This is mainly about bridging some of the "trendy apply shit" and "command line forever" types of working for home automation.
Background: I have done quite a bit for home automation here at the new house. There are thousands of IoT devices (smart sockets, lights, switches, all sorts). They all come with their own app, cloud service, and feature set, but thankfully most work using ESP8266 chipset and can be "reflashed" with tasmota. Tasmota is an open source IoT application, and very flexible. It is not that tasmota is "better" than the systems that come with these devices (though it usually is), more that almost any device from almost any manufacturer can be made to work in the same way with the same config. The main one I have been using of late is the Shelly 1, which is very easy to reflash and has a relay and switch input. I do, however, have a number of my own devices, including environmental monitors. The tasmota devices can do lots of automation and send messages to each other as needed. I have, however, tried to keep it simple so a light with a Shelly 1 will have the switch connected and will work the light based on the switch even with no WiFi or Internet working!
These all work over WiFi and connect to an MQTT server. MQTT allows devices to talk to each other using a "topic" (simple text string) rather than that pesky IP addressing stuff :-) But it is very much in the school of "command line" over "GUI".
Bring on apple!
I use an iPhone, but I have not bought in to their home automation. As I say, it is more "command line" for me. That is until now. After much nagging from my son, I have managed to link my Shelly 1 and other devices, including my own environmental sensors, to my iPhone!
- I have MQTT running on a Raspberry Pi in my loft. It is just apt install mosquitto. You may want to set up some security too.
- I installed homebridge. There is a Raspberry Pi image even. I just followed the instructions and it worked. Again, set a password!
- I installed the add on homebridge-tasmota plug in (just search on the plug in tab on the web config for homebridge).
- I sent a cmnd/tasmotas/SetOption30 1 to turn on Home Assistant Discovery on all my tasmotas.
- I added the homebridge to me "home" on my iPhone. It asked what room each device was in. It warns it is not an approved bridge :-)
It is worth pointing out it is not perfect. If devices are added afterwards they appear in the "room" where the iPhone thinks the homebridge is located. You can move them to the right room, and rename them, but it is not quite as stable - resetting things can move it back very easily. So I recommend getting on homebridge first then adding the bridge. It asked where each devices it when you do that. You can reset the bridge and re-add if needed.
As for my environmental monitors, I added the necessary home assistant discovery messages, and it works. I had to do a bit of trial and error, and reading the homebridge-tasmota plugin code, but managed to make it see Temperature, Humidity and CO2 properly. Again, it seems better if these are seen by the homebridge before adding the bridge to the iPhone.
But yes, it works. I am all GUI'd up now!
Another Tasmota feature I have just discovered is KNX support. I had to compile my own image as the pre-built KNX image released by Tasmota did not have support for my sensors. Now I have a number of cheep home brew sensors and relays (my garden irrigation system) talking with my house heating and lighting. Not the best use case but as an experiment that took less then 1 hour start to finish I'm quite happy :)
ReplyDeleteIf you're a fan of Tasmota, might also want to take a look at ESPHome. Unlike Tasmota it generates a custom firmware based on your configuration that only contains features you select. That means it can support a lot more devices, as well as central management of everything.
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