One of the lazy things that I’ve tried to do was have the Amazon Echo turn my TV on and off. When I had Home Assistant running on my Raspberry Pi, I used a component that controlled the TV and Apple TV via HDMI CEC. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite reliable and I lost the ability to use it when I migrated to a VM for Home Assistant.

In a recent release of Home Assistant, support was added for Roku and since I have a TCL Roku TV, I decided to give it a try. The component itself works, but has a few major limitations for me. First off it initializes on Home Assistant startup. In order to conserve a little energy, I have my TV, Apple TV, and sound bar on a Z-Wave controlled outlet. The outlet doesn’t turn on until the afternoon, so most of the time when Home Assistant restarts (I have it restart at 6 am so that my audio distribution units initialize as they also turn off at night), the TV isn’t turned on. The second issue has to do with the TV going to sleep. It has a deep sleep and a fast start mode; fast start uses more energy, so I leave it off. The Roku component uses HTTP commands to control the device or TV; when the TV is in deep sleep, it doesn’t respond to HTTP commands. This, of course, makes it impossible to turn on the TV with the component.

After thinking about this problem for awhile, I came up with some Node-RED flows to turn on the TV and handle status updates. The TV, it turns out, responds to a Wake-On-LAN packet as I have it connected via Ethernet and Home Assistant has a WOL component that lets me send the packet.

My flow to check on the TV state is a bit complicated.

1. First it pings the TV. The ping is done every 10 seconds.
2. If the TV responds, it sends an HTTP request to the TV.
3. When the response comes back, it is parsed, the current application running is checked. This also lets me know what Roku channel is currently active. I have noticed that my TV reports that the Davinci Channel is active when I turn the TV off, so I special case that.
4. If the channel is not null and not the Davinci Channel, I then send a command to check to see if the display is off.
5. After I figure out the app and if the display is off, I craft a new payload with the current channel in it.
6. The payload is then sent in an HTTP request back to Home Assistant’s HTTP Sensor API
7. If the TV doesn’t respond to the ping, I set the payload to off and then send the state to the Home Assistant API.

Turning on the TV is a bit less complicated.

1. Send WOL packet to TV.
2. Pause.
3. Send HTTP command to turn on TV.
4. Send HTTP command to set input to HDMI3 (my Apple TV).

Turning off the TV is even easier.

1. Send HTTP command to turn off TV.

When I turn on the TV outlet, the state of the TV gets updated pretty quickly as the ping command from above is running every 10 seconds.

I’ve posted the Node-RED flows below that can be imported and modified for your situation.

Download Node-RED flow to turn Roku TV on/off

Download Node-RED flow to get current TV state

Now that I have Home Assistant running pretty well, I’ve started seeing what else I can add to it. There are several components for monitoring energy usage, but sadly none for my Rain Forest Automation Eagle Energy device. After a quick search, I found a Node-RED flow that looked promising. It would query the local API of the device (or the Cloud one) and give me an answer. The next step was seeing how to get that into Home Assistant. I found the HTTP Sensor which would let me dynamically create sensors. (There is so much to explore in Home Assistant, it will keep me entertained for awhile.)

With all the pieces in place, I set the Node-RED flow to repeat every 15 seconds and then use the Home Assistant API to add the usage. This worked well for a few hours, but then I stopped receiving updates only to discover that the Eagle device had stopped responding. When I checked the developer documentation, it indicated that the local API was not supported for my older device. However, an Uploader API was available that would push the data to me. That sounded interesting, so I created a flow in Node-RED that listened for a connection and then parsed the data using the flow I found before. The only problem was how do I get the device to push me the data. The Eagle device has options for cloud providers, but something I missed before is that there is the ability to add a new one. I added my Node-RED install using: http://10.0.3.100:1880/eagleenergy and the data starting flowing!

So far this new method has been working for almost 24 hours, so I have a lot more confidence that this will keep working.

