi Zero 2 (very) a close second, but I'll admit I'm focused on a particular application and your needs may be better suited to what this board offers than mine. Passmark Results: OrangePi 4 LTS Cortex-A72 (aarch64) 6 cores @ 1200 MHz | 2.9 GiB RAM Number of Processes: 6 | Test Iterations: 1 | Test Duration: Medium -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CPU Mark: 583 Integer Math 12037 Million Operations/s Floating Point Math 2542 Million Operations/s Prime Numbers 4.5 Million Primes/s Sorting 3141 Thousand Strings/s Encryption 153 MB/s Compression 4049 KB/s CPU Single Threaded 154 Million Operations/s Physics 80.5 Frames/s Extended Instructions (NEON) 244 Million Matrices/s Memory Mark: 498 Database Operations 551 Thousand Operations/s Memory Read Cached 2524 MB/s Memory Read Uncached 2602 MB/s Memory Write 3182 MB/s Available RAM 1947 Megabytes Memory Latency 119 Nanoseconds Memory Threaded 6243 MB/s --------------- eMMC storage write 311MB/s average for 4GB; MicroSD (Samsung 32GB class 10) storage write 15MB/s.
SBC
RPi Alternative: Orange Pi Zero 2 (1GB)
toggledbitsT
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SBC
RPi Alternative: Libre Computer AML-S905X-CC "Le Potato" (2GB RAM)
toggledbitsT
With Raspberry Pi boards continuing to be relatively scarce, I've been trying a few alternatives to see what may be usable and good. I had previously written about the Jetson Nano 2GB, which is great, but a little pricey, so I'm trying to find sub-US$100 boards that will run Reactor. I've got four that I'm trying now, but one in particular goes right to work in the most predictable way and seems worth a mention immediately: the Libre Computer Board AML-S905X-CC 2GB (known as "Le Potato"). The form factor is very similar to that of the Raspberry Pi 3 B+, and has comparable CPU (ARM Cortex-A53, quad 64-bit cores at 1.5+GHz -- slightly higher clock speed). It's US$35 on Amazon and LoverPi in the (recommended) 2GB configuration, and easy to get. Startup is like RPi: download one of the available OS images (Ubuntu, Raspbian, Debian, ARMbian, etc.) from their site and write the image to a MicroSD card, insert into slot, power up, and off you go. I tried the Ubuntu 22.04 image first and it comes right up. No problem getting nodejs 18.12.1 installed and running (with Reactor). No WiFi on board, but I don't see that as a minus for use as a controller/hub (which should be hard-wired, IMO). The 40-pin GPIO connector is compatible with typical RPi HATs (PoE, breakouts, etc.). There is an available eMMC (solid state storage) module to use instead of MicroSD, which I would recommend for long-term use. It runs US$25 for 32GB (64GB and 128GB available). The module is scarcely larger than the chip it carries, and has the smallest board-to-board connector I've ever seen. Next up: ESPRESSObin 2GB (spoiler: it's... technical...)
SBC
HA and AI
CatmanV2C
Having hours of (actually quite fun) interaction with AI (Chat GPT) making up dashboards and sensors for HA. It's OK (well it's better than I am!) but it makes soooo many mistakes. Gets there in the end though, if you've half a clue (which I do half the time) C
Home Assistant
How to upgrade from an old version of MSR?
cw-kidC
Hello I haven't updated my installation of MSR in a very long time. Its a bare metal Linux install currently on version 24366-3de60836 I see the latest version is now latest-26011-c621bbc7 I assume I cannot just jump from a very old version to the latest version? Or can I? Thanks
Multi-System Reactor
This trigger no longer working - complaining about the operator needing changing
cw-kidC
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Multi-System Reactor
Self test
CatmanV2C
Having been messing around with some stuff I worked a way to self trigger some tests that I wanted to do on the HA <> MSR integration This got me wondering if there's an entity that changes state / is exposed when a configured controller goes off line? I can't see one but thought it might be hidden or something? Cheers C
Multi-System Reactor
Access control - allowing anonymous user to dashboard
tunnusT
