Think I need to get some air quality sensors that talk Zigbee. Probably go down the path of IKEA, since the store is both close by and the product affordable. In the realm of “good enough”, if you will.
I’ve been playing with air quality sensors and purifiers in Home Assistant. Here’s my current layout on my dashboard; I want to improve it a bit more, but I am loving the glancable styling powered by the sensor values. :)
It's been a steep learning curve but it's cool that most of the stuff just works (TP-Link #Kasa and #Tapo, #Ikea Zigbee, #Philips#Hue (using the Hue Bridge, not directly connected to my Zigbee coordinator). Some stuff this uses the cloud (but can be used locally), other stuff takes out the cloud entirely. (1/2)
Forget my Stosslüften idea, that won't work probably there. I once was in Singapore, in April. And it rained several times a day, followed by powerful sun and it was very damp outside. And even in the morning it wasn't really cool.
@yeri I have a house with cellar, basement, 1st and 2nd floor. And the floors between those houses are concrete with iron nests in between. A WiFi signal from the basement has a hard time traveling into the 2nd floor, for example.
But somehow Zigbee is super reliable.
The "smart" sockets I have work as repeaters.
On HA's side I have a USB cable, and only then do I have a Zigbee stick. Don't plug the stick in directly, too much computer made RFI. Then one of the older, bulkier smart sockets from IKEA one level above became repeater, automatically. Then another level is the small heating room. And there's another smart plug that controls a "circulation pump". And since 6 months there never was any connection issue, the pump correctly turned on/off by timer. Or via a Zigbee switch on demand. Super reliable for me.
Contemplating adding a SkyConnect Zigbee dongle to our Home Assistant. Seems to be pretty ok, or at least as reliable as Zigbee in general gets. Initially just a couple of basic Aqara sensors to test with. Anything larger will need routers/repeaters for better reach.
@holgerschurig I’ve seen that people prefer that over ZHA. Not exactly sure how it works though. It gets the Z data and then shoves it into Mosquitto from which another part of HA gets it? Sounds a bit complicated? We do have a Mosquitto running already for some other stuff so setup would be easy.
@chakie It might sound complicated, but you as a user won't notice the complication.
The benefit of ZB2MQTT is that it supports way more devices than ZHA. And that they even have a database of supported devices. Together with hints on how to pair them (e.g. what buttons to press how often, or how long, to start the pairing process).
Very work-in-progress, but I have started to document my smart home stuff on my website! This might end up turning into a whole subsection once I figure out how I actually want to organize it, but for now, it’s a dumping ground all on one page. 😅
@derek huzzah! I will say that the Nest camera integration is not really better with the Starling Home Hub and Home Assistant, though it was easier to set up. The cameras are really low frame rate and delayed, though. 😞
You do get all the recognition stuff exported as sensors though, which is dope; for example, you get a “motion” sensor, “unfamiliar face” sensor, and familiar face sensors for every saved face on each camera which opens up a lot of interesting stuff.
@po3mah I ended up relocating the coordinator. There's a bit of metal around where it was mounted so I figured I'd elevate it over all of that and see what happens.
It seems the mesh is reassembling a bit better with this and things are behaving better.
If this ends up being the solution, it's just weird that it suddenly became an issue after several months.
Zigbee is great -really- but it has an appeal problem as it's not the 'open platform' it pretends to be. It's woefully hard for a non-techie to set up a real smart home with various brand devices.
Even for me it's been a rocky ride until I realized I needed always-connected, same brand devices (bulbs) to stabilize my battery-powered-remote-heavy mesh. I can't imagine how a layperson manouver around different manufacturers stuff.
I continue to believe Zigbee delivers on the important things that Matter and Thread keep promising, but actually:
• mature
• widely available
• affordable
The one thing Matter over Thread devices can claim is that they work without a hub… except they don’t; the hub still has to be built into your Nest display, Apple HomePod, etc.
I have hundreds of low power, local-only smart devices from a dozen or so brands and it all… just works together.
• Sengled, because they’re not repeaters (so they don’t improve the network)
• OSRAM, Signify, or Sylvania: these are all from the same manufacturer and have given me nothing but trouble
Other than those that I’ve found, any Zigbee bulb ultimately should work fine—and I think my problems above are more prominent due to how many devices I have.
Well #Zigbee2mqtt is a lost cause. No matter version I install, it refuses to communicate with my devices. It sometimes saw one, but it failed more than it succeeded.
But I finally managed to get #HomeAssistant to see the #Zigbee USB stick and complete the install. And now I’m setting up all my devices again but this time directly in hass.
@madjo@gwww for what it's worth I had a Conbee2 stick for like 3 years plugged into a Pi. Never had a problem with my Zigbee network. Then one day suddenly - everything was slow to respond and there were timeouts. I got a Sonoff Zigbee stick - all started working again. Very suspicious about the Conbee2 lifespan.
Perfectly fine for two years and then dying/dead. If I kept it on the ZHA network id have a broken but occasionally functioning light or two. ZigBee2MQTT just couldnt do anything at all with it.
Bought a sonoff dongle and have been happy on Z2M since. Safe in the knowledge that the network keys are in the config and a new dongle wouldn't mean I'd have to rebuild it all again.
My Zigbee network failed a few days ago. Devices were unresponsive, the log was full of errors, and nothing worked.
After 2 years I wanted to throw #homeassistant through the window.
I downgraded z2m. Fixed wifi/Zigbee channels to reduce interference. Disconnected rogue devices. Researched all the forums. Nothing worked.
Today, as a last attempt, I updated the firmware on my Sonoff dongle.
Suddenly everything works again, snappier, even OTA!
Happy.
I didn't like how dark my living room was due to the poor lighting (which had 3 of the brightest G9 bulbs I could find) and lack of sun light coming in, so I changed the light fixture to this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08CD94F7N
@mhamzahkhan That is quite a cool modern design. For a living room, I prefer old-style chandeliers and warm colour bulbs. If it is dimmable, that would be good.
For #Zigbee remotes for light controls, do you use bindings, or #HomeAssistant automations to control the lights?
Seems like bindings is might be good idea because the remotes will still work if HomeAssistant/Zigbee2MQTT is down, but it seems you also lose some flexibility in terms of what action a button press takes?
@mhamzahkhan Our goal of setting up home automation in the first place was to have light switches work as expression of intent in context rather than usual direct mapping, so everything is automation here.
Looking for recommendations for a Zigbee temperature sensor that is safe to put in a fridge?
I'm not sure if that even exists? Batteries aren't supposed to get that cold? #smarthome#homeautomaton#zigbee#homeassistant
AAA, @mhamzahkhan (I use the alkaline kind so they don’t leak in the fridge when they run out, not sure if that has anything to do with cold resistance)
@mhamzahkhan Strictly speaking only the temp probe needs to be inside the fridge - not the entire unit. A cable for a probe easily fits past the door membrane and could be long enough to reach the back - or where-ever the unit is best mounted.