I don't have power to the window, it's just near the front door, surrounded by brick wall. I tried to pair it with my Bond bridge, but without luck.... I just manually tap the remote when I get up and in the afternoon if I think of it. Nice looking remote though....
Yeah, you've probably got the same remote as me. Honestly, we mostly use the remote. The main times I use the hub are when we're away from home and it's about to start pissing rain, I drop the blinds. That's kinda neat to be able to do. One of my little todo projects is to have the blinds drop automatically if the BOM says it's going to rain. I thought about getting a weather station to detect rain then drop my blinds. That'd be cool.
The EcoWitt was only about $150 for one with rain, wind, temperature, humidity and other stuff like UV and maybe pressure, plus an indoor temperature and humidity sensor. You just need to mount it somewhere. There's also a fair group of users here as well. But no pressure, it's not just because I ended up looking after the driver.... 
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Hopefully I don't come across as trolling but I honestly fail to see the benefit of connecting your home alarm to HE (especially if it's new and has the ability to run its own app and use a dialler that can be upgraded to 4G). If it's an old system where upgradability is limited this is a different question altogether.
Note: if you do this you'll also need to consider a decent/hefty UPS for all your networking gear as your alarm notifications will no longer work if a crim cuts off your power.
I would not have a fridge connected to a "smart" powerpoint. If you accidentally turn it off, well....
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All good, mate. I'm happy for others to share their opinion, even if it disagrees with mine! I'm not wedded to my ideas.
My reasoning was that I don't plan to get back-to-base monitoring and happy to self-monitor in combination with surveillance cameras located around the perimeter. I'm happy to do the install myself (as opposed to getting an alarm company to do it). I worked in the electronic security industry for a while, so understand enough to set it up myself. I wanted to get away from battery powered devices and reasoned that getting a 'dumb' security system and hooking it into HE (via Konnected) for me to be able to monitor it and share duties with PIRs placed around the house to do some automation would be useful. I'm not up on the current crop of alarm systems, so you may well be right. There might be a better way to do it. Any recommendations?
No worries. If you want the PIR sensors to do double duty then it's all good and Konnected is really your only option. Of course this only works with wired sensors and if you are planning on using wireless PIR in your alarm then konnected won't bring these into HE.
AFAIK there is no alarm solution that has an API accessible by a HA system which I guess is understandable.
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I’m pretty sure ring does, but it’s a cloud API.
Was thinking more of the dedicated alarm vendors like Bosch, DSC, Ness etc which uses wired sensors. These sensors are also way ahead of the stuff used in HA and the likes of ring, eufy etc with much better discrimination circuitry and even combined PIR/microwave.
In any case looks like ring security systems are no longer part of the product range according to the ring website?
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Saw where Nest was dropping it security line, and where Ring is discontinuing their desktop apps, but AFAIK Ring is still keeping its Ring Security line going… at least over here in the States.
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Yes, you're dead right. The tech in proper security PIRs is way ahead of the dinky HA stuff most people use. For one, pet immunity is important to us as we have a dog. Our dog sets off our ZigBee HA PIRs all the time, turning the lights on in our entryway. Proper security PIRs also have much better heat fluctuation immunity so streaks ahead for proper detection of intruders without as many false alarms.
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Yeah I have to disable our ecovacs Deebot N8 Pro from running while we are on holidays as it sets off the the Aeotec motion sensors.
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This. I would hardwire contact sensors for every door (including interior ones) and windows back to Konnected. Also PIRs everywhere.
The alarm integration with Konnected is nice, but using sensors in automations is my number 1 use for Konnected.
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Maybe something from the Clipsal Wiser range? They are Zigbee. Don't know much else about them but would be worth investigating for a new build.
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I'm in a similar boat to you - building a new house and trying to sort out my smart tech. I had a few things in the old house and have accumulated some gear for the new house. Happy for comments/suggestions.
My current smart home gear:
HUBS
- 2 x C7 HE Hubs (Just arrived today)
- 1 x C5 HE Hub
- 1 x ST v3 Hub
- 1 x Phillips Hue Hub (I had about 30 Phillips Hue downlights plus around 10 normal Hue bulbs in the old house I knocked down)
- 1 x Automate Pulse 2 Hub for the smart blinds
NETWORK
- Unifi Pro Controller
- Unifi Pro 24 Port POE Switch
- 2 x Ceiling mounted APs (wifi 6 LR and Nano)
- 1 x Wall mounted AP with 4 x LAN ports (1 POE passthrough). I intend to buy some more and distribute them through the house, probably office, Home Theatre, Living and Rumpus. I will have no wifi deadspots, even though I will be connecting to ethernet wherever possible.
- Cat 6 LAN cabling throughout I am setting up a data closet under the stairs to house my network rack and equipment with extraction fans venting out into the garage.
LIGHTING
The builder is supplying 5 x Clipsal Wiser bluetooth switches downstairs as part of the package. I have asked for these to be changed to the wiser zigbee mechs which are zigbee 3.0. Don't know if they will work with HE or not. (Does anyone here know ?) But even if they do, it's too expensive to use the wiser gear throughout the house. I have over 100 downlights so I won't be swapping those out for Phillips Hue - I have about 30 Hue downlights and it's too much coin to change another 70 odd lights. I was thinking more of inline controllers behind the switches. Either Shelley or something like the Aeotec Nano controllers (I have a couple of those I bought to test still in boxes.)
Outside I have some Phillips Hue exterior Lights and a Phillips Hue outdoor motion sensor for the front of the house.
