Home Assistant Setup Made Easy: The Ultimate Guide

[@jarrylng9514]

Love the way u teach. most of the tutorials forget that the viewers knows absolute 0% of anything they just said. THANKS A BUNCH !

[@Camwise]

I've been running HomeAssistant on a rpi 3 b+ for nearly 4 years. It's been awesome. Started small, but now every single outlet, switch, window blinds, water meter, etc is all smart.

[@ajcarrico1]

How'd you make your water meter smart?

[@RetiredParatrooper]

Probably the best HA installation video I've watched. Your explanations, for why and what you're about to do--before you do it--should be adopted by anyone caring to put out instructive content.

[@dukeplc]

My advice to anyone going down this rabbit hole is to keep things 'local'. Limit the devices that depend on cloud control. Also, utilize vlans to segregate devices that should never be allowed to reach the outside world from devices that are allowed to do so. What I'd love to see you do is a video on HA/asterisk (or more specifically FreePBX) integration.

[@bit-born]

I would also encourage Zigbee or ZWAVE where possible

[@MummaBear]

Finally some one taking sense

[@dukeplc]

@@bit-born good advice. I chose ZWave and have around 43 devices, but Zigbee is a good choice also. I still have quite a few wifi (around 60) that are vlan'd. Most of those are tasmota or ESPHome devices that I couldn't do with ZWave.

[@ryanandrew102]

And which of the three setups would you recommend on this basis?

[@vargonian]

How do you install firmware updates for your devices if they don't have access to the internet?

[@MayureshKadu]

This is my first HA tutorial - on a investigation basis. Gave me a good idea on what is involved. Can't wait to get started. Thanks!

[@greggem]

Such a great video. Straight-forward, step by step, instructions without rambling tangents. Definitely subbed. Thanks for making this!

[@Phelper99]

Been running Home Assistant as a VM on my esxi system for maybe a year and a half. It's been solid. That esxi host is already running 24x7, one more lightweight VM was a-ok.

[@johnwestby7913]

I love Home Assistant and have been implementing automation around my house for the last several years. I think one of my favorite and useful applications is integrating a Shelly 1 relay with my "generic" garage door opener. I largely went off of the leonardosmarthomemakers tutorial but I set up my reed switch to be at the "closed" position instead of the "open" position. At that point is was a minor tweaking of the yaml code to make it work correctly. To me a door that is 4" open is still an open door and it will notify all of our phone if it's been open for over ten minutes. Over all I've loved the various integrations to automate porch lights, Christmas lights, and various lights around the house for given conditions as simple as sunrise sunsets as well as more complex scenes dependent on the weather conditions outside to set the television scenes in the family room. I keep most of my stuff on an IoT VLAN and others on an NoT VLAN and then use Open VPN on Pfsense to access my network on the Internet. If I didn't have something like that then my garage door opener would be fairly useless. PS anyone looking for smart bulbs I really love the simplicity and cost of the WIZ smart bulbs. A lot of my setup have those bulbs. Everything else is a hodgepodge of hardware.

[@ncbranker]

Please add the cloud flair service sounds good

[@CodySuders]

I own a boat. It doesn't get super cold where I live so rely on a bilge heater inside the boat to keep it from freezing. I worry the GCFI could trip and turn off my heater. I have a z-wave temp sensor in there and if the temp drops below 37 degrees it'll send me a notification and turn the hue lights in my bedroom on to an ugly color (since it'll most likely be at night when it gets cold). It saved my butt this past winter!

[@Nopelken]

I run HA Docker on our PI for more then 2 years now, without any problems. With a lot of devices and automations.

[@jimi-w]

I see there's been a few comments about this already, but surprised you didn't touch on SSD options! I'm running a medium-jank USB->SATA SSD option for my Pi4 Home Assistant, but there are also one or two neat Pi4 cases with M.2 slots and at least one board for CM4 which Jeff Geerling has reviewed. Much better than risking using an SD Card if you have a Pi4/CM4 to use!

[@pivot3india]

from security perspective which is better, hosting home assistant (using docker) on Synology or using home assistant yellow ?

[@RamirezGold]

Seeing the exact bluetooth controller like keyboard that I have, use and love, makes me realize, that I'm at the right place here and that this whole home automation and server stuff will become a rabbit hole for me.

