The Smart Home Thread

[mace¬]

Thought I'd start thread for any Smart Home stuff people have going on.

I do a few things currently with Alexa for timings with lights and that but have just had my Home Assistant Green and Zigbee dongle delivered.

Got it form Pimorini, cna't recommend it enough at the moment. Ordered 9am yesterday arrived today.

Home Assistant Green

Home Assistant Green is your ultimate companion for creating a seamless, smart home environment.

shop.pimoroni.com

Plans are to sort out the kids leaving all the lights on when they get up at night. Get some motion sensors, after midnight all lights switch off and go to motion sensors in hallway, landing, bathrooms, kitchen.
Swap all light switches to smart ones so that them turning the light switches off won't cut the smartness.
Make sure my Govee setup in the living room works with the TV so that it automatically switches on/off with the control of the TV (via a smart plug and power draw from the TV)
Then automate everything in the office, blinds, heating, lights.
Full thermostatic smart control on the radiators.
Smart Robovac


Be good to see what everyone else is doing.

 

[Gavin.]

Put a sensor in the loft for the squirrels?

 

[mace¬]

Good shout actually. Would be a good first indicator to get back into Kid Soldier mode.

Just plugged the home assistant in, just adding integrations and devices. going to be a fair bit of work but definitely going to be a fun project.

 

[Gavin.]

You could even contact @Andy_con and get smart laser setup in the loft. Burn it to death.

 

[Sir_Dave]

We've got the following, all controlled by Alexa and/or iPhone apps, with various routines/automations setup.

Philips Hue bulbs throughout the house
Ring Alarm + 8 cameras
Tado Thermostats on all radiators
2 x Eufy L60 Robovacs
LG Washing Machine
Samsung Frame TV

 

[mace¬]

Interested about the Thermostats? Do you just have your boiler always on and let the Thermostats do the work or does the heating on the boiler switch on and off depending on what is needed?

 

[Waitey]

1x Zara with the none drip nut tray.

 

[Sir_Dave]

Interested about the Thermostats? Do you just have your boiler always on and let the Thermostats do the work or does the heating on the boiler switch on and off depending on what is needed?

The main heating/hot water controller is set to on all the time for heat (& once a day for hot water-we have a tank), then the indivdual radiator thermostats request heat/turn the boiler on/off when needed via the 2 x zone controllers (upstairs/downstairs) that control the boiler.

 

[Fantastic Nostrils]

Interested in seeing what others have done.

Ive just started getting into this stuff, with a bunch of Hive Bulbs and a Hive Thermostat.

So nice not having to get out of bed to turn the lights off

 

[S-JM]

We have the Hive system with 6 smart radiator valves.

Just picked up a Ring doorbell alternative as been meaning to for a while. Was originally going to go with the Ring brand itself but thought that extra £30 just for the chime was a bit cheeky, not to mention adding an external camera too. Had a look around the the 'top rated' alternative was £50 with the chime included off Amazon.

 

[dann2707]

So bizarre you posted this as I was going to start one about this today after my recent routines I've created. I'll list them in detail as the little things may help or inspire others!

So far I have:

- Eufy doorbell which is connected to all the alexa speakers in the house to alert us when someones pressed the doorbell.

- Living room lamp on a routine that's triggered 10 mins before sunset

- Smart electric venetian blinds that go down when the temperature of the house goes above a certain temperature so that the living room doesn't get scorching hot in summer (that window is south facing)

- Drayton wiser with smart thermostats on every radiator apart from 1 (for pressure release). Really handy lately with the baby as it's now set to keep our room the right temp overnight. This temp is confirmed with our night light/ temperature gauge.

- Just ordered a smart humidity and standalone temperature sensor for the living room that will alert us if the living room gets too hot when we have the log burner on. That's arriving Monday.

The moving on to the garage

- Smart proximity sensor on the garage door that activates the lights which are WiFi quinetic switches which again can be controlled from alexa. This means when the garage door goes up it turns the switch on and the lights go on. I've also now got a proximity sensor for identifying when no one is in the garage and this switches the lights off after 2 minutes and I've set it to turn all audio off in the garage after 20 mins. I didn't want to use the proximity sensor for light activation as I wanted the lights to be on as I approach the garage door.

- a silly one but f**king useful. Every day at 8am I've got a routine that tells alexa to stop suggesting "by the way" recommendations as it died our f**king heads in. Alexa what is 2 + 2? The answer is 4 BY THE WAY did you know if you added 1 it would be 5. f**k off and die you silly b**ch.

