/r/HomeAssistant
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Looking for an HA add-on to randomly turn lights on and off while on vacation

I've just started the long process of migrating from a 15-year old Vera system of 200+ ZWave devices to Home Assistant. I have HA installed as a virtual server on my QNAP NAS and it's working fine there. I've installed HACS and a few other goodies as I find my way around this new-to-me product, and have moved over many WiFi-connected devices in my network that HA automatically found for me.

The Aeotec Z-stick 10 Pro arrives tomorrow, and then I'll slowly start the exclude-from-Vera and pair-with-HA process in the coming weeks.

A really useful add-on ("plug-in" in the Vera world) that I had on my Vera system was "DeusExMachinaII". It provided a UI where you could configure any number of switches to randomly turn off and on. For each, you could set a range for length of ON time (randomly) and for the start/stop times for when it would (randomly) be in effect.

I had mine configured for a natural pattern from kitchen to living room to den to bathroom and bedroom as the night progressed, with everything turning off sometime between 11 and midnight (randomly) as we "slept". The plug-in would be automatically enabled when the Vera dashboard was put into "Vacation" mode and disabled when set back to "Home".

I can't find anything that provides the same/similar functionality in the Home Assistant world. I'm sure it's "just a simple matter of automation programming" but there are a LOT of details to get right. The Deus Ex Machina ll plugin did this all very well, and I'm hoping not to have to reinvent it.

Update: THANK YOU for the very quick replies below. Yes, the presence simulation seems that it will suffice for my needs. It's not as clever as the Vera plugin's true randomness, but it'll be "good enough" -- and it seems easy to implement. Thanks again.

https://redd.it/1v05zxj
@r_homeassistant
Non-tablet large format touchscreens: what are you all using?

I would really love to just grab an Apolosign 27" or a Hearth Display 27" or a Skylight Calendar 27" and find a way to jailbreak into running Home Assistant in kiosk on it. I'm having trouble finding info on whether anyone has done this successfully, but more importantly, is the performance ok? (Apolo can do it natively, but the specs on that screen aren't great).

I can't find much on the specs on these screens. aliexpress only seems to have decent specced screens up to 21", but I'd really love the resolution bump to 27" (everything at 21 is still 1080p).

https://redd.it/1v09ro1
@r_homeassistant
Nobody else will share my joy...
https://redd.it/1v0ccsd
@r_homeassistant
Flickering When Activating Hue Scenes on Non Hue Bulbs via HA - Double Check Hue Bridge Updates First

Leaving this here because I imagine in the next couple of days there’s going to be people asking what’s going on with their lights flickering when activating hue scenes via a HA automation, button press, etc.

Before you get worried… double check to see if your hue hub is updating bulbs/plugs and have all those updates go through before trying to fix anything.

I had a perfect storm of setting up a remote to trigger an automation and for HOURS couldn’t figure out why my bulbs were flickering on to off and a number of other annoying things.

It may fix itself after your hue bulbs update.
I suspect they aren’t acting as repeaters anymore while updating.

Here’s some other things I did:
\- when adding a hue scene to automations/scripts make sure to select “activate hue scene” instead of “activate scene”. There is something different in how HA treats them

\- in light off automations/scripts, don’t choose turn light off and then select each individual bulb. Select the symbol that has multiple lightbulbs that is named after whatever room you have set up in home assistant

\- (not new but info for those who don’t know) when using non-hue lights on the hue hub, make sure to have the scene activated more than once. I put a 15 millisecond delay between both times. Non-hue bulbs don’t receive messages the way hue bulbs do and you need to activate the scene more than once to get the brightness and colour correct.

(Also as of posting this, there is no release notes but many of your bulbs and hue plugs will update to 1.163.1. I don’t know what this update adds. What I will say is that it is the slowest hue update I have had. One bulb seemed to not update since yesterday but did after I turned the power on and off as I was doing something to a light switch. So unscrew your bulb and unplug your hub if it is stuck loading the update for 24 hours).

https://redd.it/1v0atgd
@r_homeassistant
What's the better approach: multiple dashboards or multiple views/subpages?

If you have several users using your HA, do you prefer creating separate dashboards per user, or just use a single dashboard and then use views/subpage visibility to control user access?