[@JohnnyD975]

Great video and SUPER helpful, have always Liked & Subscribed your channel. One thing missing that you may consider updating in this tutorial: Home Assistant needs to be installed with Supervisor in order to enable the very essential Add-Ons. Without Add-ons, very limited with what you can do. If using Virtual Machine Manager, download and install the .OVA version (following all prescribed steps in this awesome video) which installs Supervisor version enabling Add-Ons. Rasberry Pi option comes with Supervisor install and if installing Docker version, it assumes you know enough about Docker to install Docker containers for each Add-on, which aren't obvious. So in summary, all 3 versions are NOT identical and you you need to know what you're NOT getting when choosing which option.

[@Theborg72]

ty fore the video. would like more if you could set up a dashboard for home assistance. I think this is a bit more difficult and what has made me give up on this project a few times.

[@bdhaliwal24]

Excellent guide. This is the second or third major piece of my infrastructure that I've gotten off the ground using the help you've been generously providing in your videos.

[@kyledewaal9332]

What were the others?

[@bdhaliwal24]

@@kyledewaal9332 Cloudflare tunnelling and your networking 101 series.

[@satshilrana7112]

I highly suggest NOT using an SD card for any RPi installs. You will 100% have a failed SD Card within a few months, specially with HA doing so much logging. I'd suggest getting a SSD->USB adaptor and running the RPi off of that. Steps are 100% identical, just replace the MicroSD with the external SSD.

[@EvilCob]

Well. I bought a PNY SSD, and that sucker died after 1 year.

[@satshilrana7112]

@@EvilCob Anecdotal evidence doesn't mean anything. Countless articles describing that MicroSD cards in Pi's die at an extremely fast rate with high i/o applications such as HomeAssistant. 🤔 Also most PNY SSD reliability articles show great reliability even after tens/hundreds of TBs written. You got a bad batch. Sorry.

[@thewilltejeda]

I had a pihole constantly get corrupt because of that as well. +1 for external

[@fosterslover]

I have been running Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi 3 w/ MicroSD since 2017 without issue. The key is the have the Recorder purge regularly so your database file doesn't grow to multiple GBs.

[@HunterWare]

And get a high endurance SD card

[@JoeSalmi]

So do you have to set up the smart devices using the client UI first, then bring everything up in Home Assistant? I ask because one I'm not running HA yet but I love the idea and I want to. Thank you for the helpful video BTW. And two, I can't stand having an app for every single smart device in home home. It's like everyone has their own app and once you buy a smart device the company only sticks around for about a year.

[@basscheutjens6612]

It depends on the device. Some devices are cloud only, so you have to setup the device in their app and HA communicates with the cloud. Other devices are local. My light bulbs for example use Zigbee and I just have to activate the linking mode by quickly turning them on/off a few times and they'll pop up in HA.

[@jeroenkrieger]

Intel nuc is the way to go. You can get cheap new or used mini pc’s or thinn clients. Much more powerful than all the other options, so even when you add more smart devices and functionality to your Home Assistant there are virtually no limitations. Ofcourse in my humble opinion 😊

[@MIsterB716]

Thin clients and Proxmox containers are the way to go IMO. More robust storage, battery backed clock, and power cables that aren’t waiting to come out. Raspis aren’t really suited unless you need the IO pins.

[@jeroenkrieger]

@@MIsterB716 exactly, even when you need gpio you can use a microcontroller at the location you need it.

[@SergiuszRoszczyk]

@@MIsterB716Proxmox might be overkill for a person who just want to do home automation (I know there are lots of us using it but…), but running a simple Linux with HA on any x86 terminal is a cheaper, more reliable and more convenient than hacking PI4 or 5, dealing with unreliable PSUs, hacking disk enclosures etc IMHO

[@ankitsingh-ip6db]

Thanks!

[@nexusasus]

Great video, can you give a brief comment on where-how to put the Pihole on that IOT VLan. I already have pihole running on my main network. Cheers

[@r000tbeer]

I need this in my life! Thanks for the instructional video.

[@ChristianBlueChimp]

I just got started with Home Assistant, so this is a big learning curve. Couldn't find a Rasberry, so found an old computer, where I could install Ubuntu (never tried that), and from there install HA. It isn't as easy as installing an app on a phone, but just google calender needed a lot of configuration to get to work. It could be more user friendly, but I guess it has gotten better than before.

