Share your automations

[theironhorse99]

Thanks @theironhorse99 and @NT40 for the clarification.

Is there a way to link a thermostat to the smart plug so that the dumb geyser shuts off at the required temp? If yes, how to ensure that the thermostat is indeed gets the right values from the geyser?

measure the time once with a timer to check how long it usually takes for the geyser to reach the desired temp you prefer, covert min to seconds and that's your timer, old school way of doing but works.

otherwise the smart plug is just a device outside the geyser ecosystem , irrespective of the load connected to it you are just using the timer and smart features.

my geyser scenario is different , for me it was more about forgetting turning off geyser after bath hence wastage of power so i have a 25 mins times , in that 25 mins 2 people can finish the shower and even if we forget the geyser turns off, even if it takes more than 25 mins for 2/3 people to take shower the water inside has already reached the needed temperature for a family of 3 hence no need to turn on geyser again,

worst case scenario middle of bath if geyser is needed again its just an alexa call away.

 

[aasimenator]

My automations are not yet complete, but I have about 30 Sonoff Mini's yet to be connected throughout the house, 3 x HP ProDesk 600 G3 Tiny all in a Proxmox Cluster running multiple VM's and Docker images, 1 x HP Z240 running TrueNAS Core for my Media, etc.
The only working automation I currently have running is playing Azan at the correct prayer time each day throughout the house with 2 MI Google Home Speakers I got.

I am planning to get everything up and running shortly.

 

[Ankit2306]

Not sure about the article , but i believe you can link the thermostat with smart plug via IFTTT

 

[rdst_1]

Thanks @theironhorse99 and @NT40 for the clarification.

Is there a way to link a thermostat to the smart plug so that the dumb geyser shuts off at the required temp? If yes, how to ensure that the thermostat is indeed gets the right values from the geyser?

Geysers already have built-in thermostats.

 

[skoka123]

Not to sound rude, but that sounds like a weird use case. One would switch on the geyser when they need to take a bath. Usually one would switch the geyser on in the morning when they wake up and then on use case basis rest of the day.
We use hot water all day, so we just keep it switched on and let the thermostat do the job. But when we were in hotter climate, we would only switch on the geyser in the morning or whenever we wanted to take a bath.

Exactly my point. I am still not clear about the use case. What has the Geyser got to do with the outside temperature especially when Geysers come with a thermostat? Are you using your Geyser to heat your room like a radiator room heater?

 

[NT40]

Exactly my point. I am still not clear about the use case. What has the Geyser got to do with the outside temperature especially when Geysers come with a thermostat? Are you using your Geyser to heat your room like a radiator room heater?

This use case is more applicable for old storage water heaters, which take some time to supply hot water, unlike the latest tankless water heaters. a) One don't have to get up on a cold winter morning before time just to power-on the geyser. b) with storage heater water cools down within the tank and then again geyser ignites to get water to a desired temperature.. as most of the time geysers are outside, water within the tank cools fast. Hence the cycle of on/off continues resulting wastage of energy. c) most of the time the geyser thermostat is not well calibrated

 

[gourav]

I have dabbled with automation and given up, mostly. I'm surprised to see posts of people having 40-50 devices controlled over wi-fi. Guess it just works differently for different people.

I started with two smart lights, put one each in my drawing room and bedroom. When I was living alone, I could swap them with one command, so I wouldn't leave one running accidentally. That was helpful. But when I got married, it became problematic.

Alexa is also very unreliable. I got a fire stick recently. When I tried turning on my TV, half the time it wouldn't understand me correctly. Changing the colours of the lights is nigh impossible. Theoretically it works, because it has happened once or twice, but mostly it just keeps saying the setting is not supported. It got frustrating to the point that I stopped using Alexa and I now operate my lights as normal lights and find that it's much easier that way.

The only automation I have now is that when I say Good night to my Alexa, it dims my bedroom light and changes it to crimson colour and turns off the smart plug connected to my TV/AVR. Then it switches on the TV automatically at 8 AM. That's all.

