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Less Fat Luke
May 23, 2003

Exciting Lemon
Anyone have experience with Ethernet over Coax adapters (specifically PoE)? The place I bought has very old coaxial-cable powered cameras and I have some nicer PoE ones. This converter seems like it should do the trick?

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FCKGW
May 21, 2006

Motronic posted:

Any one of the "better" cheap chinese variants are able to do this. I'm running a bunch of ReoLink RLC-420s (dome) and 423s (PTZ).

Yeah I'm replacing all my old 1080p outdoor cams around the house with these cheap Amcrest models and they will do everything in your list for only $50
https://www.amazon.com/Amcrest-5-Megapixel-NightVision-Weatherproof-IP5M-T1179EW-28MM/dp/B083G9KT4C/

sharkytm
Oct 9, 2003

Ba

By

Sharkytm doot doo do doot do doo


Fallen Rib

Less Fat Luke posted:

Anyone have experience with Ethernet over Coax adapters (specifically PoE)? The place I bought has very old coaxial-cable powered cameras and I have some nicer PoE ones. This converter seems like it should do the trick?

Those look like the pair I bought from Dahua. They're not very good, but they worked ok. I think I have a set still, and I'd send them to you if you're interested. Shoot me an email: username at gmail if you are. I'll go digging through my stuff and find them.

I ended up using much higher-end ones from Interlogix.

Less Fat Luke
May 23, 2003

Exciting Lemon
Oh okay thanks, I'm going to try to drag and replace the coaxial first so no worries about the shipping - thanks though!

EwokEntourage
Jun 10, 2008

BREYER: Actually, Antonin, you got it backwards. See, a power bottom is actually generating all the dissents by doing most of the work.

SCALIA: Stephen, I've heard that speed has something to do with it.

BREYER: Speed has everything to do with it.

Binary Badger posted:

I own a Eufy 2K and it's pretty neat, and I don't run it in HomeKit mode as I find everything I need in the Eufy Security app.

What's also neat about the Eufy is that if you spring for their cam cloud, you can access your videos from Eufy's secured website with 2-factor authentication, meaning you don't have to keep going to your phone to view vids, you can do so on your laptop. WyzeCam doesn't do this, it's still app bound.

Also, you'd normally have to spend 2-3x the price to get the 2K resolution, which comes in handy if you're using it to cover a large area..

yea I do everything thru the eufy app too, it works well. I just bought them to make sure our new dog wasn't doing anything bad while we were at work and they work great for that. the most i'll probably add is smart flood lights and a doorbell camera and just stick to eufy to keep it simple

Henrik Zetterberg
Dec 7, 2007

Anyone use the Hue Lily XLs outside? I’ve got low-voltage lines running all through my yard from the previous owner. I was thinking of picking a couple up to light up the area around our pool. Just wondering if they’re bright enough but not too bright to puss off my neighbors at night.

I’m having some landscaping done back there and the guy said he’d pull new wires and would install any lights I purchased prior.

Henrik Zetterberg
Dec 7, 2007

Hue stuff is 20% off at Target. In store only, no online pickup orders. Limit of 4 items.
https://slickdeals.net/f/14872690-philips-hue-in-store-target-circle-20-off-through-march-6-5-red-card

It does appear that Amazon currently has the strip base kit for essentially the same price as the Target sale, which looks to be the lowest price ever on Amazon.

I just picked up the 4x colored bulb/bridge starter kit and 3x white A19 lights from my local store. My first Hue purchases down the rabbit hole.

Henrik Zetterberg fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Mar 3, 2021

Lester Shy
May 1, 2002

Goodness no, now that wouldn't do at all!
I set up a small Blink system in December: two wireless outdoor cameras and one wired indoor camera with a Sync Module 2. Everything worked fine until today, when I get "Thumbnail failed" and "Live view failed" every time I try to check on the outdoor cameras. The indoor camera still works as intended.

The batteries on both outdoor cameras read as "OK," and I've reset both cameras, the sync module and my router. Both of the outdoor cameras have full "Camera to Wifi" and "Camera to Sync Module" indicators, so I don't think it's a problem with distance, plus they were working fine before. Any idea what's going on?

