What Is Home Assistant?
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- Home Assistant now has Alexa and Google Home support but at what cost? There's something they're not telling you.
What is Home Assistant? Home Assistant is a beautiful way to take control of your Smart Home "cloud free" thanks to it's LoveLace dashboard and local control options, and the Raspberry Pi Home Assistant setup has never been easier. This video is both a setup guide to Home Assistant on the Raspberry Pi, and a Home Assistant demo / review to tell you in advance everything you should know before you spend hours of your life on it.
This is Paul Hibbert's Home Assistant Setup Guide for the Raspberry Pi, and all the reasons you might not want to bother.
Massive thanks to Dr Zzs for giving up his valuable time to help me out with this video, he's brilliantly funny, and a proper nice guy to boot. Home Assistant is genuinely awesome fun, and Dr Zzs videos will help you do practically anything with it. Please check him out here: / drzzs
If you're interested in Hubitat you can check them out here. I have no affiliation with them whatsoever, they're just awesome guys who made an awesome device:
hubitat.com/pr...
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If you like watching me hump the air, then first off, see someone, you have problems. second of all I have a Tshirt for you 🤣 teespring.com/ooh-the-zigbee?pid=794&cid=103544 Home Assistant is also available for Windows so you can fiddle around with it before investing in a Pi too, so if you have a morning or afternoon free then it's wicked fun and I highly recommend giving it a go :) Finally and most importantly check out the amazing Dr Zz's, he;s an absolutely awesome dude: ruclips.net/user/drzzs
Nice!
I will help you to setup and like Home Assistant :) contact me, I'll tell you everything you need to know, just say "teach me" :) You don't need any money for HA :P
Paul...
The reason you had problems with finding the configuration file is because you didn't take it step by step.
You kind of sat in the car and expected the car to drive without starting the engine.
There are loads of beginner videos of what to do when you install HA. And they all list samba share.
About the broadlink. It will probably work once you set it up in the configuration.
It will not be easy, I'm not going to lie.
But you will get there.
But you are very wrong on one part.
The hue part is different. It's not the same as it was.
You are not in the cloud with hue.
You did not set up your account details did you? How did it connect to your account then?
No. You have local control of the hue bridge. I'm sure of it.i have the gen 1 bridge and it does not work in the cloud but HA can control it.
@@TheHellis I agree with what you say
HA might be better to install a few addons automatically for new set-ups
@@rrrrrrrr290 there should be a question in the setup process.
- Do you want to install the bald Britt bundle?
And that includes configurator and samba.
All jokes aside, maybe that could be something. A newbie install bundle enough to get them through the first guides they visit.
Hi. Home Assistant developer here (one of hundreds). Great summary!
We're hoping to fix several of the things you mention very soon . As you noted, Home Assistant is currently in a transition phase of sorts between _everything_ being configured via the configuration.yaml file and the easier way. That's why guides are sometimes outdated.
The thing with voice assistants like Alexa and Google Home is that they require secret developer keys that identify the software - and that's tricky to keep secret in a 100% open source project like Home Assistant. The alternative is that the user requests a personal developer key from Amazon or Google and use that, which is messy... That's why the cloud connection exists, as a middle man to handle those things and keep the key secret. But running those servers cost money that doesn't come from ads... Unfortunate, but there you have it. You also get easy-to-use fully encrypted access to your Home Assistant from anywhere with internet access for those $5, btw, even if your ISP doesn't even give you a public IP.
Dude, thanks so much for the comment. Also, thank you so much for home assistant! It's a beast. I will be watching with interest to see how it develops. As soon as there is native Broadlink support you've GOT to let me know. I'd love to do a "revisit" video and show some of the improvements. If you guys can find a way to get Alexa working for free natively using emulation similar to tasmota then that would be a major step change too. Thanks again my friend. 😊
They are not "sometimes" outdated, the various guides and instructions have always been outdated.
Thanks Thomas for all your work. Its simply incredible.
Home assistant gives me time for thinkering my own idees and has greit community. much thanks to all developers who makes it possible to keep fokus on gadgets we want and not the complete system to make it work, best regards from sweden
@@paulhibbert There is native broadlink support for IR, not sure about RF... the documentation is not there but its really easy to grab the IR codes and then use it in automations, i can make a guide if you intrested
Every now and then I come back to this video just for the initial “Home assistant! Home Assistant! Home Assistant!!!!!!” part! 😂
Being a relative oldie (76) and not having an IT background, I really struggled when I first downloaded HA. The secret to getting up and running was to find RUclips presenters, doing HA videos, who targeted folk who had minimal IT knowledge. I found three who were particularly helpful for beginners - they were Average Automation, JuanMTech and Pinkywafer. Also make sure you add the configuration checker add on, this, if used properly, stops HA from crashing during an update, nothing more frustrating than this.
Thanks, great steer. My first view was a video extolling the virtues of HA yellow that gave me no clue as to what it could do ;)
I'm a Home Assistant fan, and I confirm that what you said is totally fair and true ! 👍 Nice video as always!
As a replacement for IFTTT, I woudl say Home Assistant is too complex. I am saying this as someone who is still using it and has done for a few years.
If you want to go into deep, complex automations and have the time to fiddle, Home Assistant wil ldo anything you can throw at it.
@@EsotericArctos but you don't need to do all the complex stuff.
But unlike IFTTT there are complex things you can do, so you are drawn in to it.
@@TheHellis I use Home Assistant and have done since version 0.4 I wouldnt want to teach someone who uses IFTTT how to get a Broadlink Pro working in HA. Too much headache and chance of it breaking with an update.
If someone has been happy with IFTTT and not needed more, they might be just as happy with SmartThings or Hubitat, rather than Home Assistant. SmartThings and Hubitat have the Zigbee and Zwave already built in.
IFTTT is cloud based, so being cloud based wouldn't be a deal breaker as an IFTTT replacement.
TBF this guy didn't know how to access files on the raspberry pi via SSH. I salute the curiosity and the search for more privacy but, he doesn't seem to have a grasp at self hosting. If he had started with home assistant and made purchasing decisions based on the platform, many of his complaints wouldn't be as valid.
He has seems to be stuck in the 'convenience' vs 'privacy' paradigm.
@@neverbetter5434 this guy didn't know how to use SSH, thats fine, not everyone should know that, BUT: Home Assistant has perfect Web Editor, so you simply don't need all that hassle, you can edit everything in place straight from HA GUI
Enjoyed the video Paul. £8.99 for Netflix in UK, Nabu Cassa (Alexa/Google Home integration) works out at £4.05. Maintains the servers and you're giving a small bit back to support the small handful of employees. One of the many great benefits with Home Assistant for me was getting rid of my slow Xiaomi Hub and Philips Hue, as HA connects to devices directly.
I was thinking "What would Paul think" when I was watching Dr ZZs' video. Here is the answer. Thanks mate. 👍
Thanks Paul, this is the kind of information that I subscribe to your channel for. I'm a semi-retired IT contractor and I have both the skills and the time ... *_This is definitely NOT what I want to spend my time on._* I like fishing a lot better than banging my head against the wall trying to make ephemeral experimental gadgetware work. Yes, this is both ephemeral and experimental, that much is made quite clear by the outdated and useless information on the internet regarding how to do something with it. I could do this, I could make it work, I like fishing more than doing this kind of thing, in fact I like root canals and eye surgery more than this kind of thing too -- So you saved me a trip down the rabbit hole and I appreciate that. Thanks again.
I’m a hacker and love playing with Home Assistant and hacking away at home automation. Loads of great fun. I’m also an Apple user and found the HomeKit integration with Home Assistant excellent. Just turn it on and add your HA devices into the Home app on your phone and then you are ready to tell Siri to control your lights. The setup procedure is almost identical to setting up something like an IKEA Zigbee hub for example. HomeKit really is a home run for integration with your automation and it’s so simple to enable on supported software and/or supported home hubs. A big win if you are an Apple user. Way far easier than setting up google and she shall who not be named skills and abilities. Thanks for the great video.
Great video Paul, I have been using Home Assistant for around a year, it is fantastic but I 100% agree with you, it is not for the faint hearted. You have to be prepared to invest the time but it is so worth it if you can. I migrated from Wink because I saw the writing on the wall and had quite the journey getting my setup to where it is today. It can be really tough getting devices to work, for instance my Schlage Z-Wave Plus front door lock. Thankfully the community as you mentioned is brilliant and I got the help I needed and it has worked flawlessly. I now have multiple Z-Wave devices and around 40 Zigbee devices incl lights, plug sockets, door sensors & motion sensors. The automation within Home Assistant has improved but boy once you discover Node Red it is a whole new ball game.