[@roachmonk]

Yea I got HA green a couple months ago. Advertised as plug and play but definitely not user friendly lol

[@MarkZabriskieUS]

Chris, this video is gold to a new HA user like myself. I started testing HA on a laptop in a Hyper-V VM on my IOT vLAN. I've been looking at all of the more durable hardware options and was leaning to buying an Intel NUC and using Proxmox. While that is probably the best long term solution, your video showed me that a VM on Synology can be connected to the IOT vlan as a very reasonable first step.

[@CrosstalkSolutions]

VM is my preferred long term option.

[@liammcgarrigle]

While i agree, when I moved I set up a temporary home assistant with an SD card. As typical, life happened and that became permanent. 3 years later. It's still running great on the same sd card

[@broj]

Chris, any chance you could do a vid on getting ubiquity protect cameras to show in homeassistant in the IOT network from main LAN? I don't really want to have them on the IOT LAN specifically

[@ericgonzalez9503]

The Unifi UFO you have on your desk is right on point!!!

[@david_does]

This video could not have come at a better time. I've been tinkering with Home Bridge and think I am going to try moving to Home Assistant. 🙂

[@wolffInspector]

Thank you for this video very straight forward! Question Once I've sync all WIFI IOT devices to SD Card and Home Assistant and Created an account, Can i remove Raspberry Pi? or does it require to be plugged into WIFI Router permanently?

[@solucionesmat]

it is possible to control devices, which are no longer supported by the manufacturer's applications? In home assistant

[@DavidStein-c8z]

Nicely done Long time HA user and you did a fantastic job explaining Hone Assistant

[@PatrickBaldwin1]

Such a easy guide to setting this up. Was able to get it running on a container in my qnap NAS with the information that you provided.

[@waqassadiq]

Good.. How we can use any of our old pc to use as server for home assistant

[@newpointbusiness]

Where did you get that AP stand? Its pretty awesome.

[@What_s_Neu]

Great video! The home assistant rabbit hole is worth going down. I'd be interested in seeing what you have going for your greenhouse.

[@rpinut]

If you use Docker-compose and macvlan static adresses you could actual install containers on specific VLANs. I have a thin client computer, running Fedora Server, with 17 containers, over 5 diffrent vlans and a single ethernet port. In the MAC vlan config you easy give homeassistant one or more IP adresses in diffrent VLANs.

[@EddieBogart]

Instead of using an extra port LAN port on your Synology, would using a virtual switch on your Synology also be an option?

[@amirmoradi9595]

For the issue of long term usage of the micro SD, you can setup backups of your home assistnant setup and then just restore off a new micro SD. I'm about to get started on my first raspberry pie home assistant setup

[@Taylexwow]

You can also boot your pi off a usb hard drive instead an not worry about the sd card....better performance as well

[@dukeplc]

Welcome to the Home Assistant community Chris. I know a guy like you is going to love it and I look forward to seeing your progress going forward. Get familiar with Tasmota, ESPHome, and Node-RED. I use Node-RED for all my automations and try to keep things consistent within my HA instance..... YMMV. I run HA in a VM on an ESXi bare metal machine.

[@carlosburbano7708]

Question for you, why did you decide to run home assistance on a VM instead of docker ?

[@jacovanderwalt13]

the ras-pi units tend to get very expensive as well, with the conversion rate and that... thanx for the video. i recently tried to set it up, but could only get it working to be able to send media and somewhat control smart tv's and xiaomi tv stick. but could not add sonoff smart switches.

[@RugMncher]

Hello, im new to HA. I followed your steps and downloaded HA to my raspberry pi 4. is there any way to download pi-hole on the same pi? If so can you share any info or maybe youve already done a video on this. Thanks Love the vids

[@pcoppens1]

Hi. I loved your video. Super clear and well explained the pros/cons of each method. One thing with the second method of the three described is following. You mention that "you plug in something in the untagged ethernet port of the Sinology". What exactly do you plug in? Right now there is the Homeassistant Green for 'newbies' like myself. Would the be a good alternative as well?

