5 ms·

ESPHome and homeassistant have been really great, just like a nice breath of fresh air in a world of cloud saas stuff.

ssl-3 11mo ago
Home Assistant does great at tying all kinds of things together. People had a habit of leaving the basement lights on here. Now they turn themselves off after a timer expires, and also whenever nobody's home. Using HA and a cheap Shelly relay (chosen for form factor), I was able to do this while retaining the existing lighting circuits, light switch, and the lights themselves. It works perfectly, is completely local, and the end-user UI is completely natural. Toggle the same plain-Jane light switch that has always been there at the top of the basement stairs and the lights change state. (UI doesn't get more intuitive than that.) Or: Fans. This house has a good furnace and central aircon, but the ductwork doesn't really extend upstairs. By default, this makes the upstairs-parts very hot in the summer and cooler than I'd like in the winter -- even though it's nice downstairs during all seasons. I fixed that to my satisfaction by putting a fan on the landing that is controlled by an inexpensive smart switch, just to improve circulation. HA runs this show; the fan runs when the HVAC is doing something, and whenever people are home and it is either too hot or too cold upstairs (based on a temperature sensor). It's not a perfect solution, but it's kept the temperatures sane (and provided logging to prove it), it was cheap to implement, and it is cheap to run. I already had the parts kicking around; it just took software and time. (The best option for efficiency and comfort is probably installing mini-splits up there, but... sheesh, that's into the realm of orders-of-magnitude more expensive. Maybe some day.)
- NegativeLatency 11mo ago
  I'm curious how you used the shelly? They look neat but I'm not sure how people are wiring them into existing switches.
  - ssl-3 11mo ago
    Good question. I put the Shelly relay in a pre-existing junction box in the basement. Previously, this box worked like this: There were romex cables for power/neutral, lights, and the switch itself all inside of that box. The switch, located elsewhere, interrupted power to the lights. (This isn't necessarily the most-typical arrangement, but it's how it is in the house I've got.) Currently, the box works like this: We still have romex cables for power/neutral, lights, and the switch itself inside of that box. That part hasn't changed at all. But now the Shelly relay interrupts power to the lights. Thus, the lights are always controlled by software. And the light switch? That just provides an input that is acted upon by a software script. The script (which runs internally within the Shelly relay) only does 3 things: 1. If relay is on and switch toggles, turn relay off. 2. If relay is off and switch toggles, turn relay on. 3. If relay is turned on by any mechanism, start timer, and then turn off after timer expires. (Plus other useful timer mechanics like resets on additional toggling, but you get the idea.) --- It's easiest to think of a Shelly relay like a replacement for a light switch, but that's kind of a limiting way to think about it because that line of thought strongly implies that it should to be located where the switch is. And while it certainly can be installed that way, in practice it really doesn't have that limitation. For my unfinished basement, there's no neutral at the light switch location so using a regular smart switch didn't pan out. (I could have added a neutral but that would have meant using more parts and getting into some drywall and paint.) Instead, there's that neat (who am I kidding, it's a mess) junction box I that described, up on the ceiling where all of the things come together... So that's where I put the relay. Or: There's a box behind a light fixture (well, there "should" be anyway). Often, this box will have the same functions available inside that my junction box happened to have. Power, neutral, light(s), switch input. A relay can go there. But many houses do have neutral at the light switch location, so a relay can go there instead. Power/neutral feeds in, power for lights feeds out, with a switch (and/or relay!) in the middle. All in one accessible box on the wall. This matches the easy-to-think-of scenario. (IIRC all new homes are supposed to be this way in the US, but...) It's (usually!) just a matter of finding the right physical location in which to install the relay. (Note: None of this is intended to be an exhaustive list of variations. Things can and do get weird with household wiring, and regional variations of what "normal" means can vary quite tremendously.)
    - 11mo ago
- Ruthalas 11mo ago
  What are you using as your temperature sensors, if you don't mind?
  - 05 11mo ago
    Not the GP, but any supported BLE sensor [0] with a Bluetooth proxy ESPHome node should work. [0] https://custom-components.github.io/ble_monitor/by_property#temperature https://custom-components.github.io/ble_monitor/by_property#...
  - ssl-3 11mo ago
    You'll laugh, but: I'm using a Zigbee button from Samjin/Samsung/whoever-that-was which reads temperature, my Nest thermostat (via a convoluted-but-supported path to a remote API), and a couple of Amazon Echo Dot speakers (the integration of which is cursed, but it's easy to set up and usually works). I was going to try to score some cheap BLE temperature sensors and use the Shelly relay as a gateway to bring those into HA (yeah, it does that too), but then the big mystery ball of tariffs happened and I lost track of that idea.
tetris11 11mo ago
Same, it's so nice to throw together a yaml that pretty much does exactly what you want, with the only ambiguity being knowing the ins/outs of the pins. I'm just hoping it stays cheap as a hobby
madaxe_again 11mo ago
It just makes stuff so easy - I’ve been on an absolute spree lately, and have built out: Ultrasonic tank & river level monitors, with temperature compensation and a battery fuel gauge - managing to make a 3000mAh battery stretch almost a year. Some of the river monitors use LoRa. Remote control to stop/start the previously pull-start generator Gas bottle level monitors Made the coffee machine dangerous And my current project is seeing if I can make solar/battery powered LED bulbs that I can hang on trees and use BLE to make them automatically turn on some distance ahead of you as you walk down the long path through the forest, and turn off once you’ve passed. I only really got started a few months ago, and my approach is far more breadboards, DuPont cables and superglue, because I know damned well that the moment I go “ok I’m done let’s get a PCB” I’ll decide on a modification. Anyway. I don’t have enough good things to say about ESPHome. I get to save thousands of euros, and have fun at the same time. What’s not to like.
amelius 11mo ago
Just wait until Espressif gets some greedy shareholders/or some manager that needs a raise and then suddenly you're paying 30% to get your app into the ESP Store.
- 05 11mo ago
  ESPHome isn't really Espressif exclusive, there's Beken support already, which most cheap Chinese IoT gadgets use nowadays. And there are 'made for esphome' products which is a safer bet than buying Sonoff and praying the ESP32 inside doesn't have its secure boot bits fused.
- ihattendorf 11mo ago
  ESPHome is owned by the same group as Home Assistant, not Espressif. So Espressif getting greedy would just mean higher prices for their chips (or they could lock down development on their chips, but that seems very unlikely).