 

[theironhorse99]

I have dabbled with automation and given up, mostly. I'm surprised to see posts of people having 40-50 devices controlled over wi-fi. Guess it just works differently for different people.

I started with two smart lights, put one each in my drawing room and bedroom. When I was living alone, I could swap them with one command, so I wouldn't leave one running accidentally. That was helpful. But when I got married, it became problematic.

Alexa is also very unreliable. I got a fire stick recently. When I tried turning on my TV, half the time it wouldn't understand me correctly. Changing the colours of the lights is nigh impossible. Theoretically it works, because it has happened once or twice, but mostly it just keeps saying the setting is not supported. It got frustrating to the point that I stopped using Alexa and I now operate my lights as normal lights and find that it's much easier that way.

The only automation I have now is that when I say Good night to my Alexa, it dims my bedroom light and changes it to crimson colour and turns off the smart plug connected to my TV/AVR. Then it switches on the TV automatically at 8 AM. That's all.

i am nearning 60+ devices and will end up almost 100 in next 2 months ( shelly 2.5, shelly PM1, smart sockets, smart weather stations and more) never had issue. yes alexa does gets confused but if you simplify the names i dont see an issue. seems to be running fine for me.

 

[gourav]

i am nearning 60+ devices and will end up almost 100 in next 2 months ( shelly 2.5, shelly PM1, smart sockets, smart weather stations and more) never had issue. yes alexa does gets confused but if you simplify the names i dont see an issue. seems to be running fine for me.

I guess there are various factors. My surroundings are reasonably noisy, so maybe that confuses it. Or maybe my accent is different. Not sure.

The names for me were "bulb", "tubelight", "plug", and "fire tv". Couldn't simplify more.

Also, my house is pretty small, so I didn't see much benefit.

 

[superczar]

I have dabbled with automation and given up, mostly. I'm surprised to see posts of people having 40-50 devices controlled over wi-fi. Guess it just works differently for different people.

I started with two smart lights, put one each in my drawing room and bedroom. When I was living alone, I could swap them with one command, so I wouldn't leave one running accidentally. That was helpful. But when I got married, it became problematic.

Alexa is also very unreliable. I got a fire stick recently. When I tried turning on my TV, half the time it wouldn't understand me correctly. Changing the colours of the lights is nigh impossible. Theoretically it works, because it has happened once or twice, but mostly it just keeps saying the setting is not supported. It got frustrating to the point that I stopped using Alexa and I now operate my lights as normal lights and find that it's much easier that way.

The only automation I have now is that when I say Good night to my Alexa, it dims my bedroom light and changes it to crimson colour and turns off the smart plug connected to my TV/AVR. Then it switches on the TV automatically at 8 AM. That's all.

You are right in that there are a lot of variables involved from one setup to another.

Having said that, there are enough and more people globally and plenty people locally (with an Indian accent) who rely on voice commands to manage a very large (50-100) set of nodes with a high degree of accuracy.
Speaking for myself, close to 100 end-points with a degree of accuracy thats good enough for say the house help to ask Siri (homepod) to switch off the bedroom fan on a daily basis when she comes around for cleaning.
Between the automation rules and voice commands, it’s been a very long time (years in fact) since any of us used physcial actuations for home control.

If there is one (make it two) thing i would say, the most important thing to do when you take the plunge ot go this route is to ensure that a) your home network is super stable/reliable and b) your automation design/plan is well thought through

 

[senpaidev]

You must have an amazing router / network set up if you are having 40 - 50 devices. How do you manage them? @theironhorse99

 

[theironhorse99]

You must have an amazing router / network set up if you are having 40 - 50 devices. How do you manage them? @theironhorse99

i have 4 ubiquity AP- AC -LR access points across the house, each access point is designed for 400 devices and 1Gbps wifi throughput on dual band. i am not even consuming 5 % of their actual throughput in terms of device connections and wifi speed output .

the devices are gradually increasing with 60+ shelly devices + smart tv's + wipro smart bulb + robo vaccum + air purifier on wifi, soon will be adding some smart plugs , some door sensors and motion sensor to trigger some actions. another 2-3 months and i will be at 100+ devices working seamlessly.

