General Home Automation / Home Assistant thread

[zoob]

Could also use ESPHome. It has BME680 support. Could probably set it on on an ESP8266 in a couple of minutes.

Gave that one a go but it doesn’t use BSEC library to calculate eCO2 or VOC unfortunately. The Bosch forum had some examples of linking in the precompiled library and through that I managed to get it sort of working.

Not sure why it’s not updating in HA unless it’s plugged into my PC or if I have the web server up (plugged into USB walladapter).

 

[lowfat]

Gave that one a go but it doesn’t use BSEC library to calculate eCO2 or VOC unfortunately. The Bosch forum had some examples of linking in the precompiled library and through that I managed to get it sort of working.

Not sure why it’s not updating in HA unless it’s plugged into my PC or if I have the web server up (plugged into USB walladapter).

View attachment 29245

You can add your own libraries and custom sensors to ESPHome.

ESPHome Core Configuration

Instructions for setting up the core ESPHome configuration.

esphome.io

Custom Sensor Component

Instructions for setting up Custom C++ sensors with ESPHome.

esphome.io

 

[zoob]

Yup that's what I was doing. Initially made a mistake by setting it up as a polling component instead of just looping and looping and using the sensor library call back to inform when a new reading is available. It's working now.

Here's the Pi running BSEC-Conduit vs ESPHome using the BSEC library. They're running pretty might adjacent to each other (on the same breadboard). The orange CO2_Level is the Wave Plus sensor in the basement.

 

[sswilson]

I've got a sneaking suspicion I asked this already, but don't remember the answer I got.....

Without using a dedicated hub of some form... can the action of a typical "wireless light switch" trigger another wireless switch?

I've got a floor lamp in my cave that I've currently got tied to a wireless switch and I yell at alexis to turn it on and off. OTOH, it'd be much better if I could install a wireless light switch for the main room lights if that could be made to turn on the floor lamp....

Any ideas, suggestions? (I don't really want to start getting into setting up an actual smart home hub..... ).

 

[lowfat]

I've got a sneaking suspicion I asked this already, but don't remember the answer I got.....

Without using a dedicated hub of some form... can the action of a typical "wireless light switch" trigger another wireless switch?

I've got a floor lamp in my cave that I've currently got tied to a wireless switch and I yell at alexis to turn it on and off. OTOH, it'd be much better if I could install a wireless light switch for the main room lights if that could be made to turn on the floor lamp....

Any ideas, suggestions? (I don't really want to start getting into setting up an actual smart home hub..... ).

Unlikely. Not without a controller.

Could be done w/ Node-Red easily enough if there are nodes for both devices.

 

[zoob]

What brand is the wireless switch that the lamp is plugged into?

Look into the Shelly 1 device. It's a small little Wifi relay 'switch' that you can install behind your existing light switch for the main room lights.
Your light switch be in a 3-way configuration (physical switch and Shelly 1 wifi switch), and you could use it to trigger the lamp wireless switch via IFTTT or Node-Red or something.

Shelly-1-x2 - The smallest Wi-Fi-operated relay switch.

shelly.cloud

It can also be flashed with Tasmota and ESPHome.

 

[sswilson]

It's a costco special... controller software is "Prime Wire" if that means anything.

I had a quick look at the shelly 1 and it doesn't look like it'd give me any more functionality than one of the replacement wireless switches, and would still require some kind of smart home hub which I'm really not interested in.

No biggie... just me being stuck in the industrial age.... I want mechanical switches to control remote plugs, not centralized voice hubs. I ran into the same kind of issue when I was on the hunt for a doorbell repeater that would take the electrical signal from my installed hardware and send a signal to a remote chime in the basement.... took quite a while to find the right product, and I got a lot of blank stares at hardware stores asking about it, but I did eventually find exactly the product I was looking for.

My google searches on "wireless plugs controlled by mechanical switches" show a lot of questions on the subject, but not a lot of answers....

(Maybe somebody should market a paired set???? ).

 

[zoob]

Looks like your "Prime Wire" is probably a Tuya device and can be flashed:
- https://community.home-assistant.io/t/brains-of-prime-wire-smart-outlets/152392/7

Run Tuya Convert to make it Tasmota
- https://tasmota.github.io/docs/Tuya-Convert/

Then make your wall switch (Shelly 1 with Tasmota) talk directly to the flashed Prime Wire/Tasmota plug via it's HTTP interface:
- https://community.home-assistant.io/t/sonoff-tasmota-without-mqtt-or-custom-components/142853

The replacement wireless switch may not be based on hardware that is customizable like Sonoff/Tasmota/ESPHome. With the Shelly 1 you can keep using your existing Decora Rocker or Toggle switch for the 'mechanical' control.

The Shelly 1 can handle your door chime problem as well, but curious if you would share the product you ended up with.

 

[sswilson]

Looks like your "Prime Wire" is probably a Tuya device and can be flashed:
- https://community.home-assistant.io/t/brains-of-prime-wire-smart-outlets/152392/7

Run Tuya Convert to make it Tasmota
- https://tasmota.github.io/docs/Tuya-Convert/

Then make your wall switch (Shelly 1 with Tasmota) talk directly to the flashed Prime Wire/Tasmota plug via it's HTTP interface:
- https://community.home-assistant.io/t/sonoff-tasmota-without-mqtt-or-custom-components/142853

The replacement wireless switch may not be based on hardware that is customizable like Sonoff/Tasmota/ESPHome. With the Shelly 1 you can keep using your existing Decora Rocker or Toggle switch for the 'mechanical' control.

The Shelly 1 can handle your door chime problem as well, but curious if you would share the product you ended up with.

Thanks I'll look into it.

This is the product I ended up finding (it's discontinued, but there's a replacement product to do the same thing).

Honeywell RPWL3045A1003/A Wireless Premium All-In-One Portable Door Chime

Honeywell Wireless Premium Portable converter/extender/push

www.honeywellstore.com

Basically, it's wired into my original doorbell and sends a signal to a remote chime (separate purchase) in the basement.

 

[zoob]

Had a problem with the ESPHome devices disconnecting from HA. Didn't fret too long before converting it to the same style MQTT as the Airthings stuff.

Rebuilt it using these two pieces of code:
BME680 code from kriznik - updated it to use ArduinoJson 6 and to build on the ESP32.
miaoski-esp8266co2 - code to read data from a SenseAir S8 NDIR CO2 sensor

The fake "eCO2" from the BME680 seems very sensitive compared to the real NDIR CO2 sensor on the SenseAir and reacts very strongly to my presence.. Basically made a DIY knock-off Airthings Wave Plus (without Radon) haha. These sensors can take several days to auto-calibrate so hopefully things come a bit more in line after a few weeks. Give me time to think about what type of enclosure to build haha.

Also installed a CircuitSetup Energy Meter kit. This kit uses an ESP32 and a custom board that accepts inputs from current transformers that you install into your electrical panel. I'm now thinking of switching to the 6 channel board instead... much cheaper than using ZWave energy monitoring plugs (like the Zooz Zen15) on dedicated appliances, like a washing machine, to determine states.

https://imgur.com/a/ugWSRoS