Unfortunately, there are a number of complex problems that require time and expertise to solve.
In my opinion, it is important to look at the possible ways to solve the problem (NAT, DDNS, eWelink apk, Web Cast or something else), on the basis of which to choose the possible and most acceptable one and implement it… how easy is this to say…
I hope that Your team of experts will also deal with this user request.
No offense taken. I myself ordered two iHosts, knowing that they are still under development. I too had hopes that were based on reviews. Especially regarding docker. My goal was to have an independent box that would be a Zigbee host and would run environments like Docker or iobroker.
I have a productive system running on a Synology NAS and I intend to keep that as my main environment. But I wanted to set up somenthing completely new for a friend who would be overwhelmed by the need to hook up a RasPi. The goal was to install Home Assistant.
My problem was that I was running iobroker at the time. I didn’t know that the container version of Home Assistant has limitations like missing addons. I could get something to work if I had shell access to the container. iobroker runs fine though. But I need to keep in mind that the iHost was not designed to run Home Assistant or iobroker, but to run Sonoff (and other Zigbee devices) in an own environment. And this is still under development. However, there is an “exit” for people who just like the hardware. And that is installing a different Linux distribution. That would still make it an interesting device. I myself am still reluctant and decided to wait for some updates. I have iobroker running on one of my iHosts and so far, so good… But with a few more options I would have a better feeling setting it up at my friend’s place.
100% Agree
I have received my iHost couple days ago and it can’t really do much.
I thought that it could be “nerve center” of the whole home automation, but now it seems that I can’t automate anything with it.
For example I would like all garden lights light up when Zigbee button is pressed (or maybe motion sensor detects movement). But this seems impossible as none of the actual lights are in iHost (Sonoff doesn’t even make cool lights). All other apps can find the lights, like Wiz/Smartthings/blizwolf/google etc.
My idea was to use IFTTT for the actual controlling (or even smartthings).
Is there really no way to “publish” iHost’s sub devices to cloud?
It could help if other wifi/zigbee brands could be used by iHost, but eWelink smarthome -addon can add only Sonoff wifi products to iHost, but not from other brands.
If they can sync to Google home, why not iHost?
If you’ve already got an IFTTT subscription then it is quite easy.
Instal the Nodered add on following the Sonoff instructions. Using node red you can send web requests to IFTTT.
IFTTT has things called “web hook”.
The problem is that most of us, myself included, don’t have an IFTTT subscription To see the status of Zigbee devices on your phone you can put them on a dashboard (main UI is too cluttered) and install the TailScale VPN add on. Then when you are out just connect your phone to Tailscale and access the static IP of your iHost which is in the TailScale app with “/cast/“ added to the end without the quotation marks.
For me the biggest pain is the lack of push notifications, which is annoying particularly the Alarm Status. I don’t actually use the alarm because don’t really see the point if I don’t get notified. Also my Ethernet is nowhere near my front door so it’s impractical to push the button when going out.
Maybe a Zigbee button could be used to turn it on. Will have a look next time I am in there.
Thank you for your message. I will look in the Nodered!
IFTTT subscription is like 3€/month so it’s no problem.
Of course I would like everything to be in LOCAL host, but I can get there later.
At the moment I have stuff working via so many different apps (button turns on light which is detected by a different brand app and then turns on other lights in other apps) so even if part of these were working locally it would lower the delay by seconds.
Making a scene with Zigbee button allows iHost to at least Disarm.
There’s modes: Open Home mode, Open Away mode, Open sleep mode and Disarm.
IFTTT has notifications, would you be able to use it?
I think Apilio is a bit cheaper than IFTTT, although it doesn’t have an app, so you need to connect it to iOS shortcuts or Tasker on android for notifications and the supported channels is not as wide as IFTTT. It, like IFTTT, used to be free and can do a bit more than IFTTT.
I don’t think alarm state is passed to Node Red or at least I didn’t find it last time I looked. The free IFTTT is limited to 2 “applets”. If alarm state is passed to Node Res I could indeed use one of my two free “applets” to get notifications, although I think I could probably go from Node Red to iOS Shortcuts directly.
