DIY Alarm help

For D1 mini I use USB power supply to mains

And a commonly available USB power supply is the one from IKEA. It is working well while being cheap and safe unlike a lot of the cheap shit from China.

Great. That also sounds like the most appealing option for me, since I am not at all comfortable in adressing the power management of a battery-powered D1 mini just yet. Is this the charger you are referring to:

I whole heartedly agree on getting mains-connected items from China. Iā€™d rather not :wink:

Oh. They have one even cheaper now? I bought 10 of the one with 3 outputs because it is powerful enough to run a Raspberry Pi. It is 59 DKK as I remember. And I saw a tear down of it on Youtube that it is made properly. But I am sure the single output is also OK for a D1 mini. And I am sure all IKEA products meet basic safety standards even if it is produced in China. The advantage of the 3 output is that it has enough power to also drive a servo motor like I use for my toilet flusher

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There are lots of options for wireless that IMHO are in the same class as wifi devicesā€¦ a router translates wifi to ether so HA can read it (mqtt component)ā€¦ a zwave stick translating zwave to serial (ozw integration)ā€¦ not very different from using an arduino to translate X wireless protocol to serial so HA can see it (serial sensor component). The problem though with most of these diy/arduino wireless systems (ie, esp lora, 'duino 433 & 2.4, etcā€¦) is a lack of encryption. So for alarm sensors, I think the best choices will be in the wifi and zwave arenas (zigbee recently was found vulnerable to drive-by hacksā€¦ details are vague to determine how this may affect HA, but until we get a green light Iā€™d avoid zigbee for alarms for now).

FWIW, D1 minis are a poor choice if battery is a requirement. I like d1 minis anywhere there is mains power, z-wave mostly everywhere elseā€¦ with a handful of DIY bare esp+esphome battery powered PIR devices (that donā€™t see heavy trafficā€¦ like 5-10/day). If you have an area that doesnā€™t have heavier traffic (like 30+/day), and you donā€™t mind playing with bare esp modules, the latter is a perfect solution, that can last years on an 18650.

If soldering/programming isnā€™t your thing, youā€™d be fine with zwave for battery devices. I prefer the ecolink pet-proof motion sensors. For doors/windows, I prefer ecolink door sensors. The door sensors are bulky looking, but Iā€™ve tried the sehksier looking aeotec recessed sensors, and they donā€™t even come close to the reliability of the ecolinks. All of the ecolink stuff Iā€™ve tried so far has been easy to integrate, the batteries last forever, and they are rock solid stable (no affiliationā€¦ just sharing my personal experience). Also a nice feature of their door sensors is the screw terminals that you can use for external sensors. Say you have a window with 3 openings. Instead of buying a $40 device for each opening, just get one, and wire 2 cheap reed switches (in serial) to 1 device. That can cover all 3 openings with only one zwave node. Also you can cut out the built in reed switch to use a remotely located reed switch instead (I did this on my breaker panelā€¦ since wireless gets blocked by the metal case, the device had to be mounted away from the panel doorā€¦ a wired reed sensor was a perfect solution for that).

Anyhow, I think this is getting tldrā€¦ hope you find stuff that works well!

Just wanted to add a thought I spotted in another thread about home security - ā€œif someone decided to break into your house, theyā€™ll do this way or the other so there is little sense in being too paranoid about insecure communications between your sensors and a gatewayā€.
And I know stories about thieves who had only 15-20 mins and yet managed to take a lot and get away.
So the point is perhaps you need a not too complicated (easy to use) home alarm but itā€™s very important to make your house look ā€œprotectedā€ and not empty so they just go elsewhere. And if they get in - make it as difficult as possible for them to stop any audio-visual alarms (which will trigger if you use even a simple combination of door/PIR sensors).

This is very trueā€¦ at the end of the day what is preferable is a good deterrent vs securing keys, because even a fortress will be had to some extent with a quick grab and go. Quality cameras are an excellent deterrentā€¦ beware most professional criminals can tell the real deal from the fakes/toys. I donā€™t bother with the ā€œADT signā€ā€¦ if they care, a criminal will know if you just stole a sign from your neighbor or not. I also have a well trained dog with a deep loud barkā€¦ and of course motion lighting on the exterior. All of these things together will convey that your house is not worthwhile target.

Failing the deterrentsā€¦ it can definitely help having the big commotion of flashing lights and loud sirens that put pressure on said thieves if they do decide to go for it. I have known many criminals that had all day to plan out getting appliances on a truckā€¦ they wonā€™t do that with sirens/lights and neighbors coming out their front door, LOL! Of course, if they could crack the alarm system, theyā€™d be in the former situation with lots more time to do damage. Itā€™s these kind of break ins that can result in bigger lossesā€¦ consider the cost of appliances etc, vs a crackhead smashing the window and running out with an xbox on one of your bikes. Securing the alarm remains something to consider when it comes to professional thieves (theyā€™re the ones that will truly ruin your dayā€¦ and a lot of them take time to carefully study cracking various alarm systemsā€¦ same guys were the ones using decade counters to open dip switch secured garage doors in the 80ā€™sā€¦ their methods have matured with tech and Iā€™m sure the good ones are studying the zha drive-by right now).

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