Proxmox HomeAssistant setup

[Nobu]

So I decided to get off my lazy bum and do something with the HP slim desktop I had got a while ago for router duty. I have a separate router solution now, so now it's a server.

Installed Proxmox, and loaded up a HomeAssistant VM via this script (checked it, seemed fine). Now HA is doing it's initial startup housekeeping.

Any suggestions for things to do first with HomeAssistant? I want to put it and other IoT devices on their own vlan, but haven't delved that deeply into networking yet. I have a zigbee usb stick and a few door sensors, smart thermostat (sensi), some LG devices, litter-robot, and a smart tv.

 

[Grentz]

its great to start with including services even if cloud based that you already have devices on.

Then you can get accustomed to the entity / dashboard buildout at a simple level.

Its amazingly flexible and addicting

 

[Nobu]

Got the LG ThinQ service set up. All the LG stuff seems to be working despite being on a sectioned off ssid, because LG's server acts sort of as a proxy I guess. The window unit doesn't allow setting the setpoint through their API though, so best you can do is turn it off when it gets where you want...less than ideal. Still, nice that you can get the room temp and humidity, and set cool/dehumidify/off at least.

Also set up OpenWeatherMap with a free token, it's a bit more useful than the default weather service.

Plugged in my zigbee stick and passed it to the VM, no problem. Got it set up and it seems to be working, but I haven't paired any devices yet.

Sensi Lite thermostat will need a helper to get working, HomeKit was suggested a few places. It only supports Amazon, google, apple, and some other proprietary hub.

 

[Vermillion]

Got the LG ThinQ service set up. All the LG stuff seems to be working despite being on a sectioned off ssid, because LG's server acts sort of as a proxy I guess. The window unit doesn't allow setting the setpoint through their API though, so best you can do is turn it off when it gets where you want...less than ideal. Still, nice that you can get the room temp and humidity, and set cool/dehumidify/off at least.

Also set up OpenWeatherMap with a free token, it's a bit more useful than the default weather service.

Plugged in my zigbee stick and passed it to the VM, no problem. Got it set up and it seems to be working, but I haven't paired any devices yet.

Sensi Lite thermostat will need a helper to get working, HomeKit was suggested a few places. It only supports Amazon, google, apple, and some other proprietary hub.

The world of Home Assistant is a fun one. Over the last 18 months I've really moved into it. I had a leak in my basement from a bad valve in my washing machine that started it all.

I now have Bluetooth sensors (my HA is on a RPi4 in the basement) in the basement to let me know if water is detected. They blast a notification over all of my Google Home's and hit me with a push notification. I'll soon be getting an additional device for water protection. It can actually shut off my water main if water is detected. https://www.thesmartesthouse.com/pr...s-700-series-titan-water-valve-actuator-zac36

I've automated many of my lights via wall switches which are WiFi only (I avoid 3rd party clouds as much as I can). Mix that with motion sensors and my kids can no longer leave lights on in the basement.

I use two Honeywell T6 Pro thermostats to control the house temperature. WiFi only. Works great.

I use Zigbee for some devices like Smart Plugs for places where a switch can't be used. I also have 4 sensors in our back garden for monitoring the moisture level of the soil so we know when to water the plants. That also has a device attached so that it auto-waters the garden.

If you look at HACS (https://www.hacs.xyz/) there's a lot more cool stuff from the community. For example I can tap into my Hyundai Palisade via their Bluelink API so I can monitor it, track it live on the map, and have automations for when certain things happen.

I have HA monitoring my Pi-holes so I get notifications when updates are available.

You can also do things via the Map. Set up zones so things trigger when you enter/exit them. For example I have a trigger so that if I'm at a certain grocery store for at least a certain amount of time and then I cross two other zones it means I'm headed home. So a broadcast goes out to the house so my kids know to meet me outside to help bring in the groceries.

And honestly what I do just scratches the surface. I have friends with lux sensors so the lights in their house auto dim/brighten based on cloud cover. They also do things with NFC tags For example, he drops his phone on his desk on top the sticker and all the lights and things turn to what he wants them to for when he works. Drop on a tag in the entertainment area and the lights dim, TV turns on and it's time for movies.

The sky is the limit for what you want HA to do.

 

[Nobu]

Added thermostat, air purifier, tv, litterbox.
Set up the dashboard the way I like it.

Also installed the motionEye addon, but I lost the power brick for my asus router so I couldn't set it up as a bridge and hook up my cameras. Another day, maybe.
Edit: Oh yeah, ordered some moisture detectors for water heater, ac, and under sink. Need to go pick them up at some point, keep forgetting.

Edit2: Made a new tile for temp display using apexcharts-card (installed via HACS). Looks decent, almost full functionality of builtin. Haven't figured out how to show "ac cooling" state, guessing I'll need a second graph for that. Here's the yaml for what I made:

type: custom:apexcharts-card
graph_span: 12h
span:
  end: day
yaxis:
  - id: Temp
    min: 60
    max: 100
header:
  standard_format: true
  show: true
  title: Living Room Temperature
series:
  - entity: climate.air_conditioner
    attribute: current_temperature
    stroke_width: 1
    curve: stepline
    unit: °F
    name: Indoor Temp
    color: 11f
  - entity: sensor.openweathermap_feels_like_temperature
    stroke_width: 1
    curve: stepline
    name: Feels like
    color: f33
  - entity: sensor.openweathermap_temperature
    stroke_width: 1
    curve: stepline
    name: Outdoor Temp
    color: 3ff

 

[Vermillion]

If you want really slick dashboards look into the Bubble Card. https://github.com/Clooos/Bubble-Card

 

[SamirD]

The world of Home Assistant is a fun one. Over the last 18 months I've really moved into it. I had a leak in my basement from a bad valve in my washing machine that started it all.

