homeassistant

I bought 2 MYGGSPRAY. I’ve been using them for about 3 months now. They show up as 100% on Home Assistant but is it showing the wrong numbers or is it just sipping the battery? How about your experience?

I recently had to replace an old Zigbee bulb that had stopped working properly. How do you handle this? Do you manually replace all instances of this device in all automations, scenes, etc.? Or is there a magic button I am not aware of that makes this easier? At least I could use Spook to let me know which places I need to look at, but especially for scenes it is a pain because you need to reconfigure the settings for the device manually.

Heyo

In the summer, I stick box-fans in the windows, pulling in nice cool air and pushing off the use of AC by a couple months

Of course, since these are cheap CT fans, all they have is a rotary dial (0-3), and no real ability to automate.

I decided to add a 3 channel controller on AliExpress

Since my goal is high WAF, everything needs to work via the orinal controls. This allowed me to still use the original rotary dial, while giving me a HA override

Installation was fine, largest annoyance was the fan was original a switched neutral. Once I figured that out, I moved to a switch hot layout, and the tested. Turned on fan... Err, fine.

Threw in shoe glue as adhesive, and wire protection, and put 'er back together

So. I have a nice HA system setup at home, based on a VM with lots of sensors and offline control. All good.

It's getting to that time where I'm looking to simplify my Mother's apartment so that she can use voice to turn on the lights, TV, etc.

She's completely embedded in the Amazon / Alexa ecosystem...

As I've built up a non-cloud, offline self-hosted setup over the years, I've no idea where to start with a very simple, but obviously cloud-connected system for her to use Alexa.

What's the best way here? HA Green? Intel NUC?

I don't need any LLMs - she's got Alexa for that... so I think even a Pi would be fine.

Anyone recently done something similar?

I now have everything migrated from my Nortek HUSBZB-1 combo stick to the ZBT-2 and ZWA-2 antennas. The difference is night and day, both networks are much more responsive and stable. I have roughly 20 z-wave devices and 30 or so zigbee devices, if that helps.

The migration for zigbee was literally just clicking a button. Z-Wave would have also been a single button, but unfortunately it would've required upgrading my HUSBZB-1 (which would require soldering and flashing). It's not the fault of the ZWA-2, though, so I wasn't mad about it and knew what I was getting into. I had to exclude and include all of the z-wave devices, but in the end, it was well worth it.

Seriously, if you're having network issues with either protocol, you might just need one of these antennas and you'll be set.

Rachelle and I bought our house in Richmond in late 2022 and moved in early 2023. The ULTRALOQ U-Bolt Pro Z-Wave Smart Lock was the very first smart device I installed after setting up Home Assistant.

Requirements

Our must-have requirements were the lock must work with Home Assistant, and it must have a fingerprint sensor. Everything else was just nice-to-haves.

The setup

After doing lots of reading about smart locks and Home Assistant, I eventually landed on the ULTRALOQ U-Bolt Pro Z-Wave Smart Lock. We have the same lock on both the front door and the back door btw!

I did have to install their app in order to set up users and modify PINs and such. But I only have to use their app if I'm updating users.

• Controller: Home Assistant Z-Wave JS
• Radio: Home Assistant Connect ZWA-2
• Locks: ULTRALOQ U-Bolt Pro Z-Wave Smart Lock

First impressions vs. now

Physically installing the locks was pretty straightforward, and the instructions were clear. The Z-Wave onboarding workflow was the standard one for Z-Wave devices. You put Home Assistant and the device in pairing mode, and then you confirm with the PIN from the device. Easy peasy.

I'd say the build quality is average. It's nothing to write home about but the locks seem sturdy enough. I've had to tighten the mounting screws up at least once over the past 3½ years, which I think is a normal and expected thing, so no points off there.

Living with them day to day

The #1 usability requirement for us was the fingerprint sensor on the lock. We did not want to have to mess with keys or fish out our phones or even enter a code to unlock the doors. So the main way, other than our arriving-home automations, that we unlock the door is with our fingerprints.

