6 ms·

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 whi

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.
- StavrosK 6y ago
  I've had the timeout happen to me. The bulb does connect to your wifi, just connect your phone to your wifi manually near the end of the pairing and it will continue where it left off. Afterwards, enable LAN mode control and uninstall the app, you never need to use it again. You can use the YeeLight Python library (which I wrote!) and yee (or HA) to do anything you want.
  - gempir 6y ago
    I wish there was a way to completely avoid the app. I have a bunch of Aqara devices that are Zigbee and they never even talked to Xiaomi because I only connected them to my Conbee without ever installing any Xiaomi App or whatever. I wonder how hard it is to add an ESP8266 to the lamps and just control via the ESP.
    - StavrosK 6y ago
      You can do that with Zigbee? That sounds fantastic, but the Conbee is a bit pricy still. Look at the Sonoff line of devices, they're all ESP8266-based and extremely hackable (all mine run custom firmware, Espurna).
      - gempir 6y ago
        Yeah you can. You can get something like a CC2531 which works great aswell. Not sure If it's supported by ZHA yet but https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/ https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/ worked very good with my CC2531. I just switched to the Conbee because it was supported by ZHA and I wanted my lights etc to directly connect to Home Assistant with ZHA.
        StavrosK 6y ago
        The CC2531 looks dirt-cheap, Ali stocks it for $2. What's ZHA? I saw it mentioned in the article but don't understand why the CC2531 doesn't work with it. I was thinking of buying an ITEAD Zigbee bridge, but I don't know whether that will work with ZHA or why I'd want it to...
StavrosK 6y ago
What do they talk to? Do you need to get a Xiaomi hub? Are they hackable? I really don't want my devices talking to the internet, I even jailbroke my vacuum so I could control it locally (what a brave new world).
- tga 6y ago
  This is the great part about Zigbee/BLE/433MHz devices, they do _not_ go on your wifi (and the internet), but instead talk to a dedicated gateway. As long as you find a way to talk to them, you can mix and match sensors from the shadiest of vendors. You can ignore the gateways offered by each manufacturer and instead go with something (more) open like zigbee2mqtt or deConz. Zigbee: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io https://www.phoscon.de/en/conbee2/software https://www.phoscon.de/en/conbee2/software BLE: RPi or ESP32 running https://esphome.io https://esphome.io 433MHz: https://sonoff.tech/product/accessories/433-rf-bridge https://sonoff.tech/product/accessories/433-rf-bridge running https://esphome.io https://esphome.io or https://tasmota.github.io https://tasmota.github.io Of course, this way you lose the (more or less) polished apps that come with each system and need to set up something like Home Assistant or openHAB for control and automation.
  - StavrosK 6y ago
    That's great, thanks! I already run Espurna on everything, so that's fine, I just wanted to confirm that all Zigbee devices are interoperable. It's unlikely that I'll get a device that will only want to talk to its specific vendor's gateway, then?
    - comfydragon 6y ago
      > I just wanted to confirm that all Zigbee devices are interoperable. At the RF protocol level, yes they should be. Speaking as someone who works at a company with a few Zigbee-certified products, I can say that there are a LOT of "optional" features in the Zigbee specification, and even implementations of mandatory features can have differences that lead to incompatibility. Manufacturer-specific profiles are also a big thing. So just be aware that manufacturer A's Zigbee "hub"/coordinator may or may not be inherently compatible with manufacturer B's sensors. But I would imagine that open-source systems like HomeAssistant deal with that.

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.

StavrosK 6y ago
I've had the timeout happen to me. The bulb does connect to your wifi, just connect your phone to your wifi manually near the end of the pairing and it will continue where it left off. Afterwards, enable LAN mode control and uninstall the app, you never need to use it again. You can use the YeeLight Python library (which I wrote!) and yee (or HA) to do anything you want.
- gempir 6y ago
  I wish there was a way to completely avoid the app. I have a bunch of Aqara devices that are Zigbee and they never even talked to Xiaomi because I only connected them to my Conbee without ever installing any Xiaomi App or whatever. I wonder how hard it is to add an ESP8266 to the lamps and just control via the ESP.
  - StavrosK 6y ago
    You can do that with Zigbee? That sounds fantastic, but the Conbee is a bit pricy still. Look at the Sonoff line of devices, they're all ESP8266-based and extremely hackable (all mine run custom firmware, Espurna).
    - gempir 6y ago
      Yeah you can. You can get something like a CC2531 which works great aswell. Not sure If it's supported by ZHA yet but https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/ https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/ worked very good with my CC2531. I just switched to the Conbee because it was supported by ZHA and I wanted my lights etc to directly connect to Home Assistant with ZHA.
      - StavrosK 6y ago
        The CC2531 looks dirt-cheap, Ali stocks it for $2. What's ZHA? I saw it mentioned in the article but don't understand why the CC2531 doesn't work with it. I was thinking of buying an ITEAD Zigbee bridge, but I don't know whether that will work with ZHA or why I'd want it to...

StavrosK 6y ago

What do they talk to? Do you need to get a Xiaomi hub? Are they hackable? I really don't want my devices talking to the internet, I even jailbroke my vacuum so I could control it locally (what a brave new world).

tga 6y ago
This is the great part about Zigbee/BLE/433MHz devices, they do _not_ go on your wifi (and the internet), but instead talk to a dedicated gateway. As long as you find a way to talk to them, you can mix and match sensors from the shadiest of vendors. You can ignore the gateways offered by each manufacturer and instead go with something (more) open like zigbee2mqtt or deConz. Zigbee: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io https://www.phoscon.de/en/conbee2/software https://www.phoscon.de/en/conbee2/software BLE: RPi or ESP32 running https://esphome.io https://esphome.io 433MHz: https://sonoff.tech/product/accessories/433-rf-bridge https://sonoff.tech/product/accessories/433-rf-bridge running https://esphome.io https://esphome.io or https://tasmota.github.io https://tasmota.github.io Of course, this way you lose the (more or less) polished apps that come with each system and need to set up something like Home Assistant or openHAB for control and automation.
- StavrosK 6y ago
  That's great, thanks! I already run Espurna on everything, so that's fine, I just wanted to confirm that all Zigbee devices are interoperable. It's unlikely that I'll get a device that will only want to talk to its specific vendor's gateway, then?
  - comfydragon 6y ago
    > I just wanted to confirm that all Zigbee devices are interoperable. At the RF protocol level, yes they should be. Speaking as someone who works at a company with a few Zigbee-certified products, I can say that there are a LOT of "optional" features in the Zigbee specification, and even implementations of mandatory features can have differences that lead to incompatibility. Manufacturer-specific profiles are also a big thing. So just be aware that manufacturer A's Zigbee "hub"/coordinator may or may not be inherently compatible with manufacturer B's sensors. But I would imagine that open-source systems like HomeAssistant deal with that.