dwengrovitz

I use the Shelly plugin with my eisy to control multiple RGBW LED strips, mainly for illuminating a vaulted wooden ceiling with ambient light. The LED strips I use were reasonably priced and are available through Amazon (Pautix RGBW 2700K COB LED Strip Lights). Most of the time they just display a warm white color, but it's kind of fun to introduce some color on a game day or holiday. The strips run off 24V, which helps with consistent brightness on longer runs. They use about 5W of power per linear foot (the Shelly devices can typically tell you, via their app, the power usage). I have the strips in aluminum channels with diffusers (also purchased from Amazon), and the density of the COB LED strips is high enough that it just looks like a solid line of light versus a bunch of bright dots. I could probably get away without the channels and diffusers, but in addition to physically protecting the strips they also offer some heat dissipation which could help prolong the strip lifespan. Overall, I've been happy with the warm white and color capabilities, brightness and dimming, control via eisy (with a Home Assistant front end), the Shelly devices and app, etc. The Shelly plugin is kind of limited in terms of which devices it supports (mainly the RGBW2), and it hasn't been updated in a couple of years, but it seems to work for my limited needs. I mainly use the eisy to turn them on/off or set the colors via a four button Insteon i3 switch (I don't use the switch for dimming). The native Shelly app provides additional capabilities to easily group lights together, adjust brightness and dimming, adjust colors, etc. I believe Shelly has a matter bridge, so once the eisy fully supports matter that may help with future proofing automation through eisy if the Shelly plugin has issues.

I haven't specifically tried their retrofit LED lights, but I installed a bunch of pot lights to replace multiple can fixtures from Amico (via Amazon) and have been very pleased with the results. They have a variety of different size retrofit and pot lights in black or white. You can set color/warmth (2700K/3000K/4000K/5000K/6000K) easily, and they also offer a "night light" feature which just illuminates a small ring around the outside of the light (we use that in a home theater setting and it's awesome). I haven't had any issues using the new Insteon paddle switches/dimmers with the pot lights. But your application, and how many fixtures you have on the load, may differ than mine. BTW - you can buy about a dozen of the retrofit fixtures for about what it costs to purchase one Insteon switch these days, so check the reviews and give it a try. If you don't like it, you can always return it.

You might also check the switch firmware to make sure you are running the latest/current version. I have three Zen30 switches and they were pretty wonky at first, especially when I tried to get two to work in a group via associations. I reported some issues to Zooz and they eventually put out a new version of firmware which helped, but just an FYI that there are several versions of the switch, and several versions of firmware. I think you can view firmware details here: https://www.support.getzooz.com/kb/article/393-zen30-double-switch-change-log/. I now have two Zen30s working as a group, and one that operates as a single. Here are some screen caps from my install for the switch that operates as a single: Top Level: Main Switch Control (021): Dimmer Control (021.1) Relay/Fan Control (021.2):

I've been using multiple SmartWings motorized shades with Matter (but no POE) for over a year now. Initially, they worked well with the SmartWings remote but control via Matter was kind of hit or miss. I use Amazon Alexa as the main environment to control my Matter devices. The shades would pair fine via the Alexa app but would frequently lose connection and automations were not that reliable. Early on, I questioned my decision to go with Matter versus something like ZWave, but the hope was that things would get better as Matter matured. Fortunately, things have improved over time. I still get drop-outs occasionally but the connections are better and more reliable than they used to be. The code in the shades hasn't changed, so I suspect improvements have happened elsewhere (like the Alexa app and my home network). The UI in the Alexa app is pretty weak, but I share the Matter connections to Home Assistant and the UI there is much better. It provides a nice simple compact status and control interface with the added benefit of being able to show battery levels for the shades. I think Matter still has a ways to go, but I'm happy with the SmartWings shades overall. The price was reasonable. They function well with the remote (worst case), and automations (such as lowering automatically in the late afternoon when the sun is coming through the window) happen reliably enough that I don't think about the automation at all - it just becomes an invisible convenience.

