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Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

home-assistant.io

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Re: Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#151

Post by wrboyce »

mike-cardwell wrote: post #149
a254613e wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. curl --request PUT --data '{"on":true}' http:// /api/ /lights/ /state https://developers.meethue.com/documentation/getting-started

That's good. Does it generate any Internet traffic it all, or is it entirely local? One thing I noticed from your command: No authentication. Looks like any software on any device on the LAN can control the light. Is that really true?

You were being offered a slightly simplified example, the Hue bridge does indeed require authentication.

To answer your other question, the bridge can be accessible via the online “meethue” portal for things like easy remote access but I think this is optional.

EDIT: oh, and it’ll generate internet traffic for firmware updates I suppose!

Re: Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#152

Post by mike-cardwell »

wrboyce wrote: post #151
mike-cardwell wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's good. Does it generate any Internet traffic it all, or is it entirely local? One thing I noticed from your command: No authentication. Looks like any software on any device on the LAN can control the light. Is that really true?

You were being offered a slightly simplified example, the Hue bridge does indeed require authentication. To answer your other question, the bridge can be accessible via the online “meethue” portal for things like easy remote access but I think this is optional. EDIT: oh, and it’ll generate internet traffic for firmware updates I suppose!

Ok. I'll probably stick with Z-Wave then. Hue doesn't seem to offer anything extra.

Re: Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#153

Post by voltagex_ »

balloob wrote: post #12

Founder of Home Assistant here. If anyone has any questions, let me know! Besides being able to install it as a Python package on Python 3, you can also install it using our Hass.io OS. Based on ResinOS and powered by Docker, it offers over the air updates and management of your device via the user interface: https://home-assistant.io/hassio/

I've been hammering away on lifx discovery for a month or so, I'm absolutely stuck but in https://github.com/home-assistant/netdisco/issues/128 you've said you don't want to pull in any additional components.

Would you be open to pulling in an extra lifx library that's tested and working until such time as lifx discovery can be rewritten?

Re: Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#154

Post by escapologybb »

balloob wrote: post #12

Founder of Home Assistant here. If anyone has any questions, let me know! Besides being able to install it as a Python package on Python 3, you can also install it using our Hass.io OS. Based on ResinOS and powered by Docker, it offers over the air updates and management of your device via the user interface: https://home-assistant.io/hassio/

Hass has probably been the biggest help to this quadriplegic in the past decade. The way it's made it easy to stitch together a massive variety of Internet connected devices is absolutely awesome. I've got lightbulbs from one company, plugs from another, sensors from another and then there are all the web-based sensors which I can easily control with my Amazon echoes. It truly is a remarkable piece of technology.

Were I to ask a specialist disability company to replicate the setup I have at home it would probably cost me 10 times what it already has, and unfortunately that's not hyperbole is it really would cost me that much.

Not only that, but the Discord[1] channel is not full of terrible old greybeards having a go at n00bs for not knowing things. The amount of patient and helpful advice I've had was learning over these past six months how to set it up has been amazing. That seems to be getting rarer and rarer these days among technical online communities, or maybe it's just confirmation bias. Either way they are very nice people. I've even had the developers help me with problems that are specific to me and my disability and probably not to very many other people just because they could.

They deserve serious props for this work, they really do.

@robotsandcake over on Discord

Re: Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#155

Post by escapologybb »

voltagex_ wrote: post #153
balloob wrote: post #12

Founder of Home Assistant here. If anyone has any questions, let me know! Besides being able to install it as a Python package on Python 3, you can also install it using our Hass.io OS. Based on ResinOS and powered by Docker, it offers over the air updates and management of your device via the user interface: https://home-assistant.io/hassio/

I've been hammering away on lifx discovery for a month or so, I'm absolutely stuck but in https://github.com/home-assistant/netdisco/issues/128 you've said you don't want to pull in any additional components. Would you be open to pulling in an extra lifx library that's tested and working until such time as lifx discovery can be rewritten?

I use LIFX bulbs all throughout the house, I think we have about nine of them and they are always discovered every single time I restart Hass and have been doing for as long as I've been using it.