[@OwGosHh]

New to home assistant on raspberry pi, but I've came across some recommendations where they advise against using an SD card as that will ultimately stop working, but use SSD

[@jerrythompson]

I'd like to start with HA using Raspberry Pi, Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 Dongle Plus, and a couple of Hue light bulbs with no hub. I understand your concern about the micro SD however, you did a video a couple of years back about booting the Raspberry Pi from USB. I have an Argon One M.2 case and SATA SSD M.2. Is there a reason that this wouldn't work instead of the Micro SD?

[@symbo6382]

Do I NEED something like the Lutron Bridge? Is it necessary to link devices like bulbs and sensor to a bridge and then to the pi?

[@leecurcio6132]

I think overall home assistant is great, but there is an issue. Do you want to control the blinds? Then you need the blind Homelink device. Do you want to control ac? Then you need the ac homelink device. Do you want to open the garage? Then you need the garage homelink device. How many devices and bridges do you need to have? I think they should put on the market a device that detects RF or IF signals, and then a home assistant software selects what it is.

[@sideoutracquetball6835]

I have 2 Tapo D225 video doorbells and I’ve been trying to get my home assistant to be able to display those camera feeds but to no avail can you help with a tutorial on how to get access to the video doorbells feeds in home assistant so that I can use them on a dashboard I tried following a couple of other KZbinrs guides using hacs integrations but have not been able to successfully get any image even a static snapshot from the cameras to come up. Now home assistant will show my other 2 indoor cameras that I have configured in the Tapo app and using the Tapo integration in home assistant but not the doorbells for some reason it’s above my intellect level

[@marktaylor1527]

HA & Matter? I have HA and roughly a dozen devices - Tuya (Internet only), Shelly (Local only), TPLink, Wiz & Broadlink (Internet and Local) and Matter (Local - TPLink & Wiz). Came across your video on Secure IoT Network Configuration (which is excellent). Recommendations/update for Matter? There seems to be issues with Matter and VLANs & MDNS. And also specifically with Ubquiti. Any experience with Matter & HA?

[@Un_Pour_Tous]

the button click for on and off on the power cord causes low voltage warnings don't use any on/off switches.

[@anpc86]

Yes, want to see cloudflare Ok so trying to understand a start from scratch, been watching a few videos I want home network + doorbell and a few cameras + home assistant So home networking should get unify dream machine se for route and networking ,unify switch + doorbell + camera and synology nas for storage as i do want to get unify protect and i assume i can store footage to synology as well as run home assistant via docker ?

[@fearthesmeag]

Nice video Chris, however, Im unable to get to my HA landing page 'page cannot be displayed' once docker was configured and running?

[@fearthesmeag]

managed to connect to a diff port 4915x and not the std HA port. Oh well its working. Another question Chris, for each eco-system, i.e. Lutro, Hue bulbs - you would need a bridge to connect to each of these devices? Would HA just connect to the devices without multiple bridges around the house?

[@antonioferreira3435]

Video with Cloudflare, please

[@MitchFromSyd]

something i have yet to find is a good guide on wifi sensors working with HA. I need a cheap wifi not zwave etc temp sensor that just works.

[@dukeplc]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/b4rYZmqsn99qd7s

[@Cessna_182]

Hello Chris. I love the videos you produce. Thank you! I have a DS920+ I wanted to install HA on. A concern not covered in this video is installing devices like Z Wave and Zigbee USB devices on my NAS? My NAS only has two USB ports, and from reading comments on some HA boards going with Docker in version 7, there may be some USB driver issues. People have recommended installing the VM that would handle the USB drivers much better. I don't have any machines on 24/7 to put VM on except my NAS. The other option would be to go with Raspberry Pi and call it good. Any thoughts on this? Could I use a USB hub if I had more than two USB devices?

[@DavidM2002]

I ended up using the OVA file on my QNAP NAS. It's installed through the "import" function.

[@Logan-ml2dt]

If you have any automations already set up in for example Google Home will these transfer over to Home Assistant?

[@tuhinbhuiyanweb]

Home assistant I followed and installed on docker in Synology does not contain an Addons option. How does yours have? Please tell me how to activate it.

[@aubreyblumsohn8707]

Exactly. I used the docker method and I'm ready to throw HA into the bin as it is unusable without any Add-ons at all - or at least so crippled that I don't care to use it. What a shame

[@s2InnovativeSolution]

Did you ever do a review between Home Assistant vs Hubitat?

