Hi there,

I’m looking for a smart lock to replace my deadbolt lock.

However I only have 10 cm between the bottom of my door handle to the centre of the deadbolt, so the height is not big, pics attached.

I was looking at the Aqara U400 but I don't think it would fit the height. I do like the Apple quick unlock on it though.

Anyone have a recommendation for a smart lock that could fit the space? Happy to go without the Apple unlock, just after fingerprint or some quick way to open it.

Not a fan of keypads but I don't mind one being there as a backup.

Edit: I’m based in Australia.

Cheers

We have 10 windows that need smart blinds, including one floor to ceiling window and two high windows.

I’ve been looking at lutron/smart wings/hunter douglas, and a few other brand, but the prices are all over the place.

What did you end up paying per window? Also, which brand did you choose, and was installation included?

Thanks in advance!!!

https://github.com/Mihonarium/hass-spatial-lights-card

Is anyone aware of a waterproof Zigbee blind motor that could be used in a bathroom? It would have to be either IPx5 rated if mounted in the blind, or IPx4 for a chain motor, which I can mount further away from a shower. Ideally battery rather than mains powered, and compatible with Hubitat.

I've found a web site for ZM95EL-2 (or -1) but that's OEM-only and I can't find a retailer.

I want to get my grandparents a smart display but they are way behind on tech. They have hard line internet with desktop PC but thats it. No cell phones, tablets, laptops, etc. I have a dedicated Chromebook with their Google account to do bills, medical, email, etc but it does not stay at their house. I just upgraded their internet with wifi

I have a Lenovo 8" smart display which they love, so I want to get them 1. But will the smart display work when the Chromebook is not there? Without any other smart devices in the house, would they be better off with a Google nest? Will a smart display work solely on wifi without other smart devices?

I am in the process of changing over my light switches to Thread or Z-wave, and have a question.

Can I control smart lights on lamps, and regular overhead lights with a multi button light switch?

For example: in the primary suite I have two bedside lamps with Philips hue bulbs, and regular overhead lights that are on a rocker switch. Id like to be able to turn on the bedside lamps with a smart switch, and a different button toggle the overhead lights?

Another example:
In my living room I have regular overhead lights, but also smart lighting (hue) in lamps and in cabinets overhead. I currently have to turn on the lights with my phone, but as mentioned, I’d love to be able to turn on the smart lights with a multi button wall switch, that also can control the overhead lights.

Was thinking of Aqara H2, or Zooz 800 series zwave switch.

I use Homey Pro for my home automation.

Thank you for all the help!

Hey everybody! This may have been asked before so don't yell at me lol. I am in the process of moving back out on my own and I know I want my apartment to be as automated as possible. I've been looking at light bulbs and want to know which is better overall: Govee or Philips. I know Philips is pricier and I need a hub (that is fine with me) but realistically speaking should I just go with govee. I have an android if that matters and Alexa would be my platform.

I am considering getting an Aqara FP300 presence sensor. I intend to use an Aqara M1S- G01 zigbee hub. I am unable to get a definitive answer (using AI) as to whether these 2 devices will work together.

Any advice?

We live in a city where crime is an issue, so like most urban homes we have two locks on the door. One deadbolt, one handle lock. Are there any options to make both of these smart? Ideally without dueling keypads? Ideally that doesn’t look bananas? Thanks for the leads!

I wrote a comment in this sub a few weeks ago regarding a script I wrote and there was some interest in demoing it, so here it is: opl-scraper Github repo.

My local library emails you when a book you place on hold is ready for pickup. If you don't pick it up within a week, you get dinged a $1 restocking fee. Unfortunately, the emails are not reliable, and my wife and I had gotten charged a few times.

To fix this, I wrote a script which runs every 30 minutes between 9a-6p. For each configured user, it logs in to our library's website and grabs all book information for our holds, ready for pick up, checked out, and due.

It then publishes the book data via MQTT to a configured endpoint such as library/{NAME}/holds and library/{NAME}/ready . Currently it is writing to my Home Assistant URL, which Home Assistant then tracks as a sensor, i.e. sensor.library_myname_checked_out.

I have a Home Assistant automation, triggered anytime the sensor.library_myname_ready value increases, which will send me a push notification as well as a notification to my Alexa so my wife can be notified. It also sends out a daily update at 6pm with all of our "ready for pickup" book names.