Keep up the great work, I always enjoy your videos
Greetings from an "Expat" in Canada !
If I jumped through the hoops you had to, I'd be dead frustrated too. Luckily it was far simpler for me:
Menu > Supervisor > Add-On Store > File Editor
Once Installed, make sure Show in Sidebar is enabled.
Then it's as simple as Menu > File Editor
Now that's out the way, I don't have the Broadlink RM Pro set up with it, and also no Google Assistant yet. I disagree with the fee for cloud commands so I will be going down the longer but free/less expensive option of getting this working and will report back once that's done.
Thank you and keep up the great work. Long time subscriber and avid viewer of your vids 👍🏾
This video hits the nail on the head with respect to Home Assistant. I went through the exact same experience about six months ago. I have broadlink too, could not configure it easily so I gave up . Also spotted the issue with connecting to Google Home. Sold my raspberry pi a few weeks later. Home assistant is nice, but you need a lot of time to get it up and running. If you have that time, go for it. If not, steer clear.
The learning curve can be a bit steep for devices that are not supported in the GUI yet. But after about 2 weeks of learning things, doing anything in the code now takes about 10 minutes
@@BuzStringer My brain is logic but not for coding. So looks like I won't be getting this now. Just don't do or get coding.
@@hometechUK I started to learn the basics of coding Python and Java for a project a while ago. HA is not really like coding, it's much simpler. You can think of it as just adding a list of settings (with some formatting). After you add a device once, you can configure it and set up automations from the GUI. And devices that can't be added via GUI yet, will be available soon.
I got a broadlink last week and also was missing how to do this, took me some times but I now have figured it out, it is actually extremly easy, can learn codes in homeassistant and easily use them.
most of the commuinity are stuck in yaml and dont use the ui so dont have the best advice for us newbies coming, feel like there is big room for youtube tutorials on these topics, have my hue dummer switches doing multiple things,
main Light on off
Fan on off - Hold does on and set timer and turn of the fan light
Tv on if off and if on then pause
Led behind bed on off
I just got my Pi today and went about setting up home assistant. Honestly, as someone who has no coding experience whatsoever I found it quite easy to get things going. So far I've setup some automations and I've added home assistant to my Apple Homekit which was a major thing for me to have. I'm currently in the process of setting up circadian based lighting functionality for my lights.
Did I need a 70 euro Pi4 for this? No, I probably could've spent 30~40 euros and had the same experience. Did I talk myself into it by saying I will be learning new skills and creating new projects? Definitely! Most home users will probably go with an iPad or Apple TV as their hub device instead and have Apple handle everything with an intuitive interface. I have absolutely zero need for an Apple TV or an iPad so the Pi made more sense to me, especially since you have so much freedom with this kit. So far all my Tradfri devices are working perfectly and I have yet to test out if my zoning rules are working.
I feel like that's how you should be looking at home assistant right now, just a nifty project which allows you to do more with your smart home devices. Did it change much from what I previously had going? No not really. I had some scenes setup with specific light intensities/color temp which would trigger at set intervals based on the sunset. Home assistant just made those transitions smoother/less jarring and not rely on my phone being on/at home. Same goes for turning off the lights or turning them on when I leave/come into the specified zone, that's just me being ultra lazy. For the amount of money I spent on the Tradfri + Pi I could've just as well bought myself a Hue system which does all of that by itself. Then again, after seeing how Philips discontinued support for the old bridge that's just something I'm not willing to risk a few years down the line again. I want to be in control of my devices and run them locally.
Long time viewer, first time commenter. Love your work (not to mention Dr Zzz's - love his too) - and as a Home Assistant user, couldn't agree more at the time this sucks from your life - especially in the early days.
The only thing I would add though, apart from the awesome and mobile interface to HA, is that the whole idea appears to be to do automations rather than just voice control. And whilst you can use IFTTT and all of the native apps (Hue, LIFX, Tuya etc etc) to set up automations it's much much easier in HA to automate cross-platform, and everything in one place. But yeah, that takes time.... Great video
Thanks dude. I think that's been my conclusion too. It's a brilliant IFTTT replacement with A LOT more power. I will undoubtedly keep tinkering with it over time.
@@paulhibbert I get the feeling there exists three broad categories of home automation users, rather than two.
There are the "nerds" they can program, or at least learn the arcane commands to get things working.
There are the, let's call them "consumers." Happy to pay for someone else to have done the creation, and follow templates for local config
But there exists also an "indeterminate" home automater. They can't or won't afford the ridiculously overpriced consumer gear (especially when you know how simple it can be) but they can't necessarily program, or hack firmware etc.
HA has visions of reaching the consumer, but of necessity is built by the nerd. And does a bang up job of reaching Ms/Mr Indeterminate
The challenge I find is my better half is not even a consumer home automater. She'd rather stoke the fire to boil the cauldron, and light the kerosene lamps. And I live in "formerly nerd, indeterminate" land. The combination is fraught with unfinished projects, semi-working automations, and not a little marital tension...
In this HA is like drugs, tempting, amazing highs but ultimately not conducive to sustainable relationships, let alone harmonious ones.
I'm not unique in this, every friend I know on HA has numerous tales to tell of the frustration of their partners turning off a crucial light switch...
I wonder though whether creating the logic of all of the automations you need, then want, then can do is actually the tough part. And the complexity of HA on too of that is actually a) Not that hard and b) actually easier than configuring all of the various templates for various brands 🤔🤷♂️
@@paulhibbert IFTTT on steroids, with automations based on everything from arriving at specific places, at given times or even based on who or how many people is home. It simply does not compare. Especially since it runs locally and does not share your data with the data-aggregators of corporate America .. I mean, they get enough data from my smartphone anyway :D
@@RogerLawrence that was beautifully put, you are a man of intelligence!
Thankfully with the Alexa integration I find it a lot easier to routine things as I'm so used to the platform.
I recently set up some old wiwo sockets which don't connect to their native app anymore using home assistants orvibo integration.
They would not connect for me using the instructions so I had to dabble with my router and YAML file like solving a puzzle, when I finally pinged the sockets through home assistant I got a mean dopamine rush! HA is so addictive.
I bought two more old wiwo sockets off eBay and have encounters a different problem now after changing my router but let me tell you I am game for the challenge again!
I actually laughed out loud at the point you plugged your SD card into your windows PC. In fact still laughing now so I missed the rest of your video. Keep up the good work Paul
Ha! Literally! Me too! 🤣
Right! Good thing he didn't go docker or vm route lol.
The Samba addon really isn't too hard to use, but you do need to know where to look.
You captured my experience perfectly. I find that youtube content on Home Assistant is dated and hurts their community. Any videos that no longer reguire YAML inserts should be replaced. Creators need to use a fresh home assistant Instal so not to leave the noobs behind. Thanks Paul!
Nail on head! 😊
Exactly what i think. I bought i pi. Installed HA. En the i found out that i only showed the Hue lamps and not the remotes. And then i got stuck. Pi in his box now for a couple of months.
There are two ways of looking at things like this, your way is one where content becomes outdated quickly and isn't helpful. equally this could be seen as a positive because the core software is constantly being improved with new features being added on a regular basis. I don't use HA myself I use OpenHAB which is also a home automation software that can run on a Pi. I can't argue over the fact that there is a very steep learning curve, this isn't an End User friendly consumer product. It is worth putting the work into it if you have the time and once you have built up a base knowledge HA or OpenHAB are extremely powerful tools. I personally hadn't touched a Pi before I started and still know very little about the Pi, just what I had to learn to get things working. Although videos can be helpful I would always suggest looking for help on the community forums for whichever software you are using. As a user of OpenHAB I have gotten stuck on multiple occasions and found solution's and asked for help in the OpenHAB community forum. So all I can suggest is keep at it but if you feel it isn't the correct solution for you then there are a host of consumer options that may cost more but are easier for the end user to operate.
@@zuk4wd the remotes show up, you can use there buttons to trigger automations, these can as simple as turning on you lifx light with the hue remote
Douglas A the last time i tryed. It was in February. I had to ad something custom. I might have a try some other time. And start from scratch
I am a big fan of home assistant and your video is spot on!
I run HA because I want my house to work even when there is no internet. And the ability to be fully disconnected from the various 'free' services where I am the product.
Unfortunately, this does require some serious level of tinkering and also ability to deal with frustration getting it all to work. The stuff the people at Tuya and IKEA now do for you.
