Home Assistant and offline home automation?

[Mr. Ingram's Computer Repair & Shoppe]

I am looking at upgrading the house to a dumber home automation. I want it to be all WAN, no outside connection. I am looking into:

https://www.home-assistant.io/

right now and I am curious on yalls opinions and input on smart home and options for privacy/data collection.

 

[Markverhyden]

Personally I looked, but never tried, at the X10/11 stuff from years ago. Never really had the time. But I'm no fan at all of the new stuff. I refuse to try any of it.

 

[phaZed]

I am using hass.io (Home Assistant) on a Pi3. Everything is LAN-only with SSL certs and all.. If you want WAN, you can decide on if you should/should not install certain plugins or buy certain products.

I have just started using HA, so I'm no expert. There has been a learning curve but it has "clicked" now and I'm starting to pick up on "what's going on". I looked into and tried a few of the other options but HA seems to be the go-to and it's easy to see why. That being said.. the interface "look and feel" is kinda lacking IMO.. but they are working on that with "Lovelace".. a new UI that is in beta... but I haven't got that far yet.

Check out BRUH Automation if you haven't already!

I refuse to have a "voice assistant speaker" like Alexa, Google, etc. I haven't used it yet, but apparently there is a built-in and local voice option to HA so I might check into that.

I am using some cheap ESP8266 D1 Mini's for pixel control for some of my "Pixels" around the house. They are running ESPixelstick.... which integrates as a light in HA. Tasmota for ESP8266 devices/Sonoff is a popular choice for other operations, as well.

Otherwise I have a HUE bridge with 12 color bulbs, 4 dimmer switches and 2 motion sensors.

2 LIFX bulbs.

1 WEMO switch and 1WEMO dimmer.

2 custom RGB pixel controllers; fishtank backlight and Christmas Tree (Obviously seasonal). Adding more, too.

I run 3 Ubiquiti AP's and a UniFi Gateway on a UniFi 24 port Switch.


Happy to answer any Q's as best I can.

 

[Mr. Ingram's Computer Repair & Shoppe]

I think I can see a problem right there.

(Disclaimer: My house is as dumb as I can make it, and we like it that way.)

-.- You know what I meant...

I am using hass.io (Home Assistant) on a Pi3. Everything is LAN-only with SSL certs and all.. If you want WAN, you can decide on if you should/should not install certain plugins or buy certain products.

I have just started using HA, so I'm no expert. There has been a learning curve but it has "clicked" now and I'm starting to pick up on "what's going on". I looked into and tried a few of the other options but HA seems to be the go-to and it's easy to see why. That being said.. the interface "look and feel" is kinda lacking IMO.. but they are working on that with "Lovelace".. a new UI that is in beta... but I haven't got that far yet.

Check out BRUH Automation if you haven't already!

I refuse to have a "voice assistant speaker" like Alexa, Google, etc. I haven't used it yet, but apparently there is a built-in and local voice option to HA so I might check into that.

I am using some cheap ESP8266 D1 Mini's for pixel control for some of my "Pixels" around the house. They are running ESPixelstick.... which integrates as a light in HA. Tasmota for ESP8266 devices/Sonoff is a popular choice for other operations, as well.

Otherwise I have a HUE bridge with 12 color bulbs, 4 dimmer switches and 2 motion sensors.

2 LIFX bulbs.

1 WEMO switch and 1WEMO dimmer.

2 custom RGB pixel controllers; fishtank backlight and Christmas Tree (Obviously seasonal). Adding more, too.

I run 3 Ubiquiti AP's and a UniFi Gateway on a UniFi 24 port Switch.


Happy to answer any Q's as best I can.

I will look into all the links and such! Most likely you'll be getting some PMs in the coming months. Got a lot on my main course plate, can't focus on this side dish to much, but looks like you got a lot of great info here!

 

[sapphirescales]

Personally I looked, but never tried, at the X10/11 stuff from years ago. Never really had the time. But I'm no fan at all of the new stuff. I refuse to try any of it.

+1 for X10 Home Automation. They had home automation stuff back in the 80's and 90's and even made software for MS-DOS! You could control all your lights and outlets via an MS-DOS program, set timers, etc. I have a client that still uses an old MS-DOS setup. You have to connect the control module through a serial port and it's amazing antiquated, but it works great! Not that I'm recommending MS-DOS stuff, but they have modern software for Windows as well as all new hardware that works with it. Might be worth checking out.

 

[River Valley Computer]

Personally I looked, but never tried, at the X10/11 stuff from years ago. Never really had the time. But I'm no fan at all of the new stuff. I refuse to try any of it.

It was all I could do to change all our bulbs to LED. It was worth it - dropped our monthly bill down by about $30-40/month.