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Ask HN: Home monitoring solution without subscription

6 points by Rizu ↗ HN
Could anyone suggest a customizable home monitoring system that allows for additional components like CCTV cameras, door sensors (Ring Doorbell seems to offer API integration), motion sensors, etc.? I’m considering using an old PC or a Raspberry Pi as the central hub. also the cheaper the better :)

8 comments

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leejoramo
This is not a complete answer, and does not include video.

However in the realm of monitoring motion, temperature and environment, open/closed doors, and more checkout company Wireless Sensor Tags

https://wirelesstag.net/index.html

They offer very reliable monitoring, with full API and SDK. Their cloud based backend is free and offers integration in many other services. I believe there are projects to replace their back end with your own.

I have first learned of this company at least 10 years ago.

Their sensors are reliable and inexpensive. I know these are used in restaurants to monitor refrigeration temperatures.

It is really worth your time to dig deep into their website to learn everything they offer in sensors, automation and programming

nirav72
>I know these are used in restaurants to monitor refrigeration temperatures.

Do you know what the minimum allowable temperature is for refrigeration monitoring? As in, do you know if these tags can be used in a dedicated home freezer?

Also - how is integration with Home Assistant? I'm currently slowly migrating all my zigbee & zwave components off Samsung's Smartthings to HASS. Lot of my sensors are several years old now. So first thing I'm doing is slowing replacing them with current gen zigbee and zwave sensors and switches. I'm carefully evaluating each type of sensor and buying them from manufactures that are widely supported by the HASS community.

Edit: Looking at their product description for their smart tags with temperature sensors - they indicate that they're "Not optimized for usage in freezer.". So that answers my first question.

leejoramo
Their cheaper tags are not for freezers, at least for commercial low temp applications. But the more expensive ones work in freezers

I have really only used these for refrigeration and monitoring access to liquor cabinets in a commercial environment. I user their apps and have some notifications via Pushover.

https://pushover.net

I have a back burner project to integrate their open/close switches with our Hue Lighting. But have only researched the possibilities. But their website describes how to setup lots of automations and integrations

nirav72
yeah, I just noticed that they have couple of heavy duty sensors that are listed under the probe section that seem have temp range as low as -50. So those would be ideal for standing freezer.

They don't seem that expensive either. https://store.wirelesstag.net/products/outdoor-probe-basic

Good to know about pushover. That's been my preferred notification service for many years.

They also have an API. Although not sure if it runs locally or on cloud. I'll have to do some reading. - https://www.wirelesstag.net/apidoc.html

Thanks for the recommendation.

slovette
Ubiquiti has all of this as part of their Protect product line. No subscriptions.

They were/are the answer for me once i didn’t enjoy having to play troubleshooter anymore on the less polished type setups like Home assistant.