Hi all,
hope my question is not too stupid, but as I am new to OH and home automation at all, I need to ask
I have OH 2.4 running on my synology DS216j, no other smart devices yet. I am looking now for smart plugs to control some standalone lights just for on/off switching. I am confused about all the different protocols, but first requirement would be the following: Whatever technique they are using is fine as long as they are not communicating āhomeā to any internet server. I need them just inside my walls working, as I want to have everything centrally controlled via my OH on my diskstation.
So if there are any nice (cheap) wall plugs, which of these you can recommend for OH integration? I do not have any smart home control unit in place but have read some things about having a RaspPi with a controller unit additionally to my OH in order to control different protocols?
So summing up, I am looking for:
smart wall-plugins
option to have a central control unit (e.g. like CCU3 from homematic)
Any hint or link would be highly appreciated.
Thanks
If you intend to go for cheap plugs, look for Sonoff or Shelly plugs. Both communicate via WiFi and both use MQTT as a protokoll. Sonoff devices have to flashed, Shellies can be flashed to the opensource Tamota software in order to communicate only on your intranet.
For both there are lots of post in this forum.
As the needed controller, using openhab with those devices you would need a smartphone/tablet/PC.
Hello @shapoc,
If you would be ready to get a Zigbee usb dongle you could use the Innr or Osram Zigbee plugs. As those talk Zigbee they actually canāt talk to the internet directly but only to a Zigbee bridge. In your case that would be your openhab with the Zigbee binding.
You could also look at Zwave but in my experience the simple plugs tend to be more expensive there.
If you donāt want any dongle for additional protocols I would second the mqtt/tasmota approach.
Best regards Johannes
Replace the default ācloudā firmware with Tasmota to support MQTT and to give more options. This needs a USB serial cable and some trial and error, but the result is excellent.
OpenHABian works out of the box, however installing Tasmota and configuring MQTT take a little research. The effort is worth it, especially with the option to build you own modules using Ā£3 ESP8266 modules and Tasmota for sensors, switches, and displays.
As a start, get a RaspberryPi, install OpenHABian and explore the web interface. After that, you can pick any protocol (Z-Wave, MQTT, Zigbee, Ikeaās own, etc) by adding software or a USB interface.
For more detail, thereās several threads in this forum about avoiding using āsomeone elseās computerā otherwise known as āthe cloudā. These options all include direct local control from device to controller.
I agree with what the others have said, but that doesnāt exactly help you narrow down options.
I think the cheapest out-of-the-box solution (no firmware flashing) is to look for any wifi plug that OH can control directly over your network. I believe thatās the case with the TP-Link Kasa and Belkin Wemo plugs, and there are likely others. You can then deny the plugs Internet access via your router. Personally, I prefer the Kasas for being cheaper and more reliable than Wemos.
The nice thing about wifi plugs is that if they work with OH now, theyāre almost certainly going to work with OH in the future. So, you have the luxury of starting small and having time to think about what devices/protocols youāll want to add in the future. As for those protocols, I also think that OH on a Raspberry Pi with a USB Z-Wave or Zigbee dongle is a good solution, because it enables you to integrate devices across any protocol. You just need to ensure that thereās a binding available.
1 here for the TP Link Kasa plugs. Iāve got 6, (keep your eye on amazon and Argos as they do 3 for 2 on these plugs regularly).
They just work, quick and easy to set up and OH has a binding for it, integration is great and they have a button on the plug to manually turn on / off as well.
My only slight gripe is that they are a little big but then most others are the same size.
Hi all, first of all thanks for the great feedback. I think I really start up with the WIFI TP Link plugs as it seems the most straight forward solution. Also I like the Sonoff solution with some flashing I will maybe come to that point later.
Thanks so far.
1 Like
MDAR
(Stuart Hanlon, UK importer of Velbus hardware)
9
Iāve just bought my first HS100 TP-Link smart socket and I must say that Iām rather impressed with it.
The 70+meg app is a little too big for my taste, but once I had setup the HS100 onto my WiFi and removed itās internet privilege in my router, I didnāt need the app any more (Iāve deleted it completely)
I have a HS100 TP-Link smart plug as well and am pleased with how it works. In fact, I brought a second one but havenāt used it yet. Works well with OpenHAB.
Hi all,
jsut to sum up the topic, I have bought a pack of 3 of TP-Link HS100 plugs, configured them via the KASA app (which is really strange and forces you to create an account, but works as well without, so I skipped it). After that, auto-discover the things in OH and added them manually to my config files (things, items, sitemap). And working as expected.
So thanks so for for this easy-to-go first solution. Next one will then be to try out the sonoff plugs and flashing them, depending on free-time
Good stuff. Coming back to your original question, did you also deny them Internet access via your router? I debated doing that, since I could just add them to Google Home via the OH cloud connector instead of the TP-Link service. However, I like the idea that I can still voice-control my lights even if OH is offline.
MDAR
(Stuart Hanlon, UK importer of Velbus hardware)
13
Just a thoughtā¦
You may confuse your voice system (Alexa / Google etc) if the same (IOT) thing has 2 ways of controlling it.
I havenāt tried this, so this is just a thought.
Ah, thatās a good clarification. None of my TP-Link items are exposed to the OH cloud, so they donāt show up twice in Google Home. Iām only using OH cloud to voice-control my system flags (e.g. turn on Away Mode) and my Belkin Wemo Maker (since Belkin couldnāt be bothered to add it to GH).
Iād only expose the TP-Link devices if I blocked their Internet access and stopped using the TP-Link cloud service in GH.
I suppose you could get away with having both if you made sure that GH had different names for each instance of a device, but I donāt know what the point of that would be.
The TP link ones are good (enough) for measuring power and controlling as a switch. I only use them where they canāt be seen as theyāre quite bulky.
They also work without being connected to the internet. If you do block them though they get quite chatty trying to call home.
All my IoT kit is on a different SSID and I use Pi-Hole. Here is one of the tplinks getting upset.
Would the traffic be enough to impact your wifi quality if you only had one SSID? I imagine that could be the case if you had a lot of devices firing off requests every 15 seconds and getting blocked.
I agree that the HS100s are bulky compared to US plugs, but the newer HS105s are decent size. You can fit two of them next to each other.
Of course, as soon as you add a smart plug then whatever youāre plugging into it will come that much further out of the wall, and sometimes that can be annoying.