Edit: After some testing, it's like the camera's range got a huge downgrade overnight. I can bring the cameras inside next to the module and they work just fine, but putting them back up outside and everything fails again. No idea what could have caused this, and I don't think there's a spot I can place the module that will reach both outdoor cameras at the same time.

Lester Shy fucked around with this message at 19:27 on Mar 4, 2021

Henrik Zetterberg
Dec 7, 2007

I tried the Blink cams probably 6 months ago and I was super not impressed by the range of the sync module, and the fact that you couldn't have 2 sync modules in one system. I have a camera out back and one over my driveway, and like your situation, there was no central location for both cams to reach the sync module.

Also the non-granular notification settings was a deal-killer. I returned them all for Ring cameras and they've been great.

fletcher
Jun 27, 2003

ken park is my favorite movie

Cybernetic Crumb
I've been using Amazon Cloud Cam's but since they were discontinued I've started thinking about what to eventually replace them with. The Cloud Cam's have been alright but the web interface is garbage and low light capabilities are not very good.

My home network is all Unifi so I've been looking at the Unifi Protect stuff. Plan would be to replace my Cloud Key Gen 2 & USG with a UDM Pro and use that as the DVR. Anybody else using the Unifi cameras? Is Ubiquiti still actively developing that stuff? Any major cons to be aware of?

DaveSauce
Feb 15, 2004

Oh, how awkward.

fletcher posted:

My home network is all Unifi so I've been looking at the Unifi Protect stuff. Plan would be to replace my Cloud Key Gen 2 & USG with a UDM Pro and use that as the DVR. Anybody else using the Unifi cameras? Is Ubiquiti still actively developing that stuff? Any major cons to be aware of?

I too would like to know the answer to this.

Been eyeing this as a security camera solution, with long term plans to upgrade the network. But it's a big up front price tag so I've been holding off.

Heroic Yoshimitsu
Jan 15, 2008

I got the Nest Thermostat E about a year ago. It worked great at first, but in the past few months it can no longer find my network/connect to wifi. I didn't change anything besides moving my router like a few inches, and none of my other devices have this problem. Has anyone else here encountered this? I tried looking for solutions online, but I'm not finding anything that works. Some people say this is a known issue with Nest thermostats, you can get a replacement? Is that true?

Henrik Zetterberg
Dec 7, 2007

Just set up my first Hue bridge and light. It removed every loving HomeKit device from its room and all are now in “default room.” I have to reassign everything to its room again :argh:

Rick
Feb 23, 2004
When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.
Been there. I hate it.

Henrik Zetterberg
Dec 7, 2007

Seriously what the gently caress it keeps doing it after I fix everything. I have to be doing something wrong?

e: Huh, I guess I can’t sync the Hue rooms with HomeKit or it does that bullshit. That’s really annoying.

Henrik Zetterberg fucked around with this message at 05:51 on Mar 7, 2021

spiritual bypass
Feb 19, 2008

Grimey Drawer
I just installed Openhab and a z-wave thermostat as my first home automation thing. What else should I do with this stuff now that I have the server running?

odiv
Jan 12, 2003

z-wave flood sensor?

That's my next purchase. Water heaters bursting is the worst.

Then maybe something fun like a weather station.

Pitre
Jul 29, 2003

UUUuugggghhhh, my Smartthings V1 is finally going end of life. I super dread having to figure out how to exclude each device and migrate them to a new hub then rebuild all of my automations. I knew this day would come.

I got the discount deal for the new one for $35 so I went ahead and got on the order list. I am not against rolling my own now that I have to do this anyway but I definitely need (want) Google Home, Nest, and LIFX integration support and a decent mobile app. There are so many out there now, what's the best thing going on these days? OpenHab?

bobfather
Sep 20, 2001

I will analyze your nervous system for beer money
Hubitat is an incredible upgrade from SmartThings.

Rooted Vegetable
Jun 1, 2002
I'm all of a sudden eyeballing my SmartThings ejection mechanism despite being unaffected

Rick
Feb 23, 2004
When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Henrik Zetterberg posted:

Seriously what the gently caress it keeps doing it after I fix everything. I have to be doing something wrong?

e: Huh, I guess I can’t sync the Hue rooms with HomeKit or it does that bullshit. That’s really annoying.

