Anyone uses Xiaomi Mijia BLE Temperature and Humidity Sensor with ESP32? Where do you place ESP32 and do you use a case for it?
Smart Home Automation
- Thread starter ChaoticUnreal
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Well, if it's BLE then anywhere in a few meters easily, unless walls/whatever block 2.4GHz. BLE supposedly goes up to 100 meters, in theory, but I wouldn't expect it to work over 5, maybe 10 meters at low data rates unless you're in ideal circumstances. I presume you're talking about https://esphome.io/components/sensor/xiaomi_ble.html integration?
Also found https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/mitemp_bt/, so if the HA host is close enough, can just use that and directly connect. Can't hurt to try, anyway, if you have a BT dongle or what not around.
As for a case, sure, why not? Or just coat it in hot glue to keep from having the pins accidentally shorted or what not and causing problems, and having dust get all over it and what not.
Speaking of dongles, who was it that was trying to get a z-wave/zigbee dongle back a few pages working with HA? What was the 2nd one you were trying? Any luck?
Also found https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/mitemp_bt/, so if the HA host is close enough, can just use that and directly connect. Can't hurt to try, anyway, if you have a BT dongle or what not around.
As for a case, sure, why not? Or just coat it in hot glue to keep from having the pins accidentally shorted or what not and causing problems, and having dust get all over it and what not.
Speaking of dongles, who was it that was trying to get a z-wave/zigbee dongle back a few pages working with HA? What was the 2nd one you were trying? Any luck?
Maybe me? I am using the GoControl HUSBZB-1 with my HA install. It works well for Z-Wave and I think depending on what ZigBee devices you have could work for that as well. I started with some of my Smartthings devices and they worked fine, but I ran into an issue with my wireless switches in that it would only see the battery level of the switches and would not see the actual button presses of it. I found that deCONZ or zigbee2mqtt supported my switches but is neither can use the GoControl stick. So I purchased a ConBee II stick and using it with zigbee2mqtt for ZigBee stuff while using the GoControl for Z-Wave. Haven't had any issues running both sticks so far.
I've also completed my migration from Smartthings over to HA. And other than some delay at times using those previously mentioned switches (guessing it's a battery saving thing where they go idle so takes a beat for them to respond in HA) everything has been good. Still fleshing out things like tweaking automations and such.
When I first started this process it was mentioned that it would be good to not run this on an SD card which so far is what I've been doing. The case I'm using for the RPi does have an add-on that gives you the ability to easily connect an M.2 drive. Haven't pulled the trigger on it yet, but guess I might as well ask if anyone has a recommendation for a small M.2 drive? This certainly doesn't need something heavy like the M.2 I'm running in my PC, but for the smaller sized drives all the brands seem to be kinda generic. Also need to see how I go about moving it to the M.2 since I'm using the HA OS.
Yeah, think it was you.
Sounds like you just ended up needing 2 dongles, too bad. But I suppose since I'm starting from scratch, I can just get the GoControl HUSBZB-1, and return stuff I buy if it doesn't work with it until I find what I want/need that will work with it.
Your link doesn't seem to show a m.2 slot at all. Doesn't say it has m.2 either on https://www.argon40.com/argon-one-v-2-case-for-raspberry-pi-5.html. Sure you linked to the right case? And AFAIK the standard RPi4 doesn't have the PCIe lanes brought out to be used, you need the Compute module to get those. Unless you use a USB3->m.2 NVM2.
If you don't mind external, use the USB3 boot and get a cheap m.2->USB3 external case and hook it up to the USB3 port.
Yeah, I'm not sure if there's a listing of stuff that works with the ZigBee integration in HA to take some of the trial and error out of it. I'm sure I could have found replacement switches which would work with it, but the zigbee2mqtt project has quite a large number of supported devices, 1402 right now, along with having some extra info about the devices and what the add-on can see with each one.
For the case they have an expansion bay that you can add to the Argon One that has the slot for an M.2 drive. And since it's made for the RPi 4 and has the USB3 dongle to connect the two I'm guessing it does what is needed to get the two to talk.
Are there any real differences in the cheap M.2 drives? Looking on Amazon for something small shows a number of iffy names. Though I do see stuff from Kingston and Transcend which were decent names in the memory business as far as I know so maybe picking one of those would be good. I guess I could also test a restore from snapshot with the SD card in the meantime to see how it goes. I added the Google Drive automated backup add-on am and making snapshots every few days just in case something does go wrong. Plus it can't hurt to have backups even if nothing goes wrong.
For the case they have an expansion bay that you can add to the Argon One that has the slot for an M.2 drive. And since it's made for the RPi 4 and has the USB3 dongle to connect the two I'm guessing it does what is needed to get the two to talk.
