Who has a tennis ball hanging in their garage (that you have to dodge walking around your garage) or those tire bumps (that are trip hazards) as car warning/stoppers in your garage.

So I was thinking about those laser light levels. Wouldn’t it be great to have something similar you could mount on the garage ceiling and set to the appropriate spot that would turn on automatically when the garage door opens with a line of lite to stop when the lite hits your hood?

Hmmm! 🤔 I want this! 😊

Hey everyone! I recently purchased a villa that’s currently still being developed (brand new) and would like to automate it. I’ve sat with many companies regarding this (keep in mind I require wired home automation) and I’ve been really convinced by a company offering the Moorgen ecosystem. Unfortunately, I can’t find any reviews online or anyone talking about it. I’ve also seen companies offering Legrand, Johnson Controls, iNels, and EAE, although I haven’t been as convinced with them as I have with Moorgen. Has anyone heard of them or experienced their ecosystem, or can perhaps recommend or give feedback on any of the other above mentioned companies? Thanks in advance!

Hey All,

I just finished installing two ceiling fans with smart wall switches and wrote a post about it.

Hoping to help people when they need to find a fan that can be controlled from the wall and that can also integrate with their smart home.

Finding an affordable smart switch that could use the traditional 14/3 electrical wire to control fan speed and light dimming was particularly tricky. Also, knowing how to shop for a new fan that works with your switch was challenging, so I covered that, too!

For anyone interested, I bought the Hunter Avia II 52" and the Hunter Dempsey Low Profile 44", and they are both paired with the Treatlife fan speed and dimmer controller.

I couldn't quite connect the switch to my Home Assistant, so I'm hoping for an update in the future to make that integration happen.

Some pointers:

• Look for a ceiling fan with an AC motor so that the current from the switch can control fan speed
• Look for a ceiling fan with a removable wireless receiver (these are typically under the canopy)
• Know how to check if you already have a 14/3 line running between the fan and the switch

https://anebula.io/ceiling-fan-smart-wall-switch-with-fan-speed-and-dimming-control/

I finally got around to unboxing and adding my Seeed mmWave Detector Sensor Kit to Home Assistant.

First impressions:

Hardware is seriously minimalist - it’s a white box. No markings or indicators! Very lightweight. No clue how to open it yet, but I’m sure I’ll figure that out.

Powering up and connecting to Home Assistant took about 1 minute. It’s powered by ESPHome, so once I’d connected it to WiFi, it appeared in HA and was quick to add.

The sensors appeared after a little module restart.

I’m not sure of accuracy and reliability yet, but at $27, it’s a good price, especially when compared to the Aqara FP2.

You can check out the video here -

https://youtu.be/-FAbGoesi4A

Hi everyone,

I recently purchased a Wipro 16A Smart Plug (linked below) to monitor my 1.5 ton AC's power consumption. However, I've been experiencing an issue where both the AC and the smart plug turn off by themselves occasionally, without any input from me.

https://wiproconsumerlighting.com/products/smart-product/smart-plug/wipro-16a-smart-plug-suitable-large-appliances-geysers-microwave

I'm curious if anyone else has faced this problem and what might be causing it. Is it safe to continue using the smart plug with my AC? Any insights or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

I've had seven iDevices dimmers in my walls (connected via HomeKit) working fine for years. Yesterday morning, they all stopped working at once. I can reset them and they sometimes will reconnect to the network for a minute or two, but disappear again. The fact that all chose to do this at once has me highly suspicious. Screwed-up software update? Microsoft Azure dependency?

Has anyone else having a similar experience?

(I have a couple of their outlets which seem to be working fine. Also other HomeKit stuff remains functional.)

Hey all! I'm sure you get posts like this all the time, so please point me in the right direction if this is similar to another post.

