Okay, so let me tell you about my doorbell, from a #networking perspective.
When you push the button by the door, it sends a message over the #zigbee wireless mesh network in my house. It probably goes through a few hops, getting relayed along the way by the various Zigbee light switches and "smart outlets" I have.
Once it makes it to my utility closet, it's received by a Zigbee-to-USB dongle, through a USB hub (a simple tree network) plugged into an SFF PC. From there, it gets fed into zigbee2mqtt, which, as the name implies, publishes it to my local #mqtt broker.
The mqtt broker is in the small #kubernetes cluster of #raspberrypi nodes I run in my utility closet. To get in (via a couple of #ethernet switch hops), it goes through #metallb, which is basically a proxy-ARP type service that advertises the IP address for the mqtt endpoint to the rest of my network, then passes the traffic to the appropriate container via a #linux veth device.
I have #HomeAssistant, running in the same Kubernetes cluster, subscribed to these events. Within Kubernetes, the message goes through the CNI plugin that I use, #flannel. If the message has to pass between hosts, Flannel encapsulates it in VXLAN, so that it can be directed to the correct veth on the destination host.
Because I like #NodeRed for automation tasks more than HomeAssistant, your press of the doorbell takes another hop within the Kubernetes cluster (via a REST call) so that NodeRed can decide whether it's within the time of day I want the doorbell to ring, etc. If we're all good, NodeRed publishes an mqtt message (more VXLANs, veths, etc.)
(Oh and it also sends a notification to my phone, which means another trip through the HomeAssistant container, and leaving my home network involves another soup of acronyms including VLANs, PoE, QoS, PPPoE, NAT or IPv6, DoH, and GPON. And maybe it goes over 5G depending on where my phone is.)
Of course something's got to actually make the "ding dong" sound, and that's another Raspberry Pi that sits on top of my grandmother clock. So to get there the message hops through a couple Ethernet switches and my home WiFi, where it gets received by a little custom daemon I wrote that plays the sound via an attached #HiFiBerry board. Oh but wait! We're not quite done with networking, because the sound gets played through PulseAudio, which is done through a UNIX domain socket.
SO ANYWAY, that's why my doorbell rarely works and why you've been standing outside in the snow for five minutes.
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.
Si vous connaissez de bons sites web, blogs ou forums qui partagent des bonnes références de périphériques #domotique , ça m'évitera de générer des déchets électroniques inutiles en achetant des bouses. D'avance merci ^^
PSA: If you're using Zigbee with Home Assistant and find a good deal on eBay for OSRAM A19/A60 bulbs, RUN FAR AWAY!
It turns out these lights/their firmware are trash and will just go offline constantly when too many other devices are routed through them (you know, the whole point of Zigbee bulbs with built-in routing). There's a reason sellers are trying to get rid of them in lots for as low as $2/bulb.
Whew, the 'AI' generated fake reviews are really fire-hosing the web content, making it hard to find anything useful.
Searching for roundups and comparisons of #ZigBee thermostats, and lots of the content is garbage, often with no ZigBee capability in the products listed at all.
could someone, smarter than me, tell me why my Sonoff zigbee usb dongle is detected but will not work in a RaspberryPi USB3 port, but works fine in a USB2 port.
When plugged into USB3 port Zigbee2Mqtt sees it but will not find or connect to any zigbee devices or find any new devices. moving it to USB2 fixes it.
Im curious if its the dongle, the RPi, something with USB3, both? I dont have much hardware debugging experience to know where to look #raspberrypi#usb#zigbee#zigbee2mqtt
It's been two months since I got my #RaspberryPi and I won't lie, everything is still so exciting. I get so happy when I do stupid little things like upgrade my #Zigbee dongle without everything breaking. Honestly, #SelfHosting is a beautiful world. Though it's all down to how kind and helpful everyone is. I'm super grateful for the tremendous communities behind #HomeAssistant, #Docker, #JellyFin, #Navidrome, #Immich and obviously #Mastodon and #Lemmy.
Kennt jemand ein günstiges Messgerät, dass die Oberflächentemeratur einer Wand messen kann und mit #ZigBee funkt? So als Ergänzung zu den Raumtemperatursensoren zur Messung des Verhaltens von Wärmebrücken. #HomeAssistant#SmartHome#Dataisbeautiful
Do you have any recommendations on an smart door lock which can be controlled using #Zigbee (with #zha or #zigbee2mqtt) or #homeassistant in general?
It should be able to be fitted inside my current door (euro lock), should have a fallback with a physical key, look halfway decent and should not rely on cloud services.
For me it would be enough if Home Assistant is able to lock it/unlock it and maybe show the state of the battery.
Slowly adding everything back to the new #homeassistant installation on #proxmox. Amazing what a fresh install can do. Now that my #hue smart plug is in (#zigbee ) I can automate power cycling my modem when the connection sours. It’s been unstable since I moved room.
