Welcome to theglus's Home Assistant setup. I hope you find value in the projects and documentation I've been working on. I'll be continuting to update my documentaion in the coming weeks so stay tuned.
My Home Assistant setup is pretty basic but it gets the job done without any hiccups. | Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 4GB | Raspbee II | [SanDisk Extreme 64GB MicroSD]https://a.co/d/6piTlaW) | Argon Neo Case |
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I opted to go the Zigbee route primarily because I really like the Aqara platform. I landed on the Raspbee II over the Conbee as it just seemed like a more elegant solution. It's a little bit of a pain to initially setup, but after that it's smooth sailing.
Living in a 950 sqft Loft apartment, I don't have to worry about signal strength. My setup consists of a Google WiFi puck in the Living Room. This is my primary router: one end connects to my in-wall ethernet port and the other end to a TP-Link 8-port network switch. | Google Wifi | TP-Link Switch | MoCa Network Adapter |
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But you can't have a mesh network with just one puck, so in order to eliminate the potential for any deadzones, I've placed another puck upstairs in the Loft.
I routinely stream games via Moonlight from my desktop computer (in the Office) to the TV (in the Living Room). Initially, I did this over WiFi, but had very little success. Fortunately, there is a coax outlet right under my desk, so using ethernet-over-coax, I am able to hardwire to the network switch in the Living Room.
I'm currently utilizing Nabu Casa to leverage Google Assistant via the aforementioned Google Home devices to enable voice controls. I mainly use voice commands to trigger the lights, music, and theater system. I would like to setup voice commands for Winston and Kirby in the near future.
I recently built out my home theater system centered around my Denon S960H + NVIDIA SHIELD TV Pro and managed by Home Assistant using denonavr , androidtv , and media_player . The system is primarly controlled using the NVIDIA SHIELD Toblerone as it can accomplish almost everything I need via CEC. The main gaps currently in the system are the following Denon buttons Setup , Options , Info , Back , ECO , Input and the following Sony Bravia buttons Settings , Home . I'm working to create a series of custom:button-cards and
media_player-popup-cards to control my Home Theater with the ultimate goal of eliminating the need for all remotes but the Tobelerone. |
Denon 960H | Polk S35 | Polk S10 | Polk S50 | NVIDIA SHIELD TV Pro | Sony TV |
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I have a Levovo Smart Tab M8 that is docked in my living room that I use to access my Lovelace Dashboards including my Home Theater controls in Home Assistant.
I have a series of Google Home and Nest Mini's scattered throughout the apartment for the purpose of multi-room audio. The audio quality is subpar, but it gets the job done for now. I'm planning on updating to several pairs of Google Nest Audio smart speakers. | Google Nest Mini | Google Nest Audio | Google Nest Hub | Lenovo Smart Clock | Lenovo M8 Smart Tablet |
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The Google Nest Hub lives in the loft and is used as a control panel, picture frame, and alarm clock. The Lenovo Smart Clock lives in the downstairs bedroom (referred to in HA as Office) for use as an alarm clock and simplified control panel.
Dyson Pure Cool Purifying Fan TP04 | Frigidaire Cool Connect Portable AC FGPC1244T1 | Airmega 400S Air Purifier | Roborock S4 Robot Vacuum | LG Smart Washer WM3900HBA | LG Smart Dryer DLEX3900B |
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My climate situation is pretty simple, just a fan and portable AC. The Dyson air purifying fan (Kirby) lives in the loft and is WiFi enabled. Shortly after purchase I realized it lacked the ability to integrate with Google Assistant, this became a huge driver in me exploring Home Assistant. I was pleasantly surprised to learn it contains a temperature
, humidity
, aqi
, and dust
sesnor. I successfully integrated Kirby with Home Assistant and am utilizing the tempurature
and humidity
sensors in my Lovelace dashboard. The Climate Kirby automation was created to allow me to stop using the Dyson app for various scheduling functionality.