The Node-RED flow is below:

    [{"id":"b7dc8932.f85388","type":"xml","z":"15825822.ae8e1","name":"Convert to
    Object","property":"payload","attr":"","chr":"","x":310,"y":1440,"wires":[["21269998.3f97e6"]]},{"id
    ":"c85cb9e0.0ba818","type":"http request","z":"15825822.ae8e1","name":"Query Active
    App","method":"GET","ret":"txt","url":"http://10.0.3.41:8060/query/active-app","tls":"","x":310,"y":
    1380,"wires":[["b7dc8932.f85388"]]},{"id":"b35dc59a.083738","type":"ping","z":"15825822.ae8e1","name
    ":"Ping
    TV","host":"10.0.3.41","timer":"10","x":90,"y":1300,"wires":[["e2decb33.dc36e8"]]},{"id":"e2decb33.
    dc36e8","type":"switch","z":"15825822.ae8e1","name":"Is TV
    responding?","property":"payload","propertyType":"msg","rules":[{"t":"false"},{"t":"else"}],"
    checkall":"true","repair":false,"outputs":2,"x":290,"y":1300,"wires":[["6b2354bd.8306ec"],["c85cb9e0
    .0ba818"]],"outputLabels":["","Is awake?"]},{"id":"a59cc790.158f68","type":"http
    request","z":"15825822.ae8e1","name":"Update TV
    State","method":"POST","ret":"txt","url":"https://homeassistant.com:8123/api/states/sensor.tv_state"
    ,"tls":"","x":1140,"y":1440,"wires":[[]]},{"id":"208bd98e.9ed806","type":"change","z":"15825822.
    ae8e1","name":"Set API
    Authorization","rules":[{"t":"set","p":"headers","pt":"msg","to":"{\"Authorization\":\"Bearer
    INSERT_BEARER\"}","tot":"json"}],"action":"","property":"","from":"","to":"","reg":false,"x":920,"y"
    :1440,"wires":[["a59cc790.158f68"]]},{"id":"21269998.3f97e6","type":"change","z":"15825822.ae8e1","
    name":"Set Payload to Active
    App","rules":[{"t":"set","p":"payload","pt":"msg","to":"payload.active-app.app[0]._","tot":"msg"}],"
    action":"","property":"","from":"","to":"","reg":false,"x":330,"y":1500,"wires":[["6d6fdcd0.004714"]
    ]},{"id":"71eea783.5158f8","type":"function","z":"15825822.ae8e1","name":"Set new
    payload","func":"var channel = msg.payload\nif (channel == \"Davinci Channel\") {\n    channel =
    \"Idle\"\n}\nvar newPayload = {\"state\":channel,\"attributes\":{\"icon\":\"mdi:television\",
    \"friendly_name\":\"TV\"}}\nmsg.payload = newPayload\n\nreturn
    msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"x":650,"y":1400,"wires":[["208bd98e.9ed806"]]},{"id":"6b2354bd.8306ec",
    "type":"change","z":"15825822.ae8e1","name":"Set Channel to
    off","rules":[{"t":"set","p":"payload","pt":"msg","to":"off","tot":"str"}],"action":"","property":""
    ,"from":"","to":"","reg":false,"x":870,"y":1300,"wires":[["71eea783.5158f8"]]},{"id":"ee5484a0.
    bf69c8","type":"http request","z":"15825822.ae8e1","name":"Get Device
    Info","method":"GET","ret":"txt","url":"http://10.0.3.41:8060/query/device-info","tls":"","x":300,"y
    ":1580,"wires":[["dfba9256.d0175"]]},{"id":"6d6fdcd0.004714","type":"switch","z":"15825822.ae8e1","
    name":"Check active app","property":"payload","propertyType":"msg","rules":[{"t":"eq","v":"Davinci
    Channel","vt":"str"},{"t":"null"},{"t":"else"}],"checkall":"true","repair":false,"outputs":3,"x":610
    ,"y":1500,"wires":[["ee5484a0.bf69c8"],["ee5484a0.bf69c8"],["71eea783.5158f8"]],"outputLabels":["
    Davinci
    Channel","Null",""]},{"id":"dfba9256.d0175","type":"xml","z":"15825822.ae8e1","name":"Convert to
    Object","property":"payload","attr":"","chr":"","x":510,"y":1580,"wires":[["37ef8802.728648"]]},{"id
    ":"37ef8802.728648","type":"change","z":"15825822.ae8e1","name":"Check Display
    State","rules":[{"t":"set","p":"payload","pt":"msg","to":"payload.device-info.power-mode[0]","tot":"
    msg"}],"action":"","property":"","from":"","to":"","reg":false,"x":560,"y":1660,"wires":[["adaad7e0.
    489ba8"]]},{"id":"adaad7e0.489ba8","type":"switch","z":"15825822.ae8e1","name":"Is Display
    Off?","property":"payload","propertyType":"msg","rules":[{"t":"eq","v":"DisplayOff","vt":"str"}],"
    checkall":"true","repair":false,"outputs":1,"x":760,"y":1660,"wires":[["6b2354bd.8306ec"]]}]

