Home Assistant

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So, i know a few of you dabble with Home Assistant, and i've found myself recommending it frequently on the "how smart is your home thread". So i figured it would be worthwhile having a dedicated thread where we can discuss our HA setups, share what integrations we have, help on any configuration issues, or even just bounce some ideas around for what you plan to integrate.

For those new to Home Assistant, it's essentially an open source hub where you have a single control point for all your IoT devices. I'm sure many of you have experienced the annoyance of having to open up the Hue app to adjust your lights, and then having to open a kasa app to turn a plug socket on, followed by opening the Nest app to adjust your heating can start to get a bit tiresome.

Link to site: https://www.home-assistant.io/

Demo page to show you what HA is capable of: https://demo.home-assistant.io/#/lovelace/0

My lovelace GUI needs a bit of a tidy up, so i won't share a screenshot of my setup just yet.

In terms of integrations i currently have:
- Adguard
- Phoscon
- Google Cast
- HACS
- Meross
- Hue
- PiHole
- Plex
- Simplisafe
- Sonos
- Speedtest
- Spotify
- TpLink
- Transmission
- Tuya

 

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So it's just an app you can run for example on a PC on your network that then grabs info in from what ever it can interface with?

In short yes.

In terms of an install, it's more of an OS, so you can install it on a VM or a docker, or on some dedicated hardware like the raspberry pi's.

For any IoT devices that collect/generate data, then these can get logged to a database, and then you can setup graphical software like Grafana to create some nice graphs.

As an example i have speedtest plugin, which runs a test every 5 mins and logs the upload/download/ping to a database, and i can then see how stable my connection is:

 

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Oh, so it's not just a dedicate program, but you in effect need a whole machine (VM or not) dedicated to running it?

ps: As for running a speed test every 5 mins, given that hammers the line for 10-20s, isn't that counter productive? ie: If I run a speed test, I can see the performance hit on other devices...

Correct.

It could be counter-intuitive on slower connections yes, i've never noticed any bandwidth or latency drop (i'm on standard FTTC 80/20) so it's probably less of an impact unless i was fully throttling the link.

 

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Yeah - I've just got mine installed on a raspberry pi and this powers the whole house.

Integrations are:
- Hue
- 2x Synology NAS'
- 3x Roombas
- 4 x Google Cast
- Samsung TVs x 2
- Dyson Fans
- HACS
- Plex
- Speedtest
- Spotify
- TpLink smart plugs
- Tuya
- Netgear Orbi
- Roku
- Logitech Harmony
- Adax Radiator
- Tado Radiators x 16
- Epson Printer
- Met Office
- 3x phones (Pixel & iPhones)
- Samsung Smartthings - Washing Machine

Have also 3d printed a home panel for the hall and embedded a tablet into the wall as a handy control panel for it all...!

That's my eventual vision/ambition, but i keep changing things around so my lovelace UI is a bit of a mess. I did see a few major updates ago that you can now have multiple lovelace interfaces - so you could set one up for a tablet, and a different one for your TV.

How well is Tado smart heating integrated with HA? That'll be my next big home automation change, but i haven't decided on which one to use - i have a fair bit of Nest and i was put off when Google had pulled the API, but now it's back Nest may well be back on the table.

 

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I'm running Home Assistant in a Hyper-V virtual machine under Server 2019 on a Dell R210ii, this machine also runs pfSense and Unifi Video for my CCTV, basically all the stuff that needs to run 24/7 without being touched.

Been using Home Assistant for a few months now and really liking it. I dabbled with it some time ago but it seemed so daunting I shied away from it. But once you get to grips with it, it's quite easy to get things set up. Plus the more they update it, the less you need to play with YAML and more that can be done in the UI. Mostly using it to centralise all of my smart home gear and run automations. All of the automations are handled my Node Red as I love the way you can make things with the flows. Automations are mostly control of lights currently, using timers for scenes throughout the house as well as motion sensors in a few rooms.

I have a Conbee II adapter for ZigBee, that's plugged into a Pi Zero which runs Socat to relay that to my server and through to Zigbee2Mqtt, this is done so the Conbee can be central in the house for good signal. I have quite a few Xiaomi Aquara things such as motion sensors, door sensors, temperature/humidity sensors and lux sensors, as well as some smart buttons and a cube, also Hue lights in every room.

