What Home Automation Hub do you use?

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › What Home Automation Hub do you use?

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Master Geek
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#1845299 11-Aug-2017 17:03

I'm of the opinion home owners are allowed to change out lights, led light transformers and fixtures, light switches and wall sockets under the following document...

https://www.energysafety.govt.nz/documents/legislation-policy/electricity-act-regulations-codes/standards-and-codes-of-practice/NZECP%2051%202004%20New%20Zealand%20Electrical%20Code%20of%20Practice%20for%20Homeowner%20Occupiers%20Electrical%20Wiring%20Work%20in%20Domestic%20Installations%20%20-%20Published%2027%20July%202004%20.pdf

Do you think these in wall relays are also allowed to be installed by the DIY homeowner?

kryptonjohn

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#1845300 11-Aug-2017 17:07

Absolutely, yes.

quebec

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#1846745 14-Aug-2017 22:24

rogercruse:

I've running Samsung Smartthings. Yes, Samsung, with its marketing and financial clout it should still be around in a couple of years.

The hub and add-on devices can be ordered via their website or from amazon.com

You simply connect it to your router using an ethernet cable and then setup an account on their website to use.

Works with plenty of other devices straight out of the box - like Wemo, Philips Hue, Sonos, IFTTT, etc - and also plenty of other other devices that people have managed to integrate - like Netatmo, Nest, Dlink, etc.

Very active and supportive forum.

It supports the american frequency version of Z-Waze, so I've disabled this as its a no-no in New Zealand. If anyone has connected the kiwi frequency version of Z-Wave, then I'm interested!!

Not officially supported in New Zealand, yet.

Hi I am planning to buy the hub shortly but not sure about the sensors. Lot of people have mentioned in the smart things community that Samsung sensors and switches are not as good as the iris one's. So, I was thinking of buying the hub, iris motion sensor and the door/window sensor to start with and also looking at buying the blink camera as it can be controlled by smart things app too as I understand. What are your thoughts?

rogercruse

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#1849293 20-Aug-2017 17:32

quebec:

rogercruse:

I've running Samsung Smartthings. Yes, Samsung, with its marketing and financial clout it should still be around in a couple of years.

The hub and add-on devices can be ordered via their website or from amazon.com

You simply connect it to your router using an ethernet cable and then setup an account on their website to use.

Works with plenty of other devices straight out of the box - like Wemo, Philips Hue, Sonos, IFTTT, etc - and also plenty of other other devices that people have managed to integrate - like Netatmo, Nest, Dlink, etc.

Very active and supportive forum.

It supports the american frequency version of Z-Waze, so I've disabled this as its a no-no in New Zealand. If anyone has connected the kiwi frequency version of Z-Wave, then I'm interested!!

Not officially supported in New Zealand, yet.

Hi I am planning to buy the hub shortly but not sure about the sensors. Lot of people have mentioned in the smart things community that Samsung sensors and switches are not as good as the iris one's. So, I was thinking of buying the hub, iris motion sensor and the door/window sensor to start with and also looking at buying the blink camera as it can be controlled by smart things app too as I understand. What are your thoughts?

The Samsung Smarttthings Sensors are very flexible and can be used like ordinary reed switches or a motion dedectors. But they are fairly battery hungry, you're going to get to know your battery CR2450 supplier quite well.

I've got enough Dlink cameras installed and my wife objects to any more! But would get the Netgear Arlo cameras if I were allowed!!!!

chimera

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#1850025 21-Aug-2017 21:07

> Initially I want to be able to monitor power use of devices, control switches and lights and see/do all of this remotely when away from home.

Fibaro FTW. Top quality kit, is what I run throughout my house. Zwave has the bonus as mentioned of low power consumption (vs wifi) and is fully meshed so lesser concern of being in range of the AP(s) especially if you have a large house. I use Fibaro relays/dimmers throughout my house for light switches, all integrated back into Openhab2.

Itead Sonoff POW however (ensure POW if you want power readings, non POW don't have that), are brilliant for the price. Straight out of the box, a little boring, but with a soldering iron and some re-flashing they go from handy to fantastic. Personally I run Tasmota firmware on them, get power readings and can remotely switch on and off via OH (MQTT). Use them to monitor the washing machine, dryer and swimming pool pump/heat pump at the moment. Use the non-POW model to switch a few other appliances on/off, like the HRV system or heated towel rails (which I'm not so fussed on getting power readings out of)

Talkiet

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#1850037 21-Aug-2017 21:35

Itead Sonoff POW however (ensure POW if you want power readings, non POW don't have that), are brilliant for the price. Straight out of the box, a little boring, but with a soldering iron and some re-flashing they go from handy to fantastic. Personally I run Tasmota firmware on them, get power readings and can remotely switch on and off via OH (MQTT). Use them to monitor the washing machine, dryer and swimming pool pump/heat pump at the moment. [snip]

What a great idea. I wasn't going to bother putting switches on things like my fridge, drier, dishwasher etc etc but the power monitoring alone is a neat idea, and they're cheap as chips. Off to Aliexpress I go!

(Again)

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

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davidcole

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#1850039 21-Aug-2017 21:42

chimera:
Itead Sonoff POW however (ensure POW if you want power readings, non POW don't have that), are brilliant for the price. Straight out of the box, a little boring, but with a soldering iron and some re-flashing they go from handy to fantastic. Personally I run Tasmota firmware on them, get power readings and can remotely switch on and off via OH (MQTT). Use them to monitor the washing machine, dryer and swimming pool pump/heat pump at the moment. Use the non-POW model to switch a few other appliances on/off, like the HRV system or heated towel rails (which I'm not so fussed on getting power readings out of)

How do you have these wired in? Or are you happy for them to be dealing with 240v?

