Home Assistant Rabbit Hole

[Roger M. Jenson]

I just fell down the Home Assistant rabbit hole after watching the
following YouTube video.

BestJoy SuperRemote Review - A Home Assistant Friendly Remote!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLWrpgyniuE


As many of you know I provide technology services for the Oak Creek
American Legion Post 434. One of the challenges they have is managing
multiple TVs with individual remotes. The video caused me to look at the
Home Assistant website which is a gold mine of information.

If you have any Home Assistant implementation stories please share them
with the group.

Having Fun,
Roger M. Jenson

[Ian]

I've run a z-wave device network using HomeAssistant for about three
years. Thermostats, light switches, a few presence sensors. Mostly for
energy savings.

The z-wave master device is a USB dongle plugged into a Rpi 3 that is
centrally located for the z-wave network. The Pi3 runs Ubuntu Core with
the zwave-js-ui snap. The Pi used to run the same software in docker on
Raspbian, but remembering to update the system and re-learning each time
how to update the docker container simply became too annoying. With
Core, updates and CVE patches are 100% automatic. The z-wave network is
stored on the dongle, not the Pi's SD card, so the Pi and its SD card
are trivially replaceable.

I could run HA OS on the same Pi, but instead run HA Core in an LXD
container on an Ubuntu server located elsewhere. Better reliability: No
worries about the Pi's power supply or SD card. Network cable between Pi
and server -- I was opening up that wall anyway to place a
centrally-located wi-fi access point.

HomeAssistant communicates with zwave-js-ui automagically, so all the
zwave devices just show up in HA and I do all the control there.

Cheers,

Ian

[Roger M. Jenson]

Hello Ian,

Thanks for sharing.

Having Fun,
Roger M. Jenson