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

Guide for Home Assistant Automation Triggered via UniFi Protect Webhook Alarm

Thu Jan 2 08:15:07 EST 2025

Excellent guide to configuring UniFi Protect alarms to trigger Home Assitant automations via Webhook. Follow the guide to configure Home Assistant and the UniFi Alarm Manager to trigger automations.

Home Assistant Automation Triggered via UniFi Protect Webhook Alarm

Slim Ethernet Cable

Revised: Mon Jan 13 12:14:44 EST 2025
Original: Sun Dec 22 07:03:52 EST 2024

Slim Ethernet cables are legitimate if they comply with the ANSI/TIA-568.2-D standard. The standard includes 28 AWG patch cables. Amazon has a lot of 30 AWG and 32 AWG patch cables that don't comply with the standard. They may still work on short runs but they won't be in compliance.

Cabling Install and Maintenance has a good article about the standard. which states that "The ANSI/TIA-568.2-D standard requires de-rating of the 100-meter channel length when 28-AWG patch cords are used."

FS.com has a good discussion of the standard along with a table of de-rating impacts. Per the FS.com article; "According to the IEEE standard, the DC link resistance of a pair of channels should be 25 ohms (Ω) or less. The new TIA 568.2-D standard recommends a 28 AWG patch cable in the channel keep the length within 15 meters to lower DC resistance within 25 Ω."

Intellinet Network Solutions has a good article about Ethernet cables in general including the 28 AWG slim patch cables.

Purchase Experience

Note cables below are mostly 30 AWG. I did not realize they were not complient with ANSI/TIA-568.2-D standard when they were purchased. Use this information with caution.

Many of the Amazon cables are probably adequate for home use but it is recommended to use name-brand, reliable cables for commercial use.

• UniFi no marking
• Flexibility: Super flexible definitely the best
• Specs: Unknown specs no cable markings
• Comment:
• Features: Probably came with router
• Length: 1 foot
• Color: White
• Snagless: No
• Price: $4.00/10 foot
• Purchase Link

• Lysymixs
• Flexibility: Not tested looks good on Amazon
• Specs: Cat 6 28 AWG stranded bare copper
• Comment:
• Features:
• Length: 10 foot
• Color: Black
• Snagless: Yes
• Price: $2.00/10 foot
• Purchase Link

• Monoprice Reinforced Slimrun
• Flexibility: Very good flexibility
• Specs: Cat 6 30 AWG
• Comment: Tricky to unlatch - tip away from latch
• Features: Yellow connector head spring reinforce
• Length: 10 5 1 foot
• Color: Black
• Snagless: Yes
• Price: $4.09/10 foot
• Purchase Link

• YFC Monoprice Slimrun
• Flexibility: pretty good flexibility.
• Specs: Cat 6A 30 AWG
• Comment:
• Features:
• Length: 3 foot
• Color: Blue
• Snagless: Yes
• Price: $3.00/10 foot
• Purchase Link

• Monoprice Slimrun
• Flexibility: Ok flexibility
• Specs: Cat 6A 30 AWG
• Comment: Better than Raplink but larger than best
• Features:
• Length: 2 foot
• Color: Multi colors
• Snagless: Yes
• Price: $3.00/10 foot
• Purchase Link

• Monoprice Slimrun
• Flexibility: Pretty good but larger than YFC cable
• Specs: Cat 6A 30 AWG
• Comment:
• Features: Maybe came from Home Telecom
• Length: 3 foot
• Color: black
• Snagless: Yes
• Price: Unknown
• Purchase Link

• Rapilink Slim
• Flexibility: not very flexible
• Specs: Cat 6A 30 AWG
• Comment:
• Features: Ordered 24
• Length: 1 foot
• Color: blue
• Snagless: Yes
• Price: $2.40/10 foot
• Purchase Link

iPhone 16 Pro Max and UniFi U7 Pro WiFi Roaming

Thu Dec 12 16:44:52 EST 2024

iPhone 16 Pro Max was not roaming though the house between UniFi access points. Turns out the VPN configurations needed to be deleted from the phone and re-installed. Perhaps the issue arose when the previous phone was replaced with the iPhone 16 and the configurations were transferred. Whatever the reason, deleting the configurations cured the roaming problem.

The Truth about Trump Tariffs

Wed Nov 27 17:40:37 EST 2024

Here is an excellent video discussing the truth about Trump's Tariff plans. Its a long video but its important to watch.

Suddenly is it clear that Trump wants to reduce income tax for his billionare buddies and still fund the federal government. Tariffs are a source of money for the government but not a tax on his buddies. Tariffs are a tax that is paid by all consumers as an increase in prices.

The Federal government was funded by money from tariffs in the early days of the United States. Watch the above video and pay attention to the details. An economic depression reduced the amount of imports and hence reduced the money for operating the Federal government. An alternate source of income for the government was needed so the income tax was born. The side benefit of the income tax was that the robber barrons of industry who previously only paid increased consumer prices though tariffs now had to pay taxes directly to the government based on their income. This was the a more equitable assesment of the citizens. Rich people paid more to the government than the less rich people. Trump has found a way to reduce the taxes on his buddies and still fund the government. All consumers will pay the cost of tariffs essentially equally. Basically a tariff is a sales tax. Rich and not so rich people will pay the same tax.