Soldato
Thats what im doing and watching youtube videos too….already got my octopus mini connected and my efergy power sensor for the solar. I just need to turn that into an energy sensor now.
Home Assistant beginners
- Thread starter katie279
- Start date
Soldato
Ive been playing and managed to get my growatt inverter added to HA
Soldato
Hi Guys,
So i am kinda new to the automation world and i have only just started out on my HA journey and i would love to hear all about your setups and how HA has changed your lives; we could say, inspire me!
I currently run HA from a Docker container on my Syno. NAS. - I came across the platform whilst working out the best way to get my Unifi G4 Pro doorbell to ring via my Sonos - that has worked a treat, albeit, it did last time i checked it.
Ideally i would love to be able to fire up a video stream or JPG Snapshot to my TV's or maybe some other display in the house when the doorbell is pressed - perhaps another topic for discussion?
I have at home, a bunch of TPlink KASA plugs, Arla Grid Connect plugs, G4 Pro Doorbell, unifi CCTV, unifi Dream Machine Pro and Unfi networking, Honeywell EvoHome Heating and hotwater, Risco Alarm. Sonos kit in most rooms, Kids have Alexa's and smart TVs with an iPhone and iPad Pro each.
Just not sure what else i can achieve.
So i am kinda new to the automation world and i have only just started out on my HA journey and i would love to hear all about your setups and how HA has changed your lives; we could say, inspire me!
I currently run HA from a Docker container on my Syno. NAS. - I came across the platform whilst working out the best way to get my Unifi G4 Pro doorbell to ring via my Sonos - that has worked a treat, albeit, it did last time i checked it.
Ideally i would love to be able to fire up a video stream or JPG Snapshot to my TV's or maybe some other display in the house when the doorbell is pressed - perhaps another topic for discussion?
I have at home, a bunch of TPlink KASA plugs, Arla Grid Connect plugs, G4 Pro Doorbell, unifi CCTV, unifi Dream Machine Pro and Unfi networking, Honeywell EvoHome Heating and hotwater, Risco Alarm. Sonos kit in most rooms, Kids have Alexa's and smart TVs with an iPhone and iPad Pro each.
Just not sure what else i can achieve.
So I treated myself to an Apple TV, 4k with Ethernet. So far so good, as long as you stick to the Apple guardrails 
What was super fun was finding HA auto detected it, and then installed HomeBridge for me, and then gave me a QR code which I scanned to the wife's iPhone as I am a povvo Android user.
I can now see all of my cameras on the TV and do picture-in-picture whilst watching TV! Not sure when this will come up, but loving it
What was super fun was finding HA auto detected it, and then installed HomeBridge for me, and then gave me a QR code which I scanned to the wife's iPhone as I am a povvo Android user.
I can now see all of my cameras on the TV and do picture-in-picture whilst watching TV! Not sure when this will come up, but loving it
Soldato
PIP is super handy 
My Unifi doorbell pops up through homebridge on the Apple TV too when it's pressed and gives an instant video feed.
My Unifi doorbell pops up through homebridge on the Apple TV too when it's pressed and gives an instant video feed.That's cool! Is that a Unifi specific thing or an HA hack?PIP is super handy
I'm not qualified to comment mate - I know I recently went from a RPi install to a VirtualBox VM, and other than having to get a new Bluetooth adaptor it seems identical - just much better performance.
Edit: the BT does drop out often though. So bare metal all the way IMHO.
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Soldato
THIS! tell me how please kind manPIP is super handy
I did the same - it solved random HA device and service failures moving away fro the pi. The VM box also runs pihole as an added bonus. Touch wood no Bluetooth issues here but I went with a Bluetooth proxy esphome board. It only reads the air sensors around the house
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Finally got WebRTC running and the difference is crazy compared to without.
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All depends what you want to HA to do. I use a mini PC and have it installed directly as I have it as CCTV with a Coral also.
Soldato
I'll be honest I can't specifically remember. Nothing too complex though, I've got a feeling that the doorbell camera needs to be set as a doorbell within Homebridge and it just works.
Soldato
Hi i am trying to set this up now and added this integration: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.
RTSPtoWebRTC
Instructions on how to integrate RTSPtoWebRTC server within Home Assistant.
www.home-assistant.io
However, upon launching it, it asks me to imput a server url?
i tried entering my HA's server url but comes up with an error
@jonneymendoza It is asking for the camera ONVIF server URL (basically the http web address to the cameras stream). You can find it fairly easily by going to the Web2RTC interface, which is: http://192.168.0.19:1984/ (obviously swap my internal IP for yours).
Click "add"
Then create the URL for your camera - for my doorbell for example it is:
onvif://camera:[email protected]
Where "camera" and "camera22" are my username and password setup in the Reolink app (Select your camera -> Cog icon -> Advanced -> User Mgmt).
Paste that URL under "ONVIF" on the Add tab of Web2RTC and it'll resolve to a stream URL.
On your dashboard then add the URL that the Web2RTC app shows you from above:
type: custom:webrtc-camera
url: onvif://camera:[email protected]?subtype=000
Click "add"
Then create the URL for your camera - for my doorbell for example it is:
onvif://camera:[email protected]
Where "camera" and "camera22" are my username and password setup in the Reolink app (Select your camera -> Cog icon -> Advanced -> User Mgmt).
Paste that URL under "ONVIF" on the Add tab of Web2RTC and it'll resolve to a stream URL.
On your dashboard then add the URL that the Web2RTC app shows you from above:
type: custom:webrtc-camera
url: onvif://camera:[email protected]?subtype=000
Virtualbox is known for issues with passing through hardware. Not sure if it’s HA specific or a general VB thing.
A RPi install of HA will work perfectly well, especially if it uses a SSD for storage. However, for those starting out from scratch, I’d recommend a mini PC either one of the thousands of second hand ones from eBay or those available on Amazon and install Proxmox before running HA as a VM. This provides stability, reliability and ease of administration
Soldato
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- 24 Sep 2015
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Good point on the SSD if using a Raspberry Pi. I initially setup Home Assistant on a Pi with an SD card and after a short while the SD card failed. I've since moved to a Home Assistant Yellow with an M.2 SSD.
I tried Proxmox/Docker and couldn't get my head around it, was really complicated for me. Also the fact that you have to run Z2M etc separately really messed with my head. So I just run it on a mini PC on windows 10 using virtualbox, seems to work OK
Rpi would be significantly cheaper to run! I think docker also brings with it some extra challenges, it's been a while since I deployed a docker install on proxmox to test with - can't recall if the HA supervisor doesn't exist on the docker setup, which IMO just adds to the use complexity. Absolutely fine for advanced users who are very familiar with the user interface, but I imagine for most it will just make for a more painful experience.
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