openhab-addons VS syncthing-android

I used open hab https://www.openhab.org/ for a while and really liked it but had trouble getting it to work with the ZigBee USB stick I bought. So I switched to home assistant and have been on that for a couple years now. Both are solid. I like HA a lot but the one down side for me is I have to pay the 5 bucks a month or whatever it is for the cloud access to control things when I'm not home. Openhab has instructions to set up your own server for remote access.

openHAB (version 3.6.0): Vendor and technology agnostic open source home automation

Here's what I did at my house. I don't control based on dew point and I only have one HVAC unit, but you could pull this off with openHAB and Venstar thermostats. Venstar was the only brand I was able to find with a local API to control the thermostat. You can set up rules in openHAB to perform what you'd like. The rule engine is powerful and flexible. I'm not gonna lie. It's probably going to be a lot of heavy lifting to get it going but it's rewarding once you've set it up.

OpenHAB (like Home Assistant; open source, need to run on own hardware)

openHAB Beta (version 3.3.2-beta): Vendor and technology agnostic open source home automation

While I don't care about the whole carbon boogeyman spectacle I do care about minimising our environmental impact as well as dependency on, well, as many external things as I can. One of those things is electrical power so I put about 14.5 kW worth of solar panels on a barn roof, connected to a 10kW hybrid inverter [2]. Since I don't like external dependencies I do not use the supplier's "cloud-based" management feature (*Fronius Solar Web* for those who care about such details) and disallow the thing access to the 'net. Instead I made my own system based around OpenHAB [1], a bunch of ESP8266 microcontrollers hooked up to things like the utility power meter (which has a handy P1/HAN port just for that purpose), a heat pump, a water heater, a small heater in the feed storage etc. The thing gets hourly electricity prices for today and tomorrow and creates a schedule to enable/disable devices based on demand, price and energy production from the inverter. Once I had everything set up it has worked fine without the need for intervention. This does not yet include the washing machine and dishwasher since these devices do not offer an easily automatised interface and because scheduling their use also depends on what we put in them and when we want them to clean those things. I just check the graphs to decide when to switch them on which works fine, no need for more automation.

Our electricity rates - both use as well as returns for power we deliver to the net - vary by the hour. Using the interface to the utility meter and the inverter I get readings every 10 seconds, the inverter also tells me the net frequency so it is easy to see whether the net is overloaded (frequency clearly below 50 Hz) or oversupplied (clearly above 50 Hz).

[1] ...but I have not yet connected a battery since a) we can sell overproduction and b) batteries are still too expensive. I expect battery prices to go down once enough used electric car batteries enter the market.

[2] https://www.openhab.org/

Openhab3 (Smarthome)

I've got another one on topic of self-hosted file sharing:

- FileBrowser running in Docker (https://filebrowser.org/features)

- Syncthing running in another container (https://syncthing.net/)

Syncthing keeps the files on your PC, Mac, BSD systems updated, and FileBrowser can point to the share and supply a convenient web UI. It works for me, it's kind of like a local Dropbox-lite.

We use syncthing to share files between our machines. It avoids is having to use dropbox / OneDrive etc. You just choose a folder and it automatically syncs it in the background.

https://syncthing.net/

This very hn entries is bust contradicting your statement.

Also what about syncthing[1] (for recurrent/permanent sync) and croc[2] (for one time copies) ?

I have used both for a number of years already.

[1] https://syncthing.net/

[2] https://github.com/schollz/croc

I would use syncthing, which is open source at https://syncthing.net/.

After minimal setup, it just works(tm).

You have a normal directory in your filesystem, that is synced to the other peers (which you set up in the "minimal setup").

I have been using it for years, and it works well. It has no problems crossing os'es (i.e. windows -> linux, linux -> mac)

For windows I usually recommend https://github.com/canton7/SyncTrayzor, but vanilla syncthing works fine too (but don't try to mix them!)

Do consider Syncthing particularly if you are using Android. If using apple iOS you'd need the möbius sync client.

https://syncthing.net/

https://www.mobiussync.com/

One thing that it beats the cloud / centralized sync on is because the connection is direct between devices when the initial transfer is completed the file is completely there on the other device. With a cloud type of sync you do the transfer twice. I've seen stack up on large media or with the structure of cloud services pricing making it expensive depending on how your workflow is setup with inside and outside parties. For example, Dropbox deduction from all parties' storage limits not just the sharer.

You can also point Syncthing at a local sync of Dropbox or Google drive and then forward the files to other recipients from that for some purposes.

I think sync is a non-feature, as you can just ride on your existing solution.

For example, I use syncthing [1] with Obsidian to sync files off-cloud.

https://syncthing.net/

When I was 14 and just getting started, I used Notepad. Upgraded to Wordpad when I realized I loved putting italics in every other sentence, moved to Google Docs at around 25 when I started writing on my phone and wanted to sync with my computer, finally moved to Obsidian a few months ago (with Syncthing for syncing) when I decided I don't want to live in Google's house where they can burn my stuff down whenever they want.