Hey guys, I‘m just starting with my smart home project, and I‘m curious for the long road of smart things/possibilities.
I bought a new Raspi 5 / 8GB RAM and imaged the latest OpenHab 4. My WLan-Router is a FritzBox 6690 (AVM)
Now I‘m faced with the choice of smart home providers.
What I want to do/first scenarios in my mind:
- Window-Sensors:
I already have some Tuya Window-Sensors and know the basic problem of integrating them into OpenHab. I read something about Tasmota …, what do you think of that, does this work? and where do I find a good instruction therefore? I think I‘ll try that way before buying new ones.
But what kind of Windowsensors can you recommend?
- Foot Mat:
My plan is to lay a foot mat (for ex. [something like this>](https://VisorTech Alarmtrittmatte: Batteriebetriebene Klingel-Trittmatte mit Alarmfunktion (Klingelmatte, Alarmfussmatte, Schmutzfangmatte))) under the carpets beside the bed, so when you stand on it (only at night) a led-stripe will go on.
Therefore I need something that takes the signal of the mat and sends it to the Raspi/Openhab, since I think there is no such mat, that can directly send a signal what is useful for me. I found a video, where a guy connected the wires of the foot mat to a aqara Watersensor. But then I‘ll of course need the aqara hub. what do you think how this could be done??
-Heating:
I also want to use radiator termostats.
In general I‘m not sure, what provider I should choose. Since I have a AVM router I could buy some products from them. They work with the DECT ULE standard, so the Fritz!Box is the Hub. Have anybody already tried AVM products in combination with OpenHab?
Theres’s a binding for Tuya devices, but you have to add it from a third-party marketplace. With the Tuya binding, you don’t need to worry about flashing Tasmota, which has gotten harder to do over the past few years.
I think this would also work with Tuya radiator valves, but I’m not certain since I don’t have any.
Battery-powered Tuya WiFi devices will be offline most of the time to conserve power, then hop onto WiFi to report or check in daily. So, there can be some latency which may or may not bother you.
If you replace your existing sensors, I’m really impressed with IKEA’s new PARASOLL contact sensors. I’m of the opinion that Zigbee is the best choice for Battery-powered sensors at this time.
You can also get Zigbee radiator valves from Tuya.
Don’t get an Aqara hub. Many Aqara devices are Zigbee, and will theoretically work with a Zigbee controller…but they’re sometimes difficult. I struggled with their contact sensors and returned them. Others have had more luck.
Personally, I’d just mount motion sensors under your bed. The PARASOLL link I gave above also talks about VALLHORN motion sensors that would do just fine. This also has the benefit of requiring a heat signature, so dropping something on the floor won’t trigger your lights.
Radiator Control
The Shelly TRVs respond really fast and you don’t have to worry about batteries, as they are rechargeable. Battery life is excellent, needed to recharge my first TRV after over a year.
Door/Window contacts
Impressed by the new bluetooth devices, as they are so tiny, they fit into the door/window frame. I also controll my rollershutters with Shelly 2.5 Plus devices, which act as the bluetooth gateway for the contacts.
I can only agree with @hmerk for the shelly devices.
Arround 40 shelly devices are directly integrated in the Openhab at my production system, based on an Raspberry 5. There is an own Shelly binding which is continues developed here from @markus7017 for each new product which comes to the market.
For the “foot mat”, you can also use an Shelly 1 plus, which has an “input switch” e.g. with 12v from an classic doorbell trafo. When the contact is closed by the signal from your foot mate (you need to find out how), this could start in openhab an “rule” and trigger what ever you want as an actor from an other shelly, e.g. for light, alarmsystem, etc, etc.
I use this kind of princip for my outdoor rain sensor. The KEMO m152k (12V) closes the contact from the Shelly1. This is recordnized from Openhab and send via a “rule” to the awning from the wintergarten
and the terrace to close them. It works, and works, and works…
The Pi5 is a great device for openhab. Really fast and responsive. Nice for development too.
Shellys have lots of functions and are perfectly suited for home automation enthusiasts
For battery driven sensors I prefer zigbee as the power demand is very low so that batteries last very long
but for TRVs I switched from zigbee (tried half a dozen of them) to Shelly due to the recharging functionality, the better acoustic and the better mechanics.
Only could find really expensive door/window contacts that completely vanish in the window frame. Those come with non replaceable batteries. The Shelly bluetooth contacts are powered by a replaceable CR2032 battery.
yes, a good point: Shelly Bluetooth is a great alternative for low energy devices. You need one or more Shelly Plus device nearby so that i they can act as gateways
I use zigbee for smoke, water and temperature sensors. My window sensors belong to the alarm system which is connected to openhab. But I’m going to try the Shellies, too. Curious if they really fit into the window frame.
That’s what I love most about the PARASOLLs. They’re long and skinny, and while the sensor has to be thick enough for the AAA battery, the magnet is very thin and works from either side or the front. It offers a ton of flexibility for mounting.
