u/ngoonee

Am right in the middle of planning significant renovations for my recently purchased subsale property (terrace house). It's decades old and I plan to re-do all the wiring, so obviously am considering how much tech/smarts to put in.

Based on r/HomeNetworking (stuff I'm more familiar with) I'm pretty set on ethernet to CCTV locations, every room, extra to the main living area (multiple computers), ceiling AP locations, and a central network closet.

Where I'm less familiar with is smart home things. I've only ever used wifi based stuff (like for turning on/off my split aircon unit remotely). I've been trying to read up on it, first I'll summarize the recommendations I've collated (based on what I expect to be useful to me, for example I don't ever expect to use a smart doorbell in my country), and then I'll list down some clarifying questions I have. Thanks to those who take the time to read/advise.

Recommendations:-

1. Make sure switches have neutral wires
2. Smart blinds
3. Speaker wiring
4. Presence sensing

Questions:-

1. Would neutral wires mean that I can just use normal LED strips/bulbs in the lighting fixtures themselves and all the smarts (whether on/off or dimmer) would happen in the switches? I guess the same would apply to ceiling/wall fans? Are the switches connected to HA by zigbee/matter?
2. I can't really find these wired in my country, the only thing I can find are those wireless motors which manually actuate existing blinds. From reading between the lines it appears this would just involve a single set of wires (not ethernet) to one side of the window? Where's the other end of those wires go to?
3. I've looked at whole-home audio and gotten scared off by scope and cost. Seems more reasonable to have alexa-like devices in certain rooms, and audio quality to be handled by wiring speakers to those devices. What sort of wiring is needed here? I saw mention of 14/4, 12/2, 14/2 but this all assumes a base level of familiarity which I lack. Audio cables for me means quarter inch, 3/8 inch etc.
4. Do all presence sensors just use zigbee/matter or similar? Is there an advantage for providing power points where such sensors should go (normally relatively high up I'd guess), or is POE even an option?

Thanks all, I'm having trouble wrapping my head around all of this.

Oh, and one last thing, I see a lot of recommendations for conduit, so just to say that yes I'm considering some form of conduit, but also that construction standards in my country (brick and concrete for all walls) makes conduit of any decent size much less attractive than in a drywall construction country, and I'm trying to wire once and for all rather than maintain flexibility for future fibre etc.

https://preview.redd.it/xt1zqfpxnqeh1.png?width=1666&format=png&auto=webp&s=e6c201d9e14eaf3ad6bf956532f0b10904e4588c

So this area under the staircase (what I would call the Harry Potter nook) is roughly 3 feet by 3 feet, and the height to the concrete base of the staircase above it is about 4 and half feet. Planning to put my networking equipment here - ISP modem, router, and switch at the very least. Eventually may add compute and/or storage. Also planning for ceiling-mounted APs to handle wifi. Cat6 from everywhere in the house should terminate here.

Changing plans because my previous location (laundry/dryer room) has higher humidity/flooding concerns, based on other advise I've gotten on this sub.

Questions:-

1. Would heat/humidity be an issue? I'm in a hot and humid climate (about 80% humidity year round and 30 degrees Celsius daytime temperatures) - but this location is right in the center of the house and not really exposed to the outdoors in any way (for good or bad).
2. Is the size (9 square feet of floor space with four and a half feet of height) at all a concern? Seems bigger than most of what I've seen here, and I don't plan to put anything else in this space.

From my previous post, I've been convinced that more drops than I expect to use is a good idea for relatively low cost. For context, am doing a major renovation (new structural extension on a subsale property, totally redoing wiring and plumbing) and am planning out the networking side of things.

I'm locating a rack under my staircase (about 4 feet of height available) as the center of operations because it's out of view and the other possible central location is a laundry room where humidity would be an issue. Planned ethernet drops are roughly:- 2 drops per room X 3 bedrooms 1 drop per floor (central AP location, 2 floors, 22x60 feet built up) 4 CCTV drops (two in front, one at back, one on roof) - these would eventually be POE. 4 drops (2 pairs of 2 drops) each to upstairs and downstairs shared living area.

