2024.3 brings features we've wanted, and so many more we didn't know we needed. Phil and I break down this months features in the latest episode of the @homeassistant#podcast
Hey #SmartHome nerds: If your garage door opener is from Chamberlain or Liftmaster and you've had it with their MyQ nonsense (revoking API access, etc), I found a majigger called RAtGDO (Rage Against The Garage Door Opener). It took a few steps to get it running, but nothing complex. Now I have non-cloud access to open the door and never have to put up with another ad from those melonfarmers at Chamberlain about how great it would be to let Amazon into my house. https://paulwieland.github.io/ratgdo/
Not too impressed with this Google Nest Camera btw, $80, video quality is about as good as my $30 Kasa devices and those allow 24/7 home recording to an SD card (not included) while Google wants a subscription for that of course
The only thing it really has over Kasa is...it shows up in the Google Home app, an oddly rare feature for smart camera for some reason. Glad I got it with store credit I was about to lose anyway.
Matter is coming to fix all your smarthome woes! A single IoT standard, working across multiple radio protocols, bringing together different products from many different manufacturers. And… it works! Mostly These are the Meross 315 Smart Plugs. They are …
Matter is coming to fix all your smarthome woes! A single IoT standard, working across multiple radio protocols, bringing together different products from many different manufacturers.
And… it works!
Mostly
These are the Meross 315 Smart Plugs. They are small(ish), cheap(ish), and easy(ish) to use.
As soon as I plugged them in, before even configuring them, my home went crazy. I got a pop-up on my phone asking if I wanted to control them with Google Home.
I wanted to add the plugs using the Meross app. Not because it is particularly good (it's basically fine) - but because of a couple of limitations in Matter. Here's a page from the plugs' manual.
At the moment, Matter doesn't support firmware updates. That's probably fair. You don't want some random app bricking your device - so it is restricted to the manufacturer's app.
Luckily, HomeAssistant came to the rescue! Because the Meross API is well documented, my local SmartHome Pi was able to get a realtime view of how much power was flowing through the plug.
The power toggle - and activity LED - is on the left side of the plug. That makes it a little awkward to press and obscures the view of the LED. I guess putting it on top would make it too easy to accidentally activate?
The energy monitoring doesn't seem to update in realtime in the app.
I renamed the plug in the Android app, but that name doesn't seem to be exposed in Matter. Nor was it picked up by HomeAssistant.
In order to connect the device to WiFi, your phone needs to be on that specific WiFi network. Because the devices only support 2.4GHz, I needed to swap SSIDs on my phone. But, on the plus side, I didn't have to manually enter any passwords.
For about £32 for a two-pack (depending on whether the algorithm favours you) these are pretty good value for money. They were easy to set up, quick to get working in other apps, and had a firmware update waiting for me.
I got some Meross plugs about 6 years ago and they've kept trucking all that time - so I'm pretty confident these will last. And, even if Meross disappears, Matter means that another app can easily control them.
Here's the plan. I'm going to plug this into my Tumble Dryer and tell HomeAssistant to monitor its energy usage and send me a message when the drying is done.
Myślę o tym żeby zacząć przygodę ze #smarthome i zastanawiam się w jaki sposób wybrać ekosystem w którym to zrobię. Czym się sugerować? Ceną? Dostępnością konkretnych technologii (np. ZigBee vs WiFi)? Dostępnością rodzajów czujników? Krajem pochodzenia (żeby na przykład nie używać kamer z chińskimi backdoorami)?
Jak jako laik mam się odnaleźć w tym skomplikowanym świecie? 😃
IF I were paying for electricity for charging my #ev it would still be less than half the cost to fuel my old hybrid (which got 50 mpg), but I only charge on sunny days and I make sure the draw by the charger doesn’t exceed the energy of the panels. Benefits of a #smarthome setup for the #solar and the EV charger. Thank you Ra, Sun God, whose existence I now believe in because you almighty Ra fuel my trips to Starbucks.
Wyze shows customer cameras to the wrong users—again. Imagine if you used these cameras inside, in private, intimate spaces like a bedroom or as a baby cam. This is the third time in three years they’ve had a similar issue; I don’t think I would ever trust Wyze for cameras or anything security related.
They clearly don’t know what they’re doing and do not architect things in a security or privacy conscious way.
Around 13,000 Wyze customers were able to see inside other people's homes during what the smart home camera company is calling an outage from third-party web services. Thousands of people had access to thumbnails of strangers homes and around 1,500 could view full-sized stills or recorded events.
Uhh - beim Ali meinens Vertrauens gibt es jetzt auch Zigbee Presence Sensoren mit 230V für an die Decke. Da musste ich gleich mal zuschlagen fürs Badezimmer.