Internet Of Things / IoT / Connected Home / Smart Houses

I think Narrator might be what you're looking for. Should already be on your PC under settings somewhere.

Does anyone have a surefire method for resetting IKEA bulbs and pairing them with ZHA?

My office is too far from the Hue hub to use the bulbs with the Hur bridge, so I'm relying on IKEA repeaters on linked to a sonoff hub, contolled eith ZHA

But the bulbs won't play nicely.

Plug in and flick switch repeatedly 6 times. From memory start with it on and then start flicking. Slightly more off time than on. Then you should get the double flash showing as reset

I've been flicking the switch like a masochistic photosensitive epileptic.

So far, my success rate is 1 in 20 to prompt a reset (with the pulsing light), and then 1 in 20 to pair with my ZigBee bridge (a sonoff USB dongle).

I'm starting to think I may wear out the switch before I pair the last 3 bulbs.

How fast are you going? Slow it down and try about half a second to a second each for off and shorter for the on.

Edit: different bulbs show the reset with either a flicker or the light intensity ramping up and down.

The reset is obvious when I'd eventually happens.

I've tried all sorts of presses - I'll give the longer presses a try. Ta!

Try linking it via the nearest repeater. I’ve never had any issues pairing with zha using the 6 times on and off method and never noticed doing it at different speeds

Success!

I was switching the lamp on / off too many times - Watching a youtube clip of someone turning a lamp on and off helped.

I had the zigbee dongle wedged into the lamp itself, so I knew that it wasn't a range thing. Just an idiot not being able to count to 6 thing.

Sorry in advance if this had been asked a million times, but what are decent smart led bulbs other than hue?
I just want to be able to control by voice via Alexa or my phone (iOS)

Thanks

IKEA I'd say (actually I'd say just get Hue ones)

Innr aren’t bad, if you already have a hub.

Have some cheap Linkind GU10s I’m experimenting with as well to work out what the cheapest viable product is.

My experience is you basically lose range of brightness the cheaper you go, so if you want super dim scenes, go hue. Don’t notice any difference in colour temp.

I don’t have a hub, so really just want to buy a few standalone bulbs for specific places. I do want to be able to go low light, so maybe I’ll try hue in a room or two and go from there.
Thanks

I want a few more tado radiator valves but they have doubled in price since I got them. Are there any other brands that work? If not I may just use dumb thermostatic valves.
Just find my hallways are really hot as they come on when any other room is calling for heat.

the 3 pack of tado valves is £170 on amazon for prime holders at the moment. but if you just want those rooms to not come on or be dialled down super low all the time then a normal thermostatic valve is all you need.

wireless thermostat starter kit is down to £129 for ppl who were thinking of installing the system too.

I'm going to sort out my mums place with a basic setup so she can heat only the rooms she needs to because it feels like the cost of the system is going to pale in comparison to her actual bills moving forwards.

Wait for prime day?

the thermostat is only 99 quid at screwfix and has been for a while

wow, not even seen the black version listed anywhere else.

99 quid is a steal.

I was looking at a Hive setup, but is Tado forum recommended? I know the Hive thermostat requires a hub too, but is that the case with Tado and other systems?

It depends what you want it to do.

Just swapping a wired wall thermostat for Tado, no. Just replace the stat and plug the "bridge" into your router.

You can then also add TRVs to the above set up easily.

If you want a wireless thermostat and/or you want to also control hot water, you need to replace the controller at the boiler side too.

All is DIY-able with good online instructions.

the biggest gripe most people have with tado is their system only works off their own network for communication so you need to be able to have all rooms in range of the internet bridge.

people have begged for a repeater or range extender or even to support multiple bridges but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

we're in a narrow but long house (4 rooms deep, 3 floors high, but only 1 room and a hallway wide) and with the dongle on the ground floor half way along the length of the house it juuuuuuust reaches everywhere. made it tricky to setup a couple of the rooms but works fine now it is done.

if you can stretch it far enough the system itself is pretty good. like most smart devices there are a lot of simple app features that they could have easily implemented for quality of life but haven't yet but the basic functions are pretty sound. hence why I'm putting it in at my mums as well.

Good point. We are three storey, 5 bed. Just so happens our router is on the 1st floor so signal only needs to go one up and one down.

Some folks have complained about the battery live in the TRVs (standard AAs). But I've only had to replace them in one so far in about 18months. Another is only just now saying that battery is low. That will depend on how frequently they are turning the rads on and off of course so YMMV.

The range thing is annoying - it's way too sensitive to the position and orientation of the bridge.

Also, because the API is closed, they feel free to fuck around with it willynilly, breaking any downstream dependencies.

It would be nice if it had local fallback capabilities - I don't want to rely on an internet connection for control.

I'm looking forward to them going bust and their framework being open sourced

Some folks have complained about the battery life

I have this.

It's probably because of the shitty insulation in that particular room, though, and the TRV is almost constantly opening and closing.

Drayton wiser has the plugs for range extenders and works fine with an internet dropout (local control only) the hub replaces the boiler controller and is the most traditional replacement I've seen as it slots onto the standard UK backplane

One of our tado trvs has been saying the battery is low for months now. Still seems to be working fine.
Admittedly it hasn’t been doing a lot of opening and closing over the summer.