Are there any real differences in the cheap M.2 drives? Looking on Amazon for something small shows a number of iffy names. Though I do see stuff from Kingston and Transcend which were decent names in the memory business as far as I know so maybe picking one of those would be good. I guess I could also test a restore from snapshot with the SD card in the meantime to see how it goes. I added the Google Drive automated backup add-on am and making snapshots every few days just in case something does go wrong. Plus it can't hurt to have backups even if nothing goes wrong.
Ah, it's actually got a NVMe -> USB3 chip somewhere to convert it, just like an external case would have. So it's basically a nicer, well integrated into the case thing to use a NVMe. Slick actually.
For NVMe drives, here's the latest Anandtech guide. I usually look through what's recommended, maybe do a bit of extra research, and pick what suits my needs. For you, might as well go for the entry level NVMe, don't particularly need significant performance, just a proper SSD with wear leveling and all that. Or even a ton of space, I don't think.
Found a few writeups on integrating Xiaomi temp/humidity sensor with HA using ESP32. But none describe what they did with ESP32.
The sensor is cheap but communicates with BLE. I prefer to use Wifi. Server is in the basement and looking to deploy a few sensors.
Yes I have 4 of the sensors reporting to one ESP32. I used This with this following this guide.
As I said I have the one ESP32 and I have the 2 sensors on the 2nd floor of my house (where the sensor is) and two on the 3rd floor. The ones on the 3rd floor lose connection every so often. I'm planning on adding another ESP32 (or two) and some more sensors but I haven't got around to it yet.
OK, back into this thread. I'm trying to find the mentions of multi-channel/multi-destination audio server software that has been here/elsewhere. Basically be able to have the server stream pandora/soundcloud/etc, and route it to one or more output devices which have speaker/amp. And control it from my phone, but the audio doesn't come from my phone. As an example.
I know of Volumio, I think that might do all that I want the way I want.
Just found Strobe, which looks really cool. Basically a hobbyist project that's still rough around the edges. Hasn't had any updates/development in a few years though, which probably takes it out of the running.
Slimstreamer looks interesting, maybe.
Oh, and everyone should check out Athom, they have a variety of devices, including 15W/1400lm RGB + WW + CW bulbs, all coming PRE-flashed with Tasmota or HomeKit. Makes it EASY to re-flash with ESPHome, or just keep using Tasmota whichever your setup is. I've tried 1 of their 7W bulbs for my bedside light, works great and was fairly easy, and one of the switches. Again, pretty simple to upload to. And they actually listened to the folks and switched from the 1M to the 2M flash version, for easier/wider possible updates/etc from the regular folks out there. Prices/shipping tends to be cheaper through their AliExpress store. I really hope they keep expanding their line of devices.
Next step for me, since USB pass-through (PCIe is there fine) for FreeBSD isn't really a think, I'm getting a VERY solid Tube's ZB ethernet CC2652P2 zigbee coordinator. Not sure if I'll use ZHA or zigbee2mqtt. I still have some confusion over compatibility with devices. After I get a few basic devices working with it, I then need to figure out the switches, and probably putting cover plates over top of all of the rocker switches to keep them from being pushed, while having replacement zigbee buttons in their place to turn off/on the lights as you'd expect.
Still needing to get that security camera stuff working...
EDIT: So the ethernet zigbee arrived a day early, yay! Already had a gigabit 802.11af PoE to mUSB delivered, plugged it in, detected right away in HA, so all setup! Just need to wait for my couple of Sonoff Zigbee buttons to arrive today, then I give them a try and see how it all works/sets up. If it's good, I'll be getting more zigbee buttons/remotes/etc, for sure.
I know of Volumio, I think that might do all that I want the way I want.
Just found Strobe, which looks really cool. Basically a hobbyist project that's still rough around the edges. Hasn't had any updates/development in a few years though, which probably takes it out of the running.
Slimstreamer looks interesting, maybe.
Oh, and everyone should check out Athom, they have a variety of devices, including 15W/1400lm RGB + WW + CW bulbs, all coming PRE-flashed with Tasmota or HomeKit. Makes it EASY to re-flash with ESPHome, or just keep using Tasmota whichever your setup is. I've tried 1 of their 7W bulbs for my bedside light, works great and was fairly easy, and one of the switches. Again, pretty simple to upload to. And they actually listened to the folks and switched from the 1M to the 2M flash version, for easier/wider possible updates/etc from the regular folks out there. Prices/shipping tends to be cheaper through their AliExpress store. I really hope they keep expanding their line of devices.
Next step for me, since USB pass-through (PCIe is there fine) for FreeBSD isn't really a think, I'm getting a VERY solid Tube's ZB ethernet CC2652P2 zigbee coordinator. Not sure if I'll use ZHA or zigbee2mqtt. I still have some confusion over compatibility with devices. After I get a few basic devices working with it, I then need to figure out the switches, and probably putting cover plates over top of all of the rocker switches to keep them from being pushed, while having replacement zigbee buttons in their place to turn off/on the lights as you'd expect.
