My smart home devices
There is a nearly endless amount of smart home devices out there waiting to be used. Unfortunately not all of them are created equally. Some are good, some are just not worth their money. Here is the list of devices I am (or have been) using that I know work well together.
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Lights
Lights are maybe the easiest but also one of the most rewarding parts of a smart home. Here is my personal ultimate smart light system.
Lightbulbs
All of them worked well with Zigbee2MQTT and ZHA.
| Product | Link | Notes | Projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hue filament light bulbs | Amazon | looks awesome, very warm white light | Custom ceiling lamp |
| Hue warm/cold white dimmable bulbs | Amazon | pretty simple but the color temperature change is more important than multi-color in my opinion | used as a normal ceiling lamp |
| Tradfri bulb | Amazon IKEA DE | cheaper than the Hue version, higher base brightness & can’t be dimmed as much | used as normal ceiling lamp |
LED Controller
LED strips are great for indirect lighting. Make sure to decide beforehand what you need: white/RGB/RGBW or digital (single pixel) LED strips.
| Product | Link | Notes | Projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| H801 RGBWW controller | Amazon | flash with Tasmota for great local control over RGBWW LEDs | Part of my smart light system |
| Wemos D1 Mini | Amazon | ESP8266 boards with WLED is great for controlling digital LED strips like the WS2812/Neopixel | Custom wardrobe lighting |
| Gledopto Zigbee LED controller RGB+CCT | Amazon | Just works with ZHA, nice spring loaded terminals | Hassle free Zigbee controller |
| Gledopto Zigbee LED controller WW/CW | Amazon | Just works with ZHA, nice spring loaded terminals | Hassle free Zigbee controller |
Smart lamps
Some lamps don’t use light bulbs but instead have LED directly included. While less flexible these have usually more interesting designs.
| Product | Link | Notes | Projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aris Tint LED panel | Amazon | WW/CW & RGB, nice minimalist design, front and back light, mounting system not perfect | Connected to my smart desk setup |
| EGLO connect.z Smart-Home LED | Amazon | Simple design well implemented, really bright, WW/CW dimmable, Zigbee | Works well with ZHA and HA |
Smart plugs
Smart plugs can be used to make nearly every wall powered device smart(er). Some can even measure power consumption.
| Product | Link | Notes | Projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aqar smart plug | Amazon | with power measurements, great for automations, works well with ZHA | Used to automate reminders for my dish washer |
Sensors
Sensors help you by collecting all the data you need for your home to become smart. They enable everything else. There are many many different kinds of sensors but I concentrate on a couple of very useful ones. There are many different kinds you can use but I am mostly focusing on Zigbee sensors. They are relatively cheap and can run for a long long time on a small coin cell battery.
| Product | Link | Notes | Projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aqara motion / brightness sensor | Amazon | Used with ZHA/Zigbee2MQTT and the CC2531 | Part of my smart light system |
| Aqara temperature / humidity / pressure sensor | Amazon | Used with ZHA/Zigbee2MQTT and the CC2531 | Used to automate my smart fan and to display the data in Grafana |
| Aqara door / window sensor | Amazon | Used with ZHA/Zigbee2MQTT and the CC2531 | Used to monitor my door and for my custom wardrobe lights |
| Aqara water leak sensor | Amazon | Used with ZHA/Zigbee2MQTT and the CC2531 | Used to send an alarm in case of a water leak |
Buttons/Switches
App/voice control and automations are great, but sometimes you still need manual control. I prefer wireless buttons that can be placed anywhere.
