• 7 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • z-wave may be easier than expected, as I think the devices stay linked to the hardware dongle used. (This is just from memory, mind!). But if you need to change the dongle, perhaps less fun.

    imo, it will be a bit of pain to get everything inside HA, but once it’s done, you’ll be inside a platform that is pretty open, and commonly used, with lots of other people (hopefully) posting up solutions to problems before you encounter them!
    And because it’s software that will run on pretty much anything, you have the reassurance that even if something crazy happened, you could just reinstall an old version.

    If it were me, I’d clear an entire weekend day, power off the old kit, and work away at getting HA controlling everything.







  • A low-wiring way to do it would be to replace the bulbs with hue/similar bulbs, then just put a battery powered button in the location you want to have the controls. £10-ish for each button, plus however much the bulbs are.

    Then just have the button set to toggle the lights on/off (you can also call different presets like dim etc by pressing and holding).
    Then hass just directly sends the on/off commands to the bulbs.




  • If it helps, I’d go for the LG G4. Or C4 if you want to reduce the cost a bit.
    I’ve sworn off Samsung, just for the sheer levels of anticonsumer bullshit they pull.
    I’ve had my CX off the network for its entire life. The Apple TV handles internet and playing media properly, the TV handles taking an HDMI lead and displaying the picture accurately.
    The anti-glare it does have was still miles better than my previous plasma, even though the screen is glossy.

    Check out AVForums for TV reviews, and just as a general thing, Which.
    Though Which do sometimes struggle with comparing the technical details that matter.

    And get it from somewhere that offers a decent warranty. If costco is the same in your area, you get 5 years on TVs so long as you maintain membership.




  • I’m currently using the PoE doorbell from Reolink, and regularly use it for intercom, because I don’t like wasting delivery drivers time while I run to the door. I can definitely recommend it. It’s worth the effort running the cable to have something that just works.

    The default Reolink integration can raise events on:

    • Button press
    • Person detection (adjustable sensitivity)
    • Motion detection (same)

    Recording can be on-device with a micro SD, on network (recording the incoming stream), or by FTP.
    Recording can be set like a dashcam too (only save when needed, and overwrite after a certain time)

    By default it lights up around the button when it detects movement, I do not like this, so I turned it off.

    If the area outside your house isn’t busy, you can do cool things like getting the person detection to alert you as someone approaches, rather than waiting for them to press the bell. Can make the postman jump the first few times.

    There are also some features like doing TTS replies if you don’t acknowledge the doorbell inside a certain time.
    I haven’t gone through the effort of setting up return audio from Homeassistant, and just use the RL app.




  • I’m a bit late, but if it helps, I’ve had good results with the Sonoff and Tuya zigbee sensors. I prefer the Tuyas, just because they use AA instead of CR2032 batteries.
    $50 will easily get you everything you need to start.

    You might also want to think about getting a 433MHz radio for the system.
    If you live in a built up area, you’d be surprised how many people have equipment transmitting on 433MHz already (free data!).
    And a lot of generic wireless temperature sensor kits use it as a standard, making it a good value way to get weatherproof gear.
    I got a generic fridge/freezer kit for about £10 that works perfectly with this. Again, $50 or so for a DVB-T2 receiver. Just be aware that it’s a little more technically involved than pairing zigbee devices.

    Bother me with DMs if you like, I’ve been fiddling with just about every protocol I can get my hands on for under £100!


  • Someone else already raised the mains wired safety/budget issue, but I may have a side suggestion for you: Bulbs as repeaters.

    I’ve added hue bulbs directly to my zigbee network, where they also act as repeaters.

    The problem then was people switching off at the switch. This has been resolved by adding a little zigbee button by the switch (as people can achieve the function without the mains switch).
    Which gives the bonus of being able to do different taps.

    (So for example, I have one click as toggle on/off, two clicks is daytime+bright, press+hold is evening+dim)