EgunMogaji2:
Just a quick heads up for the beginners that may read this thread.

Please don't be discouraged by posts from the heavy hitters. You don't need this professional level knowledge to introduce automation to your own homes. AliExpress, eBay, Amazon, etc are loaded with first class off the shelf equipment to get you started and you may never need more than that.

Good luck.

Very True. Please ignore some of the heavy languages used. We all started small.

My first smart home device was a Bluetooth smart bulbs that could change color and i was happy with it for years till i wanted more.

Please feel free to ask questions, no matter how stupid you think it sounds, i can answer to the best of my knowledge or direct you to somewhere for better clarifications with examples.

That's my little contribution.

EgunMogaji2:
Just a quick heads up for the beginners that may read this thread.

Please don't be discouraged by posts from the heavy hitters. You don't need this professional level knowledge to introduce automation to your own homes. AliExpress, eBay, Amazon, etc are loaded with first class off the shelf equipment to get you started and you may never need more than that.

Good luck.

Completely agree with you on this. Maybe the more experienced Home Lab and Home Automation folks like us need to tone it done a bit. Use more relateable terms and kind of ease beginners gently into this rabbit hole.

xtremeidea:
My first smart home device was a Bluetooth smart bulbs that could change color and i was happy with it for years till i wanted more.

Please feel free to ask questions, no matter how stupid you think it sounds, i can answer to the best of my knowledge or direct you to somewhere for better clarifications with examples.

That's my little contribution.

The only stupid question is the one that isn't asked. Fully support you on this. All kinds of questions are welcome.

Don't know what Proxmox is? Ask
Home Assistant and Sonoff? Ask
Emby, Plex, Jellyfin leaving you confused? Ask

Meanwhile @xtremeidea I will hit you on the SSD thread. Need reliable source for HD content for my Plex

airsaylongcome:


Meanwhile @xtremeidea I will hit you on the SSD thread. Need reliable source for HD content for my Plex

When I used Plex back then, I sourced my contents myself.

Do you download movies and contents from the internet?

airsaylongcome:


Completely agree with you on this. Maybe the more experienced Home Lab and Home Automation folks like us need to tone it done a bit. Use more relateable terms and kind of ease beginners gently into this rabbit hole.

You’re a gentleman and I like you already.

xtremeidea:


When I used Plex back then, I sourced my contents myself.

Do you download movies and contents from the internet?

Ehen nau! That's why I'm asking for where you download yours from. I haven't downloaded in a while. My sure source got hit with a DMCA takedown

EgunMogaji2:
Just a quick heads up for the beginners that may read this thread.

Please don't be discouraged by posts from the heavy hitters. You don't need this professional level knowledge to introduce automation to your own homes. AliExpress, eBay, Amazon, etc are loaded with first class off the shelf equipment to get you started and you may never need more than that.

Good luck.

You're right. Anyone can pretty get off the shelf products for Home Automation or buy a setup kit and be up and running in minutes, it's as easy as setting up a PS5. I will go with same option.

Sometimes for leisure/fun/experiment you just want to get "under the hood". That what @airsaylongcome and few others are interested in.

@airsaylongcome I'm packing my baggage for a long trip, otherwise I would have entered the rabbit hole with you. Glad @xtremeidea got some hands on to lead us on the journey.

Least I forget, how did you integrate VA to your plex setup?

airsaylongcome:


Ehen nau! That's why I'm asking for where you download yours from. I haven't downloaded in a while. My sure source got hit with a DMCA takedown

Remove the spaces, scared of the Nairaland bot. dont want their ban!

torr ent gal axy . t o

ra rb ggo . org

glo dls . to

best source for TV series

ez tv . re

Never say die. working for me since for ever. Surviving Torrent sites in my arsenal.

When it comes to 1080p or 2160p or higher, rarb does not disappoint. Its just a click away.

Thank God Nigeria has not invoked strict download laws, i wonder how i would have survived or even sourced contents

xtremeidea:


Remove the spaces, scared of the Nairaland bot. dont want their ban!

torr ent gal axy . t o

ra rb ggo . org

glo dls . to

best source for TV series

ez tv . re

Never say die. working for me since for ever. Surviving Torrent sites in my arsenal.

When it comes to 1080p or 2160p or higher, rarb does not disappoint. Its just a click away.

Thank God Nigeria has not invoked strict download laws, i wonder how i would have survived or even sourced contents

Omo! I made a post with a link. Bot handcuff me for 24 hours. Lesson learnt.

airsaylongcome:


Omo! I made a post with a link. Bot handcuff me for 24 hours. Lesson learnt.

