I’ve been a diy HA guy for >10 years. This is probably the best getting started video I’ve seen. Presenter has a terrific style to covering the material. Very well done!
Wow!! This is exactly the video that needs to be shown right on top of the result by UA-cam when people search for a home assistant. Thanks a ton!!!! EXTREMELY HELPFUL.
Not many 1hr long instruction videos that I've sat through on UA-cam, I often have to skip around till the presenter gets to the point! You have a great balance of practical explanation, covering enough to get someone off to the races, but not going down and un-necessary rabbit holes! You showed the physical setup/connections of devices, and fast forwarded or skipped the boring parts! Excellent work.
I really appreciate your feedback because I wasn’t sure if this format would work. I could have gotten 10 weeks of content from this video if I split it up, but I decided this format was more useful for someone who is just starting out.
It's as simple as if the content is good and it fills up the time and it's just not a crazy amount of introductions and subjective commentary then it's super valuable. So I guess the length of the video is likely determined by how practical the steps are. If someone wants to get down into some really nitty gritty part of automation then they're going to have to do the hard work anyway.
One of the most useful video I have ever come across for Home assistant. Actually its an honest effort by you - not like so called popular & young content creators who tries to advertise themselves more but doesn't add value. Thank you really.
I installed Home Assistant on an F210 thin client computer last night and found your video this morning. You hit it out of the park as a getting started video.
Thanks very much, great video! As a 71 year old newbie to HA this was very useful information provided at the right speed for me to absorb. Thanks from the Netherlands
This is all new to me, I bought a HA yellow and am trying to get all my stuff set up. Your video was very helpful. Thanks for going to the trouble of producing it.
You can run both ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT at the same time. Comes in handy when you have a few devices that do not work in ZHA. You will, of course, need two Zigbee coordinators (dongles), but it does work...and quite well. Great job. Thanks for the well-explained processes.
I delayed and gave up many times installing HA for over 2 years due to the complexity of installing HA as the HA was changing so frequently. Eventually sat down and and looked at the latest videos not older than 3 months and I was successful.. Now a year latter Im so gl;ad to have moved my automation to HA as it automates so much more than a app off the specific brand. Google home is beyond useless to setup automation's and Alexa is a close 2nd. I also stared on a raspB however a celeron NUC is heaps better in performance. Great vid explaining for the newbies.
I've been dipping my toes (more like up to my neck) into HA for a couple of weeks now, and it's a pretty steep learning curve. I've run across most of the stuff you covered in this video, but I'm struggling to put it together. Congratulations for laying it out in a meaningful way that is more easily understood. One of the things that blocked my progress was that I too soon got into sensors and ESP32 microcontrollers. I certainly want to get into that, and perhaps you could help with that (maybe you have already). Another area of interest is energy monitoring. I've watched your video on Emporia Vue 3 with great interest. Many thanks for you great work.
Thanks for this. Nobody talks about how to setup HA after it’s installed. I’ve been searching for what to do next. This is the only explanation I’ve seen on setting up zigbee and zwave. You got a sub.
Handydad! Why are you my twin without me knowing nothing about it? I was scrolling thru my feed with home assistant info and that was a brief moment when i just stopped, my jaw dropped and also caught a thought - "why do I appear in a video about home assistant" and "why do i don't know about that?", "Is this a joke?". Spooky but extremely accurate! Keep up the good work my new and improved "twin brother"
Just what I needed to see! I was headed down the hubitat path when I decided to dig into home assistant. One of my smart device groups are a LoRa set of devices and they only have HA integration or just standalone app setups. After watching this, I know I can get HA running on my unused raspberry pi. Simply great video and worth the time to ramp up my knowledge and confidence.
Great Video to get you started! Was reading a lot of how to guides on the Home assistant web site but they skipped over what you need to do before that! Thanks
I had an old pc hanging around, so I couldn't justify buying a nuc. However, it was so old that it did not have uefi, which is a requirement of home assistant operating system(HAOS). So instead I went the ubuntu with home assistant (HA) as a VM route. It works great. All I bought was a flash drive. Anyhow, just wanted to say the quality of this video is top notch!
A wonderful fulsome explanatory video. Thank you so much for the time and effort. I have to learn about containers, podman and how to get the Unifi network controller working there before I can start Home Assistant but this gentle introduction was just what I needed.
Wow...what a fantastic tutorial! And I had no idea that Insteon is back- I don't know why, because since I've converted all my smart plugs to KASA, they not only work FASTER than Insteon, they are far less expensive than Insteon (I started out with X10 if you can believe that!). I also didn't even though there were Intel NUCs you can use to separate HA from your PC. Right now I'm just stuck on Google Home (I'm curious to see how many of my devices I could migrate to HA), but GH has it's challenges as well. I read on Reddit quite a bit about all the users who have gone to HA, so I think I might just try it out. I will keep your video for reference! Thanks much!!!
I have only watched about 1/4 of this but very informative. I will watch the full video. I am seriously thinking about about dumping my Homeseer for Home Assistant. Early on after the Insteon crash I had Home Assistant running on an old windows laptop. I was thinking about running it from my Truenas server that I built but the plugin is gone. I think it is still possible but I'll probably take you approach. It will be less headaches and hassle in the long run. Thanks for the great work!
