Trying out Home Assistant - any suggestions or warnings?

[sic0048]

I have been using CQC for years. However it is becoming less and less functional since it is no longer being supported. It seems the best software option out there right now is Home Assistant, so I am ready to install it on a new N100 mini computer and try it out. I know Pete is actively using Home Assistant. Anyone else?

Any suggestions or pit falls to avoid as a new user? I'm sure I'll be watching some Youtube videos as I go along, but I thought I would get opinions from the users here as well.

Thanks!

 

[pete_c]

Using HA today on a Lenova M900 as a Oracle Virtual Box image running on Ubuntu 24.04. Originally installed HA on the Ubuntu OS.

Using a VM allows you to tinker / backup and restore easily. I am also running Homeseer 4 (Linux) and Cumulus MX (Linux) on same machine.

Lately tinkering with HA TTS and VR sans Alexa using Voice Preview Addition.

Still using X10, UPB, Z-Wave, Zigbee and lately Tasmota WiFi devices.

Very plug n play. Go baby steps installing and using.

Lately been doing a bunch of weather and weather station tinkering.

 

[Mark S.]

I think that Home Assistant is more capable than Homeseer, but the learning curve is significantly more challenging than Homeseer. Homeseer is definitely more intuitive, but Home Assistant is far more flexible - you can do almost anything if you put the time in to figuring it out. I don't see myself giving up Homeseer because HSTouch is critical for me, and Home Assistant has nothing like that.

My main pitfall with Home Assistant has been troubles with running it on a Raspberry Pi. It works, but I have had several flakey issues with hardware and SD cards. I am soon moving to a NUC-type PC because it should improve reliability, so I imagine you will do fine with the N100. The other challenge I have had is learning the Home Assistant way of doing things - it is very different than anything I have been used to - just learning the terminology has been tough. If I could spend more time with it, I am sure I would pick it up faster - it requires commitment, and I have just not had the time to get deeper into it.

That said, integrations are super-easy, and the GUI to create basic events is not too bad, so I could get up and running with basic stuff very easily. It is the more advanced features like coding that require me to spend a lot of time to learn.

 

[JonW]

I'll echo Pete's sentiment of running it as a VM! Until last week, I had never had an issue with upgrades, but this last one hosed my system and I didn't have time to troubleshoot it before going out of town. Easy peasy, I just reverted the VM and I was back to a stable system. I take a VM snapshot before every upgrade just in case.

 

[ano]

I have been running it for a few weeks now. I started with a virtual machine in a Synology NAS and that was a MESS. Don't Do That. Don't Do It. Now I have been using a Raspberry Pi 5 and it has been great. No problems. But what I do is make a full copy of the SD card now and then. There IS a big learning curve, so keep that in mind. Lots of videos on Youtube that are helpful. I have LOTS on it and it runs great, CA certificate, domain certificate, text-to-speech, Sonos, HAI Omni Bridge, Homekit, MQTT, SensorPush, Pushover, SSL Proxy, Matter Server, you name it. I'm working on getting my Hubitat connected. This will allow me to connect with Zigbee and Z-Wave as I don't want that to connect directly to it.

 

[George M]

I was in your place a couple of years ago. Had CQC for about 15 years. Loved it! But had to move on because of no new hardware being worked on. I do hope Dean is doing well though.
HA will handle anything you can throw at it, either internally or with community programs or add ons. Currently I am concentrating on voice control. I have never use google or apple for voice control. I wanted to keep it local. It has a HUGE community for support (especially on discord) and is updated very often. Sometimes too often for some people.
Personally I would recomend a micro / mini computer and install the Home Assistant Operating System (HAOS) on it. Especially if you have a lot of different kinds of controls or if you might delve into voice control.
The biggest negative for me is that CQC dashboards are easier and more adaptive than with HA.
Good luck. I was scared to make the switch. I kept CQC and HA both active for a number of months until i felt comfortable. Now I only have CQC running at my sons house for the media room - Haven't been able to duplicate the dashboards yet to switch it over.