Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for some smart plugs preferably with energy monitoring and locally controlled? For some reason I can’t only search a certain number of posts in this topic and the latest I can see anything is from 2020?
I’m using ESPhome-flashed ones from Athom Tech: https://www.athom.tech/blank-1/esphome-au-plug
They work damn well, are decently priced, decent form factor, and ship quickly from Sydney.
I’ve got 6 currently, just ordered 2 more yesterday.
Have done the. TP-Link and Meross ones before, even the Arlec attempt, can’t beat these.
Hi everyone
So many posts to read =)
I want to buy some Zigbee RGB down lights
Are all tuya based ones recognised in ZHA? Too much hassle to change to z2m.
Which ones would you recommend?
I didn’t realise they weren’t certified!
I’ve had absolutely no issues with any of mine for the part year, and know a bunch of other Aussies who also use them.
It’s a shame, as they are better than the Ikuu crap which is certified.
I am looking for a smart dimmer for my living room ceiling light. The ceiling light is currently controlled by a two-way-switch setup and a Shelly 1PM connected on one side. When replacing this with a dimmer, ideally control should be available on both sides of the room.
Has anyone installed the Brilliant Smart WiFi Master and Slave Dimmer Mech and could share their experience? And would this be a suitable replacement of an existing two-way-switch with a dimmer and without rewiring the whole living room? Or, does anyone have any other product suggestions that allow dimmer control and avoid rewiring?
Hi, hopefully this is helpful for someone - I recently brought Brilliant Smart Flood light and set it up through Tuya Local on home assistant. Below is a table for the mapping I used, there are 7 inputs and 1 output/sensor from the light (pir detection). The first 3 DP functions in the table are used in the same type: “Light”, the remaining functions are separate. #NOTE: DP 104 “Mode” is the function that will allow you to turn the lights “ON” or back to “AUTO” or set them to flash if you want to use that function.
You might be able to get away without rewiring by changing both switches to a button press and using the existing 2-way wiring to bring it back to a Shelly dimmer2.
Have a look at some of the discussion last year about using a Shelly in a similar configuration link
You don’t need to have a the two-way momentary switches in the previous post, you can use the Shelly in single switch mode. Then it operates like most single button press dimmers.
I am just about to embark on the renovation of my bathroom, which will be my first opportunity for hardwired home automation. After reviewing as much of this thread as possible, I think I have reached a point of information overload and hoping for some help with my indecision. I’m current running mostly Zigbee devices with Z2M and HA but not adverse to wifi.
What I am trying to achieve is:
The exhaust fan will come on automatically when the humidity in the bathroom varies from the rest of the home by >10%. The fan should also come on for 30 minutes when a user flicks the switch.
When the lights are switched on, the intensity and colour of the lights should be based on the time of day, brighter and cooler during the day and the inverse at night.
I would like to make as much of this automation work without wifi/connection to MQTT/HA and have fall back to ‘basic’ behaviour when disconnected.
So where I am most unsure:
Would a Shelly 2.5 the best device to achieve this? or smart mechanisms flashed with Tasmota/OpenBeken?
Would ESPHome or Tasmota be a better fit for my use case? Which logic do you think I could achieve locally on the device vs. in HA?
Which mechanisms would you recommend? I’m looking for something I can roll out in other rooms as well. Push button preferred, but bell press would be ok too. Would be great to have an LED to indicate state for the fan. One option from further up the thread was the Clipsal 40MBPRL due to the ability to add pictograms and have the LED indicate state (so it’s clear when the fan is on) but I heard the press action is not very nice
Sorry for all the questions, very grateful for any advice
I won’t try and answer all your questions, but this might help:
Control of your fan, yes a Shelly 1 or 2.5 will do this, and will still work with the wall switch if the connection with your HA goes down. HA has built in Shelly integration. If you wanted to go zigbee, then this would probably work, or even some of the Wiser modules (but I wouldn’t recommend them due to buggy firmware and needing the Wiser hub to update firmware).
