Raspberry Pi - Microsoft Access Quick Queries #43


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Raspberry Pi

Matt Hall

11 months ago

I am currently running Home Assistant on a dedicated mini pc.  It is open source, can run on a Raspberry Pi, and is very flexible.  All of my devices are wifi, for simplicity.

To begin with you might look at a Wemos d1 mini or NodeMCU, preferrably with an esp32.  They are available on Amazon for under $10.   You can load an opensource firmware called Tasmota on them and communicate directly to them from anything on your network with a browser.  They have a built-in webserver and can also tie into a home automation system like Home Assistant, with minimal setup.  Add a relay module and you are ready to interface to the outside world.  If you load a different operating system on them called WLED, you can run addressable LED's with one.

For anyone reading this, it can be a deep rabbit hole if you are interested in home automation.  You can spend as little or as much money and/or time on this as you want.

There are seemingly endless possibilities with this.

	Dave Clark @Reply 11 months ago
Hey Matt, Have you considered doing a training video for how you set this up? Sounds straight forward sometimes there are little ideocracies that make the world of difference. I have two RaspberryPI's that I used to use for 3d printing. and have been considering using them for Home automation but not quite sure where and how to start.

Matt Hall OP @Reply

11 months ago

There are many on YouTube already and I am not well suited for videos.  I am the slow-talking guy that would put you to sleep.

The short version is this:
1.  Download the Home Assistant operating system image for your Pi
2.  Use an image writer to write the image to an SD card
3.  Install the SD card, ethernet cable and apply power to the Pi
4.  On another pc on the network, navigate to the assigned IP address and port 8123 (192.168.001.016:8123)

The graphic interface will walk you through the set-up.  The downsides to using the Pi is they are a little slower than a pc and the SD cards can fail.  That said, I ran on a Pi for 2 years and never had a problem with either.

Most of the idiosyncrasies are with the Pi and you already have experience.  The home assistant webpage has a pretty good instruction sets and there are many YouTube videos covering any specific tasks I have needed.  The home assistant website only covers PI 4 and PI 5.  If you need to find a different image, you can try here:

https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/releases

scroll down to assets and click "show all 46 assets"

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