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Replace Philips Hue Automation with Home Assistant's

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Re: Replace Philips Hue Automation with Home Assistant's

#41

Post by nickthegreek »

15155 wrote: post #30
perching_aix wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Q: > Why is "work[s] totally independently of Home Assistant" a desirable property? A: > the idea that a botched software upgrade or failed VM could make it so I can't turn my lights on and off feels like a bit too much. Caseta doesn't use an open protocol, but it does allow all your switches, remotes, lights, etc, to work totally independently of HomeAssistant or Internet/WiFi

Z-Wave has this. Also: how hard is it to back up 6 YAML files and a small config directory?

The google drive cloud backup integration can even automate this.

Re: Replace Philips Hue Automation with Home Assistant's

#43

Post by Caligatio »

philjohn wrote: post #2

If you're going down the HomeAssistant route I'd recommend ditching any proprietary hubs and getting a Zigbee dongle instead, I've been using the Sonoff Zigbee dongle and even though it's connected to the server, in a rack, in the garage (so thick breezeblock walls between it and the rest of the house) there are enough always on mesh nodes in the lights themselves that the network is steady. Granted, the Dongle itsel…

Going this route then eliminates the free/included Google Assistant integration that comes along with using the bridge and app, correct? I really would like to ditch the hub but also want to use voice activation on a few lights.

Re: Replace Philips Hue Automation with Home Assistant's

#44

Post by bsimpson »

jliptzin wrote: post #33
rainsford wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zigbee is good, but for lights or anything else you really want to always work, I'd recommend going with something that also works independently of HomeAssistant and Internet access even if you then need a proprietary hub to integrate with HomeAssistant. Lutron's Caseta system is what I went with. I've found HomeAssistant with Zigbee to be extremely reliable, but the idea that a botched software upgrade or failed VM…

I love my Lutron Caseta. Falls back to regular light switches if wifi is out, plus I didn’t have to change any light bulbs! Never had any problems with them. These “smart” devices should always fail back to dumb mode. If there’s ever a situation where the dumb version is better, they’re doing it wrong.

It depends on your setup.

My last apartment had fancy light fixtures with esoteric bulbs and old wiring. Caseta was the right choice there.

My new apartment has a kitchenette with proprietary LED lights, so I've migrated my Caseta system there. However, the living room and the bedroom don't have any built-in lighting at all - just some lightswitches hardwired to control certain outlets. I've circumvented the switches and replaced them with a Hue Wall Switch Module: a little transmitter that takes the analog circuit switch and converts it to a digital Zigbee event. This allows me to put lamps with Zigbee bulbs wherever I like and still control them with the built-in wall switch.

I know Zigbee bulbs can end up turning themselves on after a power outage, and I'm sure that can be annoying. However, there are some scenarios (like mine) where permitting the digital rough edges ultimately gives you a better solution than relying on whatever arbitrary decisions the electrician made.

Re: Replace Philips Hue Automation with Home Assistant's

#45

Post by mjx0 »

Scene_Cast2 wrote: post #39

Fair warning to anyone who hasn't touched Home Assistant - HA brings so much value, but is simultaneously so frustratingly atrocious. For example, it operates on an "update" data model. There is no difference between a sensor being offline and not reporting info vs a sensor being online but reporting a repeating (previously seen) value. Add to that the way data is stored (two week retention; this weird relationship w…

Have you found a better alternative?

I'm trying to center around MQTT, myself, but looking for a way to use many of the wonderful integrations created by the Home Assistant community. I'm also trying to find a good solution to "react to state changes".

Re: Replace Philips Hue Automation with Home Assistant's

#46

Post by nemosaltat »

mikeyouse wrote: post #31
15155 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are Lutron Caseta or RadioRA any different than a locally-hosted Home Assistant installation with an attached Z-Wave or Zigbee radio? Why is "work[s] totally independently of Home Assistant" a desirable property? https://www.zwaveoutlet.com/pages/z-wave-associations https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/application-notes/AP...

