• 2 Posts
  • 6 Comments
Joined 11 months ago
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Cake day: October 25th, 2023

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  • All of these devices and hubs use the same chips from Texas Instruments.

    There are basically 2 defacto chips. The “older cheaper one” and the “newer expensive and powerful one.”

    The ZZH is the later. Most others (do check) are the lesser chip.

    Issues with the lesser chip are:
    * Limited number of devices supported (something like 16?).
    * No support for “direct binding” close proximity binding - required to re-bind re-join a Phillips hue bulb.

    • Lower signal strength.

    I have 4 Hue smart bulbs acting as routers around the house, which helps, but honestly it’s far more reliable than the Wifi setups.



  • None of my IoT has an internet connection. I suppose that makes it a NoT.

    I use the spoke and star topology in my home. Hardwired CAT5/6 to each main room and switches there. Most have a PC + TV with ethernet ports.

    The bedroom CAT5 is provided by the Office netdoor. This was cheaper than running both (or all) rooms to the hallway.

    If you are going DIY eco-system don’t ruin the flexibility by focusing yourself on a single platform like HA. HA is no longer generic, it’s pretty opinionated and bespoke these days. It can afford that as many people produce compatible firmware for HA.

    Start with something lower level like MQTT as your core data architecture. HA will consume that fine, but it will give you more options.

    Another suggestion. Power monitoring smart plugs (Tasmota or ESPHome) these will allow you to monitor and manage your “device clusters” such as shutting down all the standby power in the living room from a switch beside the light switch.



  • If by 3 way switch you mean an intermediate cross over so that you have 3 switches in a hallway which all control the same light?

    In that case the intermediate cross-over switch will always have at least 1 live.

    The problem is, it changes between the two. Every 2 way switch, including cross over intermediates have 1 live, 1 dead port. How they work is toggling between the two.

    If the light is on, then all switches in their current position are connecting up the same live. If you change any one switch the light goes out as that switch has by logical expansion switched over to it’s “dead” feed. The really interesting thing is, it doesn’t matter how many 2 way switches you configure like this, switch ANY one of them will change the state of the light.

    In practical terms, if you are just trying to power a smart device, you might be better considering a parasitic device and by 2 coils, put one on each “in” live. One will always be live and power will be flowing through ONE of them when the light in on.