The monthly fee is not for the faint of heart though. It is partially a donation to support the project and product which' user-friendlyness has massively improved over the last year. But if you only want your voice assistant to work, it is pretty expensive compared to the 'free' alternatives.
ive just been going through setting up HomeAssistant, and totally agree, you need to invest alot of time to get it how you want it ! But its great once you get there !!
one thing of note that wasn't mentioned, you dont _have_ to use a Raspberry Pi, i used an old laptop, so was kinda free, to see if i liked it before i invested any _actual_ money !
(i think most people have had lots of time, but no money recently!!)
i also went down the rabbit hole of Tasmota for my devices too (adding/soldering temp sensors to them to, as i could !)
been LOTS of fun, great learning curve, some people like golf, i like this as a hobbie !
Thanks man, I've added this to the pinned comment. I forgot to mention it works with windows!
Yeah, In fact, they've actually started to move away from pushing Raspberry Pi as the frontrunner, due to how big it can get and how much reading and writing is done can leave you with dead SD cards. Moving from RPi to a virtual machine was so much quicker and moving from there onto an LXC container on to proxmox was even faster. Home Assistant now boots in under a minute and is more reliable than ever.
@@paulhibbert i initially got running on my main PC under windows 10 WSL (windows subsystem for linux) very straight forward, could edit all files etc within windows (so free)...
then re-set it up on its own dedicated old laptop instead once i realised i would keep using it ..
Think you done a great job on the Video again, so hard to cover Home Assistant, as its got SOO many options even on how to install (like Core, supervised etc).. you were never going to cover all bases without getting proper nerdy and boring your viewers !
you did your open and to the point video.. perfectly summed it all i up feel :) and a dedicated rPie, with a dedicated already set up HA SDcard with all add-ons etc available i feel was the best way to introduce it all etc ..
Love home assistant but you're 100% right, if you want to get the most out of it it is a steep learning curve. Unless you're willing to put many many hours into it, stick to the ready made stuff that's available. Saying that once you pick it up it is great but be ready to be forever tinkering with it. Also these days it's much more user friendly than when I first started using it.
Home assistant is heavy stuff, I use it 3 years already, with almost daily updates and breaking changes, difficult to keep alive 100% and honestly I think things get more and more difficult. Sometimes I have to spend hours to find why a little thing is not working and many nice custom cards got deprecated those days.
They have weekly updates, with other updates being bug fixes - and nothing makes you keep up to date every week. To keep alive between updates you just have to read the "Breaking changes" section of the blog updates and adjust your configuration accordingly (normally its mainly just taking out a YAML integration and configure it with UI if you have to do anything). Things are literally getting easier as they are making it more UI based and any custom cards that stop working are because the custom card developer stops updating them.
As a huge home assistant fan I'd say this is mostly spot on. If you enjoy tinkering with it, home assistant has so much more to offer than any of the competitors. If you don't have the time and patience, hubitat is the next best thing if you want local control.
Perhaps the most important thing I'd recommended people is to do is make these kind of architectural choices like your hub, communication protocols, privacy, etc before you start buying smart devices left and right.
That totally cracked me up and is so true. I checked out some home assistant videos on RUclips and ended up watching some guy in what look like a laboratory, rewire his light 💡. He seemed to be talking English, but I only understood one sentence, ”It's relatively easy”, he said. A blatant lie. 😂
Been using HA for about a year, and it has made huge leaps forward. I did the Nabu Casa subscription to make life easier, and it is good. After watching this, video,I may get a habitat and just try it. I love to fiddle with HA, but trying to make the automations so easy and consistent that my wife, kids and guests have a great experience. Great perspective video Paul.
Thank you for making this Paul, I want MORE
Paul, TY for your entertaining videos, keep up the good work. I previously came to a similar conclusion about Home Assistant "Amazing for free open source, but what does it do for me that I can't already do?" Then (in an effort to control my Nest Thermostat) I installed the Node-Red integration. WOW! with relatively little effort I was able to get EVERYTHING (including the Nest) doing EXACTLY what I want when I want. I repurposed a Hue Dimmer Switch to control a media player, send ssh command to turn off my WiFi at night, and much more! , All without having to edit text files or learn a new programming language. I'm so excited about the possibilities with Home Assistant + Node-Red I could hump air!
Agree with your points. I got tempted to try using HA as I was only interested in using it to achieve a very simple use case that replaces IFTTT functionality and extends an otherwise brilliant home automation system I have ... several days later, after the basic install was fine, I'm still trying to figure out why the most basic of Webhooks don't work on HA :rolleyes: ... very close to giving up, but I hate letting things beat me.
Actually, one of the main benefits of Home Assistant is that you *do not* rely on having 7 different hubs. It is basically your Tuya Smartlife argument all over again, but throw in Open Source and off-line voice assistant. It is a not about saving money, it's about freeing you from "Philips says this Hub is old, buy a new one" ... :)
HA also does not require payment for neither "cloud access", nor Alexa or Google Assistant. The setup is not "1-click fix all", but it is far from hard, especially considering the freedom of interacting with a load of different providers. I use HA to control Ikea Traadfri devices, Hue devices, Tuya devices, WizLight devices and loads of sensors, wifi, door locks and gardening stuff.
Sure, i have been using it for a few years and have been through the growing phase, but ultimately if you look at the Floorplan stuff people have done, *nothing* on the market compares. :)
It is not, as you noticed, a one-size-fits-all solution, premade with all devices in a single uniform style. It does require more knowledge of unix stuff, probably some coding a insight into scripting, but in the end, you can achieve something far more in-depth than SmartThings, Tuya or Hue can even come close to. It does require *time* in abundance though. I work 60-70 hours a week, so it took a good while for me to get here, but once you get everything automated, you'll never turn back :D
In the current version your Broadlink devices are being discovered :-)
I got a Broadlink Pro thanks to you and had my curtains working with it after a massive pain of learning my remote(it took aggges to get the right codes) getting this to work well with google home was what drove me to Home assistant also thanks to your videos saying you didnt want it. I now have broadlink set up within home assistant and it is sooooooo great and i have you to thank for the introduction to this. I have now built a remote in a dashboard to control the broadlink like a harmony with activities. . . its great.
BUT I do agree it takes a lot of time and a bit of IT development knowledge can help. My setup quickly grew from home assistant with the things I already had to using MQTT and Node Red and Tasmotising swithes . . . . all that gobledegoop.
As for help with the broadlink you will want a few add ons You should be able to find these in the suppervisor menu.
The first is Visual Studio Code. this gives you a nice editor already set up for home assistant configs.
All you need to do to activate the broadlink integration is add your Broadlinks ip and mac (you should be able to find this on your nice ubuquiti router)to the following config in configuration.yaml
remote:
- platform: broadlink
host: IP_ADDRESS
mac: MAC_ADDRESS
Then for adding codes to do things there's a couple of options. (This is the hardest part IMHO)
I extracted the RF codes i had learnt from the Broadlink app (NOT IHC Home) and then base 64 encoded them(more gibberish sorry)
IF you know anything about docker theres a program called broadlink manager github.com/t0mer/broadlinkmanager-docker which I use for learning new codes. ,made by this guy github.com/t0mer.
