Planning smart lighting for a new build

Stoner

kenmc wrote:

In theory I can also add other sensors to this unit too, e.g. a DS18B20 for temperature, or a DHT22 for temp/humidity, several other options too i think. Another days work though, am hoping my GoogleHome arrives in parcelmotel locker overnight so that I can get that working with this first

On that, are they the units for the 16amp unit ? You'd think they'd have a wired momentary switch here as an option as well as the stats

kenmc

Nah these are 10a/gang

Or do you mean the temp sensor? No that will be me soldering directly to the circuit board

kenmc

Ah I think i see what you're getting at; you're going to hide a sonoff remote behind the face plate, wired to those momentary buttons, and use that to trigger the sonoff 4ch via rf? Nice solution, and yeah those batterys will last eons.

But did you also say you were going to wired those buttons to the sonoff directly? On the same switchplate as the remote? Be worried that would mess up your settings as it would effectively get 2 triggers, one from the rf, one from the switch directly....

Stoner

kenmc wrote:

But did you also say you were going to wired those buttons to the sonoff directly? On the same switchplate as the remote? Be worried that would mess up your settings as it would effectively get 2 triggers, one from the rf, one from the switch directly....

I might do that but it would be either or.

TBH I think the wifi RF bridge will address the issue.

However the wiring the button on would only be in cases where I could not get to the button, an extension as such.

kenmc

Stoner wrote: »

I might do that but it would be either or.

TBH I think the wifi RF bridge will address the issue.

However the wiring the button on would only be in cases where I could not get to the button, an extension as such.

Yeah that will do what you need for sure; i built one to go with my openhab to control energenie RF sockets, so that i could control them from openhab by going from mqtt to 433, and also so that openhab could listen out for me pressing the remote control also, by going 433 to mqtt to update openhab.

https://github.com/1technophile/OpenMQTTGateway
i used that

Stoner

kenmc wrote:

Yeah that will do what you need for sure; i built one to go with my openhab to control energenie RF sockets, so that i could control them from openhab by going from mqtt to 433, and also so that openhab could listen out for me pressing the remote control also, by going 433 to mqtt to update openhab.

We're you just lucky that the energenie remote worked or did you open that up when you flashed the units ?

Lightwaverf 433mhz wouldn't work for me on out of the box units.

kenmc

Stoner wrote: »

These are the momentary switches.

NO 16mm Metal Momentary Round Push Button Switch N.O. Normally Open https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00HZY9Q3G/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_V93eAbSHB794D

Where did you find brushed plates at 1.50? I'm not seeing anything below 4 or 5 gbp....

kenmc

Stoner wrote: »

We're you just lucky that the energenie remote worked or did you open that up when you flashed the units ?

Lightwaverf 433mhz wouldn't work for me on out of the box units.

Just lucky. Figured i'd just give it a whirl for the hell of it. I also have a silvercrest set of sockets i picked up in lidl or something, this remote works too, although I disklike it as the buttons are more rubbery than hard, so the action is not as nice a feel as the energenie one.

I've spend time before playing with these sockets with arduino and an ebay 433 TX/RX board set, and know the energenie ones behave well whereas the silvercrest is a bit less reliable

It worked for me on both stock and tasmota flashed unit, i tested everything stock first.

Stoner

kenmc wrote:

Where did you find brushed plates at 1.50? I'm not seeing anything below 4 or 5 gbp....

AET FSC1GBP Single 1-Gang Satin Chrome Flat Electrical Blanking Plate https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00ZXZ6WLI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_FiZqSLwOWYivr

Stoner

Sorry I paid 2.80 to the 1 50 ones were crap.

I have these now, took a while to come in but they are good quality have a fly earth connection too. Necessary if you have 220 in connectors behind it.

kenmc

Stoner wrote: »

AET FSC1GBP Single 1-Gang Satin Chrome Flat Electrical Blanking Plate https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00ZXZ6WLI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_FiZqSLwOWYivr

Nice, thanks for the link.

There are also 12mm versions of your push buttons btw, so you could potentially get a 2x2 grid of them on a single gang faceplate.

Also both 12 and 16 mm versions are available with 'angel eyes' leds which encircle the button; given that the buttons all toggle to ground, it would be possible to run ground, 3.3v and 4 switches down a cat 5 cable, and have up to 4 backlit switches per sonoff.

e.g. these

Stoner

I looked at lit buttons. I haven't a hope of getting a cat 5 Cable anywhere, I wired the place myself the original switch drops are tight as hell and I've wooden floors everywhere now anyway.

Thanks for the info.

kenmc

Looks like the author of tasmota has just added support for toggle switches, rather than just momentary, so it should be able to detect both MAKE and BREAK actions on those switches. Which would mean that you are not restricted to push buttons any more. It MIGHT also mean that e.g. a 1-10v led dimmer with latching push on/off could be used, if there were 2 sets of contacts, one for the on/off of the balast, and one for the dimming voltage.

Literally added that functionality this afternoon, i've not had a chance to play with it yet, but if it works, then it could be a nice solution for how to do dimming leds

Stoner

kenmc wrote:

Literally added that functionality this afternoon, i've not had a chance to play with it yet, but if it works, then it could be a nice solution for how to do dimming leds

Yes indeed. On off Control on the app with manual dimming

kenmc

Dunno why I didn't think of it before, but sonoff do touch light switches, which can also be flashed with tasmota. Physical control of the switches, Wi-Fi too, and normal lighting wiring, once you have neutral at the switch, which I can spec anyway. Seems obvious, going to order one for test.... only prob is my rental doesn't have neutral at the switch so can't set it up in real life, only on a demo board.

Typical bloody engineer, overengineering things.

10-10-20

So that's two of us in the OpenHAB2 camp!
I'm setting it up to manage some rads and possibly then onto replace an alarm system, all via z-wave for transport and running on Ubuntu.

How do you find OpenHab? I find the documentation poor, but I have worked through setting up z-wave and also getting some basic rules to work. Persistence is a pig to understand, but I have the basics now too.
Have you integrated it with IFTTT or how do you pull all of the sequencing together, or are you just after "simple logic" with the lights?

kenmc

Ditto, very hard to figure stuff out in the documentation, but there's reasonably good forum support.

I've got 2 Ikea lights which I can control brightness and white balance. Also a sonoff basic which does the Xmas tree lights. Presence is done by mobile phone appearing on the Wi-Fi network, it turns on one of the Ikea lights in the hall. I had my wife's phone working too, but for some reason it keeps disconnecting and reconnecting to Wi-Fi so was making the light come on during the night. Solved that by ignoring any connections after 11.30 at night.

Other things: parses the Dublin bus realtime info for the nearest stop and displays the next 2 bus times. Also displays weather info from wunderground and my own weather station and indoor temp sensors.

Can control the lights with google home using ifttt to send a voice string to openhab for rules parsing.

I had a nodemcu bridging Wi-Fi and 433mhz for control of my power sockets but I broke that

That's really all I've got working so far. Must implement a "I'm leaving home" button for the front door to knock off all lights at once.