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I have a similar set up using AeoTech Z-Stick on a Raspberry Pi running HomeAssistant with Jasco light switches. I'm ready to toss the whole setup, too. First
by snapetom 6y ago
I have a similar set up using AeoTech Z-Stick on a Raspberry Pi running HomeAssistant with Jasco light switches. I'm ready to toss the whole setup, too.
First off, HomeAssistant is not as easy as people claim. They love to release breaking changes. You have to read the release notes or else a routine pip update will foobar your whole system. In the four years, I've run it, they have 1) Introduced and then retired a recommended install method. 2) Completely redone the web architecture. 3) Completely redone the Z-Wave architecture. 4) Routinely release UI features that are just placeholders and useless. It's completely maddening.
The problems are exasperated by the Z-Wave devices themselves. The light switches may be branded GE or Honeywell, but they are all made by Jasco. The first generation has been complete garbage. I've had a 40% failure rate over these five years for them. They will randomly die, or fry during a power failure. Knock on wood, so far no failures with the 2nd Gen so far.
HomeAssistant has tried to be more end-user friendly and have the UI be able to handle all aspects, but this is limited by the cooperation of the devices themselves. It's like herding cats. "Heal Network" never actually does anything. Try actually deleting a dead node through the UI. You can't. It never actually works. You have to ssh into the box, delete the entry from a JSON file, systemctl restart.
How a non-linux user can manage a HomeAssistant setup is beyond me.
- rootusrootus 6y agoSounds like you have a similar setup to me. I'm running HA with mostly Jasco switches. It's been okay, but there have been hiccups. Z-Wave devices can be annoying -- ESPECIALLY door locks. I've gotten them all working, but the setup was finicky, mostly due to the security requirements. The only way I deal with HA breaking changes is that I don't update often. About once every couple years I've gone in, dedicated a couple hours on a Saturday to doing a major update. And I keep everything in git so I can roll back if something goes pear shaped. I'm probably sticking with HA, but my latest batch of light switches have been TP-Link Kasa WiFi switches and I really like them. Very fast to respond. Easier to setup than Z-Wave.
- snapetom 6y agoYeah, I'm probably sticking with HA for the time being mainly because I don't have the time to redo the whole thing right now. It's just frustrating to hear people recommend HA to complete home automation noobs with little or no linux experience. Related to that, I keep the HA configs routinely backed up. I should probably switch to nightly backups because HA now manipulates those config files when setting changes are done through the UI. Every once in a while, I shutdown the system and completely clone the Pi SD Card image to save elsewhere. I (thankfully) haven't had to restore from this in a while, but before switching to a durable SD card, I had to do it with every power failure. Backsups, cloning, industrial cards. Again, I have no clue how a non-linux user could even begin to use HA. I'll checkout the TP-Link switches. Thank you!
- lostlogin 6y agoConsider their multiplugs too. The plugs are individually addressable.
- zrail 6y agoI end-run around the weird HA z-wave integration by using zwave2mqtt running on a pi with my HA running in a VM on a server in my homelab. I haven’t had nearly as many issues after I switched to this setup and it it running.