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Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

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Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#151

Post by rcarmo »

contravariant wrote: post #17
kkielhofner wrote: post #5

Home Assistant[1] is the best approach I've found for this. It's pretty amazing but has a pretty steep learning curve (although they're getting better and better at this). The real power of HA is the rich integration ecosystem[2], the Community Store[3], and that it runs locally (more reliable and much faster for things like motion sensors, etc). It expresses everything from every integration as an entity in various…

Does anyone know how Home Assistant compares to node-red? As far as I can tell Home Assistant is better at building a dashboard of things, but node-red is better at actually automating specific actions (unless you want to grapple with HA's YAML based scripting language). Is this about right? Is it possible to combine Home Assistant and node-red, or has Home Assistant outgrown the need for something like node-red?

I've settled on homebridge to talk to the Home app on my iPhone (which is where all the automation is done, and then executed on an Apple TV) and a little Node-RED for custom flows.

I have zero YAML to maintain, and I'm happier for it.

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#152

Post by klft »

The Book "Control Your Home with Raspberry Pi" by Koen Vervloesem is excellent imho. His approach centers around mqtt and he shows how to connect ZigBee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth and 433.92 MHz devices. He is very into security, showing how all communication is secured via TLS. He also shows how to setup VPN so you can access your home automation system securely from outside.

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#153

Post by cryo »

sleepingadmin wrote: post #2

An upcoming project of mine is to setup magic mirror: https://magicmirror.builders/ Then start moving my other stuff onto the rpi as well like pihole for example. I wonder if RPI has a zigbee module or similar for automation. It doesn't seem like it? Anyone ever find anything like that?

Beside several USB dongle options there is the RaspBee II module for the io header https://phoscon.de/en/raspbee2

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#154

Post by rcarmo »

iandanforth wrote: post #18
kkielhofner wrote: post #5

Home Assistant[1] is the best approach I've found for this. It's pretty amazing but has a pretty steep learning curve (although they're getting better and better at this). The real power of HA is the rich integration ecosystem[2], the Community Store[3], and that it runs locally (more reliable and much faster for things like motion sensors, etc). It expresses everything from every integration as an entity in various…

How do you handle network security? I wouldn't trust an IoT device on the same network as any of my family's computers or phones for example.

I just don't use Google or Alexa (devices from those ecosystems punch holes through my home gateway for a bunch of server-side glue that is extremely ill-advised, and a bigger risk than LAN security IMHO), moved most things (sensors, typically) to ZigBee, and reflashed everything I could with Tasmota.

It's extremely inconvenient to have IoT devices segregated from, say, TVs and media devices, especially if you rely on AirPlay or Chromecast to get audio around the place, so I just secure my Macs (and PCs) properly as if we were still traveling and visiting clients.

I keep tabs on Apple security bulletins (HomeKit has relatively few issues, and works mostly inside the LAN except if you're outside the house - it then switches to a variation of the old iCloud "back to my X" tunneling).

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#155

Post by rcarmo »

artificialLimbs wrote: post #36
alufers wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally just flash everything possible with open-source software. All my light switches and Wi-Fi lightbulbs run Tasmota, which I password protect and semi- regularly update. The one odball is my Gree AC unit, which is on a separate WiFi network and subnet (I just run hostapd on my RPi since it's close-by). But it's more to protect it from the outside, not the other way, because it's controlled with JSON sent ov…

>> When this happens and the compressor is engaged it will freeze up, possibly destroying itself and start flooding the floor, because the condensation pump won't turn on. Do not buy Gree. Check.

Or maybe not automate destructive devices. Might be simpler and more responsible anyway, since equivalent harm can be had if your kids ask Siri to warm up the house...

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#156

Post by driverdan »

m4tthumphrey wrote: post #55

Slightly OT: > Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi If you can get hold of one! I've been looking for a Pi4 for ages to use with PiHole but sold out everywhere, some have back orders for 2023 O_O Anyone got any recommendations of other devices that work well with PiHole? I have a Mac Mini acting as a home server but from what I've read, PiHole does not run great on it via Docker...

