homeassistant

Hi guys! I'm considering purchasing a Xiaomi air purifier 4 (possibly). I wanted to make sure I can use from the Home Assitant app, while the router's firewall blocks its online connectivity outside the home network. Do the xiaomi devices connected in HA need online connectivity in order to continue to work?

Also...many of their wristbands series for example need at least to connect once in order to get an auth token that you can then use on gadgetbridge. Do you need any kind of shenanigans to get the purifiers to work on HA?

Had a leak under the sink in our kitchen. I don’t want to imagine what this would have meant on a larger scale, compared the 20€ I spent on the sensor and the 10mins it costed me to install it.

Hi guys. Got some curious behavior.

HA (automation) switches the TRV from off to heat to off to heat...

As I changed the TRVs (Bosch to Sonoff) a few days before, I first thought, it is the new one. Looking through the logs, it also happened with the old one. I am not sure, but it looks like it happens since the last HA Update. Currently running 2025.1.4.

The automation checks on every room-temperature change if it is over or under the target temp. It switches from heat to off after the room has reached the target and switches from off to heat if the temp is under the target.

For example a is 20°C, it happens between 20°C and 21°C. If the setting is heat and the temperature is between 20 and 21 the TRV is switched to off or the other way, if it is on off. I tried to round the temp, but this does not change the behavior. It is always switching to the other setting in this 1°C range. If the room temperature in this example is over 21°C it stays off. Under 20°C it stays on heat.

I never noticed this before, so I think something has changed with 2025.1 but I don't know what and can't find a solution.

Maybe somebody can point me in the right direction to find the error.

I have a routine that plays an audio file on the top of every hour and it worked great for the first few days but lately the audio has been lagging or stuttering. At first i thought it was because i was using an old chromebook in kiosk mode but my home assistant voice is doing the same thing with voice replies. Any idea what could be causing this? Home assistant is being ran as a vm on my hypervisor and the audio file in question is an mp3 saved locally in the media folder on home assistant.

It's an automation template to control your heating/cooling. It has every feature you can think of to create a really smart climate control

I have a set of Samsung washer and dryer that can be hooked up to Samsung SmartThings. I have no interest in making a Samsung account and having my washers and dryers communicate with anything outside of my network.

But since it has some kind of "smart" functionality, I was wondering whether anyone has been able to get this information without ever onboarding it with SmartThings?

Both machines set up their own WPA2-protected WiFi network when running.

Is there any way to group zones together? I would like to define zones that are not necessarily circular in shape. I can accomplish what I want by overlapping several of them, but I really want to group them together and treat them as one zone. Is this possible?

I suppose I could probably script up a template trigger...

Are there any recommended best practices?

I'm doing a fresh setup on a new system and want to use this opportunity to organise things better. Previously it was quite a mess 😅

Some loose thoughts:

• I don't really want to use the brand, so I could replace devices
• Not all devices have a fixed place (e.g. the phone), so using the room in the name might not be a nice solution, or I could use "portable" instead for those

For those of us still impatiently waiting, what is your experience so far with “Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition”?

—- I ordered just 2 hours in but the vendor I used sold out in 21 minutes. I just found out I also missed the restock, so hopefully some time next month.

I bought several Sonoff mini4r to add some automation to my lights, and wanted to post a short review:

Pros:

• price is excellent. Got 5 for <$50 cad.
• Size is amazing, itsy Bitsy.
• Build quality feels good.
• Should be easy to flash, if my soldering skills were better, with exposed pads.
• Connected to my home wifi quick and easy.
• SonoffLAN easily picked them up, with full control.
• Detached relay mode works great, with switch fallback if wifi goes down.
• quick response time, under a second.

Cons:

• only rated for 10-12 amps, means I can't install this on switch controlled outlets.
• wish it had headers for flashing.
• wifi only, wish there was a ZigBee model.

In the end, I'm likely to buy more, and some Shelly units for where I need 16-20 amp relays.

I have an early 2000s house and they went wild with a) the sheer number of wall switches and b) the number of 3-way switches. I want to replace a good number of them while accepting my wife's requirement that they look and function as dumb paddle switches when necessary.

I've looked around and these seem to be the best at fitting all of my requirements but Mama Mia, the price 😭 😭 😭 😭

https://www.amazon.com/Inovelli-2-1-Smart-Switch-Dimmer/dp/B0BG329SH3

Anyone have some suggestions?

