Has anyone made a master list of devices that are broken down by connection type and domain? It seems very useful to have a list of each device and how it looks in Home Assistant what entitles it has and what protocol it uses? If it connects via cloud or local… seems like a really good database of information to have no? Every time I am looking for something its like sifting through a junk drawer. I want to sort the list down to local only, and switches. If it does not exist I think I am going to create it and community can contribute to it…
I don’t think you realise how gargantuan a task this will be.
e.g. here’s just some of the compatible zigbee devices:
or
The number of Wifi devices would be considerably larger.
There there’s bluetooth and zwave to consider as well.
Don’t forget… matter, thread, lorawan, rf, ir etc.
It’s why there is an integrations list as its easier to track via the integrations supported than the devices themselves:
Just need a HACS version of that list and or to make it so HACS comes preinstalled out of the box and just merge the lists with an auto tag that its either official or external managed.
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Would there be an issue if I created posts on the hardware section that shows the devices I have and how they integrate and what features they expose? One of the biggest issues I have when looking for a device for my Smart Home is all these devices and people say they are compliant and work with intagrations but then you get things like TP-Link Plugs that say they are Matter enabled and energy monitoring but they lie and only basic on and off works over Matter. BUT if you use the TP-Link integration the do talk locally over IP but it requires TP Links cloud to find them on the local network and energy reporting works. All these little gotchas. It would be nice to have a repository of devices and what they do and how they do it. I am a Z-Wave house and love to show all the different devices I have and what entities they they expose. That way others can search and find these and instantly and see how does this device work with HA exactly and not guess and find out after purchasing that this or that is different than expected.
I just feel it would help the community and glad to do it for the devices I have! You are right keeping a list would be huge…
This is pretty much what I do when I either find a post that is about a device already created or if there is none I will start up a new thread and post my findings just to keep it organised.
It is after all the point of this section of the forum, to resolve issues with devices and hardware in general and keep to those that work best out of the box and if there is not one then find guides on best path for a DIY solution.
This is why we generally recommend and point folks to local only solutions first for most things and only suggest a cloud connected one if there is no way to DIY it as a last resort.
i.e I advise people to avoid Tuya Wifi based devices as once the internet goes down they stop responding even if you can see them still on the network due to the required connection back to the Tuya IoT platfom, where as Tuya Zigbee versions are local only devices and don’t need that link back to their platform to work (so far).
One thing I like to tell folks to do is to disable your internet then go and test what breaks when there is only a local only network going, if you have devices that need that connection and break your automation then its time to find alternatives, also test what automatically heals with the setup, the easier it is to restore the less headaches you will have in the future.
All that said… not everyone knows how to use the search function as has been proven many times since the beginning of time lol.
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Speaking of lists there is this one as well for thread devices:
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