Despite working in the electronics field, I never really got into #smarthome stuff. But lately I have been trying out #homeassistant and was excited that a friend from Chicago Meetups, @kbx81, has been working at #NabuCasa on the #esphome project.
I spoke with Keith about how to get started as a beginner in the field, but then also how to put some custom electronics to work in a #homeautomation context. I was impressed with how fast I could add a #zigbee device to my HA
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
Diesen Mittwoch (07.02.) 19:30 Uhr findet ein Themenabend über die #Heimautomatisierung im HQ von @sandro statt.
Es sollen alle im #Home-Assistant vorhandenen Geräte und Automatisierungen beleuchtet, die Entscheidung für Protokolle und Software (#Zigbee, #WLED, #ESPHome) erklärt und vorhandene Fragen beantwortet werden.
Das neue GEG erhitzt die Gemüter, mancher befürchtet eine Eiszeit in seiner Wohnung. Der Faktencheck im c’t uplink zeigt: Es gibt gute technische Lösungen.
I’ve bought some #Ikea #Vallhorn motion sensors for 8€ a piece.
Pairing to the #Zigbee network in Home Assistant and #Zigbee2MQTT was somehow difficult, which is not usual for Zigbee devices (at least according to my limited experiences with them). Nevertheless, I succeeded in pairing them.
Unsuccessful attempts
Firstly I tried to pair the sensor with ‘Permit All’ for several times. Pairing failed. I noticed the sensor wanted to connect to my #Aqara smart plug (SP-EUC01), not to the #Sonoff Zigbee stick (the coordinator). Somehow Aqara didn’t like it and rejected the initial Zigbee ‘interview’.
Overall, the design of the sensor looks nice and smooth. On the backside, it has 3 buttons:
Link – for pairing
Timer (1 – 5) – probably to notify connected lights when to turn off (after 1 or 5 minutes). Not sure if this function works or even makes sense in Home Assistant.
Light mode – to notify connected lights when to turn on/off (always, only at night). Again, this function is probably useful if you have an Ikea gateway and lights and not in the Home Assistant
Ikea Vallhorn with holderThe package also includes a holder and a piece of double-sided tape. The manual doesn’t include much information.
Automations
Why I bought this motion sensor at all? The initial idea was to turn on the Home Assistant dashboard (FireHD tablet) when someone approaches the fridge with the tablet attached.
The automation is simple:
If a motion is detected, then send a notification (‘command_screen_on’) to the tablet (running the #HomeAssistant companion app):
Motion sensor log in Home AssistantIt detects motion and turns on the tablet, but the tablet screen turns off after a minute. I’ve noticed the sensor doesn’t send triggers every time it detects motion, only at the beginning of the motion and after the state is cleared (no motion detected). The states are:
Detected -> Cleared -> Detected -> Cleared … and so on
The effect: if someone is dancing in front of the sensor for several minutes, it will trigger only one time. Meanwhile, the associated automation will not be triggered again.
I could prolong the screen on time, but that is not the best solution. I have to think about how to solve this issue. Maybe other types of motion sensors behave the way I want?
Ideas for other 2 motion sensors
Ok, this was the first motion sensor I put in use.
The second sensor I’ve put in my workshop to detect motion. I’d like to build a simple home alarm system. A few days ago I thought I heard someone opening doors and walking in my workshop. When I checked, nobody was there, but the unpleasant feeling stayed. So the purpose of the second sensor is to prove if I’m hallucinating and hearing voices or not 🙂
For the 3rd one, I don’t have an idea yet where to put it.
Hm. Nachdem ich ja demnächst ein bisschen ein #Zigbee-Setup daheim haben werde, und meine (drahtgebundene) Klingel gerade kaputt ist, frage ich mich: Gibt’s eigentlich gute, outdoorkompatible (also vor allem wasserdichte!) Zigbee-Taster?
Das dann mit irgendnem Krachgerät im Innenraum verknüpfeln krieg ich schon hin, aber den Button würd ich gerne fertig kaufen.
Und ja, ich weiß dass es nicht-Zigbee-Funkklingeln gibt wie Sand am Meer. Die wären dann aber erst Plan B.
💡 The cheaper #Zigbee bulbs from #Sengled are nice… unless you use one in your bedside lamp and the power blinks at 4am and it comes on @ 100% brightness because, unlike #Philips#Hue, you cannot change the “power on” behavior. Sooooo… today I went to #HomeDepot & bought a new Hue bulb to use instead and then promptly went into #HomeAssistant and set the bulb to be off when power is restored to it.
[#HomeAutomation#SmartHome /cc @homeassistant ]
Maintaining Wake-on-LAN on a dual-boot Windows 10 / Ubuntu 22.04LTS system is a hassle. So I went with a simple Fingerbot solution. Now I have Wake-on-Zigbee!
By default the system boots into Ubuntu which hosts an Ollama server and does some video compression jobs (I wanted to be able to start those remotely). I only use Windows for VR gaming when I'm physically in the room and therefore can select the correct partition at boot.