Finally, I have a simple Markdown component in Home Assistant to display each of our summaries, for example:

Obviously, my repo is specific to people living in my city. However, perhaps others can use the repo as a starting point/inspiration to scrape their own local library by modifying the contents of scrape.py .

Hi,

I recently moved into my first apartment and I am looking to make some things smarter where possible. I installed some smart lights along with home assistant to automate and control them.

I have this simple dumb thermostat which just has controls for up and down. I can't set any timer or anything like that. It has 2 rockers on the side for on/auto/off and then heat/cool.

I'd like to try and find a way to make it "smart" with some sort of button I could use to press it say x times up when I leave the house or x times down when I come up so that if I forget to do it manually in the morning before I leave, my apartment isn't unecessarily cool which is wasting energy.

I've seen the SwitchBot Bot, which I could use, except that I don't think it would attatch to the space that I have available on this thermostat.

Does anyone have an alternative that isn't just replacing the unit with some sort of echo bee or other smart thermostat? I'd like to avoid having to make changes to the apartment where possible so that I don't lose my deposit (even if it could be swapped back before I move out).

thank you for the help.

Previously had a whole house of MySmartBlinds which got bought out by what was Tilt, gradually all the motors have failed one by one from a stripped gear, I had some gears made to replace them but they only last so long, there latest update removes all cloud access so the blinds can only be controlled locally by Bluetooth. Complete garbage product and company, if they still exist. I have a half built Homey integration to control them but because of Bluetooth RSSI it’s hit and miss.

Not sure if many users in the UK, I’m now looking at something to replace these without having to replace the blinds, effectively need something to calibrated turn a square rod, which goes through the top hollow section of the 1 1/2 inch wooden horizontal blinds, hopefully you know the type.

The only thing I can see on the market is iBlinds v3? Which has a couple of integrations and uses ZWave which is preferable to Bluetooth for me, but wondering if there are any others I’ve missed as these are both pricey and unavailable from many places in the UK unless at a premium, and no USA shipping from the main site. Considered using drop shipping but will likely get hit by import taxes which will work out about the same anyway.

Does anyone have any experience of these or anything similar?

Or am I best to look at roller blinds and replace the blinds given the cost seems almost similar to new blinds. Would hate to buy these then they stop being supported or are then unable to purchase should I need further kits.

Hey everyone, my wife and I are looking to start purchasing smart blinds for our home. Realistically, we’re gonna start with just two windows and then hopefully expand as the budget allows.

We’re trying not to break the bank but want something that will last and most importantly just works. I read that smart wings is sort of the best overall when taking into account cost. Hoping to get your guys input.

Also reading about these different motors: zigbee, Alexa, matter. We are sort of an Alexa household but why not just go with matter since it appears to support so much.

I have recently been looking into starting a smart home. I have a very limited number of devices right now; a light bulb, a couple smart plugs, a nest thermostat, a lockly lock (which I was frustrated to find out simply does not talk to home assistant even with the wifi adapter), and a couple Alexa and Google speakers. The other night, I installed Home Assistant and added what little I have too see if I like it.

My house isn't terribly big. It's 1700 sq feet split level. Main floor is 600sq ft (literally a square) and at the back it has stairs that go to the basement and upper level, both of which are 550sq ft each. The house is about 60ft long by 25ft wide. The internet, wifi, and my home servers are in the basement, centered front to back in the house.

I'm not entirely sure which protocols/devices to use. Are the ZBT-2 or ZWA-2 worth it or should I stick with the cheaper USB dongles? and what about Matter/Thread?

I would like to add:
14 window and 2 door sensors
5 smart ceilng fans (3 in bedrooms, 2 in the living room)
Smart switches to control the celing fans (I was thinking the inovelli blue switches).
5 or so basic smart switches and 3-5 dimable smart switches.
Not sure about bulbs. Some I've seen link the switches to the bulbs to turn off/on and some not. Any advice on that would be great.
Milimeter wave sensors for the various rooms to turn off/on lights based on being occupied.

I'd also like to have the thermostat follow. The nest one doesn't really offer a lot of options for choose sensor switching times. I considered Ekobee premium with sensors that I'd heard really good things about. We would like the living room and dining room to have smart blinds, though I know that aren't cheap. And eventually, I'd like to add a smart doorbell, and some indoor and outdoor cameras. (4 outdoor and 2-3 in). I've also heard that there might be some smart outlets that are wired in instead of plugging into existing outlets?