Using build 25328 and having the following users.yaml configuration: users: # This section defines your valid users. admin: ******* groups: # This section defines your user groups. Optionally, it defines application # and API access restrictions (ACLs) for the group. Users may belong to # more than one group. Again, no required or special groups here. admin_group: users: - admin applications: true # special form allows access to ALL applications guests: users: "*" applications: - dashboard api_acls: # This ACL allows users in the "admin" group to access the API - url: "/api" group: admin_group allow: true log: true # This ACL allows anyone/thing to access the /api/v1/alive API endpoint - url: "/api/v1/alive" allow: true session: timeout: 7200 # (seconds) rolling: true # activity extends timeout when true # If log_acls is true, the selected ACL for every API access is logged. log_acls: true # If debug_acls is true, even more information about ACL selection is logged. debug_acls: true My goal is to allow anonymous user to dashboard, but MSR is still asking for a password when trying to access that. Nothing in the logs related to dashboard access. Probably an error in the configuration, but help needed to find that. Tried to put url: "/dashboard" under api_acls, but that was a long shot and didn't work.
Multi-System Reactor
VEC Virtual Switch Auto Off
S
I use Virtual Entity Controller virtual switches which I turn on via webhooks from other applications. Once a switch triggers and turns on, I can then activate associated rules. I would like each virtual switch to automatically turn off after a configurable time (e.g., 5 seconds, 10 seconds). Is there a better way to achieve this auto-off behavior instead of creating a separate rule for each switch that uses the 'Condition must be sustained for' option to turn it off? With a large number of these switches (and the associated turn-off rules), I'm checking to see if there is a simpler approach.If not, could this be a feature request to add an auto-off timer directly to the virtual switches. Thanks Reactor (Multi-hub) latest-26011-c621bbc7 VirtualEntityController v25356 Synology Docker
Multi-System Reactor
Upcoming Storage Change -- Got Back-ups?
toggledbitsT
TL;DR: Format of data in storage directory will soon change. Make sure you are backing up the contents of that directory in its entirety, and you preserve your backups for an extended period, particularly the backup you take right before upgrading to the build containing this change (date of that is still to be determined, but soon). The old data format will remain readable (so you'll be able to read your pre-change backups) for the foreseeable future. In support of a number of other changes in the works, I have found it necessary to change the storage format for Reactor objects in storage at the physical level. Until now, plain, standard JSON has been used to store the data (everything under the storage directory). This has served well, but has a few limitations, including no real support for native JavaScript objects like Date, Map, Set, and others. It also is unable to store data that contains "loops" — objects that reference themselves in some way. I'm not sure exactly when, but in the not-too-distant future I will publish a build using the new data format. It will automatically convert existing JSON data to the new format. For the moment, it will save data in both the new format and the old JSON format, preferring the former when loading data from storage. I have been running my own home with this new format for several months, and have no issues with data loss or corruption. A few other things to know: If you are not already backing up your storage directory, you should be. At a minimum, back this directory up every time you make big changes to your Rules, Reactions, etc. Your existing JSON-format backups will continue to be readable for the long-term (years). The code that loads data from these files looks for the new file format first (which will have a .dval suffix), and if not found, will happily read (and convert) a same-basenamed .json file (i.e. it looks for ruleid.dval first, and if it doesn't find it, it tries to load ruleid.json). I'll publish detailed instructions for restoring from old backups when the build is posted (it's easy). The new .dval files are not directly human-readable or editable as easily as the old .json files. A new utility will be provided in the tools directory to convert .dval data to .json format, which you can then read or edit if you find that necessary. However, that may not work for all future data, as my intent is to make more native JavaScript objects directly storable, and many of those objects cannot be stored in JSON. You may need to modify your backup tools/scripts to pick up the new files: if you explicitly name .json files (rather than just specifying the entire storage directory) in your backup configuration, you will need to add .dval files to get a complete, accurate backup. I don't think this will be an issue for any of you; I imagine that you're all just backing up the entire contents of storage regardless of format/name, that is the safest (and IMO most correct) way to go (if that's not what you're doing, consider changing your approach). The current code stores the data in both the .dval form and the .json form to hedge against any real-world problems I don't encounter in my own use. Some future build will drop this redundancy (i.e. save only to .dval form). However, the read code for the .json form will remain in any case. This applies only to persistent storage that Reactor creates and controls under the storage tree. All other JSON data files (e.g. device data for Controllers) are unaffected by this change and will remain in that form. YAML files are also unaffected by this change. This thread is open for any questions or concerns.