Impressive tutorial! Well planned and executed. I’ve been a Homeseer user since v1.0 but recently I’ve been considering a new platform mostly because Homeseer requires Windows. After watching this tutorial I’ll be exploring Home Assistant in detail and see what it will take to convert my current setup to HA. Thank you for your hard work. Subscribed! Oh, and I did order two of your Amazon affiliation links.
They are both very capable platforms, but HomeSeer is more controlled and better supported. With Home Assistant, you depend a lot on the community more than the vendor.
I think your guide was so good That I want to make a second set of commenté. 1. I see you have video's about NAS. Some users argue that the best place to install HA is on your NAS. Synology even supplies that to download and install. Could be a candidate for your intro guide. 2. The super geeks argue that HA should be installed in a container. The only one I would trust for a guide to do the HA installation as a container on a mini PC would be you. Br
Thanks for the video. I have been a Amazon device user for several years now, and it’s been very important to me to have all the automations and everything set up as I have extremely low vision, i.e. blind. One of the issues that I have is that whenever my Internet drops, then I have no longer able to access via voice my devices. So I’m starting to look into home assistant to see if that will eliminate this and as am already using a Lenox server, I am looking to add home assistant, and under a docker install onto my wound to server. I think that would be the best practice now the question I would have is candy immigration integration with function without the Internet. Answer doubt it always worth checking what other options would be available thanks for the great video.
Yes, Home Assistant will continue to operate even if your internet is down. However some integrations may not work until the internet is restored. It’s best to look for devices that can be locally-controlled, like Zigbee and Z-Wave. Then you’ll be good to go. If you depend on voice to control lights, Home Assistant now has features for voice activation even without internet. I haven’t explored that yet.
Great video, I am just looking at getting my own Home Asaistant setup, this was very enlightening as to what I need to know and do, I am very interested in, and plan on integrating Alexa
It's also convenient if you migrate HA from docker container to the OS one. There's a option for those who'd like to restore backup. All my setting transferred to the OS smoothly
Great video and thank you for your patience in making it. I have tried HA about two years ago and just wasn't for me at the time and stuck with Smartthings. Seen your video it encouraged me to maybe try again to take a look at HA even try the x86 mini computer rather than their Yellow or Green new offerings or a raspberry. I'll take a look at the rest of your videos and see if ever made the Alexa video.
I was looking for automation and ran into your video. Perfect tuts for a newbie like myself in smart home installation. Would love to know how to run the backup in the event I need to. If there’s a video for it, a link is extremely appreciated. Thanks again and immediate subscriber here! Cheers!!!
Hi, Very nice and relevant. I made it even easier buying a Home Assistant Green. Break out the long section about using linux to install on the SSD, a waste of time. Also talk about Integrating with google assistant, not only Alexa, please. I personally think that you can include the MQTT stuff in this video. Is Zwave still relevant, not sure, but it was quite quick so why not. Maybe you should add bluetooth instead. Love your pedagogics, right level for me.
Thanks for the feedback. There are still a lot of ZWave users out there, including me. I really wish they included a Zigbee/Thread antenna in Green. That would have been compelling even for 20% more. As for Google Home, I don’t use it. And I feel MQTT is an advanced topic not for a basic how-to guide.
Great video by the way. I am researching how I can get rid of my useless and intrusive Amazon Echo setup I am currently using and gain better control over my network and device security.
Hey Chris, I am also Chris. Just started trying to automate some things around the house and didn't have a clue. I'm good with tech (Senior System Admin for an online tech company and preparing for Cloud Architecture certifications). I started going down the rabbit hole when I received an Alexa Echo Dot for Christmas. Very handy toy. Then I decided to try out some home automation by putting my Christmas lights on some Tuya plugs and conrolling both through the Smart Life app and/or Alexa. I found I was quickly looking at doing some other things as well. This video is a great explanation for those who are technical or not. I am really leaning towards the Home Assistant for a hub. I have some older micro computers that would work greatand love fooling around with Ubuntu. I am wondering, if I have wifi devices that are controlled basically over the internet, is there a way to ensure that they are controlled only through the Home Assistant and not directly over the internet? I have a PF Sense firewall and a little touchy about about what comes and goes over my internet connection. Thanks. Going to check out some of your other videos now. Probably become a subscriber if they're as good as this one. Cheers,
I don’t know PF Sense. I have a UniFi system (see ua-cam.com/video/PyDpLJIKg0M/v-deo.html) with a separate vlan for IoT devices. I also have a group called NO INTERNET so I can add any device if I want to block access. Research an add-on called LOCAL TUYA. It’s a pain in the ass to setup, but after I did it, I moved my devices into the NO INTERNET group so they can only be controlled locally.
FYI, Belena etcher does not work on Ubuntu 22.04 without going through hoops. Use 20.04. And to switch to root using a live version of ubuntu the command is actually sudo -i. Otherwise it asks for a password. Great video and it got me motivated to try this again.
Balena Etcher is still free. However, it does not work with Ubuntu 22.04 as pointed out. There is an alternative program that can be used. It is MATE Disk Image Mounter. It is included with the MATE Ubuntu 22.04 distribution. I have used it and successfully copied the Home Assistant OS to a SATA SSD.
Nice video I’m way out in left field lol Tho I will say I’ve these Ac motorized window blinds with RF 433 mhz and eventually I’d like to set them up with google assistant . I’d prefer to buy something user friendly as most of this is out of my league
Excellent walk-through; thank you! What is that KVM switch on your desk, that you appear to be using to select which computer your monitor is connected to?