Still needing to get that security camera stuff working...
EDIT: So the ethernet zigbee arrived a day early, yay! Already had a gigabit 802.11af PoE to mUSB delivered, plugged it in, detected right away in HA, so all setup! Just need to wait for my couple of Sonoff Zigbee buttons to arrive today, then I give them a try and see how it all works/sets up. If it's good, I'll be getting more zigbee buttons/remotes/etc, for sure.
Success! I have 2 Sonoff SNZB-01 buttons configured and setup. Node-Red setup, 2 flows, 1 for each. Basic on/off/change brightness at desired color temp done. Now to buy a lot more controls.
Anyone have experience with the Sengled dimmer switch? I'm eyeing that as a cheaper version of Philips Hue dimmer switch. In fact, I can buy 2 of the Sengled compared to the Philips.
And then I'm going to need to print off a bunch of switch plate covers to cover over the existing switches and mount the remotes to them, so people don't end up hitting the light switches and powering off the lights so they can't be controlled. Then I can start adding motion sensors/etc and start automating on/off when entering/lack of movement/etc.
Anyone have experience with the Sengled dimmer switch? I'm eyeing that as a cheaper version of Philips Hue dimmer switch. In fact, I can buy 2 of the Sengled compared to the Philips.
And then I'm going to need to print off a bunch of switch plate covers to cover over the existing switches and mount the remotes to them, so people don't end up hitting the light switches and powering off the lights so they can't be controlled. Then I can start adding motion sensors/etc and start automating on/off when entering/lack of movement/etc.
So one of my projects for this month is to futz with my HA instance. It is all running smooth on a old Ubuntu running laptop but I built it with the old zwave that hass.io used. I'm thinking of migrating as 99% of my devices are zwave to the new solution.
Anyone done that yet and have a good guide that doesn't involve me ripping and recreating?
Anyone done that yet and have a good guide that doesn't involve me ripping and recreating?
They posted a guide when they first made the switch over. All Guides but I believe you want this one
I switched from the the old ZWave to the ZWave.js it was fairly painless. Just disable the old ZWave reboot the docker (host) and then start the ZWave.js container. When I did it they hadn't posted the templates so I just had to rename (my thankfully small) network manually. Then I had to go wake up all my battery devices so ZWave.js could query them correctly. But I was able to use Zwave.js to update the firmware on two light switches which the old ZWave didn't support.
Can you get a PCIe USB expansion card and pass that card through to the VM? I know that works with ESXi.
Yea, PCIe passthrough is supported. Mostly I just didn't want to have to deal with it, lol.
The above Tube ZB ethernet ZigBee coordinator (really serial over ethernet) is setup and working great. Also has an external antenna I can tweak positioning of, or even potentially change out for a higher gain antenna if I need. Relatively price, but I'm happy with it so far.
Anyone looking for a good BR30 bulb, Khsuin BL96E has no glue on the shroud, just some clips. Bit of a PITA to get off, but doable without any real damage, and then easy enough to pull off the LED PCB without any soldering or real prying (2 screws and a pin-grid header). After that, fairly easy to do a quick solder onto the serial pads to flash.
So just completed moving over to a SSD drive for my HA install using the Argon M.2 sled for the case. I made it a little harder on myself since I wasn't thinking through everything. For my set-up I am using WiFi instead of directly wired in so when I swapped in the SSD to boot to a fresh install of HA it of course wasn't connecting to WiFi. So bringing it back and wiring it directly worked, naturally. Also after creating the snapshot I then forgot to download it so had to boot it back up with the SD card, download it, and then shut it down again. But other than me being stupid it was a pretty painless process. I had a couple extra steps since I again wanted it on WiFi and for some reason that didn't restore from the snapshot. And I also needed to enable I2C in HA since that's how the add-on for controlling the fan in the Argon connects the two. It also looks like it runs a little hotter than before (sitting around 105F verses under 100F before so not a super big jump) but I'm guessing that's in part due to some extra heat from the M.2 drive and the sled not having much in the way of vent holes (unlike the other bottom lid that had some vents) so the case likely is getting a bit less air then before.
So...curtains/curtain rods. I have some grommet blackout curtains I really like, although they're just Amazon inexpensive ones. I guess I really shouldn't be wedded to them, but I would like to get some motorized curtains from the bedroom/front, with some sheer white curtains that can go next to the window, so gives me some privacy while still allowing some light as well as air in/out. If I were to replace the current rods (and probably holders), is there a system out there that supports regular curtains, and the curtains normally more or less hide the rod when closed as well as allow for that inner sheer curtain?
