Hello everyone,
I recently bought a home (yay!) and I’m in the process of re-wiring the entire house.
It wasn’t organized or done up to code… so I am fixing all that.
I want to setup a Home Assistant system with various raspberry pis.
What switches should I use?
I like the dimmer switches, and also like the Philips Hue lights.
Any suggestions?
Thank you very much!
Here’s a good zwave in-wall switch/dimmer:
It reports status immediately if the switch itself changes. That’s often helpful. Hue lights are well supported in Home Assistant.
Congratulations on the new home! @ih8gates has some good info there. May I ask? What do you plan on doing with multiple Pis?
Hello guys!
Thank you for the welcome and posts!
Checking out ih8gates’ dimmer switch.
PtP,
Thank you for the congrats!
It’s my first home and I am super excited.
Re-wiring everything up, and got a couple of things lined-up.
For example, the house has an “intercom” system between rooms and 1st and 2nd floor: I am thinking of pulling that original cabling out, and installing Cat5e cable inside.
That will help me have a better network throughout the house (I love Mikrotik equipment, and I have various Mikrotik RB951 units that receive PoE, so with one cable, there will be a wifi spot).
I am trying to nail down everything I can, as we pulled up all the tiles of the floor, and we are about to start installing the new tiles (concrete floor).
I already laid out a 1" PVC pipe to pull the gas line through, and change the house to gas stove instead of electric.
I am also laying out a 1-1/2" PVC pipe that will go from the main breaker panel, to the location in the patio where the emergency generator will be located. Better to do all this now than later (although I still won’t be buying the generator).
PtP, the multiple Pis, I was thinking of installing “motion” on various of them, and have them as “security cameras”.
Either install raspbian with motion, or install “motioneyeos” full.
Another Pi I want to use for music: I have a DAC board, to give it good audio output.
Just setting up some cool stuff.
I think I have a better direction now.
Setting up Home Assistant in a machine (what do you think about a Pi versus a laptop? Difference in performance of Home Assistant itself?).
Various simple dimming LED bulbs for things like the house entrance, sides and backyard.
And inside, a couple (they’re COSTLY!) Philips Hue bulbs.
Throwing some ideas out there… what do you think?
I originally went that route, but quickly dropped the idea and went directly with changing the in-wall switch/dimmer. Unless it is you (and only you) ever in your house you’ll always be fighting with the dumb switch being powered off by your wife, kids, neighbors, dogs, cats, etc.
I haven’t tested the one that @ih8gates pointed you to, but the 2nd one on the list is my favorite so far. Good price, easy setup, and haven’t had any failures yet.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006LQFHN2/?tag=thewire06-20&linkCode=xm2&ascsubtag=WC92072
I have several of these. But IIRC, they report their status when they turn on, but not when they turn off. Having that level of reporting can sometimes be handy.
I’ve got 2 sets of lights in my kitchen that we treat as one since I watch for the first light as a trigger to turn on/off the other.
I use a Wink hub and I’ve not noticed it not seeing on or off states not stated timely. That might be why I’m good with them. I probably live with a few seconds more latency than you do though because of this!
Thanks for giving me another automation that I like and hadn’t thought about! When kitchen overhead lights come, turn off the under cabinet lights. There’s no sense in having them both on! Not sure if my wife is going to love this though 