Thanks to Google Image search, I found the device, the Elgato Stream Deck (Mk 2?). It's some sort of selector switch with 15 buttons you can customize; it connects to a Windows or Mac computer via USB. I'll have to research how you actually set it up, and whether it can somehow serve a KVM function (not likely?). Thanks again for your excellent video. Hey, maybe it would be useful to other as well, to make a video on the Stream Deck and how you use it?
Love all your videos..thank you so much. 1 Quick question..How do I shutdown/turn off the HA server using the HA> command line? or whatever command prompt. I am using the same x86 pc as you detailed in this video.
I use the UI, not the command line. Go to Settings >> System, then click the power button in the top corner. Under Advanced Options, click Shutdown System.
veryinformative and helpful video thanks. i just installed home assisatnt on my PC , i cant find my tuya devices, can you give me a tip on how to do it ?
Try restarting Home Assistant. Also make sure the devices are on the same network as Home Assistant. I personally avoid Tuya devices because their local control API is so hard to use.
Thank you for such a comprehensive video! I'm curious why you don't use your NAS to run Home Assistant through a docker installation? I ask because it seems many other UA-camrs suggested the docker approach, though don't really explain why.
I tried that several times and got frustrated. The software installs fine, but all the add-ons need to be separate Docker containers. Accessing physical dongles from the containers for Z-Wave and Zigbee were frustrating as well, and Synology didn’t have device drivers readily available. I think a dedicated device is worth the money because the Home Assistant Operating System controls everything.
quick and practical question: when power goes off, what happens when power comes back on? Do the Z-Wave and Zibee devices re-pair with the hubs? Are there any configes required after power goes out at all? I've had issues where some wall switches and smart outlets aren't bound to an IP adress and have replaced my server on one occasion, So are there specific things to do with those z-wave#zigbee items, since they arent on "wifi" per se?
Great video. I see Geekom mini computers doesn't offer the same mini computer you mentioned. What model would you recommend now. I am very interested in building a system.
I’m planning to make a new version of this video using a Home Assistant Green hub. I have one on my desk. Just need time to test it. www.home-assistant.io/green/
Great video! I am new to the smart home world so this is very very helpful, Thank you. I have a question tho. I have been able to set up my Home Assistant server with the Geekom mini air 11 and it's up and running, but for some reason I keep getting connection lost. I have to trun of the system and turn it back on. Even with that, sometimes it doesn't work and I have to keep repeating the process before it works. Please advise.
Yes, in still using the computer in this video. It works flawlessly. If you don’t mind doing a little YAML from time to time, I prefer Home Assistant. All of the integrations are free, as opposed to HomeSeer which charges for many of them. In addition, as a content creator, Home Assistant has a bigger audience. I’m going to redo this video for 2024 using the new Home Assistant Green.
Great channel, thank you. Following your recommendation I recently purchased and set up the GEEKOM PC and joined the Home Assistant user team. I'm learning as I go and am particularly interested in Tile cards which look to be the future. My specific query is as follows. We recently had a power cut when I was away from the property for some time. My other smart home tech restarted fine when the power was restored but the Home Assistant GEEKOM PC did not which left me unable to control many aspects of my smart home. On returning to the property l simply pressed the button on the NUC and everything started fine. How do I make the GEEKOM PC automatically restart on the restoration of power to the unit? Hopefully you can help with this issue.
I have the DiskStation DS723+, is it possible to install HA on the synology? I don't what to do, buy mini pc or Home Assistant Yellow, what do you recommend? thanks hello from Italy
Thank you for your video. I have questions please. I went through the raspberry pi route and got ha loaded but mine didn't come up like yours. I got the map but there was no button for it to auto find my place and even editing the map doesn't allow me to pick more than my time zone. What might I have done wrong and how do I fix it. Or is it better to just start over again?
No, sorry. I played with HA on Docker on my Synology NAS and it was much too complicated with Z-Wave and Zigbee USB dongles. So much easier with a dedicated device and HAOS.
@@handydadtv I got it on my Pi, but it is in a docker because I wanted to create a home cloud as well. It works fine but shows that there is a few issues, can’t figure out solution for those.
@@handydadtv Bold? Why..? It’s been working fine all this time… 🤷♂️ I mean it has like 10 repairs listed within HA, but as far as everything goes, it’s been working just fine. My only issue was that I couldn’t get a bluetooth speaker to do text to speech or AV jack… so I guess I have to find a way to pass through from docker to Pi.
@naronaroyan323 Perhaps bold is the wrong word. I just would never think of having virtual machines on such a small device. Yeah I know it’s possible but I only think of virtual machines on big computers with a lot of CPU and storage. Just me. That’s the challenge with Docker in general, regardless of the size of the hardware: connecting the virtual environments to the physical. I wasn’t willing to spend the time to make it work.
I was following along and then got to the end of the remote portion and then broke my app. Need to do the port forwarding thing. could you post a short on that as well?
Great vid! A question though, seems I'm pretty useless with this - after etching the image and installing the SSD back in the NUC, the homeassistant.local address directs us to where? The NUC device? Do we need to set it up before?
Yes homeassistant.local should direct you to Home Assistant running on the NUC. If it doesn’t, you’ll need to lookup the IP address assigned by your router.
