From my research, the issue with acara devices is they don't use "standard" zigbee. They've eityher hacked it or partially reverse engineered it. Their sensors don't reroute is an example. The biggest thing that's made a difference on my network is pairing the device with the nearest router, using the Z2M web interface to only allow pairing with the specific router device. Love these chat videos.
For me, the only real downside of Zigbee is the 2.4GHz band. If you live in the middle of a big city, in an apartment complex with hundreds of misconfigured ISP routers, it's hell.... and batteries!
This is very true! There is one project we did where we used Z-Wave for this exact reason, as the 2.5GHz band was too saturated to create a stable network.
I noticed Connor and Tez did a project for a disabled client - maybe that could be a topic for a future talk. I work for Social Services and although I've been pushing for smart homes for a long time, what we can offer is very limited. It would be interesting ţo see what's out there to make the life of a disabled client / elderly client easier (beyond smart lights and music).
This is one of the topics we plan to cover, and a really good use case for smart technologies. Do you have any specific areas we should cover or questions you'd like to ask?
Another enjoyable video, a few points I am really unsure about the discussion around colour of devices. I am unsure why anyone would buy a smart light switch - one should buy a proper dimmer module or switch and put it behind the light or behind the switch and just use any plate you want. I also see so many of these videos around zigbee issues, I have two homes run on z wave - one has been running for 7 years no with zero issues. Sure the modules are slightly more expensive but the range is greater and everything just works, if you'd like more info for a video let me know!
Hi these videos are so interseting and look forward to more in the future. By the way can't seem to find the document of supported devices in the description.
I wish you would have a team in Los Angeles! I’m having such a hard time to find anyone who even heard of Home Assistant. I’d have loved some professional help for the initial setup.
Hi Sir thank you for all the videos you make. Do you have a video to show how to access your home assistant remotely as a Docker container. I'm able to access it on the HA OS using zerotier add on. But I don't know how to do it on docker. Can you please poin us the right direction. Once again thanks you for the content.
You can still take and restore backups with the OS. A backup is automatically created every 3 days and uploaded to a Google Drive. If anything ever happens, we can use this off-site backup, but we always take a manual backup before making large changes or running updates.
@@LuxeiaLtdinteresting. I was trying to switch my home from a VM to direct OS on a mini PC and what stopped me was that I read I wouldn’t be able to upload a backup to start with. I also read that the Google Drive feature was only on the supervised version. Is this not true? Also, why do you guys go directly with OS and not a VM? Just curious
@Luisp_1024 Add-ons and backups are available for both OS and Supervised. Home Assistant has a comparison table somewhere online that shows you what the different install methods have access to. We do it with the OS to minimise issues and callouts. Using a VM is just another point of failure for us to handle.
@@LuxeiaLtd Dang. I should have just gone ahead with the installation. Weekend project! And I agree. The less points of failure the better. Also, on the Aqara piece, I've learned that Aqara devices work best with their hub vs Z2MQTT or ZHA (with ZHA, I was getting disconnects like Alan mentioned). I have a bunch of smart plugs around my house which makes my mesh network pretty solid. I also have 2 Zigbee hubs. The UZG gateway for non-Aqara Zigbee devices and the Aqara Hub M3 for Aqara devices. Everything works extremely solid with 98% - 99% uptime with no issues. I also have 5G wifi smart plugs for the hubs as well as my mini PC to ensure i can reset them from outside of the house in case HA gets funky and need to reboot.
@@LuxeiaLtd Dang. Should have gone ahead and installed. Weekend project I guess. And agreed. The less points of failure the better. On the Aqara front, I've noticed that Aqara devices just don't play too nice with other hubs. I ended up getting an Aqara Hub M3 and paired my Aqara devices through it on channel 25 I believe and then I have the UZG-01 for all my other non-Aqara Zigbee devices. They all play well and no drop-offs with 95-98% response with no issues. I also use 5G wifi plugs (Tuya...I know, but couldn't find anything else), to be able to toggle the hubs or Mini-PC in case HA is not playing nice.
How do go about replacing a sensor when it fails? Especially when it's used in automations. Do you rename the old one? Or delete it before adding the new one?
I remove the old one, and then make sure I name the new one the same - paying close attention to the entities. My automations then continue functioning as normal then.
Can you tell me how they bill the clients? Is it by the hour, by the installation, are there annual fees? I have done my house with HA and my large campus church with HA and have two members of the congregation that would like me to set up their house. My business model would be to charge an annual fee. The first year would include all the installation, but the client would buy all the equiptment. There would be a fix number of automations during the first year. The next year there would be an hourly limit for addtional automation, installations of new equiptment, etc.. Included in the annual fee would be any work required to keep the system operational. Also, would be user training and WAF issues. Thoughts?