Multi-System Reactor
Oddness in Copy/Move of Reactions
G
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Multi-System Reactor
[Solved] function isRuleEnabled() issue
CrilleC
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Multi-System Reactor
[Reactor] Problem with Global Reactions and groups
therealdbT
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Multi-System Reactor
Possible feature request 2?
CatmanV2C
Just another thought. Adding devices from my Home Assistant / Zigbee2MQTT integration. Works perfectly but they always add as their IEEE address. Some of these devices have up to 10 entities associated, and the moment they are renamed to something sensible, each of those entities 'ceases to exist' in MSR. I like things tidy, and deleting each defunct entity needs 3 clicks. Any chance of a 'bulk delete' option? No biggy as I've pretty much finished my Z-wave migration and I don't expect to be adding more than 2 new Zigbee devices Cheers C
Multi-System Reactor
Reactor (Multi-System/Multi-Hub) Announcements
toggledbitsT
Build 21228 has been released. Docker images available from DockerHub as usual, and bare-metal packages here. Home Assistant up to version 2021.8.6 supported; the online version of the manual will now state the current supported versions; Fix an error in OWMWeatherController that could cause it to stop updating; Unify the approach to entity filtering on all hub interface classes (controllers); this works for device entities only; it may be extended to other entities later; Improve error detail in messages for EzloController during auth phase; Add isRuleSet() and isRuleEnabled() functions to expressions extensions; Implement set action for lock and passage capabilities (makes them more easily scriptable in some cases); Fix a place in the UI where 24-hour time was not being displayed.
Multi-System Reactor
Genuinely impressed with Zigbee and HA / Reactor
CatmanV2C
Just for the record, in case anyone is following, I'm really rather impressed. I have installed one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B6P22YJC?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1 That's connected (physically) to the VM running on my Synology, with a 2m USB extension. The same host also runs Openluup, Mosquito, HA Bridge. Yesterday I installed Zigbee2mqtt. That was a bit of a PITA but mostly because of ports and permissions. Once up and running, and the correct boxes ticked, immediately visible in Home Assistant via the MQTT integration, and thence into Reactor I've only got two devices. I bought the cheapest sensor I could find, which is a door sensor. Dead easy to add to ZIgbee2mqtt and again, immediately visible in HA. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FPQLWRW1?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title The dongle is on the top floor of the house, and I wanted the sensor on the back door (just about as far apart as it's possible to get short of going into the garage) When I moved the sensor downstairs it dropped out pretty instantly (which wasn't a huge surprise) so quick bit of research found out that smart plugs will act as routers so... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FDQDPGBB?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title Took me about 30 seconds to connect. Updated the name. Instantly visible in Reactor with the new name pushed over from Zigbee2mqtt. And lo, the door sensor now has a signal of 140 and works as far as I can tell perfectly and instantly (unlike my z-wave one). A few more of those will be purchased and used to replace the Tuya wifi cloud devices and the (continually failing) Z-wave plugs (yeah, they were TKB so....) Commended to the house. Thanks for everyone that got me on the right lines. C
Zigbee
Copying a global reaction
tunnusT
With build 25328, if you copy a global reaction, a new reaction does not appear in the UI unless you do a refresh. I recall this used to work without needing this page refresh? Anyway, only a minor nuisance.
Multi-System Reactor
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Recent Best Controversial