@@handydadtv Yes, did it the oldschool way via ip address. The homeassistant.local:8123 does not work, but the localipadreess:8123 does. Thank you very much good Sir for your time. :)
Port forwarding? At minute 50:18 this crucial detail is mentioned, which can kill the whole point of setting up Home Assistant for remote access if it cannot be supported. I have T-Mobile Home Internet and from what I read on the T-Mobile Community website, they block port forwarding. It doesn't matter if I buy a second router to connect to the one T-Mobile supplies, I am still screwed.
Hello, I have a question. I have portable thermostats Habitat, which send the signal to the wall-mounted ac unit. I don't want to buy their hubs because they are super expensive. The portable thermostat works with RF. Is there a way I can connect those to HA? Thank you
Hey Chris, thanks for the video. Something you may want to mention. I just followed your instructions and got HA installed on a small micro computer and it's up and running on my network. However, once I signed out, I was unable to sign back in because during the initialization, you never get to set or see your username. I am in the process of trying to figure it out but instructions online are sketchy. Any ideas on that?
Your username was selected during initial setup. I don’t believe there is a default or a way to override it. Just reinstall and go through setup again if you don’t remember it.
Depends on your router. It’s a more advanced topic that all may not support. But most IoT devices will work fine on your guest network, and every router should have that capability. But unfortunately, Home Assistant wouldn’t be able to see them on a guest network.
I’ve been a diy HA guy for >10 years. This is probably the best getting started video I’ve seen. Presenter has a terrific style to covering the material. Very well done!
Thanks so much 😊 I really appreciate it.
I'm currently at 40 seconds, and I completely agree. I have already hit the like button.
Thanks 😊
Same 😂 made it pretty simple
Holy crap I did the same exact thing
Wow!! This is exactly the video that needs to be shown right on top of the result by UA-cam when people search for a home assistant. Thanks a ton!!!! EXTREMELY HELPFUL.
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
Not many 1hr long instruction videos that I've sat through on UA-cam, I often have to skip around till the presenter gets to the point!
You have a great balance of practical explanation, covering enough to get someone off to the races, but not going down and un-necessary rabbit holes! You showed the physical setup/connections of devices, and fast forwarded or skipped the boring parts! Excellent work.
I really appreciate your feedback because I wasn’t sure if this format would work. I could have gotten 10 weeks of content from this video if I split it up, but I decided this format was more useful for someone who is just starting out.
It's as simple as if the content is good and it fills up the time and it's just not a crazy amount of introductions and subjective commentary then it's super valuable. So I guess the length of the video is likely determined by how practical the steps are. If someone wants to get down into some really nitty gritty part of automation then they're going to have to do the hard work anyway.
One of the most useful video I have ever come across for Home assistant. Actually its an honest effort by you - not like so called popular & young content creators who tries to advertise themselves more but doesn't add value. Thank you really.
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
I installed Home Assistant on an F210 thin client computer last night and found your video this morning. You hit it out of the park as a getting started video.
Thanks so much 😊
Time flies by when you explain something! As always, a great video!
Thanks so much 😊
Great detail, the standard of all of Chris’s productions. Now, I need to bump up my home automation game.
Thanks so much 😊
This man is one of the best teachers I've seen on UA-cam
Thanks so much 😊
Thanks very much, great video! As a 71 year old newbie to HA this was very useful information provided at the right speed for me to absorb. Thanks from the Netherlands
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
This is all new to me, I bought a HA yellow and am trying to get all my stuff set up. Your video was very helpful. Thanks for going to the trouble of producing it.
My pleasure!
You can run both ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT at the same time. Comes in handy when you have a few devices that do not work in ZHA. You will, of course, need two Zigbee coordinators (dongles), but it does work...and quite well. Great job. Thanks for the well-explained processes.
Good to know. Thanks.
any is issues running two dongles and both ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT after this post 5 months ago? I want to run a setup like this on my NUC
Best tutorial on UA-cam, thank you
Thanks so much 😊
I delayed and gave up many times installing HA for over 2 years due to the complexity of installing HA as the HA was changing so frequently. Eventually sat down and and looked at the latest videos not older than 3 months and I was successful.. Now a year latter Im so gl;ad to have moved my automation to HA as it automates so much more than a app off the specific brand. Google home is beyond useless to setup automation's and Alexa is a close 2nd. I also stared on a raspB however a celeron NUC is heaps better in performance. Great vid explaining for the newbies.
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
forgot to mention that your video is a great help and really a pleasure to watch
Thanks so much 😊
I've been dipping my toes (more like up to my neck) into HA for a couple of weeks now, and it's a pretty steep learning curve. I've run across most of the stuff you covered in this video, but I'm struggling to put it together. Congratulations for laying it out in a meaningful way that is more easily understood. One of the things that blocked my progress was that I too soon got into sensors and ESP32 microcontrollers. I certainly want to get into that, and perhaps you could help with that (maybe you have already). Another area of interest is energy monitoring. I've watched your video on Emporia Vue 3 with great interest. Many thanks for you great work.
My only exposure to ESPHome is an Athom presence sensor that had it preinstalled.
This is the most awesome video for getting into Home Assistant. Thank you sir!
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
Thanks for this. Nobody talks about how to setup HA after it’s installed. I’ve been searching for what to do next. This is the only explanation I’ve seen on setting up zigbee and zwave. You got a sub.
