One hardware to rule them all?

Hardware
1

Hello folks, I bet this has been asked a zillion times before, bur extensive search here (and elsewhere) did not point me in the right direction. And it may well be that I’m completely wrong here alltogether.

“Home Assistant” is a great piece of software. I did install it on my Synology NAS in a docker and it popped up quite some of my devices, including my Roomba and even my Robonect controlled mower (sort of). Nice.

But the reason I started interest on this topic at all was, that I dropped the “Elero MultiTel 2” once again which as usual crashed the display rendering it unusable. Another 100+€ to spend on a new one and all the hassel to get the 14 window blinds learned - with no control at all until then.

I did some research for more “intelligent” solutions, like the “Elero Centero” server + Appp - which everybody seems to hate intimately. Which brought me to the “mediola AIO” solution that should do the same - but better. And quite expensive.

On the other hand, there are great solutions like “Home Assistant” that pretend to do all the same - and more flexible. But this is all about software. Everybody seems to agree that all these remote devices have to be accessed somehow and most of them are not visible on the WLAN, so IP is not an option. The Elero remote works on 868MHz and I learned that this is just ONE of several competing (and incompatible) wireless frequencies and protocols. That’s why the “mediola AIO” is equipped with a lot of different radio devices.

I found that Home Assistant promotes the use of the “ODROID-N2+” as a base hardware. That’s OK, since I learned recently that the Synology NAS I use now will drop support for almost every USB device with the next update. But again I have to fit all the necessary wireless needs somehow. When I finally go and add some “intelligence” to my home, these Elero blinds have to get integrated.

So how do YOU knit it all together? Is there some kind of general 868MHz antenna that I have to attach? Am I tied to the Elero USB stick to control my blinds that does not work with any other 868mHz device out there I might buy? Is it supposed to buy the “Elero Centero” and then control THAT one via Home Assistant over the LAN?

At the time when we ordered “remotely controllable blinds” for our house we were never asked “what kind of system”. And we would not have known an answer if we had been asked. So I now HAVE those Elero devices on all of our blinds and they will stay there for the next years to come. So whatever “intelligent house solution” will be installed, it has to deal with that. And it definitely has to be “wife usable” not “linux nerd usable” - once it is all set up.

What if I finally find a working solution to remotely monitor my house drainage sink and pump (that flooded my house twice before) and a remote water warner too. So I probably have to deal with a complete new set of wireless sensors and I will certainly have to add another antenna to - where?

Do I sound like a complete idiot? Well, I am. At least on this topic. So could someone please kick me into some direction?

Thanks for listening,
Robert

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2

Esp8266 may be setup to control or take input from devices and utilize WiFi. This will be diy of course.

I used Zwave but zigbee is option for off the shelf. This needs USB port and use central radio but mesh allow repeat of sing all and large network. Very reliable AC and OK battery products

Synology is great at start but I found it limiting and sold mine and bought used server and add ram and get amazing server for under $400USD. Blows synology out of water and I had nice x86 rack mount version.

3

Oookay… thank you for your quick reply. I will keep this information for a later time as it’s probably a bit further down the road I have to go.

For the moment I try to figure out the bare basics like where to start to

  1. get a good alternative “device” managing my blinds without having to rely soley on the rather fragile Elero Remote control
  2. one that serves as a good base for further exploring the idea of attaching other remote “things”, but don’t binds me to a rather closed ecosphere of a single we-are-all-you-get supplier.
  3. and it should be affordable - if possible.

As an important secondary condition - if “the thing” cannot get hidden in a closet but has to be on display in the living room, it must be rather unobtrusive and meet minimal design criteria to convince my wife. That definitively rules out any Raspi tinkering solution with bare bone setup, clear cases, “cool lighting effects”, octopus like cabling and/or various antennas or USB sticks pointing in every direction :wink: We are both in an age where our devices don’t have to look like multi colored space ships or Alien requisites. :slightly_smiling_face:

Do you have an idea what would be suitable and does still meet the above criteria? Once this is set, I can start looking for specific remote sensors/actuators to integrate.

Or is it more practical to do it the other way, i.e. first shop for sensors and then decide how to integrate them? Then the first decision is already made. It must work hassel free with my current Venetian blinds.