I’ve been so pleased with Home Assistant that I decided to see if I could migrate completely away from Vera and run all my Z-Wave devices on Home Assistant. Currently Home Assistant uses OpenZwave as the base and has basic support for a lot of Z-Wave devices. While OpenZwave isn’t as mature as Vera in its implementation, I found that with the exception of 4 Leviton VRCZ4-M0Z zone controllers, everything worked well. I’ve read that some people have had problems with Z-Wave on Home Assistant, but so far things have been going quite well for me using an Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5 as the controller. I suspect that my success is due to the type of devices I have (only outlets, switches, 1 light bulb, 2 portable MiniMote controllers and these VRCZ4s); I don’t have any sensors and only 2 of my devices are battery powered.

In order to complete my transition away from Vera, I had to get the 4 VRCZ4s to work. A Google search turned up very little information on how to do this with the exception of one post that gave me some clues. The post uses a third party piece of software that I don’t have to program the controllers, so that was pretty much out. However, the post did talk about the SCENE_CONTROLLER_CONF Z-Wave command class. With this information in hand, I decided to see if I could program my controllers.

Here’s what I eventually did.

Controller Programming

1. Sign up for a developer account on Silicon Labs.
2. Download the Z-Wave Developer kit, specifically the Z-Wave PC Controller software. (Windows only, but works fine in VMWare Fusion)
3. Reset the VRCZ4 by pressing and holding the left side of buttons 1 & 3 until it blinks amber and then remains a solid red.
4. Press left side of buttons 1 & 3 of the VRCZ4.
5. Add node in Z-Wave config in HA
   
6. Wait until node is added. I like to look the the OZW_Log.txt to check status. The node will say Complete next to it when it is done.
7. Select node in Z-Wave config called Leviton VRCZ4-M0Z. Make a note of the node number.
   
8. Rename Entity by going to Node Information, selecting the gear and entering a new node.
9. Under Node Group Associations, select Group 1
10. Make sure Aeotec Z-Stick (node 1) is selected and click Add to Group.
    
11. Repeat the above 2 steps for Groups 2-4. The VRCZ4 needs to know where to send commands when the buttons are pressed.
12. If you have other devices you want to control such as lights or outlets and they support Z-Wave association, associate the devices with the VRCZ4 now. Groups 1-4 corresponds with buttons 1-4. So if you want button 1 to control an outlet, associate it with the outlet.
13. If all the buttons on the VRCZ4 are going to be associated with other devices, you can stop here as the associations will cause the buttons to turn on/off the associated devices. You can even associate more than 1 device to a button (i.e. 2 backyard lights).
14. If you want of the buttons to control scripts or automations on Home Assistant, you’ll have to do some more steps.
15. Shutdown the HA box (not just HA, but the entire box).
16. Connect Aeotec Z-Stick to computer with Z-Wave PC Controller software.
17. Launch PC Controller software.
    
18. Click Command Classes
19. Locate node of controller on left side.
20. Click on it and then click Node Info.
    
21. Double click SCENE_CONTROLLER_CONF in the lower left.
22. Change command to SCENE_CONTROLLER_CONF_SET.
    
23. Click the button in the lower right to show the log.
24. At this point, you need to program each button where you are not using associations to control devices.
25. The Group IDs for the buttons are as follows:

    Button 1 on - 1
    Button 2 on - 2
    Button 3 on - 3
    Button 4 on - 4
    Button 1 off - 5
    Button 2 off - 6
    Button 3 off - 7
    Button 4 off - 8
    

26. For each group ID, you have to assign a scene ID. Apparently the scene IDs should be unique across the entire Z-Wave network, but for my case I assigned the same scene IDs for each controller and can distinguish between the controllers in Home Assistant. You can choose whatever numbering scheme you want, but I went with the following:

    Button 1 on - 1
    Button 1 off - 2
    Button 2 on - 3
    Button 2 off - 4
    Button 3 on - 5
    Button 3 off - 6
    Button 4 on - 7
    Button 4 off - 8
    

27. For each group ID, assign a scene ID and click send.
28. You’ll see some message in the logs.
29. To verify that the scene IDs are set, press a button and in the log you will see a SCENE_ACTIVATION_SET message with the scene ID.
    