I was trying to get it to pause Pi-hole on request. I'm using Home Assistant Cloud (Nabu Casa) for speech to text, and have also got OpenAI plugged into it for if it doesn't recognise a command. The screen shot is from the debug logs that I eventually found after struggling to work out why it wasn't running my automation.

I'm using the new Home Assistant Voice Preview. Don't get me wrong, overall very happy with it for the price point, but for some reason the cloud speech recognition (I believe powered by Google) is very good at understanding me until I start trying to talk about ad blocking.

Does anyone have any experience or recommendations for a physical remote control that can be used with HomeAssistant? I'm hoping to find a multi-button zigbee or wifi device that HA can recognize and allow me to configure buttons to HA automations.

I'm already using a couple single button devices that can be configured to perform different actions on single press, double press, and long press, but would love a single device with multiple buttons for some locations.

When I first started setting up my home automation, I decided on Zigbee, and I very much dove in head-first. I set up dozens of Zigbee devices, and some worked a lot better than others. I have a fairly stable Zigbee network with well over 100 devices, but many of those have been replaced over time. To save others the wasted time and money, I wanted to give a short breakdown of what I've noticed across brands.

• SONOFF: My Zigbee controller is made by SONOFF, and it works well. As far as their motion sensors, not so much (I even made a post about how bad they were about a year ago). Their motion sensors give such unreliable results that they're borderline useless. Their plugs work generally okay, although they do drop off my network occasionally. Overall, they really wouldn't be my first choice.

• Aquara: They make some very slick-looking devices, but they're horrible. Magnetic door sensors frequently just get stuck in an open or closed state, or just drop off the network completely. I used two of their leak sensors. One is still working well; the other just spontaneously decided to stop responding completely. I have a few of their pushbuttons; it took me at least a dozen tries to pair them, but they seem to work well after that. Overall, Aquara devices either quit responding or drop off the network more frequently than any other brand; I will never buy another Aquara device.

• DOGAIN: I bought several of their plugs. So far, not a single issue. I assume they're a white-label brand, so I don't know who actually makes the hardware, but I have no complaints so far.

• MHCOZY: Another white-label brand. I've purchased several of their relay switches. I haven't had a single problem with any of them, and I'm using quite a few.

• Haozee: Probably another white-label brand. I have several of their mmWave sensors. Occasionally they get stuck in a "detected" state, but rarely. They have never dropped off my network. I'd buy more.

• Phillips (Hue): They're exceptionally expensive, but for a reason. I have a lot of their smart bulbs, and a few outdoor motion sensors. They all work flawlessly. Don't use the Hue app or a Hue bridge, though, unless you want to be locked into their app; just pair your device with a third-party Zigbee controller.

• Leviton: I have replaced every single in-wall switch in my home with a Leviton smart switch or smart dimmer. They're a well-known brand, so I would expect their products to work well, and they do. My only complaint is that occasionally one of the switches will drop and refuse to communicate unless I power it off (with a breaker); this is rare, though, and normally corresponds with a power outage.

• Thirdreality: I saved Thirdreality for last because I have absolutely no complaints at all. They are my go-to for Zigbee devices. I have many of their temperature sensors, plugs, magnetic door sensors, motion sensors, soil moisture sensors, etc. I have never had a device drop off my network or stop working correctly. I have dozens of their devices, and my only issue was a climate sensor that got stuck at 99% humidity after I accidentally sprayed water into the case. That's my fault.

So, in general, if I was to re-build my Zigbee network from the ground up, I'd go for Thirdreality devices first. If they didn't make what I need, I'd go for Phillips Hue, and if I still couldn't find what I need, then that's what the list above is for.

I'm hoping to see some replies to this; what are your experiences with different Zigbee devices? Any brands you either trust or would never buy from?

Edit: As others have mentioned, your Zigbee integration (also also possibly your controller) may make a difference in reliability. I am using ZHA and a SONOFF controller. Your experience may be different.

Until recently I had been using an EZVIZ DB1C doorbell. I researched before I got it, and it worked immediately when bought. Then the company started playing dirty pool. Over the next two firmware updates (WIth nothing in the notes beyond "bugfixes and imrprovements") they stripped out the ability to use a local RTSP stream then they stripped out the ability to use their Windows-only software to even re-enable any functionality. Then they jerked me around for over a month before they finally copped to what the company had done.

And of course there's no way back to a working firmware.

I know people have mentioned Reolink and Amcrest before, but those models are no longer available.

Is there anything in the way of wired, mechanical-bell compatible doorbell cameras that work with HomeAssistant?

