Things I am looking/hoping for

Looking for recommendations on contact/vibration sensors that are high sensitivity for a staircase lighting application! ( pretty much I want my stair led strips on both sides to light/flash when vibration sensor is triggered. Easy peasy) bought AQARA Vibration sensors but having issues with hubitat communicating with them. I read of some issues and updates so I will try again Friday before I return them.
Any help with Aqara is appreciated, they were highly reviewed on amazon.

Like a lot of people, I love the lovelace ui on home assistant, mainly the floorplan ui.
Would love a mirror application or support added but I'm sure it's been requested.

However, as a work around, does anyone know of any dashboard applications (currently use sharptools) or user app codes for the typical tile dashboards that allow for custom background images/wallpapers, etc?
I'm sure given the ability to change the background image to a custom image I can have more fun.

If anyone knows of any cool tips or tricks, I would love to hear it!

Also looking for a motorized device, that I can makeshift to attach lights, a zigbee sensor , and use it to have spotlights that are motion sensors to travel light against a wall that between 2 points, or more if I could. Pretty much looking into dj lights without going full fledged motion tracking and integrating it hubitat and making it a smart device somewhat. Contemplating a motion tracking camera that move and attaching spotlight led, or a full fledged motion spotlight. Ideally something in between as the space for its location will not be too large.

Also one last thing. I am willing to get the $100 raspberry kit and linking home assistant to hubitat... in my head it seems possible, but has anyone had success or found easier or better workarounds? Again , going for a lovelace type of ui for some tablet controllers. Thanks again for the help! Programmers and computer stuff is interesting and cool!!! Wish I learned this growing up!

Two iris motion sensors and an LED by sylvania. Turns a random color when tripped. Just for fun!

As for your other items. I got nothing. But I'll be following.

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What is the vibration sensor going to detect? Someone on the stairs walking? Wondering if the Iris Sensor with a tube that @mike.maxwell has modified may work better for the application, one at top and one at the bottom. Of course more details may help assist in a recommendation. The iris Motion sensor can be picked up in a 10 pack lot for $55 bucks or so. These are great motion sensors.

@april.brandt beat me to the post. Hope it helps.

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You can mirror many of your HE devices to HA and vice versa using the MQTT app. It supports MQTT auto discovery into HA and HA statestream discovery into HE.

There is also a HA integration that will connect to HE using Maker API that will mirror HE to HA but not vice versa.

Both of these would allow you to utilise lovelace inc floorplan UI with HE devices. If you only want HE > HA then although less capable in other areas this is easier to setup.

You don't need to do this, both can work without. With MQTT you do need a broker somewhere but HA has an integrated one (although some people have reported issues with it).

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You can make the Aqara work better by careful planning of your Zigbee network and adding specific Zigbee repeaters only, like IKEA Trådfri outlets and repeaters, but it's easier to just buy Samsung Multisensors. But for the stairs, I agree that motion sensors with the @mike.maxwell method is probably more what you need.

If you're interested in linking hubs, there's lots that can be done. I use an Aqara HomeKit hub with Homebridge to link Xiaomi sensors. That gives perfect results, but you have to have Apple products. You can link a specific Xiaomi hub as well using Mi Connector. That will give you direct access to devices like temp/humidity sensors and then you can use them for reference levels in rule machine rules.

SharpTools is nice. Not sure this is what you're looking for, but the built-in Hubitat Dashboard can be customized and there's help here on that. I'm certainly not versed on CSS but others are.

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Amazon reviews are too frequently bought or fake.

My favorite motion sensors are Ring right now but I have had good luck with the GE motion switch and dimmer. Through some trickery you can make the Ring motion sensors available in HE but for the most part my lights trigger on the GE motion sensors that are built into my wall switches. So, if you are looking for standalone I'm not really any help.

I've never found a vibration sensor that I've been happy with. I tried two or three in an attempt to monitor a dryer. They either dropped off and stopped communication (Xiaomi) or weren't sensitive enough (Monoprice/Vision).

I would probably recommend going with a motion sensor.

For your other project, you can do a camera as you planned or you can go fully DIY and make something with an ESP8266. @ogiewon has a lot of framework in place to help you build devices with ESP and Arduino devices. You could buy some servos and a SSR and attach them to one of those and have quite a bit of flexibility.

If you want something less DIY instead of moving a spotlight you could control LED light strips. There are tons of controllers available for those. You could cover an entire wall with them or as much as you cared to cover and then diffuse them.

However, at that point I would say that if you are going to be moving around a lot of lights or changing a lot of lights it's best to use a sequencer, sequencing software, and DMX or E1.31 devices. There's a good chance a lot of that type of thing on the Hubitat would slow it down.

If you are interested in that type of thing DIY Christmas light sites have tons of information on how to do that stuff. (I use controllers I built myself that run an open source project firmware called ESPixelStick.)

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I have had no success having any of the Xiaomi/Aqara devices route through the IKEA tradfri outlets. Only the IKEA Signal Repeaters seems to work. But you have to force them (reconnect close to the repeater) to make them route through. Though I am a bit confused after doing this, since the routing table is missing all of them. 24 hours and a reboot later, they are all still missing... For me I had no issues when they where directly connected to the HE without the repeaters, but I will have to see how it all turns out after the mesh calms down.