I've been wanting to ask you, How do to you cope without Alexa, Google or Siri?

airsaylongcome:


The only stupid question is the one that isn't asked. Fully support you on this. All kinds of questions are welcome.
Meanwhile @xtremeidea I will hit you on the SSD thread. Need reliable source for HD content for my Plex

Tabs are opened to Google some stuff here.

Don't know what Proxmox is? Ask
Home Assistant and Sonoff? Ask
Emby, Plex, Jellyfin leaving you confused? Ask

How do I start with the bolded? I assume this one is for you to download movie and keep them in a central repository and then you can access them from anywhere via internet. What makes it different with streaming from Netflix abi na like individual Netflix. But person go dey burn data ooooooo.

xtremeidea:


I've been wanting to ask you, How do to you cope without Alexa, Google or Siri?

I've never really being a fan of those. Actively resisted using them. I'd rather grab my phone than say "Alexa, blah blah blah blah"

islamics:

Tabs are opened to Google some stuff here.


How do I start with the bolded? I assume this one is for you to download movie and keep them in a central repository and then you can access them from anywhere via internet. What makes it different with streaming from Netflix abi na like individual Netflix. But person go dey burn data ooooooo.

Yes it's like your individual Net.flix. For use within your home. Some people host it on a cloud server and are able to watch their content from wherever they are. But it's kind of a grey-area because na mostly "pirated" content people dey use am host. So for example most of use here are only conversant with Netfli.x. But there are many other options like Hul.u, Disne.y, A.mazon and a few others, each with their own series. So what goons like us do is download content from all of these providers and aggregate them into one place using the previous software I mentioned. I no wan mention their names cos I got hit with a 24 hour ban twice.

islamics:


But person go dey burn data ooooooo.

That's the good part! It works locally without the internet. Even when your internet down, as far as you have a router, you can access all your movies and content on any device, phone, tablet, PC or TV.

islamics:


How do I start with the bolded?

You need a computer (regular desktop, laptop or single board like raspberry or a micro computer - anything that has OS sha), A router, a hard drive with stored Media content, download a few applications and your good to go. That's all!

In my case, i only need the internet to pull down the movie information and pictures to make them look beautiful on screen just like Netflix.

airsaylongcome:


Yes it's like your individual Net.flix. For use within your home. Some people host it on a cloud server and are able to watch their content from wherever they are. But it's kind of a grey-area because na mostly "pirated" content people dey use am host. So for example most of use here are only conversant with Netfli.x. But there are many other options like Hul.u, Disne.y, A.mazon and a few others, each with their own series. So what goons like us do is download content from all of these providers and aggregate them into one place using the previous software I mentioned. I no wan mention their names cos I got hit with a 24 hour ban twice.

Thanks for the explanation.
I have seen the options available to choose from in your previous post.
Even me too sef fear the bolded part.

xtremeidea:


You need a computer (regular desktop, laptop or single board like raspberry or a micro computer - anything that has OS sha), A router, a hard drive with stored Media content, download a few applications and your good to go. That's all!

In my case, i only need the internet to pull down the movie information and pictures to make them look beautiful on screen just like Netflix.

Thanks for the explanation.

xtremeidea:


That's the good part! It works locally without the internet. Even when your internet down, as far as you have a router, you can access all your movies and content on any device, phone, tablet, PC or TV.

As I read this, e just dey sweet me.

Once I am done with it and e do well, I go post am here.

So as expected, I've faced a stumbling block. Only God will save us from the kinds of buildings developers build in this country! So the Sonoff smart switches need to have a neutral (earth?) line for them to be safely connectes and used.

For the electrical folks here, why in God's name would a light switch not have neutral? Is that safe? Is it allowed by the Nigerian building code?

xtremeidea:


You need a computer (regular desktop, laptop or single board like raspberry or a micro computer - anything that has OS sha), A router, a hard drive with stored Media content, download a few applications and your good to go. That's all!

In my case, i only need the internet to pull down the movie information and pictures to make them look beautiful on screen just like Netflix.

Hey bro, how e dey go? Wanted to ask of you had used OpenFlixr before?

OpenFLIXR Media Server is an all-in-one media server for automated downloading and serving media. Tools like CouchPotato, SickRage, Headphones and SABnzbd to download and Plex Media Server to bring everything to your screens. Be it tablets, TVs, PCs, you name it. Completely web-based and includes monitoring and management tools.

airsaylongcome:


Hey bro, how e dey go? Wanted to ask of you had used OpenFlixr before?

