7 ms·

IoT Unravelled Part 2: IP Addresses, Network, Zigbee, Custom Firmware, Soldering

77 points by ykat7 6y ago

tda 6y ago
An now just wait until Troy discovers https://esphome.io/ https://esphome.io/ Program your IoT devices to function independent of the mothership (HA), use whatever sensor you fancy (as long as it is in the growing https://esphome.io/#sensor-components https://esphome.io/#sensor-components list), and of course soldering is required.
- madjam002 6y ago
  I love ESPHome, I have it on a variety of smart lightbulbs, smart plugs, custom ESP32 projects and Shelly 1's. Having the device behaviour as "code" (yaml) for me is much nicer than some UI configuration when you start to scale up to lots of devices. It means I can have my IoT devices behaviour stored in Git and roll out updates quickly.
gioscarab 6y ago
Speaking about network, I would have dedicated few lines to PJON: https://github.com/gioblu/PJON https://github.com/gioblu/PJON
rkagerer 6y ago
Interesting Troy went full-on wireless for all this. I'll be building a new home soon and am somewhat inclined to run wires to everywhere that little sensors and activators and other devices will go. Mainly for more peace of mind re security, reduced spectrum noise, reliability (and of course power). I just wish there were more wired product options out there. Love to hear recommendations. Also, is Ubiquity generally considered more suitable now than OpenWRT/Tomato/Dd-WRT and the like? At present I have a fleet of off-the-shelf routers deployed at various properties with custom bits added to the firmware (for improved monitoring, history, auditing, even periodically speed testing radio links and whatnot). I read sometime back Ubiquity killed off some of the programmability features and that lent some wariness to my long term plans to switch over to their gear.
- tda 6y ago
  Ubiquity definitely also has a lot of issues. Unstable firmware's, non-responsive support on their forums, deprecating working products... Like you can't self host their DVR software, but the newest versions don't run on older hardware so you have to buy a new hardware to get new software. Also their product lines Edge and Unifi don't work together, so you can't manage an EdgeRouter with Unifi or vice versa, for which I don't think there is a technical reason, just commercial. Hardware wise they also have made strange choices regarding PoE, don't assume your Unifi PoE switch will work with your Unifi PoE device (really double check the versions, voltages, passive/active) So lots to complain, though I think it is still the most accessible pro-sumer networking stuff.
  - roland35 6y ago
    Newer Unifi products use the correct standard 802.3af/at PoE, but you are correct their older gear uses some non-standard 24V (I believe). I have been using their "Dream Machine" and a mesh node for about 6 months now and have had 0 problems, but I have not tried to tinker around too much yet!
- timo555 6y ago
  I work as a software dev for a company that does home automation systems [0] targeted at "high net worth individuals" (ie: people with large homes). Our product mainly goes into new custom built homes during the construction phase and we do everything hard wired. If you have the opportunity to go hard wired over wireless you'll thank yourself in the long run. [0] http://www.idotechnology.com/products/saffyre-awareness-and-control/ http://www.idotechnology.com/products/saffyre-awareness-and-...
- baybal2 6y ago
  I will second that eventually smart home (accent on home, not household) will go full wired, while semi-disposable gadgets may well stay wireless, but the idea of fully wireless home automation is now out of the windows for so many reasons. I had a discussion with one guy from IKEA who bid on "full wireless" because "it is where Apple, and Google go." The conversation went all went fine for him until a moment of Zen enlightenment hit him: "Outside Europe, people live in concrete houses." That very moment the smile vanishes from his face, and the guy looked like he felt a total facepalm moment.
Zariel 6y ago
I would have thought just using Unifi's DNS server to address each device would have been far simpler.
- wjdp 6y ago
  Left a comment on the article with similar thoughts https://www.troyhunt.com/iot-unravelled-part-2-ip-addresses-network-zigbee-custom-firmware-and-soldering/#comment-5163933390 https://www.troyhunt.com/iot-unravelled-part-2-ip-addresses-... Pi-hole instead of Unifi's DNS, hostnames either come from the client provided hostname or from a override file mapping MACs to hostnames.
madjam002 6y ago
The Xiaomi stuff is great, I have a lot of Aqara devices around the house. A nice alternative to the temperature + humidity sensor is this Xiaomi Mijia one which uses BLE instead of Zigbee and has a little screen which shows the temperature as well: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001355746608.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001355746608.html It's also much cheaper at $3-$4 each instead of ~$11 each. I've been scattering them around and they're great, the display is also nice. They can easily be added to Home Assistant with a Raspberry Pi or ESP32 ($3-4) using ESPHome: https://esphome.io/components/sensor/xiaomi_ble.html https://esphome.io/components/sensor/xiaomi_ble.html
- tda 6y ago
  How long do they last on a battery? I have the older version https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32845863956.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32845863956.html which runs on a about 9 months on a rechargeable AAA penlite. But I could use a few more and these new ones are a lot cheaper.
  - madjam002 6y ago
    To be fair, I only got them around a month ago :) So I'm not sure, although in the specs they say it's supposed to last around a year. My battery levels are still at 100% although I know that is not a reliable indication. One thing to note with the new model, the Bluetooth messages are encrypted and a device bindkey is needed to read the temperature values. Fortunately there is a great project over at https://atc1441.github.io/TelinkFlasher.html https://atc1441.github.io/TelinkFlasher.html which can pair with the device and retrieve a bindkey from within the web browser. Then you just need to plug the bind key and MAC address into ESPhome and you're good to go.
- retSava 6y ago
  I have a couple of Yeelights, ie their RGBW-led light in common E27 socket. Very nice, you can "unlock" developer mode so you can control it over the local network. Super nice. Scripted up a simple thing running on a Raspberry pi + telegram bot for simple commands like "movie", "night" etc without needing to switch apps or be on wifi. Then my daughter said that it was so cool when it blinked in all colors and I realized she had flipped it on/off till it factory reset itself. Now I can't commission them. At all. Both apps provided by Yeelight fail with timeouts, neither server works (you have to pick one, eg china, germany), and none of the troubleshooting steps help. Changing DNS server, wifi hotspot, etc etc. None works. They even have a bug where if your account number is large enough, it will fail since it can fit in the apparently int32_t they seem to store it in. They are cheap, but I'm beyond frustrated that I can't get them online again. The light was nice and bright, but the sw quality is apparently not on par.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
moeydw 6y ago
Why not use hostnames instead of IP addresses? No need to assign static IPs then. I'm using hostnames for all my HA devices.
- retSava 6y ago
  Hostnames depending on multicast DNS doesn't always traverse over network interfaces, eg ethernet<->wifi, so it may be easier with static IP-addresses, or that the router is smart enough to at least re-assign the same IP the next time a MAC asks for one.
- nucleardog 6y ago
  How do you resolve the hostnames to the dynamic IP addresses?
StringyBob 6y ago
I’ve found the initial zigbee pairing more and more painful as the number of IoT devices in my house increases. Although normally a one-off at installation, with lots of devices present don’t expect it to work first time. Occasionally when encountering bugs in various software/hardware combinations i have seen suggested fixes of ‘just re-pair everything to a hub’ which for a full house will take a day and drive you insane. One additional concern is the environmental impact of the number of cr2302 batteries in use - one for most switches and sensor that aren’t permanently wired in - even with a 1-2 year battery life it adds up to a lot. I think firmware updates in current systems take a big bite out of theoretical battery life spans.