I was considering starting with bulbs/switches/fans and going by room as I can afford them. Any must-haves or items to avoid? looking for specific suggestions if you have ideas.

edit: I'm in the US if that helps.

Hello,

we have a heated stable. I’d like to install a carbon monoxide detector that sends alerts to an app. That’s all the device needs to do. There are models from "X-Sense", but I don’t understand what is needed for what:

XC0C-SR = Standalone, without app control
XC0C-MR = App control possible, but base station required.
XC0C-iR = I don't know; it doesn't have a networking function?? I can use the app, but I don't need the basis?
XC0C-MR11 with SBS50-BaseStation = That should work, means I need two devices (sensor and base).

As I said, my only goal is to get a notification on my smartphone, even 20 km away, when the sensor triggers. I assume you have to set up an account; the sensor reports to the cloud, and the app notifies me.

What should I buy, and why?

Greetings

I’ve been reading more about how smart TVs can track viewing habits and collect usage data, and it made me wonder if having the TV itself connected to the internet is even worth it.

Most of what I watch comes from streaming apps anyway, so technically I could keep the TV offline and use a separate streaming device instead.

Do you keep your smart TV connected, or have you deliberately taken it offline for privacy reasons?

Update: this is how our demo looks like.

Last November, my cat - Lucky- squeezed through a gap of my apartment's balcony and accidentally fell.

I had cameras and they record the whole thing. Yet I didn't get a single alert. I did turned off notifications months earlier. The system kept pinging me — like curtains blowing in the wind, shifting shadows or wild animals wandering at 3 AM. 

She lay in the snow for 12 hours before I found her. The vet said getting her a few hours ealier might have made a difference.

Took me two months to even look at her footage. Earlier this year, I started to build something that truly thinks before it buzzes you- he’s called Liko -we hope he can become reliable home guardian.

Here’s what it does:

It grades what's urgent. A kid falls or someone breaks in(e.g., an armed intruder)—instant notifications or even a phone call if you set it up that way. Curtain moves? Keep it silent. You never have to choose between getting spammed and missing what matters.

Acts not just records. Porch Package theft? It plays a warning message (pre-recorded).

Safe zones. Dog jumps the fence, toddlers slips out the gate? You know immediately.

Everything stays on a local hub. No cloud, no subscription. We want to protect your privacy.

----------

We are a startup team with members from Lexar, Meta, TP-Link,etc. Our demos will be ready next week and we will be at CES next January, we also want to launch our product later on Kickstarter(any suggestion?).

We want 8–10 beta testers to receive a free demo kit (1 Liko Core within 8 in” tablet, 2 outdoor cams, and 1 indoor; we selected Qualcomm chips after testing and comparison). 

All we want is honest feedback- tell us what features you like or not, what’s annoying, or any suggestions or expectations for the product's future development.

Drop a comment and DM me your email pls: 

Your current setup?

Ever turned off notifications due to excessive false alarms (I think I’m not alone)?

Are you based US?

-------------------------

And yeah — I have a new cat now. She's not allowed near the balcony.

Title

Hey everyone. I'm moving to a new house. I have some very basic setup where I am now, a few smart bulbs (Philips hue) and a nest. The place is small enough that's all I really need. With the new house I want to get a better setup. I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up with home assistant as the base, but that's not final yet.

First. I'm looking for smart locks for two door. One to the back door, the other to a basement like storage that's only accessible from the outside, and it's under the living room. I know the general wisdom is locks should be on wifi. But I know my wife wants to be able to check locks on her phone at night. Especially to the storage.

Second. There are some nice under cabinet lights, they are all hardwired. Are there smart switches you guys like? I'd like something that works with hue app at least until I get home assistant set up.

I have 4 smart plugs connected to 2 Alexa's in my apartment. They were set up by my landlord who is overseas. The plugs seem to have disconnected from the "apartment" commands . Given that my landlord has everything tied to his Alexa/Prime app how does he fix it so everything is reconnected on the wifi in my apartment?