Once you have the codes they are exposed to home assistant as switches with on off commands. so for controlling tv inputs or volume etc I tend to have a switch with ON as vol up and OFF as vol Down.
this is a sample of my basic config
switch:
- platform: broadlink
host: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
mac: 'xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx'
timeout: 15
type: rm2_pro_plus
switches:
open_lounge_curtains:
friendly_name: "Close Lounge Curtains"
command_on: 'sgDOAQ5YESMSWRIjESMSIxEkEiMSIxEkElgSVhIjEiQRVxJXEVcRJBElSAABFUUAARNFAAEuEVcSVhFYESMSVxJXEVgRJRJWEiMRVxIjEVgSVxEkEVkRJBEjEiMRJBEkESMTIxF9EVcRJBEjElYSVxFYEiMRJUkAARNFAAEURQABFBFXElcRVxEkEVcSVxFXEiURWBEjEnARIxJWElcRJBJZEiMRIxEkESQRJBEjESQSWRFXESQRJBFXEVcSVxIiEiRHAAHkRQABFBIjEiMRJBEjEiMSIxIjElkRVxEkEiMRVxFXEnARJBElSAABFEUAARNFAAEVEVcSVhJXESMSVxJXEVgRJRFXEiISVxEkElcRVxIjElgSIxFHESQRIxIkESQRIxJZEVcSIxEjElYSVxJXESQRJUgAARNFAAEURQABFBFXElcSVhEkEVcSVhJXESYSVhIiElcRIxJXElYSIxJZEiMSIhIjESQRJBEkETwSWRFXEiMRIxJXEVcRcBIjEiRIAAEURQABE0YAARQSVhJWElYSIxJXElcRVxIlEVcRIxJXESQRVxJXESQRWREjEiMRJBEkESQRJBEkElgSVhIiEiQRVxFXEVgSIxIkRgAF3AAAAAAAAAAAAAA='
command_off: 'sgAoARJWElcRVhIjElcSVhJXEiURVxEjElYSJBFXElcSIxFZESQRIxIjESMSJBEkEVcSWRFWEiMSIxJWElcSVxFXEiRJAAETRgABEkUAAS4RVxJWElYSIxJWElcSVxEmEVYSIxJWEiMSVhJXEiQRWRIiEiMRJBEjEiMSIxJXEVkSVxEkESMRVxJWElcSVxElSQABE0UAARRFAAETElcRVxFYEiMRVxFXElcRJhFXESMTVhEkEVcSVxEjElgSIxEkESQSIxEkEiMRVxJYElYSIxEkEVgRVxJWElcSJEkAARNeAAETRQABFRFXEVcRVxIjEVcSVxJXEiURVhIjEVcSIxJXElcRJBFZESMSIxEkESMSIxIjElcSWBJWEiMRJDVXEVYSWBJWEiVFAAXc'
close_lounge_curtains:
friendly_name: "Open Lounge Curtains"
command_on: 'sgAIARIjEiITIxIjEiMRJBFYESUSVhIjESMSWBFXEVgRJBFYSQABFEUAARNFAAEVEVcRVxJWEiMSVhJYEVcSJRJWEiMRVxEkEVcSVxIjElkRIxIjEiISIxIjEiMSVxIlElYSIxIiElcSVhJXESMSWUgAARRFAAE3RQABFBJWElcSVhIjEVcSVxJWEiUSVxIjEVcRIxJXElYSIxJYEiMSJBEjESQSIxEkEVcSJRFXESMSIxFYElcRVxIjEVhJAAEUaAABE0YAARQSVhJWElcRIxJYEVcSVhIlElYSIxFXEiMSVxJXESMSWBIjEiMSIhIjEiMRJBFYEiURVxIiEiMSVhJXElcSIxJXRwAF3A=='
command_off: 'sgAoARJWElcRVhIjElcSVhJXEiURVxEjElYSJBFXElcSIxFZESQRIxIjESMSJBEkEVcSWRFWEiMSIxJWElcSVxFXEiRJAAETRgABEkUAAS4RVxJWElYSIxJWElcSVxEmEVYSIxJWEiMSVhJXEiQRWRIiEiMRJBEjEiMSIxJXEVkSVxEkESMRVxJWElcSVxElSQABE0UAARRFAAETElcRVxFYEiMRVxFXElcRJhFXESMTVhEkEVcSVxEjElgSIxEkESQSIxEkEiMRVxJYElYSIxEkEVgRVxJWElcSJEkAARNeAAETRQABFRFXEVcRVxIjEVcSVxJXEiURVhIjEVcSIxJXElcRJBFZESMSIxEkESMSIxIjElcSWBJWEiMRJDVXEVYSWBJWEiVFAAXc'
lg_tv:
command_on: 'JgBQAAABJ5USExURFDUSExURFBEUERQRFDUSOBITFTQSOBI3EzcSOBITFREUNRITFREUERQ1EjcTNxM2EhQUNRI4EjcSFBQRFAAFKQABJ0sSAA0FAAAAAAAAAAA=='
command_off: 'JgBQAAABJpUUEhUQFTQSFBUQFREUERQRFDUTNhIUFTQTNxI3EjgSNxM3EhQUNRIUFBEUERQ1EjcSFBU0EhQUNRM2EzcSFBQRFAAFKQABJ0sTAA0FAAAAAAAAAAA='
Beyond this theres some things i do with templating and node red to make things work as I would like. (more gibberish sorry)
If you need any help getting it working id be happy to help
I guess it's because my computing started in the era of the Apple II, Commodore 64, and in my case, ZX81, I'm really, really comfortable with character-based terminals, so SSH-ing into a Pi is SOP to me. Doing that and running vi to edit some .yaml file is like second nature. It's not too, too hard, just requires some learning and practice.
why bother learning vi, just use nano.
@@chrislambe400 learn vi(m) it can speed up your workflow signinficantly
Oh jeez, vi was bound to be mentioned in a vid with context to complexity lol. Now how do I exit the comments? :q!... Did that work? Crap....
Beautifully stated. Started down the Home Assistant virtual machine black hole tonight only to be left wondering, WTF? And I'm a programmer at heart. At the end of the day, simplicity is better. Spending $5 a month to do something that should be included is ridiculous. Home automation in and of itself is still a fairly novel concept which we could all live without. So, why make it even that much more complicated.
Go to the add-on store in HA and install IDE. There you can acces the .yaml file directly
Nice!! Thanks for the tip dude!
For raspberry I think IDE is not available anymore. You should use configurator addon instead
I prefer using the "Samba share
" add-on from the store ( supervisor---> add-on store--->Samba share), that way you can see all the files from your windows file manager.
@@farmaforpresident8138 And it seems that Configurator is now called File Editor, so don't go searching for Configurator and not find it. Just like I did... :-D
And there's the problem right there.
Hey paul, thank you for great video, there is a way to connect your broadlink devices to HA, however you wont be able to control them through the app after that.
The way to do this is:
1. Delete your broadlink device from the broadlink app.
2. Make a long reset to your broadlink device ( a long press on the restart button, about 10 sec).
3. Connect your broadlink device to your wifi network through ap setup (not smart setup) in the broadlink app.
4. After the device is connected to the wifi close the broadlink app and *DO NOT ADD THE DEVICE TO THE BROADLINK APP*.
5. Make the ip address of the broadlink device static.
6. Add the following to your configuration.yaml file in HA:
switch:
- platform: broadlink
host: 192.168.X.XX
mac: 'XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX'
(in the host put the broadlink device IP, and in the mac put the broadlink mac address)
p.s - notice that I wrote switch and not remote as described in DrZzs 's video, thats the way that it work for me.
7. Restart HA.
8. The broadlink device should be connected to your HA.
Now you can go to : services -> developer tools -> choose the service "broadlink.learn" -> add the following with your broadlink's ip: "host: 192.168.X.XX" -> press call service -> teach the broadlink device any command.
From this phase you can help DrZzs video.
Hope this helps you!
Hey Paul. Broadlink RM pro instructions are still similar.
www.home-assistant.io/integrations/broadlink/
That is the official documentation. It is a bit fiddly to set up because it has not been made an UI integration yet, but you can get it to work.
It will take time though.
Having read this link I see what Paul means about tech speak with no explanation. Still referring to yaml file with no explanation. So you need to fully understand HA. 🤔😩😫
Thanks man, I shall check it out!!
@@mikef3324 Yes. It's really easy for components that have been migrated to the UI for setup, but components that are still "legacy" are still complex to setup. Once it's done, they work and just keep working, but you need the time to do the initial setup.
@@paulhibbert It does still work, just set one up yesterday!
I found that but couldn't find anything decent post the initial getting broadlink in the yaml - post that I could find nothing. any further links to hints tips and guides much appreciated.
It's true, HA requires some technical skills to have it running and maintained. Also there is the problem of the constant development that in a way is good but on the other side it keeps changing stuff around. BTW there is now a connector to the tuya smart life servers, so you can skip the hacking of the smart bulbs and sockets.
Would love to see a “six months in” video if you do stick with it.
I'm hoping to develop a relationship with some of the home assistant guys and would love to do a revisit. One of their developers has just left a really nice comment, so here's hoping!
One of the best things about Home Assistant is the community. Yes, the information you stumble upon is sometimes (or often) out-dated, but there is almost always someone who is happy to give you the latest info and help you with it. Outside of the official docs, I’ve had the most success searching GitHub, the official Home Assistant Community forums, or the Discord server.
I second both GitHub and Discord. :) Great peeps in there and always willing to help
I can agree with the time that takes for you to make everything to work. But I also suggest to do it, because once is done, that’s it. You can access the Configuration.yaml directly in HA for example and there are more than one way... I use the method that Dr. Zzs (it’s funny how you say it 😂) call it “The ConfiguratorAnator” and once you get it run smoothly.
