As skutter suggests, always buy just one and play. There does seem to be a large number that just give up. If you decide you canāt get your head around HA even with the GUI elements as recently introduced (I wonder when the cut off will be before idiots like me stop saying ārecentlyā about this ?)
The learning curve is pretty steep but you have this forum to help point you at solutions.
You have the added benefit of a friend who may be able to assist, but be careful not to wear out any goodwill you have there. As help here is easier to find than a good friend and thereās more of us to share the load. Each member has there own specialisation with a fair degree of overlap.
Some people care more about the ālookā of the thing than what it can do for you, and you can persue your own bias here. There are cheap products and expensive products, they all have pros and cons. You have to bear in mind what each requires in terms of infrastructure and what you will do when you sell your house. Is the next owner going to be an enthusiast or a 70yr old technophobe grandma ?
You also have to consider what happens if a bulb goes whilst you are away ? If itās smart it will require pairing, the deletion of old entities and the naming of new so that you donāt have to change all your automations. Is your wife & family up for that ?
Plan, Plan, Plan
Ask questions - the last thing we want is for you to spend a small fortune and then decide itās just not worth it.
Edit: And you MUST read. Study the examples given, extrapolate, make attempts at your own solutions, check that you are not reinventing the wheel. There are lots of posts on this website doing everything you can imagine. Steal ideas (the good ones at least) and try to solve (you learn more by the failures than the successes). Weāll always be here to nudge you over the line.
Most of all, have fun.
Thankfully i work in IT and script with Powershell quite a bit so im hoping that will put me in good stead.
Im quite logical as well so hoping that will help.
my overall plan so far is just to do some of the basics
heating
lights
motion sensor etc
switches for the lights
Iāll do it piece by piece and room by room.
Ultimately im looking to have a Pi Touch screen as a main controller for my wife to use in house which i can potentially wall mount, but that later down the line, the first thing is the automation and getting her to use the app
most will be automated, lights coming on due to motion etc
the touch screen is more for the wife wanting to maybe āboostā heating for example, especially in a specific room as i have the Hive radiator valves, and while i could use the hive app for that i want to simplify by one app, especially for her. As its taken a while to get her used to my IPTV setup
Its the same with the switches, its to be able to give her some āmanualā control over lights
For a small example: I have used Sonoff Slamphers in most rooms. These are WiFi connected to HA but if WiFi or HA fail they are also RF controlled. So I have some cheap eBay RF key fobs in each for controlling them should need be.
Definitely keep in mind the phrase āWhat if?ā.
Consider what comms you want to use. In my humble opinion, Z-Wave is probably best as it give you the least possible interference with wifi. Z-Wave is however a little pricier than zigbee in terms of the equipment.
You mentioned the Xiaomi Kitā¦ I use loads of these, they are cheap, and pretty goodā¦ However I would not bother getting the hub, but rather get a conbee - https://phoscon.de/en/conbee
npā¦ for plugs, just try and avoid wifi plugsā¦ wifi is not really a good protocol for IoT devices and may cause you headaches on your wifi network (chatty devices, UDP etc) I know they are generally cheap, but you get what you pay forā¦
Hive uses zigbee as a protocol. I am led to belive that is is proprietry, but donāt belive it as zigbee is an open standardā¦ just not sure it will work with conbeeā¦ I donāt use any hive productsā¦ maybe stick to their thermostat (their core strenght) and then go xiaomi for the cheap peripheralsā¦
But from a maintenance and management perspective, on the outsetā¦ try and stick to one protocol as much as possibleā¦
I work in DR, so plan plan plan is what i do, but so is understanding ease of use for end user which my wife comes under.
Iāll never be able to get her understand the backend stuff for as long as i have a hole in my butt, but considering most of the stuff iāll have will be āHIVEā i have that as a fall back already. Of course if thats down as well then its manual over ride
Yeah thank youā¦ my friend has recommended the Xiaomi stuff so seems to be the route ill go.
Your 100% right as well with regards to keeping it to one protocol. Had it not been for a really good deal on the bulbs i wouldnt have gone Hive bulbs but as i have the heating and the radiator thermostats when the deal came about it just made sense. Iāll use Xiaomi for the motion sensors and switches for now i reckon, although as time goes on i may look to get better switches. Depends on how much time i invest and how good i get it all working, but cheap to start off with for sure