ssl-3 11mo ago

Home Assistant does great at tying all kinds of things together. People had a habit of leaving the basement lights on here. Now they turn themselves off after a timer expires, and also whenever nobody's home. Using HA and a cheap Shelly relay (chosen for form factor), I was able to do this while retaining the existing lighting circuits, light switch, and the lights themselves. It works perfectly, is completely local, and the end-user UI is completely natural. Toggle the same plain-Jane light switch that has always been there at the top of the basement stairs and the lights change state. (UI doesn't get more intuitive than that.) Or: Fans. This house has a good furnace and central aircon, but the ductwork doesn't really extend upstairs. By default, this makes the upstairs-parts very hot in the summer and cooler than I'd like in the winter -- even though it's nice downstairs during all seasons. I fixed that to my satisfaction by putting a fan on the landing that is controlled by an inexpensive smart switch, just to improve circulation. HA runs this show; the fan runs when the HVAC is doing something, and whenever people are home and it is either too hot or too cold upstairs (based on a temperature sensor). It's not a perfect solution, but it's kept the temperatures sane (and provided logging to prove it), it was cheap to implement, and it is cheap to run. I already had the parts kicking around; it just took software and time. (The best option for efficiency and comfort is probably installing mini-splits up there, but... sheesh, that's into the realm of orders-of-magnitude more expensive. Maybe some day.)

