Home Assistant

[Sonnie]

Home Assistant

Open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server.

www.home-assistant.io

This probably doesn't need much of an introduction, although it is something I've never researched and am now thinking about trying it out. It certainly seems to be very popular.

@Travis Ballstadt ... you have it, so please feel free to chime in. Not having researched it very much... perhaps you have some links, tutorials you are aware of, etc, etc, that you might can share with us.

Is the $99 Home Assistant Green what most people purchase to get started with it?

I have the Lutron Caseta Pro Bridge, which I have not connected yet.

I've also ordered the Allonis Pi server for their Smart Remote with myServer 6 installed on the Pi. Just had to give it a swing (planning on comparing AVA Cinema, C4 Halo Touch, and the Allois Smart Remote).

Those are three boxes to connect to my Internet switch... can I eliminate any of them?

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

The Home Assistant Green is what I have. I believe the Yellow adds a bluetooth module built-in, vs having to add it to the green. I BELIEVE, don't quote me on that. There's some wireless tech that is not included with the green.

Home Assistant is very powerful. I have not learned or needed well over half of the functionality. Even the "Home Assistant Basics" videos I watched were a lot of stuff I didn't need. The ACTUAL basics are pretty simple. I'm planning another video where I walk through this process and then how I integrated those into the Remote Two as the front end, but here's a quick rundown.

Install Home Assistant.
Go to Settings > Devices & Services > Integrations.
Add all your devices.
If there are devices not listed, research and install HACS, which is basically a plug-in that adds access to a whole marketplace of user-generated integrations.

Up to this point should take you about an hour.

Once you have all the integrations configured, build scenes (Settings > Automations & Scenes > Scenes).
My scenes are basically lighting - Theater Welcome, Theater Intermission, Theater Playback.

• You can add any and all devices to a scene and specify their exact settings:
  • Theater Playback and Intermission may include your new blinds, at a fully closed setting, but you may still want them open for Theater Welcome.
  • Theater scenes could also activate motion sensors outside or adjust the HVAC settings through the rest of the house.
  • Maybe you have a Good Morning scene that has all blinds set to open, lights off except at your coffee brewing station, etc.
• Once you have a good set of scenes, now you create Automations:
  • What are the triggers you want to control the scenes?
  • I personally think it's much smarter to use triggers for scenes, vs adding a ton of devices to a macro or an activity to dim lights, close shades, etc. all at once.
  • My Kaleidescape/AppleTV and my JVC projector are the primary triggers for my scene automations.
    • When my JVC Projector turns on, it activates the Theater Welcome scene.
    • When my Kaleidescape or Apple TV begin playback, they activate the Theater Playback scene.
    • If I pause the Kaleidescape or Apple TV, they activate the Theater Intermission scene.
    • The Kaleidescape adds the trigger for "End Credits", which triggers the Intermission scene, then when I press Stop or the file ends, it triggers the Theater Welcome scene.
  • By using triggers within Home Assistant, it really simplifies what you're doing with your remote programming, you're really just controlling playback, and the "Media Player Status" information in Home Assistant controls the automation.
  • This is much more reliable, in my opinion. Home Assistant is 2-way communication, so it knows if a light actually turned on or not, and if it didn't, it can send the signal again. With a remote, it sends the signal and doesn't know if it was received or not.

Now, there are sometimes functions, button presses that aren't included in the Home Assistant integration. For any of these, if the device is not in the remote manufacturer's database, I have accentuated the remote control programming by learning IR codes. Only Kaleidescape and my Anthem AVR have required any learning.

Setup in this way, you can use Home Assistant to automate your lighting and smart devices with whatever remote you're using, even the factory remotes, because they're not automating with IR, they're automating by device status.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

Looking through my YouTube history, here are some videos I actually watched start to finish, but I didn't review to see what was most helpful.

 

[Sonnie]

Excellent info Travis... thank you!

I'll order up the Green and dive in.