This would run up to 20 drops. I would not use all of them initially, likely only 2 initially (a single AP upstairs and one of the living area drops for a computer). Due to the 2 drops per room being backup, should I just get a 16 port switch and call it a day? What's the advantage of getting one that's larger? Not planning for managed switch initially.

In terms of rack sizing, would 12U be overkill? Initially it would only have a switch and the ISP modem + router (WiFi would be my own AP). Any benefit going directly to 12U over just getting a smaller rack to start with?

I have a Movink 13 which works well... On my laptops (Linux and windows).

It also works on my smartphone (Samsung Galaxy Fold 6) but only if the second USB port provides power from a power adapter. Which is cool and all but defeats the purpose.

I've tried two power banks (one of which supports 22.5W fast charging) and neither can power up the Movink 13. As it's unlikely that the device itself uses that much juice, I suspect it's more a matter of a specific PD standard (perhaps 20V) which is needed by the device, rather than a power requirement.

Questions:-

1. Anyone has a Powerbank they have tested as working to power their Movink 13 (or any other Wacom device)?
2. Where can I have the specific PD spec needed for the Movink 13 to power on?

I have a Fold 6, as well as an S-Pen which works (and a case which holds it).

I just obtained a Wacom Movink 13 (awesome tablet) for work use with my laptop. Am now exploring a more portable setup where I use it with my Fold - this works as long as I provide USB C PD power to one port on the Movink with the other port connected to my Fold. Clunky but cool. Dex shows up automatically and touch and stylus on the Movink just works.

It's missing the Samsung software pen features though (in particular the ability to handwrite text in text input areas). I understand this is an incredibly small niche, but was wondering if there's any way to get the Fold to recognise that the connected device has a Stylus/Pen and activate pen features with it. Anyone has any ideas?

I've searched and recent (last couple of year) posts have generally said:-

1. It's no longer an issue in residential settings
2. Just try to avoid long parallel runs if possible

I'm now planning renovations on an old house - construction in my country is all brick wall (no such thing as dry wall here), thickness of roughly 4+ inches once plastered. As part of the wet works, the contractors will 'file' a shallow indentation for power lines, which are then plastered over. A slightly better solution is to file a slightly deeper indentation and install a plastic raceway for the electrician (generally a separate person from the contractor) to use for power.

Since I'll be doing substantial renovations, I do plan to have ethernet run (copper core) between both floors as well as to a few locations (not crazy enough to do two runs for each room, just to locations I'd wire a media device/PC, wifi will suffice for the rest). The minimum I'm planning is one ethernet run from the router downstairs to an AP upstairs.

Due to the way construction is done here, perpendicular ethernet cabling will increase cost and complexity significantly. Will I be okay just running everything in parallel with my 240V power lines? The highest current things running would be air conditioning, a dryer, maybe electric kettles, and the fridge (typical residential usage).

The nice thing about some of the board game table designs I've seen here and elsewhere is convertibility, where the recessed area can normally be covered up to allow use, for example, as a dining table.

However I've yet to come across a board game table design which would work in an office or work-from-home setting, where it would be board game friendly (at least a large flat plane, better yet with some conveniences for dice and cards and the like) but easily used for, perhaps, a couple to place their laptops, have external monitors/keyboards/mice for efficient office work, and for kids to place textbooks and workbooks.

One more troublesome option is for the technology to be fully mobile, like carrying the monitors over from another storage area. Wiring would be an issue (easy trip hazard on multiple cables), and the extra time spent would just get annoying.

Another thing I've seen are fold away desktops where the monitor is mounted directly on the underside of the table top, and hinges allow it to be raised or lowered as needed. This seems to closest to multi functionality for office and board games, but the tables I see are all office sized and not really suitable for most euros.

Anyone came across tables or designs which sound suitable?