home assistant News - Page 5 of 15 - CNX Software

May 7, 2024May 8, 2024 by Tomisin Olujinmi - No Comments

NanoCell V2.1 battery-powered ESP32-C3 IoT board runs ESPHome for Home Assistant integration

The NanoCell V2.1 is a development board built around the Espressif ESP32-C3 SoC (system-on-a-chip) preloaded with ESPHome firmware for low-power applications and improved Lithium battery management. The development board is a white printed circuit board with gold-plated contacts and a battery fuel-gauge IC, designed by Frapais’ lab in Greece. As the name suggests, the NanoCell V2.1 is the latest in a series of iterations of ESP32-C3-based devices targeted at low-power applications. Compared to earlier versions, it offers a better user experience and improved power efficiency. It features a buck-boost converter that reduces standby current consumption to 66uA (excluding the current consumed by the ESP32 module). The battery management system (BMS) integrated circuit supports accurate capacity measurement and protects connected Lithium batteries from overcharging and other harmful scenarios. Also, two LEDs on the board serve as power and charging indicators to relay the board’s status. It is based on the same […]

May 3, 2024May 3, 2024 by Tomisin Olujinmi - 3 Comments

Sonocotta’s ESParagus “Media Center” is a series of ESP32-based, open-source audio streamers (Crowdfunding)

ESParagus Media Center is a line of audio streamers from Sonocotta, all powered by an ESP32 microcontroller module. It includes the ESParagus HiFi MediaLink, Loud ESParagus, and the Louder ESParagus. The ESP32-based audio centers can be used to power old stereo speaker systems that lack streaming capabilities. They are completely open-source, consume little power when not in use, and boot up in seconds. The ESParagus Media Center products are based on the ESP32-WROVER microcontroller module with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity and an onboard PSRAM chip. They are fitted with an external Wi-Fi antenna and the top-end model – the Louder ESParagus – is fitted with a W5500 LAN chip for Ethernet networking. All three ESParagus Media Centers run squeezelite-esp32 firmware which supports Spotify Connect, Apple AirPlay, and Logitech Media Server. Integrations with Home Assistant are possible and can be useful for multi-room configurations. The Louder ESParagus is quite similar to […]

May 3, 2024May 2, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Enabling Zigbee in Bluetooth LE temperature and humidity monitors from Xiaomi and Qingping using Telink TLSR8258 WiSoC

XIaomi temperature humidity monitors Zigbee

Qingping CGDK2 and Xiaomi LYWSD03MMC Bluetooth LE (BLE) temperature and humidity monitors based on Telink TLSR8258 can be switched to Zigbee thanks to a custom firmware flashed over-the-air. Telink TLS8258 is a multi-protocol wireless microcontroller supporting Bluetooth LE 5, Bluetooth Mesh, Zigbee, RF4CE, Thread, 6LoWPAN, HomeKit, ANT, and 2.4GHz proprietary and found in boards such as the LILYGO T-Zigbee and various products. Some products only enable one wireless protocol, for example, Bluetooth LE as in the just-mentioned Qingping and Xiaomi monitors, but “SmartHomeScene” has found out that it was possible to switch from BLE to Zigbee on those by simply updating the firmware. The Telink TLS8258 devices mentioned above will publish data over BLE every 10 minutes (unless humidity or temperature changes, in which case data is transmitted immediately) with the default firmware, but Zigbee can be enabled by using the pvvx custom firmware for the following models: Xiaomi LYWSD03MMC […]

April 29, 2024April 30, 2024 by Paisit Wongsongsarn - 5 Comments

Review of SONOFF SNZB-06P human presence and SNZB-04P door/window Zigbee sensors

SONOFF has been gradually refreshing its Zigbee product lineup since August 2023, and CNX has recently written about the Temperature/Humidity Sensor (SNZB-01P), Switch/Button (SNZB-02P) and Motion Sensor (SNZB-03P), and the SONOFF SNZB-06P human presence sensor. I’ve now had the opportunity to review both the SONOFF SNZB-06P and the new Door/Window Sensor (SNZB-04P). After we keep trying them out for a few weeks, we think reliability is much improved, especially with the Door/Window Sensor, the materials made as well as the appearance look better than the previous models. As for the Human Presence Sensor, it’s the first generation, which is quite impressive considering its price and features. Let’s take a closer look. Door/Window Sensor (SNZB-04P) review Unboxing Obviously, the rounded design differs from the previous rectangular version. It integrates better with the surroundings than the previous model. Additionally, the lithium battery capacity is larger (CR2450 @550mA vs. CR2477 @1000mA), resulting in […]

