This is “reference” post for anybody else that happens to have this same very specific problem.

I was looking for a way to incorporate some of the many cheap / industrial grade sensors from AliExpress with Home Assistant. Long story short: almost everything electronic in the industrial space uses Modbus to communicate, typically with a PLC. While Home Assistant does have support for the Modbus protocol, but wanted to use a PLC that could manage the sensors directly and expose the values over the network in a more standard format; MQTT.

The APC AP7900 is a 1U single phase PDU with 8 switchable outlets and a network interface. It’s been EoL’d and can be had for less than 20% of it’s original price on eBay. The network interface is so underpowered tha it can’t support any modern cryptographic ciphers.

So with that, here’s a revised copy of my notes from the process of getting the device reset, updated and monitored.

This is part rant, part “reference” for anybody else that’s struggling to get their Amcrest IP Camera to work with Home Assistant via ONVIF. Skip to TL;DR for a working Home Assistant config.

Briefly, ONVIF is an industry group that maintains a set of standards to allow for interoperability between IP Cameras and related devices from multiple vendors. One set of protocols so your cameras from $vendorA will work with with the recording/analytics software from $vendorB which can then pipe events into software from $vendorC. How ONVIF works and how it’s implemented are beyond the scope of this rant, but, like most standards that haven’t aged well, SOAP is involved. 🤮.

Tasmota is an incredibly powerful alternative/open source firmware for the ever popular Espressif family of WiFi equipped microcontrollers. This does not need to be another post espousing it’s many awesome qualities, so just trust me on this; Tasmota is AWESOME.

Tasmota supports user configurable rules which are simple commands wired into various device triggers. In short; a device running Tasmota gains some autonomy to react to events without needing to report the event to, and wait for commands from, a remote server.

The HASwitchPlate project by aderusha is brilliant. He’s managed to arrange some relatively cheap commodity hardware into a package that conveniently fits into a prime location for interacting with Home Automation - the light switch. The entire package sips power off of the already present mains wiring and connects to any MQTT broker via the esp8266 chip. As the HASP was designed to be used with Home Assistant, the humble 2.4 inch LCD transforms into an accessible control surface for an incredibly powerful home automation platform!