Internet Of Things / IoT / Connected Home / Smart Houses

Best giggle I've had all day.

Today I have done some terrible and inexcusable soldering.

1 Attachment

Today I have also done some near perfect soldering.

Which row do you think I was wearing my glasses for?

1 Attachment

What recommendations do people have for smart thermostats?

I want something that's nice and easy to use with their app, alexa integration and works with Home Assistant.

I've been using Netatmo which seems fine but as I'm moving I thought I'd see what else people recommend.

Forgot about this thread...
After trying Alexa and Google have settled on using Homekit which I hated to begin with, would recommend as the Phone integration is amazing.
If you use Apple just get HomeKit.

Off the back of that learning, @aggi make sure whatever you use integrates with your chosen ecosystem perfectly. Not really helping much there, sorry...

No Apple stuff so no homekit.

Home Assistant is what seems to have the widest range of compatibility but, as it's unofficial, things do get changed and disappear. I seem to remember google/nest significantly cut the integration.

On a similar vein, what do people recommend for smart light switches? Again, need to work with home assistant (zigbee is fine) and function both as a smart switch and a normal switch. Preferably something with an actual switch rather than touch control but that isn't a deal breaker if it isn't shit.

We are using smart bulbs where it’s just a single bulb as it’s much cheaper for a bulb than a switch, but for downlights we are using Aurora aone in-line smart switches. This means every light in the house can be operated by either a normal physical switch or by SmartThings and also Google home as we connected those two.

Cheers. This is for loads of LED downlights so I just want to replace some switches.

Aurora looks the same as a lot of others I'm finding in that the switch is actually replaced by a smart module and then the physical switch can go anywhere.

As I'm replacing existing switches I was just looking to swap the switch out for something that had both a physical switch and a smart switch integrated but it doesn't seem to be much of a thing.

For some reason this is a really tricky thing it seems, there was a startup who was doing them called Getden, but they seemed to have gone bankrupt or something.

There are quinetic switches, which do a lot of what you want, but they are pretty ugly looking, and are mainly for new installs where you don't want to chase walls, but do have wireless integration as well as proper switches.

Anybody want a basic Lora Gateway? Bit niche, I know. Finished testing my Lora Network and will be using a larger gateway for deployment.

https://www.dragino.com/products/lora-lorawan-gateway/item/143-lg01n.html

What can it be used for? What do you use that for?

Cheers, Quinetic seem to be the same thing of an inline module and a separate wireless switch.

Aurora seem to do a dimmer but, so far as I can tell, it doesn't actually allow you to turn the lights off which is a bit strange.

Lorawan is a low powered wide area network. The plus side is that it is extremely long range with a very low power requirement (we're talking kilometers for miliamps), the downside being that it has very low data throughput so you can only really use it for exchange of text values rather than data.

A Lorawan gateway, provides the interface between your WAN and the internet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoRa

I'm using it to literally network a glacier with peer to peer environmental sensors.

Another cool application is the space based Lora network.

Fossasat was one of the first of its type.

https://www.hackster.io/news/fossasat-1-an-open-source-satellite-for-the-internet-of-things-7f31cab00ef5

Any reason not to have smart meters V2 installed by my supplier?
I remember when v1 got introduced they had issues and the advice was to wait for V2.

Nope, do it.

@Velocio cheers

Smart thermostats and, in particular, smart radiator valves. Most smart thermostats all seem much of a muchness (particularly given anything complicated will be done via Home Assistant) but I'm aware that there's a fairly wide variation in room temperatures (and some that I'd like at different temperatures) so also pondering smart valves.

Any that are particularly good/bad? Some that are pretty minimal in size would be a good thing.

Also, for those who use IFTTT I see they're now introducing a subscription model. Free access is limited to creating 3 of your own applets (although you can still use ones generated by others in addition to this).
https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/10/21430265/ifttt-pro-subscriptions-free-controversy

I'm not following you, honest.

I use Tado TRVs - They're pretty good, although on the con side

• the API is closed and not well documented, making HA integration fragile
  
• there is no advanced local config, so if your internet fails, you're left with manual control
  
• battery life can be a bit crap, particularly if you have them in a poorly insulated room, and they need to activate often
  
  

On the pro side

• they look fancy
  
• they work, the geofencing works (although I don't use it)
  
• the bells and whistles are good (window detection etc...)
  
  
  

Feel free to help solving all my problems.

Tado seems a popular one but I do have the concerns around the interface. I thought it was mainly subscription based as well, is that not the case?

I'm not sure, to be honest - If it is, it's after I bought into them.

I've got a drayton wiser. I didn't buy the trvs but I think I'll get some. My thermostat is located in my living room. Turns out that the living barely changes temperature while my bedroom and home office do.

I think the wiser is dumber than lots of the other smart thermostats and needs to be extended via ifttt. No subscription for the actual unit though.

Cheers, looks decent and the TRVs seem a little cheaper.

Although having looked at a few installation guides I think I need to open up my existing thermostat and see what's in there as it seems most of these need mains power at that point and I'm not sure if I have that.

I ended up going with Netatmo here. I knew the installation would work with only the switch wires and no power at the point where the old thermostat was.

I picked up one second hand for about £50 and installed it in ten minutes so outlay and effort were minimal.