  • Can you run MSR on Home Assistant OS ?
    PablaP Pabla

    @toggledbits said in Can you run MSR on Home Assistant OS ?:

    If you have to go into the container to make changes, something is wrong in the configuration. Nothing inside the container should ever need to be changed. Everything that is "mutable" and configurable by the user should be in the data directory external to the container. So... this comment has me puzzled...

    Had to edit entity config file recently to batch update entity names

    Multi-System Reactor

  • Can you run MSR on Home Assistant OS ?
    PablaP Pabla

    @cw-kid Initially, I wanted to run MSR on HA. But HA OS keeps a lot of things locked down (for better and worse) and occasionally you have to go into the container's directory to make changes and HA OS basically makes that impossible.

    Multi-System Reactor

  • Can you run MSR on Home Assistant OS ?
    PablaP Pabla

    @toggledbits And Docker can be made even easier with Portainer on top!

    Multi-System Reactor

  • HA and AI
    PablaP Pabla

    In my experience I have found that it will just make up random lines, so you have to monitor is very closely and always tell it not to change anything else other than what you have requested.

    It is good for making large repetitive changes though.

    Home Assistant

  • Logic Assistance: Exterior Lights on when Illuminance Below Threshold
    PablaP Pabla

    After spending some time I think I got it figured out. Thanks to @Crille for the Inspo expression. I created a similar one that would basically deduct the extra light that is added when the lights are on. Basically when the lights are off, the expression gives the true value of the light sensor, and when they're on it deducts the 30lx from the true value. 30lx is probably too much but It seems to work now. The sunrise/sunset trigger is just temporarily there to ensure the lights still turn on and off as back up.

    Screenshot 2025-12-24 at 7.57.25 PM.png Screenshot 2025-12-24 at 7.57.41 PM.png

    Multi-System Reactor

  • Logic Assistance: Exterior Lights on when Illuminance Below Threshold
    PablaP Pabla

    Wow! Thank you all for the suggestions! I think setting a pulse to go true for one hour is going to be the dirty and quick solution.

    @Crille your expression is actually pretty neat.. I think it may solve my issue completely. Will trial this tomorrow! 🙂

    Multi-System Reactor

  • Logic Assistance: Exterior Lights on when Illuminance Below Threshold
    PablaP Pabla

    Hello all and happy holidays! I recently picked up a Zooz ZSE70, an outdoor multi sensor with an light sensor. The goal was to have my outdoor lights trigger once it got dark enough.

    Today was the first day I was trialing my updated logic (screenshot below) soon after it got dark enough I observed the lights began to turn on and off every few seconds. Taking a look at the sensor history in HA it looks like once the light got below the threshold (35lx in my case) the lights would turn on great! However a few seconds later the sensor would update and the measured light would go above the threshold and the lights would turn off. After that the cycle would continually repeat every handful of seconds.

    I need to think of a way to trigger the rule, but ignore the spike in the reading once the lights turn on. I could pulse the trigger to remain true for an hour ish so that as the light naturally fades in the evening it hopefully remains under the threshold. However that's a less than elegant solution in my case, so any tips would be appreciated!

    One note: I cannot move the sensor so that the lights don't affect the readings.

    Screenshot 2025-12-23 at 5.59.24 PM.png

    Screenshot 2025-12-23 at 6.00.41 PM.png

    Note: in the screenshot above, at the ~3:53pm mark where the levels flatten out, it was because I disabled the rule.

    Multi-System Reactor

  • Single protocol?
    PablaP Pabla

    @toggledbits Very well said! When you make the switch give the new ZWA-2 Z wave antenna a try, it will fix a lot of any lingering problems.

    General Discussion

  • Single protocol?
    PablaP Pabla

    @akbooer said in Single protocol?:

    The opposite effect for me… when I finally gave up on Vera, I ditched all my Z-wave devices and switched to Shelly using WiFi for all wallbox switching devices. So, I’m at a loss to understand this comment…

    Similar to what Patrick said below, I am not a fan of congesting an already congested wireless protocol. If I were to add 59 clients to my Wifi I would definitely see a degradation in performance. Also, these IOT devices don't really benefit much from using Wifi, the extra bandwidth is great but not really needed for day to day use when reporting states and sending commands. Also Wifi battery powered devices will not have the same battery life as Zigbee/Z Wave equivalents.

    @akbooer said in Single protocol?:

    Wi-Fi seems to give all the control I need, integrates easily with Apple Home, which I use as my main control, now. For some individual lights I use Zigbee, in the form of Philips Hue, which also has a native bridge to Apple Home, which also offers a secure cloud connection for off-site access. I’m slowly upgrading to Shelly Gen 4 devices which offer Matter protocol which will enable me to abandon the Homebridge software running on my NAS for further simplification.