77 points by ykat7 6y ago

tda 6y ago

An now just wait until Troy discovers https://esphome.io/ https://esphome.io/ Program your IoT devices to function independent of the mothership (HA), use whatever sensor you fancy (as long as it is in the growing https://esphome.io/#sensor-components https://esphome.io/#sensor-components list), and of course soldering is required.

madjam002 6y ago
I love ESPHome, I have it on a variety of smart lightbulbs, smart plugs, custom ESP32 projects and Shelly 1's. Having the device behaviour as "code" (yaml) for me is much nicer than some UI configuration when you start to scale up to lots of devices. It means I can have my IoT devices behaviour stored in Git and roll out updates quickly.

gioscarab 6y ago

Speaking about network, I would have dedicated few lines to PJON: https://github.com/gioblu/PJON https://github.com/gioblu/PJON

rkagerer 6y ago

Interesting Troy went full-on wireless for all this. I'll be building a new home soon and am somewhat inclined to run wires to everywhere that little sensors and activators and other devices will go. Mainly for more peace of mind re security, reduced spectrum noise, reliability (and of course power). I just wish there were more wired product options out there. Love to hear recommendations. Also, is Ubiquity generally considered more suitable now than OpenWRT/Tomato/Dd-WRT and the like? At present I have a fleet of off-the-shelf routers deployed at various properties with custom bits added to the firmware (for improved monitoring, history, auditing, even periodically speed testing radio links and whatnot). I read sometime back Ubiquity killed off some of the programmability features and that lent some wariness to my long term plans to switch over to their gear.

