January 28, 2025 - Reading time: 23 minutes

[Have you read part 1 of this guide? Click here to start from the beginning!]

There are many things to connect via Zigbee to our Home Assistant, but WIFI always takes the cake, both for ease and compatibility. And since it doesn't need a hub, we can add devices from the first minute. There is also an added handicap: there are many devices that are designed to be used with their own app, and which usually go via WIFI. That's where Home Assistant gives us one of its best assets: unifying the software.

Let's remember that one of the disadvantages of using gadgets via WIFI is the possibility of saturating our network. It didn't take long for me to have problems with my router (the one that came by default with my provider, Lowi), and I solved it by adding mesh devices. I'll take advantage and talk a little about them, because they are little known and they have worked very well for me.

WIFI connection problems

If you don't have good WIFI in some places at home, or if your router is not able to manage so many connections well (as was my case), a mesh network works wonders. In the first case (WIFI that doesn't reach well) there are alternative solutions, such as WIFI repeaters, or PLCs.

A WIFI repeater is not mysterious, it is a device that picks up the WIFI network at a certain point (a place where you have good coverage) and re-launches it again with strength. The problem is that it is not magic, and obviously it loses strength. I consider it an easy solution for certain situations, but it is not the one I usually recommend.

PLCs are devices that connect to each other through the electrical network. They usually come in pairs, and you connect one to a socket near the router, and the other to where you want to have internet. You interconnect your router and that device through PLCs and... magic! It's very useful for houses where it's not feasible to run a network cable (which is ideal) and you need the stability that the cable gives compared to wifi.

The bad thing is that the effectiveness of PLCs is a bit of a lottery, it depends on the electrical installation in your home. The age, if it goes through light boxes... it's a bit of luck. Anyway, there are times when even if you get a low flow rate, such as 70Mbps (compared to 1Gbps), it's still worth it, because they will probably be solid and with very little latency. And believe me, it's better to have a stable connection, without ping and limited in flow, than the dance of packets that wifi sometimes is...

There are all kinds of PLCs: some incorporate an electrical plug (so as not to lose the plug we are using when connecting it to the wall), others even include their own WIFI... That said, a note. PLCs are best connected without as many intermediaries as possible. That is to say, if you can, connect them directly to the wall and not through a power strip, that affects the connection VERY negatively.

If you are looking for a PLC with WIFI, I have used the following one, and it works well:

Buy PLC with WIFI on Amazon

On the other hand, if you have network overload problems, the solution would be to replace the router, or at least add a new one to the equation. Or, as in my case, kill two birds with one stone and solve both the WIFI range problems and this issue at once: with the aforementioned mesh networks.

Mesh networks are small WIFI routers that connect to each other, and form a network. In this way, depending on where you are in your house, the devices will connect to one node or another, depending on how close they are to them. And if you move around the house (with your mobile phone for example), the device will change nodes transparently. And all under the same WIFI, you don't have different networks. It is true that I, who am very demanding, have noticed that sometimes I have been connected to a more distant node when I have had another one closer (while I was moving around the house), but in most cases, it works perfectly. The nodes normally have two connection modes: wireless (as if they were network repeaters) and cable. Between them wirelessly they work great, but it is true that they suffer from the same problem as repeaters, and that is that they re-launch the signal and there is always a loss of quality. Even so, it is a better solution than a simple repeater.

On the other hand, if you can connect the nodes to each other by cable... it's a godsend. I have a 3-node package, one in the living room on the ground floor (next to the main router, which I have removed the WIFI from, since I leave that task exclusively to the mesh nodes), another in the basement via cable (where there was hardly any WIFI signal, and now it's like sitting next to the router) and another in the bedroom on the first floor, via WIFI repeater. In the basement, via cable, as I said, the WIFI is like being next to the original source, wonderful. Upstairs in the bedroom, much better than before, but you can get more out of it. In normal cases, the difference is brutal, for the better. I, as I can't help being who I am, will run a cable from the ground floor so that the node is wired, but I could live like that perfectly.