I don’t think it is possible to use both. I think you can sync it around with HomeAassitant but I abandoned the Hue App a long time ago (the current one, I still use the 1.0 retired ap because you can make scenes with pictures and it just has no idea that rooms exist).

spiritual bypass
Feb 19, 2008

Grimey Drawer
Is anyone here using Openhab 3.x? I installed it on my little arm server and it seems totally unready for release. After jumping through a bunch of hoops to get myself access to the zwave tty, I successfully connected to my new thermostat. Unfortunately, persistence seems to be totally broken (or at least the JDBC connector doesn't connect with proper config) and the GUI doesn't even report http errors upon save.

Am I the only one suffering with it?

Pitre
Jul 29, 2003

bobfather posted:

Hubitat is an incredible upgrade from SmartThings.

It looks like this is made by the dude that created the Rule Machines Smartthings app which was kick rear end. I still use a deprecated version of it for some complex rules. I'll look more in to this to see how it works.

My updated Smartthings hub already shipped so I'll see what they have done as far as some devices being local rather than cloud and if it's worth learning something completely new or not.

bobfather
Sep 20, 2001

I will analyze your nervous system for beer money

Pitre posted:

It looks like this is made by the dude that created the Rule Machines Smartthings app which was kick rear end. I still use a deprecated version of it for some complex rules. I'll look more in to this to see how it works.

My updated Smartthings hub already shipped so I'll see what they have done as far as some devices being local rather than cloud and if it's worth learning something completely new or not.

Right on. webCoRE was also ported to Hubitat and runs fine. I would check how well your needed integrations work before making the plunge.

Henrik Zetterberg
Dec 7, 2007

Rick posted:

I don’t think it is possible to use both. I think you can sync it around with HomeAassitant but I abandoned the Hue App a long time ago (the current one, I still use the 1.0 retired ap because you can make scenes with pictures and it just has no idea that rooms exist).

I found a post on reddit that basically said rooms that are added in Home are different than new rooms synched to Home from another app. And because an existing room that I created in Home is being synched to, from an external app, it causes all sorts of issues and throws existing devices into Default Room.

The maybe possibly workaround is to move all non-Hue devices to a random room, delete the existing room from Home, create the room in Hue app, then sync it to Home, then move non-Hue devices to the "new" room in Home. I didn't bother since I have a lot of devices. I just keep them unsynched in the Hue app, and deal with it bugging me to sync rooms every time I load it up. It still seems to sync device names from Hue app to Home just fine. :iiam:

What a mess.

azurite
Jul 25, 2010

Strange, isn't it?!


Is the best DVR solution still BlueIris? I've been tasked with setting up a surveillance panopticon for our barn. I want it to be locally hosted. No cloud. :cloud:

Motronic
Nov 6, 2009

azurite posted:

Is the best DVR solution still BlueIris? I've been tasked with setting up a surveillance panopticon for our barn. I want it to be locally hosted. No cloud. :cloud:

That's what I'm still using. It's been fine, other than the fact that it's the only thing I have running on windows which is annoying. But to be fair, even windows has been behaving better than I would have expected and I mostly don't have to do anything to it.

Pitre
Jul 29, 2003

azurite posted:

Is the best DVR solution still BlueIris? I've been tasked with setting up a surveillance panopticon for our barn. I want it to be locally hosted. No cloud. :cloud:

Absolutely! I built 4 instances for myself, my friends, and one for my work to pull certain camera streams in to make sure local DVRs are running. It is super flexible and my favorite VMS.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

Dis is amazing!
I gotta try dis!

Yeah I still like BlueIris too. I don't know if it's still true but a couple of years back it was cheaper to buy the physical disc on amazon vs. a license from the website (yeah it looks like it's still $10 cheaper https://smile.amazon.com/Amcrest-Blue-Professional-Version-Mail/dp/B07TS9N4RM/) Edited because this is a disc with a trial license, just buy from https://blueirissoftware.com/ the amazon sale is kind of a scam. I also use the free iSpy for some cameras in my house (not recorded, just extra cameras watching mouse traps so I don't have to walk around checking them every day), but iSpy is definitely a little jankier. I've tried MotionEyeOS on a raspberry pi at one point but it was to try out a RPi using a camera as an IP camera, not as a NVR, although it can do that too:
https://github.com/ccrisan/motioneyeos/wiki

Rexxed fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Mar 13, 2021

azurite
Jul 25, 2010

Strange, isn't it?!