I think the connection between Apilio and iOS shortcuts needs to be via an email. You tell Apilio to send an email with Node Red. The email them triggers an iOS shortcut.
I suspect there’s a direct way from the home ridge AddOn to get from the iHost to an iPhone directly, but would need to look into it more.
I did briefly play with Tasker on Android. It seems a lot more flexible, particularly if you’re using a cracked device. No expert at all though. Probably best via email too though as otherwise you have to keep a track of your current IP address all the time.
Incidentally does the lights work locally? There’s probably a home assistant integration already for it. You can then put Home Assistant on a really old Raspberry Pi and connect the two devices using MQTT/node Red. I’m just in the process of setting this up using an old Raspberry Pi myself for devices that aren’t eWeLink.
That’s actually an alternative to IFTTT too and if you can source an old RP it’s free. As well as local integrations there are loads of cloud integrations too. Suspect the paid phone app subscriptions can do push notifications, but don’t know if it’s cheaper than IFTTT/Apilio. Suspect not, but the developers are nicer.
I’m not really a fan of HA as it requires it’s own PC and the GUI looked very complicated and also when I tried running it own windows, it wasn’t able to find more than couple devices.
So Apilio can connect Smartlife and IFTTT.
NodeRed can send web requests to IFTTT from or to iHost.
SmartThings can see all my lights (except kitchen’s Blitzwolf, but maybe those can be connected to smartlife)
I was expecting that this would get simpler, but now this is even more complicated.
You only need an old Raspberry Pi and not a full PC, the interface sucks though. You can connect things but it is often a pain. I had to pretend to be a google developer to get my front door to appear. I suspect you could get other stuff to appear but it’d take some tinkering and it’s a steep learning curve. Having done the curve I’m reticent to recommend it unless you can get a free old RP.
See this is my issue aswell. Ive set up one of my friend’s iHost (who only has wifi devices) but I’ve tested it with my setup at home… (70% of my house is zigbee) now, how can you switch lights off with Alexa?Google when you add the Zigbee switches to the iHost?? and/or create routines in Alexa/Google? The Zigbee pro bridge is unreliable, it keeps on forgetting my zigbee sensors and switches.
“128 Device support” it cant even handel 8.
I don’t have the problem with too few devices. The Maps a bit weird though. It says things have disconnected but I can still turn them on and off.
With Home Assistant if you subscribe to their own App you can connect Voice Speakers. The subscription is quite cheap. There is a way to do it for free but it is a hassle. I think they create a secure encrypted tunnel between them and the home assistant. Then they link to Alexa/Google-Home.
I suspect there is also a way with the iHost but it is also a hassle and the community is smaller so it’d be harder to find instructions.
I was hoping to ditch my old Raspberry Pi (the SD card died anyway) but haven’t been able to. I can just talk between the two systems on Node-Red on MQTT. Luckily they just released a new RP so I have relegated my RP4 with an SSD (my old 3B could only boot from some SSD in a weird way).
The home-bridge Ads On has devices appear on my phone and I’m pretty sure the Apple Voice Assistant can work devices.
Don’t know about Alexa as I use Google but that can be downloaded. Willing to bet there is a docker image in the Add On store and that could be connected to the iHost eCube API. Microsoft Windows can connect to Alexa so In willing to bet there’s a way in to Alexa too. All a pain in the arse though.
The limited number of Zigbee devices is weird though. In total I have
Temperature x 4
Button x 3
Motion x 10
Door x 2
Switch x 6
Which makes 25, although lots are in the mesh and not directly attached. Pretty sure more than 8 are direct though. Would need to look at the Zigbee Map but I don’t think the map is a dashboard option and can’t navigate the iHost on my phone. Also if there is a way to choose Zigbee frequency, like you can in Home Assistant, I haven’t found it yet. Maybe there is just a lot of interference from WIFI and that is why your Zigbee network is so limited. If the Sonoff Dongle can select band in Home Assistant then I’m pretty sure the iHost could also do it. The Zigbee map is nice but of limited use given there is no way to see it on the small screen of a phone. Also the map says things are disconnected but I can still operate them or read temperature/door etc. I think maybe the first bar has a lower limit and so the devices are connected, but below the lower limit.
