Hi,
Could I ask for some advice please on design I am planning.
We currently have some ‘automation’ based in a HAI Omni controller but that device is getting old and bits keep failing (And the whole HAI range has been discontinued).
I was hoping to remove everything from the Omni except Alarm functions in the 1st instance.
It currently has:
Half a dozen UPB Lights and Switches
About 7 PIR sensors
major outputs are a series of watering system controlled by relays.
To this I hoped to add Alexa and possible voice commands for the old devices and all kinds of new ones based on Z-Wave (or similar)
ie bring it up to date but dont re-wire the house.
Home Assistant of course jumps out as an excellent solution - especially using Raspberry PI which I have lying around from previous projects.
It looks like all the old stuff is covered with existing ‘integratons’ but I am having trouble conceptualising the physical layout.
Currently everything routes through a cabinet in the garage (ie all the PIR enter there; all the watering relays leave from there because their 24VAC source is there)
All the internet (RJ45) points also fan out from there.
When it comes to Z-wave though - looks like there are a variety of USB Sticks recommended.
I am assuming these Sticks communicate with individual Z-wave devices - have I got this right ?
But if I put the Stick in a steel cabinet at one corner of the house I dont think it will be communicating with much.
Does anybody have any suggestions for this eg
maybe an external Z-wave controller that can talk to Home Assistant over network ?
a Z-wave stick with an external aerial ?
As I am just starting the journey any help would be greatly appreciated. I am not even sure I have this in the correct Category!
Thanks
JC
Z-wave (& zigbee) rely on a wireless mesh network, I.e. you really need to build a wireless network (of mains powered devices) using one or both of these. So normally you would have a stick [gateway] (USB dongle) that then communicates to one or more Mains powered devices (on the same network) that then repeats these signals to other devices further away (don’t get z-wave & Zigbee confused with each other, as they are very different. And don’t get wifi confused as it is very different again).
What do you mean steel cabinet?
I have one in a Steel Rack cabinet, & a few meters away I have a Aeotec Range Extender 6.
But any mains powered z-wave device will act as a Range Extender. The biggest mistake people make is just getting battery operated devices, & they won’t act as repeaters. Some devices can be both, but they will only act as repeaters if they are plugged into mains power at set-up.
Most people start with zigbee light bulbs, & thus creating a good zigbee mesh network, but z-wave light bulbs aren’t as popular.
I have a few z-wave devices in a steel shed, about 20meters away from my house & that was hard to get a signal into, but after installing a lot of mains powered z-wave devices it can now penetrate the insulated steel walls.
z-wave is generally more expensive than zigbee, because of licensing cost on z-wave. But I don’t know of any zigbee smart-switches that monitor power usage, so z-wave Smart-switch are really good for this (& they act as repeaters).
A lot of people use a USB extension cable (because you shouldn’t have a zigbee & z-wave gateway close together). If you can’t get a signal out of your cabinet, perhaps you should try this.
P.s. If you are going to use a Raspberry Pi (I do) Read this first: Don’t use a SD card
Its a cabinet mounted on the wall where all this ‘stuff’ goes. Sounds like just using an extension cable will get the signal out of the faraday cage - then like you say it just needs some device reasonable nearby to get the ball rolling. And I hadn’t got that far yet but timely advice on SD cards for the PI. I think I learnt that lesson with a dash cam - the card needs to be written to A LOT, and only written to. You only ever read from a dash cam when something bad happens.
Thanks for the help
JC