Smart Home shenanigans

[browellm]

Powerlines are generally bad.

[crimsondonkey]

@julian2002

Another thing I’d love to have is an electric garage door opener as basically I’m a lazy cunt. Has anyone had one retrofitted to an existing garage door? What’;s the hassle factor / cost - is it a whole new door or can they just strap a motor to it and call it job done?

I had a new remote controlled roller shutter door fitted to my garage which replaced an up and over, mainly to take advantage of more access height to fit the campervan in. I think it cost about a grand.

[AmDismal]

What I would like is a high power 5V line throughout the house, wherever there are power outlets or switches. That would drive USB power outlets and allow for Raspberry Pi devices everywhere. The Pi Zero is only a fiver, and it can run all manner of smart devices.

Regarding networking, I would strongly recommend a mesh-based system. Mine, using Ubiquiti Unifi, is rock solid, even more so than the home plugs (although they are also good). Most consumer grade networking stuff is just poor IME, spend the money.

[anon14766838]

@julian2002

blinds or shutters that can have automation added at a later date, etc.

we bought motorised roller blinds from an ebay shop called Great Blinds. They come with the Somfy motor (Somfy seem to have cornered the market here) which has a remote, and can be powered in a number of different way. Later on you can buy the Somfy hub, which will enable you to connect the blinds to an app, and to Alexa. So buy manual blinds that you know can be retro fitted with a Somfy motor, then add the hub or buy blinds with the motor and get the hub later.

[AmDismal]

@julian2002

Ethernet wiring to the lounge and 1st floor bedrooms

With this, you should use Ubiquiti Unifi rather than consumer mesh systems. The Unifi need to be connected via ethernet, and get their power via ethernet as well. The cables would be very tidy.

Consumer mesh systems like BT and Google whole home don’t need to each be connected to base, but you can lose performance because of how much they need to talk to each other.

[Valvebloke]

Your build is essentially done now. Most of mine (refurb) was done more than 20 years ago. I ran phone lines into almost every room (pretty much useless now). What I’d recommend to anyone who’s starting the process would be to bury reasonably wide-bore conduit with draw wires into the walls. These days tech seems to become obsolete quite quickly.

VB

[julian2002]

USB sockets would be good as a standard practice.

I’ve used TP link stuff in the past and it seems to last between 3 and 5 years before just failing. I’m willing to spend a bit on a decent wifi backbone as everything hangs off of it. I was looking at consumer grade solutions such as the Netgear Orbi and hadn’t really considered enterprise stuff - now I am, any chance of some details on your setup?

[julian2002]

@anon14766838

we bought motorised roller blinds from an ebay shop called Great Blinds. They come with the Somfy motor (Somfy seem to have cornered the market here) which has a remote, and can be powered in a number of different way. Later on you can buy the Somfy hub, which will enable you to connect the blinds to an app, and to Alexa. So buy manual blinds that you know can be retro fitted with a Somfy motor, then add the hub or buy blinds with the motor and get the hub later.

I am intimately familiar with Somfy and their gateway having visited their offices in Annecy a number of times so this sounds like a good plan - I’ll have a look on e-bay - great blind you say

@AmDismal

With this, you should use Ubiquiti Unifi rather than consumer mesh systems. The Unifi need to be connected via ethernet, and get their power via ethernet as well. The cables would be very tidy.

Consumer mesh systems like BT and Google whole home don’t need to each be connected to base, but you can lose performance because of how much they need to talk to each other.

I thought a mesh system didn’t need physically connecting to a router, the whole point being that you could use it in areas which were difficult to wire. More reading necessary…

[AmDismal]

My house is a long terrace, extended probably twice, with some annoyingly thick walls. I replaced a system that went through various iterations of range extenders and second WiFi systems via home plugs (neither system ever worked well) to a single, long range, Unifi. It is sited better than the router (higher up, away from other electronics), and covers the whole house well. I’ve considering getting another so the garden is covered, but since all the devices used in the garden have 4G I’m not sure there’s any point.

I just had to restart it for the first time ever, since something went wrong with the network and I just rebooted modem, router and Unifi. That’s once in well over six months.

[anon14766838]

@julian2002

I am intimately familiar with Somfy and their gateway having visited their offices in Annecy a number of times so this sounds like a good plan - I’ll have a look on e-bay - great blind you say

Great Blinds: Great Blinds | eBay Stores

They used to have a normal website as well, but that appears to have gone…

[AmDismal]

@julian2002

I thought a mesh system didn’t need physically connecting to a router, the whole point being that you could use it in areas which were difficult to wire

The consumer ones work this way, just one needs to be plugged in to the router. The Unifi needs a wired connection, which can either be to the router or you can daisy chain them.

[anon14766838]

The Somfy integration with Alexa works well, but is a faff to set up.

We have also been using Meross smart home plugs for side lights etc, and they integrate well with Alexa. https://www.meross.com/ available on Amazon. We have found it useful to buy a single brand, as that means a smaller number of apps to integrate with Alexa.

[edd9000]

Only one needs a wired connection. Once it’s setup you can disconnect it from the network and it will connect over the WiFi.

UniFi - UAP: Configuring Wireless Uplink

[catcando]

@julian2002

Another thing I’d love to have is an electric garage door opener as basically I’m a lazy cunt. Has anyone had one retrofitted to an existing garage door? What’;s the hassle factor / cost - is it a whole new door or can they just strap a motor to it and call it job done?

I purchased my own unit, and installed it on an up and over, wooden door. Wasn’t too difficult.
Something like this.

[htm_1968]

I use the BT WholeHome WiFi Mesh. We have a 3 story Edwardian semi with massively thick walls. There are 3 BT dishes, one on each floor. Everything just works. I’ve never had to reboot it. There are multiple PCs, TVs, phones, iPads and Sky Q boxes on this network. It simply does its job without causing trouble.

I use homeplugs for the music streaming side of things. My Vortextbox and NAS are noisy so are connected by a switch to a homeplug LAN. There are four streamers attached to this LAN . My new Innuos Zen will probably render the NAS and Vortexbox redundant. There are infrequent issues with this network, but all are typically resolvable by turning it off and turning it on again.

Retrofitting cables to this house is a no-no. Rewiring the electrics was bad enough. I couldn’t/can’t face the mess further cables would generate. Moreover, the BT mesh has largely rendered the whole idea redundant anyway

[sjs]

We had ethernet installed to most rooms when we rewired the house 10 years ago, now we have 8 port switches in several rooms. There is a wifi access point in the loft and it covers the house fine.

[anon14766838]

@sjs

now we have 8 port switches in several rooms

same here. I have slowly moved them over to switches that support PoE so we can power the IP cams easily

[AmDismal]

@edd9000

Only one needs a wired connection. Once it’s setup you can disconnect it from the network and it will connect over the WiFi

Arse, that piece of information will cost me £100 for another Unifi

[julian2002]

Starting to really like the idea of a Unifi based wifi backbone - does the ‘base uplink’ unit have to be connected to specific a unifi gateway / switch (the expensive looking rack mounted things in edd’s link or can they just be plugged into my consumer router / modem.

[julian2002]

Looks like the Ubiquiti mesh needs a controller pc or box which is fine but perhaps a bit more effort than i’m willing to go to - I did find this though.

https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/36089-netgear-srk60b03-100eus/

An enterprise version of the system I was originally looking at. Obviously lots to research