My apartment has casement windows so my AC options were fairly limited. The Frigidaire Cool Connect Portable AC (Ice Bear) was an easy decision due to it's high BTUs, small footprint, and WiFi conductivity. Unfortunately the smart functionality is incredibly limited and the Frigidaire app very slow to load, making less than ideal for controlling the unit. Thanks to bm1549 I was able to use the Fridigaire custom component to integrate Ice Bear with Home Assistant. This was a HUGE development as it means I can control the AC via Google Assistant as well.
The first floor of my apartment is serviced by a Roborock S4 named Winston. The Roborock S4 intrigued me due to it's lidar, smart mapping, and friendliness with Home Assistant. A lot of people report that you have to do a crazy hack switching the region in Mainland China, but I didn't have to do that, you can read more about my process/HA vacuum implimentation in the wiki under WINSTON my Roborock S4.
I'm pretty deep into the Hue ecosystem sans my Sengled lightstrip. As a result I have my lights paired directly to the Hue app using the Hue bridge. The main reason I did this instead of utilizing my Raspbee II was so I can ensure my lights remain functional regardless of if Home Assistant is operational. This allows me a lot more flexibility to work with Home Assistant without adversely effecting the other people in my household. | Hue Starter Kit | BR30 White Ambiance | Hue Color | Sengled Light Strip |
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The only light outside the Hue ecosystem is my Sengled LED strip. I needed 6 feet of LEDs just for my stairs not to mention the other areas of the apartment, it would have been $79 for 6.5' of Hue lights where Sengled was ~$60 for 16.5'. The LED strip is hooked up directly to the Raspbee II.
I have a series of smart plugs which I use to control various appliances. I recently migrated from Kasa HS103 outlets to Sengled plugs in order the strengthen my Zigbee network. Additionally, the Sengled plugs have engergy monitoring capabilities. | Hue Smart Plug | Sengled Energy Monitoring Plugs | Kasa 3-plug Surge | Lutron Aurora |
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My old school analog marquee is controlled by the Hue plug which I opted for due to it's ability to be integrated with my other lights via the Hue ecosystem. Lastly, sometimes it's just quicker and quieter to turn on the lights with a switch, being a renter replacing my wall switches isn't appealing. Luckily I discovered Lutron Aurora dimmers which not only gives me a physical button but also a dimmer which I can map to one or many lights. I'm hoping to figure out a way to map secondary actions (double click, triple click, etc.), but the feasiblity is TBD.
Inspired by matt8707, I created several custom icons which can be found in www/custom_icons.js
. I leveraged material design principles and Guide to a Vector Drawing Program when designing and building the icons. I will be working on pulling in additional icons from various icon_templates over the next several weeks.
The Quick Access Controls are a logical grouping of Lovelace buttons + cards using many of the above listed custom components. The inspiration for Quick Access came from stumbling upon Crixle's Light Control Card via r/homeassistant. I was fascinated by the idea of reducing the number of clicks required to control my smart home. This led me to overhaul my Lovelace setup with the goal of making all essential controls availible in 3-clicks or less.