| Product | Link | Notes | Projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aqara button single | Amazon | wireless, runs a very long time on one small coin cell, uses Zigbee as most of my other devices | Part of my smart light system |
| Aqara button Double | Amazon | wireless, runs a very long time on one small coin cell, uses Zigbee as most of my other devices | Part of my smart light system |
| Aqara mini switch | Amazon | wireless, runs a very long time, Zigbee, pretty small | Details, used for light control |
| Moes smart knob | Amazon | wireless, Zigbee, great for controlling dimmable devices like LED strips | My test & blueprint |
| Aqara H1 single button | Amazon no neutral Amazon neutral | Zigbee, has an awesome clicky feeling, needs a certain minimum load to work without neutral wire | My test |
| Tuya smart dimmer switch | Amazon Aliexpress | Zigbee, touch dimmer switch that looks great, needs neutral wire | My test |
| Evvr In-Wall Relay Switch Lite | Evvr | Zigbee, split into two devices, allows integration of existing non smart light switch | My test |
Smart home bridges / gateways
The heart of any smart home. There are a couple of bridges from companies but I prefer a DIY solution based on the Raspberry Pi. It is extendable and allows full local control. For starters the dedicated hubs/
| Product | Link | Notes | Projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| IKEA Tradfri Gateway | Amazon IKEA (GER) | Good system to get started if you are only looking to do some very basic control and automations | Beginner smart home system, Blinds |
| Raspberry Pi 4 | Amazon | The Pi in all its version is awesome as a small smart home server. I run a Pi 4 with CC2531 for Zigbee | Custom smart home server |
| CC2531 USB to Zigbee stick | Amazon (preflashed) | You need a custom firmware so either buy it preflashed or get a programmer too. Great cheap solution to get started with ZHA/Zigbee2MQTT | Zigbee2MQTT, ZHA |
| Sonoff Zigbee bridge | Amazon | Awesome wireless alternative to the CC2531. In my experience it has a better range and can be position anywhere in Wifi range. Need to flash Tasmota | ZHA |
| Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 dongle plus | Amazon | Cheap and modern Zigbee controller. Works well with ZHA and Z2MQTT (I used only ZHA). Can easily be flashed with any custom firmware (version) | Migrating ZHA to this stick |
| TubesZB | TubesZB store | Very powerful and customizable Zigbee coordinator. I used it with ZHA | Test |
Smart speakers & smart home theater
I am mostly using Spotify to listen to my music and have a set of different devices (all supporting Spotify Connect) to stream
| Product | Link | Notes | Projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roborock S5 | Amazon | awesome receiver for my home theater, integrated into Home Assistant and has Bluetooth, LAN, Wifi and Spotify Connect support | smart home theater |
| Echo Dot Gen 2/3 | Amazon | ok sound but very cheap. Can be connected to (better) existing speakers | Echo Dot upgrades |
| Echo Dot Gen 4 | Amazon | Better sound but more expensive and a bit bigger | – |
| Fire TV Stick | Amazon | Pretty cheap, simple interface with support for Netflix, Amazon Prime, Youtube, Spotify, … | – |
| Epson EH-TW7200 projector | Amazon | Great Full HD picture with a lot of adjustability (tilt, shift …) | smart home theater |
| Teufel Concept E 150 speakers | Amazon | Pretty old already but they still sound great for budget speakers | smart home theater |
Robots
These little helpers are awesome! I personally use robot vacuums that can also wipe the floor but I might try lawn mower and window cleaner too in the future.
| Product | Link | Notes | Projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roborock S5 | Amazon | good App, great cleaning and relatively low price. Can be integrated into your smart home system | Integrated into Home Assistant and OpenHab, couple of upgrades |
| Roborock S5 Max | Amazon | newer model with a bigger watertank and some slight improvements, also works really well | Part of my smart light system |
Blinds
Automated blinds can be great for a home theater or just for comfort. I tried a couple of affordable options.
| Product | Link | Notes | Projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| IKEA Fyrtur blinds | Amazon | Pretty good, no wires needed. Can be integrated with Home Assistant | Integration in ZHA & Home Assistant |
| Zenismart blinds | Amazon Aliexpress | Cheaper DIY alternative. These can control any existing blinds with a chain. You need to flash Tasmota (but it can be done wirelessly with Tuya convert) | DIY blinds |
Thermostats
Controlling the heater with your smart home can bring a lot of comfort to your life.
| Product | Link | Notes | Projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aqara E1 smart thermostag | Amazon | Looks great, works well but only limited functionality with ZHA | Integration in ZHA & heating on a schedule |
Fans & air purifier
Clean and cool air is a basic necessity for a room you like to live in. They are great products to integrate into your smart home.
| Product | Link | Notes | Projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| IKEA Starkvind Air purifier | Amazon IKEA | Works well and is is super silent, relatively cheap for a smart device | Integration in ZHA with automatic notifications |
| Xiaomi smart fan 1c | Amazon | Great fan with a simple design, well integrated with ZHA and really silent (on the lower levels) | Integrated with HA via ZHA, can automatically turn on at a certain temperature |
Document scanner & printer
Not strictly part of the usual smart home but a paperless desk / office is an amazing thing to have. Unfortunately you will still run into important papers from time to time so a good and fast scanner is a much for me.
Sometimes you will also need a printer for the reverse process. I of course chose one that even integrates with my smart home.
| Product | Link | Notes | Projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brother ADS-2400N | Amazon | Simple and fast network scanner, not cheap but worth it for me | Works well with my custom integration into my own Nextcloud server, works well with Paperless-ngx |
| Brother HL-1212W laser Wifi printer | Amazon | Very cheap to use (laser no ink needed), Wifi, integrated with HA, no driver issues so far | Integration with Home Assistant and my dashboard |