When I press the button I want all of the blinds to raise/lower at the same speed.
Not even my ikea ones that are all the same size / model rise exactly the same as the start signal from Zigbee sometimes gets to one before another. They go up at around the same rate but start a little off from each other.
Hey there, I have an Ecowitt system. I use it to tell me when to close the curtains based on sunlight, use it to tell me when to open or close the windows, and I also have some of their soil moisture sensors in my garden to tell me when to water. I plan on expanding that last one to an automatic irrigation system!
The one catch is that you'll want to lock it down on Ecowitt's site, otherwise other people can see your sensors.
I'd like to hear more about those moisture sensors if you'd be willing to share
How many do you have? (If multiple) do you space them out around your yard? Do you find it to be accurate enough? Do you have experience with other systems to compare it to?
Sorry for the 20 questions. I've lived in a condo my entire adult life but I'm buying a house soon and lawncare scares me lol
Honestly moisture sensors would be nice to have later, but you don't need to start with that. A smart irrigation timer from companies like Rachio will be just fine for the begining. It adjust the watering schedule based on current weather conditions so you don't have to make manual changes from season to season.
I use the Ecowitt moisture sensors for potted plants. Given their size, I wouldn’t recommend using them for your lawn because you have to be sure to not hit them when mowing.
Automated irrigation systems are reasonably consistent. I moved from my lawnless apartment to a house with a backyard of grass. I left out a few empty containers across the lawn, waited for the first watering cycle, and adjusted the timings based on the distribution.
As someone who moved from condo life into having a significant amount of deck plants, you just need an irrigation system and it doesn't need to be smart.
I use the b-hyve as a water timer, it's on my WiFi and tied into home assistant but it's fully self sufficient on its own. It's only job is to turn on the water. It is smart enough to not do it when it's rained recently.
The water runs to some fat black pipe that runs around my deck, with smaller hoses plugged into it that go into the plant pots. In the pots are either drip emitters, or what's better is an emitter hose that releases water every few inches. This is called drip irrigation and outdoor pots have holes in the bottom, so you can't really over water. Mine runs for 20 minutes every morning at 6am and everything thrives.
Lawn care you'll need some sprinklers or something, but before you invest make sure you look up your local regulations for water restrictions. Where I live you can't water a lawn during peak summer, at all. Drip irrigation is always allowed because it's very water efficient.
Sure! I have three, in different spots in different gardens. I do find them to be pretty darn accurate, especially if you calibrate them like the instructions say. I don't have anything to compare them to, but their data makes pretty graphs in home assistant and their backend.
I was just about to set up a weather station, but then I discovered PWS Monitor app. Opening the app I found there is six weather stations in a two mile radius of my house. Now I just monitor without having to go with the expense. And with that said, If you do get one leave it OPEN so your neighbors can see it through app like these.
Collecting and comparing environmental data was the whole reason I started homeassistant. I mostly use indoor sensors and compare with national weather service for outdoor, but I like seeing the data. Graphs of indoor/outdoor, next to https://cdn.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES16/ABI/SECTOR/se/GEOCOLOR/600x600.jpg (which updates every 5 minutes) I live in the US Southeast, and the indoor/outdoor comparison, especially dewpoint, lets me know when it's ok to open windows overnight. i.e.: the overnight temperature usually drops below the A/C set point, but if that's going to draw in a bunch of humid air, it may feel more comfortable to keep the warmer, drier air. Actual, local outdoor conditions would be even better, because we do get localized summer showers that really raise the humidity in very small areas, and the NWS data comes from an airport 5 miles away.
I'd love to have some motorized windows, or even blinds, for automation. Absent that, there's nothing super obvious to me to trigger off environmental data.
I use mine quite a lot. I have a weather dashboard, and the forecasts from my weather station are second to none, way more accurate than any other option. I also use them in a lot of automations. Many of which are here, the python script described there is using a lot of weather data to make decisions about whether to keep the heat lower in the morning or not. Saves me pretty good money on heating.
I've been wanting to do this for awhile after having problems with the cooling coils freezing over. My question is, what sensor would you use for this? A battery-powered one would need to be recharged and a wire running into the fridge would break the seal
These are the ones I got, just because they are only $9 each, with a display as well. Each one has 2x AAA battery, so I'd expect they'll last quite a while. HA also reports on battery level - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0872X4H4J
They are bluetooth, but I already had an ESP32 for other sensors. Seems to work great w/ Home Assistant / ESPHome so far!
If you live in a climate in which you need to winterize your outdoor faucets (e.g. by shutting a valve in your basement, crawlspace, or garage) a temperature sensor on the warm side of the valve can save you from a flood.
I had to replace the garage door opener one winter and failed to notice a new quarter inch gap at the bottom of the garage door. Combine that with a cold snap and the garage dropped below freezing for long enough to burst pipes.
Fortunately I had a Shelley flood sensor on the floor so I was alerted fairly early and was able to avoid serious damage, but had I been paying attention to the pipes themselves I could have avoided a plumber call-out on Christmas Eve!
Might be a dumb question since I have no experience with sensors. What would you have been able to do if the received an alert while you were out of town is the sensor able to turn the fridge off and on? Is that what you meant by “simple $10 temperature sensor could have saved everything”?
A lot of smart outlets develop problems over time from the inductive surge current on electric motor startup (air conditioner, fridge, dehumidifier). The current ratings in ads are generally for resistive loads. Inductive load limits can be 30% less.
Since I've started automating stuff I've got myself an Acurite wireless fridge and freezer thermometer (initially found out about it on Reddit, before it all went to shit and all). It both has a nice magnetic display and it transmits in 433MHz band, so a SDR dongle plugged into my Home Assistant machine can receive the temp readouts. So far it didn't prevent any disasters, but at least I know how hot it needs to get for the fridge to start having trouble keeping cool.
I am all for local however my biggest issues with video doorbells tends to be the field of view, image quality and operating temperature ranges.
I live in a climate where +30C and -20C will happen at least for a few days a year and quite often I have seen doorbells just go offline below when it gets cold outside or physically degrade in the heat.
I want a highly durable device. These ESPCam devices kinda have crap optics, I want to clearly identify people in the dark.
Sounds like a much more complicated problem… maybe resistive heater would be enough? I’m assuming there isn’t any problem with the cold other than the whole thing icing over.
Better optics/camera is probably where it all falls apart… you’re not getting it out of a pre-made $8 dev board any time soon.
It’s the battery. A lot of doorbell cameras have an internal battery to keep the camera powered when the chime is rung. A few of my friends have to replace their unifi doorbell cameras once a year after winter
A camera platform small enough to fit a standard door frame isn't going to be able to hold serious optics. The sensor sizes are going to be too small for good night vision, if nothing else.
The temperature issue is probably an issue of economics. Most people don't need such a wide range, so off the shelf products don't support the application, as it would incur additional cost.
Both of these are solvable issues however if you're willing to use a standard security camera mounted over the door instead. There are many cameras that you could pick with large sensors, heating elements, and more.
A camera platform small enough to fit a standard door frame isn’t going to be able to hold serious optics.
We clearly have even smaller optics in smart phones, the limiting factor on doorbells seems to be depending on cheap optics, poor FOV lenses and then cutting the bit rate by only supporting 2.4Ghz vs offering 5Ghz or POE support. There are a number of cameras with good optics or secondary package cameras now to cover the FOV issue. There are even cameras that meet all the clarity requirements I have but are cloud only or are knowing to not work in cold weather at all.
The MAIN job of a doorbell camera should be for the security role of identification. As it will point directly at the face of someone the cheap ones do a bad job of this.
There are some videos showing just how WIDE the quality range is, but sadly very few tick all the boxes.
Are phillips things reflashable with esphome/tasmota? I'm not a huge fan of tuya, but so fari have been able to reflash/rebrain everything i gave bought from them. It should be a lot easier though :/
Can we stop the overuse and over-generalization of "enshitification" which Doctorow had given very explicit meaning to in regards to social networks? It does not simply mean commoditization which is not quite the same but almost synonymous with 'race to the bottom's in regards of trying to increase revenue while simultaneously decreasing costs.
Edit: I'll admit narrowing to "social networks" is a bit too narrow, but the point still stands that it's for two way platforms where there are "two markets." Phillips Hue does not have a two sided market.
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