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chimera

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#1850056 21-Aug-2017 22:41

They are designed for 240V.

One caveat, while hacking it (see tasmota site - or many others for detail on how) do NOT PLUG IN TO 240V! Only plug in AFTER hacking. You are not changing the circuitry on the board itself apart from soldering on some pins to access via FTDI cable to flash the firmware.

richms

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#1850058 21-Aug-2017 22:44

You dont even need to solder them in, careful bending of a header plug will have it holding into the holes well enough to complete a flash.

Richard rich.ms

chimera

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#1850062 21-Aug-2017 22:55

Oh, and check banggood - they were cheaper than AliExpress when I bought my last batch.

Dingbatt

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#1858681 5-Sep-2017 09:32

Please excuse the simplistic questions in the following as I am a Home Automation (HA) noob.

After buying a Google Home (GH) I have rekindled my HA interest. Plenty of videos online with voice activated HA either using GH or the Amazon Echo. So far I have managed to get a few things working, mainly using IFTTT and WeMo or Harmony. GH's support for Philips Hue headed me down that path but I have discovered that the Hue Hub uses a proprietary version of ZigBee and as such won't control anything other than Hue (and a few clone) lights. That and the fact that Philips have dumped the inferior gen2 bulbs on the NZ market have forced a rethink.
I was looking at importing a Samsung SmartThings hub but from what I read in this thread concerning frequencies etc, that is a non starter.
Looking on Ebay, there is a hub system produced by Xiaomi (Mi Home). It seems to be internationally available and has lots of devices able to be linked to it. Is it likely that because it is Chinese that it won't meet NZ standards either? I haven't been able to find the frequencies it uses and I'm assuming it is 240V/50Hz. It appears to be z-wave and ZigBee so does that mean it is usable with certified NZ switches?
Finally, are the systems such as Fibaro and other professional installer level equipment able to be operated by Google Assistant or Alexa?

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Dingbatt

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#1859027 5-Sep-2017 14:56

Actually further digging has shown that the Xiaomi hub is ZigBee only and runs on 240V/50Hz. So that should mean the 2.4GHz frequency is compatible with NZ but there will be less devices available for it?????
Have discovered a HA company called Homeseer. Anyone got any experience with that one?

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lchiu7

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#1859054 5-Sep-2017 15:32

Dingbatt: Please excuse the simplistic questions in the following as I am a Home Automation (HA) noob.

After buying a Google Home (GH) I have rekindled my HA interest. Plenty of videos online with voice activated HA either using GH or the Amazon Echo. So far I have managed to get a few things working, mainly using IFTTT and WeMo or Harmony. GH's support for Philips Hue headed me down that path but I have discovered that the Hue Hub uses a proprietary version of ZigBee and as such won't control anything other than Hue (and a few clone) lights. That and the fact that Philips have dumped the inferior gen2 bulbs on the NZ market have forced a rethink.

What do you mean about dumping inferior gen2 bulbs on the NZ market? I bought a few from the UK and they are the same as here and work fine.

I plan to keep using Hue bulbs since they work seamlessly with both the Echo and GH. The only downside is, devices that emulate Hue bulbs via HABridge cannot be controlled by GH when it's controlling bulbs - it get confused with the two bridges but the Echo handles it fine.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

Dingbatt

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#1859166 5-Sep-2017 18:24

lchiu7:
Dingbatt: Please excuse the simplistic questions in the following as I am a Home Automation (HA) noob.

After buying a Google Home (GH) I have rekindled my HA interest. Plenty of videos online with voice activated HA either using GH or the Amazon Echo. So far I have managed to get a few things working, mainly using IFTTT and WeMo or Harmony. GH's support for Philips Hue headed me down that path but I have discovered that the Hue Hub uses a proprietary version of ZigBee and as such won't control anything other than Hue (and a few clone) lights. That and the fact that Philips have dumped the inferior gen2 bulbs on the NZ market have forced a rethink.

What do you mean about dumping inferior gen2 bulbs on the NZ market? I bought a few from the UK and they are the same as here and work fine.

I plan to keep using Hue bulbs since they work seamlessly with both the Echo and GH. The only downside is, devices that emulate Hue bulbs via HABridge cannot be controlled by GH when it's controlling bulbs - it get confused with the two bridges but the Echo handles it fine.

Not wishing to take the thread too far off topic but from my research the gen 3 lights have superior colours particularly blue and greens when compared to the gen 2 bulbs because of the LEDs used. The only way to tell the difference when buying is a bulb with the words "richer colours" in the top right corner of the packaging and gold instead of silver lettering on the bulb itself.
A bit cunning by Philips.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

lchiu7

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#1859283 5-Sep-2017 22:06

Not wishing to take the thread too far off topic but from my research the gen 3 lights have superior colours particularly blue and greens when compared to the gen 2 bulbs because of the LEDs used. The only way to tell the difference when buying is a bulb with the words "richer colours" in the top right corner of the packaging and gold instead of silver lettering on the bulb itself.
A bit cunning by Philips.

I only use white bulbs so that's not an issue for me. I just want to control the lights - the colours are not so important.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

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