Home automation...starting with lights

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davidcole

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#198407 8-Jul-2016 08:58

I have some outdoor lights. One of them is just an energy saving bulb in a porch (no lampshade or cover). Others are with covers and there are ground lights around the place as well.

Initially I'm just thinking of that porch light, that I'd like to be able to turn it on remotely (app controlled), but whatever I do I'd like something with an API so I could expand on it.

I realise I could look at something like the philips hue and just replace the bulb. The concern I have with this, is I'd have to leave the existing switch on, and use "something" to always control is manually.

So then I thought, is there a wall switch where I can replace the current wall switch controlling this light, with something that I can API/App control + manually activate with a physical button? Does this sort of control exist?

Ideally later on I'd like to roll it out further and if it was switch based (rather than bulb based) then I'd assume I can just replace wall switches as I need. What is available here? And what would a basic (expandable system) look like?

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#1587987 8-Jul-2016 09:55

Insteon do a wall switch replacement but i'm not sure if it's available in NZ. http://www.insteon.com/wall-switches/

Wemo, also have one: http://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F7C030/

This style of 433MHz switch are available on Aliexpress and apparently soon in NZ: http://broadlink.co.nz/home/13-smart-wall-switch.html

davidcole

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#1587996 8-Jul-2016 10:22

Ew. They're all ugly. The broadlink one is the only one close. And none of them would match anything else installed in the house./

So are there any other options?

tchart

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#1588040 8-Jul-2016 11:04

davidcole:

Ew. They're all ugly. The broadlink one is the only one close. And none of them would match anything else installed in the house./

So are there any other options?

Orvibo do one - someone is actually selling one on Trademe at the moment. The design is a bit "unique".

I have the Orvibo sockets and allone (IR blaster thingy). They are ptretty good value.

reven

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#1588047 8-Jul-2016 11:11

zwave and use openhab or similar to control it. very expandable and lots of APIs, also not tied to one system.

but home automation is an expensive hobby to get into, you suddenly find yourself buy more and more stuff. so be warned.

im probably going to sell all my zwave stuff, moving house, ripped it all out, not sure if I can be bothered installing it in the new house.

chimera

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#1588521 8-Jul-2016 21:41

Do it properly from the start and go zwave plus. Get yourself a zwave controller like an aeotec for starters and use something like openhab or home assistant as the controller (free)

For switches, go Fibaro all the way. Keep your existing switches and wire in Fibaro relays which are small enough to just sit behind the switch in the wall. Zwave gives you full feedback of switch state, energy usage and more, uses way less power than wifi, is a fully meshed and self healing network. It will become the standard for home automation.

Fibaro is a tad more expensive but best quality you can buy. I run Fibaro for most of my house. If you are in Auckland go see there showroom in Eden Terrace to check out what you can do.

My advice, don't skimp and buy cheap kit, go good quality from the start.

Otherwise if you want cheap, I have 2 X Wemo light switches I've replaced that I'll sell you, $100 for both...

davidcole

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#1704459 17-Jan-2017 08:23

Just to resurrect an old thread

So is zwave still the way to to go? There's not a lot of stockists here. Was looking at the fibaro 2way or 1 way relay switches.

Then my last question is the controller. Would a raspberry pi (b model) be ok for this? I assume the raszberry or a usb connected one?

I'm fairly good on OpenHab now and know you can get an openhab binding, but I'm a little hazy on how openhab will deal with a zwave network that is remote (and how you can configure it on a headless raspberry pi).

reven

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#1704460 17-Jan-2017 08:33

wemo light switches are pretty cheap now, $40, connect to your wifi. openhab has a binding for them.

only issue is they dont officially support 3 way switches, but i run wemoserver.jar on a VM so when one of my 3 way switches is toggled, it send the same command to the other so they work that way.

the wemoserver.jar also allows you to double click a switch, so i use double click to turn on different lights in a room (table side lights for example) or the stair lights i use double click to turn off upstairs, or turn off downstairs (depending where I am). saves me going around checking all the lights are off.

wemo also works well with amazons alexa and echo (dot). wemo just announced a dimmer switch at ces2017, so will get that when its available.

i just had too many issues with zwave, sometimes commands wouldnt get through and would hold up every other command until that one timed out or eventually got through. im not a huge fan of that protocol. wifi stuff just makes more sense in this day and age.

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davidcole

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#1704463 17-Jan-2017 08:36

reven:

wemo light switches are pretty cheap now, $40, connect to your wifi. openhab has a binding for them.

only issue is they dont officially support 3 way switches, but i run wemoserver.jar on a VM so when one of my 3 way switches is toggled, it send the same command to the other so they work that way.

the wemoserver.jar also allows you to double click a switch, so i use double click to turn on different lights in a room (table side lights for example) or the stair lights i use double click to turn off upstairs, or turn off downstairs (depending where I am). saves me going around checking all the lights are off.

wemo also works well with amazons alexa and echo (dot). wemo just announced a dimmer switch at ces2017, so will get that when its available.

i just had too many issues with zwave, sometimes commands wouldnt get through and would hold up every other command until that one timed out or eventually got through. im not a huge fan of that protocol. wifi stuff just makes more sense in this day and age.