Unfortunately, I really can't say - other than installing the software (which seemed uneventful), I haven't tested the UD Mobile beta or the new Matter functionality at all yet. But I got the sense that some folks were waiting on an iOS update to do some testing, and they may not have been aware of this option to get started.

There's a beta version of UD Mobile that was released today through TestFlight. That version (1.2.1 (224)) does appear to have some level of Matter enabled. I have no idea what the formal release plans or timing look like for general updates through the iOS App Store, but I'm sure the UD Team will push it out when it's ready.

Is any information available on how to setup or configure eisy to control Matter devices? I've enabled it via the Admin Console and can see "Matter" in the menubar, but I'm not quite sure how to go about adding devices. Also - does the network connection from eisy need to be WiFi to work with Matter, or can I continue to use a wired network connection?

Thanks @paulbates - I tried the instructions you posted but couldn't get it to work as expected for my LG TV. That said, I like the concept of using ChatGPT to come up with a technical solution, though I also realize one cannot necessarily assume the solution will be correct. I'll try a few more things to see if I can get control to work via network resources. Worst case, I'm pretty sure I can create a variable or virtual switch in eisy, expose it to Amazon through my.isy.io, and use that to signal an Alexa routine to turn the device on or off.

Does anyone have any guidance on how to provide basic on/off control of LG OLED TVs (model C2) via eisy? I looked at AVRemote but unfortunately it doesn't seem to support newer webostv devices. Is there a set of network resource files someone has created that would work? Or perhaps expose a variable in eisy that an Alexa skill could pick up and run a routine on?

Thanks, that did the trick.

I installed V1.2 and all of my Ring devices have gone offline for my EISY. The PG3x log shows lots of issues with expired tokens, failing to refresh the Oauth token, and calls to the Ring API failing. Something in this release has not gone well for my devices.

I believe there is an EISY plugin for the Shelly RGBW2 controller. I don't have mine setup right now, but I did some basic testing a while back and it seemed to work in controlling some LED tape lights I was using.

@Kentinada Definitely won't hurt to have two hubs online ... and might help depending on the construction where the sensors are located. Though I have to warn you ... once you have two hubs online, you may start wondering why you don't have more of their sensors.

As far as I know, one doesn't connect sensors to a specific hub, so I'm not sure you can specify devices on one level should connect to one hub and devices on another level connect to the other. You just add all sensors and hubs into the app, and what connects to what is transparent to the user. With the great range of these devices, having a second hub online within a reasonably sized house for a small number of sensors won't hurt, but it might not help much, unless you have connectivity issues and one hub goes offline. In that case, I think the second hub will take over. BTW - for each sensor, you can check signal intensity as well as battery levels from within the app. So in your case, you might want to install the sensors and one hub, then check the signal intensity on the sensors. If for some reason you don't have good signal, install the second hub, and check the intensity again. Again, the range of the these devices is so good it might not make much difference. As an example, I placed a contact sensor on the door of my mailbox. The mailbox is about 150 yards away from the house through a somewhat wooded and hilly landscape, and there's no clear line of sight. I've setup an audio alert that says "you've got mail" on the Speakerhubs when the mailbox door is opened (and I also get text message notifications through eisy), mainly so I can avoid walking out there when the mail hasn't been delivered yet. The signal intensity of the sensor even at that distance still shows as "strong".

I have three hubs ... two are Speakerhubs and one is not. All are WiFi connected and are online at the same time. One Speakerhub is in a place where it can be heard throughout most of the house. The second is in my office/workspace, which usually has the door closed so the first Speakerhub can't easily be heard there. A third (non speaker) was placed in a location at the far end of the house to get a bit stronger signal and better reliability from a particularly remote sensor (at the recommendation of the Yosmart support staff). Audio alerts don't happen at exactly the same time, but my hubs aren't really within earshot of each other so that doesn't matter much to me.

