Internet Of Things / IoT / Connected Home / Smart Houses

I don't know whether this is a false lead or not but I can only find reference to that temp offset method in a non official github repo where somebody has modified Balena to work with DHT11s. it might be that you're trying the wrong thing for your sensor.

Will try to see if I can figure this out because it has piqued my interest

How is the sensor set up at the pi end? Are you using Python to handle it?

it's using balenasense which handles it all https://github.com/balena-labs-projects/balena-sense

I did originally just have piOS setup and installed the bosch libraries and output the readings with Python. I've since flashed the SD with balenasense. I believe it's using python but its beyond me.

I was just able to determine when to get up from my chair to go get coffee (which the machine was pre-heating as I've just turned it on) by looking at MQTT messages. Still need to figure out why my shot timer sensor behaves weirdly, maybe I have to restick it to a different place on the pump.

Is it a pimoroni branded BME680?

£18 at the mo, so they've gone down a fair bit since I last looked and the Shelley stuff has gone up!

The big advantage of Shelley modules is you can choose your own light switches of course. Getting sign off on the Hue ones might be tricky but maybe I should have a go.

yep

1.) Wifi connection on it is poor (i've had to order another AP to see if that will help), so it moans at me all the time about poor connection and then will drop out regularlly
2.) created a SSID on 2.4ghz to see if that would help, but just resulted in poor quality video
3.) rings chime 5-6 seconds AFTER you've pressed the buttom
4.) started powering off for quite long periods (over 3hrs in the small hours last night) or just restarting when you press the button.

After much reading there is a whole thread about this on the Unifi forums with people all with these issues, the cut outs have been blamed now on cooler weather which seems mad. Also they tried to say it was poor power, but this is the EU model so im using their own transformer.

Im going to see if the new AP help, but if its bad over the winter I will just replace it for a traditonal door bell and some form of Wifi Camera (g3 instant prob) with Ai dection on to alert me when someone comes to the door

The Hue stuff is all nice and simple but the switch options are awkward for ceiling lights.

However, seems they have launched their own version of the Shelley https://www.philips-hue.com/en-gb/p/hue-philips-hue-wall-switch-module/8719514318045
I've just picked one up for £25 on ebay so will have a try as to how that works.

That’s a really odd product. It’s actually battery powered and involves bypassing the switch so it’s not identical to the Shelley.

I've just read a review of it. That is not what I was expecting but quite a clever way round the problem.

are you using Balena Cloud/Grafana to measure humidity/temp?

Not really. Temp/Humid sensors are Sonoff SNZB01 and they reporting to a Tasmota flashed Sonoff ZB-Bridge.

I then scrape the values via HTTP (as I can't be arsed with MQTT) using my own hand-written scraper/exporter written in Go.

I then point a local Prometheus instance at that exporter to scrape the metrics and forward them to Grafana Cloud.

It's a convoluted route but done like that because I wanted experience in running my own Prometheus and Mimir servers, as well as forwarding stuff to the cloud.

Can't help with the Balena stuff at all I'm afraid.

Thanks all for the Hue responses...it was the 'guest proofing' that I was most worried about, and those Samotech covers aren't as awful as I expected, so have a feeling I'll be dabbling in the near future to see how we get on.

our whole house is hue switches and samotech covers as we're renting so it's the easiest to reverse when we move, when we find somewhere to buy again i'll be looking at wired in switches as the hue ones can be a bit finicky and need multiple button presses. we ended up using voice control almost exclusively as a result.

we ended up using voice control

"Just get up and turn the light off, it was your idea to get those stupid bulbs"

That looks like fun! How does it work?

Apparently the machine has an exposed socket in the electronics box pushing UART/serial, in which it will give you various stats couple of times a second. And the pump action is (unreliably) detected by a reed switch I stuck to the side of the pump, which closes a couple of contacts. I also tried to get an 12v output from the machine to power the Raspberry Pico (using a voltage converter) but didn't work, maybe my cable has fallen off. Need to tip the machine up and open the back bottom cover to check (to check the unreliable pump detection issue as well) and that needs a cold coffee machine, which in turn means I should do it after I finish drinking coffees for the day... but every day at that point I'm either busy or don't want to deal with it.

Ikea Trådfri? any power users?
not that bothered about smart lighting as currently have 3 sets of lighting in lounge controlled by a decent dimmer but new bigger lounge/diner can’t really be done in a similar way as there is just a central ceiling rose over sofa area and would mean chasing out a solid concrete plastered ceiling to get a light over the narrower section where dining table would be so i’m thinking floor and table lamps in corners plus a wall lamp on a swing arm that wouldn’t be right over the table but would illuminate the area by bouncing off the walls for a soft glow.
thinking this system would be ideal for what i want to achieve which is basically have controllable 4000ºk if i want it and then a softer lower level of light for 80’s jazz/chicken chasseur/prosecco and middle class friends over for an evening.

seems good value compare to the phillips hue stuff, i have no desire to be playing around with android little boxes and downloading geek code to mimic phases of the moon or project the aurora borealis onto the wall etc.

Has anyone got a good explainer for MQTT, Zigbee and Home Assistant?

I set it all up a while ago but didn't really know what I was doing which means I have no idea what messages like this mean (I can't find any MQTT config file for instance).

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I have ZHA and MQTT as integrations, and ZHA_toolkit as an addon (via HACS), to run a sonoff dongle.

There is zha_toolkit: in configuration.yaml, but nothing for zha or mqtt (in fact, mqtt is commented out).

I don't ever document stuff, so i have no idea why it's like this...

[Edit]

I do have a zha.yaml (for updating Ikea stuff with zigpy) and a zigbee2mqtt folder (which I think may be redundant).

Most of the Tradfri stuff is compatible with the Hue hub which is nice and easy to use and generally just works.

I added one of these to it the other day for instance
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/tradfri-led-bulb-e27-806-lumen-smart-wireless-dimmable-white-spectrum-globe-60517646/
You can mix and match between the two sets of stuff depending on price and function.

Also, tado appear to have changed their API again, and broken the HA integration.

I appear to have MQTT as integration and Mosquito broker and Zigbee2MQTT (which I'd entirely forgotten about) as Add-ons. I've no idea what any of that means.

Not a power user but they are my bulbs of choice and I had the spots in the bathroom for our old house. Controlled via webthings on a pi not the IKEA controller. They are good and just work.

Edit: they appear to be pretty generic ZigBee devices so most control systems should be ok with them.

Thanks for ikea replies, think i’ll have to investigate further, none of the actual phillips lights grabbed me and there seems to be an awful lot of disco colours which i have zero interest in. i guess if the app is streets ahead of ikea then the controller/hub thing might be an option with the ikea bulbs.