Oh, and the motor controller either needs to be ESPHome flashable, Zigbee, or provide for open/close input signals. Preferably also with "fully open/close" output signal. I've thought about DIYing up something, but I had a large windfall, so if spending a few hundred dollars gets me something much easier to use/integrate, happy to spend the money.
Oh, and the motor controller either needs to be ESPHome flashable, Zigbee, or provide for open/close input signals. Preferably also with "fully open/close" output signal. I've thought about DIYing up something, but I had a large windfall, so if spending a few hundred dollars gets me something much easier to use/integrate, happy to spend the money.
Paul Hibbert has a nice video on automated curtain devices. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3na7G7FJcZM
Sure... but can I just use it straight with ZigBee without needing the cloud? That's a very important bit for me.
After watching the video and going to the website, unfortunately doesn't look like it.
EDIT: Hm, found this VERY helpful review, including a SwitchBot clone. Which unfortunately can't directly use ZigBee or ESPHome/Tuya https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gm5bBW1sRY But still, shows promise for direct, HA integration without the cloud.
Looking for some potential hardware recommendations.
I've replaced many of the light switches in my house with GE Z-Wave ones. I originally went with these because they worked with Smartthings, were available at my local Lowes, and they are in a standard switch format so didn't have to get new wall plates. For the most part they've worked great. I had to replace one in the garage as it would occasionally blink the lights when on which from searching indicated it was failing. I've noticed another one in my family room doing something similar but it's been more a flicker than a complete off and then back on. Granted it could be the fixture or maybe the bulbs (but for it to happen to all 3 bulbs would be quite odd) but recently another one had a similar flicker so kind of leaning towards it being the switches starting to fail. Now the model I have is an older one, probably 3+ years old by now, and they've changed the design of them since then to make them smaller and improve the hardware inside. Sadly Lowes no longer carries them so can't check them out that way. But I've been thinking of just getting the updated versions as they've worked pretty well for me over the years and are hassle free to install and configure. But figured I'd check to see if anyone here had some recommendations on light switches that you've been happy with. Really the one requirement (or at least really nice to have feature) is that they have the same form factor as a regular switch so no paddle switches.
The other thing I'm looking at are some different bulbs. I have a room that has no light or switch controlled outlet in it. Way back in the day I used a X-10 motion sensor with a couple of socket rockets to turn on some lamps. Now I use a Smartthings multi-purpose sensor to turn on some ZigBee Cree bulbs to turn them on when the door opens and then off after a delay when it closes. I randomly found these bulbs one day at HD and they worked with Smartthings so picked them up. They've worked great over the years but I've been having some oddities since switching to HA. One is that since they are plugged in ZigBee devices they act as a router which seems fine, but have had issues where devices routed through them are not as responsive as when connected directly to the ZigBee radio. And due to where my ZigBee radio is most devices can connect directly to the HA radio with a better signal so not sure why some things keep getting router through the bulbs. I'd love to figure out how to keep them from being a router, but haven't had any luck finding that info. So was instead wondering if there were maybe some other bulbs out there that are maybe Z-Wave or if ZigBee have a way to tell them to not be routers. I guess one solution would be to replace the bulbs and use either a plug-in module or replace the outlets with one that has a controllable socket. That might be the end solution, but wondering if anyone might have some good bulb recommendations as well.
tl;dr: Recommendations on light switches and bulbs (and/or plug-in light modules/outlets).
I've replaced many of the light switches in my house with GE Z-Wave ones. I originally went with these because they worked with Smartthings, were available at my local Lowes, and they are in a standard switch format so didn't have to get new wall plates. For the most part they've worked great. I had to replace one in the garage as it would occasionally blink the lights when on which from searching indicated it was failing. I've noticed another one in my family room doing something similar but it's been more a flicker than a complete off and then back on. Granted it could be the fixture or maybe the bulbs (but for it to happen to all 3 bulbs would be quite odd) but recently another one had a similar flicker so kind of leaning towards it being the switches starting to fail. Now the model I have is an older one, probably 3+ years old by now, and they've changed the design of them since then to make them smaller and improve the hardware inside. Sadly Lowes no longer carries them so can't check them out that way. But I've been thinking of just getting the updated versions as they've worked pretty well for me over the years and are hassle free to install and configure. But figured I'd check to see if anyone here had some recommendations on light switches that you've been happy with. Really the one requirement (or at least really nice to have feature) is that they have the same form factor as a regular switch so no paddle switches.