I have the following mesh nodes. The price is a bit expensive, but the result is worth it. In fact, I would like to get a few more nodes to better extend the WIFI to some rooms in my house.

Buy TP-Link Deco X20 mesh nodes (pack of 3) on Amazon

Light bulbs, sockets and switches

And now, let's get to the important stuff, things to connect to our Home Assistant. A classic are the plugs and light bulbs, something very common to start with. I, honestly, do not have WIFI light bulbs, but it is my duty to report that they exist and work well.

The issue of plugs is another thing. Just as there are Zigbee ones, there are WIFI ones. I do not have typical plugs that are WIFI (like the light bulbs, I prefer to use Zigbee), but if there is something that I have to highlight and that I don't know what to call... my Sonoff plugs.

There are some devices that are designed to act as intermediaries between the device you want to automate and the wall plug, and that technically are smart plugs but with a different shape. Their main use is to use them in special situations where you can skip the electrical plug on the wall, such as inside the wall, or in a junction box. The truth is that they are a bit more complicated than a normal plug, so I'll just name them so you know they exist, and I'll dedicate an article exclusively to them. These devices serve the same purpose as a smart plug: turning on and off remotely, or controlling consumption, in some cases. I'll leave a link below in case you want to take a look, it's one of the ones I have.

Buy Sonoff Basic on Amazon

But there are similar gadgets with many more possibilities than these Sonoffs that I'm talking about, and there are some so small that they fit behind the light switch on the wall. And that's a big deal. What use are they? Well, automating lamps. In this way, instead of having a smart bulb, we would have the whole lamp, whatever type it is. For me, it's one of the most basic automations, although it requires a bit of skill with electrical issues.

Let's start with the most basic. I started using Sonoff Mini, which fits behind the light switch, and allows you to turn the switch on or off remotely. The wall switch doesn't lose any power though: it will continue to work the same way. I must warn you that I tune all my Sonoffs, and instead of using the factory software, I installed Tasmota, but I will go into more detail about that in another article.

Buy Sonoff Mini on Amazon

On the other hand, there is a brand that is very good at these things, which is Shelly. It has a wide variety of devices of this type, and you can do a lot of tricks with them. It is true that they are a little more expensive, but they are worth it. In my case, I use Shelly Dimmer, which allows you to regulate the intensity of the light bulb. In the living room, I have a dimmable lamp, and with the Home Assistant app, I regulate the intensity. When we are watching a movie, I put the light on softly, and when we are working on something, I turn it up to the maximum. Of course, I must emphasize what I said: you also need a dimmable bulb, otherwise it won't work well. I have two dimmable lights at home: in the living room, with its corresponding dimmable LED lamp (which I had a hard time finding, to be honest), and in the bedroom, with a dimmable Philips bulb.

Buy Shelly Dimmer on Amazon

Buy Philips dimmable bulb on Amazon

Smart blinds

We continue with somewhat advanced electrical topics, but they are not crazy either. And we continue with the blessed Sonoffs. Let's start with the blinds themselves. Motorizing a blind is relatively simple, you just have to disassemble your current one, and replace the tape with which you raise and lower it with a small motor. I have the following one, and I have installed it in 3 blinds, and I need to put it in 2 more:

Buy motor for blinds on Amazon

With this motor, you have already done part of the work, but you need to automate it itself. You could put a switch on the wall and raise or lower the blind with it, but it is also best to connect it to Home Assistant. I do it using a Sonoff Dual, which is a device like the ones I mentioned before, but in this case, capable of controlling two different electrical currents. Because of course, the motor has two different possibilities: raising the blind, and lowering it, and you have to manage them from two different electrical points, so that we understand each other.

You could have a switch on the wall and this Sonoff acting as an intermediary, but I have the Sonoffs hanging as if they were switches (they have a small button to control them), and it's cool. I have it set up so that one press raises the blind, two lowers it, and three places it exactly halfway.

It seems silly to automate this thing, but it's what I brag about the most at home. Ask a visitor to raise the blind, and when they get confused looking for the tape to raise it with, do it yourself from the mobile app. I assure you that they'll love it. Beyond showing off, I have automated openings and closings, and they do it according to the time of day. You can even make them close in case of rain so that the windows don't get wet, for example. Seriously, you can't imagine how useful the invention is until you have it at home, I couldn't live without it now.

