I’m planning to build several WiFi connected devices for home automation: an AC remote control and air quality sensors. These devices would send data and be controlled through a local server. I’m considering two approaches: running custom software on a server PC (hardware to be determined) or integrating with Home Assistant’s protocols and purchasing their hardware. Would using Home Assistant be excessive for this use case?
In terms of software, yes. But HA can be run on nearly anything—there’s no need to buy their hardware to use it.
Just be careful with SD cards if you’re using SBCs. Home Assistant does a lot of writing and if your SD card can’t handle repeated writes you may suddenly lose everything. Keep backups to another device and have a replacement SD card ready if extended downtime is going to be a problem for you.
You can connect an SSD to these boards and boot from that instead of an SD card. Definitely the way to go especially considering SSDs dont really cost more than SD cards.
Booting from USB drives has worked well for me
Adding to this, I recommend a used mini PC. There’s lots of cheap used office hardware out there on eBay that is more powerful, more serviceable, and more flexible than the hardware they sell or a raspberry pi.
While there are some problems with used minipcs (notably drivers), i don’t think they are relevant if it is only going to be used as a Home Assistant
That’s a good point. This can help me with things like adding a DNS server (I’m assuming pi-hole can be run standalone on a mini PC)
If you’re going to run Home Assistant OS you’d be able to run anything that can run in docker. Some things are available to install directly inside the Home Assistant apps system, otherwise you can install portainer and run any docker capable software.
As others have said, you can run Home Assistant on anything if you want to just test it out. Their own hardware is a great choice though.
But to answer your broader question, yes. Home Assistant is the choice. It works better with literally everything else out there.
I’ll also vote to reconsider WiFi. Home Assistant supports a variety of local mesh networks that by default can’t connect to the cloud and whose devices are cheaper and lower power.
I use all three of zwave, Zigbee, and thread; ha works with whatever you need.
Can you comment further on the three mesh networks rhat you use?
I only use zigbee, but would consider branching out
I got into each mesh technology for specific devices. Home Assistant supports them all and they seem to coexist just fine in my use case.
I have a small to medium setup with only a few simple automations and a focus on voice control and scheduling
Preference
- Thread - given Apple, Amazon, and Google support and the standardization work, I expect this to be the future. Eventually. But I’m getting impatient. If I’m buying a device, I prefer Thread but usually it’s not yet
- z-Wave - my first, and most devices. Basically this was what was most available at local stores when I started. No complaints
- Zigbee - by far the biggest selection of simple, cheap sensors. I need to more of those
- all too much is WiFi but I try to avoid
But it also helps that my approach is generally switches and outlets. Hard-wired, predictable network, tend to be repeaters. I have comparatively fewer leaf nodes.
This approach also fits in with my biggest challenge. While my house is small, it’s an older one with dense materials that blocks a lot of radio signals. For example I have no cell phone reception inside yet strong signal just out any door. My focus on switches and outlets overcome this with a repeater in every room
So for example a few years back I got a z-wave IR blaster to control a mini-split AC because at the time I mostly used z-wave. I already had a z-wave light switch in the same room, acting as a repeater, so no worries about connectivity. Now I have both z-wave and Zigbee light switches in that room so expect both meshes to be strong for any future devices in that room
Yes. If there’s another open source project that has the coverage I’m not aware of it.
There is also OpenHAB, but I think Home Assistant is the more mature one of the two.
HA is definitely the largest adopted. OpenHab is probably more geared for developers, but has a more concise and powerful automation system.
As for hardware to run it on: get a cheap n100 Minipc and be done with it. Uses 6-12W, and it’s going to miles.kore efficient for this use than a regular PC.
you are Apple-centric:homebridge
There’s a mix: homebridge
You are out of mood stabilizers: arduino and an ESP32
Before HomeAssistant, OpenHab was the undisputed king. I still like them because they let you remotely access you home without having to subscribe to anything or set up any remote access methods
This implies that I am paying to access HA outside my network. I am not. You do not need any kind of subscription to access home assistant externally.
I choose to pay for remote access, but it’s for convenience and to support the developers. You are free to configure it yourself in a couple ways (and there is decent documentation) or do without remote access
I don’t know how you set up remote access for OpenHab, but from a quick glance at the web site it looks similar