The other thing I'm looking at are some different bulbs. I have a room that has no light or switch controlled outlet in it. Way back in the day I used a X-10 motion sensor with a couple of socket rockets to turn on some lamps. Now I use a Smartthings multi-purpose sensor to turn on some ZigBee Cree bulbs to turn them on when the door opens and then off after a delay when it closes. I randomly found these bulbs one day at HD and they worked with Smartthings so picked them up. They've worked great over the years but I've been having some oddities since switching to HA. One is that since they are plugged in ZigBee devices they act as a router which seems fine, but have had issues where devices routed through them are not as responsive as when connected directly to the ZigBee radio. And due to where my ZigBee radio is most devices can connect directly to the HA radio with a better signal so not sure why some things keep getting router through the bulbs. I'd love to figure out how to keep them from being a router, but haven't had any luck finding that info. So was instead wondering if there were maybe some other bulbs out there that are maybe Z-Wave or if ZigBee have a way to tell them to not be routers. I guess one solution would be to replace the bulbs and use either a plug-in module or replace the outlets with one that has a controllable socket. That might be the end solution, but wondering if anyone might have some good bulb recommendations as well.
tl;dr: Recommendations on light switches and bulbs (and/or plug-in light modules/outlets).
I have a couple of these Zooz dimmer switches I haven't had any complaints with them. Looking through my email they are nearly 3 years old at this point. I was able to flash my current ones with a new firmware (after HA switched to Zwavejs which allows flashing) so I can now do scenes with it.
They just released a newer version (new better radio I believe) but I haven't used that. If you don't want a dimmer switch they also sell just a toggle one but when I last looked the price difference made the dimmer one a no brainer.
They just released a newer version (new better radio I believe) but I haven't used that. If you don't want a dimmer switch they also sell just a toggle one but when I last looked the price difference made the dimmer one a no brainer.
Those look nice and at the price listed on the site right now I might just pick one or two up to try out. Though a little odd that the S2 toggle switch version doesn't seem to be listed on their own site. Was it pretty easy to do the firmware upgrade on them? Since the S2 ones lists them as "beta", which I find an odd designation for a light switch, am guessing I'd need to update it at some point.
So I'm not actually using any in-wall switches, I'm using battery remotes for pretty much everything, so can't speak to anything further for you. Further, I'm replacing all the bulbs, so don't need anything on the switches to control "dumb" bulbs.
You probably can't prevent then from acting as routers, but you can add other router/repeaters. If you replace the bulbs with non-Zigbee/Zwave that'd work. If you are, I HIGHLY recommend Athom, and they actually have a US warehouse/shipping now as well, at least for some items. Even for the ones direct shipped, it's pretty quick from China. All their WiFi products come pre-flashed with Tasmota, which is solid F/OSS firmware for ESP8266/ESP32 devices, which is what these are. Bulbs are full RGBCCT (color temp warm to cool, along with RGB) and standard sizes.
And they actually respond directly to customers in their forums, so pretty great company to try and break free from the closed garden of Tuya whitelabel stuff.
Another advantage to having Tasmota already... even if you don't want to do a whole IoT VLAN, they don't phone home or what not unless you change configurations and stuff about auto-updating.
You probably can't prevent then from acting as routers, but you can add other router/repeaters. If you replace the bulbs with non-Zigbee/Zwave that'd work. If you are, I HIGHLY recommend Athom, and they actually have a US warehouse/shipping now as well, at least for some items. Even for the ones direct shipped, it's pretty quick from China. All their WiFi products come pre-flashed with Tasmota, which is solid F/OSS firmware for ESP8266/ESP32 devices, which is what these are. Bulbs are full RGBCCT (color temp warm to cool, along with RGB) and standard sizes.
And they actually respond directly to customers in their forums, so pretty great company to try and break free from the closed garden of Tuya whitelabel stuff.
Another advantage to having Tasmota already... even if you don't want to do a whole IoT VLAN, they don't phone home or what not unless you change configurations and stuff about auto-updating.
It was super easy to do a firmware update. The only annoying part was having to email them to get the firmware, they don't just have a download section. The old zwave implementation didn't have the option but it's easy with the zwavejs one.
As for the beta I think it is just cause of the new zwave chip.
FYI those switches just went on sale for 21$ till 7/6 or they sell out it is their "summer" sale probably other good deals on there as well.
Looks like mainly the Zooz stuff on sale, but yeah the price of them makes it hard to not at least pick one up to test.
Edit: And I did just that. Picked up two along with an Ecolink motion sensor.
Edit: And I did just that. Picked up two along with an Ecolink motion sensor.
Got my items already which is nice. It shipped the same day I ordered and got here a day earlier than estimated. Will certainly have to keep that store in mind for the future. Will go about swapping out the switches this weekend most likely and seeing if the flickers go away. Of course one problem is that they aren't consistent so even with the old switches it might not happen for days at a time until it does.
Will also be playing around with the motion sensor for the garage. I have all of my lights set-up to turn on when the garage door is opened which is nice when arriving after dark or when working in the garage. But it's also kind of wasteful when I have the door open but am working in the yard. So am thinking of using the motion detector to turn off those lights when the door is open but motion hasn't been detected for a bit. And then again turning them on when it does detect motion. This detector lists a pretty decent range so should cover my whole garage which is something I wanted as the Smartthings detector I have now has very little range and barely covers a quarter of it.