Are yours just not showing up at all, or are they coming on and off-line?

Re: Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#156

Post by escapologybb »

cardmagic wrote: post #84

Is anyone else here completely confused at how much hype there is around automated light management systems? I don’t get it. Is it really that hard to turn on and off lights manually that people really need all this stuff? What am I not getting?

I don't mean this to sound snarky, I really don't so please don't take it as such but yes, it is really hard to turn light switches on and off when you are quadriplegic. This software solves that problem completely.

Again, I am not trying to flame you, just telling you how I use it and giving you my reason for using the software.

Have a nice day! :-)

Re: Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#157

Post by iakh »

alkonaut wrote: post #150
dbm5 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I understand your skepticism, there are a few use cases for which I use HA which would be either painful manually, or would require alternate devices such as timers/etc: 1 - outside lights - various lights which light our home's pathway or areas we prefer to have lit at night come on automatically at sundown and turn off at sun-up. 2 - scenes; with HA, we can click one button - a switch with scene control in ou…

Tried to get a single outside light automated through a z-wave gaget hidden behind the switch. Endless hours later the thing is still either working intermittently or not at all. Even with the nodes in the network right next to each other the network is fragile as hell. I just can't believe how expensive z-wave things can be so much worse than the old 433mhz things that have been around for ages. I finally gave up an…

Z-wave is a mesh network, so the more devices you have the better the connectivity. If you only need a single device, try locating your hub as close to the switch as possible. Otherwise, ironically, the solution may be to invest in more light switches.

Re: Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#158

Post by libertyEQ »

nopzor wrote: post #141
danellis wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sigh How many times do we have to do this? Google isn't selling your data to advertisers.

How many times do we have to do what? Google is absolutely selling your data to advertisers. If you mean they won't sell it to them in raw form I guess you're technically correct, and I'd of course agree with you, but I don't think this is the parent posters point. They aren't being altruistic by not doing this; if they did they wouldn't be able to monetize it anymore. Am I misunderstanding something here or are you…

I just watched an interview with Trump where the interviewer asked about the possibility of regulating tech and specifically mentioned all the info these large tech companies are gathering and "selling" our data. While it may be considered pedantic, I think the nuance is important. Fake news often has a kernel of truth in it and being sloppy about the facts has implications.

Here on HN, we know the specifics, but FOX viewers don't (for the most part).

Re: Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#159

Post by alkonaut »

iakh wrote: post #157
alkonaut wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tried to get a single outside light automated through a z-wave gaget hidden behind the switch. Endless hours later the thing is still either working intermittently or not at all. Even with the nodes in the network right next to each other the network is fragile as hell. I just can't believe how expensive z-wave things can be so much worse than the old 433mhz things that have been around for ages. I finally gave up an…

Z-wave is a mesh network, so the more devices you have the better the connectivity. If you only need a single device, try locating your hub as close to the switch as possible. Otherwise, ironically, the solution may be to invest in more light switches.

Yes. I considered the distance but before spending more money on switches I don't really need, I figured I'd try with the base next to the switch. Didn't work reliably there either. So I'm not going to dare buying more nodes.

Is there any standard that isnt mesh based? Hub and spoke with lots of power like wifi seems much smarter.

Seems like complete idiocy to use a fragile low power mesh network for something that a) has to have 99.9999 reliability (like lights) and also has unlimited power (2kW+ available at each node!!) like lights.

The reason I went with zwave was because of the need to work behind an existing switch. For sockets it would have been much easier with 433-plugs.

Re: Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#160

Post by iakh »

cardmagic wrote: post #84

Is anyone else here completely confused at how much hype there is around automated light management systems? I don’t get it. Is it really that hard to turn on and off lights manually that people really need all this stuff? What am I not getting?

Another benefit not already mentioned is home security. Getting some cheap zigbee window/door/presence senors, I was able to completely set up a home security system for < $200 by myself. That's about an order of magnitude less than existing solutions. Granted its a self-monitored solution, you could just as easily pay for a monitoring service afterwards.
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