Home Assistant beginners

jonneymendoza · 28 Dec 2023 at 14:10

dlockers said:
We can jump on a call at some point and I can guide you through it -- this Web2RTC is a game changer. It is like near real time high FPS. It is only the Reolink doorbell where you need to enable some other stuff using the Reolink app.

Yeah maybe - let me check out the members market

I do have a mini PC hosting the VM at the moment, but bare metal always better when communicating with hardware I find...

Quality sure. We can link up on discord if u use that? That way i can screen share. Im still away for the whole of this week but back sometime next week.

What do you mean by bare metal to communicate with hardware

dlockers · 28 Dec 2023 at 14:19

jonneymendoza said:
Quality sure. We can link up on discord if u use that? That way i can screen share. Im still away for the whole of this week but back sometime next week.

What do you mean by bare metal to communicate with hardware

I don't use Discord but I am sure I can grab it easily enough. No rush, might just have to keep prodding each other till we find a slot that works.

Bare metal = I am currently using a PC with Windows on, with HA running in a virtualised environment (Oracle Virtualbox). Hardware passthrough goes via Virtual Box which is always a bit ropey in my experience. On my VMware ESXi whitebox I bought a chip that supported vt-D as that does hardware passthrough to VMs.

jonneymendoza · 28 Dec 2023 at 14:21

dlockers said:
I don't use Discord but I am sure I can grab it easily enough. No rush, might just have to keep prodding each other till we find a slot that works.

Bare metal = I am currently using a PC with Windows on, with HA running in a virtualised environment (Oracle Virtualbox). Hardware passthrough goes via Virtual Box which is always a bit ropey in my experience. On my VMware ESXi whitebox I bought a chip that supported vt-D as that does hardware passthrough to VMs.

Ahh ok.

I have a mini pc running a docker instance of HA . OS is ubuntu server. No ui. Runs very efficient

Bluecube · 28 Dec 2023 at 14:31

jonneymendoza said:
I really need to start HA but i got put off it when i was struggling to add my reolink camera’s to it

There‘s a Reolink integration to use. I don’t have them myself but Reolink cameras are rated as some of the easiest to use with HA

dlockers · 28 Dec 2023 at 17:08

Bluecube said:
There‘s a Reolink integration to use. I don’t have them myself but Reolink cameras are rated as some of the easiest to use with HA

It's true - the only "issue" is the doorbell. You need to get the Reolink desktop app and enable something for it to be picked up.

Also the Reolink integration isn't required or anywhere as good as Web2RTC.

jonneymendoza · 28 Dec 2023 at 18:18

dlockers said:
It's true - the only "issue" is the doorbell. You need to get the Reolink desktop app and enable something for it to be picked up.

Also the Reolink integration isn't required or anywhere as good as Web2RTC.

Which is where I stumbled. My doorbell wasn't being detected using that reolink integration.

What is this web2rtc? Is that a generic protocol?

dlockers · 28 Dec 2023 at 19:33

jonneymendoza said:
Which is where I stumbled. My doorbell wasn't being detected using that reolink integration.

What is this web2rtc? Is that a generic protocol?

If it's on the same network it should at least appear in the Windows app. Enable ONVIF and then you don't need the Reolink app anyway. Give them a static IP/DHCP reservation and configure using the dashboard:

User/pass is internal:internal, the WebRTC app gives you the rest of the URL.

Welshman · 29 Dec 2023 at 11:41

Ipad telling me it cant find the server…..what am i doing wrong. Its all on the same network??

dlockers · 29 Dec 2023 at 11:43

Welshman said:
Ipad telling me it cant find the server…..what am i doing wrong. Its all on the same network??

Make sure it's not trying to do Https?

Try hostname rather than op: http://homeassistant.local o r something

Welshman · 29 Dec 2023 at 11:48

dlockers said:
Make sure it's not trying to do Https?

Try hostname rather than op: http://homeassistant.local o r something

All thats ok…its working ok on laptop, but not on my ipad

JackRegan · 29 Dec 2023 at 11:58

Welshman said:
All thats ok…its working ok on laptop, but not on my ipad

At first, I had a few connection problems, so I used the server IP address with port 8123. After a few connections, http://homeassistant.local:8123/ worked fine

Welshman · 29 Dec 2023 at 12:14

So the raspberry pi is running on ethernet and the ipad wifi…..is that the issue???

Bluecube · 29 Dec 2023 at 12:16

Welshman said:
So the raspberry pi is running on ethernet and the ipad wifi…..is that the issue???

Not unless they're two separate networks. Can you connect using the HA servers IP address?

Welshman · 29 Dec 2023 at 12:18

Ok, so i disconnected the ethernet from the laptop, and it wouldnt run through the wifi. Could it be because im running the ethernet through wifi extender

Bluecube said:
Not unless they're two separate networks. Can you connect using the HA servers IP address?

nope

Bluecube · 29 Dec 2023 at 12:43

Providing your wifi devices are registering with your router, there shouldn't be an issue. You're probably better off asking in the network sub forum. Be prepared to be told your wifi extender is pants and that you should rip your walls apart so you can cable up every single device in your home...

the-evaluator · 29 Dec 2023 at 12:46

Welshman said:
Ok, so i disconnected the ethernet from the laptop, and it wouldnt run through the wifi. Could it be because im running the ethernet through wifi extender

nope

What's the model of the WiFi extender?

On a device where it works get the IP address of it, do the same for a device where it doesn't work and post them. Gut feel says the extender is using a different IP range for clients on the LAN side of it. That'd explain the problem you're having.

Edit - I missed that it didn't work on the laptop when it was on the WiFi.

LuckyBenski · 29 Dec 2023 at 12:54

JackRegan said:
At first, I had a few connection problems, so I used the server IP address with port 8123. After a few connections, http://homeassistant.local:8123/ worked fine

I had this experience too - only IP address worked for the first month or two then one day I noticed homeassistant.local works

Welshman · 29 Dec 2023 at 13:17

So i have no ip address for wlan…..on an ethernet ip address, that seems to be the issue

Welshman · 29 Dec 2023 at 13:34

Im a clown….. my rpi4 doesnt have wifi access yet as it hasnt arrived. DOH

Bluecube · 29 Dec 2023 at 14:16

Welshman said:
Im a clown….. my rpi4 doesnt have wifi access yet as it hasnt arrived. DOH

Not sure what you mean there. RPis have wifi built into them. But that's irrelevant as you should be able to connect to the RPi if it's connected via ethernet. You have connected the RPi to your router?