And I also suggest “The Hook up” channel. Very good explanations with time frame mark if you don’t have the time.
I've been using HA for about a year and, boy, you nailed this pretty well. Were it not for my techie background, I'd have hit some of the bumps you did. I have watched them come a long way in that year, however. I had to edit conf files that are now just auto-discovered as you found. As for Tuya, probably the best thing I ever did was use tuya-convert to pull them out of the cloud, all 70+ of them. My router thanks me everyday because they are local now and with HA, they respond instantly. I have three RM Mini 3's all working, but it's all conf file stuff. Once done, it's very solid. Thanks for the video!
Brother, I feel your pain. I tried HA too, also Homebridge. Same damn thing. I’m a self-confessed nerd - spent ~30 years in IT support, but I’m NOT a Linux nerd or a coder by any stretch. NOT a “super-nerd”. As long as you only have gear that requires a pre-configured STABLE plugin, the pain is manageable, but (like everything else in the Linux world, apparently) as soon as you step off the yellow brick road or have any sort of problem, the water gets very deep, very fast. Then you find out that there are different kinds of super-nerds - some are incredibly patient and will bend over backward to try to help you out, but there’s a significant population that will heap scorn on you for being unfit to even occupy space on the planet. In the end, I decided that these solutions aren’t ready for prime time. I’ll stick with the frustrations and limitations of more off-the-shelf stuff. Standard disclaimers apply: your mileage may vary. (By the by - an ad I had to endure before watching your video was actually interesting - Intellithings and RoomMe. Apparently reasonably priced smart home proximity detection solution. Worth checking out and keeping an eye one, I think. Maybe they’d send you a starter kit gratis for an honest - and entertaining - review?)
I've applied to them recently, so fingers crossed!
Hi Paul. I personally use OpenHAB which is another home automation software(FYI this has a free cloud service which allows connection to Alexa), I have that working with my Broadlink by using a separate program called Broadlink-MQTT-Bridge written by fbacker. It should work with any home automation software. It allows you to control your Broadlink device via the MQTT communication protocol. Basically you install a MQTT server software on your Pi like Mosquito, install the broadlink bridge software on your Pi and it should automatically find your RM. Using a web browser you can access the software to record RF and IR commands. Then in the Home automation software you setup a switch that send a MQTT message to the correct address that the Broadlink software is listening to and it that tell the broadlink to send the correct RF or IR signal. Oh and Zigbee, I use software called Zigbee2MQTT, this is constantly being updated to control new devices and works in the same way to the Broadlink bridge where sending a command to the correct address on your MQTT server will tell the item to go on or off etc. This can use the basic CC2531 Zigbee adaptor that only costs around £4-8. You also need a programmer that costs around the same.
dont suppose you have an useful links to vids and stuff? I'd like to give this a go.
Thanks man, that's a great write up. I was seeing a lot of the home assistant - Broadlink setup was once very similar. I almost started down that road but I was out of time to start editing the video. Another day!
@@paulhibbert You have put it very well where you said about needing time to tinker. Originally I tried HA but spent a day tinkering and didn't get anything working (This was over a year ago and things have moved on a great deal). I then found OpenHAB and within a couple of hours I had everything setup and automation's working with my Hue lights. Different systems suit different people and OpenHAB was the one that worked for me. Although it is a steep learning curve the amount of control you end up with is worth it in my opinion.
This is almost the same experience I had, although as I was trying to make the pi do more than just home assistant so the installation was made horrendous by home assistant coming in various guises, and the nerds not having any way of explaining the differences to a noob like me!
The end result wasn’t much improved on my hubitat experience, having to search for community produced code and implement it in an unfamiliar system is a pain in the a*s!
Honestly, if you have all the time in the world to learn Linux and the put the work in, I’m sure home assistant could be useful, but for me, I’m glad that my pi is configured to do other jobs in the network, as home assistant hasn’t been accessed since I set it up and tried (and failed) to get all my devices up and running.
Good honest video. Couple of points for you, it's pronounced "Dr Zees", he's a anesthesiologist(sleep doctor) I believe and his videos are very informative and easy to follow. You can edit the Yaml files directly from the dashboard using a simple addon called File Editor (previously Configurator), it really is simple. I do agree that its not a simple plug and play solution, it's more focused on people who like to tinker and see how things works and then find a reason to use them, but I do find that if you step back from it for a few months as I did, when you come back you need to almost re-learn the whole thing as it changes at a very fast pace and sometime fundamentally. On a whole I love it as you can use low cost hardware like Sonoff and NodeMCU modules etc to fairly easily create anything that you need (or most of the time don't) and expand as much or as little as you want, and you don't have several different apps all monitoring your habits and god knows what else. Also the fact you can make a great looking touch screen hub for your wall and control everything through HA is the golden ticket for me. Alexa integration is a sticky point but then if you really do want "privacy" then why would you have an Alexa device in your room!
Only 1 second in the video, thumbs up, Paul. But... get on the live stream with DrZzss, seriously!
Perfect Summary Paul and yet again a hugely enjoyable video. I am a Home Assistant fanboy and don't dissagree with any of your points. Way back in the 1970's I remember when Sinclair brought out the one of the first digital watches you could buy it as a kit and build it yourself or pay about 50% more and buy it built. The hobbiests (reading Practical Electrronics) of course bought the kit and those just wanting the latest tech watch bought it already built. I think Home Assistant is particularly suitied to the hobbiest who is happy to spend time tinkering and learning stuff like Node Red, linux, InfluxDB, Grafana etc... and see this time being spent as well spent. Those who just want a better (integrated) smart home and don't want to spend this time should as you say look at Hubitat. One of the downsides of going full on Home Assistant mode is that it is likely that the other members of your family will have no clue about how to maintain the setup.
I wish my Netflix's was 5 dollars a month 😂 but i live in Canada
It's not $5 a month in the UK either, the cheapest subscription is £5.99 ($10.12 CAD) for basic, which does not have HD and can only be used on 1 screen at a time. In reality, many would choose the standard, which is £8.99 ($15.18 CAD) a month, or above.
It is if you share a subscription 😉
@@dreamvisionary Pretty much the same prices in Canada then.
It ain’t $5/month in the US either. Reminds me of the good ol’ days with cable - every other month seemingly, it was “we’re forced to increase our rates, but, oh look, we’ve added these valuable new channels for your viewing pleasure - The Jewelry Channel and the ever popular What’s-On-All-The-Other-Channels channel...)
mine is 12 dollars in sweden😂😂😂
Totally agree with you, there are way too many Home assistant users that's say "it's easy if I can do it then you can" no you either have the time or your brain is programmed differently to mine also yes totally agree they start talking about things I have to google the term, or just miss steps out because they think you should know these steps??. Yes agree if you want the basics it's easy, but if you want to create complicated routines or create a smarthome tablet dashboard, programming is needed then it gets complicated. Yes it does. Great video btw.
I have been using home assistant for nearly a year now and completely agree with what you said, after two months I stopped using the forum as it was just confusing and people didn't really help.
If you just want a simple solution for home automation don't use Home Assistant.
If you want complex automations and integrations and are prepared to make home automation a hobby then Home Assistant is for you.
So basically, if you want real home automation, go for home assistant ;)
I honestly love home assistant, and I can see why people use it, but my answer remains the same for anyone thinking of trying it; Home assistant has nothing that Hubitat doesn't as far as I can tell, but Hubitat has no subscription fee.
When I was first looking for a home automation solution a year ago, Hubitat was another option I looked at. I landed on Home Assistant because a buddy of mine had an old Raspberry Pi he was selling for $30. To this day, that is all the money I’ve invested in Home Assistant, so it was a great deal for me. And since I’m one of the “nerds” Paul is referring to, I’m super satisfied with the path I’ve chosen.
@@paulhibbert I don't know much about hubitat but the subscription fee for home assistant is optional. It's only used to make setting up Google and Amazon voice devices easier.
For me it was Google home devices that got me into home automation but now I have home assistant I only use them for text to speech. Home assistant pretty much replaced all their functionality.
Anything you can do with the subscription fee to Nabu Casa, you can do without a subscription fee to Nabu Casa. It just takes a little more effort, and a lot more learning on your part. And who doesn't love learning new things? The feeling of awesome when you've tackled something and won?!
HA *can* be completely free! Explore all your options, learn from the experts.