Will also be playing around with the motion sensor for the garage. I have all of my lights set-up to turn on when the garage door is opened which is nice when arriving after dark or when working in the garage. But it's also kind of wasteful when I have the door open but am working in the yard. So am thinking of using the motion detector to turn off those lights when the door is open but motion hasn't been detected for a bit. And then again turning them on when it does detect motion. This detector lists a pretty decent range so should cover my whole garage which is something I wanted as the Smartthings detector I have now has very little range and barely covers a quarter of it.
So I've reached the stage in selling my house where I'll be pulling most smart home tech (leaving thermostat) out of the house (2 light switches and 4 smart bulbs).
Hopefully it won't be too long between listing and buying a new house so I can put them back in along with more things.
That said I did talk to my inlaws about setting up a smart home for some AC units at their lake house and they seemed interested in it. So I'll probably be looking into that while I wait to get mine back up and running.
Hopefully it won't be too long between listing and buying a new house so I can put them back in along with more things.
That said I did talk to my inlaws about setting up a smart home for some AC units at their lake house and they seemed interested in it. So I'll probably be looking into that while I wait to get mine back up and running.
Alright! I've got my light switches!
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002468093452.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.1a554c4dyhB3Bk they're approximately a 2-gang wide, but they can in 1, 2, 3 buttons, or 4 with 2 sides, one up, one down on each side https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001227549409.html. They each have single, double, or long (too long IMO, 5 sec press) events.
Thinking about it now, might have been better to get the double with up/down separate buttons, make the interface a little more intuitive for brighter/dimmer.
I've got the basic on/off working, the long press I'll end up doing on at max or raise it to max. Single is turn it on with the last state. double, gotta think. Perhaps it's on with brighter and then loop back around to dim and work back up. Probably what I'll do.
If I had had the other kind, single would be on, while on a double on the up/down side would result in brighter/dimmer, and a single on any would be off as well. Ah well. I'll use these for a while.
They're Zigbee 3.0, works great with ZHA in HA, and do not come with CR2032, so make sure you get some.
I'll post my Node-Red sub-flow, and primary flow. Sub-flow does all the figuring out of light groups or not light groups, and (will, not there yet) do state for single/double/long presses to move to the next state. The primary flow is just to figure out which particular remote (IEEE MAC ID) triggered, and which button (left or right), and which type of press, then feed it into the sub-flow. That way I can re-use the sub-flow and keep consistent behavior, so muscle memory will just kick in.
I'm actually a little sad that the long press doesn't kick in and start pushing out multiple messages, it's just long press until the LED goes out, and then you have to release.
If you hold button 1 down a bit too long (10s), it goes back into pairing mode.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002468093452.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.1a554c4dyhB3Bk they're approximately a 2-gang wide, but they can in 1, 2, 3 buttons, or 4 with 2 sides, one up, one down on each side https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001227549409.html. They each have single, double, or long (too long IMO, 5 sec press) events.
Thinking about it now, might have been better to get the double with up/down separate buttons, make the interface a little more intuitive for brighter/dimmer.
I've got the basic on/off working, the long press I'll end up doing on at max or raise it to max. Single is turn it on with the last state. double, gotta think. Perhaps it's on with brighter and then loop back around to dim and work back up. Probably what I'll do.
If I had had the other kind, single would be on, while on a double on the up/down side would result in brighter/dimmer, and a single on any would be off as well. Ah well. I'll use these for a while.
They're Zigbee 3.0, works great with ZHA in HA, and do not come with CR2032, so make sure you get some.
I'll post my Node-Red sub-flow, and primary flow. Sub-flow does all the figuring out of light groups or not light groups, and (will, not there yet) do state for single/double/long presses to move to the next state. The primary flow is just to figure out which particular remote (IEEE MAC ID) triggered, and which button (left or right), and which type of press, then feed it into the sub-flow. That way I can re-use the sub-flow and keep consistent behavior, so muscle memory will just kick in.
I'm actually a little sad that the long press doesn't kick in and start pushing out multiple messages, it's just long press until the LED goes out, and then you have to release.
If you hold button 1 down a bit too long (10s), it goes back into pairing mode.
For the switches above, here's the double-wide switch cover I printed off https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4907011. Need some single-wide, although probably use the same width given the size of the switches, but with just 1 screw.
Hm....let me make sure the existing cover plate fits underneath, that'll be easier to having to stash them somewhere and find them when I move out.
Hm....let me make sure the existing cover plate fits underneath, that'll be easier to having to stash them somewhere and find them when I move out.
Printing my own cover plates has always weirded me out a bit. Most easily printable plastics wouldn't stand up well to sparks/fire.
Given that I found a bunch of drill/wood particles half filling up the box in the gang box that I just covered up... I'm not feeling like that I should be all that worried about the printed cover plate.
