smart home

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on SONOFF Zigbee Bridge Pro gateway supports up to 128 sub-devices

SONOFF Zigbee Bridge Pro gateway supports up to 128 sub-devices

SONOFF Zigbee Bridge Pro

ITEAD has just introduced the SONOFF Zigbee Bridge Pro WiFi <-> Zigbee gateway as an upgrade to the Sonoff ZBBridge gateway launched in 2020. Both devices look exactly the same, and the changes are under the hood with the EFR32MG21 and ESP8266/ESP8285 combo being replaced by Texas Instruments SimpleLink CC2652P and ESP32 chips to boost the number of supported sub-devices from 32 to 128. Other changes include the addition of a buzzer acting as an alarm or doorbell chime, as well as a “built-in high-precision local RTC” for gateway time synchronization of local scene schedules. SONFF Zigbee Bridge Pro (aka ZB Bridge-P) specifications: Wireless MCUs Texas Instruments CC2652P SimpleLink Arm Cortex-M4F multiprotocol 2.4 GHz wireless MCU with integrated power amplifier Espressif Systems ESP32-DOWN-V3 dual-core processor with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE Wireless Connectivity – 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 and Zigbee 3.0 Supports for up to 128 sub-devices Support for […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments on Ultenic T10 review – A self-emptying 2-in-1 smart vacuum robot with mopping function

Ultenic T10 review – A self-emptying 2-in-1 smart vacuum robot with mopping function

Ultenic T10 is a 2-in-1 smart vacuum cleaner and mopping system with a self-emptying base that’s quite similar to the Cybovac S31 robot I reviewed a little over a year ago. The Cybovac vacuum cleaner still works fine, but it has some shortcomings, so when Ultenic asked me whether I would be interested in reviewing their T10 unit, I accepted, and here I am with a new smart robot vacuum cleaner that I’ll review with the Android app in a larger house. Ultenic T10 unboxing The package and hardware are very similar to what I got with the Cybovac model. The robot comes with a charging base that’s pretty large since it includes its own dust bag for the self-emptying function. Key features listed for the T10 vacuum cleaner: Navigation Type – LDS laser for visual SLAM function Suction power Carpet pressurization – 2700 Pa Fixed-point cleaning – 2700 Pa […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments on $10 T-Zigbee board combines ESP32-C3 and TLSR8258 for Zigbee 3.0, WIFi and BLE connectivity

$10 T-Zigbee board combines ESP32-C3 and TLSR8258 for Zigbee 3.0, WIFi and BLE connectivity

LilyGO T-Zigbee board combines ESP32-C3 WiFi and BLE wireless microcontroller and Telink TLSR8258 multi-protocol wireless SoC compatible with BLE 5 Mesh, Zigbee, RF4CE, Thread, 6LoWPAN, HomeKit, ANT, and 2.4GHz proprietary standards. As I understand it, T-Zigbee is designed to act as a Zigbee to WiFi bridge, and is compatible with Zigbee2MQTT and Home Assistant, allowing easy integration into your home automation setup. Based on the hardware, I’d assume it may be usable as a BLE to MQTT gateway as well, in a fashion similar to GL.inet GL-S10 gateway, for people willing to work on the software/firmware. T-Zigbee specifications: Wireless MCUs Espressif Systems ESP32-C3 RISC-V processor with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE connectivity Telink Semiconductors TLSR8258 (PDF product brief) Arm Cortex-M0 multiprotocol microcontroller @ 48 MHz with BLE 5 Mesh, Zigbee, RF4CE, Thread, 6LoWPAN, HomeKit, ANT, and 2.4GHz proprietary connectivity Antennas – 2x PCB antennas, 2x u.FL antenna connectors USB […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Home Assistant gives new life to Insteon Smart Home products following Smartlabs bankruptcy

Home Assistant gives new life to Insteon Smart Home products following Smartlabs bankruptcy

Smartlabs used to sell Insteon Smart Home products, but the company is now in bankruptcy proceedings, its cloud has been turned off, and users have reported their products not working since April 14. Going to Insteon website confirms the problem: …the company engaged in a sales process in November, 2021. The goal was to find a parent for the company and continue to invest in new products and the technology. The process resulted in several interested parties and a sale was expected to be realized in the March timeframe. Unfortunately, that sale did not materialize. Consequently, the company was assigned to a financial services firm in March to optimize the assets of the company. IoT and Smart Home products going offline are nothing new, either because the company is going bankrupt or the product is not profitable anymore. It happens to me with Weloop Hey 3S smartwatch which I still […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on $8 LU-ASR01 offline speech recognition board features “TW-ASR ONE” chip