I just switched from the former to latter and it seems to be much cleaner this way.

https://redd.it/1v0h3rj
@r_homeassistant
Made a hidden touch switch that senses through up to 60mm of drywall/tile/stone - fully local (MQTT auto-discovery + Matter), no cloud. Looking for feedback.

Hey all - heads up right away that this is my own project, so this is a self-promo-adjacent post. I'm putting it here because you're the people most likely to find the holes in it, and I'd rather hear them now.

Background: I'm an electrical foreman. I've wired up a lot of nice homes - good millwork, tile, stone counters - and then watched a plastic faceplate or a clunky remote get slapped on the wall at the very end. It always bugged me. So I built a switch that hides *behind* the finished surface instead of sitting on top of it.

It's a capacitive sensor that mounts on the back of the material, so there's nothing visible on the wall at all. On my prototypes it reliably registers a touch through up to \~60mm of drywall, tile, glass, or stone. You tap the wall (or the counter, or a glass panel) and it fires.

The part I figured this sub would care about most - it's local-first:

* Reports into Home Assistant over **MQTT with auto-discovery**, so entities show up on their own.
* Also speaks **Matter**.
* No cloud account required, no subscription, no app-in-the-middle. If your internet's down it still talks to your local broker / HA instance.
* ESP32-S3 based.

Honest caveats, because I'd rather you hear them from me than catch me on them:

* It is **not** ESPHome. It runs custom ESP-Matter firmware, and the HA hook is MQTT auto-discovery rather than the native ESPHome API.
* Still prototype stage - validated on the bench, not a shipping product.
* Through-material sensing needs a short guided calibration per install (material and thickness vary), which the device walks you through with audio prompts.
* I can't call it "Works with Home Assistant" - that's a formal certification I can only pursue later - so I'm describing the actual integration, not claiming the badge.

What I'd genuinely like feedback on:

* Would you put a no-moving-parts capacitive pad behind your wall in place of a physical switch? If not, what's the dealbreaker?
* Does the firmware choice (MQTT auto-discovery vs. ESPHome) matter to you as an HA user?
* Failure modes I should be stress-testing before I commit to a production run - false triggers, humidity, something heavy leaning against the wall, kids, pets, etc.

Happy to get into any of the technical detail in the comments. I'll drop a link to the build and waitlist in a comment rather than the post body so this stays about the feedback, not the sell.

https://redd.it/1v0hspu
@r_homeassistant
Final Version - Ikea Myggbett Mount - Invisible in the Window

I just uploaded the final version of the Ikea Myggbett mount to Makerworld: [Ikea Myggbett - Makerworld](https://makerworld.com/de/models/3067218-ikea-myggbett-invisible-window-mount#profileId-3452450)

For anyone who missed it, here's the original post:[Initial Reddit Post](https://www.reddit.com/r/MatterProtocol/comments/1uhbn2b/weiterentwicklung_unsichtbare_ikea_myggbett/)

And here's the original idea: [Original idea](https://www.reddit.com/r/MatterProtocol/comments/1u4wjf5/ikea_myggbett_perfekt_für_eine_unsichtbare/) by u/Gloomy_Independent44

I tried to incorporate as many of your ideas and suggestions as possible. The new design is now fully enclosed and is no longer glued but clamped instead. On top of that, 4 feet can be extended out of the model, which then wedge into the frame.

I couldn't do away with screws entirely, though — all the snap-in variants were too bulky, and this is all about saving space. But well, the M3x6 screws (M3x8 should work too) are standard parts and therefore easy to buy at any hardware store. The 2x threaded inserts are simply better for easy screwing than cutting a thread directly into the plastic. That said, the 4x screws for attaching the cover plate are suitable for screwing directly into the plastic.

