Community Highlights, first edition!

system · January 31, 2020, 5:23pm

Back in 2015 and in 2016, we tried starting a series of blog posts called “Community Highlight”, a few times, a blog post appeared about the amazingly awesome stuff our community does with Home Assistant.

Recently, that idea was picked up again by adding an “In Other News” section to the release notes on each Home Assistant release. However, the development pace of Home Assistant is high! As a result, that section is always hidden all the way down somewhere in those release notes. A bit unfortunate, since there is so much cool stuff to be found!

So, today, we present you: the Community Highlights, the first edition!

Technically, not the first, but we rebooted this series, right?

We hope you enjoy this, please let us know in the comments below! Or join us for a little chat in our #lounge at Discord

../Frenck

A different take on designing your frontend

Mattias Persson showed an interesting alternative approach to the design of his Lovelace UI. It looks fabulous; we don’t even know where to start explaining, check the video below for an impression:

Mattias created a post in the Community Forum with all the details, including more screenshots, the things he used and links to his GitHub repository. Everything you’d need if you wanted to replicate this for your own use. Thanks Mattias!

Smart toilet roll holder

Com’on, we all know what it is like to be in the restroom, taking a number two, discovering that you are out of paper.

For the-berik, on our subreddit, it was reason enough to do something about it. He converted his toilet roll holder into a smart version using an ESP8266 chip, a load cell and ESPHome, allowing Home Assistant to know how many rolls of toilet paper are left on the holder.

Click on the video below to see how it works.

Smart toiletroll holder with Esphome and Homeassistant from r/homeassistant

Smart mailbox sensor, the easy way

Another one from our subreddit, where choketube shares his pride for the mailbox sensor he created. He placed a Hue motion sensor inside his mailbox that will trigger if it is opened, really smart and simple!

He demonstrates his mailbox in the video below.

Proud of my new Automation - Hue Sensor in my Mailbox from r/homeassistant

Got a tip for the next edition?

Have you seen (or made) something awesome, interesting, unique, amazing, inspirational, unusual or funny, using Home Assistant?

Please drop us a line and we might include it in next edition.

Share it with us via Social Media:

See you next edition!

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2020/01/31/community-highlights/

pergola.fabio · January 31, 2020, 6:06pm

Cool, never thought about a smart mailbox, I have a xiaomi pir deconz sensor, gonna use that

frenck · January 31, 2020, 6:22pm

Some things can be made smarter so easy, just cool

Joeke · January 31, 2020, 6:37pm

So cool to see all those creative ideas!!
I like them all…

forte · January 31, 2020, 7:18pm

Oh man, fingers crossed when I am finally ready to post my Home Assistant tour I am able to get featured here.

Klagio · January 31, 2020, 8:17pm

Not working if made of metal

pergola.fabio · January 31, 2020, 8:30pm

crap , mine is , zigbee doesnt work on metal/aluminium?

nickrout · January 31, 2020, 8:34pm

My (semirural) mailbox is down the driveway, across the road, and about 30 m down the road. I think my solution lies in lora or sms and deep sleep.

Klagio · January 31, 2020, 9:04pm

Most probably not. Zigbee has a problem and also the magnet of the sensor will magnetize also the box.

EDIT now I read you want to use a PIR sensor in a mailbox? How would that work??

stephack · January 31, 2020, 9:05pm

Had this issue with both a zwave and a zigbee motion sensor. Seemed to work fine at first but the metal cage that is my mailbox made this very unreliable. I ended up repurposing an unused iris Moisture sensor, some spare contact sensors and a plastic enclosure to get mine working. Rock solid for the past few weeks.

johnny5w · January 31, 2020, 9:24pm

Good call on the mailbox automation! I did that exact thing earlier this week, except I used a Wyze contact sensor instead. Works a treat.

pergola.fabio · January 31, 2020, 9:44pm

Yeah, if motion is detected? Or I could use indeed ba movement sensor

glmnet · January 31, 2020, 10:32pm

A guy shared on Twitter one automation that shuts down the when goes beyond 80%

Brilliant

cogneato · February 1, 2020, 12:41am

I attached a xiaomi vibration sensor outside of the metal of mine underneath. I got the signal fine but too many false detections.

Corey_Maxim · February 1, 2020, 1:06am

I have been using a Xiaomi Window/Door contact sensor in my mail box for about a tear now on my metal mail box that not only sends a notification to my phone but also sends a TTS to my surround sound the old AOL voice saying “You’ve got mail” I think the al man liked it the first time he heard it because he opens the lid a few times to hear the TTS through the open window lol

Word great

mitch · February 1, 2020, 1:34am

I’ve done the same thing with a Xiaomi Aqaba door window sensor.

Works really well and also sends me a push notification and makes sure my camera is recording in case someone is trying to take something out they shouldn’t.

teachingbirds · February 1, 2020, 10:57am

Me mailbox is made out of metal and it works just fine with two xiaomi door sensors.

Torgrim · February 1, 2020, 1:20pm

I do the same with Aqara Vibration Sensor

In HA I use some sensors and a custom input select drop down with a automation:

sensors.yaml

  - platform: history_stats
    name: mailbox_lid_count_today
    entity_id: binary_sensor.vibration_postkasse
    state: 'on'
    type: count
    start: '{{ now().replace(hour=0).replace(minute=0).replace(second=0) }}'
    end: '{{ now() }}'

input_select.yaml

  postkasse:
    name: Postkasse
    options:
      - Tømt
      - Bør sjekkes
      - Må tømmes
    initial: Tømt
    icon: mdi:mailbox

automation.yaml

- id: '1573072650409'
  alias: set postkasse status
  description: Når postkassen åpnes settes input select feltet til "Bør sjekkes"
  trigger:
  - device_id: a7bcdf0d89b348bb8fbdf33505594fe8
    domain: binary_sensor
    entity_id: binary_sensor.vibration_postkasse
    platform: device
    type: motion
  condition: []
  action:
  - alias: ''
    data:
      entity_id: input_select.postkasse
      option: Bør sjekkes
    service: input_select.select_option
  - data:
      entity_id: media_player.tv_stue
      language: 'no'
      message: Noen er i postkassen
    service: tts.google_say

lovelace

entities:
  - entity: input_select.postkasse
  - entity: binary_sensor.vibration_postkasse
type: entities

It works perfect for some hours, then it looses connection.

I don’t know if this is because of low temperature (< 5 degrees) or if it is just the vibration sensor. The temperature sensor from the same company works perfect.

I use ConBee and have also tried Ikea range extender, but with no improvment of the stability.

Any one have an idea of a sensor that can handle 20-30 meter outside the house?

frenck · February 1, 2020, 3:18pm

Updated the blog post. if you have seen or made something cool, you can now send it in as a tip for the next edition:

https://www.home-assistant.io/suggest-community-highlight

pergola.fabio · February 1, 2020, 4:21pm

What’s the distance to next router inside your house? Not sure if it will work, because of the isolation between the walls