![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/randomnerdtutorials.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Thumbnail.jpg?resize=730%2C465&quality=100&strip=all&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\nIn this post we\u2019re going to show you how to get started with Home Assistant on Raspberry Pi. We\u2019ll show you how to set up Home Assistant and we\u2019ll build a simple example to get you started with home automation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what we are going to cover in this tutorial:<\/p>\n
Home Assistant is an home automation hub. An home automation hub is a place where different devices with different protocols communicate with each other. This means you can link all your devices in just one place and build cool automations based on the state of all your devices.<\/p>\n
Home Assistant is the biggest open-source home automation platform to date and it supports 895 different components.<\/p>\n There are different ways to install Home Assistant. You can run it on your computer or use a Raspberry Pi to act as an exclusive home automation hub. In this tutorial we\u2019re going to install Home Assistant on Raspberry Pi 3.<\/p>\n To start running Home Assistant on the RPi, you need to install Hass.io.<\/p>\n 1)<\/strong> Go to https:\/\/home-assistant.io\/hassio\/installation\/<\/a>\u00a0and chose the appropriate image for your Raspberry Pi. We recommend using Raspberry Pi 3. Click on the Raspberry Pi 3 link to download the Hass.io image to your computer.<\/p>\n 2)<\/strong> Go to https:\/\/etcher.io\/<\/a> and install Etcher<\/strong> on your computer. Select the appropriate installation for your operating system.<\/p>\n 3)<\/strong> When the installation is done, open Etcher and click on Select image<\/strong>. Open the image you\u2019ve just downloaded in step 1)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 4)<\/strong> Make sure Etcher<\/strong> selects the right SD card. Then, click Flash!<\/strong> Note: you need to have your SD card formatted before doing this step. Wait a few minutes while Etcher flashes the image on the SD card.<\/p>\n 5)<\/strong>\u00a0Insert the SD card on your Pi. Connect an Ethernet cable and power it up.<\/p>\n 6)<\/strong> \u00a0After a few minutes you should be able to access Home Assistant user interface from any device on the same local network. You just need to type on the browser http:\/\/hassio.local:8123 or go to \u00a0http:\/\/your-pi-ip-address<\/span>:8123 by replacing your-pi-ip-address<\/span> with your Raspberry Pi IP address. If you don\u2019t know how to find your Raspberry Pi IP address, check this post<\/a>.<\/p>\n 7)<\/strong> Be patient, the installation takes about 20 minutes (or more)<\/span>\u00a0to download all dependencies it needs for Home Assistant. While it is being installed, you\u2019ll see the following on your browser window.<\/p>\n Note:<\/strong> sometimes the screen below doesn’t load, but the installation is still continuing in the background. Let it complete the installation.<\/p>\n Once it’s done, your Raspberry Pi will auto reboot, so you have to wait another 3 minutes. Then, refresh your web page and you should see the Home Assistant user interface default view.<\/p>\n Navigate through each tab and explore what’s inside.<\/p>\n There are several add-ons you can add to get home assistant even better. We recommend installing Samba share<\/strong> and Open SSH<\/strong>. You can also install other add-ons that you might find useful.<\/p>\n The Samba share add-on gives you access to the Raspberry Pi’s folders on your computer. This is useful so that you can access and change your Home Assistant configuration settings through your computer.<\/p>\n 1)\u00a0<\/strong>To install the Samba share add-on, in the Home Assistant user interface go to Hass.io<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 2)\u00a0<\/strong>Click on the icon on the upright corner and then, select the Samba share<\/strong> add-on.<\/p>\n 3)\u00a0<\/strong>Then, click install. The installation may take a minute or two.<\/p>\n 1)<\/strong> Once Samba share is installed, in your computer, go to Network Devices<\/strong>. You should see a new device called HASSIO<\/strong>. Open it and there should be a couple of folders, including the config<\/strong> folder.<\/p>\n 1)\u00a0<\/strong>To access the shared files in Mac OS X, go to Finder > Go > Connect to Server<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 2)\u00a0<\/strong>A new window pops up. Write the server address as follows:<\/p>\n The server address should be smb:\/\/<\/strong> followed by your Raspberry Pi IP address.<\/p>\n 3)\u00a0<\/strong>Select Connect \u00a0As\u00a0Guest<\/strong><\/p>\n 5)\u00a0<\/strong>Finally, you can access the configuration.yaml<\/strong> file.<\/p>\n We also recommend installing the SSH server<\/strong> add-on. This allows you to connect to your Raspberry Pi that is running Home Assistant over SSH.<\/p>\n 1)<\/strong> Go to the Hass.io <\/strong>tab, click on the upright corner icon and search for SSH server<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 2)\u00a0<\/strong>Then, a tab with the SSH server opens.\u00a0In the\u00a0Options<\/strong> section, add a password as follows (use your own password) and click SAVE<\/strong>:<\/p>\n 3)\u00a0<\/strong>Finally, click INSTALL<\/strong> to install Open SSH.<\/p>\n 4)<\/strong>\u00a0The\u00a0Boot<\/strong> option is set to\u00a0auto<\/strong>, which means the connection is established automatically, when you boot your pi. For now, click START<\/strong> to establish the communication.<\/p>\n We recommend rebooting your Pi after installing the add-ons. For that, you need to communicate with your Pi via SSH.