Video

It’s lithium Ion batteries. They last longer, are more suited for backup and drainage and have their own battery management systems built in. I will not recommend lead acid or gel batteries for UPS or power backup, you’d have to replace them every year.

Hi Vaughan. Home assistant used what is called sensors. It's data generated by the code of the device or API which can then be used for measurement, triggers, validation, etc. Unfortunately, the Sonoff Micro will only provide an on/off sensor. It is merely a relay with a wifi chip and microcontroller controlled by the Sonoff app. I am not sure about Android, but the Apple integration for your phone or tablet gives you an array of sensors, including battery status and whether it is charging or not. You could use those sensors to trigger a routine that controls the on/off state of the Sonoff Micro instead. I would suggest using your phone's sensors for this purpose. Hope this helps. If we look at the second part of your post, the Lifepo4 drop-in replacements come with their own built-in BMS (Battery Management System) to compensate for the difference between the two types of batteries but do become problematic since you have two BMS components working against each other when the UPS dies. The UPS BMS needs power to read the battery status, but the current drawn to do so will keep the LifePo4 BMS relay open to protect the battery, which then requires a cold start (removing and reconnecting the battery terminals). I generally just add an external switch to the UPS to simulate that, which also happens to be the topic of my next video when I get time to film it. I would really caution against using an inline UPS over a DC UPS. The assumption is that they should have more backup time because they have a bigger battery, but that is not the case. I have a 2000va inline with two 7ah 12v batteries, which cost about R4k and only provide about 4hrs backup. I have a little 12 000mah DC ups running on top of that one which gives me another 7 hrs backup on my router at only R795. The DC UPS is smaller than an inline UPS and at this price cheaper than a replacement LifePO4 battery for your inline UPS. I have two of them, one on my ONT (Fibre), and one on my ISP router. This is just my view and experience, but I hope it helps you to make a decision on what will work for you.

Hi. These lightbulbs connect directly to wifi and are controlled via the Smart Life app. It only works with Google, Alexa and Home assistant. Smartthings integration is available but not working properly and there's no support for apple homekit. If you are looking for apple homekit integration at a budget then the two options would be Meross and Aqara, but Aqara doesn't have lightbulbs available in SA, so I would suggest Meross. www.geewiz.co.za/smart-lights/155436-meross-smart-wi-fi-led-9w-bulb-e27-screw-in-alexagooglehomekit-compatible.html?aff=140 Also check out my review on the Meross bulbs: czcams.com/video/Wh8pqbTogIk/video.html

@Without a Wire thanks for your response. But are there not xiomi smart bulbs that could work with Aqara ? Also so what you saying is , I'll only be able to utilize the normal bulbs by adding aqara light switch to have them in My routines? Could the meerus light bulb you suggested , could that be connected to the aqara hub ? I might just use the aqara app only as it is really good actually , so just thinking about what bulbs I could use for different lighting ? As normal bulbs are fine with the smart switch but yeah your advice in SA is appreciated

It’s called Sonoff micro. The link is in the video description.

Hi and thanks for the support. Apologies for no new content. Studies comes first at this stage. There are quite a lot of sensors out there from brands like Sonoff, Aqara, Switchbot, Tuya, Wyze, Ring and many more. Each company trying to carve out a niche. The question is what do you need it for, what is your expectations and how much are you willing to spend on a solution. The secondary consideration is around your network infrastructure and existing ecosystem and what you'd need to consider before building new or expanding your existing home automation. Please feel free to reach out to me via e-mail on wirelesss.automation@gmail.com. Wireless with 3 x "S".

Qualitel is actually a Tuya base product, like Bneta and Connex which is just rebranded.

It was normal AGM gel batteries. At this size you don’t have a lot of choices. The ones I had is in the video description and available at Geewiz.co.za.

Thanks for your comments and feedback Mc_Allstar. I will definitely add some of those videos to my backlog. The Cats video does have the routine templates included in the video description, so you can copy it and add your own devices on the template once imported to Alexa, but I'll make a video on that too, so it's easier to understand. This is really helpful, thanks.

They work like normal lightbulbs, but the difference is that it has a built in battery. If you used it during load shedding it needs to be charged by leaving it on. Charging period is between 6 to 8 hours, so with the current load shedding schedule you would pretty much have to leave them on so they can charge when the power is on.

Thanks. It looks so clean and neat, even with the hack job I did with the cable ties. I think anyone can do a great job with these Flex LED strips.

Thanks Karien. Really appreciate the feedback.

The two batteries were brand new and charged for 1 cycle at least. No conversions necessary, the batteries are the same spec, you simply replace the original battery with the Li-ion one.

@@withoutawire224 Awesome. Thanks for the videos and thanks for the quick response 🙏🏽

@@withoutawire224 Hi. How much watt did you load on the UPS

@@justinkarsten6947 it was roughly 240watt, which is half the capacity for that UPS at 650va/480watt. The experiment though was to see the difference in the battery performance with the same load. At full capacity it provides backup for just under 2hours.

@@withoutawire224 thank you very much. Would i be able to run a TV not more than 100w for 3 hours on the blue nova lithium battery?

Thanks Clint. I really appreciate the comment and the fact that you learn from and enjoy these videos.