Tell us about your home automation!

I just transitioned from Smartthings to Homeseer due to the unreliability of ST. Things unavailable, disappearing from ST, Z-wave mesh flaking out constantly. Under Homeseer everything has been rock solid so far.

I bought the Pro Windows Hometroller but would recommend going non pro to anyone considering. HSTouch is awful as is the designer. Unfortunately the Homeseer interfaces are like a bad joke from the '90s but the robustness and functionality is great. The other apps included in pro are nice to haves but not worth the "Pro" money.
 
Last edited:
randytsuch said:
I've transitioned from Domoticz to Home Assistant.
Home Assistant has a larger user base and more active development, so it has more and newer devices supported. It takes a while sometimes for new devices to be supported in Domoticz. HA also has a more active forum.

Took me a couple weeks until I was ready to turn off Dom, and bring HA online. But about one week of that was figuring out how to implement MQTT, and interface my ESPs with HA over MQTT. Also took a little bit to figure out YAML, and how to customize HA with YAML.

But for the most part, it seems to be easier to do things in HA. I also have node red running, with a few node red programs running.
Click to expand...

do you have mosquito running with SSL? If so can you tell me how to use node red to send commands to BI? I'm stuck.
 
hmjgriffon said:
do you have mosquito running with SSL? If so can you tell me how to use node red to send commands to BI? I'm stuck.
Click to expand...

I'm running the hassio version of mqtt, not a standalone mosquito, and I'm not using ssl.
Plus I haven't tried to send mqqt to bi yet, I've only received mqtt from bi at this point.

I did see somewhere the BI is picky about the format of the mqtt messages to it, but that's about all I can tell you.

Lately I've been playing with alexa and NR and HA, adding voice commands to my stuff.
 
Ive just started on voice command stuff.
I have purchased an Amazon Echo and the larger Echoplus (i think its called)
Both are on a separate email account so I can use Logitech Harmony linking in 2 rooms. Works very well for the hifi gear etc etc.
Im using the name Alexa in one room and Computer in the other
I also have added wifi power points and a few light switches to see what they can do.
These use the Ewelink app that Alexa links too. This also controls my gas heater (can adj temp with the SonOff temp switch) plus a few more power point and directly wired controllers on 433Mhz.
I also have an Broadlink Hub that also gets linked to my Echos' . This controls my Aircon's and Curtains.
Still just setting up for the fun of it atm but quite liking what can be achieved with a bit of thought.
More controllers are hitting the market monthly.
 
We have a system that works very well with BI. We use HomeSeer HS3 along with a paid plugin for BI.

HS3 does not depend on the cloud which is important for us. That being said, we do use Echo Dots to control some of our z-wave devices. However, most of our home is automated as opposed to controlled.

What we like about our BI integration is that we can control nearly every BI server or camera function and when BI registers an alert, our HS3 system can act upon it.

92FED5B8-0D07-4AEA-9816-046AC7A472D3.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: fenderman
Curious about HomeSeer integration with Blue Iris. What would be the recommended hardware and software?
 
I downloaded the HomeSeer HS3 software, and the Blue Iris plugin. I am testing it out by building an event list so that when a motion trigger on the Z5 camera is detected then the PTZ camera preset will change. It works if I manually run the event, but it does nothing by itself when a motion event is triggered on the Z5 camera. Any suggestions?

I contacted HomeSeer, and apparently the IF clause for motion is not working because the Blue Iris plugin is not reporting the event. The THEN clause is working well, as I can manually invoke the preset change within HomeSeer. They suggested changing the IF clause so that it uses "The device had its value set to . . ." and then 'Triggered' but that doesn't work either. When a car triggers the camera A, its event is not listing in the HomeSeer log.
 
Last edited:
Aha. It is working well. I had to set up the camera alert's 'Post to web address or MQTT server' first.
 
Well, I wasn't going to do it before, but my bosses at work bought a couple of devices. And I liked them so much that I decided to buy a Toggle Clamp myself. Of all the things I had at work before, I didn't like them. It's a lot easier to work than it used to be. At the moment they are the best there was and that is why I suggest you buy one for your home, personally I have less work because of them. Here's a link to the store I got them from - https://www.sandfieldengineering.com/toggle-clamps/.
 
Last edited:
Like I don't have enough going on LOL, I am now looking at some home automation.

Anyone here figure out how to get Ring Alarm to work with anything? They seem to be stingy and not wanting to talk to other platforms.

I was wondering if just the Homeseer program would work with Ring Alarm devices. Seeing mixed results elsewhere, but trust the folks here more than what you can find on Reddit lol.
 
wittaj said:
Like I don't have enough going on LOL, I am now looking at some home automation.

Anyone here figure out how to get Ring Alarm to work with anything? They seem to be stingy and not wanting to talk to other platforms.

I was wondering if just the Homeseer program would work with Ring Alarm devices. Seeing mixed results elsewhere, but trust the folks here more than what you can find on Reddit lol.
Click to expand...

Not sure on the Ring question. I believe there is an Alexa plug in, and that might be a way to leverage Ring.
 
@DLONG2 - how are you liking HomeSeer? Did you need to buy any hardware or could you use just the software and make it work with BI?

I have been looking at the Alexa part, but cannot find how to then make it swing a PTZ preset when the mailbox with the Ring Alarm motion sensor is triggered, so looking at another option if one exists. Hopefully Ring will allow some true 3rd party integration or it will drive folks away or not purchase.
 
I mostly use HomeSeer for lighting automation, as I already had the Phillips Hue lamps. Had to purchase motion detectors, a z-wave USB stick, and the dedicated PC. The Blue Iris plug in gets used to trigger a cloned camera from a gate/door switch being opened, which in turn emails a snapshot, is all I use the Blue Iris plug in for.
 
Since Ring Alarm is z-wave I wonder if it could pull double duty with a z-wave stick for HomeSeer?
 
VorlonFrog said:
If it's anyone, it's probably @Holbs.
Click to expand...
naw...I'm no MQTT pro :) I have MQTT working via Blue Iris & DSC 1864 alarm panel to Home Assistant via MQTT. I think I know the basic levels of MQTT.
What I do not understand is why bother with a Ring script to being with? MQTT is as simple as SMTP email.
Logic would say...RING publishes a topic to MQTT. Anything that can read the MQTT topic (Home Assistant, HomeSeer, another MQTT program) will act on what is published.
Why a script? Maybe the script acts as a go between RING and MQTT. So instead of 3 parties involved (Home assistant <> MQTT <> RING) there is actually 4 parties involved (Home Assistant <> MQTT <> script <> RING). That linked page talks about when this or that is restarted with auto-discovery. This is something I have no need to do when restarting Blue Iris or DSC alarm panel because Home Assistant does not care if something is restarted because it is only looking at that single MQTT published topic variable and not the Blue Iris or DSC alarm panel itself.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom