Tell us why we should unexpectedly come to love your hobby.

  • λλλ@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    Home Automation. It can be as simple as buying a hub and some devices. But, I went the self-hosted route using Home Assistant to give me more control of what it can do.

    I have some automations that turn on a certain set of lights on when the sun sets and off when it rises. It’s pretty simple, but saves electricity because I used to leave my front porch light on 24/7.

    I just set up an automation last night that sends me a discord notification when the laundry machine finishes and the same for the dryer. I can’t hear the beeping because I am always too far from the laundry room. This one has me so excited!

    I’ve seen people automate gardens which seems really neat. Really, your only limit is your imagination. I also just really like having an app on my phone to toggle power to random lights and fans around my house. It helps me get out of bed because I can turn the fan off when I’m cold in bed.

    • penguin@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      My favourite one I’ve done so far: I put a motion sensor near where my cat goes every morning when she wants to look outside. This then opens the blinds enough for her to see.

      This works better than a simple timer because the blinds are loud enough to wake us up sometimes and she doesn’t want to necessarily look outside every day.

      • λλλ@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        I think it’s a lot more intimidating than it is actually hard. You could get a Raspberry Pi, Alternative, or a Home Assistant Yellow. Then there guides that can get you going in minutes. It’s actually a pretty good time with the latest update introducing better onboarding.

        I am not trying to convince you. But, I don’t want to see anyone scared out either.

    • TheInsane42@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m messing with domoticz, but looking to home automation as well. I got an RF link from a colleague and I’m now managing light via the socket units of 3 mutual incompatible systems and it works great. I’m thinking of combining it with zigbee and see if I can do more nice things, as range is my biggest issue now.

      • λλλ@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        t an RF link from a colleague and I’m now managing light via the socket units of

        I have been waiting on Thread/Matter to be bigger and more adopted before I buy most devices. Everything I use right now is on Wi-Fi (using ESPHome). But, I am in no rush. Just having fun slowly building it out. :)

        • TheInsane42@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I just had the Dutch system Klik aan klik uit (kaku), both the old and the new units. Those 2 versions are incompatible and this way I can use both. I used just the new system, but with adding the old units as well I can now make nicer scenes. (turn lights on in a natural ‘entering the room’ order and turn them off the other way around, mimicking leaving the same room.

          I’m just messing about as well and I don’t want to use wifi, that’s why I’m half looking at zugbee. (And Ikea uses that system, so I guess it’ll be available for a while)

          • λλλ@programming.dev
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            1 year ago

            I was worried about drowning out my network with Wi-Fi devices but I don’t want to invest in Z-Wave or Zigbee unless Thread falls through. Here’s to hoping 🤞

            • TheInsane42@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Here it’s just rf433 for now. No need for more (apart from messing around with new stuff). As far as I understand Zigbee doesn’t use wifi, but it can be in the 2.4 GHz band.

    • jefff@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      My people! I knew I was starting to get into it when I built some multisensors and a garage door switch controlled by esp32s. Still haven’t done too many very complex things with automations, basically situational lighting and so on.

        • jefff@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Nah, I just put a relay and esp32 together and connected it alongside the garage door switch (super old school). It sits on top of the opener in a little enclosure. I originally controlled it with mqtt, but later reflashed the esp with esphome.

          • λλλ@programming.dev
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            1 year ago

            Nothing wrong with that! Cool beans! I haven’t tried either. My garage has too much stuff to hold a car so the door is rarely opened.

    • DishItDash@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I would love to get into HA more, and I have it installed and working on my RPi, but the technical aspects are overwhelming. I’m very techy but I wish HA had a “simple” mode the same way my 3D printing software does. That allowed me to become actually decent at printing at a reasonable pace.

      • λλλ@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        I feel like I usually am just pressing buttons on a website. But, I admit it can be a bit confusing…

      • λλλ@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        I am using a Shelly EM to monitor the power usage of two circuits, One phase of the Dryer and the whole circuit for the Washing Machine. Monitoring only one phase of a two-phase circuit makes it inaccurate. But, I just did one phase because I only care to know if it’s off or on.

        I used ESPHome to add it to HomeAssistant and this guide to setup the automation.

    • Zonetrooper@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The Discord notification thing actually is actually a really cool idea. That’s where it feels like it moves from hobby into daily practical use kind of stuff.

      One question I have, if you don’t mind - did the washer/dryer come with some smart functionality, or did you have to do somethin like opening them up and wiring into the electrical line for the beep speaker to sense voltage?

      • λλλ@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        My washer/dryer has no smart functionality. I explained it here but I put a device in my breaker box with a clamp on the two lines and that just sends the current to Home Assistant. I read a bunch before I ever tried it and many people have put vibration sensors in/in their dryers. But, this way seems more reliable.

        I did my laundry 3 hours faster than usual today because I actually knew when it was done. Worth it to me.