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d2k1

@d2k1@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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d2k1 ,

Interesting to see that I have pretty much the same (apparently wonky) setup with my ZigBee coordinator plugged into my Home Assistant mini-PC (via extension cable) in the basement of my house.

Though I have a better supported adapter (from Slaesh) it is definitely not in the middle of the house. It works fine so far with about 100 devices and it seems the backbone is strong enough so the basement location is not a big problem. Still I wonder if the mesh could be improved by getting a network-enabled adapter and placing it somewhere more central.

Why is replacement for home device controls so complicated?

I recently learned about Home Assistant here on Lemmy. It looks like a replacement for Google Home, etc. However, it requires an entire hardware installation. Proprietary products just use a simple app to manage and control devices, so can someone explain why a pretty robust dedicated device is necessary as a replacement? The...

d2k1 ,

But what can it do more easily than an mid 20th century home can do?

One word: Automations. Everything from lights to irrigation, HVAC to surveillance cameras, fishtanks to plant monitoring, managed by a single, extensible open source platform, hosted locally in your own home.

Of course that is not trivial. If you don't see your smart home as a hobby you enjoy putting time and effort into then the smart home scene is not for you, especially not Home Assistant.

Sounds like you are in a fine place with your home, so you are probably not the target audience here.

d2k1 ,

With plugins you mean add-ons like Z2M, Mosquitto or VSCode Server, right?

d2k1 , (edited )

I wonder what his big ZigBee issue was that took him months to solve.

From the vague description it could be that his ZigBee stick was plugged directly into the USB port instead of using a USB extension cable, thus subjecting the ZigBee stick to all sorts of RF interference from the motherboard.

Or maybe the USB pass-through to the home assistant VM was wonky?

Edit: he talks about getting 30$ worth of hardware to fix the issue so it is probably not just a USB extension cable 🤔

d2k1 ,

The reveal will be interesting 🙂

d2k1 ,

Looks like you were pretty spot-on!

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