OpenFLIXR Media Server is an all-in-one media server for automated downloading and serving media. Tools like CouchPotato, SickRage, Headphones and SABnzbd to download and Plex Media Server to bring everything to your screens. Be it tablets, TVs, PCs, you name it. Completely web-based and includes monitoring and management tools.

Wow. This is very interesting. I haven't used it before. I've just been restricted to Plex Emby and Jellyfin. I have looked at the features and it's sounds promising. Will look for a docker or LXC version and experiment with it. Thanks for the suggestion!

airsaylongcome:
So as expected, I've faced a stumbling block. Only God will save us from the kinds of buildings developers build in this country! So the Sonoff smart switches need to have a neutral (earth?) line for them to be safely connectes and used.

For the electrical folks here, why in God's name would a light switch not have neutral? Is that safe? Is it allowed by the Nigerian building code?

For me there are two reasons.

1. Its less cost cuz you will buy less wires.

2. Its safer than having it with neutral wires. - for you to have electric spark and fire, you must have a complete circuit. So this is the reason why must times you have sockets burning but light switches staying intact for years.

But recently, people have been going with the new standard of Live & Neutral.

I'm not a structural engineer. this is my own opinion.

xtremeidea:


Wow. This is very interesting. I haven't used it before. I've just been restricted to Plex Emby and Jellyfin. I have looked at the features and it's sounds promising. Will look for a docker or LXC version and experiment with it. Thanks for the suggestion!

It is available as a Virtual Machine file. Downloaded it yesterday and will be deploying on Proxmox this evening as part of today's "enjoyment" lol

xtremeidea:


For me there are two reasons.

1. Its less cost cuz you will buy less wires.

2. Its safer than having it with neutral wires. - for you to have electric spark and fire, you must have a complete circuit. So this is the reason why must times you have sockets burning but light switches staying intact for years.

But recently, people have been going with the new standard of Live & Neutral.

I'm not a structural engineer. this is my own opinion.

Okay so I understand the less cost part, but less safe? Isn't Neutral supposed to be there for safety reasons?

airsaylongcome:


Okay so I understand the less cost part, but less safe? Isn't Neutral supposed to be there for safety reasons?

Well, i know Neutral is there to complete a circuit and I believe "ground" is the actual wire added for safety and to prevent shock. There are actually 3 compositions, Live-Neutral-Ground. the structural engineers can explain better. I only know the little i know based of my little wiring experience.

There must be a reason why its so, or maybe be it's the standard specified in the building code. I'm eager to know this too.

Happy to find this thread...lol.

I'm a noob when it comes to home automation but I've managed to get some notches on my belt.

I currently use HAOS (home assistant or HA) on a Rpi4, I also have Venus OS running on an Rpi3 (I use victron for my inverter + solar).
I have a couple of wifi switches and zigbee switches on HA, I also have a couple of sonoff switches connected to HA using the sonoff local integration.

I'm bigger on measurement than control so I use the sonoff pow R2 to track all the ACs
I am tracking temperature and humidity in some rooms to understand how to reduce my AC use
I have a couple of motion sensors that I use to automate stuff(switch off fan if someone isn't on seat for 10mins, switch on hallway light if you sense motion after sun has gone down etc)
I have IP cameras connected to HA(using the Tuya plugin, will try using an NVR eventually)
I can control some of my light switches using HA (here it's a mix of wifi and zigbee)
I can see the data from my solar panels and inverter and mains consumption in HA so I can use it for automations but nothing comes to mind yet, will probably get round to that later

my next projects will be:
1. Figuring out when compound gen is running and only taking power from it i.e. ignoring PHCN totally (gen and PHCN use same cables, ive tried vibration sensor on gen but sensor isn't IP68 so get's damaged by rain, looking to cobble together a contact voltage detector that can detect when there's power on the generator output cable and send to HA)

2. Setting up telegram and whatsapp bots to automate stuff around the house

I can't code BTW so I'm not a tech bro...na learn we dey learn the thing small small.

Personally, I'm sold on Zigbee, I like the low power consumption and not having to worry about wifi wahala but I suffered small to gain the level of understanding I have sha.

@netotse, there's a saying where I come from that when a chicken arrives at a new location, it stands with one leg until it becomes familiar with the environs. You not only arrived standing on two legs, you laid eggs everywhere

Every damned thing you mentioned is in my To-do list. You see that talk about Inverter/Solar and my monitoring? Definitely a must do. How u dey survive with all the rains in the past few days?