<\/p>\n Connection via SSH on Windows<\/strong><\/p>\n 1)\u00a0<\/strong>If you’re running Windows on your computer, use Putty<\/strong> to establish the communication. If you don’t have Putty installed, you can click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2)\u00a0<\/strong>Enter your Pi IP address with Port 22<\/strong> selected and click Open<\/strong>. When you first connect, you’ll be prompted with a Warning message. Click Yes.<\/strong><\/p>\n 3)<\/strong> Login as root<\/strong> and enter the password you’ve defined in the previous section at\u00a02).<\/strong><\/p>\n 4)<\/strong> If you type hassio help<\/strong>, you’ll see the commands you can use to communicate with the Pi.<\/p>\n 5)\u00a0<\/strong>To reboot your Pi enter the following<\/p>\n Connecting via SSH on MAC OS X<\/strong><\/p>\n 1)<\/strong> To connect via SSH on MAC OS X, open the Terminal<\/strong> and type:<\/p>\n You need to replace the your-rpi-ip-address<\/span> with your Raspberry Pi IP address.<\/p>\n 2)\u00a0<\/strong>Enter the password.<\/p>\n 3) <\/strong>Finally, reboot your Pi:<\/p>\n Congratulations! You’ve set up Home Assistant sucessfully.<\/p>\n In Home Assistant, the configuration.yaml<\/strong> file saves data in a hierarchical format to let Home Assistant know what you want to do. This file stores what components you\u2019re using, how they are organized and how to automate with them.<\/p>\n Go to the HASSIO<\/strong> shared file, select the configuration<\/strong> folder and open the configuration.yaml<\/strong> file.<\/p>\n In your file, you can see homeassistant<\/strong> at the beginning. This is a component itself, and it is the only mandatory component. \u00a0introduction<\/strong> is another component, frontend<\/strong>, config<\/strong> and so on.<\/p>\n The automations are in a different file called automations<\/strong> (you can also add the automations directly to the configuration file). \u00a0You can organize all your different components in groups – this is also done in a separate file called groups<\/strong>.<\/p>\n These separated files are linked in the configuration file at the end.<\/p>\n You can easily add a password to your Home Assistant User Interface. In the configuration.yaml<\/strong> file you just need to uncomment the line, by taking out the #:<\/p>\n For your changes to take effect:<\/p>\n 1)\u00a0<\/strong>Save your configuration.yam<\/strong>l file.<\/p>\n 2)<\/strong> In the Home Assistant User Interface, go to\u00a0Configuration<\/strong>,\u00a0select\u00a0General<\/strong> and click the\u00a0CHECK CONFIG<\/strong> button. This tells you if everything is going well with the syntax of the configuration.yaml<\/strong> file. This may take a few seconds. When, it’s done, you get a Valid!<\/strong> message if everything is good with the syntax.<\/p>\n 3)\u00a0<\/strong>Then, on the same tab, on the\u00a0Server Management<\/strong> section click RESTART.<\/strong><\/p>\n 4)\u00a0<\/strong>Wait for the system to restart.<\/p>\n Next time you go to your Home Assistant User Interface, it will ask you for a password. The changes you’ve made previously took effect.<\/p>\n To add components to the configuration.yaml<\/strong> file go to https:\/\/home-assistant.io\/components\/<\/a>\u00a0and search for the desired components.<\/p>\n Then, you just have to copy the entry given to the configuration.yaml<\/strong> file, and add or edit the configuration variables to meet your needs. For example, here’s what you have when you search for a Raspberry Pi GPIO Switch:<\/p>\n This is just a simple example to get you familiar with home assistant: adding components and build automations. Here\u2019s a complete list of the parts required for this project:<\/p>\n You can use the preceding links or go directly to MakerAdvisor.com\/tools<\/a> to find all the parts for your projects at the best price!<\/p> The circuit for this example is simple. You just need to connect two LEDs through a 330 Ohm resistor to GPIO 11 and GPIO 12. Just follow the schematics.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/randomnerdtutorials.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/home-assistant.png?quality=100&strip=all&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nInstalling and Setting Up Home Assistant<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nInstalling Add-Ons<\/h2>\n
Installing the Samba share add-on<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\nAccessing the shared files in Windows<\/h3>\n
\n2)<\/strong> Inside the config<\/strong> folder, you should see the configuration.yaml<\/strong> file.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nAccessing the shared files in Mac OS X<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n4) <\/strong>Select the desired folder. In this case, select the\u00a0config\u00a0<\/strong>folder.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\nInstalling the SSH server add-on<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nRebooting your Pi<\/h3>\n
core-ssh:~# hassio host reboot<\/strong><\/pre>\n
<\/p>\nssh root@your-rpi-ip-address<\/span><\/strong><\/pre>\ncore-ssh:~# hassio host reboot<\/strong><\/pre>\n
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\nThe configuration.yaml file<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nAdding a password<\/h3>\n
# api_password: PASSWORD<\/pre>\n
Instead of PASSWORD, enter your desired password.<\/p>\n
\nSaving Changes and Updating<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nAdding More Components<\/h3>\n
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\nExample – Controlling RPi GPIOs with Home Assistant<\/h2>\n
\nIn this example, we\u2019re going to control two RPI GPIOS through home assistant. We\u2019re going to add two switches to turn two LEDs on and off. We\u2019re also going to build a simple automation that turns one of the LEDs on and off at a specific time. Let\u2019s get started!<\/p>\nParts required<\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nBuilding the circuit<\/h3>\n
Raspberry Pi GPIO Switch component<\/h3>\n