Home Automation

Over the past several years, I've been very interested in Home Automation. We setup a HAI Omni LT in our cabin long ago, and I've enjoyed technical aspect of it since.

So I thought I'd go through some of my Home Automation setup.

I've been using Home Assistant, having tried several different things, such as Smart Things hub, Home Seer, and so forth, but I've been pretty impressed with Home Assistant.

Currently I have the Home Assistant OS installed on a small computer.

The computer is the MeLE Fanless Mini PC Quieter3Q 11th Gen N5105 8GB 256GB, Micro Computer WiFi 5 Small Desktop Service with USB-C PD, Gigabit Ethernet, Dual HDMI 4K, Auto Power on, PXE Support M.2 SSD.  If has a M.2 slot, which I have a Google Coral installed to.

The Google Coral, SOM Google Edge TPU ML Compute Accelerator, Integrate The Edge TPU into Legacy and New Systems Using a Standard M.2-2280-B-M-S3 (B/M Key), allows for object detection, and is a pretty neat interface, allowing some of the video software to do object recognition.

For a Home Alarm and the basis for sensor, I have what is now a legacy device, a Leviton Omni IIe/LTe.

It is wired into all the doors and such for sensors on what is open and closed in the house.

As well, the Mele computer has a Z-wave Dongle.

The zwave controller is the AEOTEC Z-Stick Gen5 Z-Wave Hub Z-Wave Plus USB to Create Gateway (Ordinary White).  With Z-wave, there are several Zwave outlets, zwave light switches, zwave water sensors, zwave power monitoring, etc.

I also have a Home Assistant SkyConnect - Matter and Zigbee compatible dongle, though I haven't plugged it in, because I don't have any devices that 'matter.'

With the Mele box and Home Assistant, I also have a RF controller, a RFXtrx433XL Transceiver, USB HA Controller 433.92MHz. It interacts with the automated Blinds, form Blindster - Automatic. They are Battery powered motorized blinds, and can be controlled from Home Assistant and a battery remote. They are also solar powered.

I have permanent Christmas lights, running WLED.

The controller for the led lights is a QuinLED-Dig-Quad Pre-Assembled. With the controller, I picked up some lights from Amazon, BTF-LIGHTING WS2812B IC RGB 5050SMD Pure Gold Individual Addressable LED Strip 16.4FT 150LED 30LED/m Flexible Full Color IP67 DC5V for DIY Chasing Color Project(No Adapter or Controller) 16.4FT 150LED. I also got some from Ali Express, though that takes longer to arrive, WS2812B Led Lights DC5V WS2812 RGB Led Strip Light Individually Addressable Smart Pixels Magic Light Black White PCB IP30 65 67. Emitting Color: WS2812B White PCB Color: 1m 60 IP65. I also have some stranded lights that are controlled as well, 100pcs WS2811 LED Module 9/12mm 2811 IC Black/Green/White/Crystal/RGB Wire IP68 Waterproof RGB Digital Led Pixel Module DC5v/12v.

Anyway, another neat feature of the Home Automation and security cameras integration is the use of Frigate.