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homeautomation:home_assistant [2024/10/26 15:46] – created willyhomeautomation:home_assistant [2025/06/04 08:43] (current) – [Install Home Assistant] willy
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-====== Home Assistant ======+====== C) Home Assistant ======
  
 [[https://www.home-assistant.io/|Home Assistant]] stand for 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.  [[https://www.home-assistant.io/|Home Assistant]] stand for 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. 
  
 ==== Which Home Assistant edition? ==== ==== Which Home Assistant edition? ====
 +
 +Home Assistant comes in different flavours and so called  __editions__ and it can be installed in three different ways:
 +  * Dedicated hardware. Best solution!
 +  * Virtual Machine, like using dedicated hardware but on shared hardware.
 +  * Docker container, but it does not support direct Add-On integration (there are workarounds)
 +
 +The Virtual Machine approach can be useful if you don't have or don't want to use dedicated hardware, but it comes with the downside of requiring USB pass-trough for hardware devices like ZigBee/Z-Wave, modbus or similar devices.
 +
 +I choose to use dedicated hardware because i want my smart home to be independent from my home-server services. In a way, the smart home needs to be operative even if/when my home IT services are down or the internet is not working.
 +
  
 ==== Where to run Home Assistant ==== ==== Where to run Home Assistant ====
 +
 +Home Assistant offers different ways to self-host a standalone instance of Home Assistant on dedicated hardware. The easiest, which is also a good way to support the project itself, is to buy a [[https://green.home-assistant.io/|Home Assistant Green]] or [[https://yellow.home-assistant.io/|Home Assistant Yellow]]. 
 +
 +The green is a fully functional hardware with small form factor ready to plug & run. The yellow is quite similar, but you provide yourself a Raspberry Pi4 CPU board.
 +
 +I did three different installations over time, and here is why:
 +  * I started with an old repurposed laptop (see [[homeautomation:uefipc|here]]), but failing hardware and noisy fan where downsides.
 +  * Then i purchased an Orange Pi 3B (see [[homeautomation:opi3b|here]]) and leveraged that for a while, but requiring manual updates to the OS was annoying.
 +  * At last, i purchased a Home Assistant Green (see [[homeautomation:green|here)]], both to support the project and get the best full stack support out of it. And i have been really happy so far.
 +
 +As requirements, i can recoment the following:
 +  * One wired ethernet card (as WiFi will interfere with ZigBee and similar networks)
 +  * 4GB RAM (officially, 2GB is the minimm required, 8GB could be preferred, 4GB seems plenty at the moment)
 +  * Any (even small) EMMC/SSD/NVWE. Using a mechanical HDD (on PC hardware) is more powerhungry and using an uSD on ARM hardware is not recomended due to poor uSD overall stability.
 +  * At least one, better two or three, USB ports
 +
 +You can place this computer in a strategic point in your house, to maximize the ZigBee or Z-Wave rage and signal distribution. You can start anywhere, and then move it if needed, this is specially easy on a laptop where you don't have to power it down.
  
 ==== Install Home Assistant ==== ==== Install Home Assistant ====
 +
 +Follow the [[homeautomation:green|C.1) HA: setup Home Assistant Green]], [[homeautomation:opi3b|C.1) HA: setup an OrangePi 3B]] or the [[homeautomation:uefipc|C.2) HA on a standard PC]] pages.
 +
  
 ==== Setup Home Assistant ==== ==== Setup Home Assistant ====
 +
 +The initial setup is described in detail [[https://www.home-assistant.io/getting-started/onboarding/|on these pages]], you should follow it carefully to get started.
 +
 +Some notes:
 +  * Choose a static IP
 +  * Choose a nice hostname (ex: //ha.mydoimain.com//)
 +
 +Then you should plug-in your protocol dongles, for example your ZigBee coordinator and set those up as well. See the dedicated pages.
 +
 +At this point you can start designing your rooms and areas. I suggest you define at this point all the floors and rooms that you have, so adding devices, lights and switches will be easier later on.
 +
 +You will want to install the File Editor extension, and sooner or later you will need to edit your **configuration.yaml** file by hand.
 +
 +
  

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