Rexxed posted:

Yeah I still like BlueIris too. I don't know if it's still true but a couple of years back it was cheaper to buy the physical disc on amazon vs. a license from the website (yeah it looks like it's still $10 cheaper https://smile.amazon.com/Amcrest-Blue-Professional-Version-Mail/dp/B07TS9N4RM/).

Apparently this is just the installer on a CD with no license? :wtc:

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

Dis is amazing!
I gotta try dis!

azurite posted:

Apparently this is just the installer on a CD with no license? :wtc:

Wow, I guess they changed something because it has good reviews but you're right, a lot of the question/answer section just says it's a trial for Pro and you still have to buy it. Yikes! So yeah, don't buy that, just get it from https://blueirissoftware.com/. I'm gonna edit my previous post so nobody buys that before reading further, that's some bullshit.

FCKGW
May 21, 2006

I run Blue Iris on a Windows VM. If you can get a Windows LTSC license key you avoid a lot of the cruft and automatic rebooting stuff.

Rick
Feb 23, 2004
When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.
drat it goes without saying, put your password in a password manager and also then back your configuration up.

Love to spend 5 hours trying to get my over expensive fan to be recognized because they changed something on the manufacturer's end.

movax
Aug 30, 2008

I installed an Emporia Vue Gen 2 over the weekend and hooo boy, it really does shed a lot of light on what's going on, consumption-wise. I forget if someone mentioned it in this thread or the Wiring thread, but it's pretty painless to install (if you are OK working right up against live mains) and it's fast -- you can no poo poo see bathroom fans, lights, and stuff turn on in a graph. Flip light switch, 1-2 seconds later, you see power consumption on a circuit go up by 50-100 W. I see some evidence of HA plug-ins for it, so once I get that setup, I should be able to do some pretty cool poo poo.

I need another one for my kitchen subpanel, so I'm going to get a little junction box to house two of them, and then just run the CTs to that box through conduit, but pretty happy so far. A little concerned at their speed of development / lack of activity on forums, but it's just another ESP32 powered Internet of poo poo thing -- worst comes to worse, it seems to be good, UL-listed hardware for monitoring this stuff and I'd definitely try to spend time on custom firmware for it if it came to that.

I'm thinking of dumping my ConnectSense in-wall outlets now (app sucks poo poo, but it is HomeKit...) because it's hard(er) to get the live consumption data out of them than it is to just put an Emporia smart plug on something and have it show up in the same app under a given circuit.

Less Fat Luke
May 23, 2003

Exciting Lemon
Whoah I didn't know passive sensors like that existed, that is very cool.

Subjunctive
Sep 12, 2006

✨sparkle and shine✨

movax posted:

I installed an Emporia Vue Gen 2 over the weekend and hooo boy, it really does shed a lot of light on what's going on, consumption-wise. I forget if someone mentioned it in this thread or the Wiring thread, but it's pretty painless to install (if you are OK working right up against live mains) and it's fast -- you can no poo poo see bathroom fans, lights, and stuff turn on in a graph.

This sounds great. I've been looking for something like this! I don't know what they mean by "bus bar mains", so I'll probably get an electrician to install it for me when I buy it. It looks like there's a cloud API that you use to get the data, but as you say it's ESP32 so someone can Tasmota their way to victory in the fullness of time I'm sure.

movax
Aug 30, 2008

Less Fat Luke posted:

Whoah I didn't know passive sensors like that existed, that is very cool.

Yeah -- I am actually concerned at how they are going to stay in business without subscription fees; I mean, they are going to mine / sell my data, but they also made a bunch of demographic information completely optional to input, so if that's their game plan... they're not good at it! (I.E., do you have an EV, etc).

The hardware is pretty cheap for what you get -- I have not taken it apart, but it seems competently engineered / they have filters on all the CT inputs (maybe they are all 4-20 mA), it's just all locked up behind their app -- I can't view voltage/frequency information despite the unit sensing it, for example.