 

[imran_chennai]

I've recently ventured into making my life a little more convenient with automation via Google Home. Started with a Google Home Mini to play music and set timers without interacting with the phone. Over the course of a month, it has evolved into a more substantial setup with home routines and auto timers for devices. I control all of these via the Google Home App or over the nest minis.

• Archer C60 Router for rock-solid coverage in a small space
• 2X Google Nest Mini (Bedroom, Hall-Kitchen) - Play music, set timers, call via Duo, and control all other smart appliances
• 1X Iffalcon K31 Android TV - Play a slideshow of uploaded photos
• 2X Zunpulse Smart LED Bulb - Main lighting duties (Poor non-white colors, the brightness of whites is excellent, better than Mi Bulbs)
• 2 X Mi Smart LED Bulb - Accent lighting (Has comparatively bright non-white colors)
• 1X 6A Realme Smart switch - for Mosquito Vaporiser Machine, scheduled on and off
• 1X 16A Zunpulse Smart switch - for Water Heater for remote operation and timer functions.

Overall, the voice commands work 9 times out of 10 and the schedules are spot on. My only complaint is that I had to install 3 different apps to get these to sync to the Google Home App. Might eventually replace it with the "Smart Life - Smart Living" app from the Google Playstore.

 

[senpaidev]

i have 4 ubiquity AP- AC -LR access points across the house, each access point is designed for 400 devices and 1Gbps wifi throughput on dual band. i am not even consuming 5 % of their actual throughput in terms of device connections and wifi speed output .

the devices are gradually increasing with 60+ shelly devices + smart tv's + wipro smart bulb + robo vaccum + air purifier on wifi, soon will be adding some smart plugs , some door sensors and motion sensor to trigger some actions. another 2-3 months and i will be at 100+ devices working seamlessly.

Are you secretly Linus from LTT He did a similar network setup on his new house. I assume you are having multiple hubs to control them.

 

[theironhorse99]

Are you secretly Linus from LTT He did a similar network setup on his new house. I assume you are having multiple hubs to control them.

you could use ubiquity hardware controller else software controller, i used software controller and need to fire it up only when configuration changes are needed.
so there is no hub at this point of time, straight from gigabit router to POE to Access points. i will be increasing the access points as well in near future to add one in parking and one in terrace as i plan to make my HT/bar room on top and would be added a 8 port unmanaged gigabit switch then.

 

[Mumbgamer]

I have added a few smart devices.
1. 2 mi smart lights( meh. The app is buggy, doesn't connect with the bulbs. Have to re add after sometime).
2. Tp link smart bulb - Good, very bright,even the non white colours. Mi's non white colours are dim. Works offline too
3. Raspberry pi - Running pihole + unbound, openmediavault for nas and for downloads

Was looking to add some smart switches like the sonoff ones. Are they available locally to checkout and possibly at lower cost? Any other brands recommended for such products?
@theironhorse99 How are these smart switches installed? At switchboard end or the fan/light end? Are you running home assistant or something similar?

 

[theironhorse99]

I have added a few smart devices.
1. 2 mi smart lights( meh. The app is buggy, doesn't connect with the bulbs. Have to re add after sometime).
2. Tp link smart bulb - Good, very bright,even the non white colours. Mi's non white colours are dim. Works offline too
3. Raspberry pi - Running pihole + unbound, openmediavault for nas and for downloads

Was looking to add some smart switches like the sonoff ones. Are they available locally to checkout and possibly at lower cost? Any other brands recommended for such products?
@theironhorse99 How are these smart switches installed? At switchboard end or the fan/light end? Are you running home assistant or something similar?

sonoff i beieve is locally available and so are some other rebandged ones, i haave shelly devices which were hand carried by friend for me and few other houses. all of these devices like shelly/sonoff etc sit behind the switch boar panels, it does gets a bit tight but you can squeeze them in , then we need to rewire them, live, neutral will then go to these switches and then physical switches. this way you have physical on/off working + ( phone app/alexa/google home) working in parallel.

the reason I took shelly is for the stats, macro capacity, app interface it offers. however now there are many local brands offering the same stuff too.
all these then connect to wifi and you are sorted, just hidden inside the switch board panels.