My reason for not going with Hubitat or Samsung's Smart Things is that with both, I'd be living in their world. Much like iOS devices. I almost spent money to do so. HA allowed me the same thing, with much more control of how I interact with it, many more possibilities (Alexa integration? Actionable notifications?! Wut!??), and all of that for absolutely zero cost. I'm still blown away at how awesome it's potential is, and I feel like what I have is good enough, but it's even more capable still of things I don't know I need to set up yet!
If something doesn't work, someone can make it work. The Broadlink issue you had, I had with Wyze sensors. But once I got it figured out, man! I'll never do it another way! (Oh, and I'm pretty sure Wyze sensors won't work with Hubitat without buying the cameras too.) Open source means the possibilities are endless, provided someone works at it. But nothing worth having is ever easy, right? 😉
It's just not mainstream. HA doesn't fly off the shelves at your local store. Nobody knows about it. Nest, Ring, etc are all common names. This is the best kept secret for those of us not afraid to go on an adventure and slay the dragon! 🐲😂
I love home assistant and I agree with you that it takes some time for some things to work as you want. I also think the time is worth and that there is no other platform that allows you to control everything at that level.
This. I've never seen a more token "Boomer" comment section in my life.
Ah the old 'What the Fu&k is that' paradox of how to documents that feature the knowledge of how to do stuff only if you understand the terminology that if you already know then you'd already know how to do 🤔
Oh the joys of "assumed knowledge". The "Well you are using this software on a Pi so you must already know everything there is about the Pi operating system" almost made my break my screen on several occasions. 🤣🤣🤣
This nails it! Lol
Thanks for trying home assistant. It may not be for you but your right it's great if you have the te to tinker with it. It's local which in my opinion makes it better than ifttt. Personally I let Google assistant run the same way it always has and automations run through home assistant
Hey, RUclips-Algorithm! That was a good video.
This video opened my eyes. I just heard about HA a few days ago and since then, I am reading all kinds of guides. Watching this video sums it all up. I'm gonna stick to Google Assistant. As for Home Assistant? Ain't nobody got time for that.
Install File Editor addon and YAML files can be edited easily within HA
I agree with most of what you said. The only thing I’d say is there is something that changed by using Home assistant; you can control everything with one app instead of one app for every device (I used 3 or 4 apps before, now I can use one).
Thanks Paul, glad to see you finally giving it a chance. I think this is a great moment to start with HA, since they are making it more and more "dumb-proof" everyday. Cheers, mate!
Amazon Alexa is the best for home automation, it has the most skills.
Echo dot 4th generation has zigbee builtin (to control my blinds, doorlock, etc.).
Also, Google can't add a device to more than 1 room or group; example: kitchen and family room are adjacent to each other and I want the lights in both room to turn
off if I say all, as well as independently turning off either room.
Alexa is inexpensive so I bought 8 to equip every room with Amazon Alexa for voice control so that I can just ask 'turn off the lights' and the echo in that room
knows to turn off those lights and not other lights in the house.
Google app's fonts are really really really tiny for my old eyes.
All 8 of my Amazon Echo devices have a clock... very convenient to tell the time or see a timer's countdown.
or better sound, I have a few of my Amazon Echo dot 3 with clock output the sound via its 3.5mm headphone jack to my Denon HEOS speakers.
New home automation users who want zigbee to communicate with blinds, door locks, lightbuilbs, etc. can just buy the Amazon Echo 4th generation with builtin zigbee.
I blame the companies that make the smart devices. They try to lock you in and make it hard to control them with free stuff. And they cal this security.
Companies need to get together and figure out a common protocol, so we don't need to hack every device.
I've heard that a bunch of them are, and even apple was onboard! Interesting times for the smart home!
But it's not that much of "hacking" anymore.
The Tuya devices can be flashed without opening them.
I haven't got their yet myself but I'm close to getting there.
@@TheHellis i've flashed a tuya light bulb using tuya convert. I then moved from tasmota to esphome and it has been awesome. setting up automations inside switches is just amazing.
@@Leonvolt28 I also like ESPHome better but as I understand it there is quite a few extra steps to get to ESPHome in the conversation process?
Thanks man, I've heard about this new protocol, but haven't found much info on it. Do you have a link to where you've heard that? I heard that the zigbee alliance were actually part of the partnership!
A home assistant nerd here, love your vids .... now that is out of the way, just install the configuration add on so you can edit the file from your web interface.
Oh, the live-stream! OOHH the live-stream!
I’ve installed Home Assistant *many* times! It has a couple of major flaws, one which you haven’t mentioned. The Raspberry Pi SD is not designed to be written to like a hard disk. I found I was burning through SD cards every 4-6 months. Then I had to re-install, and the snapshots (backups) never seemed to work with DeConz Zigbee. I now have an SSD, but the “burn an image and go” option isn’t then available, and installs without it are shockingly complex with Docker. I’ve burned away days of my life messing around with it!
Anyone know when hubitat will be back in stock
I'm a huge HA fan, basically had to compromise by not having Alexa et al. I looked into alexa + HA and I had the same reaction you had.
As far as the rest of the compromises -- your biggest problem is that you bought into several locked down ecosystems. If you would have made sure to get something open/flashable/HA compatible before you bought it, you'd probably find it cheaper and way, way better.. except for Alexa integration.
Flashing stuff is also not nearly as hard as you think, I've flashed 30 devices (no charges filed yet!). It's the price you pay for having better software with no calling home and no chance of them just deciding to "altering the deal" on you later.
Install HACS to get the Alexa integration easy, install Microsoft Visual Studio Code add-on to get to the configuration.yaml files and the rest. You can also integrate your IFTTT pretty easily and free too
Appreciated the video, and the humor. That said, in the latest version of HA there is an add-on called File editor, so you can access your config.yaml file from HA directly from the browser, no need to use Samba.
On to Broad link, here is my setup in my config for my rm2_pro_plus and it works flawlessly. The key piece you may have been missing is you need to download the Broadlink Manager exe, set it up to detect your device, then simply point the remote at the device and push a button. It will spit out your command string.
- platform: broadlink
host: 10.0.X.XX
mac: '78:0F:XX:XX:XX:XX'
type: rm2_pro_plus
switches:
tv:
friendly_name: "Mancave TV"
command_on: 'JgBgAAABKpIVERURFTUVERURFREVERURFTUVNRURFTUVNhQ2FTUVNRURFREVERU1FREVERURFREVNRU2FDYVERU1FTUVNRU2FQAFDQABKkgVAAxZAAEqSRUADFkAASpJFAANBQAAAAAAAAAA'
command_off: 'JgBgAAABKpIVERURFTUVERURFREVERURFTUVNRURFTUVNhQ2FTUVNRURFREVERU1FREVERURFREVNRU2FDYVERU1FTUVNRU2FQAFDQABKkgVAAxZAAEqSRUADFkAASpJFAANBQAAAAAAAAAA'
Finally
I always get there in the end. 🤣
Finally his FIRST video on REAL authentic Home Automation. Before his videos (Although intensely entertaining) where basically just reviews. There was really no In-depth technical info just consumer plug and play nonsense. Really anyone can just buy a damn lightbulb then download the app and figure out how to turn said lightbulb on with absolutely no video insight required. To a number of (Smart) consumers security remains paramount and others just don’t want to accumulate a hodgepodge pile of devices that don’t necessarily work in harmony. Home assistant is (a) powerful solution to these problems. Hopefully his patience prevails and he can build a comprehensive automated home network.
You should look at some of the crazy stuff I've done with tasker 😉
Ah cracking up 1 min in 😂
Your "dumbfounded", "Confused", "Seasoned", "Vexed" and "Delighted" (I've left some out haven't I) faces are amusing!
NodeRED can get you free Alexa Control
Really?? Definitely gotta check that out then!
@@paulhibbert absolutely. The Dr Z dude will show you how. "Alexa integration Home Assistant" in your Google or YT search oughta get you started. He even did a 90+ minute live stream a few weeks back about it too. Very cool.
I still have an Amazon account, why wouldn't I? But for running the house by voice, I no longer need it. Haha.
Try the Amazon Media Player with Hue Emulation / Dummy Light to trigger HA automations it is in the section of the documentation Examples. I am one of those who likes some of the cloud. This bridges the gap for me, and have no desire for all that other configuration.. like Paul. Curious if he is going to do a Hubitat vs HA.
Sorry should read Alexa Media Player under the HACS addon
This is the easiest way and Node-Red is in the community store, just installs on the pi next to HA.