[@ldarbonnemagic]

Here's my current thoughts: Hubitat Proprietary hardware Basic dashboard Free Alexa and Google Home integrations Apple HomeKit integration Home Assistant Need hardware to run on NAS: VM allows add-ons and easily connects to Z-Wave/ZigBee device, while Docker doesn't NAS: VM requires dedicated CPU threads and memory Need Z-Wave and ZigBee hardware; the best would actually be Hubitat Steeper learning curve Much 'prettier' dashboard, with a lot of effort Larger community support Sometimes things just don't work correctly Must pay a subscription for Alexa and Google Home integrations; unless done via Hubitat integration or spinning up a separate server

[@bit-born]

You do NOT need a subscription for Google home or alexa support. I honestly don't understand where people get this idea from, it's well documented!

[@ldarbonnemagic]

@@bit-born That's what I heard, but didn't dig into it. I assumed it was correct (we all know what that means). Thanks for the clarification.

[@bit-born]

@@ldarbonnemagic I think it's because it spreads from person A to B to C and gets viral. But I've been using Google assistant with Home assistant direct to my own server for a few years now. I don't even add the other services to Google assistant and have Home Assistant do it all.

[@rodneywright2577]

I have installed a three way Meross wall switch and experiencing some problems . Installed just one . The light does switch on and off at the Meross switch. But at the other switch the light will some times come right back on after turning off the switch. Do I have it wired wrong ? Thanks in advance ,love the videos.

[@kasperhoejbjerg]

Hi Chris. Now when you have installed HA on a virtual machine on Synology with ip address in your IoT network, how to manage firewall rules if your UniFi cameras are on the NoT vlan and you want to integrate in HA? 😅

[@randomposterguy7097]

looking into getting Home Assistant setup, what NAS do you suggest for the job as of today?

[@ksoonsoon]

I love your work, your content and your presentation my friend. However, it would be great if you would upgrade your mic. You are so technically on top of so many things, shouldn’t take you much to find the right one to get the sound upgrade you need. Best of luck

[@larrybud]

Sounds great here. Maybe you need to upgrade your headphones/speakers!

[@tglenn3121]

Hello, thanks for the video. I have a question if you don't mind. I have Home Assistant running on a Rpi 5. HA has discovered a DLNA server (Twonky), but when I try to add it, I get a message saying "No devices found on the network." So, why is it saying this after discovering it. That's like saying 'Yes, it's here, but no it isn't.' Very confusing and annoying.

[@roachmonk]

If i set up HA Green in my current rental, but now I'm moving in a month, did i mess up? Should i have waited for the new rental to set up HA green? What can i do to get my HA green set up in a brand new home?

[@kyledewaal9332]

If you want to run home assist locally on your desktop and just have pg&e send data to HA via their api is that possible? I more want an energy monitoring platform than anything else. Thanks!

[@AndrewMadson]

Love your Cat Cabling canvas in the background. Is that for sale?

[@thermionicdude2044]

Hey Chris, what’s the story behind the map of New Zealand with your Lutron light switch 👍

[@313Renegade]

Can home assistant be used to shut down a udm pro, say during a power outage before the ups runs down?

[@SuciSystex]

What if the product we want doesn't appear on the integration page and how to fix it? Are there certain conditions under which the product can be connected?

[@miatared]

Unless I've missed something (my apologies if I did) Very little has been said on Zigbee and Z-wave devices which require radios. In your 3 suggested ways of running HA, how to connect and which radios do you suggest?

[@timothymason5545]

Do all three ways include the add-ons?

[@Beelaim]

I am curious, would you set up a smartdoor lock into your IOT network, or into your more safe network? To me it sounds crazy to throw my smartlock front door in the IOT network. I have Guests, my Private network for our home ocmputers office and such, IoT network and a seperate network for my security. Would th door be on the security network or the private network?

[@valramos2003]

Is there a way to add devices connected to a different wifi ssid? My HA is on wifi A but my Nest cameras are on wifi B.

[@MrUnterhugel]

I’m not sure how stupid this sounds, but I have 2 questions: 1) Are there any devices out there that I can monitor one (or many) discrete voltage(s) and scale as appropriate for display or actions; and 2) - completely unrelated to number 1) - can I run HA without internet access? For instance, I want to monitor recreational vehicle environmental functions (outside temps, etc) and have them displayed on a monitor. Obviously, I will need to set it up while online and I know that there are several functions that I will not be able to access when offline, but it would be handy when I’m out boon-docking and I don’t want the expense of Starlink.

