Centralite are quality product. Automate everything you want. When I think I might like that thing automated, that's my call to action. If renovating, well...
-
Lighting obviously, but with fade control is sweet. I don't personally have that, but it's something I would change. Most of the LED are just too prone to sudden drop off. It's going to get better for my children, but it seems they just can't get it as smooth as halogen was.
-
Shades. Depends on budget, but IKEA are close to release in North America.
-
Sensors! Put them in and use them when you think of what to do. There are always going to be uses.
-
Ethernet everywhere!
-
And outlets!!! Many.
Every room I am doing gets Lutron Caseta so no real fade control. They have their own fade down to off but you can't adjust that. I also can't change the color temps or bulb colors. I've though about getting a few hue color changing bulbs just to play around but aside from sexy time with the wife I can't justify their cost... LOL. My house is roughly 1300sq ft not including the same size basement. I don't have any issues with zwave and zigbee signals from one end of the house to the other although I did place a few repeaters around just to shore up my mesh...
I wanted to use the Lutron Caseta Shade motors with my Bali blinds I've been adding on each room but just couldn't justify the additional $500+ cost per shade for them... so I passed. I just bought more Centralite sensors off fleabay for both contact and motion... I love them and yes, they work well. I tried others and just wasn't happy with them.
Luckily my basement has drop ceiling and I've been running cat5/6 cables everywhere and a few to the attic for the Aeotec sensors to connect them via POE. I probably spend about a week standing in a room visualizing everything before I start the renovation just to cover all my base with everything I want to do. So far I've only screwed up and missed two things... I missed placing an outlet in a half bath and something else I can't think of right now... but they're really minor in nature... the Kitchen is going to make my head spin though with under counter lighting and placement of cans in the ceiling for lighting... my house was built in 1973 so it never had recessed lighting... I've been adding it myself.
Updated my earlier post regarding 2FA. Itās much better, and Iām happy to keep using this instead of an official Nest integration for as long as it works.
@SmartHomePrimer curious if you've tried re-starting your homebridge-nest lately? I did tonight and noticed that Nest is rejecting my username and password in the config.json file. I also visited the homebridge-nest website and I see they're now supporting the new google accounts. I may end up having to switch over. I'll have to look at this tomorrow but as of now, my nest protects in hubitat are broken.
Itās definitely still working. I changed the way I enter the 2FA because I had too. They stopped re-issuing the same 2FA number for a minute or two, so I have to leave it blank in the config.json file now and enter it to finish the Homebridge startup. Since doing that it has worked.
Iām not going to touch it until absolutely necessary, but it was working, and for now my detectors are available in HomeKit.
Crap. Just had to restart Homebridge and I'm getting the same error message.
The issue is Nest accounts now use a Google Recaptcha service and this causes a failure with 2FA. You can change to access token authentication and it will work for a month at a time.
I took a look at my Nest account (I only had the Nest Protects connected via Works with Nest), and I realized that as long as the connection stays active, using the Homebridge-Nest plug-in to trigger my lights is the only thing I needed from the old Nest account. This plug-in has been functioning well, as long as it stays connected, plus it keeps half the connection local. So I decided to update to a Google Nest account, since switching to an access token authentication would result in my having to fix the connection and reconfigure the HomeKit automations every month.
So far it's working fine, but it took me a bit to get the config.json file right. Think I just wasn't following the instructions properly the first time. Here's an example of what it should look like.
NOTE: The issueToken and cookies are really long. It wasn't clear to me at first that the cookies, for example, was longer just the first bit following OCAK=
{
"bridge": {
"name": "Homebridge",
"username": "1G:7N:4J:3S:9Q:8D",
"port": 45525,
"pin": "978-25-396"
},
"description": "Hubitat Integration",
"accessories": [],
"platforms": [
{
"platform": "Hubitat-MakerAPI",
"name": "Hubitat",
"app_url": "http://192.168.0.113/apps/api/0923",
"access_token": "w5gt44sd-op99-6s09-7220-0234765n3820",
"polling_seconds": 300,
"temperature_unit": "C",
"mode_switches": false,
"hsm": false
},
{
"platform": "Nest",
"googleAuth": {
"issueToken": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/iframerpc?action=issueToken...",
"cookies": "OCAK=TOMPYI3cCPAt...",
"apiKey": "AIzaS..."
