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aqara

smart light

The best Zigbee power plug?

Recently one of my old Sonoff power plugs started acting up so I was looking for a replacement and found a seemingly great one: small, cheap, power measurement and Zigbee 3.0 plus support in ZHA. Is this the best Zigbee power plug for Home Assistant? What makes a great smart Read more…

By Oliver, 1 year08.04.2024 ago
smart light

Aqara H1 remote switch with Home Assistant – how to enable double/long clicks

I have used older Aqara switches before with Home Assistant and ZHA. Using the newer H1 I was surprised some things were not working out of the box. Here is how to fix possible issues. The Aqara H1 remote switch Aqara is selling a wide range of quite popular smart Read more…

By Oliver, 1 year15.01.2024 ago
smart light

No Neutral, No Problem: A Closer Look at the Aqara T1 Switch Module with ZHA & Zigbee2MQTT

The T1 (in wall) Switch Module is another well-made Zigbee device from Aqara that is part of the same product line as others that I have tested (thermostat, smart plug, switch, mini switch). The device works with both ZHA and Zigbee2mqtt although not all of the functionality from the official Read more…

By Oliver, 2 years06.03.2023 ago
Automation

Powerful automated reminders via Home Assistant and how to clear notifications

Everybody forgets things. With Home Assistant you can use the power of your smart home to stop that. I build a well working reminder system via Home Assistant for different tasks. Its fully features with a text reminder, virtual or physical button to confirm it and a log. Here is Read more…

By Oliver, 2 years14.01.2023 ago
smart heating

The hottest smart home device? Automated heating with the Aqara smart thermostat & Home Assistant

I automated my lights, my doorbell, my vacuum and more. Next are the thermostats. A smart thermostat can be very convenient and even save money. Here is how I used the Aqara smart thermostat with ZHA and Home Assistant. The hardware – Aqara E1 smart thermostat There are currently a Read more…

By Oliver, 2 years01.01.2023 ago
smart light

A small Zigbee smart plug with power measurement – is the best smart plug for ZHA from Aqara?

Smart plugs allow you to measure power usage and turn pretty much every electricity powered device smart(er). Which is the best one? The Aqara smart plug makes a pretty good case for joining your Home Assistant and ZHA DIY smart home with its small and sleek design and the included Read more…

By Oliver, 2 years09.12.2022 ago
smart light

The Aqara H1 Zigbee switch with open software – a smart home test with ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT

Smart lightbulbs are great but they get quite dumb really quickly when you toggle the light switch. The Aqara H1 switch can fix this issue. It works with Zigbee in Home Assistant, either with ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT and has a special decoupled mode for usage with smart lights. The Aqara Read more…

By Oliver, 3 years16.08.2022 ago
Automation

Making your existing doorbell smart by repurposing an Aqara door sensor

How do you add an existing doorbell to your smart home? I did it by connecting it to a modified Aqara door sensor. Now a ring will flash lights, send a message to my phone or do anything else I want it to – with all the power of Home Read more…

By Oliver, 3 years ago
Furniture

Building a custom oak nightstand – everything is better with wood and LEDs

Need a nightstand matching your bed? Build one! I built a matching bedside table for my oak bed customized to match the space and including LED lights (of course) Designing the bedside table Some time ago I bought a new bed made from nice oak wood matching a lot of Read more…

By Oliver, 3 years11.04.2022 ago
HomeAssistant

Using a target selector in a condition with Home Assistant blueprints

Blueprints are a powerful feature of Home Assistant that makes sharing and using automations simpler. Unfortunately using the target selector in a condition is not supported by default. I needed this for an automation of mine and found a way. Blueprints and the target selector Blueprints are one of the Read more…

By Oliver, 3 years20.02.2022 ago

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About this blog

This is my personal slice of the Internet, a place to show my projects and share ideas about all things smarthome, IoT and design

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