Current integrations are:

• Alexa Media
• Broadlink
• Garbage Collection
• Google Cast
• HACS
• Logitech Harmony
• Meteorologisk institutt
• Mobile App
• MQTT
• Philips Hue
• Spotify
• TP-Link Kasa Smart

No doubt more to add in future too as I add to my smart home.

One of my best features is my own 'Smart Doorbell', using my Unifi G3 camera which is pointing at the front door and an Aquara smart button, it's handled by Node Red to take a snapshot from the camera when the smart button is pressed, save it to local storage then send it out to our phones as a notification to say the doorbell has rang along with the image. Also it sends a command to the Google Home devices to play a doorbell sound.

Below is my current lovelace dashboard, still a work in progress but it means my wife can control things easier which is always a bonus!

Spoiler

Is the garbage collection integration even useful? Does it work on a pre defined range of dates?

 

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No need for any adapters, just uses exposed APIs from thousands of bits of hardware - just basically I stall on raspberry pi, plug into your network and it'll discover everything...

It's better to use a zigbee adapter (like @no idea what I've got a conbee2 stick) because you're relying on a 3rd party to provide you with a service. If their servers go down, or they go bankrupt, then your device becomes dumb. Being able to send commands to the local device means that it is still usable.

 

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Sorry, what are you using the ZigBee for exactly? Is this for certain devices or something? There's no server dependency I've got, hence confused - open source raspberry pi and then it connects to devices without needing to bounce outside the firewall. Ive got lots of esp8266 devices I've programmed in Arduino to control things internally also

Sorry late replying. My zigbee dongle connects to my aqara components - temperature sensors, door contact sensors, and push buttons - will eventually add in some motion sensors and water leak sensors. I could also add in my Hue/Tradfri bulbs and do away with the hue bridge, but it integrates very well and i like the redundancy that if HA goes down, i can still use the hue bridge to control the lights.

You'd need something that sends out zigbee commands to control zigbee devices.

 

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Do you think there's any real advantage/disadvantage with the Silvercrest gateway vs a more standard USB Zigbee?

I'm not sure I see any value in the ethernet and it would take up an extra power socket + space.

Only reason would be for firmware updates.

I would just keep it to one side and then use something like conbee2 to pair your devices to.

 

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What do I gain with a conbee 2? (considerably more expensive)

It's less likely other zigbee devices would be able to connect to the Silvercrest gateway - or at least less control/functionality.

If all you have at the moment are Lidl devices, then agreed there's no point swapping to another zigbee gateway. But if you have, or plan to expand with other zigbee devices, then you'll likely want something that can control them all.

*One of the real downsides to smart home tech and it wrongly puts people off is they assume you'll need a dozen apps to control various manufacturers devices. When in fact you just need a hub/gateway that they can all communicate with. Pretty much every smart device in my house can now be controlled with Home Assistant (I've still got a few to add), so i only ever need to open the HA app to control them. I do keep the other apps installed for update purposes etc.

 

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Thanks. This is pretty much what I feared. I do plan to expand beyond Lidl so I only bought the gateway thinking just in case I end up SoL with two bulbs and no way to operate them. Think I'll return the gateway if it's not required unless there's any real reason to keep it.

What are the viable alternatives to conbee 2?

Only reason to keep most gateways are for firmware updates, but unless there's a glaringly obvious problem, then firmware updates don't happen often. Absolute worst case scenario i'm sure someone on here will have purchased them, and you could send your bulbs/devices to them for a firmware update. Would be a mild inconvenience of having to unpair/repair, but not the end of the world.

I know there are other zigbee gateways available, but conbee2 seems to always be well recommended by the HA community, and has a big list of verified devices that it works with, so that tends to be what most go for. Can only suggest having a dig around on the HA forums and seeing what other alternatives there are.

Can anyone recommend a Kw/h meter that can be monitored with HA?

Pretty sure the HS110 from TP-Link can be although they had issues recently where they shut off local api access. Not sure if resolved fully yet: https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2020/11/23/tplink-local-access/

I got one for £15 or so on Amazon before that all kicked off. I've not tried it with HA yet (yet to even start HA).

That was actually my next task, as i've got a HS110 sat right here and heard there were some problems getting the metering read back into HA, so i'll be having a tinker with that this week to see if i can get it working.

I've actually got some plugs by meross (although it seems they don't offer the energy monitoring anymore) that i've got working in HA - well i can get one working, but when i add the second device to the template sensor they both no longer show up - so more tinkering required there as well.