I had every Xiaomi device I owned (about 5 at the time) routing through them at once, I verified it with my Xbee. But reliability for me was fleeting. Put them on their own hub and they stick like glue. The Homebrdge/HomeKit setup has been so stable too. No complaints there.

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Seems to me that they are more happy connected to the HE directly, than through a routing device.
As of now, this is just my impression.
Have to see how it goes. Easy to force them to do that, since they do not jump over by themselves, it seems. If one have enough mesh coverage of course... :wink:

I use Aqara motion sensors for my stairs lighting. They work perfectly.

They certainly will connect to the hub, but my personal experience is they don't stay connected over time to the HE hub at distance, so the repeaters are absolutely needed. Might be their battery size, because they also all seem very prone to dropping when the battery has 50% charge or less.

But, when attached to the Aqara hub, they do not need a repeaters at all (in my home size anyway), and only one battery after two years has needed replacing at 20% on the furthest Aqara motion sensor (the Mijia motion sensors seem to be more tolerant).

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I totally agree that a vibration sensor as the trigger for a stairway lighting automation is probably not the best option. A PIR motion detector with something blocking off part of the sensor’s field of view (like @mike.maxwell’s tube that @Brandon mentioned) can work wonders for cutting down on false positive motion events.

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Haven't heard of any easier way, and given the nature of Google security, I very much doubt it could be any easier short of Hubitat building it in - which also may not be possible. Not being a linux person, it took me forvever to get mine set up, and has to be rebooted every few days. When it works, it works great. 5 stars.

reviewmeta.com supposedly scans for fakes. But with home automation tech, there's rarely enough reviews, and there's too many use-cases. They may be using them with a Xiaomi hub, or HomeKit, or a DIY project. And I think many customers of home automation are amazed when anything works at all.... Assistant Relay cost over a hundred dollars to use, took me four hours to install, and doesn't always work, but sometimes I can have it say things like 'James has arrived!' 5 stars!

A beam sensor would be best, but I haven't been able to find Zigbee/ZWave retail sensors. But there are instructions on taking a garage-door beam sensor and attaching it to a transmitter.

Agreed, in terms of most accurate I suppose. But physically blocking out part of the PIR sensor’s field of view is the simplest/quickest workaround that makes use of a pre-existing zigbee or z-wave device with a small footprint. And it works very well.

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Yea, "best" only if all else equal, which isn't the case.

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Apologies in advance if I'm misinterpreting the question here, but you can use background images on SharpTools.io dashboards using the following approach:

  1. Tap the ... in the bottom right corner of the dashboard
  2. Tap Configuration
  3. Tap Background Image
  4. Select a desired Editor Pick, Bing Image, or custom Media (linked image)

Also note that you can use the 'Advanced' toggle in the Backround Image picker to make some adjustments to the image for better use on a dashboard:

https://imgur.com/15C1SdE

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Yes essential to pulse my lights when pressure is applied to a particular step. Only really looking for 4, I plan on spacing them out. I have some motions sensors in the hall for the lights too but they operate in range of several feet and I would prefer to get the action as close to the trigger (the physical stepping of the stair) as possible. Placing a vibration sensor with high sensitivity would do the trick but for some reason I can't get these aqara brand ones to communicate after being discovered and paired to hubitat.

Thank you! Very helpful! So I wouldn't need to get a raspberry pi for hass.io? Or just for home assistant? I really only want lovelace, at least so I think. I haven't delved into other features but I am enjoying my hubitat very much.

Also, without filling new posts with my senseless ideas, i really would love to find a way to add gesture control ! Do you know of any modules, equipment, or things to make it possible? Is it possible to code a phone or tablet that utilizes gesture already? Maybe a camera/tablet and arduino? Idk just spitballing some dreams of mine.

I have some motion sensors, problem is, they have such a wide range of detection and I'm looking to add to my existing staircase led, the ability to flash or pulse a random color at max brightness when the vibration sensor or pressure sensor is triggered. A motion sensor would detect far too soon already have the lights on. Just want to add a few sensors to sense the pressure of steps 1, 4 , and 8, and pulse the lights when stepped on or triggered via vibration.

As for dashboard, I currently use sharptools. To me, it's great, but as always I want more and more refined. I like the floorplan ui more than I'd like to admit and for no practical reason at all. Looks pretty and I want it. Lol
I will definitely try to add some repeaters, do all zigbee devices need to be on the same frequency or channel? Is that a thing or do yall professionals buy and immediately change the defaults? I wonder things like that.

A side note, I am looking for a way to add and program gesture control. I imagine I need a gesture reading device, a zigbee communication device, maybe a coder? Idk. Looking for thoughts and ideas. I dont see anything on the market and it is potentially a great product. Button control? Wave bye to the tablet, shut off lights, then door after 15 seconds. No swiping, no buttons, not touchy. I see this with some consumer level drones and of course cell phones, and just wondering if there are separate modules or components to buy or complete systems at reasonable price.

Whoa you're the Sharptools guy! I've read some of your responses in past posts!

This is great I will check it out!

Do you know if tiles can be set to invisible/translucent/see-through ?