I’m trying to find a POE powered (or 24vdc) relay that can be integrated with home assistant reasonably easily. The reason I want this is for my automatic front gate, which is located about 300m away from my house on a small farm. I am setting up a nano bridge from the house to the gate to get Ethernet at the gate. A 24v powered POE switch will be installed at the gate, and will power the nano bridge and a security camera (the gate itself is powered from 24v batteries and solar panel, so will be utilising this power). I then want to get a POE powered smart relay to switch terminals on the gate controller to operate the gate remotely using my home assistant setup.
It would also be awesome if the smart relay had an input to see the status of the gate.
I see there are some 24vdc WIFI Shelly devices, but I was hoping not to have to try and set up a WIFI AP at the gate. I also see Shelly have some very nice DIN rail relays with an Ethernet plug, but they are 110-240v, and I do not have mains voltage at my gate.
Has anyone here came across a compatible device for my automatic gate system
I was initially put off by a microcontroller as my programming skills are very limited… But I just had a bit of a YouTube at how ESP32 integrates to home assistant, and it looks as though this may be an option for me. Looks like the esphome add-on has made this much easier then I was expecting.
Another idea to consider, might be something low-power like a Zooz ZEN17 which is a dc-powered dual-relay with two input sensors that supports 800LR “long range” Z-wave.
I currently use zen17. It requires me to place Raspi w/ zwave dongle running zwavejs to extend zwave to gate. I also have nano bridge extending my network to same area.
that means 2 devices and a whole OS to manage.
I got the eps32-evb a few months back. Too lazy to install it. Really its just I havent figured out how i wont to monitor open/close and I am debating if i want to add second one for other gate. zen17 is currently working and wife is not complaining so I am waiting to do it right the first time.
all that to say. It is MUCH easier to manage a single esp32 that I can optionally update vs the zwave mess. Also I expect I can have the esp bring up network for the times when my main HA is offline (generally because I am fiddling around with the server)
If it makes you feel better. I had the zen17, Raspi and nano bridge running 6yrs in >100 texas heat, direct sunlight and in a black metal box. Along with the dirt those are horrible conditions and never had these go out.
As noted, the newer ZEN17 supports Z-Wave 800LR (allegedly 1.5 mile range) which may be worth considering if range was the only issue with your old one. You would also need a 800LR controller as well, and I definitely agree about avoiding a "whole OS to manage for that, which is why I used a ESP32 instead of a pi.