Under Eave Exhaust Vent Hoods

update: Wed Mar 5 08:24:43 EST 2025

Use these products to replace builders flush exhaust grilles under eaves. Backflow damper will prevent insect and bird entry.

• Primex Larger 4" duct (preferred Model Number: SV4-01)
• Lambro Small 4" duct

2025 Federal Government Activities

Revised: Sun Apr 6 07:48:06 EDT 2025

Important messages in these video and links.

• Trump says he is not joking about third presidential term, Reuters
• Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections
• The bizarre way Trump’s team calculated reciprocal tariffs, CBC News
• The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans, Jeffrey Goldberg, Atlantic Magazine
• History Professor Answers Dictator Questions, Ruth Ben-Ghiat
• Tyranny requires compliance. Democracy requires courage. Illinois Governor Pritzker
• When a clown moves into a palace he doesn't become a king, the palace instead becomes a circus. - Turkish proverb
• Letters from an American, Heather Cox
• Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions, justsecurity.org

Using Shelly BLU Devices with Home Assistant

updated: Sat Mar 8 08:29:04 EST 2025

Using Shelly BLU Motion and Shelly BLU Door/Window Switches with Home Assistant

Shelly BLU Motion Sensor

• Home Assistant
• Added BLU Motion directly to Home Assistant via BTHome Integration
• Device name showed up in Home Assistant BTHome as "BTHome sensor XXXX" with new firmware
• Some device names showed up as as SBMO-003Z XXXX in Home Assistant, deleted and re-added
• useful stanza from an automation
  - wait_for_trigger:
entity_id: binary_sensor.bthome_sensor_49a1_motion
from: "on"
to: "off"
trigger: state
  
• Don't know for sure what settings to use in HA, Active or Passive.
• Don't know for sure which settings to use in the Shelly web Settings, Enable Bluetooth (for sure needed), Enable RPC and/or Enable Bluetooth gateway (version 1.5.x does not have gateway option).
• Firmware
• Update firmware on BLU Motion by adding to Shelly iOS app
• Initial firmware was probably 1.0.9, updated to 1.0.21
• opened device and used small black button when asked to push button
• Home Assistant show version as Firmware: BTHome BLE v2
• Could not find a way to update firmware from Home Assistant, had to add to Shelly iOS app.
• Two BLU Motion devices do not show a Firmware Version in Home Assistant Device Info, maybe different hardware?
• Operation in Home Assistant
• No binary_sensor state change occurs after the initial change from clear to motion until motion clears.
• Per Shelly BLU Motion Sensor Modes of Operation there are two modes of operation.
• Settings in the Shelly iOS App
• Regular mode - the Device broadcasts the motion detection status, illuminance, and battery status each time the motion-detection status changes (motion is detected or no motion is detected during the blind time).
• Beacon mode - the Device broadcasts the motion detection status, illuminance, and battery status every 30 seconds. This is noted to significantly reduce battery life.
• Blind Time - Default is 60 seconds to clear after motion ceases.
• Motion sensitivity - Low, Med, High. Default is Medium.
• LED - enable or disable
• See "How Shelly BLU Motion Works" in DreadVenomous post in this thread (its not a very technically accurate description but its what Shelly offers through support tickets)
• Issues
• big Reddit thread about how luminance does not report valid values
• big Home Assistant thread about Door/Window not reporting
• Did not want to have to add all devices to iOS app but maybe will have to do that to keep firmware updated
• Deleting device from Home Assistant BTHome and adding back changes the entity names but not the device name, odd.
• Mounting
• Printable Mount (also see related prints at bottom of page)

Shelly BLU Door/Window Switches

• Home Assistant
• Added BLU Door/Window directly to Home Assistant via BTHome Integration
• Shows in Home Assistant at BTHome sensor XXXX
• Some show in Home Assitant as Shelly BLU Door/Window XXXX
• Firmware
• Need to update firmware
• updated from version 1.0.6 to 1.0.21
• Use the square button on the face of the device when asked to push button
• Some show as "Shelly B XXXX"
• Settings in Shelly iOS App
• Regular mode - the Device broadcasts the current open/closed state, illuminance, and battery status each time the open/closed state changes (door/window opened or closed). If a door or window, which tilts and turns is opened, the Device immediately broadcasts information about the event, the illumination, and the battery status at the time of the opening detection. Two seconds later, it broadcasts inclination angle, the illumination, and the battery status at the moment. Then every 8 seconds the Device checks the inclination angle. If a change is detected, the Device broadcasts the new angle value.
• Beacon mode - the Device broadcasts the current open/closed state, illuminance, and battery status every 30 seconds. This is noted to significantly reduce battery life.
• Issues
• Deleting device from Home Assistant BTHome and adding back changes the entity names but not the device name, odd.
• Door and Window sensors do not show version in Home Assistant Device Info

DAC and SFP+ RJ-45 and UniFi USW-Enterprise-8-PoE Switch

Thu 30 Jan 14:12:53 EST 2025

DAC Cables That Work

• Cable Matters 10Gbps DAC Twinax
• QSFPTEK QT-SFP+-CA-P0.5M 10G SFP+ DAC

DAC cables that do not work

• 10Gtek CAB-10GSFP-P0.5M SFP+ DAC Twinax Cable, 10G SFP+ (note same part number as HiFiber)
• HiFiber CAB-10GSFP-P0.5M SFP+ Cable, 10G SFP+ DAC (note same part number as 10Gtek)

SFP+ Copper RJ-45 Transceivers that work

• Unifi UACC-CM-RJ45-MG RJ-45 Copper SFP+
• Ipolex RJ-45 Copper SFP+

SFP+ Copper RJ-45 Transceivers that do not work

• XZSNET 1000BASE-T SFP Transceiver, SFP to RJ45

The DAC cables that do not work cause the USW-Enterprise-8-PoE Switch to constantly reboot.

UniFi G4 Pro PoE Doorbell Light Sensor Fault

Fri Jan 10 09:54:10 EST 2025

Discussion

The UniFi G4 Pro PoE Doorbell light sensor faults when the sun shines diretly into the camera. In my case this is close to sundown in the winter. A small piece of translucent tape over the sensor prevents the fault and does not greatly impact the camera IR/Night switching. A restart of the doorbell resolves the issue until the next sunset.

• The button LED ring flashes white when the doorbell is in this fault condition.
• The display and path/package light do not operate in the fault condition.
• 'HW: light sensor issue' is logged in the camera hw/rma.log file when the fault occurs.
• The hw/rma.log file does not exist until the system detects the fault. There is no timestamp in the file but the last file modification timestamp shows the time of the fault.
• The camera detects the fault in the /bin/check_hw_issues.sh script.
• The check_hw_issues.sh script triggers the /usr/local/bin/testLed.sh script.
• The testLed.sh script strobes the white LED ring around the button.
• Accessing the camera with ssh and looking for the testLed.sh script with the ps command is a method to identify the fault without physically looking at the camera.
• It would be nice if UniFi revised their software to report this issue in the controller system alarms so the operator could be notified. Currently no system alarms are generated by this fault so the controller does not know there is a problem and no notification is generated.
• It would be nice if UniFi revised their software to restart the light sensor driver or restart the camera some time after a light sensor issue to cure the problem.

Speculation

• The light sensor uses the i2c driver
• The PIR motion sensor is probably an i2c device and therefore out of service when the light sensor faults. This would prevent the display and path light from operating.

References:

• Reddit Discussion
• One of Many Unifi Community Discussions