Making life and technology easier with automation!
Welcome to the channel! My name is Marc and I'm based in the UK.
I've been opening and breaking things from a young age. Thankfully the past few years that love has come back and sometimes I even fix things too!
This channel is about most things with either a battery or plug on it, but in particular Home Automation and devices to make your life either easier, fun or interesting.
I've been using Home Assistant since 2018 and can't believe that it's now even further ahead of the big players such as Google and Amazon. The project and other similar ones such as Hubitat are accelerating the Smart Home revolution and it's great to be a part of it.
This video is more a marketing stunt for getting viewer on your youtube channel, rather than an actual useful instruction. In the parts where it comes really to the point, it is just skipped. Like the setup of the Bluetooth tracker. In no way Home Assistant will automatically find new Bluetooth (LE) devices just by adding a new ESP32 Bluetooth Proxy. At least not in my case. There must be more to it. Also when it comes to the creation of the new bind key, the instructions are: "Click a couple of buttons"..... Totally useless this video.
Sorry you feel that way. I'm not sure how you see the video as a "marketing stunt" though, it's letting people know that this sensor can work with Home Assistant and how to do it. When you go to the firmware page it is literally a couple of clicks to get a new bind key. The video is not intended to show you how to setup Home Assistant BLE Proxies though. But when you have them, new supported devices do indeed just show up automatically in Home Assistant.
great video! one piece of unsolicited advice is to mute the VO audio when showcasing the noise of the device. i was happy to see that this review covers lock noise/speed, but a bit bummed when i had to closely listen through your commentary to hear it. other than that, excellent review!
Do you know if theres a way to open a new profile when clicking on a sensor entity? The settings have options for short and long press but thats just to do stuff in Hass again.
bonsoir j'ai home assistant 2024.7 et l'addon node-red v4.2.0 et j'ai un probleme pour lancer le dashboard. la configuration par defaut indique de mettre le port 1880 pour se connecter sur le dashboard . apres une attente j'ai le message indiquant une tentative de connexion sur l'ip du raspberry pi 4 2go et le port 1880 alors que je me connecte sur le port 443 au niveau de home assistant J'ai tenté le forum de nodered mais qui gere uniquement nodered sur le systeme rasbian. alors qui peut m'aider à réinstaller le addon nodered ou alors mettre nodered sur alpine linux de maniere independante.
I just got this to replace my Switchbot Lock Pro even though I just bought the Lock Pro a few months ago. I came to the conclusion that I was never going to be as satisfied with the Lock Pro like I would with the U200 because of the speed difference. I've never seen a detached keypad or smart lock motor work as fast as the U200 and its keypad. Unless I'm mistaken, this is probably the first smart lock where you can turn your doorknob or lever without it jamming immediately after inputting a unlock method because it's that fast. My only minor gripe is that it's not always instant. Sometimes after pressing lock or using my fingerprint, it takes 2-3 seconds. This is more common when I've tested the controls from within Home Assistant. Which is no big deal, but is kind of annoying when it's lightning fast most of the time lol. Anyways I'll probably feel the itch to get a new smart lock in a few years when facial recognition becomes the new hot thing. But until then I think I'll be pretty satisfied with the U200.
Can anyone answer me this. I have a Lorex 1080P Wi-Fi Floodlight camera and I would like to know if the Blue Iris, either Android or PC app, can transfer from camera to PC or email a video ? The Lorex app that came with the camera is just not good enough. Thanks in advance.
Because it's a simple on off signal (not I²C for example) it can be as long as you need really. I tend to use CAT5 ethernet wire for things like this to pass the signal, ground and vcc. Note that this device is designed to run at 5v, not 3.3v though, so with a long wire you may get too much voltage drop for it to work accurately. If you know what a voltage divider is then it would be best to pass 5v to the device and then on the input of the ESP use 2 resistors to bring that 5v down to 3.3v for the gpio input signal.
Good Video! Thank you for your sharing and suggestions. Also a news for Aqara U200 Users: The v65 firmware is now open for beta updates! Hi, thank you for supporting the Smart Lock U200. As an Aqara Home app user, you will be able to receive the Smart Lock U200 v65 firmware update now. To update, please follow these steps: 1. Make sure you have the Aqara Home app installed on your device. 2. Update the Aqara Home app to version 5.0.0. 3. Open the app and go to the “Profile> Firmware Update> Settings”. 4. Enable the “Beta version update" feature. 5. Once enabled, you will receive the U200 v65 firmware update. If you are a Home app user, we expect that you will also be able to receive the new updates on the next Friday within the Home app.
Correct, you don't need an Aqara M3 Hub. Haha, yes the HomePod is cheaper although it serves a slightly different purpose. The Aqara Hub connects to Aqara zigbee and Bluetooth devices as well though. If you're going with mainly new Thread devices then HomePod Mini is a good option! I need to get one myself so that I can properly test out Apple HomeKit devices.
I hear Aqara are going to do a rekeyable version of the U100 - like they did on the U50. Would like to replace the Class 3 lock with a Class 1 Schlage. I hope.
I'm not sure on the U100 to be honest, as it's not designed for the UK. However, as you say you can with the U50. Shane Whately did a good review on that: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-59lyRekf5-s.html
Nice review Marc. Did you try the fingerprint reader with a wet finger - like after a run or being out in the rain - it stll rains in the UK!! This is usually the weakness of most fingerprint readers. Nice announcement and display of the "semi-sponsorship". Really boosts the integrity. Thanks
Thanks! If I compare it to the fingerprint reader on my phone then the phone one is definitely better when wet. You still need to wipe your finger a bit if it's actually properly wet. Dirt however doesn't seem to be a problem though, I had a bit of dried mud on my thumb from gardening and it still worked.