Bumping looking for some sensor recommendations.
I currently have some Smartthings 2018 multipurpose sensors that I'm using to monitor a couple of my exterior doors. The problem I have with them is that they seem to just eat batteries and they also have issues remaining connected to HA. Oddly I have a 2016 model and it works just fine and sips on the battery. Not sure what they changed between the versions, but they have become really unreliable so would like to replace them. Though one positive for them is that they also report temperature which helps me see what the temps are like around the house, but can certainly live without for a more reliable sensor.
Looking on the earlier linked The Smartest House site I do see a Zooz one that could work. It's a CR2032 powered one, but maybe there's just something weird with the Smartthings ones which is why they churn through batteries. There's also an Ecolink one that uses a CR123A and I have been using their tilt sensor on my garage door for a number of years with great success (and even it being Z-Wave I've only replaced the battery once in like 4+ years) so could see trying their door sensor to see if it's just as good.
So what are people here using for door sensors in their systems?
I currently have some Smartthings 2018 multipurpose sensors that I'm using to monitor a couple of my exterior doors. The problem I have with them is that they seem to just eat batteries and they also have issues remaining connected to HA. Oddly I have a 2016 model and it works just fine and sips on the battery. Not sure what they changed between the versions, but they have become really unreliable so would like to replace them. Though one positive for them is that they also report temperature which helps me see what the temps are like around the house, but can certainly live without for a more reliable sensor.
Looking on the earlier linked The Smartest House site I do see a Zooz one that could work. It's a CR2032 powered one, but maybe there's just something weird with the Smartthings ones which is why they churn through batteries. There's also an Ecolink one that uses a CR123A and I have been using their tilt sensor on my garage door for a number of years with great success (and even it being Z-Wave I've only replaced the battery once in like 4+ years) so could see trying their door sensor to see if it's just as good.
So what are people here using for door sensors in their systems?
Resurrecting this thread a bit.
So the Sonoff SNZB 04 ones seem OK, although it's seemingly been a bit hit or miss if they stay on the network. I got some Aqara ones that I've been meaning to try out.
The Aqara RTCGQ11LM luminance and motion sensor zigbee ones are working fine, have one at my front door to detect/auto-turn on the front porch light when it gets dark out. I've been meaning to work in the motion sensor to turn the light up to full when it detects motion, then back down to 1/2-way once it resets the motion. Haven't gotten that far yet.
I've got a few of the Aqara temp/humidity sensors around, and they seem pretty solid in terms of battery life, and reasonably accurate for temp/humidity values.
I've actually switched over to these Aqara remote buttons/switches, and have some nice HA Node-Red flows. On/Off, Push-hold on and it goes full on, double push up/down and it increments brightness up/down. Hold up/down and it increments up/down brightness until released or it's at max/minimum. Have some new wall plate covers for them, which includes spots to glue some magnets on (since they have magnets in them) to help hold them in. Been a recent switch, so can't say what the battery life is, but seems like it'll be good at the moment.
How's everyone else's automation going?
Guess I could follow up on my post since I did decide on one. I went with the Ecolink ones and they've been really good so far. Not as low profile as the Smartthings ones, but they at least stay on the network and after a few months of use are still at 100% battery.
I also retired my Osram Lightify switches and replaced them with Zooz Zen34 switches. I like that they have a bunch of click options (1-5 taps plus holding up or down) so more multifunctional than the old switches. Probably the one oddity with them is that the clicking action doesn't present as an entity in HA and instead is an event. Originally had the automations using the event IDs for them but found a blueprint which provides an easy to use way to assign actions to the clicks.
And since I retired those switches it also allowed me to go back to using just the HA ZHA integration. When I first switched over to HA those switches didn't work with ZHA so I had to implement Zigbee2mqtt. And in turn also had to get a new radio since Zigbee2mqtt didn't work with the Zigbee radio in the HUSBZB-1 stick I was using for Z-Wave. So am back to just the one radio device and things seem to be working fine so far. Which wasn't always the case with Zigbee2mqtt as I had some issues with devices stop providing updates or I think reporting incorrect information. In particular I noticed a couple of devices went from a low battery level to a much higher one under ZHA. And I kind of believe the ZHA one since for some of the devices they were brand new batteries so wouldn't think they'd have lost over half their charge in just a few weeks. Makes me wonder how many batteries I replaced that were good due to showing low battery levels in Zigbee2mqtt.
And not to get rid of good hardware I repurposed all the Smartthings door sensors and am using them to report the temperature. Was certainly nice that Samsung included that feature is pretty much all of their devices so just disabled all the other entities for the device and just have it reporting the temperatures around the house.
