Home assistant

[Tradie]

As I venture down this home assistant journey, I have found that ther eis just seems to be too much noise, too many videos and distractions, that take hours and hours to filter through until you find what you are looking for or even a video that makes sense to a beginner.

My thought is because this seems to growing, and I am getting a lot more requests from people who want everything on one platform, it might be good time to setup an evening or weekend tribe meet, where people of different levels can meet up and share their experiences and assist people who want to get started, with the setup or just improve the system they current have setup.

The other option would be to create a list of items you want to automate or just view on a single dashboard, create a space where people can jump onboard and share their experience.

Buying product is another challenge, this would be a great opportunity to setup online product sales.

[Tradie]

What is it that I want to do:

I dont want to do silly things like open blinds or have silly sensors dotted around the house, switching on lights, tried that in the past and eventually just removed everything after numerous complaints from family members. I also dont want to spend R30k on an entry level home automation kit. The call out fees for specialists in this field are not cheap.

I want tablets on the wall, and a touch screen in my office with access to the following:

Alarm system - arm and disarm, notifications of any violented zones which includes a short recorded video of the trigger area.

CCTV - Access to live footage of all the cameras around the property, with facial and number plate recognition, highlighted in a block.

The solar backup system - Data displayed in real time, linked directly to the inverter.

Geysers - Real time temperature data of inside the geyser and at various pipe locations around the property, including the the trend of when and how much power is used.

Gate - I want a constant live feed from the camera facing the gate, with a switch to open and close.

Pool - Having details about the pool PH, and adjustments to the pool timer, depending on the weather would be great

TV - the remote on my phone, this is already setup and just this, makes the setup worth the time I have already spent tinkering, no more looking for the remote, I can walk in the room use my phone to control any TV in the house. I can wait to get a large screen smart TV for the gym area, this space will have google or homekit or whatever, so that when you training, there is nothing worse than having to press buttons on a remote increase the volume or change the video or music.

Office/workshop/storeroom (my space) - I want facial or finger print recognition on all my space locks, so when I walk up to the space/room, the door must unlock, lighting set depending on the time of day and weather, equipment to switch on, including the radio, messages, emails and the like to pop up on the screen and important meeting etc, I will work on it once the system is in place.

[Tradie]

Now that I know what I want, this is where the real challenge starts, what do you add?

You have a Pi, HA flashed on an SD card, a local dashboard setup on your PC, a few devices linked and now you ready to start adding stuff.

It is good idea to look at a hub of sorts, then purchase devices compatible with the hub. Apparently there is a small fee to pay if you want to use HA online, when away from the local network.

From my limited experience, very limited, it sounds like an Hubitat or Aqara is a good idea for many devices, but hey I plan to do a lot more homework before I outlay a bunch of cash, I dont want any devices which require subscription, so I need to be careful when selecting the devices.

If you are going throw tons of cash at the home automation system, then it might pay to get in professionals and use a commercial product.

[Tradie]

I am glad I decided to drop into this rabbit hole again, thanks to the huge improvements from the last time I tried, it has become a lot easier to navigate and setup devices etc.

Anyone have any better solutions or tips, feel free to add.

Home assistant an entry level PLC like the siemens logo ( I have in my draw, just lost interest, but now it time to reactivate it) and kinycony could be the solution we have all been waiting for.... throw in a bit Ai and the sky is the limit.

I have a siemens logo to add to the automation.

https://www.siemens.com/global/en/products/automation/systems/industrial/plc/logo.html

I looked into the Span DB, but the cost is out of my budget, so this is the next option or I am going to look into solid state relays and Pi devices to do what thise fella is doing.

https://www.youtube.com/@KinCony

Here's a breakdown:
Home Assistant (Core):
The core software is free and open-source. You can run it on various devices like a Raspberry Pi or a dedicated device like Home Assistant Green.
Nabu Casa Subscription:
This optional subscription service provides:
Remote Access: Access your Home Assistant instance from anywhere using a secure and encrypted connection.
Cloud Backup: Automatically back up your Home Assistant setup to the cloud.
Alexa and Google Assistant Integration: Allows you to control your smart home devices using voice assistants.
Cost:
The Nabu Casa subscription is priced at $6.50 USD per month or $65 USD annually, according to Nabu Casa. This price is exclusive of any local VAT or sales tax.
Alternatives for Remote Access:
You can also set up remote access using port forwarding on your router, which is a free option.
In summary: You can use Home Assistant for free to automate your smart home locally. If you want remote access and cloud-based features, you'll need to subscribe to Nabu Casa, which is a paid service.