I just put my name and email on there. It never showed me the address though. Is this going to be like a meet up for home automation enthusiasts?
Because I’ve been at it in one way or another for 20 years. I’ve got a home assistant instance running in Docker on some embedded router hardware. Running insteon matter X10 Z-Wave ring wyze tapo Foscam NLE and a handful of others I can’t remember.
Ezlo killing Vera is what got me to finally jump into home assistant. And it’s pretty cool but I feel like I need to get up to speed on the terminology.
Things like do I call this thing a switch or do we call it a light. It’s a switch that controls are light. When I name things should I include the word room in the name? the device type? When I categorize a device into a room do I use the room with the device is located or the thing it’s controlling is located. Etc. It’d be nice to get some advice from people who have bigger setups than me running smoother than mine.
Thanks for signing up. Not sure why the address didn’t post. I’ll see if I can contact them to get that fixed. Right now the pending location is in the Waldo/Brookside area. If I can’t get Luma to update that, I’ll post it here in this thread.
I’m also an old X10 user and been through the chopping block countless times. What did it in for my move to HA was shortly after the release of Wink Hub2 before it was bought out and their adding of the monthly fee. I think it was 0.43.x release when I started. I’m happy to help showcase and share as well as help and answer any questions I can. So definitely bring your questions to the meet up.
One of the things I would like to propose for the meetup is a showcase. This can be simple things like showing what you have personally learned and accomplished. It will help others who are just now learning about HomeAssistant or even teach different ways to accomplish what can be done.
Also, if you know someone who wants to get into smart homes, but does not know what they want to do, invite them as well.
Another though. How does everyone feel about an after event party at a local eatery such as Jalopeno’s or Charlie Hoopers?
showcase definitely! I’ve added so much stuff into my HA now, it pushes notifications to my phone if I park at home and my EV battery is low and its not plugged in to charge!
Wakeup and sleep routines for both me and my spouse.
And I made a “Cold Now” button that causes the AC to run, right now, for 15 minutes, then the fan for another 15, without you having to look at or think about what the temp or setpoint is. I will eventually rig that to run any time we shower or use the stove or open the dishwasher as all those generate humidity we want to get rid of.
I put together some notes i want to bring to the meeting.
The Kansas City Linux User’s Group meets monthly at the JoCo Library, in leawood as of late. though that does make everyone leave by 8.
I never got rid of my X10 stuff, but I had trouble controlling it from Vera (which I was using before HA) Vera shit on all their users last month ending all remote access. I have Tailscale now with HA working from anywhere. My Insteon hub purportedly supports X10 signaling, so maybe i could get some of that back online but these TP link matter devices are so reasonably priced and I dig matter.
X10 and Insteon though, were the only ones to use RF+Power-line at the same time and I think that has some real advantages over depending on one single SSID like my Matter stuff does.
Devices exist to bridge Ethernet over power-line. It’s a real pity that those chips didn’t find their way into Matter devices. and then they could run ipv6 over wifi plus wired Ethernet for multi-path redundancy.
The building is owned by the church across the street, but it is an event center. Unfortunately when trying to get it booked, it was bumped by a much larger party that will be using it for most of the afternoon (wedding). So I was able to land a location that is close and still able to host 20-30 people easily. The difference in the distance is a parking lot… and it’s officially confirmed by the owner. I’ll get the address updated on Luma tonight. The venue also has a good wifi and screen that can be used to show from a laptop.
Sounds like you definitely have some good stuff to bring for sure. If you would be interested in helping with the hosting, definitely let me know and I’ll get you added to the list.
Big luv for the KCLUG! 20+ years of hardcore Linux here. I remember downloading floppies to build Slackware in the early days of compiling that beast.
Right now, Matter is a strange beast. It works, kind of, when it works and works very well, unless it doesn’t, and then it’s just broken. Complicate things with multiple vendors not sharing the same release model for Thread and you end up breaking things even more. I found if you have multiple Thread border routers, you need to stick with one vendor… be that google, apple, third party hubs like ikea, aqara, or even if you are using the OTBR… stick with one of those, then use as many border routers you might need from the same family. Matter/Thread is the masochistic contortionists favorite local protocol.
I haven’t done any thread. only Matter over wifi. I understand it runs over ethernet to which does not surprise me. I’m enamored that it makes use of ipv6. I haven’t ran into any pain with Matter yet, other than there was no clear indicator that i needed to loosen up my firewall to make it work.
I just picked up a POE sonoff sigbee/thread antenna so I’m ready when i get something that can use it.
I also think HA needs a hardware compatibility wiki/library. Perhaps populated by a “bragging rights” plugin that would let HA operators publish all the weird devices in their system and rate their success or failure, document quirks and fixes and workarounds. Gamify it of sorts. Your local HA instance already knows the model numbers of what’s attached so that can save the user the typing. anonymize any MAC or serial numbers, and you can end up with crowdsourced feedback on what works and what doesn’t