I checked my post history in this thread and I guess it was mentioned in the Wiring thread, but I recall someone talking about the Sense there too... IIRC, it doesn't have individual sensors and is $300 and uses "AI/ML/:clod:" to figure out what loads are what. gently caress that. Individual CTs are the way to go, and most big things (W/D, fridge, hot tub, etc) are on their own anyways. For shared circuits, if your house isn't too weird, you'll have a good idea of what's going on anyways because you know what's plugged in. If you want further refinement, just get one of their smart plugs and stick it inline.

Typing that out, I think I will actually replace my ConnectSense in-wall smart outlet in my office and go back to a regular outlet... and then just plug my UPS into an Emporia plug so I get a breakdown on my office circuit per setup. I've been lucky no one has flipped off the PC switch in HomeKit so far, and I'll just... not expose the smartplug so it truly is a monitor.

movax
Aug 30, 2008

Subjunctive posted:

This sounds great. I've been looking for something like this! I don't know what they mean by "bus bar mains", so I'll probably get an electrician to install it for me when I buy it. It looks like there's a butt API that you use to get the data, but as you say it's ESP32 so someone can Tasmota their way to victory in the fullness of time I'm sure.

Some installations, instead of having chonky insulated cables coming in from your service to land on your panel, will have bus bars (literal metal bars) coming in instead (maybe more common in condos / denser units?), as I understand it. Those need a different type of sensor, and you get a lot closer to death, so wearing some actual arc-rated / PPE is a good idea as you have to slip a coil around the bus bar.

I am not an electrician, but own insulated tools / design HV systems / drivetrains by day, so I approached it with a healthy caution and had my GF hang out in the garage so she could drag my smoking body away / call a wambulance if I slipped up. My panel doesn't have a master shutoff, so everything stays live unless you flip individual breakers. It's really the mains ones you have to be careful about as you can't turn those off. IMO they should ship a little plastic boot you can slip over the CT plug so when you feed cables down the panel, in case it makes contact with line voltage, nothing happens.

Fake edit: I have a lot of 220 V stuff -- the Vue is a bit lacking in this area, at the moment. If it's truly balanced, like a resistor (water heater, etc.), you can just attach one CT and then add a multiplier in the app -- not a bad solution, honestly.

If it's not, you need one CT per leg... but AFAIK, the app does not let you combine them yet. This could be useful for things (as I understand it) a dryer, where different components (heating coils vs. motors) run from different legs, if you care about accuracy. Technically though, it's more than good enough if you want an alert on when your laundry is done -- it's basically binary 0 W or kWs.

movax fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Mar 22, 2021

Motronic
Nov 6, 2009

movax posted:

Some installations, instead of having chonky insulated cables coming in from your service to land on your panel, will have bus bars (literal metal bars)

I think you might be confusing main breaker vs main lug panels. Both have bus bars - that's what the breakers are attached to.

Either way, unless you have previously been taught by someone who know what they are doing - in person - I wouldn't suggest anyone take the cover off of their panel. Regardless of the type you have there is a LOT of fault current in there. It's the only place in most people's homes where you could even possibly encounter straight-from-the-pole potential current.

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movax
Aug 30, 2008

Motronic posted:

I think you might be confusing main breaker vs main lug panels. Both have bus bars - that's what the breakers are attached to.

Either way, unless you have previously been taught by someone who know what they are doing - in person - I wouldn't suggest anyone take the cover off of their panel. Regardless of the type you have there is a LOT of fault current in there. It's the only place in most people's homes where you could even possibly encounter straight-from-the-pole potential current.

It was weird -- I know there are bars in your panel that your breakers sit on, but I saw a picture on the Emporia forums of someone's entire box being fed with bus bars instead of like 4 AWG cable. So instead of service -> insulated cable -> your A/B bars, it was service -> actual bus bars -> your typical A/B bars. I guess it's common enough they released a variant of their product for it.

Maybe it's for light commercial where you feed a sub panel or something with bus bar instead of cable? Not an electrician so no idea if NEC even allow something like that.

Disregard, I'm a noob: https://www.emporiaenergy.com/flexible-current-sensors I see where they are needed now... neat! I don't have that 200 A (what is the term for that breaker?), just cables right from service to the A/B bars. I can see that being more typical on houses w/ external boxes (as someone from MI/now in WA, still very WTF to me).

movax fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Mar 22, 2021

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