Well done Paul, I agree 100% with you, I've spent SO MANY hours over the last three'ish years with Home Assistant and the "How do I do this..." follow this link, follow that link, try this, watch this video, oh it's now been superseded, start over (oh and don't mention how much time I've spent with different Zigbee solutions!!!).... Thankfully, I appear to have the time and patience. I like where its got to in its development and I'm happy to pay the monthly Nabucasa subscription for its ongoing development. It has improved sooo much over the years. They release new versions of HA every few weeks (three I think) and with each one comes great improvements (and the odd breaking change that can make you lose it).... I'm sure at some point they'll get to the stage everything is detected via the GUI and then they'll sell out to a megacorp and screw us all over!
I agree that the $5.00 for the service is easier but coming from a person who deals with stuff like this all the time it's an amazing piece of software and it's truly limitless.
This is very fair. The only reason I've heard of HA is because of your thrusting like a mad man. So I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about. I've now spent three weeks of my life on this thing. You're absolutely right. Great fun. But a complete time sink. It's unstable, there's always something to fix, it can get things that aren't meant to talk to other things to play nice and there's some fun in that. But it's not something that is ready to be inflicted on the whole family. Not yet.
Oh. And visual code studio. Play with your config.yaml in the UI. It's great. You can break everything in there.
Haha, I look forward to breaking everything! Great summing up dude.
Dr.Zzs was a great help in finally figuring out Tasmota. But even he would have to be online 24/7 explaining how to reconfigure the constant updates that break a HA installation that used to work.
Good video. I do have broadlink working with HA, but it is much more confusing that using Alexa to recognize broadlink.
I use both Alexa and HomeAssistant, but Alexa isn't integrated into HomeAssistant.
The problem with Alexa, Tuya, etc, most other cloud based services, if you don't have internet connection you lose access to all those devices. I've heard stories of people connecting sonoff basics and without internet they don't have an easy way to toggle lights, until internet comes back on.
I would say 95% of the time I use Alexa to control my devices, but when my internet is down it is always nice to pull out the cell phone and be able still control my devices locally. I also from the get go I always made sure there was a physical way to toggle my switches in case router went down.
Not sure what your setup is, but seems like you have to use about 3 or more different apps on your phone to control your stuff. The neat thing of HA is that you can access all in one place.
I totally agree.
You need to spend a lot of time and effort into home assistant, but after all, the software does provide so much possiblities I've never thought of.
Yes, if you just consider some "basic" smarthome stuff, such as Philips hue lights, homematic-ip devices, or what ever else, theres not really a benefit behind home assistant - except from having one nice dashboard where you can do most of the things you want to do.
BUT:
HomeAssistant - or more specific the community will provide you with solutions for nearly everything.
Example?
Due to the combination of some custom created integrations from the comunity, I am not able to receive the waste collection schedule from our local waste management service by API call - get a notification on my smartphone - and could f.e. trigger some other automatisations.
I haven't seen such a functionallity yet in other applications... ok, there's an Alexa Skill, but this is still very limited compared to the integration in HomeAssistant.
Don't get me wrong:
To integrate such things is VERY time consuming - and sometimes it might be frutstrating... but If I have everything set up what's on my todo list - I would really miss H.A. at the end :)
The benefit of Home Assistant is that it is truly cross-platform ie Windows/Mac/Android/iOS/RPi. It just needs the big business to get behind it for consumer non-tech level users. If you are an Arduino ESP8266/32 developer it makes it so much easier to talk to your devices. I cannot help but feel the irony that it has apps for both Google assistant and they who will not be named.
It really helps to take offline integration with Home Assistant into consideration before purchasing the smart gadgets in the first place.
All my stuff integrates directly with Home Assistant because I never bought anything with a needing a proprietary gateway or cloud service in the first place.
Nobody stats there smart home journey with home assistant, and one of the key reasons home assistant exists is to bring disparate systems together.
You're right in what you say, but that's an unrealistic ideal world scenario that involves throwing your old stuff in the bin 100% of the time.
Hey Paul, Shaun here from South Africa. Thank you so much for this video, I spend weeks trying to do exactly what you are, and I was so frustrated! I though I was missing something or was just an idiot.
I guess the real technical guys will say I'm just an idiot? I also don't have the time to spends months trying to learn how to code.
I got so frustrated, that I almost pulled all my home automation out of my house.
I'm so glad it's not just me, and that normal people can't use Home Assistant, and it's only for coders or very technical people
Awesome video keep it up.
Put ubuntu or mint on the laptop (like the pi has) and loading HA gets much easier. Windows should be retired...
After a week of watching HA config videos, reading the (outdated) docs, and brushing up on my Linux and Docker skills, I stumbled onto your video. This basically sums up my experience so far as well. I'm not a total nerd and I found this a chore to get things going. Some help was provided by the guy who created the IOTStack project which is basically a script to install HA and a bunch of other great IOT services in docker containers on Raspberry Pi. I will say this, I'm learning ALOT. It was also disappointing to learn that to keep any integration with Google Home/Assistant I'd have to shell out $5/month! Seem excessive for the occasional few bits of data going to google via HA plugin to turn my lights on/off. In my haste to convert, I "upgraded" my Tuya off-brands switches and plugs to Tasmota, thankfully this was done OTA with a hack called Tuya-convert and a RPi. I thought at the very least I could use the Hue or WeMo emulation built into Tasmota but no dice. A solid week later and I was finally able to turn ON/OFF my lights from the dashboard (but not dim them) without going to China. Do I really care if China knows my lights are on?
Had to laugh.
0:20 - "this isn't for you Paul, it's too complicated and you won't understand it."
5:10 - "his is too complicated and I don't understand it!"
🤣
Great video though, I'm just at the point of progressing beyond Hue (and moving to a bigger house so MOAR BULBZ!!1!) and what works with what is a bloody minefield. I'm going to end up with a stack of hubs like a 1980s hifi.
You know Paul I started using home assistant out of curiosity I spent almost 2 days 10 hours per day setting it up after I finished I came to the same conclusion you said in your video so kudos👍🏼, don’t get me wrong it is an amazing system but it requires a lot of work a little bit of a know how
I run home assistant and have spent many hours pulling my hair out at it but it is getting easier apart from the "learning English from a cockney" part 🤣. I used it as when I was setting up I realised "smart" just meant connected, and home assistant did allow me to automate things I could never get working i.e. Broadlink and Tuya. The Tuya convert process has been made easy and a guy called Digiblur simplifies these things. It has become a lot easier over time and will keep getting easier. The winner for me is Node red, which is a way to automate visually and do extremely complicated things easily.
Smart to me means I rarely have to touch anything, my lights come on when it gets dark and turn off when we are not there or when we go to bed or it gets light again, and change colour on an evening. My outside lights will not illuminate to help a burglar as they don't work after 11 pm unless I want them to (i.e go from the inside out).
Each to there own though and you are quite accurate in your observations. I look forward to the Dr. Zzzz reply. The Home Assistant forums are great but there is a lot of gibberish (to me).
OOh the Zigbee
Ha, ha, Home Assistant, Home Assistant. Yaml, Node-Red, it only took me 3 minutes to learn everything in the world needed for Home Assistant. I'm finally secure in my own private network. Home Assistant, Home Assistant!
Thanks Paul. I've been considering the Raspberry Pi/Home Assistant route for a while (but the cheapskate in me never got to paying for the Pi 🤣).
After watching your video... I've
1)saved money (having not got the Pi)
2)saved the headache
WIN WIN!
Definitely check out Hubitat if you're looking to progress your inner nerd with SOME of the hassle and more pay off.
I installed a virtual machine on my PC to give HA a try first, that helped me come to the same conclusion as Paul... Nothing improved by having a complex system running unless I really dig deep and tinker, but with only a handful of devices I'm not going to bother!
Details here about how I did that dummylabs.com/post/2020-01-20-hassio-for-virtualbox/
Some very valid points. I started using HA a few months back, and managed to get quite a lot of stuff working pretty quickly. I even managed to connect devices I previously didn't know could be controlled in that way, but there were issues. Lots of issues.
I built some temperature and humidity sensors with some Wemos D1 Mini's I had from previous projects, and I was really impressed that they can be programmed from within HA, and updated over the air from within it too. I set up automations with them, and they were great, but the home made devices looked ugly so I bought some bluetooth sensors to replace them and it broke the automations because, while they appear right away on the dashboard, they are not listed as devices and the instructions to fix it left me pulling at my hair. Why aren't ALL connected devices listed as devices?? I have given up on that one for now.