My wife and I just bought our first place and I'm looking to get things setup to be as automated and smart as possible. I'm struggling to understand the different things around Hubs, Controllers, Apple HomeKit, Alexa, Matter, Thread, Zigbee, what apps I need on my phone/iPad etc... It's all a bit overwhelming and I want to make sure I do it right and don't waste too much money on in correct products. Here's where I'm at:

Devices I have now:

1. Amazon Echo Show
2. 2 Echo Dots
3. 3 Hue Color Lights, 4 Hue white lights, Hue bridge
4. 1 Hue Motion sensor

Device types I want to purchase:

1. Light Switches
2. Thermostat
3. Outdoor Camera (I only need 1)
4. Video Doorbell
5. Door Lock
6. Garage door Opener
7. Blinds/Shades

My questions are these:

1. What would you recommend for each of the device types? If I plan on keeping everything in HomeKit, how much does it matter if I buy a bunch of different brands, vs. buying a few different devices from Aqare for example.
2. Is it worth finding devices that work with BOTH Alexa and HomeKit? Or should I pick one or the other and invest into that ecosystem? - I'd probably go with Apple at this point over Alexa
3. Where does Home Assistant come into play here?
4. Some devices say that they need a hub to work with HomeKit - what does that mean? Can I use Home Assistant as the hub? Or do I need to buy a hub for each brand I have?

Thanks for the help!

So I’m looking at choosing a eco system that works without wifi and with. The smartphone should be able to controle the following:

• Switch on/off poweroutlet
• Show temperature / hum.
• automatically/manually roll up curtains
• on/off lights with sensor, remote or manually with contact
• Security webcams
• window/door sensor
• door lock/unlock remotly/manually
• maybe more?

I’ve looked alot on the ZigBee LSZB-06 and the Home Assistant Green.

And from what i can read ZigBee eco system should work even without wifi, and when i also use wifi i can (after setting up Home Assistant) remotly controle everything from the app Home Assistant?

Whats the pros/cons on choosing ZigBee as my eco system? Is there anything i should be aware of?

The challenge is that there are 2 cords that need to be pulled since my blinds run horizontally.

1 chain that rotates blinds, 1 string that pulls them across the window/door.

The rotation cannot happen unless the blinds are fully extended so the 2 motors would need to be able to coordinate.

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

I'm trying to command my garage door with home assistant and have this shelly 1 plus 16a smart switch.

Can anyone confirm the right wiring scheme, before I short things out?

My gate has following ports: Flash, GND, +24v, GND, PE, PB

Those can be used to wire a flashing light, photo cells, and wired button as shown in the manual.

Tldr; how do I wire to power the shelly and control the gate?

Hey!

I'm building a new house and need advice on entry systems. I'm considering the Ubiquiti UA-Intercom for the front gate and the G2 Reader Pro for the main door, with an Intercom Viewer by the main door inside. I use these at my office and like the software and Home Assistant API integration, but the user interface seems geared towards commercial use.

Has anyone here installed these in a home? What was your experience?

My contractor recommends DoorBird, designed for residential use but quite pricey (over $1,200 per unit), and I don't like their app user interface.

Thanks for your help!

Lately I saw a few posts here looking for specific Matter devices / types. Just wanted to let everyone know that I made an open source list of all these devices: https://github.com/matterdatabase/matterdatabase

You can also look through all the Matter devices here: https://matterdatabase.com (No adds or affiliate links)

In the latest update I also made an overview of all brands that create Matter devices: https://www.matterdatabase.com/company and all available categories: https://www.matterdatabase.com/category

Please let me know if you know of a Matter device that may be missing and I make sure to add it!

We run a business and have a window display of our Samsung frame tv. It automatically works vertically and plays these vertical videos on youtube. But it keeps turning off. We just want nature videos to run 24/7 on this tv. What settings do I use to make it stay on. Idk why it keeps sleeping. should I use a different app? I want the videos to still be high quality

I’m a recent college graduate who just moved to Los Angeles and rented an apartment to live by myself. Considering the crime rate in the area, I’m really keen on installing a home security system to ensure my safety. However, I’m a complete newbie when it comes to this stuff and could really use some advice from the experts here.

