Home Assistant: Difference between revisions

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https://www.home-assistant.io/
#REDIRECT [[Home control]]
 
 
I now have MiLight and Wink and Feit Electric (Tuya) parts functioning and want them to work together
and more importantly, work BETTER!
 
Wink is cloud based, so basically sucks on that count. :-)
 
MiLight is cheap junk where the IoT things are WiFi based and controlled via a phone app + cloud.
They also have RF remote controls that do WiFi. There is no hub. When you use the phone app, it's cloud based. I think they use cloud for configuration but once config is done control is local. Actually clever but still requires a server be operational out there in the cloud.
 
Yesterday I bought a couple Feit Electric color changing bulbs at Costco, and one works! (Grr more cheap junk.) They are on WiFi and also cloud controlled.
The software is much better than MiLights. I need to track the network traffic and see if the cloud server always stays in the loop as it does with Wink.
 
How long will it be before one of these outfits goes belly up and their entire global deployment of lights bulbs goes permanently dark? In 2014,
[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/05/revolv-devices-bricked-google-nest-smart-home Google acquired Revolv and shut it down.] [https://www.cnet.com/reviews/revolv-smart-home-solution-review/ Revolv] competed with Nest. [https://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/09/22/quirky-bankruptcy/ Wink came really close to bankruptcy.]
I want to get out from under that "cloud" hanging over me.
 
 
The IKEA Tradfri (Zigbee) gateway is capable of local only control under Home Assistant and costs $30, might be a good choice.
 
Using Home Assistant it should be possible to bring control under one roof,
access them from a Web page instead of two separate apps,
and eventually to get rid of the Wink hub entirely and control the Zigbee light bulbs from Home Assistant.
 
First let's work with what we have.
 
== Task 1 : Set up Home Assistant ==
 
=== Not using docker ===
 
I first tried to put it in a Docker on [[Bellman]] where all my other Dockers live.
 
cd source/docker
mkdir docker-homeassistant
cd docker-homeassistant
docker pull homeassistant/home-assistant
docker run --name home-assistant -p 8123:8123/tcp -d homeassistant/home-assistant
docker update --restart always home-assistant
docker exec -it home-assistant bash
pip install homeassistant
hass --open-ui
 
=== Direct install on Bellman ===
 
Use these instructions with a few minor exceptions,
https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/installation/raspberry-pi/
 
Docker works but since it is just a Python app anyway and it's configured by text files
I ended up installing it directly on Bellman (not in a Docker container).
It's running in virtualenv so it's still pretty well contained and isolated.
 
sudo useradd -rm homeassistant -G dialout
cd /srv
sudo mkdir homeassistant
sudo chown homeassistant:homeassistant homeassistant
sudo apt-get install python3-venv
sudo -u homeassistant -H -s
cd /srv/homeassistant
python3 -m venv .
source bin/activate
python3 -m pip install wheel
pip3 install homeassistant
hass
 
Hass does download and install stuff on first run, and starts a server running.
'''In your browser, TURN OFF your ad blocker!'''
and then go to http://bellman:8123 and be patient. It's now visible in the browser but unconfigured.
 
      Here are some resources to get started:
        - Configuring Home Assistant:
          https://home-assistant.io/getting-started/configuration/
        - Available components:
          https://home-assistant.io/components/
        - Troubleshooting your configuration:
          https://home-assistant.io/getting-started/troubleshooting-configuration/
        - Getting help:
          https://home-assistant.io/help/
 
"Onboarding" failed on my first try with error 500.
I deleted the files "auth" and "onboarding" in ~homeassistant/.homeassistant/.storage
and tried again and it worked.
 
The config files are in /home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/
 
=== Restart at boot ===
 
https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/autostart/
 
Set up file /etc/systemd/system/[email protected]
 
== Task 2 : Control MiLight LED strips from Home Assistant ==
 
See https://www.home-assistant.io/components/light.limitlessled/
Once this is done I can decide if I need to order a second MiLight controller.
Possibly I can use more channels on the one I already own? Not sure how that works; for example, can I put one strip on WW and one strip on CW and control them independently?
 
== Task 2 : Control Wink from Home Assistant ==
 
Follow these instructions to set up access on developer.wink.com
https://www.home-assistant.io/components/wink/
 
Added "wink:" in yaml file.
 
In the config page look for "ZWave" even though I have no ZWave components
because there is no listing for Wink.
 
== Task 3: Is there a nice Android App? ==
 
I said I don't want to use the Android MiLight and Wink apps but that's because (1) they suck (2) I want one app to control everything not several. I also
have 0 interest in logging in every time I want to dim a light. (I did say already cloud sucks somewhere I think.)
 
== Task 4: Get rid of Wink ==
 
Now that we have everything working smoothly,
find a device that does Zigbee in Home Assistant and use it to replace the Wink thus eliminating all need for the stupid cloud connection.
Then eBay the Wink hub!
 
== More ==
 
* What about that BLE controller on the garage door?
* What about sensors including that [[Pi Zero W]] camera?
* What about other remote controls? I have a few IR remotes but RF would make more sense. What can I use with HA? Maybe [https://github.com/sidoh/esp8266_milight_hub/wiki/Using-Milight-Remote-with-HomeAssistant MiLight]? They are pretty cheap.
 
[[Category: IoT]]

Latest revision as of 17:48, 25 May 2020

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