First the layout. My garage is setup similar to this one, although mine is attached, has three light fixtures, and my driveway is 4 cars wide.
The wife wants me to replace the three basic on / off fixtures that we have (they’re getting rusty) and keep them all matching. If I’m going to do this I want to add a camera to the setup.
Functionally I’d like the lights to have or work like they have dual bright capability where they come on full bright at sunset then after a couple of hours they dim down unless they detect motion. If they detect motion then they come back to full bright for a period of time then dim back down again. They do this for a set period of hours, say 4, then they turn off completely unless they detect motion.
My current lights are already automated for on / off (but not dimming or motion) through the use of HA and a z-wave switch.
Where I’m getting stuck is that I can see at least three ways to do this but none of them are perfect.
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Replace my dumb carriage fixtures with new dumb fixtures then change the switch to a dimming version plus add a motion sensor and camera out front. Then setup HA for the functionality I want. The upside of doing it this way is that it’s very easy to get matching fixtures. The downside is that the motion sensor and camera will not be well integrated visually.
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Replace my dumb fixtures with ones that have dual bright built in. It’s easy to do, and I could even keep the HA Automation I have setup now, but again the camera setup is not going to integrate well visually. I’m also concerned that three motion sensors controlling three lights will cause trouble for the camera (or each other) because they will react to different things and turn themselves on and off independently.
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Replace my dumb fixtures with smarter ones. In the center position I’d use one that has an integrated motion sensor and camera. This Reolink seems like it would work pretty well. However RL doesn’t make any fixtures that match it, which means my center fixture would look different than the other two.
I may just have to deal with mismatched fixtures but does anyone have any suggestions? Am I missing an option?
I’ve heard that the Hue bulbs lose some functionality or control when you transition them over to Zigbee. Can you comment on that?
I’m currently all Z-Wave and I’d prefer to keep it that way. There’s nothing wrong with Zigbee I just settled on Z-Wave in the beginning and it’s my opinion that the simpler the setup the more reliable it will be; that’s why whatever camera(s) I end up with will be PoE. Less protocols, less interfaces, less problems. :)
Reolink’s integration with HA and willingness to play nice with Local NVRs is precisely why they are the top of my list for cameras so I’m glad to hear that you’ve had good luck with them!
To be honest, I don’t do anything super special with my Hue bulbs but after adjusting the transition period, I can barely notice any difference, except that they respond more quickly and consistently on Zigbee2MQTT. Anything in particular you’re curious about?