A few friends have suggested ADT and Cove, but I don’t know much about them or if they’re the best fit for my situation. Since I just graduated and my savings are limited, I’m looking for a budget-friendly option that still offers good protection.

I’ve created this account specifically to seek out your advice. What are some good, cost-effective home security systems that would work well for a small apartment? Any tips on what to look for or avoid would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for your help!

I am planning to spend over $700 on Lutron dimmers and fan controls. It is a lot of money for me but I read that they are reliable and people don’t have issues. I have Kasa plugs and they are ok, I usually see lags in processing the command. I don’t want to look at switches for next 15y. Does Lutron support devices for that long? Or is it better to spend less and get on to the latest product ever 3-4 years?

I bought 3 KASA HS200P3 smart switches 3 years ago and installed them in the same gang box (3, side by side) and they've been working flawlessly since.

Tonight, the one that controls my front porch light started turning the light on and off randomly and rapidly. It's little green wifi light is also flashing. The other 2 switches which are in the same gangbox are fine. I tried googling this problem but only came up with problems that don't apply like wiring and troubleshooting installation. Nothing has changed in my house and I am at a loss as to why this would happen, other than something going bad in the switch?

Ours is constantly miss hearing requests. Getting commands wrong etc even when it reads properly on the screen.

Any fixes?

New homeowner, we had a power outage and when the power came back on I learned we have under the kitchen cabinet LED lights I was unaware existed. How do I control these lights? With the very little reading I did it seems I need a hub of sorts which the previous owner did not leave to me knowledge.

I see I can unplug a connector and it turns them off but what if I want to actually use them how do I do so easily? It’s on top of the kitchen cabinets so not readily available for usage.

Thanks for any help, sorry for the ignorance!

I have a school project (last year). I'm very into smarthome and the innovation so my project is about integrating AI into our house.

I want to make a simple setup to show off this principle. I have Llama3 (ai model) running locally on my computer. I promted it to generate 'hey google' commands based on my input. It works great and is quiet amazing compared to google home's normal functionality.

I thought that it would be quiet easy to go from Chat to voice but its not. My setup would look like this:

A retro phone that has a new microphone connected to a computer. When the phone is lifted it triggers to start listening to the voice (like google home would). Then when you hang up you'd send the message and it would convert your request into a google home command. A speaker close to a google home mini in a closed of enclosure would then command the google home mini to control the smart-home.

So in short:
1: Triggering: Lifting phone triggers recording
2: Recording: You start speaking + hang up
3: Converting: Hanging up triggers stop recording --> Converted to text
4: Generating: Llama 3 model creates a google home command based on that text
5: Text to speech: speaker above google home mini gives command

Any ideas? I tried this: https://github.com/maudoin/ollama-voice but I cant input my own script (explaining it's role) and it wont send back an audio file.

Thanks!

Does anyone have any suggestions about locks for interior doors? We want something with a keypad preferably. Does not have a deadbolt which is where we’re finding issues on finding something. Before I drill into our door, is there anything out there?

So i have 3 kids, But my son likes to get up in the in middle of the night and get into things. I'm looking for a sensor that will ring on my phone and wake me up, But not on the door to wake up my other two kids. Please help. Lol. I have no smart devices yet, And I don't want to destroy my bank account but I want it to work.

I was thinking smart plug but I believe the button of the AC still needs to be pressed even when power on, no? I also saw a remote thing but I dont have a remote for my AC

Hi Everyone,

We live in an old house and we can't use something like Lutron. I started installing the Philips-Hue light bulbs but now need to cover the light switches.

There are these LutronAurora Smart Dimmers - do they work well with Philips-Hue?

The Philips-Hue branded smart dimmers are great and have more functionality - but they don't cover the old light switches.

Any thoughts on this topic?

Thanks!