I'm so sick of companies that sell you one thing, then strip out the functionality that made it useful, shoving you into their cloud/app shit or leaving you stranded on whatever firmware the thing came with.

GRR

I've been toying with the idea to implementing HA for a couple of years.

I have no fewer than 10 "smart device" apps on my phone and the privacy implications make me sick. I've been a Google Home and it's been a sad experience.

Over the holidays, I got Proxmox working on an old laptop and ordered a ZigBee stick and some sensors.

Installing HA using helper scripts was dummy easy and the laptop is performing solidly. Got hung up on network setup and z2m but pulled through with some Google-fu.

Did I have to do some tinkering? Yes. Can I control all - literally ALL - my smart devices on one customizable dashboard? F*** YEAH!

I am looking forward to accomplishing more, unplugging from the cloud, learning a lot, and hopefully making some life tasks less annoying.

Thank you to this community for the awesome work, conversation, and inspiration!

I've been using HA for a while; having my home just "do things" for me without asking is fantastic. My lights turn on to exactly the levels I want when I enter a room, my grass and my plants get watered automatically, heating and cooling happens only when it needs to. There are lots of benefits. Plus, it's just a fun hobby.

One thing I didn't expect, though, is all the interesting things you can learn when you have sensors monitoring different aspects of you home or the environment.

• I can always tell when someone is playing games or streaming video (provided they're transcoding the video) from one of my servers. There's a very significant spike in temperature in my server room, not to mention the increased power draw.
• I have mmWave sensors in an out-building that randomly trigger at night, even though there's nobody there. Mice, maybe?
• Outdoor temperatures always go up when it's raining. It's always felt this way, but now it's confirmed.
• My electrical system always drops in voltage around 8AM. Power usage in my house remains constant, so maybe more demand on the grid when people are getting ready for work?
• I have a few different animals that like to visit my property. They set off my motion sensors, and my cameras catch them on video. Sometimes I give them names.
• A single person is enough to raise the temperature in an enclosed room. Spikes in temperature and humidity correspond with motion sensors being triggered.
• Watering a lawn takes a lot more water than you might expect. I didn't realize just how much until I saw exactly how many gallons I was using. Fortunately, I irrigate with stored rain water, but it would make me think twice about wasting city water to maintain a lawn.
• Traditional tank-style water heaters waste a lot of heat. My utility closet with my water heater is always several degrees hotter than the surrounding space.

What have you discovered as a result of your home automation? While the things I mentioned might not be particular useful, they're definitely interesting, at least to me.

Hi all,

I'm in the UK and I would like to replace my old switches that turn on/off the lights in the corridor. There are two switches and they are working as a two way switches (3 wires connected to each of them). I would like to replace them with two smart switches that ideally don't require additional apps to set up and ideally no need to connect to any cloud services. Any advice is welcome.

Thanks,

Hi all! I have a HA server in my LAN and all my IoT devices are in a separate VLAN. In this way to insert all the devices I have to configure them all manually using MQTT commands. Since I'm fed up about this method, I've added a second NIC to the HA VM (Proxmox) that is in the IoT VLAN. When I enter the terminal I see that HA has 2 IPs, one for each network and I thought that all the Shelly (they use the same MQTT broker that uses HA, they're not configured for cloud connection and ColoT is enabled) devices would appear in HA, but...they don't. How do you think that I can troubleshoot this problem?

This was a bit of a crazy release because it requires people to update adapter firmware and also add

  adapter: ember
  rtscts: false

To your configuration.yaml. Needless to say there's a bunch that have run into issues as a result.

The problem I try to solve Looking for a temperature sensor using Bluetooth that can report to Home Assistant through my phone when out and about and preferably (but not necessarily) report through my ESPhome BT-proxies at home.

Background I have a 3 year old son with type 1 diabetes. As a result I always have to carry insulin, a temperature sensitive medication. The vials are stored long term in the door of my fridge together with a ZigBee sensor monitoring the temperature of the insulin. If it freezes the Insulin denatures and won’t have any relevant effect if used. The vial that I carry with me will last for around a month as long as it stays above 0 °C (and under around 25-30 °C). My son uses a CGM/pump-based system, creating a BAN that also involves his smartphone. This means that phone is always near the vial and could record temperature (and send telemetry data) continuously, even away from home. I want to use a temperature sensor to identify spoiled medication due to thermal conditions even when my son leaves our home.

