Home Assistant : Q&A, Tips & Tricks, Your Configs

Rocket-Boy

Rocket-Boy

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Jul 31, 2007
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MidnightZA said:
I got an old broken laptop from my parents. The keyboard and trackpad doesnt work. I want to try use this for my setup. I first want to open it to see if I can install one of my spare SSDs.

If so, what are my options of getting HAss installed? Is it possible to just install the Home Assistant OS from the NUC image? Or is there a better way to get HAss running?

I know nothing about linux, ubuntu, docker and other methods of installation
Click to expand...
I run my HA from an old laptop, it works great and has a built in UPS from the battery :)
I just installed Debian on it and then used the Debian install.
You can find instructions here:
community.home-assistant.io

Installing Home Assistant Supervised on Debian 11

Installing Home Assistant Supervised on Debian 11 Before proceeding, please read the following information It is being made increasing difficult to run a Supervised installation, by choosing to do so you understand the guidelines linked in the next paragraph. If you are new to Home Assistant...
community.home-assistant.io community.home-assistant.io
 
V

Veroland

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Aug 24, 2005
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6,304
Does anyone here have a smart kettle integrated in HA?

My dumb kettle is on it's way out
 
alqassam

alqassam

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Aug 11, 2014
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Speedster said:
Convenience. Turn on kettle when I get out of bed. Boiling water is ready by the time I reach the kitchen
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I have the appkettle.

Water is on a timer and set to boil just before we get to kitchen in the morning.

I can also ask Alexa to switch on the kettle, which is pretty useful.
 
V

Veroland

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alqassam said:
I have the appkettle.

Water is on a timer and set to boil just before we get to kitchen in the morning.

I can also ask Alexa to switch on the kettle, which is pretty useful.
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I saw some posts where you need IFTTT to integrate into HA. Is that still the case?
 
F

furpile

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Jul 14, 2014
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xrapidx said:
It seems it'll work - just have to figure out the how.

So - maybe every couple of hours I want to automate triggering a balance enquiry, then read the resulting SMS - and somehow publishing the results to home-assistant. Kinda tried of Vodacom wiping out my balance when the data expires.
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Not what you are looking for, but with the Vodacom app you can place a widget on your home screen that shows your balances. My widget takes up the space of 4 icons (5 can fit in the width available on my old Samsung). So every time you look at the phone you can see the balances and it updates automatically.
 
S

Steamy Tom

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Jan 23, 2019
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Speedster said:
Convenience. Turn on kettle when I get out of bed. Boiling water is ready by the time I reach the kitchen
Click to expand...

you assume that you have water in it and werent lazy the evening before :p unless of course it is some fancy kettle that can check that
 
TedLasso

TedLasso

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Feb 23, 2016
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3,757
Saba'a said:
Is it worth it in real life (IRL) terms? Just trying to figure out if it has any benefit IRL?

I have a smart LG fridge. Other than fast freeze and replace water filter and temp setting and (never used it but potentially useful) smart diagnosis of fridge.

Oh and door left open alert is cool but cant imagine someone leaving door open with loud alarm telling them to close it. But yes, just in case it does happen, its a cool but never used to date feature.
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I think there is no real value in IRL. Well it is early days. Just felt that considering the connected journey and the fact that I needed to buy an Airfryer to buy this one :D ... what could be cool possibly is perhaps leaving something in there to defrost, and then turning on remotely to be 'ready' when one gets home but I don't see me ever having that need.
 
MidnightZA

MidnightZA

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Mar 9, 2013
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EDIT: Crisis averted. I was using the wrong password. The password I was typing was 1 digit off from the password I input into the Google Drive Snapshot addon. I was panicking from about 3pm today about something so simple to solve /facepalm

The issue is below in the spoiler tag.

I ran into a bit of a problem. I read that updating the eeprom bootloader may fix the USB3 boot of my SSD and I did all the steps to update and everything updated smoothly. But now my ssd is stuck in a bootloop (not sure what else to call it). The SSD lights starts flashing then goes off after about 2 seconds. I connected a screen and it doesnt show anything when booting.

I flashed the HA OS onto another SSD and it works as expected. Boots into a fresh install. I tried restoring a snapshot to the new SSD and nothing happens even after an hour. Is it possible for a snapshot to be corrupt? I've tried about 3 different snapshots already and still nothing.

I really dont want to start everything again. What are my options here?
 
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TedLasso

TedLasso

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FML.

All my external lights managed by sonoff stopped working yesterday. According to HASS, it dropped off the network at a random time - no loadshedding or WiFi issues were the cause. Also after loadshedding occured - still nothing.

Just opened up the waterproof box outside in which this sonoff and two others are installed and found it full of ants. They were chilling on them cos I guess it's warm and while the other two are also covered with ants , I guess the front one ended its life when some ants short circuited something.

Now no lights outside until I get a new sonoffs, or maybe will install a shelly instead.

Any tips to prevent ants clogging up the electrical works ? Don't know how much more sealed a waterproof box needs to be
 
F

furpile

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Jul 14, 2014
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InternetLuddite said:
FML.

All my external lights managed by sonoff stopped working yesterday. According to HASS, it dropped off the network at a random time - no loadshedding or WiFi issues were the cause. Also after loadshedding occured - still nothing.

Just opened up the waterproof box outside in which this sonoff and two others are installed and found it full of ants. They were chilling on them cos I guess it's warm and while the other two are also covered with ants , I guess the front one ended its life when some ants short circuited something.

Now no lights outside until I get a new sonoffs, or maybe will install a shelly instead.

Any tips to prevent ants clogging up the electrical works ? Don't know how much more sealed a waterproof box needs to be
Click to expand...
Apparently putting mothballs inside the enclosure helps. You will need to replace it after a few months or a year though.
 
Speedster

Speedster

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May 2, 2006
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InternetLuddite said:
I think there is no real value in IRL. Well it is early days. Just felt that considering the connected journey and the fact that I needed to buy an Airfryer to buy this one :D ... what could be cool possibly is perhaps leaving something in there to defrost, and then turning on remotely to be 'ready' when one gets home but I don't see me ever having that need.
Click to expand...
Which airfryer did you get? I'm considering one and might as well go smart if it's in the same price range as the rest
 
xrapidx

xrapidx

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Feb 16, 2007
Messages
40,309
InternetLuddite said:
FML.

All my external lights managed by sonoff stopped working yesterday. According to HASS, it dropped off the network at a random time - no loadshedding or WiFi issues were the cause. Also after loadshedding occured - still nothing.

Just opened up the waterproof box outside in which this sonoff and two others are installed and found it full of ants. They were chilling on them cos I guess it's warm and while the other two are also covered with ants , I guess the front one ended its life when some ants short circuited something.

Now no lights outside until I get a new sonoffs, or maybe will install a shelly instead.

Any tips to prevent ants clogging up the electrical works ? Don't know how much more sealed a waterproof box needs to be
Click to expand...
I had the same thing happen with my front door controller - damn baby gecko walked over it. I now periodically spray the outside with doom.

Cost me a small fortune as I had to import another one with fast shipping.
 
TedLasso

TedLasso

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3,757
xrapidx said:
I had the same thing happen with my front door controller - damn baby gecko walked over it. I now periodically spray the outside with doom.

Cost me a small fortune as I had to import another one with fast shipping.
Click to expand...
New task added to monthly maintenance routines - doom the electrical boxes :D
 
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