I should add, there's a developer working on implementing local control via MQTT for Meross, as there's been a spate of suspensions (myself included) from the Meross servers due to high number of API requests (flood control). https://github.com/albertogeniola/MerossIot/issues/1

 

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The type I'm looking for is like this https://loop.homes/ where it clamps around the live outgoing wire in the consumer unit so I can monitor my heat pump.

Loop looked like the best I could find but they too have stopped API access as of November

Yeah loop kinda fell out the picture as smart meters became the norm (even though in most cases you can't pull the data from them). Whilst they have/are developing a new product, it seems they're unable to do gas.

I came across this recommendation when researching: https://shop.glowmarkt.com/products/display-and-cad-combined-for-smart-meter-customers, although i can't vouch whether it works/will provide the data you're after.

The other alternative that i've seen people go for, and falls in line with having a smart home is Octopus have an API where you can pull back your half an hour readings.

In case you're not familiar with Octopus, they offer a smart tariff called Agile where pricing is dynamically priced in half hour intervals dependent on demand. The idea being that super off-peak (early hours of the morning) electricity is pennies, or on the rare occasion free, or even where you get paid to use electric! This is ideal in a smart home where your home takes control and can switch on things like dishwasher, washing machine, hot water, charge your electric car at a time when electricity is very cheap.

Probably not what you're after anyway, see if anyone has come up with solutions on the HA forums.

 

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If setup on a raspberry pi. How do you show this on a tablet?

I find the app better to use than a Web browser.

What's also cool that I've just been spending some time over the last couple of weeks setting up; you can create multiple users, and then create a default dashboard to display.

For example, I created a tablet user, and a dashboard specifically for the tablet. I've also hidden away some switches (smart Plug / WOL buttons) so that family using the tablet can't switch them on/off by accident.

 

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OK it looks like I have installed home assistant core and not supervised so some of the stuff I have been reading doesnt work - although I have managed to add HACS to it.

I assume if I want the full blown version - I'll need to spin up a Debian image and install on that?

I do think the HA supervisor is well worth having, certainly makes installing a number of "official/approved" addons significantly easier.

Had a HA spun up on my QNAP NAS and its detected a few things round the house. Would be quite interested in putting cheapy temperture monitors in lots of rooms as I live in a old house and want to be able to track the house temps so I can think about my heating upgrades later this year. Anything out there that I can buy a dozen or so that I can integrate easily into the HA system???

Exactly as @no idea what said, in fact i'm looking to buy some more soon.

These are the temp sensors: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000713849766.html?spm=a2g0s.8937460.0.0.816c2e0eCMKxO9, if you buy in bulk you can get them down to about £7-8 each.

Conbee2 tends to be the recommended zigbee stick: https://phoscon.de/en/conbee2/, although looks like they might be having some supply issues at the moment.

I've also added door contact sensors: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000713894535.html?spm=a2g0s.8937460.0.0.816c2e0eCMKxO9
and switches: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32818007384.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.554a4c4dQahLn1

Also looking to add in some more motion sensors (Hue ones are ****), and possibly some water leak sensors.

 

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Got some binary sensors worked out last night which take data from my TP-Link plugs and monitor if the washing machine or dishwasher are on. Next step is to add notifications for when they're finished.

Nice, what FW version are you running?

I can see the attributes from my HS110, i just need to figure out how to pull them out into an entity - which is what i'm guessing you've done?



Edit: Is that current power? I didn't think dishwashers were that power hungry?

 

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Using the latest firmware as far as I am aware.

Using a sensor template for the current usage (I found on the internet):

- platform: template
  sensors:
    dishwasher_watts:
      value_template: >
        {{ state_attr("switch.dishwasher", "current_power_w") | replace(" W", "") | float("Unavailable") }}
      unit_of_measurement: Watt
      friendly_name: Dishwasher usage

And a binary sensor for the status:

 - platform: template
   sensors:
    dishwasher:
      friendly_name: Dishwasher
      value_template: >
        {{ states("sensor.dishwasher_watts") | float(0) > 3 }}
      delay_off: "00:03:00"
      icon_template: >
        {% if is_state("binary_sensor.dishwasher", "on") %}
          mdi:dishwasher
        {% else %}
          mdi:dishwasher-off
        {% endif %}

That current power is right, it was in the middle of heating up for the drying process, it doesn't draw that much power the whole time

Ahh yes of course, i was thinking why don't you just use the plug status to mark it on / off, but you wouldn't know then if the dishwasher had finished. Do you actually switch the plug off? Or just mark the sensor as off?