 

[mace¬]

Got to work yesterday, not as simple as I'd hoped and spent a lot of time trying to get my camera in the back garden hooked up to a live feed on my dashboard and it looks like Eufy don't tend to have RTSP which is required to stream to home assistant from what I can tell from Google.

Did get the Blink doorbell, Igenix office heater and Govee added which is a start.

It doesn't look like I can do much with my Panasonic TV so my plan is to get a smart plug, when the power draw is up to where the TV will be on this will trigger an automation that switch the Govee TV sync lights on, question is will all smart plugs monitor power draw or will some be o/off only?

 

[dann2707]

Got to work yesterday, not as simple as I'd hoped and spent a lot of time trying to get my camera in the back garden hooked up to a live feed on my dashboard and it looks like Eufy don't tend to have RTSP which is required to stream to home assistant from what I can tell from Google.

Did get the Blink doorbell, Igenix office heater and Govee added which is a start.

It doesn't look like I can do much with my Panasonic TV so my plan is to get a smart plug, when the power draw is up to where the TV will be on this will trigger an automation that switch the Govee TV sync lights on, question is will all smart plugs monitor power draw or will some be o/off only?

The meross ones I have do not. I believe the ones that work with smart life do.

 

[mace¬]

Ok, so loads of playing around, turns out I really need the Blink subscription to get any sort of stream/image to work. Have found a few other solutions but can’t get them to do anything, like taking an image after a time interval.

Smart plug now triggers when the TV pulls more than 0.2 current and switches the tv backlight on and all the other govee lights but only the backlight goes into TV mode, all the others just go into some mood lighting. Turns out can’t do feck all apart from on/off via the Govee API.

Bunch of zigbee bulbs ordered and looking at relays to turn my normal light switches into smart switches.

 

[mace¬]

Hue light switch installed and now controls the kids bedroom light on/off and brightness for a Tapo zigbee light bulb. The Tapo bulbs were 2 colour bulbs for £13 so a massive saving over Hue bulbs.

The bottom Hue button now controls a smart plug that turns their lava lamp on and off.

Also have installed this over the kids light switch so they can't turn the light off by the switch.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08XMPRYD1/?tag=cliospnet01-21

Concept complete and will roll this out across the whole house.

Once everything is smart lighted I will move on to motion and presence sensors.


Hive will be in by the end of the month hopefully and Sonof TRVs fitted.

Edit: If I die the Mrs will be fucked figuring out what it all does.

Edit Edit..... Switchbot S10 also a good price but not sure I can justify clicking buy

SwitchBot Floor Cleaning Robot S10 | 100% Automated Vacuum & Mop – SwitchBot UK

SwitchBot S10 robot vacuum and mop with 6500Pa suction, auto-refill water station, self-cleaning mop, and smart home integration. 2-year warranty for hands-free cleaning.

uk.switch-bot.com

 

[S-JM]

Pretty basic but I added a Ring Spotlight Camera to our driveway/garage over the weekend as it's out of sight of the house, it's proved it's use within 24hrs.

I've caught my FIL twice so far going in and out of our garage whilst we've been out, pinching tools etc.
The 2nd time he was carrying tubs of paint in there, I asked him what he was up to and he said "your sister in law asked me to put them in here for storage, I assume you're aware?" (You guessed it, we weren't).

Definitely revoking that key soon 😂

 

[dann2707]

Pretty basic but I added a Ring Spotlight Camera to our driveway/garage over the weekend as it's out of sight of the house, it's proved it's use within 24hrs.

I've caught my FIL twice so far going in and out of our garage whilst we've been out, pinching tools etc.
The 2nd time he was carrying tubs of paint in there, I asked him what he was up to and he said "your sister in law asked me to put them in here for storage, I assume you're aware?" (You guessed it, we weren't).

Definitely revoking that key soon 😂

Cheeky c**t

Can you get a smart claymore?

 

[SC03OTT]

This seems the most appropriate place to discuss the below.

Is anyone else not interested in this level of Smart Home automation? I like the idea of a few lights, speakers. But having your door open as you approach the house? Too far for me.

 

[Starlet_gt]

This seems the most appropriate place to discuss the below.

Is anyone else not interested in this level of Smart Home automation? I like the idea of a few lights, speakers. But having your door open as you approach the house? Too far for me.


View attachment 1739942

It takes a second to take your key out. I just don't see the point at all.

