I’m taking a serious look now at using PoE + ethernet for a pile of home automation stuff instead of the DMX / Zigbee / 1-wire architecture I had originally envisioned. Compared to when I started my walls-in remodel (more years ago than I would like to admit) the technology has improved a bunch and costs have gone down a lot. Future-proofing has always been a primary objective so I guess now I’ll put it to the test.
I ordered a couple of HASwitchplates ( HA SwitchPlate HASPone: DIY In-Wall Touchscreen Home Assistant Controller ) fully assembled and about a dozen of the bare PCBs as a prototyping platform. It’s fully open source and seems to be designed from the ground up to be integrated with HA.
HASwitchplate comes closest to what I’ve been looking for but I need to make a couple changes before I really deploy it. I think they wil be pretty easy to do.
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Use hardwired ethernet instead of WiFi. Although I’m always hopefulI don’t trust ANY wireless system enough yet to rely on it for critical functions. So I’ll need to tweak the ESP32 firmware and add some grass to the PCB to turn off WIFi and connect to an RJ45 port.
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Use LVDC power instead of mains AC. Since the guts run off 5V and in “development mode” everything works with a USB connection, this should be a simple hack as well.
Put these two together and now PoE starts to make a lot of sense. HASwitchplate uses a high quality 120V->5V power module. It looks like there are PoE modules that could easily fit in the same space. TexasPoE also has some 8-channel PoE injectors for a very reasonable price.
Some other “must haves” such as a failsafe mode that works even if HA or the computer it’s on bricks remain, but I’ll turn back to that once I how the HASwitchplate works.