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
Thanks for subscribing! Welcome to the family!
Handydad! Why are you my twin without me knowing nothing about it?
I was scrolling thru my feed with home assistant info and that was a brief moment when i just stopped, my jaw dropped and also caught a thought - "why do I appear in a video about home assistant" and "why do i don't know about that?", "Is this a joke?". Spooky but extremely accurate! Keep up the good work my new and improved "twin brother"
You found me! 😂
Just what I needed to see! I was headed down the hubitat path when I decided to dig into home assistant. One of my smart device groups are a LoRa set of devices and they only have HA integration or just standalone app setups. After watching this, I know I can get HA running on my unused raspberry pi. Simply great video and worth the time to ramp up my knowledge and confidence.
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
Great Video to get you started! Was reading a lot of how to guides on the Home assistant web site but they skipped over what you need to do before that! Thanks
I find it hard to follow written guides. I like to watch things in action. Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
Very informative and well structured video. I really appreciate the effort you took to make it happen, thank you!
Thanks so much 😊
This the best video instruction so far I have seen. Thank you very much.
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
Do you have video how to set up local and remote access to Home Assistance?@@handydadtv
I had an old pc hanging around, so I couldn't justify buying a nuc. However, it was so old that it did not have uefi, which is a requirement of home assistant operating system(HAOS). So instead I went the ubuntu with home assistant (HA) as a VM route. It works great. All I bought was a flash drive. Anyhow, just wanted to say the quality of this video is top notch!
Did you have any issue accessing your USB dongles from inside the VM? That was my issue with Docker on Synology.
outstanding directions. Thank you for this video. I am going to implement these to my home
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
A wonderful fulsome explanatory video. Thank you so much for the time and effort.
I have to learn about containers, podman and how to get the Unifi network controller working there before I can start Home Assistant but this gentle introduction was just what I needed.
I have a UniFi network too. Love it. ua-cam.com/video/PyDpLJIKg0M/v-deo.html
Great video! As a newbie this guide is perfect to set up home assistant. Thank you very much!
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
Wow...what a fantastic tutorial! And I had no idea that Insteon is back- I don't know why, because since I've converted all my smart plugs to KASA, they not only work FASTER than Insteon, they are far less expensive than Insteon (I started out with X10 if you can believe that!). I also didn't even though there were Intel NUCs you can use to separate HA from your PC. Right now I'm just stuck on Google Home (I'm curious to see how many of my devices I could migrate to HA), but GH has it's challenges as well. I read on Reddit quite a bit about all the users who have gone to HA, so I think I might just try it out. I will keep your video for reference! Thanks much!!!
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
Your method @ 14:00 is incredible! It does simplify everything. Thanks for sharing!
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
You can do all this with your Android phone and google home apps in a few minutes. But the great video. Great explanation. Thanks
Google is all cloud based. Home Assistant is for people who want local control.
@@handydadtv . Thank you. Got it.
I have only watched about 1/4 of this but very informative. I will watch the full video. I am seriously thinking about about dumping my Homeseer for Home Assistant. Early on after the Insteon crash I had Home Assistant running on an old windows laptop. I was thinking about running it from my Truenas server that I built but the plugin is gone. I think it is still possible but I'll probably take you approach. It will be less headaches and hassle in the long run. Thanks for the great work!
Yeah I highly recommend a dedicated NUC for simplicity. I first tried it years ago on Docker and got frustrated.
The best video ever that ever recorded. Thanks sir
Thanks so much 😊
Excellent video! Thank you for your time. Very helpful!
My pleasure
Very awesome. The addons part was cool. Thanks much!
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
A well paced explanation. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
Impressive tutorial! Well planned and executed. I’ve been a Homeseer user since v1.0 but recently I’ve been considering a new platform mostly because Homeseer requires Windows. After watching this tutorial I’ll be exploring Home Assistant in detail and see what it will take to convert my current setup to HA. Thank you for your hard work. Subscribed! Oh, and I did order two of your Amazon affiliation links.
Thank you very much. Not trying to change your mind, but HomeSeer also works on Raspberry Pi. I tested it and it works just as well as Windows.
I've also been a HomeSeer user since it's very beginning (currently using a Raspberry Pi) and I am thinking of switching to Home Assistant also.
They are both very capable platforms, but HomeSeer is more controlled and better supported. With Home Assistant, you depend a lot on the community more than the vendor.
You can also run home assistant on windows. Using either a virtual machine or using docker.
@plebius True but it’s much more straightforward and powerful to use a dedicated device.
I really appreciate your very detailed video. Thanks for this video!
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
Great video
Thanks so much 😊
I like your video! Thank you very much! It's help me to make a progress in my HA expierence!
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
I think your guide was so good That I want to make a second set of commenté.
1. I see you have video's about NAS. Some users argue that the best place to install HA is on your NAS. Synology even supplies that to download and install. Could be a candidate for your intro guide.
2. The super geeks argue that HA should be installed in a container. The only one I would trust for a guide to do the HA installation as a container on a mini PC would be you.
Br
Both of those are more advanced concepts that would really complicate the process for new users. Beyond the scope of this video.
Thanks for the video. I have been a Amazon device user for several years now, and it’s been very important to me to have all the automations and everything set up as I have extremely low vision, i.e. blind.
