Building Smart Home Automation Solutions with Home Assistant: Configure, integrate, and manage hardware and software systems

Building Smart Home Automation Solutions 
with Home Assistant
Contributors
About the author
About the reviewers
Preface
   Who this book is for
   What this book covers
   To get the most out of this book
   Download the example code files
   Code in Action
   Conventions used
   Get in touch
   Share Your Thoughts
   Download a free PDF copy of this book
Part 1: Introduction to Home Assistant – Installation and Configuration
1
Understanding Home Automation Systems
   Technical requirements
   Overview of home automation systems
   Benefits of having an automated home
      Saving time
      Feeling comfortable
      Saving money
      Being safe
   Home automation structure
      Home automation server
      Sensors
      Actuators
      Communication media
      Protocols and brokers (MQTT)
      User interface and other clients
   Example of a real home automation system
      History
      Current configuration
      Bill of materials and costs
   Summary
2
Getting Started with Home Assistant
   Technical requirements
   Learning about Home Assistant
      Introduction and evolution
      Home Assistant features and resources
      Important Home Assistant definitions
      Home Assistant availability
      Community and support
   YAML
   Raspberry Pi as a home automation server
      Hardware architecture
      Main Raspberry Pi features used by the home automation system
   Installing Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi
      Preparing the SD card for Home Assistant installation
      Home Assistant installation verification of Raspberry Pi
      Home Assistant initial configuration
   Exploring a Home Assistant installation
      Home Assistant default screen and menu disposition
      Home Assistant sidebar navigation
   Home Assistant basic configurations
      User preference configuration
      General configuration
      People configuration
      MQTT configuration
      Wi-Fi network configuration
      Dashboard cleanup
   Summary
Part 2: Install, Create, and Hack Sensors and Actuators
3
Hands-On Project 1 – Creating Your Own Sensor
   Technical requirements
   Knowing the parts and tools to build your sensor
      Element sensor and signal conditioner 1 – the motion sensor
      Element sensor and signal conditioner 2 – environmental/temperature sensor
      Wireless communication module – ESP8266
      Power supply and cabling
   Connecting the electronic parts and cables
   Understanding Tasmota and how to install it in our sensor
      What is Tasmota?
      Installing Tasmota in our sensor
      Configuring the software of your sensor
      Getting data from sensor elements
      Device name
      Configuring the MQTT information in the sensor
   Integrating the sensor data into Home Assistant
      Integrating the temperature sensor
      Integrating the motion sensor
   Enclosing, calibrating, and installing the sensor
      Enclosing our sensor
      Calibrating the sensor
      Installing the sensor
   Summary
4
Hacking a Commercial Actuator to Work with Home Assistant
   Technical requirements
   Understanding hacking a sensor or actuator
      How to choose a commercial sensor or actuator to be used with Tasmota
   Using tools and hacking the firmware of a commercial actuator
      Learning about the tools and materials used to hack an actuator
      How to hack your commercial actuator
   Configuring your hacked actuator
      Configuring the Tasmota firmware in your actuator
      Configuring the actuator in Home Assistant
   Adding another commercial actuator to Home Assistant (non-hacked)
      Using a Home Assistant integration to add a commercial device
   Installing actuator devices in your home
      Getting started with the actuator installation
   Installing other types of devices in your home
      Installing small actuators in electrical wall boxes
      Installing outlet plug actuators
      Installing smart lamps (bulbs)
      Installing battery-powered devices
   Summary
Part 3: Automations, Customizations, and Integrations Using Home Assistant
5
Creating Automations Using Home Assistant
   Technical requirements
   Learning what automations are
   Components of an automation in the context of Home Assistant
      Understanding entities
      Understanding the automation components
   Creating your own automations
      Automation 1 – convenient light for your garage
      Automation 2 – turn off screen monitor at bedtime
   Testing and debugging your automation
      Setting and checking the state of entities
      Changing the state of output devices using services
      Using traces to debug your automation
   Expanding the Home Assistant automation capabilities
      Using and creating pre-formatted automations (blueprints)
      Creating and using scripts
      Creating scenes
   More examples of automations
   Summary
6
Doing More Using Integrations and Customizations
   Technical requirements
   Adding more devices to your home using integrations
      Using Home Assistant-based integrations
      Using device manufacturer-based integrations
      Adding other devices to your home
   Using dashboards in Home Assistant
      Understanding and creating dashboards
      Populating dashboards by using cards
      Populating the dashboards by using badges
   Customizing your dashboards
      Dashboard approach 1 – by home dependencies
      Dashboard approach 2 – by device type
      Dashboard approach 3 – Home Assistant integrations
   Using extra resources to customize your dashboard
      Using the Picture Elements card
      Installing and using other customizable cards and items
   Summary
Part 4: Expanding Home Assistant’s Capabilities
7
Extending Home Automation Capabilities Using Add-ons
   Technical requirements
   What are add-ons in Home Assistant?