One thing I did notice though is that devices that can't easily be configured in HA, but Alexa already knows, can still be controlled by Alexa. That's no good for certain automations though.
Some people will probably tell you that cheaper Zigbee dongles exist, to go with the cc2531 dongle, but you have to flash that, and that's only the start of the buggering about.
Overall, I like Home Assistant, but not in a "Ooh, the Home Assistant" kind of way.
Also there is a third way to integrate she who shall not be named (if you have an echo device with smart home hub). It's called hue emulation and works well for (dimmable) lights and switches. For my home it is enough automation needs.
Also I agree, that the community is a bunch of nerds or at least very tech-savy people. To people in IT i generally recommend home assistant since all that stuff with "git" and "yaml" and "samba" and "ssh" is standard and known. It reduces the entry barrier a lot. For normal people though...
Also if you have the Homematic (classic) system or similar brands which are anyway local only and the cloud is only an addon, then home assistant does help a lot.
Also the Xiaomi devices can suddenly also be used without the cloud.
It does take time to get it sorted but it is absolutely customisable once you have climbed the learning curve. The learning curve is long and steep.
The things you can do with this are great. For example, I have created a truly smart garage door. It will not power the garage or or door motor unless someone is home. It know if the door is open or closed. It automatically closes if no one is home. It automatically opens when my son's car arrives. It warns us of an obstruction if it cannot close. It closes automatically after 8pm at night. And it can be easily disable with one switch when I need the garage door to stay open or closed.
That is just one example of the power of the system. It integrates with Broadlink and lots of other systems. It is the best I have played with in being able to do exactly what I want it to do. It will allow you to make a truly smart home not just a bunch of wifi and rf switches.
Great video and I agree with your conclusions. I love HA, but I like to get under the bonnet and tinker. It' not for everyone. BTW all the config files can be easily edited from within Home Assistant itself via the excellent 'File Editor' plugin. Also there's a voice assistant add-on, called 'Hey Ada!', as an alternative to Alexa/Google, although I haven't personally tried it out yet.
I'm a Hubitat guy and Home Assistant (finally) gave me a way to connect my Tuya lights (no Tasmota) from Hubitat and from Alexa (without a cloud subscription). That's after much confusion, several false starts and hours of fiddling and research.
The answer? Home Assistant plus the Node-Red addon, the Node-Red Alexa skill, a couple of 'palettes' (Node-Red addons) and a downloaded Hubitat app.
Trivial stuff for the high-falutin' guys and gals in the Home Assistant community but hardly consumer friendly. (And 'they' said Hubitat was challenging - no, no, no...'No pain, no gain')
For the config.yaml the easiest ways are to either set up the Samba add-on or the IDE add-on (click supervisor, then add-on store) I recommend the IDE add-on. I do have a z-wave and zigbee dongle connected and have flashed tasmota on my lights and switches. Esphome is also another easy program that is integrated with home assistant. I have a google home connected not using the cloud which im setting up the Rhasspy voice assistant which is an offline voice assistant. (Not plug and play so not as simple as google home or alexa). All and all I personally like it better than smartthings. And as for configurations you can normally find the who step by step online although you do have to mess with it at times.
I'm a recent convert to home assistant but been using openhab for 2 years
Mix of fair and disingenuous stuff here but I work with Linux so many gives me a leg up. My advice re editing files install the file editor addon can even verify your Syntax before reboot.
I got rm4 working on the latest home assistant last Sunday afternoon the best explanation is on RUclips from Will Surridge.
The ZigBee dongle I use is a cc2531 it costs less than £5 but you need to flash the firmware yourself. Then use ZigBee2mqtt
Once you have done a couple of Tasmota switches it becomes a 10 min job I now select devises I know can be flashed
You can edit the yaml files directly from the home assistant UI without having to mess with SAMBA etc. Go to Supervisor > Add ons > File Editor. After you make any changes to the files, go to Configuration > Server Controls (at the bottom) > Click the 'Check configuration' button to make sure there are no errors, then restart. Refresh the page a minute later. I'm a half-nerd, I had help from a full-nerd when setting up my configuration file, I wouldn't have been able to do it with their help!
Agree you do need to spend some time learning home assistant and some of the guides & info can be old and there's nothing more annoying following a guide to find out it no longer works or has been replaced. Things like the editing the yaml you could of done that within seconds by just installing the editor from the in built store. To summarise Hassio is a project , hobbyist IOT tool, invest the effort in and you will really see how powerful this platform is, to be quite honest it's amazing. I've probably invested 1000+ hours with over 200 smart devices in my home have everything completely integrated with customised dashboard and some very clever next level automation routines far more powerful than anything out of the box. i.e. with the right sensors and devices you can write a routine that works out when your wife has left work and if she is coming home, based on the temperature and depending on the lux inside/out will light it in the house with ambient setting the mood appropriately and warm up the house accordingly, It will then vacuum the house and switch on the oil diffusers to create a nice welcoming fragrance, then depending if it's dark outside will close the blinds. Within 2 minutes of her nearing the house it will boil the kettle, as she arrives and approaches the door it will automatically unlock the door, alexa will greet her and there will be some nice ambient music playing in the background. needless to say she hates it!
I've only been using Home Assistant for a short while so by no means an expert, and while watching you hump the air is entertaining, I decided to get an RM4 Pro to control a fan and some photography lighting that are both controlled by different IR lighting (and at some point have it be a back up on the RF side of things for my smart shades). I agree with you that to get the most out of Home Assistant, having a nerd background definitely helps, but I'm not seeing what the issues were with HA and the RM4 Pro integration were. In about 5 minutes of the Amazon delivery guy dropping the RM4 Pro off, having never used a Broadlink device before, I was successfully able to have it integrated with HA and had learned the relevant buttons and able to send those commands back through HA. Yes, it did require one google search to find out that the RM4 Pro had to be unlocked before HA could access it, but that took probably 2 of the 5 minutes to be operational. I'm not going to try to change your opinion of HA, but I would say for any HA folks that are looking for an inexpensive easy to operate/integrate IR and RF blaster the RM4 Pro is definitely worth a look.
Thanks mate, it's because home assistant have integrated directly since this video was made 😊
Fun fact.... Phillips hue bridge, will continue to function without a internet connection, as long as you have a local connection even over wifi. Was kinda neat to find out. Just thought I'd share.
Literally just started testing/beta migration from Samsung SmartThings (fed up with their ‘migration’ ongoing for over two years - don’t get me started!), my experience is similar to yours.
Most mainstream things are picked up easily, while others require addition to the config file. If you are at all interested and patient in learning, it seems extremely powerful and capable. I’ve yet to invest in z-wave and zigbee dongles to replace the ST hub, but so far responsiveness is far better even over cloud integrations vs ST.
Another great vid Paul! Keep up the good work 👍
The Rilled Up Rooster is my favorite part of your videos. 🤣 🐓 "Home Assistant! Home Assistance! Home Assistant! Home Assistant!!"
got here a little late to see if this was already mentioned, but I use Hue Emulation to control Home Assistant using Alexa. Basically can create a sensor that pretends to be a Hue device and is discoverable and use the sensor as an automation trigger. I also use Alexa Media Player which lets me send TTS notifications to Alexa.
Hi Paul, Its been 11 months since you released this video and most of the concerns you had have been resolved. Maybe its time to do a 1 year review and update? There is easy broadlink RF integration, local control of Tuya devices etc. I started tinkering with Home Assistant a few months ago. I didnt have to do any coding in YAML to get mainstream devices working. I added a $5 USB Zigbee stick to my raspberry pie and now have a range of temperature, humidity and movement sensors controlling various automatons. I have even integrated my solar panel inverter so I can see consumption data that also controls devices based on available power. I learnt all of this by watching videos on youtube. Home Assistant is getting better and easier to implement every month
Well this is worrying. I have a whole video lined up to say nothing has changed!? I looked at the Broadlink integration and it was still the crap one where you have to reverse engineer all the codes out using some software on your PC and then manually tap them into the yaml. Are you telling me there's now a different integration? Hoe do I add it?
The tuya integration still relied on the cloud too. Where do I get the integration that works locally??
@@paulhibbert Paul, There is a plug-in that I downloaded called ‘smartir’ that I use to control my air conditioner and tv from my broadlink mini. ruclips.net/video/YtgIPokZUGo/видео.html. There is a bit of copy and pasting but it’s not to bad. The range of available devices currently is limited?.
And you can watch about local tuya at ruclips.net/video/nIbCkYyZn6o/видео.html
That smile that very smile started all of this 0:12