Thanks for this! Out of interest, what hardware have you used for your smart home? I've experimented with a few things, but none of it seems to quite work smoothly! Also, is that a Star Trek theme on your Home Assistant? 😂
It is a star trek theme! The LCARS theme for home assistant actually: github.com/th3jesta/ha-lcars I use home assistant as the brains of my smart home, running Zigbee2MQTT for zigbee devices (these both run as kubernetes containers across a couple of mini pcs). For lightswitches I grabbed some no-neutral zigbee switches from aliexpress (the no-neutral is important if you have older UK wiring). Motion sensors are aqara zigbee sensors, you can generally get these for around £5 on aliexpress. It's working fine now... the motion sensors get triggered by the cats, which isn't ideal, but I can cope with it until I bother to install human prescence detectors. The switches work fine, especially because the actual light switch wiring in our house isn't where I want it...so that 3 gang near the front door is only wired to one physical wiring point, the other 2 just trigger a zigbee event which I then use to switch other switches...if that makes sense!
@@PaulBerryisTall thanks for the really detailed reply! The theme looks amazing, yet the developer says there not a "real web developer", they need some compliments, because that's a serious case of imposter syndrome! 😔 At the moment I've got a real mishmash of stuff: A hue bridge Many hue bulbs Some Wiz bulbs A zigbee light switch that seems to only want to work with it's own hub Kasa plug TP link multi sockets TP link led light strip A SmartThings hub 3 Ultion smart lock Smart fridge freezer that doesn't do the one thing that would be useful: tell you the water tank is empty!!! A smart washer dryer, that can be handy when it tells you a wash is finished A few temperature sensors which had *another* hub! Nest Hello doorbell A mix of Nest Minis, Google Home Hubs and Lenovo Smart displays Tradfri hub and lights in a box somewhere! I'd really like to figure out a way to get Hue bulbs and zigbee switches to work, as the Hue bulbs are handy for changing brightness and colour. Low voltage centrally controlled lighting is probably the Grail setup, but running that much wire and figuring out what system to use is a real challenge (as most of what I've found is more marketing talk than technical). Some rewiring is going to be necessary at some point as we have some "unique features", there is a switch that diverts power from the dining room lighter to the conservatory, so only one room can be lit at once! Also the outside lighting has a unique ability to kill bulbs over a few months 😅 so I've got my work cut out for me! I think I'll probably run home assistant on a Raspberry Pi, it seems I'll have to wait for my Pi 5 to come though, as my other Pis are a 2, which is too low RAM, and the 400, which is too cool not to use as a PC!
Alex has just added buy toilet roll today to my shopping list 😂
Thanks for this!
Out of interest, what hardware have you used for your smart home?
I've experimented with a few things, but none of it seems to quite work smoothly!
Also, is that a Star Trek theme on your Home Assistant? 😂
It is a star trek theme! The LCARS theme for home assistant actually: github.com/th3jesta/ha-lcars
I use home assistant as the brains of my smart home, running Zigbee2MQTT for zigbee devices (these both run as kubernetes containers across a couple of mini pcs).
For lightswitches I grabbed some no-neutral zigbee switches from aliexpress (the no-neutral is important if you have older UK wiring).
Motion sensors are aqara zigbee sensors, you can generally get these for around £5 on aliexpress.
It's working fine now... the motion sensors get triggered by the cats, which isn't ideal, but I can cope with it until I bother to install human prescence detectors.
The switches work fine, especially because the actual light switch wiring in our house isn't where I want it...so that 3 gang near the front door is only wired to one physical wiring point, the other 2 just trigger a zigbee event which I then use to switch other switches...if that makes sense!
@@PaulBerryisTall thanks for the really detailed reply!
The theme looks amazing, yet the developer says there not a "real web developer", they need some compliments, because that's a serious case of imposter syndrome! 😔
At the moment I've got a real mishmash of stuff:
A hue bridge
Many hue bulbs
Some Wiz bulbs
A zigbee light switch that seems to only want to work with it's own hub
Kasa plug
TP link multi sockets
TP link led light strip
A SmartThings hub 3
Ultion smart lock
Smart fridge freezer that doesn't do the one thing that would be useful: tell you the water tank is empty!!!
A smart washer dryer, that can be handy when it tells you a wash is finished
A few temperature sensors which had *another* hub!
Nest Hello doorbell
A mix of Nest Minis, Google Home Hubs and Lenovo Smart displays
Tradfri hub and lights in a box somewhere!
I'd really like to figure out a way to get Hue bulbs and zigbee switches to work, as the Hue bulbs are handy for changing brightness and colour.
Low voltage centrally controlled lighting is probably the Grail setup, but running that much wire and figuring out what system to use is a real challenge (as most of what I've found is more marketing talk than technical).
Some rewiring is going to be necessary at some point as we have some "unique features", there is a switch that diverts power from the dining room lighter to the conservatory, so only one room can be lit at once! Also the outside lighting has a unique ability to kill bulbs over a few months 😅 so I've got my work cut out for me!
I think I'll probably run home assistant on a Raspberry Pi, it seems I'll have to wait for my Pi 5 to come though, as my other Pis are a 2, which is too low RAM, and the 400, which is too cool not to use as a PC!