hass io Anyone using Home Assistant

[joe90]

54 minutes ago, Dave Jones said:

did you restore her yourself ?

No, it came with a new topper and I needed to get our field cut, I have done some work on it, it’s great to work on something that does not need a computer or a degree to fix (and you can still get all the bits ?).

[Triassic]

On 05/11/2018 at 08:35, readiescards said:

two infrared sensors on my gate

That’s something I need. What sort of cable did you lay to the gate?

[readiescards]

I installed a plastic duct in a gravel trench and ran a length of twin core mains, as it was quite a distance and I didn't want a voltage drop from the PSU (rather than using a much thinner bell wire)

[Triassic]

I realise two years is a long time in the computer home automation world. Have things changed with Home Assistant, are more of you using it?

[readiescards]

I'm still plugging away with it - currently trying to auto the MVHR boost using a temp sensor in the drain pipe of my bath/showers. 

 

One RPi records the temps, sends a MQTT message to the Home Automation server (Hassio on a RPi) which will process these temps to decide if the MVHR should boost, the Hassio system then creates another MQTT message that is subscribed to via another RPi that is connected to the MVHR boost option via a replay.  RPi used just because the wifi signals are weak in the attic and I have a POE ethernet so can power a microcontroller over POE direct and I have some unused RPi's - a couple ESP32 would probably have  been very capable.

 

For sure Hassio is powerful but it does need some time to learn how to work with it if you want to extend it beyond just added a few plugins for your regular household items

[SteamyTea]

7 minutes ago, readiescards said:

One RPi records the temps, sends a MQTT message to the Home Automation server (Hassio on a RPi) which will process these temps to decide if the MVHR should boost, the Hassio system then creates another MQTT message that is subscribed to via another RPi that is connected to the MVHR boost option via a replay.  RPi used just because the wifi signals are weak in the attic and I have a POE ethernet so can power a microcontroller over POE direct and I have some unused RPi's - a couple ESP32 would probably have  been very capable.

I keep meaning to cobble my RPi's and ESP's together to send messages/data to each other.  Seems that Mosquito is the usual method, just never managed to get it to work, I think I am missing something basic in my understanding how it all talks.  I would like to do it without a central router if possible i.e. a mesh network.

[readiescards]

1 minute ago, SteamyTea said:

 Seems that Mosquito is the usual method, just never managed to get it to work, I think I am missing something basic in my understanding how it all talks.  I would like to do it without a central router if possible i.e. a mesh network.

 

Indeed I have Mosquito running on the Hassio RPi Home automation central server.  I guess you can run Mosquito on any suitable device on a mesh network - not sure what benefit you gain though

[SteamyTea]

5 minutes ago, readiescards said:

not sure what benefit you gain though

Lower power usage is the main one.  I don't have traditional broadband, I just hotspot from my phone.

[readiescards]

I have hardwired ethernet cabling to a central point, so luckily no need for lots of devices to make a mesh network.  I've not checked the central RPi power consumption but don't believe it to be significant.

 

Ditto I don't have a landline - all comms over GSM 3g/4g

 

Happy to try and help with Mosquitto, just PM me if you wish, though I'm no way an expert!

[SteamyTea]

3 minutes ago, readiescards said:

Happy to try and help with Mosquitto, just PM me if you wish, though I'm no way an expert!

I will take you up on it when I start the project.

Next project is painting, did that for a living, so can think about the HA when I drip paint on the floor.