[@matthewbourne7055]

I want to set up an always on device like yours, that i can set up a virtual machine for home assistant on as well as run video game servers on and have for storage. What hardware do you recommend?

[@robertthompson5908]

I have several raspberry pi 4 B’s. I put them in the GeekWorm Naspi case , it has a nice shutdown switch, PWM fan , which adjusts speed according to the temperature, and last but not least a SATA to SSD board. One of my pi’s runs off of a 2.5” 1TB SSD and the other has an M.2 SSD drive, also 1TB. If you’re going to run a server on a Raspberry Pi something like this is the way to go.

[@zackaryvoss1619]

I’ve been struggling to get a running copy of HA without the use of a pi or Ethernet I can’t do much with hardware any suggestions on what I can do I don’t plan on to fancy automations I just wanna have a collective app that brings all my stuff together

[@chrisumali9841]

Thanks for the demo and info, have a great day

[@TheRubernck21]

i know this is a year old, but I currently have my stuff setup on HomeKit. Do I need to uninstall anything, or just go through the discovery process in HA?

[@DavidM2002]

HA is available on the Synology NAS Application Center, Community section. In your opinion, is using Docker or a VM a better way to install or is that just a personal preference ?

[@TheLood]

Any guides on how can i make my network secure?

[@klottiem8083]

how works a VM Is it a physically thing? or is it only on youre computer?

[@blankcd1]

can you link to where you got that tiny monitor from. thanks!

[@alfher22]

I have some Kasa video cameras and i would like to turn them to certain position whenever a door is open, doors have a Ring sensors, is there a way to do that with Home Assistant ??

[@user-bh7uj]

I'm so confused, do you need raspberry pi for home assistant? Is it not just an app you can download on pc?

[@shananedwin7085]

Loving the shirt and the vids, great work as always

[@SteRo_21YT]

hello, i will use a raspberry display can i controll all of this from the display?

[@BigART1791]

I can get myQ device seen in Home Assistant and can operate them from web GUI or ios App, but I cannot seem to get them seen in the Apple Home App. I was hoping to open garage doors with Siri instead of the myQ App. Any advice?

[@marklewus5468]

A new comment about Raspberry pi reliability, now that they’re readily available again. I set up a pi4 4GB as a MagicMirror almost exactly 4 years ago, using a SanDisk 32GB SD card. It has run 24/7 since then without failure. It does an automatic backup to my NAS but so far those have been unnecessary. It has also survived many AC power failures with no SD card corruption.

[@4AlexeyR]

Thanks. Good intro to the HA abilities and UI. Thanks for the video.

[@vargonian]

I couldn't find a tutorial on how to set up a local IoT network which prevents phoning home. Is there one available?

[@AceBoy2099]

Sorry to be a pain, but how about an overview of the VM install from scratch, for example, I'm running unraid so if I built a windows vm, how would I install it on there? Or a variation of the docker on unraid (if you know that even)?

[@JonathanFunkhouseMonkhouse]

Great video. Very clear. Now I’m off to buy Raspberry Pi

[@qzorn4440]

A most excellent IOT video. 🥳 Thank you. Question # 1 can Home Assistant control the Orange Pi-5 GPIO PWM or I2C pins Question # 2 Can a Raspberry Pi can control an off the shelf Pan_Tilt camera like the WAAWO 4K PTZ Webcam instead of making a Pan/Tilt servo camera using Wi-FI or Ethernet?

[@gerryf7015]

How about a bare metal x86, NUC or NUC clone?. Better, cheaper, and more available than a Pi. Have given up completely on RP4 due to availability and full cost.

[@CrosstalkSolutions]

Yes - you can absolutely run HA on a small server...no issues there.

[@runeonaquest9347]

I am running HA on an old HP 430 G3 laptop

[@bisnusikder1435]

Can a device be controlled from one country to another through the Home Assistant platform?

[@cranksv477]

Thanks so much for a great tutorial....it helped me a lot!

[@pax0707]

I’ve never took a dive into HA because everything I have supports HomeKit. Periodically re evaluating my decision