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May Newsletter -It Works with Google

When searching for smart home devices the fact that the device works with Google,Alexa etc is very reassuring to most.

However the fact that it works with these well known platforms only tells half the story.

The reality is that it also need the support of the device manufacturer to work correctly.

Take away this support and it doesn’t work at all.

See

A Beginners Guide to Controlling Smart Home Devices

and

Why Cloud dependency is not the Future of home Automation

Network Ports

When browsing the web you are totally unaware of the existence of network ports

However when working with home automation systems like node-red, MQTT, Home Assistant etc you will be confronted with the existence of network ports.

Setting up a home automation system requires that you become familiar with them.See Network Ports Explained

Working From Home? Have you considered a backup Internet Connection?

With the growing trend of working from home a reliable Internet connection is essential.

Many Internet providers (ISPs) already cater for this by offering a mobile backup connection as part of the package but at additional cost.

See backup Internet Connection

Linux and Networking Tips

A command I use frequently is history. This command show you you command history and is useful if you need to repeat a along command and don’t want to retype it.

However the command history can be very large so you usually need to filter it using grep.

So if I wanted to display all commands that had the port 2000 in them I would use

history | grep 2000

as shown below:

to execute the command use the ! followed by the number shown in the left e.g.

!2024

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If you know anyone who would find this newsletter useful the please forward it.

Books

Just a reminder that I have several books on Amazon:

• MQTT for Beginners .
• JSON and JavaScript Workbook
• MQTT and Python for Beginners
• The Mosquitto Broker For Complete Beginners

My Other Sites

You may or may note be aware that I have two other related sites that you may find useful. They are:

• Steve’s Node Red Guide
• Steve’s Internet guide

Feedback and Suggestions

I am always happy to receive content suggestions and feedback on tutorials on the site. Please use the suggestions page.

If you need help then use the Ask Steve page to get in touch.

Until next time.

Best Regards

Best Regards

Steve

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April Newsletter

MQTT vs HTPP for Home Automation

Most IOT devices can use both the  HTTP and MQTT protocols to communicate with IOT  control systems.

The HTTP protocol is generally used for initial  device set up.

However when it comes to sending device data and for subsequent device control HTTP is not usually the best protocol.

Generally when you look for a comparison between the protocols the main emphasis is on the fact that HTTP is a text based protocol and not as efficient as MQTT which is a binary based protocol.

Read more

News

Smart Home Costs

Being a DIY guy I was quite shocked when I did a search for smart home costs. Below is a partial table from the checkatrade.com website

 

The full table is here and it gets much more expensive.

and then you get articles like this

Why the Ultrarich Are Unplugging From “Smart Homes”

Does make you wonder.

Personally I think when you design your smart home you should try to imagine how the new home owner would react to it.

It’s nice to have hall lights turn on when you approach but it is nicer to have a switch to turn them on when you want.

Latest Tutorial on the Site

• An Introduction to Peer to Peer Networking
• Assigning IP Addresses to Smart Home Devices
• Introduction to IP Cameras and Webcams
• Home Automation- A Guide to Timed Events

Your Thoughts

• Want to learn more about something that I have covered yet?
• Need more detail on a specific topic?
• Have a question?

Then let me know and I will see if I can help.

Rgds

Steve

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April 28 2025

Why Cloud dependency is not the Future of home Automation

This is well worth a read as I sums up why local control of your smart home is important and the importance of choosing products that allow for local control. more ..

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April 6 2025

Interesting read if you are starting out on your smart home journey.

Why the Ultrarich Are Unplugging From “Smart Homes”

I don’t think that it is just the ultra rich.

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March 30 2025

7 best ways to run Home Assistant-

If you are confused by the different home assistant versions then this article will explain the basic differences. link

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January 13 2025

Is 2025 Finally the Right Time to Create a Smart Home? – Interesting read but I’m still doubtful that matter will make so much difference

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Newsletter January 08 2025

This is the first newsletter in 2025, and I would like to wish you all a happy new year.

Q- What are Smart Quotes?

A- Smart Quotes are found in Windows Word documents and also on some web pages. They can cause trouble if you have them mixed in with JSON data and so you will need to replace them. The problem is that it is not always obvious as the error message you get is invalid JSON data.See this online tool

The reason I mention it is that I had a problem with them myself when pasting a command from one on my web pages.

Take a look at this command (with smart quotes)

Zbsend {“device”:”0xD027″,”Send”:{“AddGroup”:100}}

and This command (normal quotes

Zbsend {“device”:”0xD027″,”Send”:{“AddGroup”:100}}

The first command will result in a JSON error.

Finding The IP Address of a New Network Device

When adding smart home devices to a network the device usually gets a random IP address assigned by a DHCP server.

However you usually need to connect to this device using the IP address to configure it. So How do you find the iP address if the device.

The answer is to use the DHCP server client list. The process is covered in my latest video

It also shows how to assign static IP addresses using DHCP.

Why Assign Static IP addresses Using DHCP?

Assigning static IP addresses using DHCP as opposed to assigning static addresses on the actual device is far more flexible.

Imagine you need to change the static IP addresses of several devices.

Using DHCP means that it all done on the DHCP server without the need to visit the actual device.

Do Switches Have IP Addresses?

This appears to be a common question according to my server logs.

The answer is that simple unmanaged switch don’t have an IP address but smart and managed switch do have an IP address. The IP address is required in order for you to connect to them and manage them.

If you don’t know the IP address of your switches then you can use the DHCP server client list to find them. It is also a good idea to make them static addresses and document them.

See Documenting your home network

Let me know what you think and what else you would find useful. Again please use the suggestions page

That’s all for now.

