HA Best Options, new setup.

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tehsimz

12 posts

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#299251 24-Aug-2022 11:20

Hi Guys looking to get started with HA, have been looking for years. Is Zwave dead in NZ due to our spectrum? Zigbee a better option? What are people doing with there alarms? Any cheap wired kits?

Was looking at a DSC PowerNeo /w the HA IP board?

Also was thinking about buying new switches all around? I dont like the idea that you toggle them randomly switch position wise? Is there a sping loaded rocker style ? Like you garage door?

Also is there any better options around tablets / wallboards? I like the idea of reusing a old tablet but the battery like a bad idea? I know you can remove it but are there any like PoE Android tablets or HA specfiic PoE screens? Pi options look jank?

Are those old 2gig / Morepork sensors and kits worth buying?

Cheers,

Rich.

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#2958609 24-Aug-2022 11:23

Zigbee is an option, as is Bluetooth Low Energy / BLE. It really depends what you're trying to achieve with HA. Looks like you want an alarm integrated with HA, plus some kind of switching?

In my opinion HA is effectively a programming language, it takes a fair bit of work to get it all working how you want it. Because of that I'd suggest starting small, automating some things, creating a dashboard, and add things on as you go. I started with HA maybe six months ago, it's a fairly steep learning curve, even though I'm very technical and an ex software developer. The documentation is ok, there's lots of community support and tutorials around, but it's flexibility is a blessing and a curse.

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Chippo

129 posts

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#2958610 24-Aug-2022 11:27

I run Home Assistant on an Old Intel NUC - but have a PoE Home Assistant Yellow on Order

Used to run HA on Docker - but switched to the Home Assistant OS about 6 months ago and I do recommend that path instead.
Currently using a Conbee II USB Stick for Zigbee, but will retire this when my Yellow arrives
Using Konnected.io to convert my Alarm PIRs and Sirens to be Home Assistant compatible. It's great as well
Zigbee gets much better when you also have permanently powered devices to extend the network
I used to be heavily WiFi + Cloud - this was a mistake. Zigbee is significantly more reliable (And the vendors can't EOL a $500 product on a whim)
I've never used Z-Wave because getting devices certified for use here is Horrifically expensive, if you can find them at all

I work for a global Data Protection Software company - But my opinions are my own.

timmmay

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#2958611 24-Aug-2022 11:31

Also have a look at Wireless Sensor Tags, looks like it's a much longer range protocol. @rphenix says they use them and they work well.

I run HA on a Raspberry Pi 4, it's easily powerful enough to run HA and a bunch of other things at the same time. If I wasn't in a hurry I'd possibly get one of the official hardware things like the HA Yellow.

sdavisnz

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#2958661 24-Aug-2022 11:39

its worth noting later this year we will start to see the first round of thread devices coming for the smart home, running on matter, all the large vendors will support it and it runs locally on the network so no delay, and even if a vendor shuts down, the device will continue to work, it does not rely on a vendor cloud system to run.

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tehsimz

12 posts

Geek

#2958674 24-Aug-2022 11:54

Chippo:

I run Home Assistant on an Old Intel NUC - but have a PoE Home Assistant Yellow on Order

Used to run HA on Docker - but switched to the Home Assistant OS about 6 months ago and I do recommend that path instead.
Currently using a Conbee II USB Stick for Zigbee, but will retire this when my Yellow arrives
Using Konnected.io to convert my Alarm PIRs and Sirens to be Home Assistant compatible. It's great as well
Zigbee gets much better when you also have permanently powered devices to extend the network
I used to be heavily WiFi + Cloud - this was a mistake. Zigbee is significantly more reliable (And the vendors can't EOL a $500 product on a whim)
I've never used Z-Wave because getting devices certified for use here is Horrifically expensive, if you can find them at all

Awesome thanks for clearing that up. I was going to run docker /w usb stick on my nas but getting the yellow seams like a better idea / supports that new matter standard.

Zwave seams like its a hard sell here in NZ. Do all the Zigbee devices from alliexpress work frequency wise?

Ive been thinking about getting a PoE version of Konnected but have no sensors in new place.

