Internet Of Things / IoT / Connected Home / Smart Houses

Thanks. Seems you can run that without base station, and I only need one so that's ideal.

Yeah. Pretty sure you can. I have a base station for a doorbell though so can’t be certain.

Definitely need to pick up a micro SD card otherwise you’ll need to pay for their cloud service. 16gb is easily enough for continuous recording that lasts for a week.

Thanks, got some micro SD about so no hassle.

has Eufy resolved all the security issues now?

They’ve changed their wording about it all being on-prem unless you opt to use the cloud so I’d say no… just not being quite as obfuscating

Looking for a 'battery backup' to provide my modem/WiFi and other things with 12v and 5v. Maybe 50W or so of power, passthrough charging and preferably screw terminals for output. But I want LiFePO4 cells, not regular Li-Ion/LiPo chemistry.

All options I could find were camping-oriented 'power station's with 240V inverters etc. on them (with huge capacity), so the price jumps to £300-£800 range as opposed to what would be a £50 gadget. I would get more than one to power multiple APs + hue/Tado/blink etc. I don't want to just use a passthrough powerbank and run the cells flat in a few months/years, if not worse.

I could get a LiFePO4 pack from HobbyKing, a chemistry-specific charger circuit and bunch of buck-boost regulators and make it a project but I don't want to do that. To make it viable you'd need
to design cooling, a case and other not-fun things, where I just want to get a few and set it up.

Do you need to power the tado and APs?

If the domestic power goes down your central heating won't be doing much without pumps and the APs will be limited if the BT line goes down on a local outage.

Have you considered solar panels and a storage battery? 😂

There’s no BT line, not sure about how the FTTH is powered. Could always add a 4G dongle to the AP, still would need power to another AP at another location (which is the wfh office - granted that could also be a larger power station that way I could also power the displays…)

I agree adding tado to the list above was not necessary :-) House batt and solar would be 20-50 times more expensive than what I have in mind, plus might have to deal with bad workmanship.

FTTP is powered by electricity at the exchange and in the local cabinet so any loss of local area electricity and that will drop out. 4g likely to go the same way if the power drops in your local area (happened to me recently)

The question is, what are you hoping to protect against with this battery? a home power loss (distribution board packing up) or loss of the local area supply.

During a recent cutout (first one in a year - a HV fault which took about 3 hours to resolve and affected 200+ properties) 4G did work out here. It would be for street-wide power losses but maybe I'm overthinking it.

I had a think about doing this previously with just a bog standard UPS like this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/APC-Back-UPS-BV1000I-MS-Uninterruptible-Universal/dp/B07Q9KPHLX?th=1

But then I thought what would the point be? If I didn't have any power then none of the linked stuff would be working anyway. No point keeping Hue hub going for instance because the lights all need power, most of the stuff that use the internet wouldn't have power either so why bother keep internet going?

Anyone on here use Home Assistant?

I like HomeKit - it does most of what I need and it's great that it's integrated into apple (CarPlay automatically opens my garage door etc) but there are things like AC units and washer / dryer that aren't integrated to it so I'm stuck with those apps.

Thinking of switching but don't want to lose that integration.

Yes big fan of Home Assistant, but unfortunately I don't have any HomeKit so can't really comment on that.

Looks like this might be your answer, Home Assistant would hopefully make your AC/washer/Dryer available in HomeKit.

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/homekit/

From what I found when I looked into adding some homekit compatible device to HomeAssistant (I don't have any Apple stuff) there are two different options.

One is the Homekit bridge which allows Homekit to see HomeAssistant devices and is probably what you want.

The other is Homekit device which lets Homeassistant to use homekit devices.

I've only used the latter though.

Anyone experienced with 'wireless' home security thats not cameras?

I really dont like the idea of cameras in the house but my partner wants something that would alert her/make a lot of noise, for a break in while shes sleeping upstairs while im away with work, would need to support front and garage doors, and a sliding patio door at least

So just door and window sensors turning on smart light bulbs when opened after sunset?
Simple to do, try aqara for the sensors, one of the hubs has an alarm speaker function.

Ring home alarm uses door contact sensors as well/instead of motion sensors, wouldn’t detect someone smashing a window and going in that way but not sure that’s super common

Simplisafe

A dog?

Would be my preferred solution but doesnt tie in well with the being away bit

I have a Yale smart alarm. Works with contact sensors for doors/windows and motion sensors. Sets off an alarm in the house plus siren outside when motion/opening detected (you can set some devices with delays to let you open the front door and turn it off if you want).

Everything is wireless except the hub which needs to be plugged in to power and network (still works when internet is down but can't access it through the app).

Can also do stuff with HomeAssistant and sensors but I prefer something a bit more robust for the alarm.

Sorry thought just when you away, and wife at home.We just got a eufy camera for what you describe it works great.
Sounds like you perhaps want a normal alarm.

Yes it's great and my setup is very robust for the record @aggi I'll have you know! :P

(I've not had any unplanned outages since June 2021 when I got a decent air cooled case and an M.2 SSD for my Pi).

I don't know anything about HomeKit but Home Assistant is so established now there's normally a way to do anything if you put your mind to it.

@rogan I agree with @Ramsaye that some Aqara sensors would be ideal for your usage case, no need to pay for a full on alarm system. They do motion sensors as well which combined with window/door sensors would do it. I've not used the motion/window/door sensors or the hub as I've got a Pi and a Conbee II, but I am using the temperature sensors and a mini switch which work well and have been very reliable.

Slight problem with no cameras though @rogan

In the event of a false alarm (which can happen with any system) what happens? If you're away how would your partner know if an alarm was caused by a real burglar or something else? Go downstairs to find out?

I guess if you're running the Pi and your router/wifi on a UPS and none of the components rely on the internet it may be similarly robust.

Not sure if the price difference between an alarm and a Home Assistant set-up is much if you keep an eye out for deals.

I do have cameras but, to add an extra layer of privacy, they are connected to smart sockets which only turn on when the alarm is set.