Best Regards

Steve

 

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December 22 2024

Google Web Mariner

This is a browser based AI agent that is a Google extension and it can navigate the web autonomously to answer questions for you.

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December 22 2024

Open Source Voice Assistant

This is something I’ve been waiting for and it is certainly something that most smart homes need.

Instead of using Google, Alexa or Siri to process voice commands you can do it all locally with this hardware from the company behind Home Assistant. Read More here

Order link is here but it is currently on back order.

December Newsletter 2024

Hi

This will be my last newsletter in 2024, so I would like to wish you all a happy Xmas and a happy new year.

Modem vs Router

I had a call from my daughter the other day complaining that her Internet wasn’t working.

She said she has restarted her router several times but It hadn’t fixed the problem.

So I hurried over as expected to find that for some reason her modem had been switched off by someone knocking the plug.

What she didn’t realise and probably not many people do is that an internet connections needs a modem and a router.

The reason that many people are aware of this is because homes connected to the internet using the old telephone cables had a router with the modem built in.

However newer fibre connections and coax cable connections have a separate modem. This is shown in the diagram below:

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Below is a picture of a BT fibre modem as an illustration:

Yours may look different as BT as several variants and so will your ISP.

What distinguishes them from routers is that routers generally have 4 or more Ethernet ports and usually some Antennas (these may not be visible).

Pros and Cons of a Smart home

I while ago came a cross and article – 30 key Pros and Cons of Smart Homes and I mentioned it previously in a newsletter.

I thought it worth repeating as many of you might just be getting started or thinking of starting.

The original article is no longer available but I have created a summary table below:

Pros	Cons
increase in convenience	Significant installation costs
Full control over all smart appliances with only one device	Reliable internet connection is crucial
Higher quality of life	Security issues
Notifications in case of trouble	Technological problems in connected homes
Energy savings	You may lock yourself out of your own house
Safety improvements compared to conventional locks	Helplessness if technology fails
Smart homes may be suitable for disabled persons	Some people may not like smart technologies
Resale value might increase	Maintenance and repair issues
	Compatibility problems between devices
	Technology may become outdated soon
	Privacy concerns

What is Happening to Matter

The Matter aims to unify and simplify the fragmented smart home ecosystem.

However I linked to an article that I found on why the protocol hasn’t lived up to expectations You can read it here

Following that I decided to do a search on matter thermostats on Amazon and didn’t find any so I looked for switches.

I did find a matter smart switch from SONOFF but it was more expensive than the other ones.

So it seems that there isn’t a great deal of choice for matter smart home devices at the moment and I can’t see it changing soon.

Therefore if you are just starting with your smart home then it is Wi-Fi, Zigbee and Zwave still.

Local vs Cloud Control

I had a little reminder the weekend about the importance of local control as due to severe storms my Internet went down for most of the day.

It might be cool to say Alexa lights on but will Alexa hear you?

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Nov 24

Why the Matter Protocol Hasn’t Lived Up to Its Promise

The Matter protocol was supposed to solve the fragmentation problem but it hasn’t and I don’t think it ever will so this article didn’t really come as a surprise.

You can read it here

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Nov  17 2024

Eero Outdoor

If you are looking for outdoor Wi-Fi then this is something to consider but a bit pricey and you also need to add in the the other mesh access points if you don’t already have them.Here is the review from from zdnet.

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November Newsletter

Choosing Between Zigbee and Wi-Fi

According to chat GPT the reason to use either Zigbee and Wi-fi are :

• Use Zigbee for battery-powered devices, devices that only need to send small bits of data, and networks requiring many low-power devices in close proximity.
• Use Wi-Fi if you need high data rates, seamless internet connectivity, or don’t mind connecting devices directly to a high-power source.

However what it fails to mention is that most WI-fi devices require an Internet connection and the use of a manufacturer supplied APP.

The most notable exception being Shelly devices and devices flashed with Tasmota firmware.

However because Zigbee devices require a Zigbee hub it is possible to use a Zigbee device locally using your own hub- see Practical Guide to Using and Managing Zigbee Devices.

So when choosing a smart home device I go for:

• Shelly devices
• Devices easily flashed using OTA updates to Tasmota
• Zigbee devices

It is certainly true that if you are using battery operated devices then Zigbee is by far the better choice.

However I have found the operating range less than impressive.

Wif-FI Halow test Trials

Very Interesting report on test trials for

• Smart homes
• Smart Cities
• Farms
• Factory

See here

If you are looking at extending the range of you Wi-Fi network then Wi-Fi HaLow is what I would consider.

See also How to Extend a Home Network

Backup Internet

With many people now working from home a reliable Internet connection is crucial.

To achieve this most will use a fibre,cable or phone line connection as the primary connection with a Cell/Mobile connection for the backup connection.

Many routers now have this capability built it.

Starlink is also a possibility but expensive at the moment

See Backup Internet For Home Networks

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Sept  9 2024

Wif-FI Halow test Trials

Very Interesting report on test trials for

• Smart homes
• Smart Cities
• Farms
• Factory

See here

Well worth a read.

See also what is the difference between Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi HaLow

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May 21 2024

Extending Wi-Fi

another video covering the range

May 5 2024

How Much Does Your smart home cost?

A very interesting article covering the cost of running smart home devices. here

February 18 2024

Why you should get satellite Internet

If you have been wondering about Starlink and if you should get it then this article is worth a read. link

 

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February 17 2024

Wrong about Zigbee and Zwave

An interesting read about Zigbee and Zwave. I have personally decided on Zigbee and only use Wi-fi devices when absolutely necessary. link

Related tutorial on site

• My Zigbee network notes
• Control Zigbee Devices Using Zigbee2MQTT with Home Assistant
• Practical Guide to Using and Managing Zigbee Devices

 

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