One of the issues that I have is that whenever my Internet drops, then I have no longer able to access via voice my devices.
So I’m starting to look into home assistant to see if that will eliminate this and as am already using a Lenox server, I am looking to add home assistant, and under a docker install onto my wound to server. I think that would be the best practice now the question I would have is candy immigration integration with function without the Internet. Answer doubt it always worth checking what other options would be available thanks for the great video.
Yes, Home Assistant will continue to operate even if your internet is down. However some integrations may not work until the internet is restored. It’s best to look for devices that can be locally-controlled, like Zigbee and Z-Wave. Then you’ll be good to go.
If you depend on voice to control lights, Home Assistant now has features for voice activation even without internet. I haven’t explored that yet.
Very cool, I did not know about this, seems very cool.
Something very neat...
Home Assistant is addictive. Once you get started, you’ll continue to find new ways to use it.
Thank a lot for this video, it great demonstration on many things even middle level ha user like me still do not understand throughly 😊
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
Awesome, thanks alot, tbh the best video, I ever came across.
Thanks so much 😊
Great video, I am just looking at getting my own Home Asaistant setup, this was very enlightening as to what I need to know and do, I am very interested in, and plan on integrating Alexa
I have a video connecting HA to Alexa as well.
Chris, thank you for the video! Super useful
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
Thank you for this tutorial. It helps a lot. :)
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
It's also convenient if you migrate HA from docker container to the OS one. There's a option for those who'd like to restore backup. All my setting transferred to the OS smoothly
Good to know. Thanks.
I learn lot of from your video,Great video. Thanks
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
Thank you for this very useful video.
My pleasure!
Great video and thank you for your patience in making it. I have tried HA about two years ago and just wasn't for me at the time and stuck with Smartthings. Seen your video it encouraged me to maybe try again to take a look at HA even try the x86 mini computer rather than their Yellow or Green new offerings or a raspberry. I'll take a look at the rest of your videos and see if ever made the Alexa video.
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
Here’s the easiest way to integrate with Alexa: ua-cam.com/video/fgeZ1O6J4jc/v-deo.html
Very good introduction - thank you.
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
I was looking for automation and ran into your video. Perfect tuts for a newbie like myself in smart home installation. Would love to know how to run the backup in the event I need to. If there’s a video for it, a link is extremely appreciated. Thanks again and immediate subscriber here! Cheers!!!
Luckily I’ve never needed to restore a backup.
Really well done. Thanks.
My pleasure!
24:27 i read that It is recommended to use a cable extension for the device (zigbee ) to help clean the signal.
My Zigbee dongle has a big antenna so I haven’t had any signal issues.
Great video, many thanks
My pleasure!
Great video full of good information. I am subscribing and see what other good things are here 😃
Thanks for subscribing! Welcome to the family!
Thank you for the video ❤
My pleasure!
Great video. Thanks
Glad it was helpful 👍🏻
Hi,
Very nice and relevant. I made it even easier buying a Home Assistant Green.
Break out the long section about using linux to install on the SSD, a waste of time.
Also talk about Integrating with google assistant, not only Alexa, please.
I personally think that you can include the MQTT stuff in this video.
Is Zwave still relevant, not sure, but it was quite quick so why not. Maybe you should add bluetooth instead.
Love your pedagogics, right level for me.
Thanks for the feedback. There are still a lot of ZWave users out there, including me. I really wish they included a Zigbee/Thread antenna in Green. That would have been compelling even for 20% more.
As for Google Home, I don’t use it. And I feel MQTT is an advanced topic not for a basic how-to guide.
Great video by the way. I am researching how I can get rid of my useless and intrusive Amazon Echo setup I am currently using and gain better control over my network and device security.
Thanks 😊
I like the Frankenstein hub. ❤
😊
Thank you very much for your reply. I am now watching your "alexa with HA"
Awesome 👏🏻
Hey Chris, I am also Chris. Just started trying to automate some things around the house and didn't have a clue. I'm good with tech (Senior System Admin for an online tech company and preparing for Cloud Architecture certifications). I started going down the rabbit hole when I received an Alexa Echo Dot for Christmas. Very handy toy. Then I decided to try out some home automation by putting my Christmas lights on some Tuya plugs and conrolling both through the Smart Life app and/or Alexa. I found I was quickly looking at doing some other things as well.
This video is a great explanation for those who are technical or not. I am really leaning towards the Home Assistant for a hub. I have some older micro computers that would work greatand love fooling around with Ubuntu. I am wondering, if I have wifi devices that are controlled basically over the internet, is there a way to ensure that they are controlled only through the Home Assistant and not directly over the internet?
I have a PF Sense firewall and a little touchy about about what comes and goes over my internet connection. Thanks. Going to check out some of your other videos now. Probably become a subscriber if they're as good as this one. Cheers,
I don’t know PF Sense. I have a UniFi system (see ua-cam.com/video/PyDpLJIKg0M/v-deo.html) with a separate vlan for IoT devices.
I also have a group called NO INTERNET so I can add any device if I want to block access.
Research an add-on called LOCAL TUYA. It’s a pain in the ass to setup, but after I did it, I moved my devices into the NO INTERNET group so they can only be controlled locally.
FYI, Belena etcher does not work on Ubuntu 22.04 without going through hoops. Use 20.04. And to switch to root using a live version of ubuntu the command is actually sudo -i. Otherwise it asks for a password. Great video and it got me motivated to try this again.
