done that. it's a learning journey. I do like the google speakers a lot better after using both, especially since they work with HA a lot better. Have rooted my Echo's to take control of them, but it's not something everyone is gong to be able to do.
The router you are recommending has 1GHz cpu clock with 2 cores. The router I have is 2GHz cpu clock with 4 cores. So I guess that 4 times the processing power. I have over 75 devices on my router so I suppose that’s important. Before I replaced my router I was having reliability issues. Now it’s rock solid and all my devices work 100% of the time.
It's an easily overlooked thing yet can cause lots of frustration if you don't know about it and for many people, why would they? That black box gives them 'wifi' but the provider never tells you how many devices you can connect.
@@David-bl1bt I have an asus router that currently sells for about $200. I think it’s a good model that balances cost and performance. There are higher priced ones above that which cost a lot more but don’t benefit someone with 300Mb/sec internet speeds. If you have 1 or 2 Gb speed internet then you probably want a top of the line router. For me, I didn’t want to get a cheaper one because I have a lot of devices to connect simultaneously. And the cheaper routers can have limited memory and storage that limit device counts.
Good video. Subscribed... This is exactly where I am in my journey. I have a great wifi network already built - I am working with wireless on the daily basis. Just set up a box with HAOS- went for a hardware appliance - based on the research. Currently slowly adding stuff that I already have in place: Octopus, solar inverter via modbus, Zappi, HACS, Tuya plugs etc... I have Zigbee manager ordered and some sensors... researching now what is best/most popular in terms of usability and support... I agree with all points in this video - take it slowly, read, read and read again... HA is a great piece e of code... My first automation was automatic driveway light switching on/off at sunset/sunrise...
Libretiny is really good, there will be a learning curve but we can manage that. The only bad news is the Tuya with realtek chips are not having much options. I have couple of plugs and switch which are catching dust since I made my HA and automation tuya free now.
A brilliant and informative video, mate! A couple of thoughts here: In terms of the various devices you've got - if they're Tuya based, Localtuya from HACS is one way to simplify it, but if you're feeling adventurous - Libretiny and such to take control. WiFi - an openwrt compatible router/access point is a must. I highly recommend the routers from GL.iNet. I added a tiny one of them onto my network as a bridge/repeater, that handles all my iot devices. I've made all of those mistakes myself as well, but I guess it's thanks to them that why my current setup is pretty damn solid.
Cheers, thanks for the feedback. I did start out with LocalTuya but never found it to be 100% reliable to be honest however I know many people swear by it, and Libretiny is not one I've heard of, thanks for the tip! and very much aware of GL.iNet, they make some cracking stuff. Making these kind of mistakes definitely makes for a better smart home whatever the route you go.
@@Byteofgeek regarding Localtuya - make sure to use the xZetsubou fork - way more regularly(-ish) updated. The libretiny thingy let me take control of a handful of previously shelved devices, especially Beken chip based ones. What's grand about that project, is that it's now an official module in esphome, so after you've done the whole flashing bit, integrating the devices back into your environment should be a breeze! Saying that, there are a couple of bulbs I've had some weirds quirks with (low light colours sometimes staying on despite turning off bulb etc.), but I'm sure they're either user errors, or there is probably a solution for it out there somewhere. The GL.inet routers were a complete revelation to me, as I had never heard of it before. My iot router now is one of those shadow travel routers, and and for good measure I threw in a usb drive for it to have ample storage (for a full blown openwrt setup, rather than their own flavour of it).
Can absolutely relate to a lot of your experiences. To start using HA is a frustrating journey. The comment "well it builds itself" is kind of true but in real life it will be a mess that you have to correct and after that you are totally on your own, adding further devices. You have to put yourself in the shoes of a beginner. First thing you get asked is what to include and not. As a beginner you haven't got a clue about what's what in that list, so for safety you select all and end up with a mess of things that you don't need on the dash. Well, then you try to delete some of them and then you are on your own trying to sort things. Frustrating how things are moving around and after days of tying to force thing to appear in the right place and you try it out from your tablet and what looks good on you computer will be a mess on the tablet. This is just dash problems but your Zigbee experiences I totally lived through. 😂
@@Byteofgeekit's miles better for us that got past the first hurdle of HA but it's still not nearly user friendly enough for someone outside the geek world. I know they are working towards something like Dwain's dash and when that becomes standard it can open up HA to a wider audience. What ha need is something default that is inflexible as Google home, that does the job with zero thrills. We would absolutely replace that with something else but for a beginner it would be invaluable.
My Tuya Zigbee network works very well (most of the light switches are Zigbee) - connected via Tuya gateways (Zemismart M1 and TZ-01). Automations run smoothly in Smartlife (mostly locally too), but it's a pain not being able to control anything outside the Tuya ecosystem. It's time for me to change to Home Assistant but I now realise it may be a pain to incorporate this Tuya gear.