}
}
]
}
This is good to know! I havenāt had time to sit down and fix this yet in my own setup but will have to do so soon. Iām going to assume that by moving to a google account we shouldnāt have any issues with adding additional protects into the system now.... hopefully.
1 Like
I would assume no, but Google being Google...
I got mine working tonight again with a google home account. Pretty simple actually. Now to pick up another protect for my laundry room to see if I can add another one in.
1 Like
I added a new Nest Protect tonight. Went well and got it added to hubitat with the same instructions as adding the original ones. No issues!
I do have a question for you @SmartHomePrimer, how are you handling how smoke and co2 are detected / cleared as far as automations go in Home? I see an option to turn on a switch (in this case the switch that also controls the virtual switch in Hubitat to then run a rule in Hubitat, however, that automation has an auto turn off after a certain amount of time or never? How can the switch be flipped back say in the event that the smoke clears (bacon got burnt) to turn off lights and lock doors, etc... I don't see a way to setup an automation for smoke or co2 cleared?
1 Like
Yeah, I don't think cleared is an available option. Might be useful. You could reach out to the devs on that one. Adrian Cable did respond within a day when I created an Issue report - Issues Ā· chrisjshull/homebridge-nest Ā· GitHub
I just have mine setup so that I have to manually clear my resulting automation. I figure that since the Nest Protect has the two stages (warning and then detected), we shouldn't have the occurrence very often, or at all where we have to reset HSM. I don't really know what the mode switch option does in the config.json, but I think it's for the thermostats (which I don't own).
Have you ever had a false alarm from burned bacon or anything? That's what I like so much about them. We burned something once and got a warning, but it never proceeded to alarm because we cleared the smoke fast enough to satisfy it I guess.
Can you test something for me? When you take a look in homekit at the actual Protect that should show 3 sensors (if you have the 120v model), you should see a sensor for motion... when you walk by it, motion detection should show active, but how long after you walk by it does it go back to deactive if at all? Mine seems to take forever or not until I reboot my hubitat hub for some reason.
I'm trying to use motion activation of my nest protect at the top of my stairs to activate a light instead of using an iris motion sensor.
I have never had an actual event with mine. I don't smoke anymore either so I can't test what would happen if smoke was present for a period of time like I used too in the past. I'd like to be able to actually test the automation portion of homekit to ensure it actually triggers an event like I'm telling it to do. I was trying to test that theory with motion sensing, but I'm concerned because motion turns on, but then never turns off, it's like once motion senses on, it's always on after that even when there is no motion.
Nevermind, apparently the motion not turning off right away is normal behavior with these things. Found this on the close issues of the nest-homekit github:
"It is quite timely. When the motion sensor detects movement, it triggers within a few seconds. (It takes a little while - a couple of minutes - to turn off after detection.)"
Ah man, I would but I only have the battery versions. No motion sensor shows up on mine.
LOL, I use a Sylvania at the top of my stairs. practically the same sensor 
There must be something about that app, because I recall having it with the Hubitat Nest Integration that was short lived thanks to Google. Or am I mistaken?
I used incense when I first got one. It worked, but I imagine the oil from it isn't a great thing to expose the sensor to. Once is probably fine though. Definitely wear hearing protection and do it when the family isn't around.
never thought to use incense... good call! Have to pick a stick up at the store next time I go. But I did get motion working to turn a light on, the only issue is the huge delay in the protect changing motion to not detected. So for my application, on a staircase, if I trigger the light, and it turns off a minute later, but the protect doesn't stop motion for over 5 minutes, and I come back to the stairs after the light is out before the 5 minutes is up, then it never re-triggers the light to turn back on. I'll stick with my regular iris sensors for motion. Too bad, would have been useful with not having to change a battery out. I'll have 3 motion sensors dedicated to just my staircase alone.
[Update]
Google has changed the original authenication method. Only the Google Account Cookie Method will work. Use the incognito method described here.
NOTE: I cannot confirm if this is going to work with the homebridge-nest plug-in. After many failed attempts, I ended up having success with a HACS integration for Home Assistant that is based on the homebridge-nest plugin (specifically version 0.3.12 of the Nest Protect integration for Home Assistant is what is working for me).
If you are running Home Assistant with Home Assistant Device Bridge, I highly recommend this integration as it's easier to work with since no virtual devices and HomeKit automations are required, plus it exposes control over the Nest Protect settings that the homebridge-nest plugin does not.
2 Likes