The fingerprint reader works fine. We often have to try the sensor twice, but it's not a huge problem. A more accurate sensor would be nice!

The other main use case is friends or pet sitters who come to feed the cats while we're out of town. For that, we just provide people with the door code and that has generally worked reliably. There was one time when our friends were trying to gain access in the afternoon when the front door lock was directly in the sun and had overheated or something. Our friend couldn't make the lock work. We had to unlock it remotely but that only happened once.

Reliability over 3½ years

I've had very few problems with the locks. As previously noted, we did have an issue with the lock overheating because it was directly in the sun during the summer, and it just kind of became unavailable for a little bit.

The coating on one of the fingerprint sensors has started to peel/flake, as you can see in the photo below. It doesn't seem to affect the accuracy of the sensor though as it still works fine!

The fingerprint sensor is in the center, and you can plainly see the coating has started to flake and peel. It still works fine! (Richmond, VA · July 2026)

I pulled the Home Assistant data, and we have to replace the batteries about every three months or so. We tried rechargeable, but they don't really work that well, so we went back to Energizer disposable. The gold standard would be a lock that was on mains power with a built-in battery backup. The main problem is that the locks don't seem to update their reported battery level until it drops to about 16%, so it basically goes from 100% to 16% (and sometimes straight to 0%) after 3 months.

(Richmond, VA)

Home Assistant / Z-Wave

Once I added the locks to Home Assistant, they work locally without their app. The only thing we need the app for is if we're modifying users/PINs.

Here are our main automations:

• Automatic locking: The locks automatically lock themselves after 10 minutes.
• Bed time locking: When the house goes into sleep mode, the locks automatically lock.
• People leaving locking: When Home Assistant detects someone has left the home zone, the locks automatically lock.
• Arriving home automatic unlock: When Home Assistant detects someone has returned home from being away, the doors automatically unlock. This one is probably my favorite!

What broke / what annoyed

Nothing has really flat out broken, but there are a few annoyances.

Fingerprint sensor and humidity

We live in Richmond, VA and it gets humid here in the summer. Every morning for about 2 months, both locks are beeping when we get up. Moisture has accumulated from humidity on the fingerprint sensor, and it's reading it like someone is trying to use the sensor. They just beep and beep and beep for a few hours in the morning. Both the front door and the back door have coverings. The front porch is a porch, of course, and the back porch has a big permanently attached awning, so neither lock is directly open to the elements. This is by far the #1 annoyance.

Beep beep beep (Richmond, VA · July 2026)

Unreliable battery reporting

As previously mentioned, the battery reporting is not very good. The locks only report their battery level when they get to about 16%, then it drops from 100% to 16% in an instant. It hasn't bit us yet, but it would be better if it would report the battery level in the way everyone expects it to.

More accurate fingerprint sensor

This is a minor quibble but it would be nice if the fingerprint sensor were more accurate. This has not been a deal breaker for us but still.

Verdict

★★★☆☆

Overall, the locks are fine. I'd give them three stars out of five. I think these specific locks are discontinued now, though, so even if I did want to recommend them, I don't think it's possible for someone to buy one new.

The perfect lock for our use case would be a Yale or Schlage lock that was officially in the Works with Home Assistant program, worked over Z-Wave, and had an accurate and moisture-resistant fingerprint sensor.

What's your favorite smart lock and why did you pick it?

Originally posted on my site: https://michaelharley.net/posts/2026/07/09/3-years-with-the-ultraloq-u-bolt-pro-z-wave-smart-lock/

Ich würde gerne dass #HomeAssistant meine Fahrtzeit zum nächsten Termin berechnet und mich frühzeitig benachrichtigt.
So ähnlich wie es die Waze App anbietet. Bei Google hat man das als Time to Leave bezeichnet.
Die Kalender sind per CalDav eingebunden.
Das ganze möchte ich gerne mit Travel Time von TomTom oder HERE realisieren. Wenn es etwas OSM basiertes gibt, wäre mir das noch lieber.

