Hi all,
Need your advise…I want to get started with all this automation/smart thing. However I’m a bit lost with all the hardware and technology available.
Since I’m pretty n00b in this area, I’m not sure about the future direction of technological evolvement (what technology/ies Is/Are the future) and what considered as “unsecured” protocols (like RF, maybe)
I would like to get started from something simple, then install HA on my windows laptop and then move on to RPi i guess.
In the 1st phase only few basic sensors are needed (to taste the whole “smart” thing):
IR control (TV, audio center, AC)
temperature/humidity (1 room)
a pair of wall switches (with feedback)
a pair of door sensors
motion sensor
smart socket
In the 2nd phase (when will move to another appartment): blinds controls, more temp/hum sensors, lights, doorbell
There is a Broadlink Rm Pro (with IR/RF capability, but as I understand lacks device feedback state, Z-Wave, Zigbee. And not sure about how great the device variety that potentially could be connected to it)
Xiaomi (has a lot of sensors) - lacks IR (however I saw an external IR device for Xiaomi…external )
I’m not sure what technology to adopt in order to proceed in a right direction w/o wasting time/money on unnecessary devices.
Would appreciate your advice (not only about 2 mentioned brands).
Budget: not expensive
We are at EU socket standards and have iphones/Ipad at home- in case it matters
Also a noob here. All the listed stuff is on order so I didn’t get the chance to tinker with it yet. And I’m on EU standard too-
I went with a set of Xiaomi sensors and switches with the gateway, some Sonoff Touch wall switches, Sonoff relays and an Orange Pi PC. If you need a good cheap IR controller there’s the Broadlinks RM3 Bean controller. My main goal was to get it as cheap as I could.
IMO, you want to stick with protocols that provide feedback and allow you to query the status of devices. That allows you to use the state of controlled devices in your automation. For me, that means I’m looking at Z-Wave as my primary protocol, with MQTT (and other bi-directional network APIs) as my secondary protocol. While the RF switches and sockets are rather nice, not being able to determine their state rules them out for me.
IR Control - the Harmony Hub may be an option, if it can control all your devices
There are many Z-Wave devices that’ll do that, if you want one that also does motion detection, then the likes of the Aeotec Multisensor is an option
Wall switches - instead of replacing switches, consider in-wall (Z-Wave) modules that connect between the switch and the light. That gives you a switch that folks can still use as a switch, while allow you to automate it
Huge range of Z-Wave options here, from the unobtrusive Sensative Strips, slightly more fiddly to fit, but also unobtrusive, Aeotec Recessed sensor, to traditional surface mounted options
Also a good range of Z-Wave options here, from ones that are only motion detectors, to multi-sensor ones that’ll do humidity, light levels, etc, too
Simplest option is a wall plug, again many Z-Wave options. I’ve got a handful of the TKB ones, as they’ve got an easy to reach indicator light/switch button. With Euro sockets you’ve got options like the funky Fibaro ones.
Key thing I’ve learned is:
Search first, not just here but also other forums, to find out what experiences of any device you’re interested in is like
Check that your Z-Wave devices is supported by OpenZWave before buying (see their GitHub list)
Remember that HA is still very much a work in progress, breaking changes are relatively common so you have to take care to read the release notes
Between the documentation and people’s examples on this forum (and Gitter) there’s a lot of awesome ideas to build from
I started tinkering with this about 3 months ago and I’ve been slowly expanding what I do with it. Now I’m getting comfortable with what it can do, I’ve turned my approach on it’s head. I’m now building a (steadily growing) list of things that annoy me, that I know I can automate, and looking at what tech I need to enable that. For example:
How can I have the outside light turn on, when I’m leaving or arriving and it’s dark out. That should be triggered based off of a combination of proximity, light levels, the order in which certain doors open (and close), etc. Proximity is “easy” (OwnTracks), the rest requires some Z-Wave switch modules, door sensors, and other sensors.
Having the extractor fan turn on (and off) based on the relative room humidity compared to the adjacent room - because I seem to be the only person who’s managed to learn how to use the wall switch This is “just” a couple of humidity sensors and a Z-Wave switch module.
The Broadlink bean can’t control RF devices (compared to broadlink pro), I would say it’s a strong drawback and will be to bad to miss this tech.
As I see it, a good architecture will be to use the Broadlink Bean (in individual rooms, for extended IR coverage) together with RM PRO (as a “main hub”, let’s say in a living room)
XIAOMI uses zigbee, am I right ? Could it be used to manipulate other zigbee devices (from another vendors) ?
Thanks for a detailed reply. Really appreciate it.
Checked Z-Wave sensors prices…they bite. Don’t understand why the price tag is so high
Generally the RF sensors do provide a feedback, Broadlink just didn’t implement it in theirs solution, am I right ?
Unsure about RF, I’ve not seen any RF devices that support it though, and to be honest I’ve stopped paying attention to the RF side because of that. Cost, yeah. Z-Wave controllers are generally cheaper, and the devices somewhat more expensive. On the other hand, at least here in the UK there’s a lot more Z-Wave devices to chose from, whereas there’s a limited range of RF devices.
