🏡 Better Homes In search of a lighting control solution.

OffshoreDrilling

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Cliffs: looking for a multi channel lighting controller for exterior lighting with some smart features.


The deetz:

So. My house has a 1977 vintage low voltage relay panel that controls all my exterior lighting. All the exterior light circuits are terminated at a relay panel in the basement. There are low voltage switches at the doors in the house that control individual lights and a 10 switch panel in the master bedroom where I can control everything as well.

I want to replace this garbage with something more modern. A few switches don’t work and everything is antiquated looking. The panel has already been gutted and I just leave the lights I want on running 24/7.

The way things are wired right now, the exterior lights are split into 8 separate circuits. (There’s a lot of lights)

I’m looking for something with most or all of these features:

-10 separate controllable circuits
-ability to create scenes of different groups of lights
-schedule based control
-web portal or app for remote control
-photocell input or some smart equivalent based on sunset times (would be nice, not a must have)
-dimming (would be nice, not a must have)


I can’t find anything that isn’t a $1600 commercial product that meets my needs. Residential stuff is mostly IOT based garbage single switches or an ecosystem of having a switch at every light. I don’t have 120v control at the local locations of the lights so that doesn’t really work for me. I could do something dumb like make a panel of 10 smart switches in the basement where all the high voltage wiring meets up, but no thanks. I want an all in one solution.

Have also thought about DIY’ ing something with an arduino or raspberry pi. The refinement of any app/web control is going to be shitty enough that the wife will hate it.

I’m not up to speed on what pro level residential equipment is out there for automation either.
 

OffshoreDrilling

This is my safe space
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HVAC Guy
Aug 28, 2007
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Homer Glen

OffshoreDrilling

This is my safe space
TCG Sponsor
TCG Premium
HVAC Guy
Aug 28, 2007
39,146
50,295
Homer Glen
10 switch panel in the master bedroom where I can control everything as well.


this is some oft he most anchorman-leather-bound-books-rich-mahogany-shit i've ever heard.


ayyyy babay flip them lights for the outsides
Goes well with the central vac system and basement intercom
 
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Lord Tin Foilhat

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Ain’t gon’ work. I don’t want 8 switches in the same box. There’s no local control for the lights, no switches, home run from the fixtures all the way back to the panel in the basement
The only way you are doing that is with smart bulbs/fixtures then.

After that you would use a scene controller where you can get 4-8 buttons in a standard light switch size. Control up to 8 different lights from one switch. Gotta go the "smarts" way if you don't want to add online switches for control

Screenshot_20230210-125556.png
 

Lord Tin Foilhat

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Home Assistant is the best most universal "hub OS" right now. Check to see if they have your devices already, if not, if the devices support certain protocols you can still get it to work with some manual coding.

 
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OffshoreDrilling

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Home Assistant is the best most universal "hub OS" right now. Check to see if they have your devices already, if not, if the devices support certain protocols you can still get it to work with some manual coding.

That’s what I’m beginning to look at. Posted in the other smart device thread.
 
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Lord Tin Foilhat

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That’s what I’m beginning to look at. Posted in the other smart device thread.
I have been running it for years and it has only gotten better.

It will work off a PI, but honestly I would get a little Intel NUC for it. Runs drastically faster vs a pi setup.

I run mine currently in a VM on a dell server and noticed a good increase in performance coming from a Pi 4.
 
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Lord Tin Foilhat

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Lord Tin Foilhat Lord Tin Foilhat how hard is it to get a server set up?
pretty easy. Pick your medium and instructions are here. Usually within an hour. Especially if its just local lan access. Open app or webpage to the IP of the server after install and login.


If you want to access it from outside the home. Easiest cheapest way is to run a Wireguard VPN from HA and then setup an account on a dns provider. I like Entrydns.org. $10 lifetime account for unlimited addresses.
Essentially this will turn your ISP ip address into a "xxx.entrydns.org" address that updates even if your ISP IP changes.

This will allow the VPN to work. Connect to wireguard vpn app on your phone, then the HA app will work as if you are at home without opening up HA to the internet.
 
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