Need to share where you got you Zigbee and all of that. I'm also looking forward to discuss your HAOS setup and use cases. We get many to talk about here

It's mostly noobs here so I'm sure you are more advanced than many of us but I'm looking forward to making it worth your while exploring all of the possible options going down this rabbit hole.

Do you know about sense dot com and openenergymonitor dot org for tracking Solar Generation and consumption?

airsaylongcome:
@netotse, there's a saying where I come from that when a chicken arrives at a new location, it stands with one leg until it becomes familiar with the environs. You not only arrived standing on two legs, you laid eggs everywhere

Thanks for the welcome

Every damned thing you mentioned is in my To-do list. You see that talk about Inverter/Solar and my monitoring? Definitely a must do. How u dey survive with all the rains in the past few days?

what hardware do you use? my energy consumption has been largely optimised and we have a communal gen that comes on at 7pm at night, but as long as my battery voltage is above 50V I don't take any power from either PHCN or gen(can't tell difference yet), once below 50V, it's takes power and stops an hour after adsoption(I got help from someone I met on the solar thread on NL to program this)

Need to share where you got you Zigbee and all of that. I'm also looking forward to discuss your HAOS setup and use cases. We get many to talk about here

with the exception of the zigbee radio(called coordinator), I got it all on Aliexpress, I have a lot of Tuya, some Aqara a lot of ther vendors for zigbee. I got burnt once as the stuff I got could only work with certain coordinators and certain channels other than that, it's been fairly easy to acclimatise. I got the coordinator on tindiebot but there are a lot of others you can get, some on aliexpress too.

It's mostly noobs here so I'm sure you are more advanced than many of us but I'm looking forward to making it worth your while exploring all of the possible options going down this rabbit hole.

I'm happy to share what i've learnt, the great thing about the open source community is how freely information is given, I'm sure you'll be up to speed in no time especially as I see you have coding experience. I unfortunately have been unable to get past "hello world" for the past couple of years...lol.

Do you know about sense dot com and openenergymonitor dot org for tracking Solar Generation and consumption?

Yes I do, I looked into sense when I wanted to start but they were only for 110V, for openenergymonitor, I used an Emonpi to track my consumption for a bit(just electricity, no solar) so I did a little fooling around. _{I have an electrical engineering background plus power sector experience, that's why it might seem like I know a lot, don't be fooled it's all packaging}

netotse:

Thanks for the welcome


what hardware do you use? my energy consumption has been largely optimised and we have a communal gen that comes on at 7pm at night, but as long as my battery voltage is above 50V I don't take any power from either PHCN or gen(can't tell difference yet), once below 50V, it's takes power and stops an hour after adsoption(I got help from someone I met on the solar thread on NL to program this)


with the exception of the zigbee radio(called coordinator), I got it all on Aliexpress, I have a lot of Tuya, some Aqara a lot of ther vendors for zigbee. I got burnt once as the stuff I got could only work with certain coordinators and certain channels other than that, it's been fairly easy to acclimatise. I got the coordinator on tindiebot but there are a lot of others you can get, some on aliexpress too.

I'm happy to share what i've learnt, the great thing about the open source community is how freely information is given, I'm sure you'll be up to speed in no time especially as I see you have coding experience. I unfortunately have been unable to get past "hello world" for the past couple of years...lol.


Yes I do, I looked into sense when I wanted to start but they were only for 110V, for openenergymonitor, I used an Emonpi to track my consumption for a bit(just electricity, no solar) so I did a little fooling around. _{I have an electrical engineering background plus power sector experience, that's why it might seem like I know a lot, don't be fooled it's all packaging}

Welcome once again and thank you for taking the thread by storm. And I'm certain it's safe to call and EE grad dabbling in tech a tech bro. My youngest bro is an EE and Mechatronics grad and he trumps me on a lot of tech stuff. Assembled a drone from a list of parts he ordered.

So back to Home Automation, I've got a number of RPi laying around, and a small energy efficient Home Server. I ran HAOS and openHAB on the Pis and had done some integration and automation of my Home Media Servers and TVs. All of this was very basic stuff where I had Pi Zeros setup and connected to the TVs and "kind of" controlled when the TV came on and off. For the longest time I had struggled to get my head around WiFi and Zigbee and was stuck until I got some direction from EgunMogaji2 earlier in this thread. I was set to buy some WiFi switches. Opened up my current switches and there wasn't a neutral line. Apparently this is very common in wiring Nigerian homes. And very confusing to me cos not only do I expect to see all three, I expect them to follow the proper colour coding. So maybe you can throw some light on that.