NegativeLatency 11mo ago
I'm curious how you used the shelly? They look neat but I'm not sure how people are wiring them into existing switches.
- ssl-3 11mo ago
  Good question. I put the Shelly relay in a pre-existing junction box in the basement. Previously, this box worked like this: There were romex cables for power/neutral, lights, and the switch itself all inside of that box. The switch, located elsewhere, interrupted power to the lights. (This isn't necessarily the most-typical arrangement, but it's how it is in the house I've got.) Currently, the box works like this: We still have romex cables for power/neutral, lights, and the switch itself inside of that box. That part hasn't changed at all. But now the Shelly relay interrupts power to the lights. Thus, the lights are always controlled by software. And the light switch? That just provides an input that is acted upon by a software script. The script (which runs internally within the Shelly relay) only does 3 things: 1. If relay is on and switch toggles, turn relay off. 2. If relay is off and switch toggles, turn relay on. 3. If relay is turned on by any mechanism, start timer, and then turn off after timer expires. (Plus other useful timer mechanics like resets on additional toggling, but you get the idea.) --- It's easiest to think of a Shelly relay like a replacement for a light switch, but that's kind of a limiting way to think about it because that line of thought strongly implies that it should to be located where the switch is. And while it certainly can be installed that way, in practice it really doesn't have that limitation. For my unfinished basement, there's no neutral at the light switch location so using a regular smart switch didn't pan out. (I could have added a neutral but that would have meant using more parts and getting into some drywall and paint.) Instead, there's that neat (who am I kidding, it's a mess) junction box I that described, up on the ceiling where all of the things come together... So that's where I put the relay. Or: There's a box behind a light fixture (well, there "should" be anyway). Often, this box will have the same functions available inside that my junction box happened to have. Power, neutral, light(s), switch input. A relay can go there. But many houses do have neutral at the light switch location, so a relay can go there instead. Power/neutral feeds in, power for lights feeds out, with a switch (and/or relay!) in the middle. All in one accessible box on the wall. This matches the easy-to-think-of scenario. (IIRC all new homes are supposed to be this way in the US, but...) It's (usually!) just a matter of finding the right physical location in which to install the relay. (Note: None of this is intended to be an exhaustive list of variations. Things can and do get weird with household wiring, and regional variations of what "normal" means can vary quite tremendously.)
  - 11mo ago
Ruthalas 11mo ago
What are you using as your temperature sensors, if you don't mind?
- 05 11mo ago
  Not the GP, but any supported BLE sensor [0] with a Bluetooth proxy ESPHome node should work. [0] https://custom-components.github.io/ble_monitor/by_property#temperature https://custom-components.github.io/ble_monitor/by_property#...
- ssl-3 11mo ago
  You'll laugh, but: I'm using a Zigbee button from Samjin/Samsung/whoever-that-was which reads temperature, my Nest thermostat (via a convoluted-but-supported path to a remote API), and a couple of Amazon Echo Dot speakers (the integration of which is cursed, but it's easy to set up and usually works). I was going to try to score some cheap BLE temperature sensors and use the Shelly relay as a gateway to bring those into HA (yeah, it does that too), but then the big mystery ball of tariffs happened and I lost track of that idea.

tetris11 11mo ago

Same, it's so nice to throw together a yaml that pretty much does exactly what you want, with the only ambiguity being knowing the ins/outs of the pins. I'm just hoping it stays cheap as a hobby

madaxe_again 11mo ago

It just makes stuff so easy - I’ve been on an absolute spree lately, and have built out: Ultrasonic tank & river level monitors, with temperature compensation and a battery fuel gauge - managing to make a 3000mAh battery stretch almost a year. Some of the river monitors use LoRa. Remote control to stop/start the previously pull-start generator Gas bottle level monitors Made the coffee machine dangerous And my current project is seeing if I can make solar/battery powered LED bulbs that I can hang on trees and use BLE to make them automatically turn on some distance ahead of you as you walk down the long path through the forest, and turn off once you’ve passed. I only really got started a few months ago, and my approach is far more breadboards, DuPont cables and superglue, because I know damned well that the moment I go “ok I’m done let’s get a PCB” I’ll decide on a modification. Anyway. I don’t have enough good things to say about ESPHome. I get to save thousands of euros, and have fun at the same time. What’s not to like.

amelius 11mo ago

Just wait until Espressif gets some greedy shareholders/or some manager that needs a raise and then suddenly you're paying 30% to get your app into the ESP Store.

05 11mo ago
ESPHome isn't really Espressif exclusive, there's Beken support already, which most cheap Chinese IoT gadgets use nowadays. And there are 'made for esphome' products which is a safer bet than buying Sonoff and praying the ESP32 inside doesn't have its secure boot bits fused.
ihattendorf 11mo ago
ESPHome is owned by the same group as Home Assistant, not Espressif. So Espressif getting greedy would just mean higher prices for their chips (or they could lock down development on their chips, but that seems very unlikely).