And in the next few days, I want to automate the patio awning, which is, after all, a giant blind. I'll update you with information when I get my hands on it.

Air conditioners, heaters and dehumidifiers

Another thing that people are freaking out about. You get home after a day of work, and you see that the living room is cold or boiling hot, depending on the time of year (through your home automation sensors, of course). So you turn on the air conditioning and voila, when you get home, you have the living room to your liking.

It also happens to me that at night, if I put the air conditioning in the bedroom, before it was a lottery to know where the remote control would be. On my nightstand? On my partner's? Well, by automating it, we have eliminated the remote controls (although they are still functional in case of need) and we turn it on and off from our mobile phones.

The examples extend to bathroom heaters, stoves... even with fans it is possible. It is true that this is a world apart, because there are many different configurations. Today, there are air conditioners that already incorporate WIFI, and I am sure that their automation is super simple (I cannot confirm this, because my splits are old). Every gadget is its own, but Home Assistant is compatible with many of them, and there is surely a way to interconnect them.

A rudimentary way to automate an air conditioner is if yours turns on automatically when it is plugged into the power supply. This would allow you to turn it on and off remotely with a smart plug. It is not the healthiest, but it is better than nothing...

How do I have them? Well, with a device that seems really cool to me. It is a device that connects via WIFI to Home Assistant, and simulates being a remote control. It has many different configurations in its memory, but if your device is very strange, you can "train" it yourself with the remote control to imitate the keystrokes. It is, in essence, a universal remote control, and has a range of practically 360 degrees. I have it somewhat hidden in the living room, and it still controls my air conditioning.

This device is not limited to air conditioners: anything that has an infrared remote control is compatible. Televisions, for example.

Buy Broadlink RM Mini 3 on Amazon

As I said, there are air conditioners that already incorporate home automation, but stoves and heaters are not far behind. Here we should make a digression and first talk about the Tuya application. Basically, it is a widely used app for home automation issues, and compatible with a multitude of devices. Stoves, cameras... let's say that it is the application that centralizes the functionality of many devices.

The beauty, as you can imagine, is that Home Assistant is compatible with this application, and allows all the devices that you control with the Tuya app to be linked to Home Assistant. But to top it off, I am here to talk about Cecotec devices. This company, quite well known, has all kinds of small appliances. I specifically have two dehumidifiers, a stove and a bathroom heater, and all 4 devices have remote control through the Cecotec application. The magic of all this is that this app actually uses the Tuya app protocol, and instead of the Cecotec app you can use the Tuya one, being able to link the device with Home Assistant. So in practice, I have everything centralized in my home automation server, and with automations: for example, the dehumidifiers are activated when certain humidity levels are exceeded.

Buy small Cecotec dehumidifier on Amazon

Buy large Cecotec dehumidifier on Amazon

Buy Cecotec stove on Amazon

Buy Cecotec bathroom heater on Amazon

Cameras

Another classic that can't be missed, although I have experimented a lot with the subject over the years and I'm still not 100% happy with the results. First of all, security camera companies are determined that you use their apps, they don't want you to use others (like Home Assistant). The reason is simple, they all have added services like uploading your videos to the cloud, and they're not interested in you tinkering with your server. And until recently, even extras like intelligent person detection worked, they were extras that had to be paid for separately...

Personally, I've been struggling with this issue for years, looking for cameras that fully meet my demands. In addition to this lack of compatibility, there is an intrinsic problem with Home Assistant. For technical reasons (basically, because Home Assistant is a website running in a browser), if you see a camera through this program, you don't see it in real time, but rather it has a more or less severe delay, sometimes between 5 and 10 seconds. This is a nuisance in certain situations.

Searching around, I found ways to get the video to go in real time, such as using the MJPEG protocol, but not all cameras are compatible. At the same time, there are cameras that are more or less open and let you tinker with their services using easy protocols, such as ONVIF, and others that don't let you do anything at all.

