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Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

home-assistant.io

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Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#12
post #5

I have a raspberry pi where I installed Home Assistant a few months ago when I moved into my new home. I did a little bit of messing with it, but stopped while waiting to have more devices that could communicate with it. What are some of the more useful things people have found they are able to accomplish with this, and what was the best way to go about them? Ideas I currently am toying with: presence sensors to turn…

some of the stuff i've wired up around my house:

* zwave motion sensors that can turn on the stairs lights at night when I start to walk down

* door/window sensors that will automatically turn the AC off if they are open for more than a minute.

* several methods of presence detection for anyone in the house, and ensuring the doors are locked, lights out, and garage doors down if nobody is home (after an announcement on the google homes just in case anyone somehow is still home)

* automatic notifications to my wife's phone when i'm on my way home after work so she would know when to start dinner (we don't use this one any more as I work from home, but it beat getting phone calls and me guessing how long I was from home every day!)

* notifications that show an image of who is at the front door when there is motion there

* an alert if a door in the house is left open for more than 1 minute

* a vibration sensor combined with a tiny hall sensor on the door of the washer/dryer to notify me when laundry is done (trying to measure power usage on 220v wiring was looking to be more annoyance than it was worth, so i went a different route!)

And one of my favorites that i'm working on right now:

* a system to measure rainfall amount and only turn on the reclaimed water sprinklers when it's not enough, but adjust the runtime accordingly.

Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#14
At the time I started rolling my own home automation software, Home Assistant didn't do what I needed, but if I was starting today with where it's at now, I would almost certainly also be using Home Assistant. It now supports what it was missing before.

Truly unreal number of integrations built for it now.

Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#15
post #7

Founder of Home Assistant here. Happy to answer any questions.

Is it possible to combine this with snips.ai? So you have voice control on the device it self or run snips on another device and let it send commands to the home assistant device?

Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#16
post #6
post #4

This project is far and away becoming the standard for Home Automation. Incredible to watch over the last couple years.

Not only that, but Home Assistant is by far my favorite example of a well run "crowd run" open source project. There's no big company bankrolling it (well there kinda is since ubiquiti hired the creator, but not to the same extent something like Chromium is just google), there are a HUGE number of committers, and the structure encourages people to maintain and improve their own contributions via 3rd party packages. T…

Thank you, really appreciate this kind of feedback :)

I store these kind comments in my notes and whenever people are asses online, I always go through the stored notes to know why we do what we do.

Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#17
post #6
post #4

This project is far and away becoming the standard for Home Automation. Incredible to watch over the last couple years.

Not only that, but Home Assistant is by far my favorite example of a well run "crowd run" open source project. There's no big company bankrolling it (well there kinda is since ubiquiti hired the creator, but not to the same extent something like Chromium is just google), there are a HUGE number of committers, and the structure encourages people to maintain and improve their own contributions via 3rd party packages. T…

Agreed 100%. I think a lot of the credit goes to @balloob (Paulus Schoutsen).

Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#18

Is there an on-device voice assistant for home assistant? I looked at snips.ai but debating if this fits my use case. I just need something to turn on/off my lights (and adjust color) and maybe play music through my TV.

I use snips regularly, set it up for music and lighting control just like you haha. I really enjoy how easy it was to setup - have a ton of Pis sitting and gadgets sitting around. Are you looking to get their maker kit? Or use your own setup?

Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#19
post #13

Since there are eyes on this thread: Has anyone successfully linked their HA Cloud account with Alexa? I keep on getting "We were unable to link Home Assistant at this time."

I found the troubleshooting section really helpful, especially the part about exposing a single entry when linking with Alexa. Once I did that I successfully linked the two.

Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3

#20
post #13

Since there are eyes on this thread: Has anyone successfully linked their HA Cloud account with Alexa? I keep on getting "We were unable to link Home Assistant at this time."

We're working with Amazon support in trying to pin down why this is happening but the support response time is slow. Our end looks all fine and the majority of people are able to link their account.

You can try some of these troubleshooting steps[1]. If you are on Twitter or Discord, PM me (@balloob) your username and an exact timestamp that linking failed so I can forward it as another example to Amazon.

[1]: https://twitter.com/clstokes/status/1019039457339535360

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