Let’s talk first about wireless transmission, rf radiofrequency is the communication type for zwave, zigbee, wifi, bluetooth…
If by RF you mean the communication protocol of cheap 433mhz wall switch the answer is most of the time there is no feedback of the switch state after sending the command. For sensors it is another part as by design a sensor gives feedback about the state of a door or a pir state.
I agree with you that zwave prices are high. That’s why i went for 433mhz cheap sensors. Another solution to explore could be xiaomi gateway with xiaomi sensors based on zigbee.
Yeah, by RF I mean 433MHz.
Sonoff switches for instance do implement a feedback - could be useful in some “smart solutions”…but those are not wall switches. [quote=“1technophile, post:7, topic:15305, full:true”]
That’s why i went for 433mhz cheap sensors. Another solution to explore could be xiaomi gateway with xiaomi sensors
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Xiaomi do look like an attractive option. Do you use RF switches with feedback ? did you manage to find those ?
What RF sensors do you use ?
Hi there! I’m getting into the discussion, since I’m in a similar situation - noob on EU standards (well, Italian substandards… )
I’ve been testing some funky automations/integrations with Roku, ChromeCast, Telegram, OwnTracks dd-wrt … Exciting, really, so I decided to get - and now I have at home - the both RM Pro and RM mini from Broadlink (it was an affair!)
I can’t use any wall switches for now, but I’d like to get a motion and door sensors.
I’m interested in Xiaomi devices, but the need of the gateway is somehow disturbing me…
But I’m not sure what’s the final status of this beta integration. The thread is 4 miles long (1,500 messages).
Does someone know is it fully integrated or what are the limitation of the integration for the current moment ?
I’m using pilight to control most things (20 sockets, 10 lights/dimmers, 4 door mag senors and 4 PIRs all 433Mhz), tellduslive as a backup and a Orvibo for IR and a Broadlink RM Pro for odd stuff that pilight can’t control (2 sockets and 2 dimmers again 433 but pilight just can’t detect them) and lots of remotes. I also also have 1 zwave motion/temp/lux sensor paired with a usb zwave stick and some NodeMCU sensors (temp/pressure/smoke/humidity) using MQTT and a sonoff controlling my bathroom light via a connected PIR sensor and MQTT.
I’m pretty happy with the setup, tho’ with HA constantly evolving it can be a challenge to keep everything running smoothly :). My next project is to fit a Door lock and sort out the greenhouse
Thanks a lot for sharing
it seems that you don’t use the HA. Pilight proved itself to be more stable ?
Your sensors, are they “DIY type” ? Does it look good, after the installation ?
Yep I use HA to do the automation and pilight to do the control, tho’ you can do it all in pilight it’s not as sophisticated as HA. My NodeMCU is the only thing that’s DIY and I will eventually put it in a box when I find the right one Generally I think you pay for what you get, Zwave Fibaro sensors look nice but each sensor costs £35+/- which gets very expensive very quickly. My door sensors are much the same as most (but were £30 for 4). My PIR sensors have external antenna so don’t look very nice, but then again they sit in the corners of rooms and don’t really get noticed (4 for £16). Most of my sockets are controlled with Status external sockets, again they don’t look nice but usually are round the back or under/inside furniture etc (£30 for a set of 3). The ceiling roses just look like normal ceiling roses (they don’t do LEDs but work very well with halogen bulbs for dimming again £30 for 6 and I’ve only got 4 lights that need them ) You then need a PC of some type (laptop/desktop/PI/CHIP) for the 24/7 automation and hubs for the various sensors/switches/dimmers. My installation was very much a growing experiment so there was no design involved and I’m on a very limited budget, so don’t have a huge choice.
In case you were starting over again your home automation project (from scratch), what would you do differently and how your architecture would look like ?
Hmm good question, I’m tempted by the Xiaomi Gateway and associated components, but I don’t think they do a UK plug, so probably out, it maybe only the gateway that needs power tho’ so it might be possible with an adaptor. Zwave is to expensive. So I would probably still go with 433. Now if I had a 3D printer I could come up with some funky boxes and would probably go wifi and mqtt with a lot of wemos d1 minis and at megas/nodemcus with lots of sensors. My other problem is that I live in a rented flat so I can’t retro fit sockets/wires etc, so I’m limited as to what I can fit where. I’m also limited by asbestos walls and ceilings, making drilling holes for things fun .
NodeMCU has a 8 useful digital IO pins and 1 analogue pin + the I2C pins and SPI, so it has plenty of options I use it via the Arduino IDE. I haven’t played much with the mega 2560 yet but would seem to have even more options
Do you think Broadlink RM PRO could be used instead of the DIY part of this solution (arduino + transmitter/receiver modules) ? The RM PRO already has transmitters/receivers for IR & 433MHZ
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This is “just” a couple of humidity sensors and a Z-Wave switch module.
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