My first camera was a little-known brand, but with a community behind it: A Yi-cam. It went a bit wrong: the developer who was with the project abandoned it, and the camera wasn't really that great. It was a bad purchase, and the worst thing is that I dragged a friend who, under my advice, bought some Yi-Cams. In fact, after a few years, both my camera and hers died from the same problem, it was all a bit absurd. Never again.

I have subsequently tried both Foscam (for home) and Reolink (for work), and both brands have worked well for me, but without fulfilling 100% of what I am looking for.

I currently have a TP-Link Tapo C320WS, an outdoor camera that I really like, as it has very good quality (it's nighttime, and it looks like it's daytime, brutal), and many interesting features, such as two-way audio (I can talk through the camera and listen), a small spotlight, alarm sirens, a very wide camera angle... but it has a huge problem: it's not fully compatible with Home Assistant. In fact, its compatibility is managed by the community, not even the integration is official by them, there are people doing their work for free. And to make matters worse, not long ago they detected certain vulnerabilities, and they cut through the hassle by completely breaking compatibility with Home Assistant. The community tried to fix the issue, and it took a lot of effort until they finally managed to understand each other and TP-Link has opened its camera properly to Home Assistant.

At least, in theory. It seems that in the January 2025 version, Home Assistant will allow the full potential of these cameras to be exploited, I'm impatient to see if this is true. For example, the detection of people and vehicles, something very useful in an outdoor camera, is not functional in Home Assistant. I honestly, until a week ago, was planning to change to other companies that would be more cooperative in this matter. If TP-Link really delivers, I will continue buying their cameras (I want to buy 3 or 4 more).

By the way, about the problems of viewing the camera in real time: TP-Link's Tapo cameras have this problem, but at the same time as fighting with them, I discovered a new option from the community that allows you to view them properly. It is still a bit green, but it works well and I am happy, so I consider my personal battle over this matter over. It is through the RTC protocol, and I use the "go2rtc" integration for this purpose. I will dedicate an article to this later.

If you are interested in the camera that I have, it is this one:

Buy TP-Link Tapo C320WS outdoor camera on Amazon

And the alternative that I used, more open to "do what you want with the camera", is the following (cameras that have a very good price, it must be said):

Buy Imou outdoor camera on Amazon

Vacuum cleaners

Well, another classic, a robot vacuum cleaner. I'm not going to go on about it here, just that you can connect your robot vacuum cleaner to Home Assistant, and configure everything (or almost everything) from there. It depends on the model of the robot, of course, but I recommend mine, which is cheap and I'm quite happy with it. I recommended it to my mother, and the same goes for it. And a friend also went to buy it, she got a better model... and it didn't go so well for her, but oh well xD So now you know, if you want one, I recommend mine, but not another one :P

My model is Dreame d9 plus gen 2, but I can't find it for sale now. I'll try to find it and put it here, because it had a good price and it works very well, as I said.

Gadgets of all kinds: the sky is the limit with ESPHome

I'm not going to talk much about this, but I wanted to leave it mentioned. If you like Arduino-type tinkering, there is a platform called ESPHome that turns your boards into home automation devices compatible with Home Assistant. This opens up a world of possibilities, because it allows you to make anything you dream of. For example, I'm making a weather station in my yard, with temperature, humidity, and rain sensors... I've also tinkered with the doorbell in the street, or even with solar panels for water. It's something more advanced, but it's all about getting started. It opens up an impressive world of possibilities.

Control of electrical consumption

You can also monitor your home's electricity consumption using Home Assistant. As I said, there are plugs that you can use to monitor the consumption of various appliances, but there are also devices to monitor the general electricity consumption of your home, and if you have solar panels generating electricity, you can imagine the mess that can create.

As you can see, you can do everything with Home Assistant and I'm sure I'm leaving out many more examples, but this is getting quite long. In the next chapter, the last one I hope, I'll tell you about certain features that Home Assistant has that will end up blowing your mind. You'll see!

[PART 4: Home Assistant Features] Continue reading by clicking here