Infrastructure, cabling & design

Oops, sorry. Shoddy googling on my behalf. It is 24v power supply.
You are correct, I have A1(right terminal) connected to 24v + and A2(left terminal) connected to 24v-

I’ve got some more Loxone kit coming next week as the miniserver is a bit pointless without it, I’ll post pics of my testing board.
I’ll keep tinkering but I just don’t have as much time to dedicate to this as i would like, the rest of the build planning is really bogging me down… May have to get a Loxone installer anyway just because there are only so many hours in the day.
Thanks for the relay connection confirmation, I’ll try the other relays and see if they heatup

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You seem to be having 12V relays (title of your ebay link: " 4pcs ╍ Finder 12V SPDT 10A Relay & Socket ╍ 5pin 40.31.7 with 95.83.3 socket ╍ x", also I think I can read 12V on the relays in the picture of your setup…)

The coils will certainly get hot and won’t last very long if you run them with twice the appropriate voltage :stuck_out_tongue:

btw: I’m using the exact same power supplies. Good choice.

Thanks Max

Steve pointed out my obvious mistake and I’ve ordered 24v replacements. Rookie error! I only bought them because they were £4 on eBay and seemed a bargain.

This is probably perfect for my home, the unipi 1.1 an it uses a Raspberry PI. If I get a v4 to run my Home Assistent on, can i use the same one to put on the unipi?

@lessmann may be able to confirm? @KingMark66 but as I understand it the RPi comes with the unipi when you purchase…of course I may be wrong on that?

You can choose Buy Unipi, but as i look closer, to the specs. Not compatible with v4

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I have looked into the Shelly 4 Pro, €79 din rail mounted. And some inputs, but maybe you can also link it with a shelly 1. But is this integrateble with HA, according to youtube you can set mqtt

Look here for discovery info

The Unipi is not compatible with Raspi 4 according to the documentation.
I got mine from Reichelt and then you have to add the Pi.

To control the Unipi you load Evok on the Raspi and then use NodeRed to control Evok so it is a natural partner to HA as it’s simple to include mqtt nodes wherever you need them. I’m not the biggest fan of NodeRed but that may change once/if I become more proficient at it.
In theory you could load both Evok and HA on the same pi.

I have some shelly devices and I used to use mqtt but now have moved over to the Shelly Smart Home intergration from the HACS, which does it all for you but I see @wellsy has already directed you to it.

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Unipi definetly looks interesting but if I would consider doing long term system I wouldn’t run it on raspberry equipped with sd card. It is too easy to corrupt. Usually bad power supply.

For myself maybe yes but if have to think the retail value then possibly not.

You can buy DIN mount power supplies which are affordable and good quality. Like this or EBAY

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I may just have been lucky but I’ve never had an SD problem on a Raspi.
The problem for me is Node Red, I don’t know if I have the patients to learn it.

I had the same. My thinkig was for a long time with logical gates AND, OR, XOR…
After getting that to my head that it doesn’t work (directly) that way I started liking it. Some things are easier on other systems like checking long conditional trees with “and” and “or” requirements.

But now that you have been using the unipi for longer what is the final outcome? Do you like or not like it?
What IO are you using?

Like others, I’m also rewiring for a house renovation and wondering what to install for lighting in particular. Mostly I want to keep it simple, and just have a few areas in the house where I can use scene mode lighting. Each area will need to be controlled from multiple switches because of the size of some areas.

For reliability of the lighting circuit I’d like something that runs the lighting independently of home assistant, but would obviously also be controllable via home assistant. Would also like to be able to use my own choices of switches.

I’d also like a system that can be replaced without major rewiring to make it possible to sell the house if the owner wanted a different solution.

Loxone looks interesting and maybe this is the best answer. If I go with my own switches (e.g. momentary push buttons), can I connect these through the the controller using cat7 cables? I also like the look of the Shelly 4 solution. Anyone had any luck with the Shelly 4’s? Can these do scene modes from a physical switch?

I also wonder if there is a solution where the brains can be installed in each room, rather than through to a central controller. I’m not super excited by the idea of a rack of kit in a cupboard with hundreds of cables coming into it. For example, I guess a Shelly 4 could be installed per room, and then linked up to a bunch of switches in the room. Are there any other solutions along these lines? I guess the tree mode in Loxone also achieves this to an extent?

As per my update on another thread I thought you may be interested.
The Loxone system does obviously rely on a node zero…
I’ve made a decision on Loxone and will not be going down the Unipi route.
Lighting, which is the main priority in a domestic smart home is really well served under Loxone and with the DMX extension you can add cheap chinese dmx dimmers to control all sort of lighting and even external relays so this pretty much solves the problem for “switching and dimming”.
I really like the Loxone wall switches which have 5 buttons and also the ability to click through preset scenes for each button. Having one of these in every room with a common logic throughout the house should make it very intuitive. For example you can have Top left for blinds up, bottom left for blinds down. Right up for music vol up and bottom right for music vol down and middle button to toggle through light settings or any combination you like but I think it’s important to decide on a “logic” and stick with it thoughout the house.

What worried me with Loxone was the limited I/O and the additional extensions are expensive but with the tree extension you can add 100 devices. This covers motion sensors and the wall switches so even though the devices themselves appear expensive at first, the fact that they connect problem free with no need for additional inputs make them very appealing. The light switches also measure temperature and humidity and the motion sensors have a light sensor too so you get more than just one action from each device. This should cover any expansion needs without having to buy more PLC hardware.

The software was a bit tricky to understand at first but if you can set up HASSIO, you can manage this. It’s simple, well documented and very flexible.
I like it alot! The customer service on the other hand is useless but I’ve had some good advice from the forums.

I’ve still got to get my head around how this will control the UFH and pump etc but I’m confident this will manage it just fine.

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@lessmann I missed this post as I have been very busy with my own project and spending less time on this forum.
Good that you have settled on the direction you are headed. When does your construction/renovation begin? Will you be posting your progress on here?

Hope it all goes well for you!

If you’re retrofitting an old house and can do it, I suggest the biggest/deepest electrical boxes you can manage for all the switches and maybe the outlets. That’s my constant struggle - fitting the slightly bigger smart switches into old small boxes.

We were going to start with the utility connections this month but everything has now been delayed. Breaking ground for the excavation was expected to be around Aug but all is in the air at the moment. It’s all fine though and I’m appreciating having extra time to plan stuff. I also built my current house approx 4years ago and the idea of going through it all again so soon is slightly daunting.
Also I’m unlikely to have the time to programme the electric side of things myself so looking to hire an electrician/Loxone installer to get the basics up and running.
I may tap the forum for anyone who may know someone good in London.
Loxone have also stopped selling directly to the public so that is another issue to deal with, they have gone installer only. Im glad I purchased a lot of the hardware early as it’s given me the opportunity to test 3rd party hardware alongside and I’ll be able to direct the installer better as with all the quotes so far, even though I’ve stipulated DMX lighting for example, they have quoted full Loxone only. Not helpful.
What are you working on?

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@lessmann Interesting that someone would respond to a specific request for a quote and not include the gear requested? “Not very helpful” is a fairly mild observation. Are there many contractors (who know the gear you want to use) to choose from in and around London?

I’ve been busy on three projects recently: Started with tidying up the solids removal and bio-filtration section of my water treatment. Then a major cleanup of the buildup of solids in the deep end of the pond. And finally a tube type and floating raft aquaponic setup. The edible results from the effort have been very encouraging!

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Hey, i know this is an old post but could you tell me how you are using the unipi v1.1 in homeassistant? I’ve been trying to get it to work for the last couple of days but nothing seems to be working.