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  1. R

    Restart after blackout

    Went on vacation last week, looking forward to be able to VPN into my network, and check out the cams while away. So of course almost as soon as I leave, there is a blackout (very widespread one), and my PC doesn't boot back up. If it did boot up, I have BI set to autostart. Could not log...
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    Purpose of mounting a camera in the front door.

    I ended up installing my front door camera at the top left corner of the door. Its a dahua starlight turret. So it's obvious that its there, and probably a little intrusive, but I know who's coming to the front door. I was kind of worried about how it would look there, and so it was the last...
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    Help Getting Into Smart Home / Home Automation

    Didn't mention this before, but power is easy with the Wemos cards. They can run off of 5V. So I have been buying cheap USB power plugs (apple clones), cut the end off an old USB cable, and then use the now exposed red and black wires to power the card. Some ESP cards require 3.3V, and then...
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    Help Getting Into Smart Home / Home Automation

    Hey David I have a Pi running Domiticz. Lately, I have been adding ESP's to my HA system. I like the Wemos mini D1 and mini D1 pro, but there are ton's of ESP's out there, and they are pretty inexpensive, especially if you can wait for shipping from aliexpress/china. I then install ESP Easy on...
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    Is a VPN as critical if you only access cameras via Blue Iris Web View?

    FWIW, I have a managed POE switch, and with my switch it was easy to setup VLANS to isolate cameras Simple Port based VLAN I have it setup with a vlan for each camera, so each camera can only talk to the BI PC. When I need to configure a camera, I have to add access to the router for that...
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    Onvif Compatible Doorbell Cam

    So little off topic, but I have a couple of the Wemos ESP modules in service now, one in the garage to sense and open/close the door, and one in the backyard to control the spa. I use ESP Easy in the modules, so really no programming skills required with that. I also have Domoticz running on a...
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    Dahua outdoor camera recommendation for porch installation

    My standard recommendation these days is Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z) Best low light performance you can get right now, and probably all the features you want or need. There are reason this thread is 144 pages long. Randy
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    SimpliSafe & Blue Iris (A Match made in Heaven)

    With Simplysafe, I would worry about "smash and crash". This is when bad guy breaks down front door, and destroys alarm control unit in the time when you would normally disarm. But you can hide the control unit, so bad guy can't find it in 30 seconds, and you should be good then.
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    Hello everyone from Los Angeles!

    I've never tried a hikvision. I'm sure we have plenty of people who have, you'd probably get a better response if you ask that question on the Starlight turret thread. Its the nighttime performance of the starlight that makes it such a good camera. As far as I know, Hik doesn't make anything...
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    Hello everyone from Los Angeles!

    This camera, Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z) is currently THE recommended camera. It has killer low light performance, which is when bad things happen. Don't worry about how many mp it is, won't matter in real live performance. I run Blue Iris on a standalong PC, generally...
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    A new z-wave controller hub

    My instructions are here Randy's home projects: Domoticz Installation I think they are pretty thorough, they have the exact steps you need to do, you can just cut and paste. Hopefully they still work, it's what I did when I first installed domoticz (date on blog is later than when I really made...
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    Talk me out of a kit - Help piece together a better kit

    Few comments. Do it right once, the first time, and forget about it. There is a reason the dahua starlight is highly recommended. Bad stuff happens at night, and these cameras are great at night. If you can't afford 4 of them, add more later. Starlights come in bullets too, but bullets...
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    Need advice on front door placement of IPC-HDW5231R-Z

    Use a test rig, and make sure you check out video during the day and at night. Seems like all the bad guys are wearing hoodies or caps these days, so think about that and don't mount it too high. Randy
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    A new z-wave controller hub

    Yesterday I saw a Domoticz wiki page for imperihome integration, so that box can be checked with a little effort.
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    A new z-wave controller hub

    Good point. I just started writing some Lua scripts in Domoticz using "dzVents". dzVents is an addon to Domoticz that makes it easier to write scripts. You can add a lot of usefulness by adding some scripts. This weekend, I added a magnetic door switch to my freezer, and now my wife and I...
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    VPN Primer for Noobs

    So it's combined DSL modem and router? Maybe that has something to do with it? My ASUS is just a router.
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    A new z-wave controller hub

    I'm running Domoticz with a Gen 5 stick on a pi * Work with ImperiHome mobile app Dont know * No forced "cloud" integration. This is fine, no forced clouds. * Wired ethernet This is fine, new pi's have wifi and ethernet and USB * A simple http API for integration with other systems I think...
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