For your light, if you want automated colour temperature, you’re going to have to go with something like a Wiz or Lifx CCT downlight or globe (both wifi). There are probably zigbee equivalents. But then you need to work out how to stop people switching the light off at the wall as it will lose power. Can’t really see the point of adjustable color temperature in your bathroom (sorry), you’re probably better off with a simple on/off light controlled by another shelly (or the other output of a 2.5), and for low level warm night light, fit a small length of warm white LED strip somewhere, its amazing how little light output you need in the middle of the night.
For smart switches, I’m a fan of the HPM Legrand Excel Life With Netatmo range. They’re quality hardware using Zigbee, made by a reputable brand.
I bought one as a test, and it has been working flawlessly with my HA setup using my Sonoff Zigbee dongle. I’m going to use more of them as I renovate further.
Most of the “smart” fans that are stand alone are not much good as they just come on when in a range of x% to x% humidity. Better than nothing, but far short of what a good automation can do.
I have a few different conditions that turns mine on…
Like you said when it’s x% more than another location in the house
But also if it rises by x amount in a short period of time
More important though is what conditions you use to turn it off.
I have a timer on it so whenever a condition triggers it, it will be on for 8 minutes. This timer restarts everytime a trigger happens, so basically it will run for 8 minutes after it thinks it should be off. That way if it’s in a condition where the automation thinks there is no humidity trigger and you say hey google turn on bathroom fan it will go for 8 minutes. (good to get rid of smells too haha)
The other very important condition is if the humidity is still FALLING , that’s a trigger to stay on.
So many automations get this wrong - they will turn off when the humidity gets BELOW a certain level.
No. No matter what the humidity is, if it’s still falling, leave the fan on because if it’s still falling the fan is still doing something. When it stops falling, then turn it off. (+ the 8 minutes timer on top of that)
Thanks for the suggestion - I like the look of this range and that I could consistently roll them out across all switches and GPO’s around the house. I’m a big fan of Zigbee but shied away from it for this use case due to not being able to have some automations on the switch itself but perhaps, like many things, I am overthinking it. Maybe the best way to go is Zigbee and then making sure my MQTT/HA is high availability.
Edit: would you happen to know if the Netatmo range supports Zigbee binding?
I hadn’t seen this product - I was originally thinking of using Aqara battery devices but something in built like this would be next level
Wow! this is so much richer than what I had in mind, thank you very much for this. I hadnt even considered the case of humidity still falling
Ohhh geee, I think you might be right - a nice under mirror warm white LED strip sounds like a much better solution and also a cost saving as I could then go ‘dumb’ downlights
I have quite a few 30PBBPL installed right now but have found their reliability to be not great over the long term in high use scenarios (e.g. bathroom light). They are a bit spongey, require full movement to reliably trigger, and the spring seems to weaken over time. I have revived a few older units which I’ve had replaced by opening them up and stretching the spring out a bit but they still don’t feel like new. Obviously not a long-term solution but they are okay.
I purchased a couple of 40MBPRL recently to try out as alternatives for the 30PBBPL and unfortunately while the mechanism feels like it’d be much more reliable (they press similarly to a classic Clipsal rocker switch both in required force and snappiness), the LED is very dim and in my opinion is not suitable for use as a status indicator. They’d be fine in an always-on scenario for locating in the dark though.
I’ve done a lot of searching for potential alternative illumination options but haven’t found anything that both looks like it might work and is compliant. The LED hole could be enlarged somewhat to accomodate larger LEDs and the green plastic is translucent so anything sufficiently bright could be strapped to the side of the mechanism and be visible through the plastic (although it would be tinted green).
Based on the shape of the heat-shrinking on the 40MLEDW, it seems like there’s a reverse protection diode and two resistors (in series for the voltage rating). I’ve considered lowering the resistance to increase the brightness but that’d presumably invalidate compliance.
The 30PBBPL are still my current choice where I want a status indicator but am tempted to go with the 40MBPRL in scenarios where that doesn’t matter as much. I’m curious to hear about others’ experiences with the 40MBPRL, in particular with regards to the LED brightness, and if anyone else has a favourite push button with status indicator for use with Shelly devices.