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Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

home-assistant.io

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Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#71

Post by kilo_bravo_3 »

Lightbody wrote: post #54

Since this comment thread involved a lot of people talking about their smart devices, I’ll just put out a PSA: don’t bother with cheaper zwave light switches and dimmers :) if you’re looking for a high quality decent price option, just get Lutron Caseta. Or if you want higher end / better style, get Lutron’s RA 2 Select hub (basically Caseta++) for $100 more and then you can use Caseta dimmers or higher end Maestro d…

Caseta is the way to go.

I HAD a mix of Elgato, iDevices, Belkin, and Insignia switches and outlets, added ad-hoc based on promotional pricing and free time.

It was an unreliable mish-mash with varying levels of compatibility with iOS, Android, and Alexa. Seeing or hearing "The device is not responding" was common.

I scrapped it all and went Caseta for everything, giving every device a "one last chance" and swapping it out with a Caseta device if it failed to do what I told it to do. My home is now 100% Caseta. I haven't had an unscheduled outage since the the hub was installed.

This stuff is going to be in your walls for years. Pay the extra $25 per device.

Also, throw your wire nuts in the trash and use Wago lever connectors every time you unscrew a wall plate to replace something.

Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#72

Post by bradfitz »

Lightbody wrote: post #54

Since this comment thread involved a lot of people talking about their smart devices, I’ll just put out a PSA: don’t bother with cheaper zwave light switches and dimmers :) if you’re looking for a high quality decent price option, just get Lutron Caseta. Or if you want higher end / better style, get Lutron’s RA 2 Select hub (basically Caseta++) for $100 more and then you can use Caseta dimmers or higher end Maestro d…

Lutron devices don't form a mesh network, though?

And a limit of only one range extender.

And only 50 devices?

http://www.casetawireless.com/Pages/faqs.aspx

I'll stick with Z-Wave, even though it's not perfect. And it's true that there's some terrible Z-Wave hardware but there's also better (and pricier) gear.

Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#73

Post by sprobertson »

Klathmon wrote: post #12
Djvacto wrote: post #5

I have a raspberry pi where I installed Home Assistant a few months ago when I moved into my new home. I did a little bit of messing with it, but stopped while waiting to have more devices that could communicate with it. What are some of the more useful things people have found they are able to accomplish with this, and what was the best way to go about them? Ideas I currently am toying with: presence sensors to turn…

some of the stuff i've wired up around my house: * zwave motion sensors that can turn on the stairs lights at night when I start to walk down * door/window sensors that will automatically turn the AC off if they are open for more than a minute. * several methods of presence detection for anyone in the house, and ensuring the doors are locked, lights out, and garage doors down if nobody is home (after an announcement…

What's your setup for the front door camera? That's something I'd like to add to my house, I know there are a packaged solutions but I want to build it.

Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#74

Post by balloob »

hirundo wrote: post #63
balloob wrote: post #7

Founder of Home Assistant here. Happy to answer any questions.

My initial experience with Home Assistant has been very frustrating. I filled my house with HomeSeer HS-WD100+ and HS-WS100+ wall dimmers/switches. I thought I was safe as they are best sellers in zwave devices. But Home Assistant doesn't seem to support them without elaborate workarounds that, as a noob, I haven't been able to penetrate. The forums have been talking about a solution coming soon ... for years now. In…

On the YAML front: we've added support for configuring integrations via the UI, no YAML involved[1]. However each integration will need to be adopted individually for this. YAML will still be around for power users and people who like to use version control.

For Z-Wave: the current integration is based on openzwave, a reverse engineered implementation of the Z-Wave protocol with an irregular release interval. As we depend on their releases, it's out of our control.

However, there is hope :) Sillicon Labs (owner Z-Wave) has recently published an official SDK for Z-Wave[2]. Once Home Assistant Cloud is generating money, the plan is to pay a developer to integrate it into Home Assistant. Once we're on an official stack, I expect our Z-Wave story to improve significantly.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qpKe-FW9Yk [2]: http://zwavepublic.com/developer

Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#75

Post by vvanders »

Lightbody wrote: post #54

Since this comment thread involved a lot of people talking about their smart devices, I’ll just put out a PSA: don’t bother with cheaper zwave light switches and dimmers :) if you’re looking for a high quality decent price option, just get Lutron Caseta. Or if you want higher end / better style, get Lutron’s RA 2 Select hub (basically Caseta++) for $100 more and then you can use Caseta dimmers or higher end Maestro d…

+1

Just put in a bunch of Caseta dimmers this week and agree. I wish they had the same design as their other dimmers(one large button, rocker for dim) but they're still a great product regardless.

Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#76

Post by Klathmon »

lostapathy wrote: post #61
Klathmon wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the motion sensors and door/window sensors are zwave. They are battery powered, but i've had the oldest ones for almost 2 years now and haven't had to replace the batteries yet, and when I do I can get a pack of like 10 for $15 so it's not bad. All of the light switches are zwave as well, and they go in the wall behind the toggle switches, so from the outside you can't see any difference. I get most of them from amaz…

Can you share specifically which zwave sensors you're having good luck with? I have had mixed luck with sensors.

By far my favorite was the aeotec micro smart switch energy gen2

It's not sold any more, and it's not zwave plus, but I have like 12 of them and they are by far the best i've used. They are small, run consistently 100% of the time, have good range, and more.

I have 2 of the aeotec nano switches which are zwave plus, but they are also $60 so it's almost double the money...

I've also used fibaro but ended up removing it because there was a delay between when i flipped the toggle and when it would turn the light on, and that was not okay in my book.

I am looking to replace the light switches with zwave-plus modules simply for the extra security, but i'm not in a massive rush.

In the sensors world, i use ecolink's door window sensors. They are cheap and work well enough, although I did have 2 out of about 20 that were bad and needed to be replaced shortly after installing them.

I am also trying out zooz 4-in-1 sensors for motion right now. They work pretty damn well with a lot of control over sensitivity and range, so I'm happy.

For the garage doors I use linear/gocontrol's GD00Z-4 modules, and my door locks are kwikset with a zwave plugin board, and there are a few plugs around the house from various companies that all have worked perfectly so I don't really have anything bad about them (ge, aeotec, r-tech)

Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#77

Post by tssva »

I last took a crack at setting up a home automation system about 10 months ago. At the time I found Home Assistant to be the easiest open source solution to setup and configure. Unfortunately this was a very low bar.

Although the basic documentation regarding installation and configuration of the core Home Assistant was ok the documentation for the individual components used to integrate and automate were either extremely incomplete or outdated. Successful configuration of the system required searching forums to dig out the required configuration items that weren't documented anywhere else.

Creation of a usable interface was another struggle. Again proper documentation was an issue and even once that was found configuring anything useful was just a tedious process.

Unfortunately I had to give up on an open source solution and reluctantly moved to a commercial home automation system which turned out to be worlds above any of the open source solutions when it came to ease of configuration and UI/UX.

Hopefully the open source solutions mature quickly and using them nolonger approximates the experience of maintaining my linux desktop in the 90s.

Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#78

Post by Klathmon »

driverdan wrote: post #67
Klathmon wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

some of the stuff i've wired up around my house: * zwave motion sensors that can turn on the stairs lights at night when I start to walk down * door/window sensors that will automatically turn the AC off if they are open for more than a minute. * several methods of presence detection for anyone in the house, and ensuring the doors are locked, lights out, and garage doors down if nobody is home (after an announcement…

> ...notify me when laundry is done You could hook into the buzzer circuit for this notification.

I have a rule that all my "modifications" must be easily undone, and can't impact the "thing" if it stops working.

So where possible, I shy away from any modifications to the device itself that aren't extremely simple to undo.

A vibration sensor and hall sensor on an esp8266 is cheap, works consistently, and is VERY easy to take off if I don't want it any more.

I did hook into a humidifier once kind of like this, I hooked the esp8266 up to the on-off button, but I try to avoid it if I can.

Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#79

Post by gbrayut »

balloob wrote: post #74
hirundo wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My initial experience with Home Assistant has been very frustrating. I filled my house with HomeSeer HS-WD100+ and HS-WS100+ wall dimmers/switches. I thought I was safe as they are best sellers in zwave devices. But Home Assistant doesn't seem to support them without elaborate workarounds that, as a noob, I haven't been able to penetrate. The forums have been talking about a solution coming soon ... for years now. In…

On the YAML front: we've added support for configuring integrations via the UI, no YAML involved[1]. However each integration will need to be adopted individually for this. YAML will still be around for power users and people who like to use version control. For Z-Wave: the current integration is based on openzwave, a reverse engineered implementation of the Z-Wave protocol with an irregular release interval. As we d…

Glad to hear there are plans to improve it. I'd be willing to do a patreon or monthly donation just for better zwave!

Keep up the great work!

Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#80

Post by Klathmon »

sprobertson wrote: post #73
Klathmon wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

some of the stuff i've wired up around my house: * zwave motion sensors that can turn on the stairs lights at night when I start to walk down * door/window sensors that will automatically turn the AC off if they are open for more than a minute. * several methods of presence detection for anyone in the house, and ensuring the doors are locked, lights out, and garage doors down if nobody is home (after an announcement…

What's your setup for the front door camera? That's something I'd like to add to my house, I know there are a packaged solutions but I want to build it.

So I bought a ring a while back, I fucking hate the thing. It's unreliable, it's closed off, and has an awful API.

But until I get around to replacing it, I also have normal IP cameras out front. So i combined the API from Ring with the IP cameras that let you access the video stream to take a snapshot on motion or a doorbell ring, and use HTML5 notifications to send it to all my devices.

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