Any one using smart switches wired in? I See shellys are popular? I guess the switch position is like a 2way?

johno1234

2618 posts

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#2958737 24-Aug-2022 12:48

tehsimz:

Chippo:

I run Home Assistant on an Old Intel NUC - but have a PoE Home Assistant Yellow on Order

Used to run HA on Docker - but switched to the Home Assistant OS about 6 months ago and I do recommend that path instead.
Currently using a Conbee II USB Stick for Zigbee, but will retire this when my Yellow arrives
Using Konnected.io to convert my Alarm PIRs and Sirens to be Home Assistant compatible. It's great as well
Zigbee gets much better when you also have permanently powered devices to extend the network
I used to be heavily WiFi + Cloud - this was a mistake. Zigbee is significantly more reliable (And the vendors can't EOL a $500 product on a whim)
I've never used Z-Wave because getting devices certified for use here is Horrifically expensive, if you can find them at all

Awesome thanks for clearing that up. I was going to run docker /w usb stick on my nas but getting the yellow seams like a better idea / supports that new matter standard.

Zwave seams like its a hard sell here in NZ. Do all the Zigbee devices from alliexpress work frequency wise?

Ive been thinking about getting a PoE version of Konnected but have no sensors in new place.

Any one using smart switches wired in? I See shellys are popular? I guess the switch position is like a 2way?

I have HA under docker on Raspberry Pi. Next time I will use HA OS as docker just gets in the way for me.

As to the OT: Z-wave is great but far too expensive, especially if you want to add dozens of devices at $100+ each. wifi devices like Shelly are much less expensive. What is the advantage of Zigbee over wifi?

timmmay

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#2958753 24-Aug-2022 13:19

Zigbee supports what are effectively repeaters to create a mesh network. You can use BLE which is short to moderate distance, a USB BLE stick with an external antenna helps a lot. You can also set up additional Raspberry Pi's with bluetooth to act as repeaters, though I have never done that myself.

michelangelonz

114 posts

Master Geek

#2958830 24-Aug-2022 16:01

I use HA in a Virtualbox Virtual Machine on my home server it has been rock solid for the last 3 years. There is a pre-made image of the HA operating system that will get you started.

I use Zwave from Fibaro. I get them from an Australian supplier who sells the modules with the AS/NZS frequencies and they have a SDoC for AS/NZS. Lighting control is a mixture of these and Phillips Hue lamps.

I also have Konnected IO that is wired to a Bosh Alarm system, several cameras and two Tado Aircon controllers. I just recently installed a fire tablet which is wall mounted in a frame for the dashboard and set up Logitech media server which I am building into multi room audio.

I am amazed with HA, it has come so far over the past 3 years and can mostly be configured with the UI now.

richms

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#2958849 24-Aug-2022 16:05

There are people using ESP32s to get bluetooth sensors back over MQTT and from what I have read it is quite reliable.

Richard rich.ms

michelangelonz

114 posts

Master Geek

#2958918 24-Aug-2022 16:42

richms:

There are people using ESP32s to get bluetooth sensors back over MQTT and from what I have read it is quite reliable.

Yes also you can use the HA ESP Home add-in with ESP32 or ESP8266 to do all sorts of things. I have two one does my garden sprinklers and another I use for IR control.

neb

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#2959032 24-Aug-2022 21:33

sdavisnz:
its worth noting later this year we will start to see the first round of thread devices coming for the smart home, running on matter, all the large vendors will support it and it runs locally on the network so no delay, and even if a vendor shuts down, the device will continue to work, it does not rely on a vendor cloud system to run.

Unless it's changed a lot since I looked at it a year or so back, Thread is yet another industry consortium with the usual suspects as members promising to be all things to all people but not really doing anything significantly better than existing well-established tech. Their main innovation seemed to be renaming the home hub to a border gateway or something and then claiming that with their tech you didn't need a home hub any more.

sdavisnz

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#2959038 24-Aug-2022 21:42

It is the game changer as apart from homekit which is proprietary its the open version of the local network smart home, no need for cloud, and yes, many devices will become thread border routers its runs over low power wifi like signal, its going to be the solution going forward no matter if you want to use smartthings/google home app, Apple home app, Amazon Alexa app or even home assistant.

So yes it is worth the hype, the only caveat is version 1 has no support for Ip cameras but that will come in v2 in late 2023

Voice gives context

mattenz

190 posts

Master Geek

#2959201 25-Aug-2022 10:40

For the switches, I use Clipsal Iconic Bell Press momentary switches with Shelly pucks behind them, completely eliminates the visual state, but at least means it's not out of sync.

tehsimz

12 posts

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#2959304 25-Aug-2022 13:45

Shellys on 2.4 Ghz Wifi, does this cause network slowdown?

mattenz

190 posts

Master Geek

#2959354 25-Aug-2022 15:30

I haven't noticed any, but I do have a small house with an OTT Wireless AP setup (2x Linksys LAPAC1750PRO, Playtech were selling them for $100 each for some reason)

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