HS3 Pro .. interface to Wifi enabled products

[djbeam]

has anyone found an interface that has a degree of universality to control Wifi enabled products .. Do you have luck with any manufacturer series of products that work well with HS3, can you please identify ..

thanks for your help.

Don

[ksum]

This breaks down to a per device manufacturer question. Many WiFi enabled devices simply use your WiFi to reach the internet to reach the manufacturer's servers. These are often closed to access, but if there is an API (programming interface) available, or someone has reverse-engineered access, there may be a plug-in available. Also look at the mcsMQTT and Big 5/Big 6 plugin documentation as there are methods in these and a couple others to reach some devices which you may not know from their suggested use.

It would help to narrow this down. What type of devices are you looking to use?

Karl

[kenm]

There's a sea of WiFi devices out there so you have to take them case by case. Sonoff devices re-flashed with Tasmota firmware work great over MQTT protocol with the mcsMQTT plugin. I've had limited success in controlling Philips Wiz bulbs using Node-RED. Since HS3 doesn't have Node-RED support you'd need to use MQTT or the ASCII control interface to talk to Node-RED. At least Philips communicates using JSON over un-encrypted connections.

Then there's the manufacturers who want to lock you into using their app. I recently purchased a Weber Connect WiFi BBQ thermometer. You have to use their app to connect to it via Bluetooth, set up the WifI connection, and then it goes off and talks HTTPS to some IP addresses on AWS. The app then also starts talking to those IP addresses instead of directly to the device itself. In other words, requires Internet access and no way to get local control so unlikely to connect it to any home automation system.

[djbeam]

thanks to both of you .. this is what I suspected ... great facility .. limited use ... unless you want 100 apps on your phone .. which I do not.

Are you aware of any local IP based switches and plugs that use standard industry protocols .. to allow access ..

Don

[kenm]

Are you aware of any local IP based switches and plugs that use standard industry protocols .. to allow access ..

Sonoff makes a few but none that meets my wife's acceptance criteria. I ended up using Zooz Z-Wave and I'm looking into Lutron Caseta. The Pro version of the Caseta hub allows telnet access so there's a plugin available for controlling those.

[djbeam]

Makes sense ... thanks ..

[ksum]

I am using z-wave switches and receptacles myself. I know there are some of the Sonoff, Shelly, and other options are workable. The Shelly option is interesting in that you use a normal light switch (no dimming capability with this one) and the Shelly device controls the power. You can flash that with Tasmota and then use MQTT as well.

There are not many receptacles. For most of these a plug-in module is used instead, and is the norm. Again, there are devices which can be flashed with Tasmota which then do not go out tot eh manufacturer's cloud for control, but allow for MQTT communication, which is over your internal network (Wifi).

Is there a reason you are looking to use WiFi? If you do go the WiFi route make sure your router can handle it. If you are using a provider's router, some of them still have a limit to the number of devices which can be connected. The newer ones SHOULD allow for more devices connected to the WiFi network.