   Doing automations without Home Assistant using 
Node-RED
      Installing and using Node-RED
      Recreating an automation using Node-RED
   Using database and chart tools to present data from 
your home
      Installing and creating databases using InfluxDB
      Installing and presenting data using Grafana
   Managing your network of Tasmota devices using TasmoAdmin
   Accessing Home Assistant remotely
   Summary
8
Installing and Setting Up Home Assistant Container
   Technical requirements
   Creating backups in Home Assistant
      Creating and retrieving manual backups using Home Assistant
      Creating an automation to back up your system
   Understanding the architecture of IOTstack
   Installation of IOTstack
   Configuring the IOTstack
      Raspberry Pi static IP configuration
      Accessing and configuring the container software applications
      MQTT server configuration in Tasmota devices
      Configuring Home Assistant in IOTstack
   Running and managing the applications in IOTstack
      Maintaining the software used by IOTstack
   Summary
Part 5: Learn by Doing and Future Trends
9
Hands-On Project 2 – Creating an LED Strip Controller and Adding It to Home Assistant
   Technical requirements
   How an LED strip controller works
   Grouping the materials and connecting the parts
      Materials required to build the LED strip controller
      Connecting the parts to build the LED strip controller
   Deploying the controller software
   Configuring the LED strip controller using the WLED software application
      Configuring the Wifi network in the WLED application
      Configuring the main parameters of the WLED application
   Integrating the LED strip controller into Home Assistant
   Creating an automation using the LED strip controller
   Installing the LED strip controller in your home
   Summary
10
Hands-On Project 3 – Creating a Five-Zone Temperature Logger for Your Home
   Technical requirements
   Understanding the five-zone temperature logger system architecture
      Hardware system architecture
      Software system architecture
    Creating and configuring the five-zone temperature sensors and the ESP32 module-based temperature hub
      Changing the Mi Bluetooth thermometer firmware
      Uploading the ESP32 Tasmota firmware variant to the temperature hub
   Connecting the sensors data to a database using 
Node-RED
      Double measurement sensor data capturing and formatting
      Temperature hub data capturing and formatting
      Configuring the data to be stored in the InfluxDB database
   Storing data in a database using InfluxDB
   Presenting the InfluxDB data using Grafana
   Using the five-zone temperature sensor in Home Assistant
   Summary
11
The Road Ahead in Home Automation Technologies
   Technical requirements
   New technologies and trends in home automation
      Using current and new technologies to interact with your home
      Using different smart devices in your home
      Using a single home automation communication protocol
      Using energy-efficient systems
      Including security in home automation
   Home Automation and Home Assistant FAQs
      Home automation FAQ
      Home Assistant FAQ
   How to get ideas for projects to automate your home
   Additional resources
      Websites
      YouTube channels
      Online forums and communities
      Podcasts
      Books
   Summary
Index
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