I think it is great that this is an addition to the existing lock. No need to replace the lock this is basically a remote control to turn your key. I only need to replace my cilinder for a safety one where 2 keys can work together.
Yes, I quite like it. Less bulky than the SwitchBot Pro. I wish lock cylinders which support the "safety" piece were a bit more common, can sometimes be hard to find. I'm actually not too bothered about the safety feature requirement as I never plan to use a key and figure that there are other doors I can get into the house with if something goes wrong.
@@lets-automate if you have multiple doors I agree but I’m living in an apartment on the 9th floor. So if my lock is failing on me I have to breakdown my door. My balcony door is locked from the inside and climbing 9 floors isn’t an option 😆
Being physically present for some settings is most probably security feature for the lock. It is simple and efficient way to ensure some sensitive settings cannot be hacked remotely. If these settings are typically set once, it does makes sense to me.
Yeah I totally get it for things like user management. But some of them I feel shouldn't need the Keypad active. They should probably also allow you to be able activate or deactivate the extra security for situations where people want to use the lock on an AirBnB for example, where they may wish to add new access codes for each stay.
I still use this add-on, but I only use it for local backups now because it backs up to 2 TrueNAS instances, so don't feel I need a Google backup as well. However, there are not any recent GitHub issues raised which would suggest it should have stopped working. Perhaps try and reauthenticate it with Google? It might be that some tokens have expired and not renewing correctly. It also has a "logs" tab which is worth checking out if you haven't already! It will hopefully point you to the problem.
Sorry for the delay in reply! I've added the Home Assistant script to GitHub for you: gist.github.com/letsautomatenet/9c84d96eef95592cca87090eb7b0c734 This will pull your current device's location as reported by Home Assistant. If you create a card on your dashboard then it will open a window where you can enter the name of the zone, select the radius and run the script. (It will fail if you don't enter a radius) Make sure you are on a fairly recent version of Home Assistant as the functionality to pass arguments to scripts from a dashboard (entity "more info") card was only recently added.
Sorry for the late reply! {{ state_attr('device_tracker.marc_phone','gps_accuracy') }} Replace the device tracker bit with yours :-) However, I have noticed that mine seems to always be on 100 for some reason so will be interested to see what yours says!
Here is a couple of points about the video. The Air quality index your showing, is different for every country. The one you showed is for Germany. Also, you definitely need a fan with an enclosure for proper measurements with any of the BME series. (like how the particulate sensor PMS5003 works) These are made to be included in proper products. I gave up on these sensors years ago. These are expensive and "sensitive" but very difficult to use due to the need of the enclosure and fan etc, basically you need to make a proper product, not just attach it to your micro and get readings. You will get much better reading from a much much cheaper and easier to use HTU21D. By the way you don't need "that" much accuracy for doing something with reading your home condition. Also forget about the VOC in this product. For air quality get a proper CO2 sensor like the SenseAir S8 and a real PPM sensor like PMS5003 or something similar. for VOC get the cheapest MQ series sensor. They work great.
Thanks for the detailed comment! I'll have a proper read through. I definitely do need to look into different air quality solutions that's for sure, I have stopped using this sensor now.
Haha, I'm guessing you are from a warm climate?! This is what our heating is set to and I would say is considered high for the UK. Most people probably set it at between 19 and 21. It costs enough in gas to get it to 21.5ºC, particularly in winter.
great video - cheers. So am I right in thinking those relays can be completely decoupled and you can just use them as buttons in HA to trigger whatever you want?
Thanks! Yes they can. The code I use is a bit out of date now I think. Check this integration out: github.com/SmartHome-yourself/sonoff-tx-ultimate-for-esphome
Hi is there any way that the Moes Smart actuator valve can trigger an external relay when its state changes from “idle” to “Heating” (not “Heat”). I would like to have each valve working independently (in HASS) and be able to call for heat, not relying on the boiler running already. Many thanks.
Yeah that makes sense. If you have it connected using ZHA then the climate entity should have an attribute called "hvac_action" which will change from "idle" to "heating". You could then look for that attribute change in your automation or create a helper template sensor with the value of that attribute. Hope this helps!
Many thanks for your prompt reply. I am very new to HA but will endeavour to give your suggestion ago. It's a shame that there are no attributes for Idle and Heating coming from the actuator.
I wonder what the hardware requirements are for the new LLM feature. There are many users using Single Board Computer for Home Assistent. Can they use this new feature?
I tried to install BME680 using your code, but without success. During the installation, I have the following errors [20:48:03][C][bme680.sensor:074]: Setting up BME680... [20:48:03][E][component:119]: Component bme680.sensor was marked as failed. [20:48:03][E][component:164]: Component bme680.sensor set Error flag: unspecified
instead of chatgpt i'm using gemini and it works really amazingly. Tweaking the prompt can make him act like Skynet or a cute lady with kisses and heart emojis 😂😂
I would gladly trade the new ChatGPT functionality for the ability to include entity states and values in TTS messages from within the visual editor. Home Assistant needs to focus on getting more of the basic functionality that still requires YAML into the visual editor where less technical folks can better utilize it.
Improvements to adding entity info in the visual editor would certainly be helpful. I do think though that they have made massive improvements to prevent you from needing to use YAML over the last year or two. I believe the guys doing the Voice Assistant stuff is kind of a separate team so wouldn't impact UI progress really. They have big goals, so I'm sure YAML will be required less and less each month.
