I set up HA last year to automate some Christmas Lights. I’ve pretty much forgotten everything I learned from that.
My installation is via Docker on an Ubuntu powered laptop, using a HUSBZB-1 USB stick (Zigbee and Z-Wave).
Now I’d like to integrate a ZHA thermostat. I’ve read every topic I can find, and they seem to either end unresolved, or they ramble on and on. In some cases, links provided at the beginning of the topic are now dead. So I’m completely lost as to how to add this integration.
I have my HUSBZB-1 USB stick working fine. I have a Centralite Pearl 3000 series thermostat that is not hooked up yet but powered by batteries. My HA Overview shows a fan switch and battery sensor (so far), so I know I’ve successfully connected to it.
But I can’t seem to figure out how to do anything else with it. Can someone point me to the “next step”?
Short answer, not yet.
But, there is a component in the dev branch under development.
If you dropped it in, you could use it now but it’s got some bugs.
I’m sure it does. Lots of documents assume hassio, or Raspberry Pi, or a Python Virtual Environment. They often recommend commands that don’t exist on my setup. Sometimes they even assume you’re working from Windows via samba. But my setup is posted above – HA is on Docker on an Ubuntu laptop (and I failed to mention, without a Python Virtual Environment).
Yes, that’s the primary topic I referred to (above) when I said:
they seem to either end unresolved, or they ramble on and on. In some cases, links provided at the beginning of the topic are now dead.
The link in that started that topic is now dead. But even if I found the thing that he’s referring to, my question was really about how to “drop it in”. I’d be willing to play with it and tweak it.
Now I see in that topic, @rpress asked @nerdosity if he had “copied over my files into custom_components/zha , restarted, paired the device”. And @nerdosity replied that he had “cloned the repo and moved the zha folder into custom component one.”
So I take it that I need to choose a branch that looks active and as stable as I can find, clone it, and move the files into a “custom_components” directory. Right so far?
How will HA know to use this directory? Do I need to add an “include” in configuration.yaml?
Ah ya, you’re using the same setup as me. I’m sorry that I’m a bit of a noob on this platform and on docker as a whole, so I’m no of much help. I believe the component is apart of core on the dev branch. My thought was that posting in that thread your questions might get you a wider response.
Doug, I posted there yesterday, but decided that thread was more about configuring/troubleshooting and was just trying to figure out how to get started. So I removed that post and put it here (with minor changes).
Sorry about pulling the repo. I just couldn’t support that project any more.
I’m now using Zigbee2mqtt and it’s working great. I added support for the Pearl thermostat a little while ago. It’s in dev but not master yet.
Zigbee2mqtt doesn’t support the HUSBZB-1 though. I sold mine and bought a CC1352P-2. With the HUSBZB-1 there were always a few communication errors and odd things. But now it’s rock solid. I currently have over 65 devices.
Yes, the CC1352P-2 is a relatively new development board direct from TI. This is why there are no cheap alternatives. Also because it is a development board it does not have a plastic enclosure. I made an enclosure with a 3D printer, but it’s not required.
On the upside it supports an external antenna if you move a soldered component.
If anybody stumbles onto this topic and wonders how it played out, here’s my update:
Due to lack of automatic switching between modes, I returned my Centralite Pearl thermostats. Someone had a workaround for this, but it used a hard coded switchover temperature, and I don’t care for that.
So I’m considering other thermostats that have built-in auto-switching.