IFTT Compatible Home Automation Advice

0FoxGiven on 20/05/2019 - 12:35
Last edited 20/05/2019 - 15:51

I really want to get my new home pimped up with a sweet home automation setup.

Current State at my current place:

Devices:
- Amazon Alexa Echo Plus (which has a Zigbee hub built-in)
- Xiaomi Gateway
- Xiaomi Motion Sensors
- Xiaomi smart plugs
- Xiaomi Switches
- Yeelights
- Synology NAS

Current Workflow(s)
- Xiaomi Motion Sensors trigger gateway alarm and phone notifications based on Automation rules setup on the Xiaomi MiHome app
- Xiaomi Switches are used to manually activate and deactivate Xiaomi Gateway Alarm and turn on/off home appliances that are connected with Xiaomi smartplugs
- Xiaomi Switch used as a doorbell
- Commands to the Amazon EchoPlus turn on/off Yeelights

Ideal Future State at my new place: (Note that the new house has LIFX downlights)

Expected Workflow(s)
- Motion Sensors (doesn't have to be Xiaomi ones) to trigger alarm (on Gateway or Echo Plus?) and push phone notifications. Also turn on LIFX downlights to Red
- View security camera stream on Smart TV/Phone/Tablet. It would be great if the PIR sensors on the Security camera can trigger the Alarm workflow mentioned in the previous point
- Commands to the Amazon Echo Plus turn on/off Yeelights and LIFX Downlights (Already achievable)

I prefer having a single Smarthome ecosystem and I'm leaning towards the Amazon EchoPlus being the hub so that I don't need to have multiple hubs and bridges working to get the results I want to achieve. From the research I have done I have found that it isn't easy to get the Xiaomi sensors talking to the EchoPlus. I tried to play with HomeAssistant by installing hass.io on the Synology NAS but I didn't manage to get a proper working solution for my needs.
I quite like my current simple wireless home security setup of Xiaomi sensors and gateway alarm over the mainstream keypad panel home alarm solutions out there; As I can easily reconfigure the automation rules, move the sensors, receive phone notifications and hide the Activation/Deactivation switch in a more discreet location. But I am willing to buy into another brand of motion sensors and alarm system if it can be hooked up with IFTT and Alexa without needing another hub/bridge. It wouldn't be a major loss for me as I must have spent only a total of $120 on all those Xiaomi stuff and I got good use out of it.
I prefer having a wired security camera system as I don't want to be recharging batteries every few weeks and changing batteries when their charge retention capacity drops significantly.

TLDR : Looking for recommendations for motion sensors, alarm and wired security cameras that work together with Alexa or IFTT

Home & Garden

Comments

  • geek001 on 20/05/2019 - 12:51

    I don't think the xiaomi gateway and associated devices are compatible with IFTTT. FWIW, I have Broadlink switches working with IFTTT. I think Sonoff ones are compatible too.

    • 0FoxGiven on 20/05/2019 - 13:00

      Ye I didn't think they would. That's why I'm interested in getting recommendations for Motion Sensors and Security cameras that work with IFTT or Alexa. I see Broadlink and Sonoff have sensor kits.; Will look into it

  • tomlut on 20/05/2019 - 13:15

    Ditch IFTT. Check out Home Assistant. Much lower latency when you can do everything locally. Also HA will make just about anything talk to anything.

    • 0FoxGiven on 20/05/2019 - 13:26

      As I mentioned in the post, I tried running it on my Synology NAS via docker. But didnt have the skills to make it work the way I wanted to :(

      • tomlut on 20/05/2019 - 15:11

        Sorry, I must have skipped that sentence.

        My advice would still be to give it another go.

        There's plenty of friendly advice on the HA community forums to get it working how you want.

        The main advantage of doing everything locally is that you can still control everything if the internet goes down.

  • trankillity on 20/05/2019 - 13:56

    Home Assistant will be the way to go. Definitely not user friendly, but most people who want to dig into automation such as yours are at least moderately tech savvy. There's also a lot of tools out there that plug into Home Assistant to make things a little more friendly such as NodeRed.

    You'll likely ditch the Echo Plus as a hub and use a Raspberry Pi with a Zigbee USB adapter as your "brains". Hass.io may work on a NAS, but I definitely wouldn't want to put the "brains" of my house on something as secure as a NAS considering the privacy concerns of IoT.

    I have gone the Google route instead of Amazon due to the superior voice recognition as well as better integration with my primary cloud-based tools of choice (like calendar, contacts, search, news, etc).

    As for other recommendations, here's some of the stuff that I have running/will be looking into:

    • If DIY is too much for you, SmartThings is probably the best hub around. It can achieve a hell of a lot and also has a fairly open back-end so you can hack together your own solutions if there isn't a device handler or event trigger that suits your needs. Can only be purchased exclusively from RACV in Australia for some weird reason. Please note, you can't actually legally import this either as Z-Wave uses different licensed radio bands in different countries.
    • Hue Bridge for all lighting (can pair with non-Hue Zigbee lights, meaning everything is in one easy-to-use ecosystem). The Hue motion sensors are really good and use PIR for sensing motion. They also have built-in UV monitor to detect daylight levels as well as a temperature sensor. And the Hue Dimmer switches are really stylish and quite configurable.
    • Castable devices are fantastic for any form of media. With Google you can collate your speakers into groups so that it can simultaneously cast music/podcasts/anything around the whole house. This would potentially even enable you to cast your security system to any Chromecast source (with some significant fiddling).
    • WiFi power points are great for turning your dumb devices into smart devices. I use the Kogan ones (which are just rebranded Tuya switches) because they have a physical toggle button, energy meter, and scheduling support. Plus they're only $20 a pop if you get the 4-pack. A quick energy-saving tip is to set a timer up on these on your "phantom power" power boards so that they're turned off completely in the wee hours of the morning.
    • WiFi itself is super important when it comes to IoT. You'll either want some level of prosumer WiFi (I use Ubiquiti's Unifi gear) or a solid mesh network to allow everything to work smoothly. Zigbee actually uses the same super busy 2.4ghz signal range as WiFi, so you want to be able to account for that. You will also want to look at some articles on micro segmentation and security for IoT when setting up your WiFi. Most IoT devices are very insecure and send your details via plain text.
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