April 23, 2024April 22, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

The Open Home Foundation will manage Home Assistant, ESPHome, Zigpy among over 240 open-source Smart Home projects

The Open Home Foundation is a non-profit organization that will manage over 240 Smart Home projects, standards, drivers, and libraries including Home Assistant, ESPHome, Zigpy, Piper, and Improv Wi-Fi with the goal of “fight[ing] for the fundamental principles of privacy, choice, and sustainability for smart homes”. The non-profit was introduced during the “State of the Open Home 2024” (see video embedded at the end of this article) with Nabu Casa – the for-profit company behind Home Assistant – transferring all their projects to the new entity, and the Open Home Foundation will also help with the development of critical external projects such as Z-Wave JS, WLED, Rhasspy, and Zigbee2MQTT. The foundation further explains the goal of teaming multiple projects together in a stronger structure: We’ve done this to create a bulwark against surveillance capitalism, the risk of buyout, and open-source projects becoming abandonware. To an extent, this protection extends even […]

March 20, 2024March 19, 2024 by Paisit Wongsongsarn - 6 Comments

SONOFF POW Ring Review – A WiFi CT Clamp power meter tested with eWelink and Home Assistant

The trend of measuring the energy usage of household electrical devices has become increasingly popular among Smart Home users in the past few years. We have received the new SONOFF POW Ring Smart Power Meter Switch device for review from ITEAD. Unlike SONOFF’s existing energy monitoring devices such as POW Elite, SPM, DualR3, POW3, and POW Origin, this new device, also called POWCT, utilizes a current transformer (CT) to measure the current flow, or total power being consumed. This method provides no physical contact with live wires and reduces the risk during installation. Additionally, it can measure currents of up to 100A, which is significantly higher than previous models. This makes it suitable for measuring electricity usage at the main circuit breaker, energy generated from solar panels, or even for Electric Vehicle (EV) home chargers. The SONOFF POW Ring, which we are testing today, is not only a Smart Power […]

March 14, 2024March 14, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

$35 SONOFF POW ring smart power meter (POWCT) safely supports up to 100A

SONOFF POW Ring smart power meter is the first CT clamp-based WiFi power meter from ITEAD. It is designed for installation in an electric cabinet to measure whole-house power consumption with up to 100A current. The power meter relies on an ESP32 microcontroller for control and wireless connectivity with a range of up to 130 meters thanks to an external high-gain antenna. It is supported by the usual eWelink mobile app that also enables integration with Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and IFTTT services, and ITEAD also mentions integration with the Home Assistant open-source framework. SONOFF POW Ring (POWCT) specifications: MCU – ESP32 WiFi and Bluetooth microcontroller Connectivity – 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 (802.11b/g/n) with SMA antenna connector for an external antenna to be placed outside of the electrical cabinet Current transformer (CT) interface type – RJ9 Current transformer detection range – 0 to 100A Measurement category – CAT II 0-100A […]

February 13, 2024February 13, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

SMLIGHT launches Zigbee Ethernet/WiFi coordinators and USB adapters based on TI CC2652P7 or CC2674P10 wireless chips

SMLIGHT SLZB-06p7 SLZB-06p10 Zigbee Ethernet coordinator

SMLIGHT has recently released Zigbee Ethernet/WiFi/USB coordinators and USB dongles based on either Texas Instruments CC2652P7 or CC2674P10 wireless microcontrollers that update on the company’s SLZB-06 Zigbee 3.0 to PoE Ethernet, USB, and WiFi adapter and Silicon Labs EFR32MG21-based SLZB-07 Zigbee 3.0 USB adapter. That’s a total of four new devices with the SLZB-06p7 and SLZB-07p7 based on CC2652P7 and designed to work with vendor-agnostic software such as Zigbee2MQTT and Home Assistant ZHA, and the similar SLZB-06p10 and SLZB-06p10 based on the CC2674P10 whose Zigbee firmware is still under development according to SMLIGHT. SLZB-06p7/SLZB-06p10 Zigbee to Ethernet/WiFi/USB coordinator SLZB-06p7/SLZB-06p10 specifications: Wireless SoCs SLZB-06p7 – Texas Instruments CC2652P7 Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller @ 48-MHz with 704KB flash, 256KB ROM for protocol and library functions, 8KB of SRAM, integrated +20 dB power amplifier, Bluetooth 5.2 Low Energy, Matter, Thread, Zigbee 3.0 SLZB-06p10 – Texas Instruments CC2674P10 Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller @ 48 MHz with […]