Best Camera and other hardware options?

I am just getting into home automation. I was curious what everyone has had the best success with on setting up a home with Cameras. From searching, it seems you have to use custom firmware, etc. What is the most recommended? Is there a list of best supported hardware? I want to do my entire home:

1.) Lights
2.) Cameras
3.) Thermostat - EcoBee ?
4.) Garage Door
5.) Outlets
6.) Voice control. (Example, lights on )

What’s best will depend on what you want to do, what skills/time you have to put in and what your budget is.

For me, I have z-wave lights and sockets from various manufactures. It’s not as cheap as sonofs - for example- but it suits me for what i use them for.

The nest thermostat works for me, although it does leek some data about me to the cloud.

I use onvif compatible cameras without specific firmware and they do what I need.

I guess for me, the more detail you give of your needs / wants, the more helpful replies can be. Alternatively there are several threads historically that address the same basic point.

Thank you. I don’t want to spend a lot. I wasn’t sure where the hardware support list is. I’ve been an IT engineer for 20 years, so I’m good with command line, hardware, etc. I just don’t have time to spend hours and hours to get something to work. I like how nest looks and the Yale locks but my goal is to control everything from one interface

Start small. Don’t try to design it all up front or feel you have to have the right technology right away. Home automation is a journey and the destination you start out heading towards may not be the same destination once you get half way there.

There are rare cases where you need to replace firmware, namely Sonoff and certain Zigbee coordinators, but for the most part almost everything will work stock.

  1. I recommend against smart bulbs unless you cannot access the wires and install smart switches instead. Zwave is one of the more popular options with some Zigbee, Xiaomi, Sonoff, etc also being popular. I always recommend you want your automation to fail like an escalator. Even a broken escalator can still be used as stairs (conceptually, I know in practice they don’t let people do that). You can’t do that with smart bulbs because you can’t turn them on remotely if you’ve turned off the switch.

  2. You can get events and put the video streams on your OH UIs, but for the most part you will want to install something else to handle the cameras. Zoneminder, EyeSpy, and Shinobi seem to be popular.

  3. Were I to do it over I’d get an EcoBee. I have a Nest (1st Gen I think) and am happy with it.

  4. There are several Wifi or Zwave options available. I went the DIY route with an RPi, relays, reed sensors, and a RPi camera.

  5. I use a combination of Zwave in wall outlets, Zwave appliance outlets, and Sonoff basics inline with some short extension cables. I mainly use the non-inwall controllers to drive Christmas lights and on an adhoc as needed basis.

  6. I use Google Assistant. Lots of people use Alexa. There is support for Mycroft and others. Unless you roll your own with Mycroft or the like the voice commands will probably be somewhat awkward in practice. For example, without setting up a custom routine I would have to say “OK Google, turn on garage door 1” instead of “OK Google, open garage door 1”. And even with the custom routine, the response is “Got it, turning on garage door 1”.

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