I installed a wall box near the front door, under a nearby electrical socket (see below)
When the company installed the front door, I asked them to install a UTP cable from the door lock mechanism to the socket.
Bought the materials above (Aliexpress for the boards, Conrad for the power suppy).
Connected the mains to the breaker (for emergency switch-off)
Connected the cables from the breaker to the 24V power supply
Connected the cables from the power supply to the ESP32 board, door solenoid relay and ESP32’s relay. Luckily, I didn’t need to install 5V power supply for the ESP board, because it also works with 24V.
Here’s the doodle of the connecting scheme:
doodle of the electrical schemeHere’s the original connecting scheme from Innotherm (door manufacturer), in Slovenian: It was useful because it reveals which power supply is appropriate (Meanwell MW HDR 30-24).
screenshot of the door lock automation14. Added Aqara Door sensor to the door and connected it my existing Zigbee network using Zigbee2MQTT. It’s for logging when the door is open and for turning on the red status LED on the ESP32 board when the door is opened.
After 6 months, it works great. Kids are satisfied and me too, because this is one of the first usable HomeAssistant projects that involve some electronics and physical devices. It works in 99% of cases.
There are some issues with it though:
The ESP32 board sometimes reboots after unlocking. It seems that the door solenoid relay draws too much current and the voltage from the power supply drops momentarily. Probably I need to add a capacitor to the board power input to smooth the voltage. This is not a big issue, because the board starts working normally after 3 or 4 seconds after the reboot.
Once or twice it happened the esp board relay got stuck in an OFF state. I had to hit it gently with a screwdriver to unstuck it. After that, I reduced the time the door solenoid is opened from 2 to 1 sec. Not sure if it will help. Maybe it’s just a bad relay.
Several times the wifi was down and the board couldn’t communicate with the Home Assistant. It looks like my telco provider’s router is not the best one and it freezes sometimes. Probably I need to buy a better wifi router.
TODO
I have several ideas on how to upgrade the unlocking mechanism:
unlocking with a fingerprint
unlocking with facial recognition
Disclaimer
The links to the products are not affiliate links and I don’t receive any compensation for linking.
The code and the ideas are mostly from HomeAssistant and ESPHome community forums.
The new #Sonos app is getting even worse! After the last update, the local Music Library takes like 5 seconds after launch to even appear, and then AFTER YOU PLAY SOMETHING, IT DISAPPEARS ALTOGETHER.
@stooovie My feelings about #Sonos have been mentioned in previous toots (spoiler: sh1t). I'm currently listening to a playlist using #MusicAssistant - it's very early days but I'm pretty impressed so far 👍 #HomeAssistant
It is interesting to see in #HomeAssistant that the switch from 12V to 24V for my fans is actually increasing the power cost of a print noticeably by more than 10% (Top is the power cost at 24V, bottom at 12V)
But all in all I am still amazed at how little power actually plays into the total cost of a print. #3DJGummikuh
W ostatnim odcinku pierwszego sezonu ICD Weekend Arek i Kuba opowiadają o newsach dotyczacych Facebooka, Apple i AI oraz dzielą się nowymi rekomendacjami aplikacji z F-Droida.
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.
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. 😅
@cassidy I had no idea about the Starling Home Hub and the ability to integrate the Nest Protects, those are some of the last devices I don't have in #HomeAssistant yet. I'll be trying this out soon! Thank You!
Die Stabilität von @homeassistant hat in den letzten Monaten spürbar gelitten.
Aus irgendwelchen Gründen führt die Instanz jetzt wiederholt (random?) selbstständig Neustarts aus. (Homeassistant selbst, nicht das OS)
Ich werde wohl erstmal von Homeassistant Blue auf Proxmox/HAOS umziehen, damit ich die Dienste entzerren kann.
Leider ist #Homeassistant auch hier eher wenig nutzerfreundlich und macht es sehr schwer, Fehler zu finden.
Beware of #SONOFF Products in #HomeAutomation. If you have a choice, don't buy them! The #eWeLink App refuses to populate the WiFi Network to pair new devices if you do not deactivate 'Private WiFi Address' (MAC randomisation), 'Limit IP Address Tracking' & activate 'Location Services' and give access to 'Precise Location' on iPhone. #HomeAssistant . They even published a blog article about it, recommending to deactivate these vital protections, instead of fixing the App. #ChinaCloud#SpyWare 🤦
one good thing though - the #SONOFF RF-to-WiFi Bridge (R2 433) does work with other 3rd party Sensors and I now managed to integrate my Alarm System into #HomeAssistant , without having to buy a new one.
Well this is going well... #homeassistant has not renewed its own LetsEncrypt certificate, so I can't access the web interface. I can find no instructions telling me how the hell to renew it manually from the commandline, and no logs telling me WTF it hasn't renewed...
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.
Fairly disappointed in the Aqara fingerprint lock. It doesn’t work well with HomeKit and requires a hub and a cloud account to work with #homeassistant
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.
Macbook takes 3 minutes to wake up from sleep. First window I see: “Force Quit Applications” Home Assistant (not responding) 82.52 GB
Yeah, of course it is the #homeassistant app.
The journey continues: https://noc.social/@noim/112365439208108204
I installed the newest TestFlight now. Maybe this will help ¯_(ツ)_/¯ I mean, I can understand the devs a bit. This issue randomly occurs and is probably hard to debug. But 2 years is way too long for a bug like this to exist.
#musicassistant add-on for #homeassistant is top!
I can cross connect any music source with any output.
UI is very clean and functional.
Why I didn't found it out before?
Managed to get #HomeAssistant working with a #RaspberryPi pico W. The only trick was with the initial firmware load. The ESPhome menu offers direct connect an webserial, neither of which seem to be actually supported. But the download option is fine - it automagically builds a UF2 file that you just download and put in the pi yourself. After that it's all over wifi as usual.
... the cover: materialized and in its natural habitat.
The wall socket box was too shallow to hold a breaker, 24V transformer and #Esp32 board with a relay.
Not very aesthetic, but it covers all the door unlocking junk.
Greenhouse now monitored by #Homeassistant (homebrew ESP32 with two Dallas temp sensors bwahahaha) - air temperature and water temperature. When the Athom relay board turns up, it'll run nutrient into the water as well. All in a nice, 3D printed box. That's me for the day.
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.