Category: Uncategorized

Zigbee devices you don't want on your network

Peter

Want a stable mesh network? Running ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT as part of your home automation system? Here are some devices you should avoid running on your network.

Stability and performance issues?

  • Philips Hue A19 White and Color Ambiance (LCT001), released in ~2013
  • Philips Hue Table Lamp (LLC012), released in ~2013

The devices above will stop routing traffic and responding to commands, causing issues with your mesh network.

Pairing issues?

LinkTap GW-02, a wireless timer gateway leaves itself in Permanent Join mode and will reject join requests for any Zigbee device on your network. Sometimes, devices do not implement handling of rejected joins properly and will "give up."

Devices (re)-join Zigbee networks all the time to find a better parent route, so this will cause stability issues which are hard to diagnose.


WEMOS LOLIN32 ESP32 Lite pinout example for CJMCU-811

Peter

Low cost ESP32 development board such as WEMOS ESP32 LOLIN32 Lite paired with a CO2 / VOC sensor CJMCU-811. The WEMOS LOLIN32 development board does not have all the same GPIO as other similar ESP32 boards.

Pinout

LOLIN32CJMCU-811
V3.3VCC
22 (GPIO22)SCL
19 (GPIO19)SDA
GNDWAK
Pinout example for LOLIN32 paired with CJMCU-811

ESPHome example

i2c:
  sda: GPIO15
  scl: GPIO2

sensor:
  - platform: ccs811
    eco2:
      name: "CCS811 eCO2 Value"
    tvoc:
      name: "CCS811 Total Volatile Organic Compound"
    address: 0x5A
    baseline: 0x9AB9
    update_interval: 60s

RE: Motion B6 – Don't Feed the Wildlife

Peter

My letter to City of Vancouver council regarding Motion B6 – Don't Feed the Wildlife.

Hello,

I do not support Motion B6 – Don't Feed the Wildlife, submitted by Pete Fry.

The proposed ban is overly broad, and unnecessary. There is already a Park Board bylaw on banning feeding wildlife in our parks, which is the advertised target of this motion.

The City and Park Board should enforce existing bylaws, instead of adding new ones. And, when necessary, work with the province on enforcing laws against feeding dangerous animals.

Pete Fry stated that the proposed bylaw is also meant to target people who attract vermin to their properties. Does the City not have bylaws in place already that cover this? I believe they do.

Many residents in Vancouver feed the various birds in their area using methods banned with this proposed bylaw (i.e. putting out nuts while under observation in a container during the day: to prevent vermin), and use it as a way to improve their mental wellbeing, especially during COVID-19. This will unfairly target seniors and people with restricted social circles.

Please consider voting against this motion.

Thank you.

Home Assistant sensors and CyberPower UPS via RMCARD205

Peter

RMCARD205 supplies metrics via SNMP for all supported CyberPower UPS. Who doesn't want to display power usage on their UPS via Home Assistant?

Lovelace card for CyberPower UPS

I created a "package" for CyberPower UPS RMCARD that exports data via SNMP. This assumes your default read-only community is named public.

packages/ups.yaml:

sensor:
  - platform: snmp
    scan_interval: 60
    name: ups_nompower
    host: x.x.x.x
    baseoid: 1.3.6.1.4.1.3808.1.1.1.4.2.5.0
    accept_errors: true
    unit_of_measurement: Watts
  - platform: snmp
    scan_interval: 60
    name: ups_nominv
    host: x.x.x.x
    baseoid: 1.3.6.1.4.1.3808.1.1.1.3.2.1.0
    accept_errors: true
    unit_of_measurement: Volts
    value_template: '{{((value | int) / 10) | int}}'
  - platform: snmp
    scan_interval: 60
    name: ups_itemp
    host: x.x.x.x
    baseoid: 1.3.6.1.4.1.3808.1.1.1.2.2.3.0
    accept_errors: true
    unit_of_measurement: "°C"
  - platform: snmp
    scan_interval: 60
    name: ups_timeleft
    host: x.x.x.x
    baseoid: 1.3.6.1.4.1.3808.1.1.1.2.2.4.0
    accept_errors: true
    unit_of_measurement: 'minutes'
    value_template: '{{((value | int) / 6000) | int}}'
  - platform: snmp
    scan_interval: 30
    name: ups_status
    host: x.x.x.x
    baseoid: 1.3.6.1.4.1.3808.1.1.1.4.1.1.0
    accept_errors: true
    value_template: >-
      {% set status = (value | int) %}
      {%- if status == 2 -%}
      Online
      {%- elif status ==  3 -%}
      On Battery
      {%- elif status ==  4 -%}
      On Boost
      {%- elif status ==  5 -%}
      On Sleep
      {%- elif status ==  6 -%}
      Off
      {%- elif status ==  7 -%}
      Rebooting
      {%- elif status ==  8 -%}
      On ECO
      {%- elif status ==  9 -%}
      On Bypass
      {%- elif status ==  10 -%}
      On Buck
      {%- elif status ==  11 -%}
      On Overload
      {%- else -%}
      Unknown
      {%- endif -%}
      
group:
  ups:
    name: UPS
    entities:
      - sensor.ups_status
      - sensor.ups_nompower
      - sensor.ups_nominv
      - sensor.ups_itemp
      - sensor.ups_timeleft

homeassistant:
  customize:
    sensor.ups_nompower:
      friendly_name: 'UPS Nominal Output Power'
      icon: mdi:flash
    sensor.ups_nominv:
      friendly_name: 'UPS Nominal Input Voltage'
      icon: mdi:flash
    sensor.ups_status:
      friendly_name: 'UPS Status'
      icon: mdi:information-outline
    sensor.ups_itemp:
      friendly_name: 'UPS Internal Temperature'
      icon: mdi:thermometer
    sensor.ups_timeleft:
      friendly_name: 'UPS Time Left'
      icon: mdi:clock-alert

Supermicro IPMI Virtual Media and Samba 4.11 (Ubuntu 20.04)

Peter

Unable to mount an ISO using Virtual Media function available on Supermicro IPMI with Samba 4.11 (used in Ubuntu 20.04)?

You successfully set the Share Host, and Path to Image. You select "Mount", and Device 1 virtual media status does not change to "There is an iso file mounted." It stays at "No disk emulation set."

Samba 4.11 in Ubuntu 20.04 has changed the server minimum protocol supported. To enable IPMI to work with the new Samba, in /etc/samba/smb.conf you need to change/add server min protocol to NT1.

[global]
server min protocol = NT1

Then you can reload Samba:

smbcontrol all reload-config