Your Latest Home Assistant Project

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Your Latest Home Assistant Project

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Obraik

2123 posts

Uber Geek

#3074982 11-May-2023 12:19

Krispkiwi:

Other than phillips hue plugs, are there any other zigbee plugs in NZ that are certified here? I couldn't locate any when I did a search on the weekend.

If you don't mind replacing the entire wall outlet, PDL's Iconic Wiser outlets are Zigbee. I don't believe they do energy monitoring though, if that's a requirement.

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sudo

391 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3076464 15-May-2023 18:27

Wanted to remotely monitor temps and control the fan in my cold smoking cabinet (upgrading the cheap USB fan, that I have to replace every year)

Used a ESP32, a couple sealed Dallas Temp sensors (DS18B20) and a 60mm PWM fan (from an old Dell server).

It sits nicely in the exhaust vent

The speed of the fan is calculated from the temperature from the internal sensor.

I based my code (esphome markup) from this https://github.com/3ative/PWM-Fan-controller/blob/main/fan-media-centre.yaml

tim0001

265 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3095367 27-Jun-2023 11:39

My latest project has been to add some humidity sensors. I looked for a while and found some XIAOMI bluetooth ones that were interesting.

XIAOMI Mijia Bluetooth Thermometer Hygrometer:

Cheap ($21 for 2 including shipping from Aliexpress)
Reflashable with custom firmware
Integrates with Home Assistant
Battery potentially lasts a couple of years

The custom firmware https://github.com/pvvx/ATC_MiThermometer can be flashed via Chrome and over-the-air (OTA) without opening the device and unlocks several customisation options. Its pretty impressive in my opinion. Below are some of the options. The source code is available if you want to tinker further.

My HA server doesn’t have Bluetooth, so I’m using an esp32 as a bluetooth proxy https://esphome.github.io/bluetooth-proxies/ . (Not the best bluetooth HW, but thats what I had to hand)

The BThome BLE integration was used on HA.

Anyway, a fun and quick project, so I thought I would share in case anyone else was interested.

Silvrav

469 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

#3095374 27-Jun-2023 11:49

Nice! They a lot cheaper then my aqara sensors I got to do the same, and it does not have a screen either :p

SpookyAwol

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3095396 27-Jun-2023 12:43

I started out using those for a while too - but decided ultimately to go the zigbee route for a couple of reasons, mainly as the RPI was limited with its bluetooth range and I intended to swap to an x64 which would then require bluetooth dongle of some sort. I also planned on door sensors which were easily available in zigbee with a supervisor.

They were still reliable and as you mentioned real cheap. I did find the batteries only lasted about 9 monthsish, but that was with the supplied ones.
Write a partial mac address on the side so you can keep track of them ;)

tim0001

265 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3095408 27-Jun-2023 13:33

SpookyAwol:

I started out using those for a while too - but decided ultimately to go the zigbee route for a couple of reasons, mainly as the RPI was limited with its bluetooth range and I intended to swap to an x64 which would then require bluetooth dongle of some sort. I also planned on door sensors which were easily available in zigbee with a supervisor.

They were still reliable and as you mentioned real cheap. I did find the batteries only lasted about 9 monthsish, but that was with the supplied ones.
Write a partial mac address on the side so you can keep track of them ;)

Yeah, bluetooth wouldn't be my 1st choice for wireless. But I'm starting to like it a bit more. If its still working in a month a look at getting a dongle that does Bluetooth Long Range (I don't think the ESP32 does that).

Did you try the custom firmware? It allows you to change the advertising interval to boast battery life

source: https://github.com/pvvx/ATC_MiThermometer

SpookyAwol

626 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3095424 27-Jun-2023 14:40

tim0001:

Did you try the custom firmware? It allows you to change the advertising interval to boast battery life

I did, although using the original. Its been forked many times since then and features added it seems.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

chimera

506 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3095491 27-Jun-2023 15:55

Also on the look out for new and cool home automation devices. My house pretty much is a giant automated robot now, every light (fibaro zwave) and every blind (zigbee or RF, battery backed up) on sunset/sunrise schedules, amazon echos in each room, alarm PIRs integrated, zigbee smoke alarms, HRV, door locks, main door contact sensors, zigbee power socket for washing machine to notify when washing complete, robot vacuum, google travel time estimates, HA glow for energy, LED light strips, harmony hub and TVs, heatpumps (ambiclimate), temperature and movement sensors, 3D printer (octoprint), printer and toner levels, pool temperature and pool pump wattage, garden sprinkler, QNAP status, device tracking (iPhone and laptop) are all integrated with HA. Lost track of automation rules and what everything does now.

What I'm scared of is frying my Odroid that runs the house, I'd start having to push buttons again LOL (do have cloud config backups tho)

I saw the sensor under bed mattress on youtube video so will do that soon as I can think of a few conveniences of having that as an option.

Oddly my favourite I've used for years is still "Alexa, turn on bed time".

Checks door state sensors and notifies via Alexa if open
Locks front door
Turns off TV
Turns on living area strip lights at 50% brightness for 30 secs
Turns off all other living area lights
Turns off outside lights
Turns on hallway sensor light for 1 min
Closes blinds (if still open)
Turns on ensuite light

Other one I find convenient is because I integrated my alarm PIRs into HA, if sun is > 2 degrees above horizon AND condition sleep in mode is off and sun is rising, then turn on boolean helper switch. Then if lounge PIR triggered AND condition boolean is true, then turn off boolean, open living area blinds, wait 10 secs, then turn off living area lights.

And these scene buttons are super handy, eg one on wall next to couch. Eg; press left button, locks front door, dbl press unlocks, press right button mutes TV, dbl press unmutes etc.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002469399775.html

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