Australia - Electrically Certified Hardware

It could be a good little first ESPHome project.

Yes the first one feels quite hard, but once you’ve done one, the world is your oyster.

Here are example parts for a diy lux sensor.

AU $1.14 17%OFF | GY-302 BH1750 BH1750FVI light intensity illumination module 3V-5V
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mPEGoKM

AU $6.43 16%OFF | ESP-32S ESP-WROOM-32 ESP32 WIFI Dual Core CPU Development Board 802.11b/g Wi Fi BT Module Ultra-Low Power Consumption
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOWQ3U4

The problem with diy is making it look good. This project in particular would be out in the open and might not have power cables nearby, so it might look a little iffy

If you are looking for a sensor to go into your bathroom then I would consider having the 3 items in the sensor.

  1. Humidity Sensor - This will control your fan.
  2. Lux Sensor - You could get away with sun elevation, or another common LUX sensor for your house but it all depending on your site set up - can control lights and provide a condition in automations.
  3. Motion Sensor and or presences sensor - can control lights… especially at night when you go to the bathroom.

I have done this with ESPHome and made my own.

Here’s my write up.

I used these sensors:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000074413299.html

They include their own little dome so it is a lot easier to make it look good mounting it on whatever project box you want.

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@tom_l

Nice, thanks for sharing and the info :+1:

That is the way to do it. Have a Lux sensor uneffected by any artificial lights to control your automations, unless you have dark areas in your house of course. :wink:

I wonder whether there is some kind of reed switch hack suitable for this.

Something you could maybe even mount inside the led cover? Like a photoresitor attached to a door sensor.

AU $0.83 17%OFF | 20pcs 5506 5516 5528 5537 5539 Light Dependent Resistor LDR 5MM Photoresistor wholesale retail Photoconductive resistance
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mPtK7dO

Not sure if the bright resistance would be low enough?

Edit: Someone has suggested the cut-off for Aqara sensors is about 2k ohm so linked ones are unlikely to work.

I have some that I had made - they’re BLE, currently not supported by HA but I’m working on that because I have several scattered about the place.

Sensors for temp, humidity, air pressure and light, runs from a CR2450 cell that should last about a year. I have cases as well.

If you want one, PM me with your name and address.

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I use these. Certainly not cheap but you get a heap of sensors in one package plus it can run on either battery or 5V supply. I have all of mine plugged into power supplies. They respond super fast and being powered means they act as ZWave repeaters as well. My ZWave network is rock solid and crazy fast.

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Those things looks pretty good! I didn’t realise we could get z wave stuff here? I thought it interfered with our radio signals or something so they wouldn’t work?

Up to 2 years on battery seems pretty great!

Plenty of ZWave available here. You just can’t import devices from other countries because we have a slightly different frequency used.

Good to know! Unfortunately I was thinking of going zigbee but haven’t got it yet. I don’t think I could justify going z wave just for this.

If only there was a way to convert zwave to zigbee or WiFi, it would be perfect!

Looks like my trusty KP115 are almost impossible to get now. I’m seeing mixed reports on local access for the Tapo P110 but the time frames for those posts vary. Can anyone provide a summary on the current status of those plugs?

I found the same thing last weekend. Have been very happy with my Kasa plugs.

I got two of the Tapo P110 and using the Tapo Controller through HACS. It works well locally but the integration warns:

Although the integration works using LAN, the tapo device needs internet access to synchronize with tapo cloud, especially for credentials, a missing internet access could lead into “Invalida authentication error”. Also a static IP must be set for device.

Thanks. Great info. Any idea how long it will work for if cloud access is lost?

I’ve a bunch of the light switches,
They’re dim

Hi All, just wondering what the recommended/best quad GPO is to interface to Homeassistant? Would only be powering a power dock for a laptop, a laptop, 2 x monitor and a sound bar. My missus is paranoid about fire and turns everything off at the wall switch. So I am setting up some smarts on the house with Homeassistant. And one of them being the ability to turn all my office equipment back on in the morning automatically.

Mercator has a Quad ‘Ikuu’ GPO. 4 individually switched outlets…does power monitoring also, but only on each ‘pair’ of outlets, not all 4 individually.
I don’t have one, but I do have a number of the light switches and downlights, all of which come into HA just nicely
Note - AVOID WIFI stuff where possible , go zigbee - zigbee is platform independent

The zigbee version is good , just wish the LEDs behind the power switches was brighter.

Thanks! I have a Zwave coordinator (hub? whatever the stick is called!) and TBH while I only have a couple of Zwave sensors they seem far more reliable than my Zigbee ones (which vary from ok to very good). I wasn’t even aware there was a Zwave option so thanks for drawing my attention to it!

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There are a bunch, aside from the Aqara (mentioned below - I have one and it’s quite good), a number of motion sensors include a light sensor. Two I can think of are the Hue and some versions of the Aqara motion sensor. I have no idea how accurate any of them are but they are good enough for most purposes I think.