    As for Apple Home I have exposed all my Z wave devices and sensors through the Apple Home integration in HA.

    General Discussion

  • HDMI oddness
    PablaP Pabla

    What TV are you using? If LG, there was a recent WebOS 25 update that has completely broken HDMI CEC and E-ARC so that could be the source of your issue?

    If not my best bet would be the switch being the culprit of your issues and HDMI-CEC is notoriously finicky to work with for even the most basic things.

    General Discussion

  • Single protocol?
    PablaP Pabla

    Not sure if anyone could possibly use one protocol for everything however, in my case for my switches, plugs, door locks and some door/motion sensors they all are using z wave.

    No specific reason why, it's mainly because I started with vera which had built in z wave so It was familiar to me when I switched over from HA.

    I am currently using the Z Wave JS UI add-on, with a ZWA-2 antenna and for the most part been happy. The recent change to the ZWA-2 has helped my network A LOT. I live in a ~13,000sf home so range is big time for me, and with the new antenna the vast majority of my devices connect directly the controller. I have 59 nodes so my network isn't huge but not small.

    My overall experience with Z Wave is ok though, I do tinker a lot and it's really easy to fudge something up with no apparent reason why. In my experience once you get network set and working well don't touch it. If something randomly happens (rare) it is kind of hard to troubleshoot as logs don't tell a whole lot, and my troubleshooting is usually just based on my experience with Z wave. The devices themselves are a bit more expensive than the Zigbee counterparts and I believe that has something to do with the fact that all z wave devices need to be licensed. No problem for me I do prefer to have devices that are vetted. Generally, I do see more newer devices being released with Zigbee support and not Z wave but aside from mmWave sensors I haven't really seen anything that I wanted.

    I have deployed smaller scale <15 node networks at family members home and those work very well. A set it and forget it ordeal. Also could be because I don't mess with those networks after set up much 😛

    IMO you can't go wrong between Zigbee or Z wave. I would stay away from any wifi devices though since you limited to what local control they offer, and definitely avoid, at all cost any cloud reliant devices for obvious reasons.

    General Discussion

  • Home Assistant Connect ZWA-2 & ZBT-2
    PablaP Pabla

    I recently bricked my Z-wave network somehow where I couldn't add any new devices so I opted to start fresh with the ZWA-2 and was impressed with its range! A lot of my devices talk directly to the controller now which has sped things up considerably as well.

    Hardware

  • Shelly Wall Display XL
    PablaP Pabla

    Don't leave us hanging!! Show some pics of it in action. I need some Inspo to replace my Fire tablets as well that no matter what I do will randomly stop waking up

    Hardware

  • Handling Dead Entities and Renamed Entities
    PablaP Pabla

    @toggledbits interesting, I totally understand the rationale why the controllers act this way. However, I feel like there are times where you’d want to batch update entities. Could this be added into the UI, similar to the purge dead entities action? Maybe an “update entity metadata” action?

    Multi-System Reactor

  • Handling Dead Entities and Renamed Entities
    PablaP Pabla

    @therealdb This did the trick thank you!!

    Patrick, how should Reactor handle updated entity names and deleted ones for Z Wave JS? With HA it seems fairy instant with a restart that renames and deleted entities are updated but not the case with Z Wave JS.

    Multi-System Reactor

  • Handling Dead Entities and Renamed Entities
    PablaP Pabla

    Hello all.. been a minute! I recently rebuilt my Z wave network and migrated to a new z wave stick. In order to prevent any downtime I kept my original z wave network up and ran a docker version of Z Wave JS UI with my new controller. This way I could add device by device without having any devices down.

    I finally moved all the devices over to my new stick today. The final step was to migrate everything from my Docker instance of Z Wave JS UI to the HA add-on of Z Wave JS UI. However during this migration some of the names didn't populate correctly which I later managed to import back into Z Wave JS UI. The issue was in Reactor it is stuck on the default names and the entities are not updating. I removed the controller from Reactor, restarted, hard refreshed, and added the controller back however the new entity names have not updated. Also it seems like the old entities from my previous instance of Z Wave JS UI are lingering and not being marked as dead (I believe a certain amount of time needs to lapse before they're marked as dead in Reactor).