 

[Fantastic Nostrils]

I quite like the idea, if im honest?

Im actively looking for a Smart Lock for my front door. Number pad unlock, or with a fob. Sounds ideal to me?

No hiding a key, I can set up temporary codes if I want to allow someone access - like my parents when im away so they can feed the cats etc.

 

[dann2707]

I can absolutely assure you when you've got a baby seat in one hand, dog lead in the other hand with dog pulling having the door being already open for you would be f**king amazing.

It's an idea that I'm surprised isn't more popular tbh!

We've got keyed alike locks front and rear with thumb turns on the inside on both doors and I can't fathom why someone would still use a key on the inside. Blows my mind!

 

[mace¬]

Sounds perfect to me, setup a zone that when your phone is detected the front door unlocks, saves all the messing about with keys and keeps your hands free.

Perfect application that comes to mind would be some integration with things like AirBnBs

 

[ChrisR]

Part of the problem is they are often more insecure than a regular lock.

Think of all the issues with car keyless tech, now imagine that’s your house they are stealing 😂

But as with everything it’s a trade off, and you’ll do what works best for you

 

[ChrisR]

Also reminds me of this scene 😂

 

[Fantastic Nostrils]

Part of the problem is they are often more insecure than a regular lock.

Think of all the issues with car keyless tech, now imagine that’s your house they are stealing 😂

But as with everything it’s a trade off, and you’ll do what works best for you

I had a feeling this would come up. To be honest, I doubt doubt that. The car example is a perfect one, its amazing hoq quickly they can nick a Range Rover now.

That said, ive maintained that if someone wants to get into your house, they will. Lock, CCTV, anything. If someone wants in, they will find a way.

'Regular' lock vs Smart lock though, I think its tomato tomatos tbh.

 

[ChrisR]

I probably have a skewed view of it given my professional career, but for most it’ll likely not make any difference, smart or regular lock.

If anyone wants to get in anything enough, car, house etc, they will regardless!

 

[mace¬]

Some more progress recently.
Hive Thermostat installed
Sonoff TRV installed.

I've got them both added to Home Assistant now so when I get chance I'll check I can control them from there and then work out the automation to control the Hive from what the Sonoff TRVs are wanting.

Also got a presence sensor setup in the office now that indicates in Home Assistant that I am in the office or not. Not done anything with it yet but will likely get it to control lights, blinds, heater etc depending on temp, light levels and time of day.

Also also wired a Sonoff smart relay into the office light switch so I can now turn the non smart light on and off from Home Assistant and the switch itself without it ever becoming non controllable.

Been squirreling some pounds away for the Switch S10 robot vac. So hope to add that in the next few months and plumb into the mains so it will mop and vacuum itself for over 10 weeks with no interference needed.

Only disappointment recently is the lack of control of the Govee from Home Assistant, it is inconsistent and the control I have from it from HA is minimal. May look to upgrade all the lights to Hue backlight and lamps in the living room.

 

[-Jamie-]

So bizarre you posted this as I was going to start one about this today after my recent routines I've created. I'll list them in detail as the little things may help or inspire others!

So far I have:

- Eufy doorbell which is connected to all the alexa speakers in the house to alert us when someones pressed the doorbell.

- Living room lamp on a routine that's triggered 10 mins before sunset

- Smart electric venetian blinds that go down when the temperature of the house goes above a certain temperature so that the living room doesn't get scorching hot in summer (that window is south facing)

- Drayton wiser with smart thermostats on every radiator apart from 1 (for pressure release). Really handy lately with the baby as it's now set to keep our room the right temp overnight. This temp is confirmed with our night light/ temperature gauge.

- Just ordered a smart humidity and standalone temperature sensor for the living room that will alert us if the living room gets too hot when we have the log burner on. That's arriving Monday.

The moving on to the garage

- Smart proximity sensor on the garage door that activates the lights which are WiFi quinetic switches which again can be controlled from alexa. This means when the garage door goes up it turns the switch on and the lights go on. I've also now got a proximity sensor for identifying when no one is in the garage and this switches the lights off after 2 minutes and I've set it to turn all audio off in the garage after 20 mins. I didn't want to use the proximity sensor for light activation as I wanted the lights to be on as I approach the garage door.

- a silly one but f**king useful. Every day at 8am I've got a routine that tells alexa to stop suggesting "by the way" recommendations as it died our f**king heads in. Alexa what is 2 + 2? The answer is 4 BY THE WAY did you know if you added 1 it would be 5. f**k off and die you silly b**ch.