30. Note that the group IDs and the scene IDs are in hex. Since I’m only using 1-8, it doesn’t matter but if you use different scene IDs, be aware of this.
31. Repeat for each button you want to set.
32. Unplug the Aeotec Stick from the computer and plug it back into HA and reboot HA.

Using the Scenes

The programming has now been done, so the next step is to use the new commands in Home Assistant. I use Node-RED and have setup a sequence that handles all of my controllers.

1. Drag an events node (top left in Home Assistant) to the workspace and set it up to only look at zwave.scene_activated events.

2. Use a switch node to differentiate between the controllers.

3. Use a change node to extract the scene ID.

4. Next use a switch node to separate out the scenes. If you didn’t follow my scene numbering, you will have to enter whatever scene IDs you used.

5. Connect up nodes for each scene.

While this seems like a lot of work, I probably took longer for me to write this up then to actually configure a controller! I’m not an expert in Home Assistant, Node-RED or Z-Wave so send feedback if you have any.

Enjoy!

Earlier this year I started experimenting with Home Assistant and wrote some thoughts about it. It brought together enough pieces that I keep tinkering with it. A friend of mine had mentioned a project called Node-RED which is supposed to more easily link together IoT components and perform actions based on different inputs. At the time, I brushed it off as I didn’t want to bother figuring out how to install it.

Fast forward to last week when I noticed that Home Assistant had a Node-RED add-on. Installing the add-on was quite easy and I was presented with a blank canvas. After a few minutes, I figured out how to make a simple sequence that took the state of a door sensor (at the time connected via my Vera) and turned on a light. Nothing too fancy, but I was able to hook it up, hit Deploy and test. It worked! This was light years ahead of the YAML based automations in Home Assistant and much faster to setup than Vera. I was hooked almost immediately. Could I convert all my automation logic to this? I spent the next few days trying.

Wiring some basic automations was quite easy as in this example that turns off lights in my bathroom if there is no motion. Node-RED resets the timer if there is more motion, making the sequence very straightforward.

Unfortunately not all my automations are this simple.

The most important sequences deal with my front and back motion sensors. I could just use something like the above sequence, but I only want the lights on at night, I want to be able to disable the motion sensors (for example on Halloween if we’re not home, I don’t want lights coming on), and if I turn on the lights manually I don’t want them turning off a few minutes after there is motion. The tricky part here was to determine if the lights were manually turned on or triggered by a motion sensor. After a bit of experimenting, I decided to record the last time there was motion into a variable. Then when the lights turn on I check the variable to see how long ago it occurred. If it was less than 30 seconds ago, call it triggered my motion. With that, I was able to set on off timer based on how the lights came on. The one bit of “code” I had to write was to determine how long ago the motion was tripped.

    var motionTimestamp = flow.get('lastFrontMotion') || -1;
    var difference = (Date.now() - motionTimestamp) / 1000;
    if (motionTimestamp === -1)
    {
        difference = -1
    }
    msg.payload = difference;
    return msg;

The flow may look complicated, but to me it is quite readable.

The visual aspect of Node-RED makes it easier to setup automations, but calling automation simple is far from the truth as I’ve shown above. As a professional software developer, writing code doesn’t scare me but for a hobby, this visual approach (with a little code as necessary) is much nicer. When I come back to this in 6 months, I have no doubt that I can read what is going on and troubleshoot as necessary.

For the last 5 years, I’ve been using my Vera to control everything using a plugin called PLEG which stands for Program Logic Event Generator. It has worked quite well, but it has been so long since I setup most of the automations, I have no idea what I did. PLEG, while functional, was a bit difficult for me to wrap my head around and it pained me every time I had to touch it. Also, when I touched it, I seem to recall having to restart Vera and wait only to find out that I needed to change something.

I’m so impressed with Node-RED that I’ve decided to see if I can move all my Z-Wave devices to Home Assistant using an Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5 plugged into the Home Assistant. The goal with this move is to speed up messaging; right now the Home Assistant polls (I think) Vera all the time looking for changes. This isn’t very efficient and pressing a button can take a second or two to have the message reach Home Assistant. Will this work? I hope so!

I know that I’m just scratching the surface with this, but I am very excited over the prospects!