Late last year I dabbled into solar energy generation for home use. Which was why I researched and came across sense and the emonpi. Please explain your setup for that. I've got some Chinese MPPT Solar charge controller which has a USB connection where I can poll data. I had considered throwing a Pi at it but most of the software for tracking and measuring generation and consumption seemed to be for more established Charge controller and inverter brands.

airsaylongcome:


Welcome once again and thank you for taking the thread by storm. And I'm certain it's safe to call and EE grad dabbling in tech a tech bro. My youngest bro is an EE and Mechatronics grad and he trumps me on a lot of tech stuff. Assembled a drone from a list of parts he ordered.

So back to Home Automation, I've got a number of RPi laying around, and a small energy efficient Home Server. I ran HAOS and openHAB on the Pis and had done some integration and automation of my Home Media Servers and TVs. All of this was very basic stuff where I had Pi Zeros setup and connected to the TVs and "kind of" controlled when the TV came on and off. For the longest time I had struggled to get my head around WiFi and Zigbee and was stuck until I got some direction from EgunMogaji2 earlier in this thread. I was set to buy some WiFi switches. Opened up my current switches and there wasn't a neutral line. Apparently this is very common in wiring Nigerian homes. And very confusing to me cos not only do I expect to see all three, I expect them to follow the proper colour coding. So maybe you can throw some light on that.

Late last year I dabbled into solar energy generation for home use. Which was why I researched and came across sense and the emonpi. Please explain your setup for that. I've got some Chinese MPPT Solar charge controller which has a USB connection where I can poll data. I had considered throwing a Pi at it but most of the software for tracking and measuring generation and consumption seemed to be for more established Charge controller and inverter brands.

There are some switches that doesn’t require a neutral line but I like uniformity and just has neural lines installed in the locations where I needed smart switches.

This is one example of the doing anyhow that common with some of these Nigerian artisans.

airsaylongcome:


Welcome once again and thank you for taking the thread by storm. And I'm certain it's safe to call and EE grad dabbling in tech a tech bro. My youngest bro is an EE and Mechatronics grad and he trumps me on a lot of tech stuff. Assembled a drone from a list of parts he ordered.

So back to Home Automation, I've got a number of RPi laying around, and a small energy efficient Home Server. I ran HAOS and openHAB on the Pis and had done some integration and automation of my Home Media Servers and TVs. All of this was very basic stuff where I had Pi Zeros setup and connected to the TVs and "kind of" controlled when the TV came on and off. For the longest time I had struggled to get my head around WiFi and Zigbee and was stuck until I got some direction from EgunMogaji2 earlier in this thread. I was set to buy some WiFi switches. Opened up my current switches and there wasn't a neutral line. Apparently this is very common in wiring Nigerian homes. And very confusing to me cos not only do I expect to see all three, I expect them to follow the proper colour coding. So maybe you can throw some light on that.

I experienced the absence of neutral issue, there are zigbee(and I suppose wifi) wall switches that will work without a neutral, I have some of those. The issue with switches that don't have a neutral is that they are more complicated when you try to use it for a two way switch, the hack is to use one wifi(without neutral) switch on one end and a wireless zigbee switch on the other, this becomes more complicated if it is a multi gang switch sha, to get around this I have run neutrals to all my wall switches(I know this is not feasible in all houses). I will attach a picture of the switches to illustrate, ignore the neutral port on the switch, I'm just using it to illustrate.

airsaylongcome:
Late last year I dabbled into solar energy generation for home use. Which was why I researched and came across sense and the emonpi. Please explain your setup for that. I've got some Chinese MPPT Solar charge controller which has a USB connection where I can poll data. I had considered throwing a Pi at it but most of the software for tracking and measuring generation and consumption seemed to be for more established Charge controller and inverter brands.

For emonpi, I used an emonTx and an Emonbase(simply a pi with an RF hat), the current sensors were connected to the TX which in turn sent the data over RF to the base which had a server where I could view it and could also upload to the internet. I've retired it now but I still have the hardware.

for your CC+inverter wahala, if you can poll data via usb then I'm pretty certain you can use the Rpi for that, it's about finding software that addresses that type of controller(most chinese equipment will have roots in something popular e.g. fangpusun can use victron software (with some caveats). what's the brand name? do they have a website? or what software do you use to poll?