Thanks for the template sensor, i'll give that a go.

 

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When I said this I had seen some spurious Amazon pricing of the conbee II at like £150. On second looks it seems a more normal price is £50ish. That's acceptable. Problem is availability looks slim. One in Germany on eBay.

Perhaps I need to compare that with zigbee2mqtt options.

Yeah when you said it was quite expensive, i didn't realise there was a seller trying to sell one for £150 , which is daylight robbery.

As above, i think they're normally £35 with taxes + about £5/6 for delivery.

I suspect brexit/coronavirus has caused them some supply chain issues, might be worth shooting them an email to enquire about stock.

 

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Plugs stay on all the time, the binary sensor just works out if it's on or off

Spent the evening cleaning up all my config files, moved a ton of stuff over to the secrets file. Got the Dyson fan integration configured also.

What have you moved over to the secrets file? Anything other than usernames/passwords/API keys?

I got your template sensor working, but it's messed up some other integration sensors i had.

I'm not sure if i need to put them in other places of the config file, or if they need to be nested under a single sensor.

This is how it looks at the moment:

# kWh Conversion, name = sensor.energy_spent #
sensor:
  - platform: integration
    source: sensor.smart_plug_2_mss310_power_sensor_w_0
    name: energy_spent
    unit_prefix: k
    round: 2
  - platform: integration
    source: sensor.outdoor_tree_lights_mss310_power_sensor_w_0
    name: office_energy_used
    unit_prefix: k
    round: 2

# Smart Plug 1#
sensor:
  - platform: template
    sensors:
      smartplug1:
        value_template: >
          {{ state_attr("switch.smart_plug_1", "current_power_w") | replace(" W", "") | float("Unavailable") }}
        unit_of_measurement: Watt
        friendly_name: Plug1 usage

If i remove everything to do with "smart plug 1" then my old kWh conversion sensors work.

I haven't yet tried, but wondering if this would work:

sensor:
  - platform: integration
    <required arguments>
  - platform: integration
    <required arguments>
  - platform: template
    <required arguments>

 

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I read through this and found it kinda handy: https://home-assistant-guide.com/20...vs-zha-battle-of-the-zigbee-hub-replacements/

One thing I wonder is if I can just get both and then effectively integrate devices across both networks using HA if availability is low of the Conbee at the moment.

I'm actually running both the hue hub and my conbee2 for zigbee gateways. All my lighting is connected to the Hue hub (and then integrated into HA), and then all my other zigbee devices are connected via conbee2.

I haven't yet made the full switch because a) Hue integration in HA is pretty much perfect, so i'm not gaining anything extra by removing it - plenty of space in the server rack, and b) the missus hasn't yet moved over to HA, so she still uses the hue app for any light control.

 

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Did you guys have to get the HS110 firmware updated by Tp-link to beta for local control?

I've not actually even installed HA yet (waiting on OcUK to ship an SSD I need!) but perhaps I'll just play on my Pi this weekend.

I don't seem to have done, no.

Mine is currently running at HV 1.0 FV 1.2.5.

I can control mine from HA, and with the above snippet from @no idea what i can now dump the power data into an entity.

The Kasa app does show a FV 1.2.6 is available for my plug, although i don't think i'll bother upgrading it it's currently working.

 

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This was my first dabble at home assistant this week bought a pi4 for it and quite happy after a few hours I got hacs installed Alexa integration and unifi protect integrated. I can now get my imported G4 doorbell to activate alexa when pressed and she says on all speakers via tts someone's at the front door. Felt like quite the victory editing yaml and so on

Also got my deebot on it. All my ring alarm and the cameras I monitor at my grandmas house and the hue bulbs and some sensors around my house. Got my Xiaomi air purifiers hooked into it and trying now to get it to talk to the mi laser projector.

Blimey, sounds like you've had a busy week! That's an impressive list for your first dabble and in only a week!

I had to redo my configuration tonight, as now i've got multiple sensors, i hadn't structured them properly for yaml, which meant it was only picking up on the last sensor.

For anyone who also runs into this issue, you've basically got to do the following:

sensor:
  - platform: <platform name - e.g. template>
    attribute1: abc
    attribute2: def
    attribute3: ghi

  - platform: <different platform - e.g. integration>
    attribute1: jkl
    attribute2: mno

  - platform: xzy
    sensors:
       sensor_name:
          attribute1: pqr
          attribute2: stu