There's also an assembly guide on Makerworld.

https://preview.redd.it/6tdowlc0u4eh1.png?width=1025&format=png&auto=webp&s=d04bbd6b64b9ecf213a65a504e2bc75ce2d0d18f

https://preview.redd.it/o4du0tf3u4eh1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86bd09c5d0cda63c349db603797564efff2bdf56

https://preview.redd.it/3ki1dua7u4eh1.jpg?width=6000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dcf74fbb067b85aab79abd7a8cdce1ab93112769

https://preview.redd.it/gfoxhl2gu4eh1.jpg?width=3388&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=285b0d78fc301a7a819caaa0ae00a7416b0ea65a

https://preview.redd.it/i8irkxzgu4eh1.jpg?width=2646&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e55b64835fbda133c1b491cf208de5dac11e8236



I hope you like it and maybe some of you will print a few and give me some feedback here or on Makerworld. I'm now getting started on printing 10+ of them for the whole apartment ;)

https://redd.it/1v0j7rd
@r_homeassistant
Matter 1.6 doorbell support

Seeing as the latest versions of Matter [which Home Assistant is great at updating\] now include doorbell support, how soon before we have a Matter 1.6 doorbell which is natively supported?



On another note I've noticed the Nest Hubs lag quite heavily behind Matter releases. My hopes of being able to use them with a third party bell are fading.

https://redd.it/1v0llqg
@r_homeassistant
NSFHA: My server temps before and after I remembered to plug in my CPU fan…
https://redd.it/1v0mn3b
@r_homeassistant
Suggest dehumidifiers that 'restore' power

Hi all,

I'm trying to get a dumb dehumdifier and them integrate it with Home Assistant. However, I'd want it to restore its power/state when it's turned ON.

Could you please guys please suggest some good dehumidifier brands and models that meet the above requirements?

Thank you!

https://redd.it/1v0pxf0
@r_homeassistant
What are some cool automations you've come up with?

Looking to improve my smart home to be more hands-off with automations.

One that I set up recently is to have certain lights flash when someone is detected at the front door.

Another one I like is to have the TV's bias/ambient lighting to turn on and off with the TV.

But these do seem a little basic for what HA is capable of.

What are some of your coolest, or most favourite, or most used automations?

https://redd.it/1v0xm76
@r_homeassistant
Advanced Notification System (ANS) v0.2.0 – Delivery Events, Acknowledgement Tracking, and Actionable Notifications

Hey everyone,

A while back I posted here about ANS, my custom notification hub for Home Assistant. Since then I've kept using it and pushed a bunch of improvements based on that real-world use – v0.2.0 is now out. 🎉

Quick recap for anyone new: ANS replaces scattered notify.* calls in every automation with one ans.send_notification call. ANS then handles recipient routing, channel selection, criticality-based escalation, Do Not Disturb, rate limiting, retries, deduplication, and TTS volume – all configured once via the UI, not per-automation.

What's new in v0.2.0:

See what actually happens to your notifications: Automations can now react in real time to whether a notification was delivered, filtered out, failed, or rate-limited, and get notified once everything is settled.
Know when a notification was actually seen: ANS now tracks whether you tapped or dismissed a notification, so you can build automations around real acknowledgement, not just delivery.
Tap-to-respond buttons on mobile: notifications can now include up to 3 action buttons you can react to directly from your phone.
Self-healing channel detection: if a notification channel (app or media player) goes missing, ANS raises a clear warning in Settings → Repairs and clears it automatically once the channel is back.
Simplified, consistent media support: attaching images, videos, files, and links to a notification is simpler now and renders properly and consistently across every channel.
TTS now works on speakers in standby: media players that were previously skipped while "off" (like Google Nest speakers in standby) now receive spoken announcements correctly.
More resilient under heavy notification load: a safety limit keeps the delivery queue from growing unbounded if a lot of notifications fire at once.

A few internal settings were also adjusted.

A note on stability: Everything migrates automatically on upgrade, so moving from v0.1.x should be a non-event. As always, this remains a personal project I maintain for my own setup. Nevertheless, feedback and bug reports are very welcome.

What's next: I'm continuing to refine ANS based on real-world use and whatever comes up from community feedback.

Get started:

GitHub repo & installation instructions
[Release notes for v0.2.0](https://github.com/txxa/hass-ans/releases/tag/v0.2.0)
HACS custom repository support

If you're upgrading from v0.1.x, questions or issues are always welcome. And if you want to contribute a new channel adapter or a translation, I'd love the help.

Happy automating! 🚀

https://redd.it/1v11ee0
@r_homeassistant