$8 LU-ASR01 offline speech recognition board features “TW-ASR ONE” chip

LU-ASR01 is a board capable of offline speech recognition with a built-in microphone, a speaker connector, twelve through holes for GPIOs and a temperature sensor interface for DHT11/DS18B20,  plus a USB Type-C port for power and programming. At first, I thought it might be based on the Unisound US516P6 microcontroller which we’ve seen on some inexpensive offline speech recognition modules, but the chip looks completely different, with the marking TW-ASR ONE. So let’s investigate… LU-ASR01 board specifications took some effort, but here’s what I’ve managed: MCU – TW-ASR ONE (aka TWen ASR ONE) microcontroller with 4MB flash, 512KB RAM, and a BNPU for voice processing; package: QFN48L (6x6x0.85mm) Audio I/O Built-in microphone 2-pin speaker header plus 3W power amplifier for 4Ω/3W speaker Voice recognition Up to 10 meters wake-up range 98% ultra-high recognition rate Customizable to 5 wake-up words and 200 recognition words USB – 1x USB Type-C port for […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on OASIS – ROS 2 based Smart Home operating system integrates with Kodi

OASIS – ROS 2 based Smart Home operating system integrates with Kodi

OASIS is a Smart Home operating system based on ROS 2 that currently implements computer vision, input streaming, and general automation features, and can be integrated into Kodi media center. The operating system was recently released by Garrett Brown (a.k.a. garbear or eigendude), who is also known for being the RetroPlayer developer from Team Kodi/XBMC, and provides a complete implementation of the Firmata protocol for communicating with Arduino boards, plus additional support for temperature and humidity sensors, I2C, servos, sonar, SPI, stepper motors, and 4-wire CPU fans. Two main use cases are computer vision and input streaming at this time. The illustration above shows the former with the Kinect 2 driver ported to ROS 2, a background subtractor on all camera feeds using bgslibrary C++ background subtraction library, and Kodi as the visual interface. The second, input streaming, can be seen below with a Lego train (including a Falcon spaceship!) […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Eufy Security Video Smart Lock is a 3-in-1 doorbell, security camera, and door lock (Crowdfunding)

Eufy Security Video Smart Lock is a 3-in-1 doorbell, security camera, and door lock (Crowdfunding)

Smart Home security may involve a door lock, a doorbell, and a security camera, but instead of providing three different devices, Eufy Security Video Smart Lock combines all three features into a single device that can be installed on your front door. The device’s smart lock can be opened via a fingerprint scanner, an Android app, or voice commands through Alexa or Google Assistant, while you can watch the feed from the integrated 2K camera through the app whenever motion detection, combined with human detection, detects visitors. Eufy Security Video Smart Lock key features: 2K video camera with 160° field-of-view, 4:3 aspect ratio, 4 LEDs for night vision Video storage – Stored locally with SD card in the Chime (Gray box in the photo below), optional cloud storage coming Fingerprint sensor with 0.3s unlock, self-learning algorithm PIR and Radar motion detection, human detection, Range: 6 meters Auto-lock after up to […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on Dragino LDS02 LoRaWAN door and window sensor offers long range and battery life

Dragino LDS02 LoRaWAN door and window sensor offers long range and battery life

Home automation usually relies on short-range wireless standards such as Bluetooth LE, Zigbee, or WiFi, sometimes with the help of repeaters for larger houses. But if you need to monitor large houses, several houses on a piece of land, or apartments, you’d be glad that you can also do so, at least for doors and windows, with LoRaWAN using Dragino LDS02 sensor. The LDS02 sensor will work like your typical wireless door/window sensor, detection when those are opened and closed, and for how long, but will offer a much longer range of up to 2km in urban settings, as well as battery life meaning it could last for years depending on the frequency of door/window events, as well as uplink frequency configuration. Dragino LDS02 LoRaWAN door sensor specifications: Based on SX1262 LoRa transceiver LoRaWAN v1.0.3 Class A Bands – CN470, EU433, KR920, US915, EU868, AS923, AU915, IN865 Door Open/Close detection […]