Home Automation Database - Website

Organisation Misc
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Good afternoon,

my name is Daniel and I’m new to this forum. I’m not a openHAB user but I do my Home Automations with Home Assistant.

Because of growing amount of devices and (in)compatibilities with the different HA Systems, I had the idea to create an online “database” of devices that are compatible with Home Assistant - together with as many background infos as possible (technical specifications, manuals, …).

The database is at the very beginning - most of the stuff was collected “offline” in the past and I need to transform it into the website content now…

As a lot of devices are used with numerous systems, I thought to extend the compatibility information to Domoticz, openHAB and so on.

I know that there are a lot of websites out there that have (some) of the infos already. And a lot of things are discussed in forums like that. But wouldn’t it be nice to have one “go to” source instead of searching the web or reading pages of forum discussions? I thought that maybe the infos discussed here can be integrated into my website once there is a solution?

I’m interested what people are thinking who use different Home Automation Systems…

Oh yeah, here is the link to the “under construction” website!

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This comes up rather frequently on this forum. You are the first person who has done more than just whine that such a web site doesn’t exist and actually try to build one. I wish you all the luck.

But in my experience, such websites end up being out of date pretty much as soon as it is created and will never be complete. I don’t know anything about Home Assistant, but OH has support for around 350 technologies and APIs. Each one potentially supports hundreds or thousands of devices (e.g. Zwave, Zigbee, Knx). Some are general purpose like HTTP, Exec, TCP/UDB, MQTT, and Serial which can be used to access many devices and services that do not have a separate binding.

For example, in a few lines of config I was able to connect my home automation with the Nightscout server I’m running. There is no Nightscout binding, I’m just using the HTTP binding. So would Nightscout be one of the services listed in this database?

I really appreciate that you are putting effort in rather than just whining about it. I really really appreciate that you are including our community in your effort. I know we tend to be a bit insular here which is probably to our detriment. I remember coming across a comment on a Reddit thread that said “today I learned people are still using openHAB.” This forum is the center of our community so people outside of this forum do not realize that not only is OH still around but it is rapidly growing.

But I’m not overly optimistic that the effort required to populate such a website will ever be enough to catchup let along keep up with the many new devices being added to both platforms every day.

But, to get started, there is the zwave database which our zwave binding currently uses. Though if you have a zwave device not yet in the database, we can get it added and supported in a couple of days. So ALL zwave devices can be supported now or within a couple of days.

The way we handle this particular problem is it is a requirement for the binding authors to provide a list of the devices that are known to work with their binding, if the binding doesn’t support all the devices for that technology. So you or someone can browse through the add-on readmes and if it has a list of devices known to work add those to the website and if not, add ALL the devices that use that technology. How to get the list of all the devices is an exercise left to the student. :wink:

I wish you the best of luck! And if you know of other areas where our two communities can collaborate or synergies I’m certain there are plenty here who would be happy to work with Home Assistant to make it happen.

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Hey Rich,

thanks for the feedback - I really appreciate it.

Yeah, I know that it is some work to a) build the initial website and then b) to maintain it.

Is there anything “openHAB specific” that I could include? Like the info I add specifically for Home Assistant (like the link to the component page)?

Thanks,
Daniel

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I don’t see a “Components” page and a search for “Home Assistant” only brought up the individual devices you have added. I’m not seeing that page.

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If you open the detail page and scroll down, you can see a “Home Assistant Information” block. I add the information when the device was added to Home Assistant, which component you need and then a link to the component information page.

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Oh, you are asking about OH sprcific information for the devices you have already added? I don’t use any of these devices or technologies so I don’t have anything to add.

The MiHome Binding supports a number of Xiaomi devices but it requires a Xiaomi gateway. They use some non-standard modifications to the Zigbee protocol that makes the generic Zigbee binding unable to utilize the device’s full capabilities.

The Yeelight binding should support the bulbs. There are some instructions for how to set the bulbs up before the binding can control them.

Because OH is constantly adding and improving the devices and how they are supported, it would probably be best to link to the binding or bindings that support the device rather than duplicating information.

For example, if someday the Yeelight binding developers figure out a way to control the bulbs without first enabling developer mode (or what ever) that will be documented in the binding readme but I doubt anyone will remember to update that information on your website too. Plus we have a strong emphasis on not duplicating documentation anyway.

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ditto!

By the way, @hadb: Take a look at the experiences from https://www.cd-jackson.com/index.php/zwave/zwave-device-database

In my opinion, it is extremely difficult to maintain a database with the scope that you are planning for.

You need to consider 2 things:

  1. Open it up so that people can submit data (and you can review & approve them = that’s a full time job btw)
  2. Wordpress may not be the best tool for the job. Do some research on database back-end options and think about your RDBMS model first. Then, you can choose a presentation layer that can display stuff and also allows public data input.
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Funny! Was that on my post on /r/homeautomation ? I was definitely taken aback by that at first, but that subreddit is basically a Home Assistant community forum, so it’s understandable.

@hadb - definitely love the idea and am all for it! But, like Rich and Angelos stated, it will be a full-time job (even if you allow editing by the community), and there are so many new devices that enter the scene every day, that keeping it up to date will be impossible.

That said, you can take some shortcuts. Basically, anything that HA supports that’s driven by MQTT, will also be supported by openHAB. For example, I came across the HA-Switchplate project recently while watching Dr Zzz’s videos, and while that device was designed with Home Assistant in mind, the fact it’s controlled via MQTT means I can (and am) easily integrate it into my openHAB configuration. As Rich also stated, Chris Jackson’s Zwave database is a great resource you could probably directly import into your database (maybe updated automatically), to show all the different Zwave devices that openHAB binding supports.

The remainder of devices will have to be manually updated or “validated” by the community…

Good luck!

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Yep, that’s the one. I only happened across it because I was searching for something else. I can’t remember what any more, probably for some of you videos an OH basics. I was taken aback by that response too and it has caused me to think about it a lot. Knowing that the subreddit is mostly HA the comment makes a little more sense.

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