## Guest Bathroom Controls
Laundry:
type: "custom:mod-card"
style: |
ha-card {
background: rgba(0,0,0,.3);
padding: 10px;
border-radius: 35px;
margin-top: none;
}
card:
type: grid
columns: 3
cards:
## Washer
- type: "custom:button-card"
entity: sensor.washer
name: Washer
template:
- icon_washer
## Dryer
- type: "custom:button-card"
entity: sensor.dryer
name: Dryer
template:
- icon_dryer
## Office Controls
Office:
type: "custom:mod-card"
style: |
ha-card {
background: rgba(0,0,0,.3);
padding: 10px;
border-radius: 35px;
margin-top: none;
}
card:
type: grid
columns: 3
cards:
## Office Overhead Lights
- type: "custom:button-card"
entity: light.overhead
name: Ceiling
template:
- light
- icon_recessed
## Printer
- type: "custom:button-card"
entity: switch.major_laser_printer
name: Major Laser
template:
- icon_printer
## Air Circulator
- type: "custom:button-card"
entity: switch.kettle
name: Air Circulator
template:
- icon_circulator
## Office Google Home Mini
- type: custom:button-card
entity: media_player.office_speaker
name: Home Mini
template:
- icon_nest_mini
## Living Room Controls
Living Room:
type: "custom:mod-card"
style: |
ha-card {
background: rgba(0,0,0,.3);
padding: 10px;
border-radius: 35px;
margin-top: none;
}
card:
type: grid
columns: 3
cards:
## Track Light
- type: "custom:button-card"
entity: light.track
name: Track
template:
- light_color
- icon_spot
## Garden Light
- type: "custom:button-card"
entity: light.garden
name: Garden
template:
- icon_garden
## Yumi Lamp
- type: "custom:button-card"
entity: light.yumi_lamp
name: Lamp
template:
- light_color
- icon_lamp
## Heater
- type: "custom:button-card"
entity: switch.switchbot
template:
- icon_heater
## Living Room Air Circulator
- type: "custom:button-card"
entity: switch.air_circulator
name: Air Circulator
template:
- icon_circulator
## Ice Bear
- type: "custom:button-card"
entity: climate.ice_bear
name: Air Conditioner
double_tap_action:
action: more-info
template:
- icon_ac
variables:
circle_input: >
[[[
return entity === undefined ?
null :
entity.attributes.temperature;
]]]
## Shield
- type: "custom:button-card"
entity: media_player.shield_tv
tap_action:
action: toggle
template:
- icon_tv
Before Home Assistant, I had several schedules setup for my two air purifiers in the Dyson App. I was able to easily replace those with two automations in HA, eliminating my need to use the proprietary Dyston App. My air circulators which are hooked up to Kasa smart plugs, utilitze two of my favorite automations. One turns on the downstairs fan when the tempurature in the Loft is ≥72° and off when ≤71°, the other turns the office fan on/off based on the state of the lights in the room.
Lutton Aurora dimmers have been a game changer in my home automations setup. They are natively supported by Philips Hue and as a renter, they are the perfect solution as to mount onto the existing light switch. Not all my lights are in the Hue ecosystem, so I've created automations to allow the dimmers to control my Sengled LED light strip and various Kasa smart plugs.
I currently have notifications set to be delivered via one of two channels Telegram or the Smartphone Group. Telegram is used to notify about server boot up to aid with troubleshooting while the Smartphone Group leverages the companion app to surface in-app notifications.
I decided to take a unique approach to presence automations and forgo the use of motion sensors, in favor of manual triggers before leaving the apartment. I have an Aqara Mini Switch next to the door, which triggers automations based on the number of button clicks and status of the front door sensor.
Vampire drain is a problem, especially when your power company charges different rates depending on the time of day. There are a lot of devices thats only need to be powered briefly to do their job. My printer + paper shredder are setup to turn-off after a set period of time, limiting their idle power usage to minutes instead of hours or days.
Winston my trusty robot vacuum is scheduled to clean the most trafficed areas of my apartment (hallway + kitchen) Monday - Friday, the remaining rooms (office + living room + bathroom) are cleaned on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Creating these automations allowed me to stop using the Mi Home App.
The remaining automations are super useful, but don't fit into any specific category. This includes alerts for water leaks, scheduled volume controls for Google Home devices, and an on air
light to indicate when a video call is in progress.
If you like my Lovelace setup be sure to checkout those who influenced me:
I was racking my brain as to how I could reducing the number of clicks required to control my smart home. A Reddit post with crixle's Light Control Card inspired me to create my Quick Access Controls.
The Room Controls buttons leverage code from eximo84's Weather and Light buttons.
The original inspiration for overauling my Lovelace dashboard was kicked-off when I stumbled upon A different take on designing a Lovelace UI.
My approach to button templates was heavily influence by Matt's button_card_templates.yaml. His approach to custom icons also inspired me to learn how to create SVGs in Inkspace and SVGator. Matt's work gave me the push to move towards a 100% yaml
approach to my Lovelace dashboard and greatly increased my all around technical knowledge.
Thanks for reading, please star if your are interested in the project.