tda 6y ago
Ubiquity definitely also has a lot of issues. Unstable firmware's, non-responsive support on their forums, deprecating working products... Like you can't self host their DVR software, but the newest versions don't run on older hardware so you have to buy a new hardware to get new software. Also their product lines Edge and Unifi don't work together, so you can't manage an EdgeRouter with Unifi or vice versa, for which I don't think there is a technical reason, just commercial. Hardware wise they also have made strange choices regarding PoE, don't assume your Unifi PoE switch will work with your Unifi PoE device (really double check the versions, voltages, passive/active) So lots to complain, though I think it is still the most accessible pro-sumer networking stuff.
- roland35 6y ago
  Newer Unifi products use the correct standard 802.3af/at PoE, but you are correct their older gear uses some non-standard 24V (I believe). I have been using their "Dream Machine" and a mesh node for about 6 months now and have had 0 problems, but I have not tried to tinker around too much yet!
timo555 6y ago
I work as a software dev for a company that does home automation systems [0] targeted at "high net worth individuals" (ie: people with large homes). Our product mainly goes into new custom built homes during the construction phase and we do everything hard wired. If you have the opportunity to go hard wired over wireless you'll thank yourself in the long run. [0] http://www.idotechnology.com/products/saffyre-awareness-and-control/ http://www.idotechnology.com/products/saffyre-awareness-and-...
baybal2 6y ago
I will second that eventually smart home (accent on home, not household) will go full wired, while semi-disposable gadgets may well stay wireless, but the idea of fully wireless home automation is now out of the windows for so many reasons. I had a discussion with one guy from IKEA who bid on "full wireless" because "it is where Apple, and Google go." The conversation went all went fine for him until a moment of Zen enlightenment hit him: "Outside Europe, people live in concrete houses." That very moment the smile vanishes from his face, and the guy looked like he felt a total facepalm moment.

Zariel 6y ago

I would have thought just using Unifi's DNS server to address each device would have been far simpler.

wjdp 6y ago
Left a comment on the article with similar thoughts https://www.troyhunt.com/iot-unravelled-part-2-ip-addresses-network-zigbee-custom-firmware-and-soldering/#comment-5163933390 https://www.troyhunt.com/iot-unravelled-part-2-ip-addresses-... Pi-hole instead of Unifi's DNS, hostnames either come from the client provided hostname or from a override file mapping MACs to hostnames.

madjam002 6y ago

The Xiaomi stuff is great, I have a lot of Aqara devices around the house. A nice alternative to the temperature + humidity sensor is this Xiaomi Mijia one which uses BLE instead of Zigbee and has a little screen which shows the temperature as well: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001355746608.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001355746608.html It's also much cheaper at $3-$4 each instead of ~$11 each. I've been scattering them around and they're great, the display is also nice. They can easily be added to Home Assistant with a Raspberry Pi or ESP32 ($3-4) using ESPHome: https://esphome.io/components/sensor/xiaomi_ble.html https://esphome.io/components/sensor/xiaomi_ble.html

tda 6y ago
How long do they last on a battery? I have the older version https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32845863956.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32845863956.html which runs on a about 9 months on a rechargeable AAA penlite. But I could use a few more and these new ones are a lot cheaper.
- madjam002 6y ago
  To be fair, I only got them around a month ago :) So I'm not sure, although in the specs they say it's supposed to last around a year. My battery levels are still at 100% although I know that is not a reliable indication. One thing to note with the new model, the Bluetooth messages are encrypted and a device bindkey is needed to read the temperature values. Fortunately there is a great project over at https://atc1441.github.io/TelinkFlasher.html https://atc1441.github.io/TelinkFlasher.html which can pair with the device and retrieve a bindkey from within the web browser. Then you just need to plug the bind key and MAC address into ESPhome and you're good to go.
retSava 6y ago
I have a couple of Yeelights, ie their RGBW-led light in common E27 socket. Very nice, you can "unlock" developer mode so you can control it over the local network. Super nice. Scripted up a simple thing running on a Raspberry pi + telegram bot for simple commands like "movie", "night" etc without needing to switch apps or be on wifi. Then my daughter said that it was so cool when it blinked in all colors and I realized she had flipped it on/off till it factory reset itself. Now I can't commission them. At all. Both apps provided by Yeelight fail with timeouts, neither server works (you have to pick one, eg china, germany), and none of the troubleshooting steps help. Changing DNS server, wifi hotspot, etc etc. None works. They even have a bug where if your account number is large enough, it will fail since it can fit in the apparently int32_t they seem to store it in. They are cheap, but I'm beyond frustrated that I can't get them online again. The light was nice and bright, but the sw quality is apparently not on par.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

moeydw 6y ago

Why not use hostnames instead of IP addresses? No need to assign static IPs then. I'm using hostnames for all my HA devices.

retSava 6y ago
Hostnames depending on multicast DNS doesn't always traverse over network interfaces, eg ethernet<->wifi, so it may be easier with static IP-addresses, or that the router is smart enough to at least re-assign the same IP the next time a MAC asks for one.
nucleardog 6y ago
How do you resolve the hostnames to the dynamic IP addresses?

StringyBob 6y ago

I’ve found the initial zigbee pairing more and more painful as the number of IoT devices in my house increases. Although normally a one-off at installation, with lots of devices present don’t expect it to work first time. Occasionally when encountering bugs in various software/hardware combinations i have seen suggested fixes of ‘just re-pair everything to a hub’ which for a full house will take a day and drive you insane. One additional concern is the environmental impact of the number of cr2302 batteries in use - one for most switches and sensor that aren’t permanently wired in - even with a 1-2 year battery life it adds up to a lot. I think firmware updates in current systems take a big bite out of theoretical battery life spans.