Home Assistant beginners

dLockers said:
That's a much better use case than my car unlock/lock also triggering the dishwasher.
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Or my husband or thought it'd be REALLY funny to create an automation that would change the sensor in our hall so it turned the lights red and starting playing scary music through all the sonos speakers in the house when home alone....
 
Freefaller said:
Holy **** I got it working. I can now tell google to turn on Plex, and it sends a WOL packet to my plex server which turns on! This is ******* awesome! :D
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You getting my point now FF?? It is game changing once you start to get your head around it - and I love the community, you really need to get into the habit of searching '<name of device> home assistant' in google - even things that aren't smart and you're certain can't be integrated, there'll be someone who's worked it out. I've actually wasted a fair bit of money from NOT doing this enough - eg bought energy saving plugs when if I'd known that you could buy much cheaper ones that Home Assistant through ESPHome could flash the firmware and 'upgrade' for free (and get rid of dodgy chinese apps), bought wifi dongles, bluetooth extenders, things like my harmony hub that Home Assistant could do already....
 
This is essential for Sonos users...

community.home-assistant.io

Script for Sonos Speakers to do Text-to-Speech and Handle Typical Oddities

This script blueprint uses a Text-to-Speech service to play messages on Sonos speakers. The script handles oddities to ensure a proper message playing experience. Examples include: Saving the state of the Sonos and restoring when done (so music will stop and continue) Handling speakers in...
community.home-assistant.io community.home-assistant.io
 
dLockers said:
That's a much better use case than my car unlock/lock also triggering the dishwasher.
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There's a good notification blueprint for dishwasher/washing machine, as neither of mine make a particularly loud noise when they've finished. Mine just sends me a notification on my phone, but you could literally get it to do anything.
 
Ok here's a challenge for you experts - how does one do a remote shutdown command from HA for a PC? :D

I don't seem to have the HA Store for some reason? Is that because I installed it as a docker? That said, happy to do manual installation.
 
Im still a bit lost with this, i assume for washing machines, dishwashers, stuff like that, it needs to be a "smart" appliance? And you can't just do it with a bog standard Beko?
I still don't really know what i'd use it for over unified lighting, blinds and heating control...
 
R.O.S.S.I said:
Im still a bit lost with this, i assume for washing machines, dishwashers, stuff like that, it needs to be a "smart" appliance? And you can't just do it with a bog standard Beko?
I still don't really know what i'd use it for over unified lighting, blinds and heating control...
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Mine is mostly lights and to fulfil curiosity of existing smart stuff e.g. washer, dishwasher, car etc. I've just got the Peugeot connected so it shows my cars fuel and my other cars charge.

It is also an excellent Sonos remote. And a beautiful interface for my hue lights from the computer so I don't have to use my phone.

I think for actual use cases, being able to W.O.L and maybe run down a Plex server is super useful.
 
nst68 said:
I'm running ZHA to control my devices, I've seen other people use Zigbee2MQTT to do similar, is there any benefit using one over the other?
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It's a bit Windows vs Mac - so no huge difference. Z2MQWTT maybe has a tiny bit more stable integrations, but really not that noticeable. Meanwhile ZHA seems to be more 'the future' and HA seem to focus on it more, so in a year's time I'd imagine I'd say ZHA more confidently....
 
CapitalOne said:
Occupancy simulation! I’d love to have the time and knowledge to be able to “record” a weeks activity (I think it does this anyway) and then play it back whilst away for a week.
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By default it'll do this, or if you want to be really cool, get some mmwave sensors that are so sensitive they'll detect you breathing in a room (good as normal motion sensors will only detect larger movements, so when you're sleeping, sitting down watching telly etc, they may not report correctly)

**edit sorry, misread your comment - thought you meant tracking occupancy. Yes it does, although this is handy more broadly in allowing you to create schedules for everything: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/scheduler-card-custom-component/217458

You could obviously do this all manually with automations, but handy view to have in one place when you're getting more complex (like occupancy simulation)
 
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Freefaller said:
Ok here's a challenge for you experts - how does one do a remote shutdown command from HA for a PC? :D

I don't seem to have the HA Store for some reason? Is that because I installed it as a docker? That said, happy to do manual installation.
Click to expand...

I take your shut down and raise you a 'complete control over your PC'
github.com

GitHub - LAB02-Research/HASS.Agent: Windows-based client for Home Assistant. Provides notifications, quick actions, commands, sensors and more.

Windows-based client for Home Assistant. Provides notifications, quick actions, commands, sensors and more. - LAB02-Research/HASS.Agent
github.com github.com

Really neat app which will report an almost endless stream of sensors from your pc (CPU, ram, HD temp, current window - almost endless) and allow an endless list of commands (loads of usual - eg shutdown, hibernate etc, but can run any command at all), turns your PC into a media device to extend your sonos and tonnes more....
 
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