Founder of Home Assistant here. Happy to answer any questions.
Are there plans for an Android app similar to the iPhone app? It's the one thing I miss about Smart Things
Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3
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Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3
#52Since 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."
Have been using https://www.home-assistant.io/components/emulated_hue/ for sometime. It does not use HA Cloud though (not required actually).
With this, all the components registered in HA are emulated as hue devices for Alexa.
Note: I use Echo Plus, which has the abilities to discover devices. Not sure if this works with Echo or Dot.
Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17827484
Thank you! Snips is the bomb, been tinkering around with it past week or so and really enjoying it. What are your thoughts / experiences towards snips? Anything cool I should try out
I am using it for basic stuff mostly and the experience was very positive. Also have a dev friend that introduced me to snips, who ordered a maker kit and can’t wait to code some stuff for the platform
Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3
#54Since this comment thread involved a lot of people talking about their smart devices, I’ll just put out a PSA: don’t bother with cheaper zwave light switches and dimmers :) if you’re looking for a high quality decent price option, just get Lutron Caseta. Or if you want higher end / better style, get Lutron’s RA 2 Select hub (basically Caseta++) for $100 more and then you can use Caseta dimmers or higher end Maestro dimmers that have a nicer interface (but cost 2x).
I’m speaking from experience: I put in a bunch of $35 zwave switches but they are physically worse (ex: thicker metal margins that make fitting wall plates more awkward) and they are more painful to work with the software (ex: setting high/low dimmer trims is awkward compared to Lutron’s in-app approach). I wish I had just gone with the $60 Casetas switches (plus remote if white is your color). The price difference is well worth it.
Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
My current favorite ones: - My GF is a bit forgetful and sometimes leaves her purse behind when leaving somewhere. I had an automation setup with an ibeacon in her purse and owntracks on her phone to detect when the purse is far away from her, and send me and her a notification - i built a bed occupancy sensor so hass knows if we're in bed or not, and disables automations that would otherwise be annoying (mainly the…
"i built a bed occupancy sensor so hass knows if we're in bed or not," Do you use a pressure sensor or PIR for that?
2x of these https://www.adafruit.com/product/1071 between the mattress and box spring, ultimately hooked up to a raspi zero w
Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
In addition to most of the things other people have reported above, I have: - Scripts that open/close curtains depending on sunset/sundown and whether we're on holiday (presence simulation) - My seedling box - it's an Ikea rack with styrofoam in which I have LED grow lights, a heating element and a fan to control temperature and which simulates different lighting conditions, to start seedlings and to do first ferment…
Hi. Can you provide details on the hardware and interfaces for the curtain setup?
I use Forest drapery rails (https://www.forestgroup.com/). They're awesome, they have a zwave interface build in (the ones I use - they have multiple systems) and they have been 100% rock solid for 4+ years for me. They behave like light dimmers, so you just send them a '50%' message to close them half way etc. Also, you can still open them by hand; if you give them a slight tug, they will open or close the rest by themselves depending on the current positions. Many electric curtain rails, you can't open and close by hand. So if, say, the babysitter tries to close them and she doesn't know that they're electrical, and she starts yanking them, it'll damage the motor. The ones from Forest don't have that.
Furthermore, the company had great service. I wanted these rails when they were just on the market, and I told my installer what I wanted, but he didn't know about the zwave type yet. So I called my local Forest office (in the Netherlands) and they immediately put me through to an engineer who gave me the SKU for the installer to order, and he also gave me excellent advice on how to configure things (in a technical way, not in a 'this is what the manual says' way) and on the different options. They have different types, with different motors, depending on the curtain length. He said 'try the light one first, I think they'll work fine for your length. If they don't work as you want, you can just swap out the motors, it's all compatible. Just tell your installer to return it to , label it and have your installer call me on if he has any questions.' That was such a breath of fresh air, being used to companies that jerk you around from one call center lackey to another, reading you prepared scripts with snippets of the manual that you've already read half a dozen times.
Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
"i built a bed occupancy sensor so hass knows if we're in bed or not," Do you use a pressure sensor or PIR for that?
2x of these https://www.adafruit.com/product/1071 between the mattress and box spring, ultimately hooked up to a raspi zero w
Aha those are exactly what I was looking for a few years ago when I tried to do the same, I only found tiny ones with difficult to use interfaces. Thanks!
Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3
#58Founder of Home Assistant here. Happy to answer any questions.
Are there plans for an Android app similar to the iPhone app? It's the one thing I miss about Smart Things
I don't expect an official app. There are some 3rd party ones.
Our frontend is a PWA which integrates very well into Android.
Actionable push notifications can be achieved with the notify.HTML5 platform[1]. Nice writeup what you can achieve here[2].
The only thing that cannot be achieved with the PWA is sending location updates for presence detection. But that can easily be achieved with OwnTracks [3] sending updates over HTTP.
[1]: https://www.home-assistant.io/components/notify.html5/ [2]: https://blog.usejournal.com/how-i-use-home-automation-for-wo... [3]: https://owntracks.org/ [4]: https://www.home-assistant.io/components/device_tracker.ownt...
Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3
#59Also agreed with the zwave sentiment on a hardware side lightbody. I'm building out a multi car garage at the moment for the wifey and looking for something that adopts to multi-room voice commands and automation. So far tried a few open source pi configurations but felt at a loss for additional benefits. Home Auto was nice and did good stuff! Moved to Snips recently (someone mentioned them in the thread i think?) and have really enjoyed it. Tried out their live console which is quite nice. Privacy is an added bonus in my opinion but the multi language support (french) is fantastic. A ton of cool projects going around though.
UI for end user is also stinging point so many do wrong. What else are you looking for? Purposes, end goal?
Re: Home Assistant: Open-source home automation platform running on Python 3
#60I 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…
In addition to most of the things other people have reported above, I have: - Scripts that open/close curtains depending on sunset/sundown and whether we're on holiday (presence simulation) - My seedling box - it's an Ikea rack with styrofoam in which I have LED grow lights, a heating element and a fan to control temperature and which simulates different lighting conditions, to start seedlings and to do first ferment…
I'm curious what printer you run that uses a lot of standby power. I have checked several with a kill-a-watt and none of them seem to use more than a watt in standby mode.