How you find the Drayton?

Was looking at going for Hive in our new place but seen the above mentioned a few times so tempted now. Same for the Eufy vs Ring

 

[dann2707]

How you find the Drayton?

Was looking at going for Hive in our new place but seen the above mentioned a few times so tempted now. Same for the Eufy vs Ring

Really good mate. Proper recommend it, the app is great to use and works exactly as it should with zero quirks!

Loving the eufy cam too, the battery life on it is mint

 

[mace¬]

Really good mate. Proper recommend it, the app is great to use and works exactly as it should with zero quirks!

Loving the eufy cam too, the battery life on it is mint

My Eufy S340 has been up a few months now and records on motion/people in performance mode not battery and it hasn't dropped below 80% battery life yet. Get a ping most mornings to say it is fully charged.

Great bit of kit.

 

[MatthewR]

How you find the Drayton?

Was looking at going for Hive in our new place but seen the above mentioned a few times so tempted now. Same for the Eufy vs Ring

I have the Drayton kit, had a few problems initially with the app but there's been a recent update which has really made the app alot better and I don't find that it disconnects from the hub at all where as previously it was disconnected more than it was connected.

 

[mace¬]

More progress at lunch today (proper boring but I'm excited)

Been trying to get my head around how I could reliably turn the heating on and off if I had multiple TRVs in HA telling the Hive when it needed to switch the boiler on and off. Much time of head scratching I decided I needed one thing that could tell the Hive to turn either on or off.

So the solution was to create a virtual sensor in HA that polls all the TRVs asking if they require heat. If any of the TRVs want heat then the sensor sets itself to HOT and if none want heat it sets to NORMAL.

I could then go ahead and when the sensor was set to HOT, trigger the Hive to fire up and when NORMAL switch off.

Next issue was that the Hive only works off Target temperature or a schedule. So with a bit of help from GPT I've got some custom code in HA to set the Target temp on the thermostat to really high when sensor is HOT and really low when sensor returns to NORMAL.

Can't say how impressed I am by Home Assistants abilities and pretty easy to use once you get your head round it, mostly works from a simple UI.

 

[MatthewR]

More progress at lunch today (proper boring but I'm excited)

Been trying to get my head around how I could reliably turn the heating on and off if I had multiple TRVs in HA telling the Hive when it needed to switch the boiler on and off. Much time of head scratching I decided I needed one thing that could tell the Hive to turn either on or off.

So the solution was to create a virtual sensor in HA that polls all the TRVs asking if they require heat. If any of the TRVs want heat then the sensor sets itself to HOT and if none want heat it sets to NORMAL.

I could then go ahead and when the sensor was set to HOT, trigger the Hive to fire up and when NORMAL switch off.

Next issue was that the Hive only works off Target temperature or a schedule. So with a bit of help from GPT I've got some custom code in HA to set the Target temp on the thermostat to really high when sensor is HOT and really low when sensor returns to NORMAL.

Can't say how impressed I am by Home Assistants abilities and pretty easy to use once you get your head round it, mostly works from a simple UI.

Whilst this is quite cool, would it not have been easier to use Hives TRVs and then you could say to HA - increase temp to X° in Y room? You could also set up different 'scenes' so if your at home alone working in the office you could say 'home working' and it would set the temp correctly in the office and turn everything else off?

 

[mace¬]

Whilst this is quite cool, would it not have been easier to use Hives TRVs and then you could say to HA - increase temp to X° in Y room? You could also set up different 'scenes' so if your at home alone working in the office you could say 'home working' and it would set the temp correctly in the office and turn everything else off?

Yes and no.

100% agree it would have been easier to just setup with an all Hive system but the Hive TRVs at £30 each more than the Sonoff. I think I need 8 so that is £240 saved straight off.

Not looked into it yet but I can set scenes in Home Assistant. So I guess it would be possible to do as you say.

Can also link Alexa to HA so could control the TRVs that way, but I'm trying to get away from any manual interaction so that it is all automated. You don't even know it is happening.

I'm not sure if I've gone the right way about it but I had multiple apps to control all the different manufacturers devices and HA seemed like one way I could have one central location to control everything.

It is the fun part of tinkering and getting things working also. It isn't perfect and you do need to research quite a bit to make sure there is an integration with HA that works and I have been caught out with a fair few hundreds worth of Govee kit that isn't reliable so not all plain sailing.