Edited to add: had a quick look on the docker hub. Looks doable to connect the Google Voice Assistant and the Amazon Alexa Voice Assistant if you could be arsed. Looks like the Alexa access point is as Alexa Skill because they lock down the direct link. Think the iHost has a microphone so you could probably turn it into a Google Home speaker itself, if you could be bothered. Too much hassle though. That is why I subscribe to the Home Assistant cloud.
I was looking in the HA and it seems that HA Green would be the easiest way to have it as there’s HA preinstalled.
Then I found instructions on Youtube about how to install HA to iHost. Best of both worlds I guess? At least now I won’t have to try to sell my iHost.
Do you have any guesses if the iHost/HA would be able to use Zigbee transmitter from the ihost, usb or ethernet?
Maybe ethernet Zigbee device would possible for HA to search from LAN? Like this:
[ZigBee 3.0 Smart Gateway Hub eWeLink APP Smart Home Automation Ethernet Bridge Works with Tasmota Zigbee2MQTT Home Assistant - AliExpress]
Installing home assistant is very easy. TBH I would just get what is available as lots of stuff is pre-order, it’s been hard to get stuff from Raspberry Pi anyway and you don’t need a particularly powerful Raspberry Pi to run Home Assistant. The one thing I would say is to get something that can automatically boot from an SSD. I had a 3B with home assistant on an SD card and the SD card died. I think the 3B+ can automatically boot from an SSD and the 3B is the last that can’t automatically.
They’ve just released the Raspberry Pi 5 so I suspect you could get a used 4 quite easily, or maybe they start shipping 5s before the end of the month. It’s very near now whatever. Just remember the 5V power supply is more than a phone needs so you probably can’t just dig out an old USB charger. Think the 3s needed 2A, the 4s 3A and the 5s 5A but that’s all from memory, so you’d be best checking the specifications.
Home Assistant can run in various forms. On the iHost it runs inside of a docker container. Docker images are automatically isolated from each other so you have to connect the dockers. Running a full Home Assistant Operating System on a computer of its own is less hassle.
From what I’ve read the home assistant support for matter/thread is as a hub but not a bridge. The iHost will be both as a hub and a bridge. In theory the iHost could take devices attached to it and bridge them to the matter network. Home Assitant has so many possibilities for integrations I think they just ignored the bridge prospect. The limitation is what the iHost can bridge now and in the future and I can’t find out what will work. In theory you could add, for example a Zigbee bulb, to the iHost and have it bridged so it appears on your matter network or a wifi switch etc. and have it bridged but I haven’t found anywhere what will be bridged. There is just an old post from the summer. The iHost could be awesome if it bridged lots but I don’t know their plans.
You can add Matter over thread (and Zigbee) to a home assistant with a “SkyConnect” USB dongle currently. They’re about £30. When Matter is more commonplace I suspect there will be lots of other options. Sonoff may even be planning their own and it’d be nice if they said.
Matter is already multiprotocol (thread, wifi, Bluetooth mesh) but I don’t recall Ethernet. You shouldn’t need a Ethernet hub given you can build a strong mesh network in atleast both thread and Bluetooth. I bet the added hub would mostly try to start a new mesh anyway. I have a Sonoff Zigbee bridge non-pro that pre-dates the iHost and can’t be added the iHost network. I’m probably going to have to put free third party firmware on it so that it joins rather than tries to start a new Zigbee network. Bit stupid. Would guess a matter Ethernet hub would be the same. Seems unnecessary if you build a good thread mesh network anyway. The main benefit of Ethernet is reliability but a good mesh is reliable anyway. Even a wifi mesh is reliable, but would be expensive and power hungry.