homeassistant

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Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first.
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Home Assistant can be self-installed on ProxMox, Raspberry Pi, or even purchased pre-installed: Home Assistant: Installation

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Finding Something that "Just Works" (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 years ago by corroded@lemmy.world to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world

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I have tried Home Assistant several times. Each time I try it, I get it installed on a VM under my Proxmox hypervisor and start configuring my devices. I'll use my most recent try as an example. I have several Wyze WiFi power switches, and two "Smart Life" (Toya internally) combination thermometer/switch devices. The Toya devices integrated with HA after I signed up for a Toya developer account and did a bunch of configuring. I was able to read the temperature values, but switching the devices on/off did absolutely nothing. I didn't even try the Wyze devices; apparently Wyze doesn't integrate with HA.

I'm not opposed to buying new "smart home" devices, but I want something that actually works properly. What I'm looking for are:

Devices that don't require internet access and an external API; I want to control them directly over my LAN.
Devices that have built-in integration with HA.

Is there a list of devices that just "work" with HA? I've looked at the list of available integrations that "technically" work, but they often require signing up for API access with a 3rd-party company and jumping through hoops to get the devices working. I want something where I can assign it a static IP or DHCP lease and HA just talks to it. I was able to get my BlueIris DVR integration working, and it can double as a motion sensor, so I'm specifically looking for plug-in switches, thermometers, sensors, etc.

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[–] walden@sub.wetshaving.social 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I don't know of a good list, but if you start looking through the integrations on the website, what you're looking for is "Local Push" or "Local Poling". Local Push is better.

I have a bunch of WiFi devices flashed with Tasmota. If you're handy with a soldering iron (arguably optional but makes it a little easier), you can stock up on Sonoff Basic switches and flash them. The stock firmware doesn't work with HA. The Tasmota website lists a bunch of devices that it works on. ESPHome is a similar project.

Going this route isn't quite "just works" since there's tinkering involved, but there are other, more expensive options. Shelly is a popular brand but I've never used one.

I've used TP-Link Kasa switches/outlets before and they work well. I believe in recent years they've disabled the ability to turn off cloud features, meaning you have to be ok with them having access to the devices, or you can block them with a firewall rule. Local control still works either way.

I also use a lot of z-wave switches, mostly from Zooz. If it's going inside the wall, I want it to be certified for that purpose so I'll pay extra for the safety.

Finally there's HomeKit. If you're device supports it, you can have local control. Just set the device up using HomeKit instead of whatever cloud polling option there might be available. This might be an option for Tuya, for example.