So I’m still trying to figure out the big picture, the necessary hardware for the integrating hub. I’m not yet looking for a specific processor that might serve as the heart of a yet to design sensor project.

If I’m wrong here with this kind of request, please advice me to a more suitable place.

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4

This

There’s little that cannot be integrated and multiple ways to do this in some cases

5

868 MHz is not the easiest to get support for as 433 MHz is the predominant RF protocol. However don’t throw your blinds away yet. This project would do it GitHub - defcon24bit/record-and-replay-RF-remote: record & replay RF signal with Raspberry Pi & RTL-SDR dongle (optional) integrate with Home Assistant, Alexa and Google Home

I think you could also get 868MHz to work via openmqttgateway, but I am not 100% sure.

6

Seems that I’m pretty out of luck with any generic solution for my Elero blinds. These do use the 868MHz band but with a closed protocol, only supportet by “auhorized partners”.

No way to “record and replay” as the communication is bi-directional and encrypted. What itself is good but that essentially leaves me with “buy another Elero remote control”, buy the “Elero Centero Hub” or the “Mediola AIO” on which it is based and which has native support for Elero. There IS an “Elero USB” transmitter that can be utilized in theory, but it is out of production with just a few remaining in the market. So when there is any problem with it, I’m just where I am now.

And electronic devices tend to break quite often.

I opted for a “Mediola V5” (non plus) that I got cheaply at half the price of the Elero USB stick. WLAN interface, WEB API and App included. I probably won’t get anything else controlled by this box other than the blinds, but if that works, it will keep me happy for a while. And the Mediola AIO can probably be included in HA too, so nothing is lost.

And “maybe” I can include some 433MHz devices that I currently use too, as it has a 433MHz transceiver built in alongside the 868MHz transceiver.

Unfortunately all of those “multi standard” devices now have very unpleasant pricing strategy where you first have to buy a “premium hardware” that might talk to all standards out there, but you still have to buy “the necessary app”, “the necessary transceiver module”, “the necessary protocol plugin”, “the necessary vendor support”, “the necessary upgrade subscription”, “the necessary cloud subscription” for each and every &%%$§% :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

And a few years from now, the new to implement gadget needs a plugin that only runs with the newest firmware that requires a new hardware - for which you again have to buy all the now shiny and new plugins and upgrades for the already used devices just to keep them working.

So instead of trading my soul with “a vendor”, I have to trade my soul for “a different vendor”.

Disgusting.

The “Mediola V5” will therefore serve as a one-trick pony for just one purpose - controlling the Elero blinds. For any other purpose, I certainly will utilize some Raspi or similar and only buy new components with open protocol definitions and none that requires cloud access to configure or even use them.

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Hi. Have you found any solution for integrating Elero blinds into Home Assistant?

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Yes I did. There is a good add-on from andyboeh for a Mediola to MQTT gateway.
https://github.com/andyboeh/mediola2mqtt

HASS can talk to MQTT, so most functions are available.

I did a fork of this repository to change some settings and allow for more options and “other 433 MHz” devices that cn be controlled by the V5 gateway. Certainly I recommend “my” version :slight_smile:

It is not a full V5 emulation but it’s better than thought. Any missing function that is supported by the Mediola API might get added if needed.

There ARE some quirks in controlling the Elero blinds, as the V5 gateway does NOT listen to the status messages sent by the bidirectional receivers. So neither V5 nor MQTT and therefore HASS knows when the blind reaches which position or knows when the blinds have been moved by the TempoTel remote control. The latter one however knows when the blinds have moved by the Mediola V5.

In addition, you can send a command roughly every second. But that’s a limitation of the V5 API, not of the Mediola2MQTT interface or HASS.

That status messages seem to get caught by the V4 and maybe any of the V6, but definitely not by the V5 (non-plus). It’s exactly the same with the native Mediola Apps.

Integration from MQTT might look similar to mine or fancier…
Due to the nature of the HASS interface it is not that easy to emulate the TempoTel functions “long-press” and “double-press”. These have to get their own UI element if you need them. I tried to map them to the elements available for “blinds”, but they don’t work perfectly. They do their magic correctly, if the blind is in the upper or lower rest position - which the V5 doesn’t know.

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