My Top Add-ons and Integrations in Home Assistant.

[@pealock]

You’re definitely a power user! I opted to run a lot of the add on applications as standalone LXCs in Proxmox. Takes a lot more work to get everything connecting but then if I need to reboot HA, it doesn’t take everything with it. That would be my only critique to your setup currently. But as far as speed and reliability, they are equal! And you definitely win the ease of use award.

[@DeeSquared2000]

Samba Backup made my day, thanks man!

[@mostlychris]

Happy to help!

[@pbk380]

You are sure correct on Nest, I have been fighting that for 6 days now and still haven't🤕 got it going.

[@mostlychris]

Yuck!

[@mikewickens2016]

Thanks Chris very informative new to this whole Home Assistant journey and loving what you can do. - SUBSCRIBED !

[@mostlychris]

Awesome, thank you!

[@wd269]

how far from the GPIO can the sensors be placed?

[@benilev7328]

Can you give an example of how to apply guard when you have one prodauction server and the other running on back up when you upgrade ......

[@mostlychris]

I assume you mean AdGuard. In your network settings, you can specify more than one DNS server. Just set one as your primary HA box and the other as your backup HA box. That way, if one of them goes down, DNS can still be resolved from the other one.

[@tonydarby9096]

Thanks for that, currently using Google drive backup, but Samba backup to my NAS sounds like a better or even duplicate option.

[@mostlychris]

You can do both as long as long as you don't set them to run too close in time so as not to really mess things up trying to do snapshots from different programs at the same time.

[@AtracBreezy]

Node-Red is great. I sometimes build ETLs for work and Node-Red is extremely similar.

[@mostlychris]

Node-RED is awesome! I like how I can visualize everything I am doing.

[@3vil8unny]

ok subd for sure :) you just seem so confident in all these add ons I'm very interested to see how you did them all :)

[@mostlychris]

Be sure and check on the individual videos for some of the add-ons I have mentioned.

[@___aZa___]

This was very very informative, thank you!!! now i just need to migrate my HA from Docker to a raspi with HassOS! :)

[@mostlychris]

Glad it was helpful! Go for it!

[@wollinger]

How do I add the add-ons on the HA main menu, on the left pane?

[@mostlychris]

If you are talking about the left Home Assistant menu, I don't think you can. Although I would LOVE that as a shortcut. I am forever going into configuration->add-ons to get to something. Don't forget, you can use the "c" shortcut to jump around in HA. It'll bring up a dropdown of add-ons and other things.

[@dandegennaro]

Thank you Chris. In the video you speak about a backup Raspberry Pi. How is it working your recovery procedure and how is it involving the second Pi? Are you running in parallel the second in case of failure of the first? Or is the second ready to be plugged in the lan in case of failure of the first?

[@mostlychris]

I have mistakenly used "backup" and "test setup" interchangeably. My production device is an Odroid N2+ and my test device is the raspberry pi. I do run a second instance of AdGuard on my raspberry pi as a backup DNS server for my local network. If my Odroid failed, it is conceivable that I could take one of my nightly Odroid snapshots that I save to my NAS and put that on the raspberry pi to get up and running quickly.

[@dandegennaro]

@@mostlychris thank you, it’s very clear now.

[@mostlychris]

You're welcome

[@goekmannen]

fantastic! you have made videos for everything I would like to do!

[@mostlychris]

Excellent! Wishing you luck and make sure to have fun along the way.

[@SmartHomeMakers]

Great content as usual! Like bitwarden :)

[@mostlychris]

Thanks Gio! Bitwarden is one of them that I use many times per day so it is definitely a top 5 candidate if I were to rate them.

[@Sebastian-xf8je]

@@mostlychris Can you show us how to set up Bitwarden? I can't get it to be accessible outside my network

[@mostlychris]

Hey Sebastian. Have you seen my video on installing Bitwarden? Bitwarden: kzbin.info/aero/PLFFSkDDgcMEyx9VJsbkiA76oLzesnD-S-

[@apricotcomputers3943]

this is a goldmine!

[@mostlychris]

Lol.

[@AlexSBedini]

Great video, let me ask which hardware device are you using for HA?

[@mostlychris]

I am using the Home Assistant Blue which is an Odroid N2+ device. I use a raspberry pi4 for my test environment and backup AdGuard DNS server. www.home-assistant.io/blue/

[@AlexSBedini]

@@mostlychris Thanks a lot

[@Sabotage_Labs]

Hey..do you have any other videos on other things your doing with HA? 🤣

[@mostlychris]

Tons of them. Check my channel.