I also heard Etcher is no longer free. True?
Sounds like I’ll need to remake this video every year because stuff keeps changing!
@@handydadtv the web site implies it's free for your first 10 devices
Balena Etcher is still free. However, it does not work with Ubuntu 22.04 as pointed out. There is an alternative program that can be used. It is MATE Disk Image Mounter. It is included with the MATE Ubuntu 22.04 distribution. I have used it and successfully copied the Home Assistant OS to a SATA SSD.
@jeffreycwalinski2554 Thanks for sharing!
HA supports adding a network drive as internal backup drive so no need for external backup extension for that
Thanks
Nice video
I’m way out in left field lol
Tho I will say I’ve these Ac motorized window blinds with RF 433 mhz and eventually I’d like to set them up with google assistant .
I’d prefer to buy something user friendly as most of this is out of my league
It takes dedication. Being tech savvy helps.
Hey nice tutorial ! Be aware you let your duckdns domain show up at 39:48 !
Thanks. No matter; I disabled it anyway. More secure to use VPN through my UniFi router.
Wow, that monitor is huge, at 9:16
I just have a tiny head
Nice video, mine home assistant is running on a pi3
Just make sure to do backups because the SD card will eventually fail.
I'd appreciate an Alexa setup guide (for using the non-cloud setup).
Coming soon.
Excellent walk-through; thank you! What is that KVM switch on your desk, that you appear to be using to select which computer your monitor is connected to?
Thanks to Google Image search, I found the device, the Elgato Stream Deck (Mk 2?). It's some sort of selector switch with 15 buttons you can customize; it connects to a Windows or Mac computer via USB. I'll have to research how you actually set it up, and whether it can somehow serve a KVM function (not likely?). Thanks again for your excellent video. Hey, maybe it would be useful to other as well, to make a video on the Stream Deck and how you use it?
It’s not a KVM switch. I mainly use it to switch sources in OBS and to trigger automations in Home Assistant.
Love all your videos..thank you so much. 1 Quick question..How do I shutdown/turn off the HA server using the HA> command line? or whatever command prompt. I am using the same x86 pc as you detailed in this video.
I use the UI, not the command line. Go to Settings >> System, then click the power button in the top corner. Under Advanced Options, click Shutdown System.
veryinformative and helpful video thanks.
i just installed home assisatnt on my PC , i cant find my tuya devices, can you give me a tip on how to do it ?
Try restarting Home Assistant. Also make sure the devices are on the same network as Home Assistant.
I personally avoid Tuya devices because their local control API is so hard to use.
Good video. Can you tell me what device you use to switch cameras and what cameras do you use?
I recorded this with OBS using a StreamDeck to quickly switch cameras. I use a Sony ZV-1 for my main camera and a Logitech webcam for the desk view.
Thanks
I think you can connect the insteon plm direct to your HA. That is not anydifferent the plugging in zigbee or zwave dongle.
Correct. Except Zigbee and Z-Wave are open standards, not controlled by a single company.
Thank you for such a comprehensive video!
I'm curious why you don't use your NAS to run Home Assistant through a docker installation? I ask because it seems many other UA-camrs suggested the docker approach, though don't really explain why.
I tried that several times and got frustrated. The software installs fine, but all the add-ons need to be separate Docker containers. Accessing physical dongles from the containers for Z-Wave and Zigbee were frustrating as well, and Synology didn’t have device drivers readily available.
I think a dedicated device is worth the money because the Home Assistant Operating System controls everything.
quick and practical question: when power goes off, what happens when power comes back on? Do the Z-Wave and Zibee devices re-pair with the hubs? Are there any configes required after power goes out at all?
I've had issues where some wall switches and smart outlets aren't bound to an IP adress and have replaced my server on one occasion, So are there specific things to do with those z-wave#zigbee items, since they arent on "wifi" per se?
Looking forward to seeing the Alexa integration. I'm using cloudflare tunnel and can access my ha , but just trying to figure Alexa out
Thanks
mannnn, Thank you.
My pleasure.
So where are your smartfridge, smart(dish-)washer smart coffee machine in your set up? How do you use them?
The only smart appliances I have are an LG clothes washer and dryer. I could look for an LG integration with Home Assistant if I wanted to.
Great video. I see Geekom mini computers doesn't offer the same mini computer you mentioned. What model would you recommend now. I am very interested in building a system.
I’m planning to make a new version of this video using a Home Assistant Green hub. I have one on my desk. Just need time to test it. www.home-assistant.io/green/
I realize I didn’t answer your question. The Geekom Air12 is the closest to mine.
Great video! I am new to the smart home world so this is very very helpful, Thank you. I have a question tho. I have been able to set up my Home Assistant server with the Geekom mini air 11 and it's up and running, but for some reason I keep getting connection lost. I have to trun of the system and turn it back on. Even with that, sometimes it doesn't work and I have to keep repeating the process before it works. Please advise.
I suggest you ask on Reddit /r/homeassistant
Is this still the hardware (pc) you’re using? Do you prefer HA over HomeSeer? I’m thinking of moving off HomeSeer. Thx!
Yes, in still using the computer in this video. It works flawlessly. If you don’t mind doing a little YAML from time to time, I prefer Home Assistant. All of the integrations are free, as opposed to HomeSeer which charges for many of them. In addition, as a content creator, Home Assistant has a bigger audience.