The main advantage I see with the zwave relays is that they go inside the wall, and you continue to use your existing physical switch.

There's no equivalent in the wemo range is there? Or does that mean replacing the physical switch?

davidcole

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#1704464 17-Jan-2017 08:38

Does wemo do a 2 way switch? or is it single only?

SumnerBoy

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#1704466 17-Jan-2017 08:47

I personally find the ZWave protocol extremely reliable. The more mains powered devices you have the better your mesh becomes, and the more stable the network is IME. If you just have a few devices scattered around then it can have problems with timeouts etc. WIFI is great but has its own issues with range and signal strength - it is just the nature of RF comms. In my place, since I have so many mains powered ZWave devices (20+) I find the ZWave network is far stronger and more robust throughout the house than WIFI.

For things like retrospective lighting control I don't think you can do much better than ZWave. Being able to hide the devices inside the flush boxes out of sight and allow the wall switches to work as normal, whilst having automation control over them, is a big plus and allows non-tech users to be oblivious of their existance.

If I was building new however, I would probably look to run low voltage wiring for all lights and switches back to a central hub and control all lighting from there - rather than rely on any RF at all!

reven

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#1704467 17-Jan-2017 08:50

davidcole:

Does wemo do a 2 way switch? or is it single only?

yeah I meant a 2 way switch not 3 way (thought 3way 4way etc same principal, need s/w running somewhere (which is very reliable s/w btw, been running it for about 3 months now with no issues)

SumnerBoy

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#1704469 17-Jan-2017 08:53

That is another plus for the Z-Wave in-wall relays - the 2/3/4 way circuits *just-work*. You just have to ensure the relay is at the switch which is connected to the load. Then all the extra switches in the circuit will still switch the relay/light as normal, as well as having software control. I do this in a number of places at my place.

reven

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#1704473 17-Jan-2017 08:56

SumnerBoy:

I personally find the ZWave protocol extremely reliable. The more mains powered devices you have the better your mesh becomes, and the more stable the network is IME. If you just have a few devices scattered around then it can have problems with timeouts etc. WIFI is great but has its own issues with range and signal strength - it is just the nature of RF comms. In my place, since I have so many mains powered ZWave devices (20+) I find the ZWave network is far stronger and more robust throughout the house than WIFI.

For things like retrospective lighting control I don't think you can do much better than ZWave. Being able to hide the devices inside the flush boxes out of sight and allow the wall switches to work as normal, whilst having automation control over them, is a big plus and allows non-tech users to be oblivious of their existance.

If I was building new however, I would probably look to run low voltage wiring for all lights and switches back to a central hub and control all lighting from there - rather than rely on any RF at all!

yeah I had the complete opposite experience to you. I had about 15-20 zwave light switches around the house, motion sensors, door sensors, etc. the light switches generally worked, but they could get hung up if something else wasnt working. i found a small set of things worked a lot better than a large set. when I just had a motion sensor and a light in the hallway that always worked. when I added a few more it still worked, when I added heaps, openHAB would have so many errors of things timing out. Vera was probably more reliable but rules not advanced enough. Was going to try Fibaro home controller, but they didnt support plugins at that time.

wifi should extend your entire house these days and be more reliable than zwave. Ive got 2 ubiquti access points and my 270m2 house is covered by those. Only issue I have with the wemo devices is when you first get them you must update the firmware which 1 out of 5 times can be tricky and take an hour or so. just the firmware it shipped with is unreliable, updated firmware is not.

but yeah, wemo are replacements they dont go behind (way easier to replace though, well for a person who doesnt know much). I would suggest starting off small which ever way you go and see how it works.

davidcole

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#1704475 17-Jan-2017 08:59

reven:

davidcole:

Does wemo do a 2 way switch? or is it single only?

yeah I meant a 2 way switch not 3 way (thought 3way 4way etc same principal, need s/w running somewhere (which is very reliable s/w btw, been running it for about 3 months now with no issues)

Sorry when I say two switch, I mean a 2 gang wall switch with two lights connected to it. A 3 way is a 3 gang wall switch.

I don't think I should be using that term, as 2 way I think is supposed to mean a single light controlled via two difference switches.

richms

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#1704476 17-Jan-2017 09:02

Ive bought quite a few of the wemo bulbs at $16-20 recently. Pair straight up to the $50 smart things hub I bought and gives me alexa and google home control of them.

Have bought a couple of cheap zigbee switch things. the Mi cube has arrived (in about 5 days from china) and I found a device handler for it on the smart things forums fine, works great. The lightswitch shaped controllers are still on their way.

Richard rich.ms

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