Category: System

System

Automation with Node-RED

In Home Assistant, automating tasks is done through a number of form-based screens under Automations, Scenes, Scripts and Helpers. You specify the entities, conditions, triggers and actions that are to be performed in templates. An alternative to this is flow-based automation. I prefer the flow-based approach over the form-based method because it offers flow visualization, and without the verboseness of forms. Node-RED is the tool … Continue reading Automation with Node-RED

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System

Home Assistant Community Store (HACS) – Updated Jan 2021

HACS is a repository of community-driven custom components that can be installed into Home Assistant. It offers a GUI-driven interface that simplifies the installation process. I have already installed two custom components from HCAS – Meross Cloud IoT and WyzeSense, and they went smoothly. However, instructions on setting up HCAS itself are scatter over a few places, so I consolidated the instructions here for the … Continue reading Home Assistant Community Store (HACS) – Updated Jan 2021

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System

Integrating ESP8266/ESP32 Micro-controller

ESP8266 and ESP32 are low-cost micro-controllers by Espressif Systems. They come in various form of development boards and are very popular in the Arduino development environment. The Make Advisor website has reviews on some of the popular ESP8266 and ESP32 boards. Since my home automation system is based on Home Assistant, I started to experiment with custom firmware to enable them to be controlled directly … Continue reading Integrating ESP8266/ESP32 Micro-controller

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System

Secure Connection with ACME

I’ve been using DuckDNS add-in for https connection to Home Assistant. Configuring this add-in was relatively straightforward and I described this in my post “Accessing Home Assistant from the Internet”. However, the obvious drawback of this method is that I’m tied to using DuckDNS for distributed DNS service. Enters ACME, an IETF standard for Automated Certificate Management Environment. It allows me to use encryption with … Continue reading Secure Connection with ACME

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System

Accessing Home Assistant from the Internet

The home automation system so far works within my home network. Making the system accessible over the Internet will make it a lot more useful. One advantage Hass.io has over the Hasbian version is the availability of add-ons. The DuckDNS add-on (https://www.home-assistant.io/addons/duckdns/) adds DDNS, SSL certificate using Let’s Encrypt service. This will enable secured external access to the dashboard. First register a free account at … Continue reading Accessing Home Assistant from the Internet

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System

Controlling the Hub

Having Home Assistant running on Docker Hypervisor adds a layer of complexity to the installation. The install creates two separate docker containers: hassio_supervisor and homeassistant. They need to be managed through docker. In addition, there are three services created: hassio-supevisor, hassio-apparmor, and docker. This post contains useful commands for controlling the Home Assistant with Docker. Docker command: List running containers: Stop running container: Start/stop Docker … Continue reading Controlling the Hub

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System

Installing Home Assistant on the Raspberry Pi

The official Home Assistant blog post outlined four installation methods. Only one of these methods supports add-on component, while allowing me to retaining full control of the operating system on the Raspberry Pi. This was called Hass.io for generic Unix, and is now known as Home Assistant Supervised. Here is the procedure I used to setup my Raspberry Pi 3B+ as a dedicated home automation … Continue reading Installing Home Assistant on the Raspberry Pi

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