Checking out Home Assistant - Questions

Hardware
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I will NEVER use GoControl, or their parent, Nortel, ever again. I have 4 GoControl Z-Wave thermostats and we had a power flicker, not just off than on, but going off then on several times in 30 seconds. When it stopped, I looked around the room, something looked odd on the thermostat. The display was blinking so only half of each character was showing at a time. I called GoControl and tried to get help, to see if I could get a replacement display and they wouldn’t even talk to me. They said, “Go to the person who sold it to you.” I said, “That’s through your brand on Amazon.” They said, “Well, you have to buy it through an authorized dealer.” They wouldn’t even answer a single question or transfer me to someone or suggest someone in my area. I tried multiple ways to reach GoControl and Nortel, their owner, and got blocked on every way. I messaged them through FB, since they don’t allow public posts on their page and got the same bs.

GoControl may work, but if you EVER need support, they are just nasty, rude, and tell you to go away.

I’m looking over this. Right now I’m dealing with an issue that’s become urgent to deal with (we had some nasty flood damage on our driveway), so I’m moving slower than I was - now it’s just as well the stuff I ordered is not here yet!

Mixed feelings about rabbit holes, but often going down them opens me up to new ideas and lots of times even if I don’t get a solution to the immediate problem, it’s something I remember and use in the future.

By “Long wires,” with the garage door opener issue, that means wires going from the opener, down the rod to the wall the door is in. (There’s an extra support rod and the installers ran wires down it and to each side of the door for safety sensors.) What’s frustrating is Chamberlain (and Liftmaster, one of their brands) does NOT work with any home automation systems. At least the version they had in 2017 does not. There is one protocol I can use, with a bridge, to control their system, but from what I’ve seen, it’s for cars only. (It lets the built-in door opener buttons in some cars control the LiftMaster door, but it does not allow any way to read the door position.)

I was actually thinking of putting a Pi Zero W near one side of the door with some switches or sensors to read if the door was up or down. The sensing is not critical, but in the long run, I’d like to be able to verify the door is up or down. (Like if I’m about to go to bed and can’t remember if I closed the door - it’d be nice to pick up my phone and check and, if it’s open, close it and verify it’s closed.)

Both you and @nickrout are suggesting more ESPHome devices, so I’ll be looking into those. I figure one advantage to ESP would be that it’ll already work with HA, so I take it if I set that up and ESP device to control the garage door and another to sense the position, I can not only access them through HA, but also label them as needed. Is it possible to write my own scripts to interact with them? For instance, is there a way, in HA, to have a script or Python program trigger when I close the door and warn me if it doesn’t read as “closed” within a minute?

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You can completely configure them as you like using digital IO or analog IO or serial IO…
and you can program them directly using yaml/lambda (which would make them working as stand alones) or use them in HA with triggers and scripts…
The only thing it requires is some DIY and tinkering

My first project was to interface my AC, using shared knowledge here.
Then I figured, if they can build a serial interface using esp home, i can build my own for my pelletstove…
Next i build. door cam using Frenck’s doorbell and automated notification
And next is to get a temperature sensor for the bedroom….

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So I can include the execution of a Python script as one of a number of actions that a button in the HA iPhone app can trigger? For instance, press “Watch TV,” and that means it tells my ESP device to send out IR codes to turn on the TV, turn on the Apple TV, change the HDMI switcher to the right output, take the Sonos AMP off mute, and also call a script that will lower my projector screen to the right height?

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Euh…i guess you could use python_script
if it needs to be python…
but, yeah, it could do those things…

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Like I said, one esp can do both duties and more.

66

Sounds like you don’t like Python! :wink:

I ran a software service business from about 2000-2008 or so and most of that work was in self-taught Perl. I did have some classes back in college, but that was in the 80s, so most of the languages we got in class back then aren’t in use much anymore. I could code fast and accurately in Perl, but Python seems so much cleaner. But if HA has a scripting language, I can use that.

I asked on the Raspberry Pi board about ways to handle this projection screen. The IR receiver is super-picky and won’t work with universal remotes and even its own remote has to be pointed right at it, so I’m using the connections meant for a wall switch to control it with a Pi. I need it to start lowering the screen and stop it when it’s at the right height, since letting it go down all the way makes it too low. Timing can vary on the lowering, seemingly depending on the temperature, so I may just need to use a sensor - and that was part of the long discussion on the Pi board about ideas for that.

I guess it comes down to cost of a 2nd unit vs cost of about 45’ of extra wire (more if I use two switches, one to verify it’s all the way down and one to verify it’s all the way up) and whether I want to deal with moving a ladder around that much to string more wire. Either way, the good news is it’s doable.

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don’t forget you need a wire to power it anyway :slight_smile:

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Oh. I was just going to power it psychically… :wink:

I have an outlet near one side of the garage door and one in the ceiling above the door opener.

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Wrong…i wrote a custom integration for my pellet stove in Python :yum:
And i also write c#, php, c++, tcl and few more :wink:

It is just that although HA is written in Python, it doesn’t support it for scripting without addon

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I figured the “Euh” was more like an expression of dislike.

I started my data software in TCL, but I found I just did not like it at all. I had stuff in TCL, sed, and awk, and then found a book on Perl for $10, marked down from $30 because the new version was about to come out. I got home and, within an hour, realized if I switched to Perl, I could use one language for it all. (I needed Expect, and the first language I saw with those abilities was TCL, but I also found Perl had an Expect module, so I could use either one to read incoming modem data and respond to command prompts.)

I like C++ but haven’t used it in well over a decade, since I can usually do what I need to do faster in Python.

I have a friend who works as a govie contractor and swears by Java, which I’ve used. While that was pre-2007, Java made me feel like a Spaceball, where I had to prepare for everything instead of just doing it.

Interesting that HA needs an addon to use Python.

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That was the ‘euh’ about :yum:

oh, and it is not an addon, but integration…

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The built-in support for Python scripts is very limited (it runs in a sandbox), so to use full Python you need a custom integration.

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