Inkbird and Home Automation

[Benfleet Brewery]

There’s a thread on the Domoticz forum for something similar if you want to take a look. Get sensor values with MQTT into Domoticz [Solved] - Domoticz

 

[ChilledGecko]

I use grafana / influxdb to monitor stuff in my household.
An impressive combination.

Great to hear you have it all running

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

glad to learn I'm not "the only geek in the village"

 

[jayk34]

Took me a while to decide on what to go with. This lot seemed to fit.

homeassistant.io - Was a good starting point but ended up being too complicated strangely enough! Its overall interface is great, but if you encounter any issues say - getting Node Red to behave or Mosquitto pub sub to work as intended I found I was limited in the online support available and it all was click and use through Home Assistant.

I wanted:
a way of tracking and logging things
a way of interacting with things
a way of interacting with things based on the tracking of other things
a way of presenting it all

Plenty of guides around I could reference if people are interested but its just a Pi 3b+ with Raspian Lite 32Gb SD (cos I'm probably going to end up with loads of things attached to it eventually).

Next up will be finding a suitable smart plug that lets me mod it for MQTT that's not going to break the bank and I will be looking to thread the Node Red automations and Spindel data to do something fancy

Yeah you're right about home assistant, i had it all setup nicely with all of my smart devices but the SD card crashed but I had backups. Then when I restored it there was a some sort of issue that I didn't really understand but that several other people were encountering where the server would go down and lose all connectivity, SSH, samba, supervisor, etc. Didn't really want to start from scratch again adding one add-on at a time to try to determine the issue.

Your setup sounds very good.

 

[uDicko]

Yeah you're right about home assistant, i had it all setup nicely with all of my smart devices but the SD card crashed but I had backups. Then when I restored it there was a some sort of issue that I didn't really understand but that several other people were encountering where the server would go down and lose all connectivity, SSH, samba, supervisor, etc. Didn't really want to start from scratch again adding one add-on at a time to try to determine the issue.

Your setup sounds very good.

So easy. Genuinely.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Whilst in logical terms it makes perfect sense to use 'ready-rolled' applications, I'm cursed by an obsession with writing all my own stuff from scratch - in 'C' and assembler. What a mug... but at least when it breaks I know who to blame

 

[IzzyWizzy666]

Took me a while to decide on what to go with. This lot seemed to fit.

homeassistant.io - Was a good starting point but ended up being too complicated strangely enough! Its overall interface is great, but if you encounter any issues say - getting Node Red to behave or Mosquitto pub sub to work as intended I found I was limited in the online support available and it all was click and use through Home Assistant.

I wanted:
a way of tracking and logging things
a way of interacting with things
a way of interacting with things based on the tracking of other things
a way of presenting it all

Plenty of guides around I could reference if people are interested but its just a Pi 3b+ with Raspian Lite 32Gb SD (cos I'm probably going to end up with loads of things attached to it eventually).

Next up will be finding a suitable smart plug that lets me mod it for MQTT that's not going to break the bank and I will be looking to thread the Node Red automations and Spindel data to do something fancy

On Amazon I get the Avatar smart plugs (you can get 4 for about £35 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07PHB9G2Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1), which I then Tasmotize so that I can use them with MQTT via Homeassistant.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Tasmotize so that I can use them with MQTT via Homeassistant.

Apologies if this is a stupid question or I've misunderstood, but a quick glance at HomeAssistant seems to suggest it has plugins to control Alexa / Google Home appliances like this directly?

 

[IzzyWizzy666]

Apologies if this is a stupid question or I've misunderstood, but a quick glance at HomeAssistant seems to suggest it has plugins to control Alexa / Google Home appliances like this directly?

True but that is over the cloud so not directly and certainly not local, whereas my solution is both :)

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

True but that is over the cloud so not directly and certainly not local, whereas my solution is both :)

got it. Ta!

 

[uDicko]

On Amazon I get the Avatar smart plugs (you can get 4 for about £35 - Smart Plug WiFi Ale xa Plugs Mini Outlet Wireless Socket 4 Pack Works with Ale xa/Google Home by Avatar Controls Remote Controlled Timer Energy Monitoring No Hub Required: Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools), which I then Tasmotize so that I can use them with MQTT via Homeassistant.

I bought two the other day to realise I can't flash them and work on MQTT. Fail. They will be someone's Christmas present

 

[JT_Brews]

I dabbled in this stuff a few years ago before I realised I'd spent many times the amount of time fiddling with it than it would ever save me and gave up (obviously that's not the only goal, if it interests you that's enough). Out of curiosity what other stuff (apart from beer) do you automate?

 

[uDicko]

At the moment nothing. I'm just dabbling when I have the time. Intention would be to measure soil moisture and greenhouse temperature with a view to doing something off the back.

Predominantly I want to get the measurement side of things done first as this interests me. Feeding into a platform that enables action from the measurement gives me scope for expansion later.

All just an interest which keeps me from spending too much money on other things

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

All just an interest which keeps me from spending too much money on other things

Amen to that :-)

 

[IzzyWizzy666]

I bought two the other day to realise I can't flash them and work on MQTT. Fail. They will be someone's Christmas present

Why couldn't you flash them?

 

[uDicko]

They are not listed on this site Plugs and Sockets - Templates for Tasmota

Bring on above would mean there is a wide support for firmware now and probably in the future. I've no idea what the gubbins is inside and what chipset it's based on and I'm definitely not confident or capable of figuring it out myself.

My own mistake for assuming they are all created equal. Upon researching if I can flash my plugs people have had issues.

 

[IzzyWizzy666]

OK, I see, that's why I posted a specific link for ones that do work and can be flashed - there are so many out there from different manufacturers with different s/w in them it can be very difficult to determine what you can use

 

[KimoraGregory]

Thanks a lot for your recommendations, guys. I highly appreciate your help. You know, I’ve recently started making a smart home out of mine. I think the time has come to make it real. Actually, I’ve always dreamed of having a home automation system. I’m not sure if I did the right thing, but I began by buying these smart plugs https://www.amazon.com/smart-plug-wifi-plugs-alexa/dp/B09KTYH3MJ. At least I'm no more afraid of forgetting to turn off the iron. I’d be extremely grateful for your guidance. Thanks in advance.