I now have Bluetooth sensors (my HA is on a RPi4 in the basement) in the basement to let me know if water is detected. They blast a notification over all of my Google Home's and hit me with a push notification. I'll soon be getting an additional device for water protection. It can actually shut off my water main if water is detected. https://www.thesmartesthouse.com/pr...s-700-series-titan-water-valve-actuator-zac36

I've automated many of my lights via wall switches which are WiFi only (I avoid 3rd party clouds as much as I can). Mix that with motion sensors and my kids can no longer leave lights on in the basement.

I use two Honeywell T6 Pro thermostats to control the house temperature. WiFi only. Works great.

I use Zigbee for some devices like Smart Plugs for places where a switch can't be used. I also have 4 sensors in our back garden for monitoring the moisture level of the soil so we know when to water the plants. That also has a device attached so that it auto-waters the garden.

If you look at HACS (https://www.hacs.xyz/) there's a lot more cool stuff from the community. For example I can tap into my Hyundai Palisade via their Bluelink API so I can monitor it, track it live on the map, and have automations for when certain things happen.

I have HA monitoring my Pi-holes so I get notifications when updates are available.

You can also do things via the Map. Set up zones so things trigger when you enter/exit them. For example I have a trigger so that if I'm at a certain grocery store for at least a certain amount of time and then I cross two other zones it means I'm headed home. So a broadcast goes out to the house so my kids know to meet me outside to help bring in the groceries.

And honestly what I do just scratches the surface. I have friends with lux sensors so the lights in their house auto dim/brighten based on cloud cover. They also do things with NFC tags For example, he drops his phone on his desk on top the sticker and all the lights and things turn to what he wants them to for when he works. Drop on a tag in the entertainment area and the lights dim, TV turns on and it's time for movies.

The sky is the limit for what you want HA to do.

This is all pretty cool! And none of the cloud nonsense? I like the idea of automation, but hate the clouds and remote kill/damage/upgrade capability that access gives the companies.

 

[Vermillion]

This is all pretty cool! And none of the cloud nonsense? I like the idea of automation, but hate the clouds and remote kill/damage/upgrade capability that access gives the companies.

For the most part yes. Sometimes they need an app to initialize but after that the app goes away and I restrict them to only talking on the LAN and no Internet access. Certain appliances I can't do that with though. Like my eufy vaccum and my dishwaster. They need to be able to access the Internet. For the most part though I'm pretty much WiFi only and not talking with the Internet with my IOT devices.

 

[SamirD]

For the most part yes. Sometimes they need an app to initialize but after that the app goes away and I restrict them to only talking on the LAN and no Internet access. Certain appliances I can't do that with though. Like my eufy vaccum and my dishwaster. They need to be able to access the Internet. For the most part though I'm pretty much WiFi only and not talking with the Internet with my IOT devices.

Nice! So those honeywell thermostats can be controlled but aren't internet enabled or are you blocking that?

 

[Nobu]

This is all pretty cool! And none of the cloud nonsense? I like the idea of automation, but hate the clouds and remote kill/damage/upgrade capability that access gives the companies.

Yeah, the LG stuff I have can sorta be controlled, some features disappear if it's configured a certain way, which confused me at first. If my window unit is set to dry, for ex, you can't set the temperature setpoint.

My Sensi thermostat is sorta unofficially supported, but it's through their undocumented app api, you have to sign in and grab the cookie from a browser to use it and I can't for whatever reason. Access for it is through their web server.

The litter robot I have is the same, I think, but it actually works.

My LG smart TV can be controlled through the smart things api or the webos api, the latter seems to work better. Neither needs internet access, afaik.

The water sensors I got use zigbee communication (so you'll need a hub or a host device/controller). They are short range devices, and only transmit occasionally (unless you get a non-battery powered device), so the info you get is more sporadic, but that's fine for something like a water sensor. They do transmit immediately when a button is pressed or water is detected.

 

[SamirD]

Yeah, the LG stuff I have can sorta be controlled, some features disappear if it's configured a certain way, which confused me at first. If my window unit is set to dry, for ex, you can't set the temperature setpoint.

My Sensi thermostat is sorta unofficially supported, but it's through their undocumented app api, you have to sign in and grab the cookie from a browser to use it and I can't for whatever reason. Access for it is through their web server.

The litter robot I have is the same, I think, but it actually works.

My LG smart TV can be controlled through the smart things api or the webos api, the latter seems to work better. Neither needs internet access, afaik.

The water sensors I got use zigbee communication (so you'll need a hub or a host device/controller). They are short range devices, and only transmit occasionally (unless you get a non-battery powered device), so the info you get is more sporadic, but that's fine for something like a water sensor. They do transmit immediately when a button is pressed or water is detected.

For years, I was looking for a LAN controllable thermostat that didn't need some sort of cloud stuff for our businesses, but never found one.

Pretty cool list of stuff that works. I know there's is (or used to be) a roku app that would use the api to act as a remote so you could control it from your phone/tablet.