I’m going to redo this video for 2024 using the new Home Assistant Green.
Great channel, thank you. Following your recommendation I recently purchased and set up the GEEKOM PC and joined the Home Assistant user team. I'm learning as I go and am particularly interested in Tile cards which look to be the future.
My specific query is as follows. We recently had a power cut when I was away from the property for some time. My other smart home tech restarted fine when the power was restored but the Home Assistant GEEKOM PC did not which left me unable to control many aspects of my smart home. On returning to the property l simply pressed the button on the NUC and everything started fine.
How do I make the GEEKOM PC automatically restart on the restoration of power to the unit? Hopefully you can help with this issue.
Could be a setting in the BIOS. I have mine on a UPS. No computer likes being shutdown abruptly.
I have the DiskStation DS723+, is it possible to install HA on the synology?
I don't what to do, buy mini pc or Home Assistant Yellow, what do you recommend? thanks
hello from Italy
It’s your choice. The flexibility of Home Assistant can be overwhelming.
Thank you for your video. I have questions please. I went through the raspberry pi route and got ha loaded but mine didn't come up like yours. I got the map but there was no button for it to auto find my place and even editing the map doesn't allow me to pick more than my time zone.
What might I have done wrong and how do I fix it. Or is it better to just start over again?
They change HA all the time. Ignore it for now. You can always adjust your location later in your use profile.
Is it necessary to change the NUC bios prior to installation using the USB adapter method?
Yes I think so.
Can you do a complete guide to a docker install with Supervisor version?
I got mine installed but it has some issues.
No, sorry. I played with HA on Docker on my Synology NAS and it was much too complicated with Z-Wave and Zigbee USB dongles. So much easier with a dedicated device and HAOS.
@@handydadtv I got it on my Pi, but it is in a docker because I wanted to create a home cloud as well.
It works fine but shows that there is a few issues, can’t figure out solution for those.
@naronaroyan323 Docker on a Pi! That’s bold. Save your stress and buy another one.
@@handydadtv Bold? Why..? It’s been working fine all this time… 🤷♂️
I mean it has like 10 repairs listed within HA, but as far as everything goes, it’s been working just fine.
My only issue was that I couldn’t get a bluetooth speaker to do text to speech or AV jack… so I guess I have to find a way to pass through from docker to Pi.
@naronaroyan323 Perhaps bold is the wrong word. I just would never think of having virtual machines on such a small device. Yeah I know it’s possible but I only think of virtual machines on big computers with a lot of CPU and storage. Just me.
That’s the challenge with Docker in general, regardless of the size of the hardware: connecting the virtual environments to the physical. I wasn’t willing to spend the time to make it work.
I was following along and then got to the end of the remote portion and then broke my app. Need to do the port forwarding thing. could you post a short on that as well?
No, sorry. Port forwarding is specific to your router.
@handydadtv - off topic questions, but what brand of electric screwdriver are you using please ?
oops found the answer above !
handydad.tv/6h7y
Great vid!
A question though, seems I'm pretty useless with this - after etching the image and installing the SSD back in the NUC, the homeassistant.local address directs us to where? The NUC device? Do we need to set it up before?
Yes homeassistant.local should direct you to Home Assistant running on the NUC. If it doesn’t, you’ll need to lookup the IP address assigned by your router.
@@handydadtv Yes, did it the oldschool way via ip address. The homeassistant.local:8123 does not work, but the localipadreess:8123 does. Thank you very much good Sir for your time. :)
Great video🎉 am curious if home assistant work with Google home and is it easy to interface?
Yes it does.
Very informative.. How can we use our old PC as a server for home assistant??
Same process as I did with the mini.
@@handydadtv Thanks
Port forwarding? At minute 50:18 this crucial detail is mentioned, which can kill the whole point of setting up Home Assistant for remote access if it cannot be supported. I have T-Mobile Home Internet and from what I read on the T-Mobile Community website, they block port forwarding. It doesn't matter if I buy a second router to connect to the one T-Mobile supplies, I am still screwed.
In that case, you’ll probably be best off by subscribing to Nabu Casa.
Hello, I have a question. I have portable thermostats Habitat, which send the signal to the wall-mounted ac unit. I don't want to buy their hubs because they are super expensive. The portable thermostat works with RF. Is there a way I can connect those to HA? Thank you
I can’t answer. I suggest you ask on Reddit /r/homeassistant.
Hey Chris, thanks for the video. Something you may want to mention. I just followed your instructions and got HA installed on a small micro computer and it's up and running on my network. However, once I signed out, I was unable to sign back in because during the initialization, you never get to set or see your username. I am in the process of trying to figure it out but instructions online are sketchy. Any ideas on that?
Your username was selected during initial setup. I don’t believe there is a default or a way to override it.
Just reinstall and go through setup again if you don’t remember it.
Did you install Linux/Ubuntu as a bootable drive onto the jump/flash drive?
Yes
What capacity SSD or hard drive do you recommend?
Whatever the NUC comes with will be enough. Home Assistant is very lightweight.
How do we get to place devices on subnet to protect LAN from IOT devices?
Depends on your router. It’s a more advanced topic that all may not support.
But most IoT devices will work fine on your guest network, and every router should have that capability. But unfortunately, Home Assistant wouldn’t be able to see them on a guest network.