Home Assistant

https://www.home-assistant.io/

I now have MiLight and Wink 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.

How long will it be before one of these outfits goes belly up and their entire global deployment of lights bulbs goes permanently dark? Which one will be first (or next, what do I know I am sure some have already come and gone)? Wink came really really close https://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/09/22/quirky-bankruptcy/ I want to get out from under that "cloud" hanging over me.

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

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 --open-ui

Hass does download and install stuff on first run, and starts a server running; 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/

The config files are in /config

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

https://www.home-assistant.io/components/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 MiLight? They are pretty cheap.