My current (imperfect) solution I currently deploy a solution where I use a Meshtastic node with a BME280 sensor. It reports through the mesh to a node at home. This node uses MQTT to talk to Home Assistant. The problem with this system (although nice being totally independent from the Internet) is limited coverage of the surroundings as well as very infrequent telemetry reporting to not overload the common mesh in my city.

Is there an easier solution? Preferably one that uses the smartphones bluetooth (BLE?) and reports back over the Internet.

Hi, all. I recently received two Zooz Zen51 dry contact relays, and installed one of them in an outdoor flood light fixture with a motion sensor. I thought I'd share my thoughts on the device in case anyone else is thinking about it. Note, I'm in the US and only familiar with US electrical wiring.

1. I didn't notice until after I installed it that the recommended temperature is 32-100 F (0-38 C), and it's marked for "indoor use only". Well, it's safely in an electrical box with a gasket and won't get wet, so I'm too worried about the latter thing, but I am curious if I'll have issues with temperature with it. It's supposed to get really cold here in a few days, so we'll see then!

2. Size - it's pretty small, but won't fit in every box, especially smaller switch boxes. There was plenty of room in the box behind the motion sensor light, but that's not surprising.

3. It gives HA a control to turn the light on and off via a switch entity, which is what I expected.

4. I was surprised that the "switch" function (in my case, the motion sensor is the switch, but it could also be a regular light switch) status is not reported, unlike the Shelly 1 I have. Instead, there's an event that is fired when the motion sensor turns on or off. So I can't (directly - I could program a template sensor) see what the current status of the motion sensor is (i.e., is it calling for light or not?).

5. Pairing - the directions are a little sloppy on this point. To start the pairing mode, you have to hit the button on the device VERY quickly three times. The slowly blinking green light is the normal operating mode. This is clear when you look up the HA directions on their website, but it's not really in the directions that come with it. The directions that come with it imply it'll automatically connect once you hit the pairing mode in HA. (I installed Zooz's smoke detector sensor a few weeks ago and had the same gripe then...but I forgot when I went to install the Zen51.)

(Note this also means you want to pair before you reassemble everything!)

6. There are a bunch of configuration options that can do interesting things. For example I could have it automatically shut off the light after a few seconds or minutes. Or I could "reverse" the operation of the motion sensor - turn off the light when it senses motion, and turn it on otherwise. (I can't think of a use case for that latter situation, but the possibility exists, and I'm sure someone can find a use for it.)

7. Configuration is very easy through HA. Go to the device, click configure, then ...configure it. Most options are explained well, but a few aren't clear enough to use without looking it up. For an example of the latter, the "Auto timer unit" setting lets you choose seconds or minutes for the automatic turn off/turn on features...but it doesn't say whether "1" is minutes or seconds. But this is a minor issue; once you have it configured once, you'll probably not need to worry about it again.

8. The configuration option "External switch type" was interesting. I set mine to "Toggle switch"...then discovered, the next morning, that the light was on all night. In that mode, any state change of the connected switch (either on to off, or off to on) prompts a flip in the on/off status of the device. So what happened was that I had the light shut off when I went to bed, then the motion sensor turned off, and the Zen51 interpreted that as me wanting the light to come on.

"Toggle switch with fixed actions" was what I actually wanted (and is the default). Motion sensor comes on: light comes on. Motion sensor tells the light to turn off: light turns off if it's on.

I haven't tried the other three modes - Momentary Switch (seems self-explanatory), Split 3-way, and Garage door mode momentary (also seems self-explanatory). Split 3-way lets you use the Zen51 when there's a 3-way switch setup (two switches controlling one light, usually).

9. Without any special actions in HA, the light works normally. But I now have the ability to turn it on for reasons other than motion, or turn it off manually when triggered by motion (i.e., I trigger it while walking the dog, then go to bed - my "bedtime" scene will turn it off, if it's still on at that point). I'm planning an "all outdoor lights on" mode that will turn on, well, all outdoor lights, and this will fit right into that plan.

10. The other reason I wanted to install this was to provide a point that is closer to the detached garage in the hopes that the Z-wave switch I installed there would now be able to connect to the network. No go on that front, though. :( It should act as a relay but that switch might still be too far away. I might pull that other Z-wave switch back out and put a standard light switch in, and use the second Zen51 to control a different set of lights in the garage (it's a long story as to why I'd do this).

11. The secure pairing failed. I didn't retry it, so I don't know if that was a fluke or something more; it did connect in insecure mode. Unfortunately to retry it, I would have had to exclude the device, then re-include it, and I was running short on daylight to finish this installation.

That's all I have, I hope that helps someone who is thinking about these.