Home Automation in Switzerland

I’d like to start a thread to share information and experience on the use of Home Assistant (Smart Home platform) specific to Switzerland, as well as perhaps other platforms and technology.

For those who don’t know, Home Assistant is an open source platform/hub that is compatible with many IoT devices and technologies, including WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-Wave and Matter. It allows consolidation into a single app and programming options are practically endless. It does require decent PC and networking knowledge, and simple coding skills also help (but not necessary).

I’ve been using Smart Home for around 9 months now and it’s been an interesting and positive learning curve. For example, I used lights, switches and sensors from at least 5 different suppliers and they all work seamlessly together in HA. I have also integrated my Nuki door lock and Unify cameras.

The idea of a thread here is that Switzerland does offer some challenges. For example, there are few CH-specific smart plugs (Philips so far is the best, but pricey). Also sharing programming ideas and cool custom integrations at a CH-level would be helpful to those interested.

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I was going to copy over the old Home Automation thread but never got the chance and a lot of it was out of date anyway.

Just a thought but wouldn’t it be better to just have one home automation thread rather than a specific Home Assistant one?

Most of the technologies are used over several platforms and the electrical/wiring/range problems are the same for all.

It’s like having a separate Tesla thread!

Done.

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I have an balcony sunshade awning with electronic control panel (about 20 years old). It uses standard AC to control the motors, but also has inputs from a wind/light sensor (analog input by look of it).

Can anybody recommend a panel or product that could replace this and be Home Assistant compatible?

Do you need/want to replace it?

I had similar and the control unit’s step-down transformer failed so I needed to replace that.
Whilst it was in bits, I soldered a WEMOS D1 mini into the unit.

image

This was about 3 CHF and is basically a ESP8266 microcontroller with built in wifi.
I wrote some code so it can be controlled via openHAB, Alexa and, because the existing controller still works, via the switches on that.
MQTT protocol is used to talk to the rest of the system.
The ESP8266 has one analogue input which you could use for the wind input with suitable voltage conversion.

That’s the cheapest way and gives you redundancy in case your wifi etc goes down.

Another way would be to use a Shelly Plus 2PM which is an off-the shelf blind controller which also allows you to set end stops etc so could be a replacement for your unit but there’s no facility for analogue inputs for the wind etc so you’d need to cater for that.
I’ve got one of those for another blind but the existing wiring is a pain so I need to sort that first. This is the CHF25 option.

For more complete options, Somfy sell control units and so on and there is Home Assistant integration but you may need to replace the wind/rain sensor with a Somfy one such as this
We’ve got a lot of Somfy blinds but they are controlled via a third party RF transmitter (as well as the existing remotes) and the current Somfy units use a different RF protocol.

That’s what I’ve done, anyway!

What do you want to do with it? Maybe it is easier to strap a microcontroller onto it to work with it rather than replace it entirely?

I simply want to integrate it into my Home Assistant.
@Tom1234 The Shelly 2PM is a good idea, I have around 15 of those already working for the window shutters. I do wonder if I could simply add the Shelly in the same way as windows.(ie activation of the motor is via the Shelly, either through HA or the original controller).

Let me guess…the neutral at the switch is missing? This is an issue I had at my place. I simply ended up drawing my own neutral wire from the junction box, there was almost always a spare “slot” at the neutral bus.

Yes. That’s the one.

Without thinking about it in great detail, I see a flaw here in that if the awning end stops are set in the Shelly and then the awning is operated using the existing controller, they’ll be out. (and visa versa).

If you want to keep the original controller then it would be best to piggy-back a microcontroller and wire it to the existing IN and OUT switches with something like a 1 second pulse from whatever device you use to either set it opening or closing.

I did the same thing for some Bubendorff roller shutters and wired a WEMOS ESP8266 board on to the existing wall mounted remote but with manual switches too for redundancy and then put zigbee wall switches on the bathroom walls.

Photo shows the existing remote PCB wired to the ESP8266 board:

The original controller is blind to the awning position, so the Shelly would work in this case.

Another option would be to replace the controller with an normal shutter switch, and use a Shelly 2PM + Add-On to incorporate the wind/light/rain sensors and HA integration.

Okay, the Shelly 2PM is fitted and working perfectly…so all solved for 26chf!

I did have a bit of scare as the first 2PM I put in didn’t work…turned out it was a defective module. But given I have 16 2PMs working reliably, I am still pretty happy with the quality and value. Good thing is using HA, the firmware updates are very seamless.

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I’ve also found that Kemo Rain sensor (around 30-40chf), a small 12vdc power (8chf) supply and a Shelly Plus 1 (20chf) make a perfectly good WiFi / HA-compatible rain sensor.

The Shelly Plus 1 basically works as a low voltage input trigger for the pot-free rain sensor circuit.

Has anyone done any automation with the Feller EDIZIO range? I had hoped Feller would do some smart switches that could replace existing ones but all I see is a single Philips lightbulb integration. I’d like to control a dual window shutter switch to be able to control the shutters on a timer.

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Yes. With their dual switch dimmer:

If you want to do clever things, you really need to link your Hue Hub up to a home automation system (Homekit, OpenHAB etc).

I have the RH switch controlling a bathroom shutter (up/down) and the LH top switch cycling between mirror light on + ceiling spots on together, or just mirror light, or just spots.
The LH down switch sets of a shower timer which flashes the lamps after six minutes so my teenagers are aware of how much hot water they waste.
Next to the Feller switch, I have a normal looking Feller ON/OFF switch which turns the lights on and off and dims the ceiling spots by holding the button in.
Behind this switch is a Sunricher Zigbee sr-zg9101sac-hp which is linked to the home automation system via the Hue hub.
This means the lamps still work if the home automation system is down, the shutter can still be opened.

Sounds complicated but in normal use it’s basically one button to turn lights on and off and another for shutters up and down.

There is also a “manual” two switch shutter control in the back of the basin cupboard so if the home automation system is down, the shutter can still be opened.

One thing to be aware of is that the Feller switch has no batteries. It basically generates an electric current to send the radio signal utilising the mechanical pressing action.

If you don’t want to use Hue, you can connect an ordinary Feller switch up to whatever circuit you want - it doesn’t need to be mains electricity. There’s a little switch behind the panel which turns a push-to-make latching switch (the default) to a push-to-make non -latching switch which is great for home automation for obvious reasons.

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I will soon install solar, and as part of the project, upgrade my distribution board to include granular power monitoring to my Home Assistant. So far the only product that looks feasible, without completely building a new cabinet, is Powertag by Schneider Electric. Has any got any other suggestions? Shelly stuff seems a bit too cheap and if I’m getting an electrician in (I won’t screw around with 400v) then I want to do it right.