If you do migrate to home assistant and you want to keep the ZigBee devices then it should just be a case of moving them to something like a Sonoff dongle.
its really not that much of a pain. this past month ive come away from relying on google home, set up HA on a RPI4 installed a Zigbee integration using a sonoff dongle. now all of my new devices are no more than £2/3 from ali express. all it takes is sticking your devices on pairing mode and youre pretty much done. best part is, when the internet goes down, your house automations still work! little effort, a fun project and the money and time youll save!!
I have accepted that wireless smart home is just a shit show and will never be the option I am looking for (a smart home that just works and gets out of the way by automating everything I would want to do). Between proprietary WiFi solutions that have a tendency to phone home a lot and ZigBee devices that don’t exactly behave like ZigBee devices should (looking at you Aqara), connectivity issues with the ZigBee network in my apartment complex and stupid workarounds for other issues. Then there are constant software updates to the mess that is my home assistant setup that I also have to keep track off. I really appreciate the home assistant project as they are doing their best to make the best out of a shitty overall situation. But personally, until I am in the position to get a proper KNX installation, I’d rather deal with dumb light switches in the meantime
I hear you completely, unless you buy an out of the box solution then the rest is nowhere near perfect and needs time to get it to anything decent. That being said I do think things are getting better but it's got to pick up pace a little 😀
Made the Tuya and Tapo mistakes as well. Tuya is only cloud based (officially) and Tapo Hub (H100) often loses the connection to sensors... Replacing everything with Thread and Zigbee in Home Assistant atm.
Share your smart home mistakes in the comments below and if you've enjoyed the video then don't forget to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to the channel 👍
Good advice, considered and experienced most of these.
Thanks for watching, it looks like we've all been there 😂
done that. it's a learning journey. I do like the google speakers a lot better after using both, especially since they work with HA a lot better. Have rooted my Echo's to take control of them, but it's not something everyone is gong to be able to do.
rooted my Echo's ????????????????
The router you are recommending has 1GHz cpu clock with 2 cores. The router I have is 2GHz cpu clock with 4 cores. So I guess that 4 times the processing power. I have over 75 devices on my router so I suppose that’s important. Before I replaced my router I was having reliability issues. Now it’s rock solid and all my devices work 100% of the time.
It's an easily overlooked thing yet can cause lots of frustration if you don't know about it and for many people, why would they? That black box gives them 'wifi' but the provider never tells you how many devices you can connect.
What make/model of router do you have?
I'm using a TP Link router, there's a link in the description to the exact model but there are more in the range for all kinds of budgets
@@David-bl1bt I have an asus router that currently sells for about $200. I think it’s a good model that balances cost and performance. There are higher priced ones above that which cost a lot more but don’t benefit someone with 300Mb/sec internet speeds. If you have 1 or 2 Gb speed internet then you probably want a top of the line router. For me, I didn’t want to get a cheaper one because I have a lot of devices to connect simultaneously. And the cheaper routers can have limited memory and storage that limit device counts.
Good video. Subscribed... This is exactly where I am in my journey. I have a great wifi network already built - I am working with wireless on the daily basis. Just set up a box with HAOS- went for a hardware appliance - based on the research. Currently slowly adding stuff that I already have in place: Octopus, solar inverter via modbus, Zappi, HACS, Tuya plugs etc... I have Zigbee manager ordered and some sensors... researching now what is best/most popular in terms of usability and support... I agree with all points in this video - take it slowly, read, read and read again... HA is a great piece e of code... My first automation was automatic driveway light switching on/off at sunset/sunrise...
Thanks for subscribing 👍Sounds like you're in for a fun time with all of that 😀
Libretiny is really good, there will be a learning curve but we can manage that. The only bad news is the Tuya with realtek chips are not having much options. I have couple of plugs and switch which are catching dust since I made my HA and automation tuya free now.
Might have a look into that, last time I checked my Tuya bulbs had chips in them that couldn't be flashed.
A brilliant and informative video, mate!
A couple of thoughts here:
In terms of the various devices you've got - if they're Tuya based, Localtuya from HACS is one way to simplify it, but if you're feeling adventurous - Libretiny and such to take control.
WiFi - an openwrt compatible router/access point is a must. I highly recommend the routers from GL.iNet. I added a tiny one of them onto my network as a bridge/repeater, that handles all my iot devices.
I've made all of those mistakes myself as well, but I guess it's thanks to them that why my current setup is pretty damn solid.
Cheers, thanks for the feedback.
I did start out with LocalTuya but never found it to be 100% reliable to be honest however I know many people swear by it, and Libretiny is not one I've heard of, thanks for the tip! and very much aware of GL.iNet, they make some cracking stuff.
Making these kind of mistakes definitely makes for a better smart home whatever the route you go.