@homeassistantde
@homeassistant

Is this a good start? I have a few items connected to a philips hue bridge pro atthe moment. I want to expand to sensors for doors, windows, leaks and move my solar dashboard to HA.

Is this reasonable? I am aiming to get everything as matter if possible going forward and I guess I will only need the hue bridhe for the direct hue products like the sync box.

There are some notes specific to rpi installs, so give it a read if you run HAOS on that platform.

Raspberry Pi 5 users need a bootloader from at least 2025-02-12, otherwise the display output may freeze early during the boot. Update the bootloader before installing this update, using one of the following methods:

• Run rpi-eeprom-update -a while connected directly to the device (using a display and keyboard), prior to installing the OS update.
• Use Raspberry Pi Imager with a spare SD card to flash a bootloader update image to it.
• Alternatively, if you have an SSH terminal app installed, you can run ha os boards raspberrypi firmware update over SSH right after updating the OS.

Heyho,

I am an absolutely beginner when it comes to Smart Homes, but have some knowledge when it comes to coding, Linux, Docker and Co.

So, I decided to make my home smart and bought some stuff and hopefully I am now able to connect it somehow, but I am missing a good explanation/tutorial.

If I understand correctly then I should install some software on my minipc, connect it to my ZBT-2 which then form a Matter Controller which then can be somehow connected to the Matter lightbulbs. Is that general notion correct or am I already off? If it is correct, does anyone know a good tutorial for it? When I try to google Matter Controller I often find ready made ones and nothing on how to set it up on my own.

I bought the MiniPC because I want to set up a small home server, too, but that is largely unrelated.

I'm looking to add Thread/Matter to my existing setup (Pi4 running HA, Sonoff Zigbee controller/Zigbee2MQTT, Zooz Z-wave controller) in order to try out Ikea's new Matter switches. I have been doing a little bit of reading on Thread and Matter but I'm not sure which controller/hub would be best with my current setup.

It appears that a lot of these hubs include Zigbee and wifi radios, so would that interfere with my current Zigbee controller/network and/or wifi network (Pi is right next to my Wifi router)?

Secondly, is there a feature difference between different controllers? I saw the Aqara M100 as an inexpensive option, but I want to be sure it fully supports the feature of the BILRESA switches as I'd like to use the scroll wheels to control the brightness of my lights. Other options I saw were the Google Nest and Apple 4KTV, but I'd rather not use a Google product and don't have any Apple products in the house. I don't have a hard budget, but would of course prefer not to spend money that isn't necessary

Am I looking for a standard, accessible API, commitment standards to access?

I have to buy into battery and inverter tech soon...before I get up to speed with HA but I want to ensure I can link them

So, we have an exhaust fan at the roof and it doubles as a kitchen hood fan. The controls used to be on the hood, similar on what you'd have on a cheap desk fan with buttons 1-3 and only one can be pressed at a time. Some time ago a plastic broke from the mechanism and it allowed two buttons to be pressed at the same time and it fried the transformer by connecting two of the different voltage outputs together. I just bypassed the transformer and there's now just a single on-off switch, so the fan is either off or at full blast.

Now we're remodeling the kitchen and I'd like to get smart controls on the fan, as it'd be nice to have it automatically turn on after shower or sauna to remove the moisture and obviously there needs to be controls in the kitchen to turn the fan up when cooking.

I've searched around but haven't found a suitable controller for it which would have any kind of digital input. Modern fans around here seem to have logic built in and they can be controlled either via propietary systems or via 1-10VDC control, but as the current fan works I'd rather not throw several hundred euros for a new fan and some more for modifying the existing mounts at the roof.

There's all kinds of triac-controllers which would do the trick, but all I've found have only manual controls. So, does the hive mind have suggestions on what I could use?

