Hi everyone I’m dipping my toes into the the water of home automation,
I have little knowledge about how it all works so I would like to get some advice and assistance,
I have installed OH on a Windows machine using PaperUI I have also started adding some widgets to habpannel sorted some bindings NTP, KODI , ASTRO & Weather ,Samsung tv ect…
I have not got any devices to controll sockets and lights at the moment and was looking for some tips here. (I don’t want to spend £40 a socket and can’t do any modification as this is not my house)
What are you all using in your system for lights , sockets , door sensors ect ?
How easy is it to intergrated something like in this video
That depends on the hardware you want to buy and your skills.
To build the shown transmitter you need to wire the small transmitter peace to the other board. If you are hesitating to do things like that you can buy a complete so called CUL-stick from busware. de, look yourself if you want to spent that much.
Everything else just depends o the sockets you have. In my house I use rf-sockets that are over 25 years old with my OH installation.
Thanks for a reply my knowledge of coding ect is pretty much non existent I am efficient using a Windows machine and don’t mind some hard work I just can’t afford the prices for things like wemo and hue
[EDIT] I have just looked at the product you mentioned it actually looks like a cleaner solution than the one in the video, how are you controlling your RF Sockets?
The sockets are very cheap, this CUL-stick however does have a bigger price, so it is up to you, either DI or spend the money . But you only need one CUL-stick.
I think I’ll be standardising on Sonoff devices for my 240v mains switching needs. There’s a variety of different types, the Sonoff Basic is very low cost for on/off switching (needs to be wired inline), but there’s also the TH range (which allows temperature/humidity readings to be taken as well), and the S20 is a pass-through plug (similar to the RF ones linked), and there’s one with 4 switched outputs too, as well as light switches (although they require a Neutral feed at the switch, which many homes won’t have) as well as adapters to go into light fittings.
They’ll run from WiFi (so no need for any extra hardware) and have open-source firmware available for them, such as Tasmota or EasyESP.
Affirmative.
The setup for the Christmas -lighting is already prepared (as of last year). Just hook them up, activate the rule (rename the rule file to the correct ending) and ready.
I have looked into the sonof stuff Maby I didn’t see it all but at the moment the socket type suits my needs better as I can’t change anything inside the walls or behind sockets as I don’t own my home. And the rf sockets are extremely cheap…
How easy was it to get the setup running using the stick and the rf sockets
Was it as simple as plug in the stick via the USB to the OH Machine
Could you send me a link to the exact product incase I’m looking at something wrong the price of the one I found was only £40 like I said that would pay for itself compared to wemo ect
Where is your stick located ?and do you have sockets all through the house in different rooms that it can reach and controll ?
However, if you’ve got something (like a light, or fan) which is on a cable, you could put a Sonoff Basic between the existing 3-pin plug, and the lamp itself. This is a 2 minute job which won’t need the house wiring changed!
And here is the interestingly named Slampher which can go into a ceiling pendant, or directly into a lamp.
Plenty of options, and not too expensive (although more expensive than the RF stuff, definitely - but you get feedback from the Sonoff back into OpenHAB on their status, which can be very useful!
Very simple to implement - once they have Tasmota or EasyESP on them, and OpenHAB/MQTT configured, they work very well.
I’ve already got 1x TH16 with sensor, and 1x T1 light switch. They are working well so far. The TH16 is only used currently for temp/humidity sensing, and the T1 is in my garage where I have two doors, and only 1 light switch by the main up-and-over door, so before I go in via the side door, I can switch the lights on without having to use a torch and squeeze down the side of the car to get to the light switch!
I’m therefore very likely going to be adding more as I expand my system.
How do you go about swapping the OS/Firmware of these devices and did you have to configure the commands your self or did openhab just know what too do once the firmware was changed
Is the th16 just a sensor
My landlords electrician has got to come and fix some things in my house soon so I will speak to him about some of these devices
All the instructions are available from the places you grab Tasmota or ESPEasy from
Configuring OpenHAB and MQTT and the .items file took a little reading - but if you’re getting involved into home automation with OpenHAB, you’ll need to do plenty of reading - it can be powerful, which means lots of things and options, which means lots of reading of Wikis and this forum!
The TH16 is a 16A capable switching device (some of the others have more limited switching capacity, so be sure to check power ratings), but it has a 3.5mm (headphone) jack on the side to optionally plug a temperature/humidity sensor into.
I figured as I was going to give the Sonoff a try, I’d get the one with the biggest power rating capacity, and the one with the ability to plug extra sensors into, even if it were one of the more expensive ones!
The link is Here.
I have one with a plastic housing and antenna. I’m using it from the first floor and can reach the ground floor, however that can depend on the plugs used (I got the best reception on the mentioned old ones).
The setup time depends on how fast you can get the correct code to send . That usually takes some time.
RF is cheap, but communication is not bidirectional, so it’s not useful for good home automation. The status in Openhab may differ from the status on the device because the device does not provide feedback.
I use the Osram Lightify Plug.
It is about 25€ on German Amazon and compatible to the hue bridge.
So if you are planning on doing lighting as well, Hue might be a good option for you anyways, or you buy a bridge on ebay or something, or you go with Osram entirely.
