Homey Pro (Early 2023) - Powering - PoE - Powerbank etc

[Dijker]

As it was getting offtopig in the - The new Homey Pro — Ask Me Anything
I moved it as it is an interesting discussion:
How can I power the Homey Pro (Early 2023) on an alternate way?
fe using a PoE solution, Powerbank, UPS, etc.

Discussion from above is moved here!

This one is different from other topics as Homey Pro (Early 2023) has an Ethernet adapter, and USB-C connector. Maybe even other Power Requirements:

Homey powerbank or UPS

Hi All, I’m starting to use Homey as a alarm system as well. Within my fuse box I have a UPS powering the router, accesspoint, etc. Homey is the central hub for all devices and I want it to keep working in case of a power failure as well. All alarm nodes are mainly battery powered anyway. My idea is to buy a powerbank and have it always plugged in. The powerbank output will then be connected to homey… and instant cheap UPS function would be added. But will that work? Are there any requirement…

UPS for homey and router

Hi, I currently have no UPS or similar things setup for my Homey and Wifi Router. Since Homey is responsible for runing flows which helps in the case of emergency (Adjust lights, turn on siren etc.) it seems dumb to not implement redundancy incase of power outages. What setups are common to use? Are there any Gotchya’s I need to watch out for when considering buying a UPS? Is there a different more prefered approach I should consider? I assumed this to be a common use case but the “Your to…

Using Homey in a motorhome

Homey uses 2 Watt with LED ring off up to ~5 Watt, with the default LED ring at 100% Maybe somewhat more when sending and on heavy load. You could use a USB powerbank as el cheapo UPS, if that powerbank does not cut the power when switching between loading and not. Be warned these are often not made for continue loading and defective batteries can catch fire.

[fsw]

Just buy a passive USB splitter… %product-title% kopen ? Conrad Electronic

You can also buy a passive splitter with a normal 12v device connector. Add a little powerbank to the mix, connect homey to the powerbank, powerbank to the passive poe splitter and you have a mini APC keeping homey alive, powerd by POE. splitter is like 12 euros and a dumb little powerbank from ali about the same

[Anders_Gregow]

Not all powerbanks can charge itself and give power to connected unit (here Homey) simultaniously.

[fsw]

Thats correct, heres a good article on pass-through charging: Can a power bank charge and discharge simultaneously?

[Caseda]

This article is missing 1 important part too, most power banks are not a UPS (uninterruptible power supply), they will take several milleseconds up to a second to switch from pass through to battery mode (some even don’t do that at all), which is enough for Homey to still reboot.

[matrover]

###See next comment###

For POE i use this POE splitter https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B09GM8FB3X
With an Usb c female to female adapter, works great

[matrover]

Replying to myself here, the value’s in https://tools.developer.homey.app/tools/system showed false for value videoCoreUnderVoltageCurrently with the above method. But i still tried with the unifi poe adapter PoE Adapter for Protect WiFi Cameras – Ubiquiti Store Europe
which shows better grahps (unifi plugged in at 13:13):

The videoCoreUnderVoltageCurrently isnt a permanent value but it can alternate i learned.
so i would recommend getting the unifi one.

[Joka]

With the assumption that the Unify adapter is connected directly to Homey, the cable mess should be greatly reduced! Would be a much nicer hardware setup at a more expensive price. Do you have a photo?

[Peter_Kawa]

@Joka

the cable mess should be greatly reduced!

In what way do you mean this, while for the standard ethernet adapter the long cable runs to Homey and the short one to the power supply, so the mess can be hidden.

[matrover]

@Joka Picture (not the actual placement):

Its not that more expensive even. de Unifi webshop shows 64€ but they include a cable for that price, if you add it to the cart, you can remove the cable leaving 46€. And just use the included usb-c cable.

As there is no need for the Homey Ethernet adaptor (30€) and no POE adaptor (14€) its only a 2€ difference and indeed much cleaner.

[Joka]

@Peter_Kawa, may be it is just me, but I don’t like hidden mess

[Adrian_Rockall]

I started using the Unifi PoE adapter yesterday and my Homey 2023 feels so much faster. No voltage dropouts reported since then. Also much neater, so I would definitely recommend it.

[Joka]

Just to be sure, with the Unify adapter the LAN connection of Homey is also used?
I.e. both Ethernet adapters Athom/Unify are standardised?

[Adrian_Rockall]

Yes, Homey works over Ethernet with the Unifi adapter. Obviously you need either a PoE power supply or the lan cable needs to be connected to a PoE switch.

[Edwin_Biemond]

but over 60 euros. oh man.

will wait for the google one, used the old chromecast ultra one which also works but got ethernet issues after a hour and had to use a micro to usb-c adapter.

[Peter_Kawa]

Pls read again, Edwin it’s a lot cheaper

@matrover

de Unifi webshop shows 64€ but they include a cable for that price, if you add it to the cart, you can remove the cable leaving 46€. And just use the included usb-c cable.

As there is no need for the Homey Ethernet adaptor (30€) and no POE adaptor (14€) its only a 2€ difference and indeed much cleaner.

But indeed, the google version, Athom ‘approved’, is a lot less expensive, around E25,-

[Edwin_Biemond]

thanks , great advice for new users but I got already the homey ethernet adapter.

also thinking how well google ethernet adapters are tested. it also worked for me for a hour and after that homey was doing fine but no lan. ( did not define wifi) but chromecast ultra ethernet/power adapter is a few years old

[Edwin_Biemond]

also unifi requires the right POE switch ( at that particular spot , I have unify 10gb switch with no POE , all other spots I have ) and no need for power socket.

google 1 just need ethernet plus a power socket.

[Robin_Lunden]

But does the cheap version work? It arena the UniFi version is sold out.

[matrover]

Well it does work, but it gives the videoCoreUnderVoltageCurrently true from time to time (mostly under load), so i wouldn’t recommend it.