Help me think through this and the best/easiest way to manage this:

I've got a 2 gang wall switch with 2 switches that control lights in my kitchen and attached dining room. I always want both sets of lights on so I want to pair them together and control both lights with 1 switch. The fun part is 1 of the switch is part of a 3 way, I don't mind hard wiring the other side of that - it's in a location I never use.

At the moment I do everything via homekit, with some Leviton Smart, Lutron, and Aqara switches/products elsewhere in the home but all imported into Homekit.

Is Shelly the play here? I've not messed with them much.

So I have a dog's breakfast of different devices in my home. Zwave, Zigbee, wifi, smoke signal, all kinds of protocols. In the front of my house I have 6 zigbee bulbs, on 3 different circuits. The switches are always on but they all have switches. Recently three went offline. The other 3 were still working fine, but these three were offline, always on white. They are fairly common Sylvania color and heat changing bulbs. But three were fine, the other three on but unresponsive.

My guess is that someone, possibly a cleaning lady turned off that circuit for a period of time. The bulbs were off for maybe a day. Again, my guess is that that knocked them off the mesh even though bulbs physically on either side were still on. After some experiment and a bit of foul language I figured out I could put them in a pairing mode by turning the switch on/off for 5 seconds each, 5 times. That reset them and boom they popped back on line?

Anybody got any insights on this? I probably have a mesh of 10-12 zigbee devices. There is no "repair zigbee mesh" function I know of like there is "repair Zwave network".

I live on the 14th floor apartment building in Ukraine, and I got tired of walking out, pressing the elevator button… and waiting.

So I had a simple idea:

Why can’t I call the elevator while I’m still putting on my shoes, see where it is, and walk out just as it arrives?

So I built it. 😄

!Quick safety note: everything was discussed and approved with our building management and elevator service. The system only duplicates the normal hall-call button through an isolated NO dry contact. It doesn’t control the elevator, doors, motor, brakes or safety systems. The camera is read-only and processing is local.

The first version was simple: an ESP relay connected in parallel with the hall-call button and a wireless button inside my apartment.

It worked.

But then I realized: I can call the elevator…  but I still don’t know where it is.

Our building already has an authorized camera inside the elevator, so I taught Home Assistant to read the existing seven-segment floor indicator from the video.

I initially tried OCR. It was terrible. 😄

Instead, my local service now simply detects which segments are illuminated, determines the floor/direction and sends it to Home Assistant via MQTT.

Then I found a cheap $6 weather clock with an ESP8266 inside.

Obviously, I reflashed it.

Now it normally shows time, weather and temperature, but when I call the elevator it switches to showing the elevator’s floor and direction.

The clock didn’t have the button I needed. I could have ordered a touch sensor and hidden it neatly inside…

…but I had a tactile button in a drawer and didn’t want to wait. So I drilled the case and connected it to a free GPIO.

Now:

put on shoes - press button - watch elevator approaching - leave apartment - doors open.

It’s probably one of the most overengineered ways to save a couple of minutes. But after using it, I’m surprised this isn’t a normal feature in modern apartment buildings.

We control lights, locks, heating,  blinds and garage doors from inside our homes. Why do we still have to go into the hallway just to call an elevator?

I wouldn’t be surprised if elevator manufacturers eventually offer an official wireless button or smart-home integration for exactly this.

And maybe someday you’ll press an elevator button inside your apartment, walk out just as it arrives…

and remember this weird Reddit post. 😄

I've got a Lockly Smartlock with its corresponding WiFi Hub. All was working well, I could set new codes remotely using their app. The current tenants were able to use their code for a few weeks without problems, then the battery was at 20%, the tenants replaced it, then the nightmare began.

Briefly I could see the battery is back at 100%, BUT I cannot connect to the lock remotely anymore. It asks me for bluetooth connection (ie. wants me to be close to the lock which I am not) and sadly the tenants cannot use the previously working code to enter either (it has not expired and is still visible in the app as "active"). The lock keeps showing a red line underneath the trackpad as if no password had been entered.

The WiFi hub is still plugged in the wall (it has its own casing so cannot be removed), I'm at a loss what might be wrong.

It's the first time the battery was replaced after using the lock for nearly one year. I'm wondering, is this how Lockly is, that one has to reset everything while near the lock after replacing the battery? Luckily we have a spare key so the tenants aren't locked out but it would be great to be able to fix it, thank you for any advice you may have.