    My goal is to basically purge all the entities for the 'ZWaveJS' controller in Reactor so it can pull all the updated entity names and only the entities that exist in Z Wave JS UI. I cannot find a quick way to do this, I know entities can be deleted one by one, but with over 100 entities this would take long 😛

    I am guessing that if I added the controller with a new name in in the Reactor config it would pull the updated entities and names but I think that would break my rules since the entity IDs would change (I made sure to name all the entities the exact same as they were previously to prevent this issue).

    Multi-System Reactor

  • Home Assistant Voice
    PablaP Pabla

    Not yet!! I have been waiting for something with a little bit better audio, think Sonos level. Do report back though

    Home Assistant

  • Problem after upgrading to 25067
    PablaP Pabla

    Have you checked the logs for more information?

    Multi-System Reactor

  • Advice on Storing and Backing Up Bind Mounts - Docker
    PablaP Pabla

    @therealdb said in Advice on Storing and Backing Up Bind Mounts - Docker:

    Yeah, containers are a game changer for manageability.

    I just have a /home/casa/containers (where casa is the user) where I have my configs/storage. Easy to backup/mirror. In case of disaster recovery, just copy everything and I'm ready. For consistency, I save my docker-compose file in the same dir. Restoring a container is very easy.

    Perfect thats exactly what I was thinking of doing! Since I am using Portainer their equivalent of Docker Compose is Stacks and Portainer has a handy built in GUI back up feature which backs all that up. Just need to figure out how to automate it and store it off the host for easy future retrieval.

    @toggledbits said in Advice on Storing and Backing Up Bind Mounts - Docker:

    @therealdb is spot on here. I do something very similar. His last point, having the docker-compose file with the volatile data, is particularly important to speeding recovery. Another tip: practice doing recovery, and write yourself a text file in the same directory with the steps to do it, so when it happens, you're not (a) doing it for the first time, or (b) trying to remember what worked two years ago.

    As a side note, in a past life, I wrote a "high availability" subsystem for a routing product -- software that ran on a master system and a number of hot standbys that would bring up a standby quickly when the master failed. I have often thought about doing that for Reactor, but always conclude that our world doesn't really demand that level of response, no matter how "cool" it may be. It's so easy and quick to recover containers, I feel like lt's good enough, and my time is better spent on other features.

    I did actually already kinda do a practice recovery to make sure Docker was the right choice for me. I used an old pi I had kicking around to tinker with to get familiar with Docker before doing a clean wipe and install of Ubuntu on my main driver. Transferred everything over from the old Pi to my main host (odroid N2+) and it was painless. On top of that I was also able to set up a few more containers that I wouldn't have otherwise set up because Docker is so damn easy.

    In my lifetime with home automation I actually (*knocks on wood) haven't suffered a complete failure that isn't self inflicted. However I have moved hosts pretty often as my setup continues to grow in size and complexity so having Docker now will allow me to continue moving up without having to worry about spending countless hours trying to install packages via the CLI.

    Software

  • Advice on Storing and Backing Up Bind Mounts - Docker
    PablaP Pabla

    Hello all, after seeing Catman's posts about their disaster recovery and move to Docker I took that as a sign to migrate everything (aside from HA) to Docker. After a small learning curve I had Docker+Portainer up and running in a few days.

    Instead of using named Volumes I opted to use Bind Mounts so I can easily edit conf files and any other file needed. I do understand the nuances that come with bind mounts, such as migration to a different host may require changing file structures, the possibility of someone editing the bind mount files and permissions but to me those aren't too big of a deal.

    My question is what is the best way to keep a back up of these bind mounts? I currently have them stored in the /etc directory in another directory named on a per container basis. I was thinking to move it all to a /home/user/docker/ directory so that I can use a simple cp command to my mounted SMB share to backup all the container data files. Anyone else do it differently?

    Side note: I finally got to flex the benefits of Docker with updating Reactor.. it was dead simple. I had no idea what I was missing out on lol!

    Software
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