@Kentinada I think the link you provided is for their Leak Sensor 1. It's fine, but they do have several models to choose from depending on your needs. The Yosmart website has a good overview and comparison. I believe the Leak Sensor 4 is like the Leak Sensor 1, but with a siren and the ability to also report on cold temps (in case it's in a place where pipes might freeze). I have some of each and they both work just fine. Just want you to be aware that, depending on your needs, you might want to look at some of the other options they have. On that note, they also have options for the hub. I have a couple of their Speakerhub devices because I wanted the ability to easily integrate custom audio alerts. The hubs aren't expensive, and the delta to go to the Speakerhub versus the regular hub wasn't much more than the cost of a cheeseburger these days (maybe even less). There are multiple ways one can integrate audio alerts, but having something announce "the leak sensor detected water under the kitchen sink" can be a lot easier to work with than trying to figure out where that beeping is coming from. Of course, you can also use the eisy to generate email and instant messages, and support from the plugin developer has been great. Again, the hub in the starter pack is fine, just want you to be aware there are options.

I've used Yolink sensors and they've been rock solid for me. They transmit over long distances, use a readily available battery (and battery life is very good), and they integrate well with the Eisy/Zmatter environment via a plug-in. They do, however, require a Yolink hub.

I had actually already tried a reinstall, but did it again. No change. All plugins still show as disconnected.

I checked the logs for the individual plugins and they all seem to end with this: 2024-06-11 18:27:41,658 MQTT udi_interface.interface INFO interface:_disconnect: MQTT Unexpected disconnection. Trying to reconnect in 10 seconds. rc: 7 The system log on PGX3 does have additional information populated after that time but nothing that jumped out at me as an issue (though I'm not quite sure exactly what should be there).

@Techman Thanks for the suggestion. I ran the update again, but no change.

I tried updating PG3X from my eisy via the Admin Console. The update seemed to progress ok, and I rebooted when the message came up saying it was time to. My Insteon switches came back online and appear functional, but none of my seven plugins came back online. PG3X shows it's at version 3.2.27 with status "connected", and IOX is at version 5.8.3 also with status "connected" as shown on the PG3X plugin dashboard. All plugins show as "disconnected". Rebooted from the Admin Console again, same result. Powered off and on, same result. Any suggestions? I can provide log files if needed.

I ended up installing Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi. I still use an eisy for the bulk of my home automation and control functions, but I found the interface I could create via Home Assistant worked really well in providing a simple customizable UI for the family to access via their portable devices. It allows them to control a subset of my total devices (e.g., turn lights on/off with dimming, view/set temperature on thermostats, control Sonos and other media devices, control ceiling fans, open the garage door, etc.).

@Geddy Thanks for your response. Yes, I rebooted the admin console after adding the plugin, and I read the content on github, but I wasn't able to get the node server to auto discover anything. After manually adding the RGBW2 device on the PG3x node server configuration screen it did show up in the admin console, and it appears to function. The docs re: the node server on github are somewhat sparse, so I'm not quite sure what else to expect to see in the admin console. In many node servers there is some type of controller as well as devices, and in my case for this node server I only have a device. The option to add a controller appears to be available through the admin console but there's no info in what to put in any of the fields. I've tried guessing at what to enter based on some of my config details but the results just come back as "Bad Request" so I'm clearly not putting the proper info in there.

I recently installed the ShellyRGBW2 node server and was able to successfully add a Shelly RGBW2 device to my eisy to control some LED strip lights. I had to manually add the device to my PG3X config, as I could not get discovery to work. It doesn't look like the node server is really being maintained any more by the original developer. Does anyone have any insight on how to add the RGBW2 Controller to the configuration? When attempting to do so through the admin console, the following dialog box is requested, but I wasn't able to find anything that indicated what data should go into the fields and how that should be formatted. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

I installed V1.0.7 and it seems to have resolved the issues I was seeing with the garage door and water leak sensors. Thanks again!