SMART SWITCHES/GPOs
I'm probably more interested in making the dumb switches and GPOs smart by using inline controllers as above to keep the aesthetics, rather than swapping out switches and GPOs. Again, thinking of Shelley or Zigbee or Z-Wave
POWER MONITORING
I am going to set up an Iotawatt monitoring system at the switchboard. Have used SMA Home Manager and Smappee previously - Smappee died and was never that accurate anyway and SMA is a closed system. I have a 13Kw Solar system using a 10Kw SMA Tripower inverter. I uploaded to PVOutput for years so want to get that set back up when I move in. Iotawatt measures up to 14 circuits and is open source. I'm thinking of using the older C5 HE hub to monitor this exclusively so it doesn't slow down the the C7 hubs with constant reporting.
BLINDS
I have the Automate Pulse 2 to control my motorised blinds but believe I can control it directly from HE using a community driver.
CEILING FANS
I ended up going for Fanco Infinity ID Smart DC fans which use the Tuya Smartlife app I believe. I would love to have these integrated into HE so they could automatically turn on and off depending on temperature or if the aircon is running e.g. reverse in winter if the aircon is set to heat.
AIRCON
Actron Air using NEO wifi controllers. I would love to integrate this but there is very little information available. Apparently the third party Coolink bridge can enable this, but costs around $1,000. Actron Air do claim to support integration with home automation, but this is the only information I can find on their website and their customer support doesn't know: "Our ducted systems (excluding the ESP Platinum) provide you with an optional bridging platform that, when used in conjunction with an ActronAir BMS card, can assist in integrating with over 40 home automation systems, including Control 4, Savant, Elan, Vantage, Push and KNX"
IRRIGATION
Rachio 3 - works great.
APPLIANCES
I have a new Samsung Family Hub fridge in the kitchen (hence why I'm hanging onto the ST Hub for the moment). I understand that Alexa is being added to it through a software update, so it can operate as a giant Echo Show. I have Alexa in most rooms.
My Ovens, rangehood, dishwasher washer and dryer are all Miele and talk to the Miele App to send you notifications etc. I haven't seen any integrations written with HE or any other home automation systems including Home Assistant, so I think this is a closed shop.
SECURITY
Hanwha Wisenet 16 channel NVR and 9 cameras. Most have AI built into the cameras but I haven't had time to set them up on the bench and explore the functionality.
Ring Pro 2 doorbell
Samsung SHP-DR708 Smart Lock. I'm hoping I can integrate this with HE or ST .
I was thinking of replacing the supplied NESS alarm with a Bosch series 3000. I don't really use the alarm much as someone is home most of the time. Even if I didn't use the alarm per se, it would be good to be able to utilise the hard wired PIRs for home automation as they are Tri Tec PIRs that won't get triggered by my pets.
SENSORS AND BUTTONS
I have a heap of ST sensors both new and used, including multisensors, motion, water leak and arrival sensors. I had a a fair few already and was walking past the local JB Hi Fi one day last year when they were offloading all of their ST gear to get rid of it a super cheap prices, so I snapped up a heap. I also have another box full of various Aeotec and Fibaro sensors and other gear I bought on sale to try out including motion, contact, multisensors, glass sensors Fibaro implant (I'm thinking I'll use this on the garage door) and some Aeotec nano, dual and dimming switches)
I recently picked up some Flic 2 buttons to use to trigger Alexa routines. I'm not sure if these will work with HE. The only thing I haven't got is some range extenders, I'll look at that once I'm in and can see if the zigbee and Z-Wave network are sstable or not.
I've got a fair bit of work ahead planning this out for the new house - I'm currently unassigning all of my old sensors and labels as I'll have to start from scratch. Despite all of the gear I have and owning a HE for a couple of years, I never really had the time to really get this working the way I wanted to and only was running some very basic rules. Being in a rental while the house is being built has meant most of the stuff has been packed away for the last eight months. So I really want to get this implemented right the first time and really think about how I want the automations to work.
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Have you considered simplifying your lighting design to save money? 100 lights seems like a lot! Our 4 bed 2 bath house has about 30.
It's a big house - 52 Squares. It sounds a lot - and is, but we have dimmable LED downlights throughout except over the Kitchen bench and at the top of the stairs. Interestingly, When I had a look at the display home ours is modified from, I counted around 100 lights in that one too.
That's why I'm looking at using something like a Shelley 1 or Aeotec Nano to make the lights smart. I'll leave the wiser zigbee control in the 5 light points it's installed in if it works with everything else, but look for a cheaper alternative to control the other lights.
Thanks for the detailed writeup. You've given me a couple of new ideas to explore. I think we share some thinking in that I too want to avoid smart end points and instead have as much as possible built into the switchboard or at the very least the wall. We'll likely have lots of downlights too. Not as many as you though. You win there! I've seen discussion of izone for ducted a/c control. I'm going explore that more.
I can see a tonne of leftover gear at the end of this process. I'll definitely get that buy/sell thread going I've mentioned previously!
Thanks. I'll check it out. One thing that would bug me is if the dumb GPOs look different to the smart GPOs. Hopefully being Clipsal, it all looks the same.
That's one reason I went with Clipsal Iconic plates and mechs with Aeotec nano's (z-wave modules) - with those you can install them behind the switch plate with Clipsal momentary switches and no one will ever know what they are (very High WAF as a result).
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Btw if any Aussies want to upgrade their C7 to external antennas, I found all the correct parts on Element 14 to make life easier for folks. I’ve ordered the parts for myself and will have them in a few days. The cost was $72 delivered.