Pihole will run on anything and works fine in Docker. I'm currently running it via docker on a Pi but will eventually move it to a more standard server with other services.

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#157

Post by amanzi »

djanogo wrote: post #132
zrail wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just migrated all of my "production" home things to an HP Elitedesk 800 G3. It's great! Maxed out the ram and threw a 1TB SSD in. I'm using Proxmox and have: * home assistant VM * pi-hole primary LXC * UniFi controller LXC * media stack LXC (jellyfin is installed directly on the host to minimize hardware transcoding issues) * a VM running various docker containers with dokku, including AppDaemon It's barely ticking…

Cool, and your elitedesk I believe comes with remote BIOS access with Intel vPro, that's even cooler, never have to plugin display.

I have three Dell Optiplex micro PCs with vPro running Proxmox. It's so nice having full remote access to them, makes life so much easier.

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#158

Post by gregable »

rcarmo wrote: post #138
kkielhofner wrote: post #5

Home Assistant[1] is the best approach I've found for this. It's pretty amazing but has a pretty steep learning curve (although they're getting better and better at this). The real power of HA is the rich integration ecosystem[2], the Community Store[3], and that it runs locally (more reliable and much faster for things like motion sensors, etc). It expresses everything from every integration as an entity in various…

I gave up on it solely because of the GUI. It's confusing as heck and very far from Apple's Home app, which is the preferred UX of the CFO (Chief Family Officer), even for fairly complex automations. So I just used homebridge for everything, with a smattering of Node-RED for (very few) device shims (it is _very_ easy to do MQTT handling with it). Also, I now have zero YAML to maintain, which is also a boon. Kudos, th…

For folks here I strongly recommend installing the appdaemon integration and just writing python scripts. The downside is there is a good bit of learning curve and time investment just to get the hello world going (turn on a light at sunset?).

Once you are there, you can write shared libraries, abstract away whatever you want, have legit tests, and just do anything you would normally want in your coding environment (vscode, auto-formatters, source control, etc). Obviously not the right recommendation for a consumer system, but if you are like me and feel more comfortable with a programming language, it's the way to go.

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#159

Post by syshum »

nomel wrote: post #117
syshum wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me I mainly use Zigbee and Zwave Devices not WiFi Devices. I am sadden that wifi seems to be taking over and ZigBee and Zwave are starting to lose favor.

I like to believe that it's because matter protocol is on its way, so hardware isn't being developed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter_(standard) But, I think it's actually because wifi is easier for the average person to get working. With Zigbee, you need a Zigbee hub, but sometimes you need a brand specific Zigbee hub, sometimes you don't (even though it's advertised that you do), and sometimes the Zigbee compl…

I must be lucky then because I have lot of Zigbee and Zwave devices all running Transmitting to Nortek GoControl USB stick attached to a rPI running Home Assistant.

I have several vendors of both Zwave and Zigbee Sensors, HVAC thermostat, Bulbs, Switches, etc.. All of them play nice with each other, and FAR FAR simpler to setup than WiFi which often requires the use of some weird mobile app, and play hopsotch with the networks..

Zigbee I just pair them to the GoControl and it is done

hell I even bought some no name used Door Sensors off ebay that were Zigbee, I mainly use them for Temp monitoring in various places.. They had no problem connecting to my network either

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#160

Post by fernovus »

nerdjon wrote: post #7

I have to ask others, have people had good luck with this? I have tried to do this multiple times, with multiple models of Pi and every time after 6ish months it just seems to completely stop working. I can't get it to boot even off of a new sd card. Am I doing something wrong or does the hardware really not want to be run consistently in this manner? I have since decided to just run some home automation VM's on my m…

It's super doable, especially if you store your root in a HDD partition. Using an USB flash drive would be the same as relying on a MicroSD, not the ideal for 24/7/365 usage
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