Lutron has a physical switch that you replace your lightswitch with -- it works via the Caseta smart stuff, or it just works as a normal light switch that's 100% bulletproof. Also they use a much lower and less busy frequency (433mhz) so you get great range, no interference, and very low battery consumption when using the remote products. I went from 1/20 button pushes not doing what I wanted on Philips to 0 failures…

Worked for them in various capacities for 6 years. It’s still what’s mostly in my house and mostly what I recommend for lighting control on projects. I’ll admit I have been eying Casambi with some interest.

Re: Replace Philips Hue Automation with Home Assistant's

#47

Post by BeefWellington »

mjx0 wrote: post #45
Scene_Cast2 wrote: post #39

Fair warning to anyone who hasn't touched Home Assistant - HA brings so much value, but is simultaneously so frustratingly atrocious. For example, it operates on an "update" data model. There is no difference between a sensor being offline and not reporting info vs a sensor being online but reporting a repeating (previously seen) value. Add to that the way data is stored (two week retention; this weird relationship w…

Have you found a better alternative? I'm trying to center around MQTT, myself, but looking for a way to use many of the wonderful integrations created by the Home Assistant community. I'm also trying to find a good solution to "react to state changes".

I've replaced all of HA with just some Python interacting with an MQTT server. I just script all the automation and don't have to care about the other 90% of what HomeAssistant brings to the table.

Not for everyone obviously but it's simple and works well.

Re: Replace Philips Hue Automation with Home Assistant's

#48

Post by holoduke »

15155 wrote: post #38
mikeyouse wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I just went into the first one, and you can't use it if you have e.g. low volt LEDs in your kitchen like I do.. and they all look to be in the 900mhz range. I'm sure there's some combination of Zigbee stuff that could match the Lutron setup -- they look more customizable so maybe that's a plus for people too. We were just tired of fighting to get our smart home to not be annoying so plug and play with Lutron was…

> and they all look to be in the 900mhz range Why is this an issue? Z-Wave is a mesh network, all hardwired switches/outlets/etc. are repeaters by default. > low volt LEDs in your kitchen like I do What is "low volt?" 12-24V? I have this in my kitchen using a 110V -> 24V dimmable LED PSU and a Z-Wave triac dimmer. Zigbee is not Z-Wave - Z-Wave has far more definition and structure to available devices and can do ever…

Zwave is a proprietary protocol. Its old and unnecessary complex. Zigbee devices are a lot cheaper. And in many cases better performing than zwave mesh networks. A few years ago you still had zwave devices you did not have zigbee variants for. But now? Cant think of one.

Re: Replace Philips Hue Automation with Home Assistant's

#49

Post by jacobolus »

jliptzin wrote: post #33
rainsford wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zigbee is good, but for lights or anything else you really want to always work, I'd recommend going with something that also works independently of HomeAssistant and Internet access even if you then need a proprietary hub to integrate with HomeAssistant. Lutron's Caseta system is what I went with. I've found HomeAssistant with Zigbee to be extremely reliable, but the idea that a botched software upgrade or failed VM…

I love my Lutron Caseta. Falls back to regular light switches if wifi is out, plus I didn’t have to change any light bulbs! Never had any problems with them. These “smart” devices should always fail back to dumb mode. If there’s ever a situation where the dumb version is better, they’re doing it wrong.

> If there’s ever a situation where the dumb version is better, they’re doing it wrong.

Not sure what this means, but personally I dramatically prefer traditional "dumb" wired light switches that flip up or down to interrupt a physical circuit vs. Caseta wireless doodads with their little blinking LEDs, microswitches, and inability for "three way" switches to properly respect the primary dimmer slider's physical position.

Our contractor put in Caseta and it made me very happy to replace them with ordinary light switches. It makes me sad how much marketing and sales effort is going into pushing people into a brittle and overcomplicated computerized system trying to "fix" something that isn't broken.

Re: Replace Philips Hue Automation with Home Assistant's

#50

Post by paxys »

I feel like the point of buying Philips Hue products and paying 4x the normal price is that everything is mostly set up out of the box and the app is very intuitive. All the non technical people I know use them and have no problems. If you want to go the Home Assistant route, you may as well go all the way and get a Zigbee/Matter hub and off-brand bulbs. That way you keep full control of the ecosystem and pay a fraction of the price.
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