Probably the next thing I'm going to work on is getting Zwavejs2mqtt to work. Similar to the Zigbee one this Z-Wave add-on has a lot more functionality than the stock Z-Wave one. The main one for me is that it gives you the ability to do firmware updates right in HA. I've tried to get it working but ran into issues, but that one is certainly on the list to revisit. Especially since I have some Zooz devices which all can be updated and can actually see a firmware difference between some switches I bought a year or so apart.
I also retired my Osram Lightify switches and replaced them with Zooz Zen34 switches. I like that they have a bunch of click options (1-5 taps plus holding up or down) so more multifunctional than the old switches. Probably the one oddity with them is that the clicking action doesn't present as an entity in HA and instead is an event. Originally had the automations using the event IDs for them but found a blueprint which provides an easy to use way to assign actions to the clicks.
And since I retired those switches it also allowed me to go back to using just the HA ZHA integration. When I first switched over to HA those switches didn't work with ZHA so I had to implement Zigbee2mqtt. And in turn also had to get a new radio since Zigbee2mqtt didn't work with the Zigbee radio in the HUSBZB-1 stick I was using for Z-Wave. So am back to just the one radio device and things seem to be working fine so far. Which wasn't always the case with Zigbee2mqtt as I had some issues with devices stop providing updates or I think reporting incorrect information. In particular I noticed a couple of devices went from a low battery level to a much higher one under ZHA. And I kind of believe the ZHA one since for some of the devices they were brand new batteries so wouldn't think they'd have lost over half their charge in just a few weeks. Makes me wonder how many batteries I replaced that were good due to showing low battery levels in Zigbee2mqtt.
And not to get rid of good hardware I repurposed all the Smartthings door sensors and am using them to report the temperature. Was certainly nice that Samsung included that feature is pretty much all of their devices so just disabled all the other entities for the device and just have it reporting the temperatures around the house.
Probably the next thing I'm going to work on is getting Zwavejs2mqtt to work. Similar to the Zigbee one this Z-Wave add-on has a lot more functionality than the stock Z-Wave one. The main one for me is that it gives you the ability to do firmware updates right in HA. I've tried to get it working but ran into issues, but that one is certainly on the list to revisit. Especially since I have some Zooz devices which all can be updated and can actually see a firmware difference between some switches I bought a year or so apart.
Hmph. I decided to not go for Zwave, since I wanted the one with more options and Zigbee 3.0 sounded much improved.
But those Zooz remote switches look pretty great.
You're using Blueprints? I prefer Node-Red, makes a bit more sense to my programmer brain.
But those Zooz remote switches look pretty great.
You're using Blueprints? I prefer Node-Red, makes a bit more sense to my programmer brain.
Yeah, I kind of have gone the opposite and have moved more towards Z-Wave instead of Zigbee. For me it was simply because my Z-Wave devices have always worked well whereas I've had issues with the Zigbee ones. Now it's entirely possible that it was more due to my configuration (two radios so maybe some interference there), using Zigbee2mqtt and Mosquitto broker (though it seems pretty highly regarded, both rated 6), or maybe just the devices themselves were themselves a little glitchy. It was just annoying since one of the ones that would have issues are the switches I'd use for controlling the lights in my bedroom and not being able to turn on/off the lights reliably was quite a pain.
For those switches, yes. Originally I used a normal automation to control the switches before finding a blueprint that worked for it and made it easier to define the action for each click type. But instead it's just that instead of using an entity and defining the action for it you use an event for the action. For example this is what I used originally in an automation to define a single up key press for the action:
And for down:
For a 2x press you'd change the value to KeyPressed2x, for 3x it would be KeyPressed3x, etc.
Not sure if it is because the switch might be more designed for controlling scenes which is why it uses events instead of an entity but just means you handle it a bit differently. So if Node-Red can allow you to use event actions like that then you should be able to use those switches with it.
For those switches, yes. Originally I used a normal automation to control the switches before finding a blueprint that worked for it and made it easier to define the action for each click type. But instead it's just that instead of using an entity and defining the action for it you use an event for the action. For example this is what I used originally in an automation to define a single up key press for the action:
Code:
platform: event
event_type: zwave_js_value_notification
event_data:
device_id: ea000d613631ba63abe0d45c991db824
label: Scene 001
value: KeyPressed
id: BR1 Light Switch
Code:
platform: event
event_type: zwave_js_value_notification
event_data:
device_id: ea000d613631ba63abe0d45c991db824
label: Scene 002
value: KeyPressed
id: BR1 Light SwitchNot sure if it is because the switch might be more designed for controlling scenes which is why it uses events instead of an entity but just means you handle it a bit differently. So if Node-Red can allow you to use event actions like that then you should be able to use those switches with it.
I've got some 2 gang, 2 button zigbee wireless buttons/scene switchers for free, just pay for shipping. I decided to use different ones. They do go through batteries at a fair clip, 2-3 months or so on a single 2032.