I have added a few smart devices.
1. 2 mi smart lights( meh. The app is buggy, doesn't connect with the bulbs. Have to re add after sometime).
2. Tp link smart bulb - Good, very bright,even the non white colours. Mi's non white colours are dim. Works offline too
3. Raspberry pi - Running pihole + unbound, openmediavault for nas and for downloads

Was looking to add some smart switches like the sonoff ones. Are they available locally to checkout and possibly at lower cost? Any other brands recommended for such products?
@theironhorse99 How are these smart switches installed? At switchboard end or the fan/light end? Are you running home assistant or something similar?

I have added a few smart devices.
1. 2 mi smart lights( meh. The app is buggy, doesn't connect with the bulbs. Have to re add after sometime).
2. Tp link smart bulb - Good, very bright,even the non white colours. Mi's non white colours are dim. Works offline too
3. Raspberry pi - Running pihole + unbound, openmediavault for nas and for downloads

Was looking to add some smart switches like the sonoff ones. Are they available locally to checkout and possibly at lower cost? Any other brands recommended for such products?
@theironhorse99 How are these smart switches installed? At switchboard end or the fan/light end? Are you running home assistant or something similar?

also keep one important thing in mind that a few wifi devices are fine but if you want to scale up the number of devices something like 10+ ( i am nearning 70 and will reach 100+ soon) , your normal home routers wont be able to take the load as these devices need to be up 24x7 hencer invest in good routers/access point and build a good wifi network first.

 

[Chronovare]

you could use ubiquity hardware controller else software controller, i used software controller and need to fire it up only when configuration changes are needed.
so there is no hub at this point of time, straight from gigabit router to POE to Access points. i will be increasing the access points as well in near future to add one in parking and one in terrace as i plan to make my HT/bar room on top and would be added a 8 port unmanaged gigabit switch then.

Hello @theironhorse99

If you don't have a controller running 24x7, doesn't that mean any guest network created won't remember the password and becomes an open network. I read you should always keep IOT in a separate network with no internet access so was curios about your IOT devices setup.

 

[theironhorse99]

Hello @theironhorse99

If you don't have a controller running 24x7, doesn't that mean any guest network created won't remember the password and becomes an open network. I read you should always keep IOT in a separate network with no internet access so was curios about your IOT devices setup.

you don't need controller running 24x7 only when you need to make changes unless you need to provide guest access/ limit controls on the fly for multiple people for short term usage.
for IOT needs to connect to internet as it wont work just on local network. it needs firmware upgrades, access remote from anywhere in the globe hence internet is needed, you can always run a dedicated SSID.

Hello @theironhorse99

If you don't have a controller running 24x7, doesn't that mean any guest network created won't remember the password and becomes an open network. I read you should always keep IOT in a separate network with no internet access so was curios about your IOT devices setup.

with access points you can have as many as SSID possible. also i run just 1 guest network with bandwidth limitation and fixed password . rest entire setup is just for speed, IOT, and home wide coverage and also that there is no drop zone, you can work on VPN inside and outside the house while moving without any drop as the access points keep doing soft handover to each other.

 

[Chronovare]

you don't need controller running 24x7 only when you need to make changes unless you need to provide guest access/ limit controls on the fly for multiple people for short term usage.
for IOT needs to connect to internet as it wont work just on local network. it needs firmware upgrades, access remote from anywhere in the globe hence internet is needed, you can always run a dedicated SSID.

with access points you can have as many as SSID possible. also i run just 1 guest network with bandwidth limitation and fixed password . rest entire setup is just for speed, IOT, and home wide coverage and also that there is no drop zone, you can work on VPN inside and outside the house while moving without any drop as the access points keep doing soft handover to each other.

Thanks for the info.
I am thinking have getting U6-LR, if you don't mind sharing, how easy is it to create and manage multiple SSID's and what kind of speed you get with VPN on?