[@Sabotage_Labs]

LOL...thanks for playing along.... gotta see of you got anything on automation with homemade templates sensors on ESP8266s. Got that up fine with ESPHome... just can't get a automation to actually kick off. Got a smart ac plug...that works via Tuya. Has small bathroom heater plugged in. Trying to trigger based on DHT11 (yea, I know... Got a SME280 coming in a couple days) Temp reading compared to Nest temp sensor (condition) and time of day condition to turn plug on and off at certain temperatures. Strange thing is... log claims the automation went on but plug doesn't turn on. Plug will turn on with a simple time of day automation so... I know that works. Yea, I'm a noob but... an IT guy so.. bit frustrated.

[@mostlychris]

Have you tried tracing the automation in the debugger to see what it's doing?

[@chrisrosenkreuz23]

hey bro that adguard also block ads in the youtube app accross your home devices? cheers for the content

[@mostlychris]

It doesn't block ads internal to video sites as it really doesn't see them. When watching YT, your device is looking up DNS for YT. There isn't an embedded URL that requires another lookup that could be blocked.

[@chrisrosenkreuz23]

@@mostlychris thank you

[@papperme]

Thanks for sharing-. I am rather beginner of HA

[@mostlychris]

Thanks for watching!

[@michaelbatchelder]

looked for Alexa Media Player and did not find in configuration nor the HA integrations site

[@mostlychris]

I use Nabu Casa cloud and the integration works with that. However, you can install using HACS (recommended) or manually if you don't use Nabu Casa. Follow along here: github.com/custom-components/alexa_media_player/wiki/Configuration

[@ronm6585]

Thanks Chris.

[@mostlychris]

You bet!

[@rkbest9783]

Nice list of addons. I will be installing a lot of them. However, I have a weird issue. After getting my HA Os on a VM, everything works, but as soon i try any addon and open their web UI, I get 410 Unauthorized error. What could be wrong?

[@mostlychris]

Are you running a supervised/supported type of install?

[@sstrubberg]

You mention a video on how you setup the fridge sensor in NodeRED. Can I get a link to that? I'd love to watch it :)

[@mostlychris]

I could have sworn I made a specific video about that but I can't find it. However, if you look here on the livestream I talk about using that automation in Home Assistant kzbin.info/www/bejne/lV6tn6Fmecl3bck. If you are using Node-RED now, I can send you the flow for the fridge sensor.

[@dablet]

pls consider making a time index so we can easily jump to part of the video we need instead of searching around

[@mostlychris]

I usually do. I guess I forgot on this one. Most of my videos have an index.

[@fazrulrusdi3709]

Love ur dashboard.. Nice n tidy

[@mostlychris]

Thanks!

[@davidheron1505]

Hello, Chris. Thank you for the overview. It's a template for us all. Did you do a separate video for Own Tracks? It seems to be under represented in Home Assistant discussions. Time for a refresh?

[@mostlychris]

I have not done a video on OwnTracks. You're right. It might be time for one.

[@davidheron1505]

@@mostlychris Yes please, Chris. At the first opportunity. It's appreciated.

[@hkapp48]

Great video! With DuckDNS are you concerned about opening a port in your router?

[@mostlychris]

That's 100 percent how comfortable you are with that type of setup. I have that going to a test device so I'm good with it. Using Nabu Casa (which I use in production) is an option. You can also use a reverse proxy and only open one port and point everything to it first. It will allow you to auth the proxy connection before even getting to the other device(s) which should have their own auth--double auth that way. Check out my video on the Nginx Reverse Proxy if you are interested.

[@silverclifflightshow]

Just getting started with Home Assistant , are you available for hire? I need someone that will give me some guidance and help me set up all of the initial ad-0n

[@mostlychris]

Contact me via my Discord server and I'll chat with you about that.

[@Sabotage_Labs]

Pi Hole on a Zero 2W. Very efficient and configurable DNS server. Open Sorce and FREE!!!

[@mostlychris]

Yep. That is an option.

[@corvusprojects]

Holy crap, how many fridges does this guy have?

[@mostlychris]

Me? Just one.

[@jimmybondy1140]

Hi add your Channel on my list … Start for some Days with this System… all a new World…. Afraid to make Mistakes… get things moving to work…

[@mostlychris]

Mistakes are how we learn. Welcome to the journey.

[@MT-yo3mg]

No offence, but I do not see why people run such services on a home automation (virtual) server.. Why not go for a solution which is actually made for hosting services (ie via something like docker and through virtual machines) and either put your HA server on dedicated metal or on a VM? I don't see the point of layering to be honest? Sorry, like I said, no offence, just wondering..

[@mostlychris]

I am running a dedicated device for my HA stuff. Many of the add-ons are containerized within the environment. Which things do you see as layered?