I haven't checked the fan, but I'm guessing it's few hundred watts at max and there's absolutely no smart features in it. Give it some AC voltage and it spins, that's it. I'm happy with either few pre-set speeds or full variable via triac/whatever. I've got home assistant with z-wave running, but zigbee/thread/matter is fine too as I'm planning a migration to newer standard. For control esphome is an option too, but for the high voltage side I'd like to get something proper from a reputable vendor instead of soldering something together or getting a solid state relay for PWM via aliexpress.

Does anyone have experience integrating a Bryant mini-split Heat Pump? …. It’s made by Carrier so Carrier heat pump may be similar.

It looks like the strategy is

• install a “System Access Module”
• download Bryant home app
• set up and account
• connect the SAM to the account over WiFi
• there’s an integration which probably connects to the cloud service

This is going to be expensive, getting the SAM installed (new system so I don’t want to risk losing warranty by doing it myself) so I need to know what to expect and whether it is worth it

1. The unit has many modes and controls whereas traditional thermostat just holds a temperature. Will this let me automate additional modes like “dry”, fan speed, vent direction, etc?
2. Is there a better approach with local control? I have zwave, Zigbee, thread meshes so any of those would be ideal.
3. I have an old remotec ir blaster that I used on my previous ac, but have not yet tried on this one. Is that my only local choice?
4. Can anyone speak to ir blaster improvements since broadlink bought remotec? Is there anything worth buying an updated device?

Edit:

• installer quoted $500 parts and labor
• found the part on eBay for $300

That’s way more than I’m willing to spend, especially since it’s not local and I’m skeptical of any cloud service. I’ll have to try the IR blaster

This is my ESPHome configs that I use, the latest of which is an amp key holder that tracks what keys are plugged in.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/61250326

A crafted MeshCore node name could compromise any Home Assistant instance running meshcore-card as soon as someone viewed a dashboard with that card.

The same XSS (cross-site scripting) pattern appears to be present in MeshCore-Home-Assistant-Panel-v2 and its HACS variant

To be abundantly clear, and the post goes into detail why, this is not a bug in MeshCore but rather in how web dashboards are not properly sanitizing untrusted input. In this case, the untrusted input is via a field that any malicious MeshCore node could send.

Well worth a read and a follow on their Mastodon.

I've been searching for a while via Ecosia, Google etc. and on Reddit but I'm struggling to find an answer.

My parents are moving together with my grandma to a new house with a little annex for my grandma. They're planning to get Alexa's so that my grandma can call through to the other side of the house if she falls over or needs help. I would love for them not to end up giving every conversation they ever have to Amazon's servers... Is there any way to replicate this functionality in Home Assistant (i.e. call between satellites across the network)? If I can figure this out I'll build a self-hosted setup for them.

I really like the new Maintenance Dashboard. Trying to track batteries was one of the first things I did with my own dashboard, with automation. This seems like a small thing but an automatically generated dashboard to track batteries is so useful, especially for new people. Whoever worked on that: well done!

That being said, what’s next? Does anyone know how to find some sort of roadmap or backlog for this feature in particular?

Other things that would be useful here

• printer cartridge levels
• various filter ages and replacements

I have nine Aqara window sensors I use to turn thermostats on/off. They've been behaving erratically for the past few weeks, so yesterday I checked the battery status on one of them (can't remember which one) - steadily declining from >80% to around 35% now. Even showed the graph to my wife. So I bought ten new batteries - they came today. Earlier today I updated HA Core and restarted. Now, all my Aqara window sensor batteries read 100% - even for the entire last month! All of them! Can the Core update have messed with historical readings?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/46848072

I very recently became paralyzed in my left (and dominant) arm, fingers and foot, which believe it or not, was not planned for.

The timing was pretty bad, as I've just purchased a couple of ESP3266-boards, a soldering kit and two pressure mats with the the end goal of making a basic bad sensor (one mat for my girlfriend and my side). (Here's the guide I intend to follow: Make your own bed sensor)

The obvious issue is how one, as easily as possible, can accomplish this? Main issues right now are that I can't hold the board, the wires or anything in my hand.

Any and all tips are greatly appreciated.