@@Byteofgeek regarding Localtuya - make sure to use the xZetsubou fork - way more regularly(-ish) updated.
The libretiny thingy let me take control of a handful of previously shelved devices, especially Beken chip based ones.
What's grand about that project, is that it's now an official module in esphome, so after you've done the whole flashing bit, integrating the devices back into your environment should be a breeze! Saying that, there are a couple of bulbs I've had some weirds quirks with (low light colours sometimes staying on despite turning off bulb etc.), but I'm sure they're either user errors, or there is probably a solution for it out there somewhere.
The GL.inet routers were a complete revelation to me, as I had never heard of it before. My iot router now is one of those shadow travel routers, and and for good measure I threw in a usb drive for it to have ample storage (for a full blown openwrt setup, rather than their own flavour of it).
Can absolutely relate to a lot of your experiences. To start using HA is a frustrating journey. The comment "well it builds itself" is kind of true but in real life it will be a mess that you have to correct and after that you are totally on your own, adding further devices. You have to put yourself in the shoes of a beginner. First thing you get asked is what to include and not. As a beginner you haven't got a clue about what's what in that list, so for safety you select all and end up with a mess of things that you don't need on the dash. Well, then you try to delete some of them and then you are on your own trying to sort things. Frustrating how things are moving around and after days of tying to force thing to appear in the right place and you try it out from your tablet and what looks good on you computer will be a mess on the tablet. This is just dash problems but your Zigbee experiences I totally lived through. 😂
I'm so glad they've started working on the dashboard, the improvements they're making are very welcome given what it used to be like. 😀
@@Byteofgeekit's miles better for us that got past the first hurdle of HA but it's still not nearly user friendly enough for someone outside the geek world. I know they are working towards something like Dwain's dash and when that becomes standard it can open up HA to a wider audience.
What ha need is something default that is inflexible as Google home, that does the job with zero thrills. We would absolutely replace that with something else but for a beginner it would be invaluable.
My Tuya Zigbee network works very well (most of the light switches are Zigbee) - connected via Tuya gateways (Zemismart M1 and TZ-01). Automations run smoothly in Smartlife (mostly locally too), but it's a pain not being able to control anything outside the Tuya ecosystem. It's time for me to change to Home Assistant but I now realise it may be a pain to incorporate this Tuya gear.
I connect 80% of my devices to home assistant through Tuya. Is there a better way to connect zigbee devices to home assistant?
If you do migrate to home assistant and you want to keep the ZigBee devices then it should just be a case of moving them to something like a Sonoff dongle.
Do you have something like a Sonoff dongle already? If not then they should all connect via that allowing them in via ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT
its really not that much of a pain. this past month ive come away from relying on google home, set up HA on a RPI4 installed a Zigbee integration using a sonoff dongle. now all of my new devices are no more than £2/3 from ali express. all it takes is sticking your devices on pairing mode and youre pretty much done.
best part is, when the internet goes down, your house automations still work! little effort, a fun project and the money and time youll save!!
I can't argue with that 😀
I have accepted that wireless smart home is just a shit show and will never be the option I am looking for (a smart home that just works and gets out of the way by automating everything I would want to do).
Between proprietary WiFi solutions that have a tendency to phone home a lot and ZigBee devices that don’t exactly behave like ZigBee devices should (looking at you Aqara), connectivity issues with the ZigBee network in my apartment complex and stupid workarounds for other issues.
Then there are constant software updates to the mess that is my home assistant setup that I also have to keep track off.
I really appreciate the home assistant project as they are doing their best to make the best out of a shitty overall situation. But personally, until I am in the position to get a proper KNX installation, I’d rather deal with dumb light switches in the meantime
I hear you completely, unless you buy an out of the box solution then the rest is nowhere near perfect and needs time to get it to anything decent. That being said I do think things are getting better but it's got to pick up pace a little 😀
Naming conventions.....get it right from the start
Absolutely 👍
for me amazon reader(echo,..) has many limitations in ha... prefer google mini
What features are you missing with an Amazon Echo compared to Google Mini in Home Assistant?
@@Byteofgeek many restriction for mp3 files .. Amazon limits direct streaming of local mp3 files.
maybe by nabu casa (not free) or a skill.. very frustrating no problems with google....
Talk Talk gave me an Amazon Eero pro 6 mesh router!
That's a pretty good router to be fair, you can connect at least 75 devices to that 👍
Made the Tuya and Tapo mistakes as well.
Tuya is only cloud based (officially) and Tapo Hub (H100) often loses the connection to sensors...
Replacing everything with Thread and Zigbee in Home Assistant atm.
Agreeing with everything.
A smart home is only smart if you don't have to even think about it anymore and everything works automatically.
They're costly mistakes but sometimes you've got to make them to know what's good or not - thanks for watching 👍