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Oh boy, I'm looking forward to going all in on Google Home only for it to be deprecated in three years!
(Hey folks, Home Assistant is pretty cool and you can run it locally on an old laptop.)
this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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Home Assistant is great, but it has a steep learning curve imo and it takes time to set up. I would only recommend it to tech savvy people.
That being said, if you are tech savvy (familiar with Linux, docker, self hosting, etc) then it is extremely powerful and it works with pretty much everything.
This is very true. It does look like they've made it much easier lately with pre-purchasable hardware though. I know that it's a steep price compared to Google Home, but the advantage is that you're not tied to a Google ecosystem which can just unexpectedly shut down at a moment's notice. (Listen y'all I'm still mad about Google Inbox.)
I assume it'll get a little easier in the future?
There are some neat things I'd like to do, but I don't want to be in a walled garden.
It's not a walled garden, it's kind of the opposite. You can connect devices regardless of brand and it's a server you can run locally. In theory you wouldn't need to update it or ever connect it to the internet again, as long as your devices can run locally.
If you have an old laptop or a raspberry pi 4, you can always give it a try before scrapping what you're currently using.
I meant with commercial stuff like Google's. The easy stuff is all walled gardens, don't want that. So hoping stuff like Home Assistant gets easier to use.
Is home assistant a piece of software? Do you have a link, it's not a very searchable name
Yes it's software for managing IoT stuff, tons of addons and plugins for just about everything.
Here you go: https://www.home-assistant.io/
You would need to do some pre-planning before going ahead with this and it's not as simple as Google Home for sure. For example, my household went all in on Zigbee lights and switches so we had to get a Zigbee antenna to connect to our old laptop running Home Assistant and make sure all our cool LED smart lights and other cool gadgets were compatible, etc. I'm also tagging @ISometimesAdmin who did a lot of the networking stuff in case he wants to add anything.
I'm attaching an image of my dashboard setup for my room, just as an example of what can be accomplished. (This may not federate to Lemmy so I will self-reply with a link if necessary) This shows my and my household's location, the downstairs Sensi thermometer climate (which can be controlled), the light controls, temperature/pressure/humidity which is a little Aqara sensor from Amazon, and the Air Quality comes from my Winix air filter which can also be integrated to Home Assistant. You can really do a lot.
To add onto this:
Home Assistant isn't "yet another" service. It's not trying to do vendor lock in: you can think of Home Assistant kinda like a "glue" framework.
It's meant to let you systemically attach devices/software across any number of mediums, and pre-existing services, and let them play nice.
So if you've already gone and set up your Google Home, or Alexa, or Apple Homekit, you don't have to abandon them to use Home Assistant.
Sometimes you can't even get away from it: the thermostat that came with our rental basically only has a useful Samsung Smartthings integration, but we can still use it with Home Assistant.
If the image link didn't come in: here you go.
There's also purchasable hardware that comes pre-installed with Home Assistant and has zigbee built-in, it looks like, which is neat (though expensive).
Yea, it's not hard to search for it.
Seriously though.
Just got word that Pixel Pass, introduced less than 2 years ago that had an every-2-years upgrade program, has been cancelled.
They didn't even have it long enough to give people the main benefit. So don't rely on Google to keep anything new going these days.
Homeassistant is fun and all but it falls down for complex automations for me
Doesn't even need an old laptop, mines running on a Pi3
I tried using a pi3 but it kept crashing from going OOM like every 2 days (maybe I had too many devices?). I have it running on a more proper home server now and it's always up as long as there's no power outage.
Are they finally starting to add features now, after they spent the last 2 years removing all of them?
Can I just send them pictures of my asshole and be done with it?
Yeah seriously. Have the AI figure out whether I have 37 or 36 lines ans their average length.
It's 2023.
People are installing survellience devices in their homes because they now trust the most invasive advertising company connected to NSA with complete insight into their lives.
Some people would argue that most people no longer cares if they are being watched by governments and corporations, even at home.
The updated UI is a vast downgrade.
The one thing I used the app is now not possible and I have to set up or edit a routine instead as a shitty workaround that takes five times longer. What the fuck, man.
I regard "smart" as an epithet I want to avoid in appliances. Light switches, thermostats, refrigerators, and all the rest seem to work great without adding internet connectivity, security breaches, corporate surveillance, and vendors removing functionality, or ending support to turn the appliance into e-waste.
It helps to separate the technology from the companies. We don't need Google, Amazon, or any other company to make use of network connected technology. It doesn't have to be internet-connected, either. You can have a completely automated home with no more risk of intrusion than a standard locked door already has from a well-placed boot.
And given Nest's affinity to giving your data to the police I see no reason to buy their gear regardless of how easy it is to use.
https://petapixel.com/2022/07/27/googles-nest-will-provide-data-to-police-without-a-warrant/
I'm surprised Google is still going forward even though Amazon basically abandoned home automation entirely.
Home assistant is still better for automation. I only really use the Google Home app because it has a nicer UI for controlling stuff.
Also, it's stupid you still can't use the nest hubs SOLI Chip to perform motion automations. Get it will still bring up that screen every evening when you get close to it