Home Assistant configuration

How to pages

• Turning on/off a network device

Add-ons

Hacs integrations

• Sonoff LAN - for camera control
• AccuWeather - since DarkSky is shutting down its API

Automations

• Turn something on or off when you lock/unlock your Windows workstation

  In my case I'm turning off Surface docking station because it constantly turns off and on my monitor(s) when Windows is locked. Real example from my configuration is here.

  On the windows box I use tiny script which sets up everything for you: Invoke-WebhookOnLock.

Automatic backups on USB drive

I was using Samba Backup add-on for a long time to automate backups and put the backup files on a different device. Once the device failed I was looking for the solution to put backups on USB stick. It turned out that HA doesn't support mouting USB devices by default. So here is the final solution I have found and which works:

1. Mounting USB

   You can manually mount USB if you have enabled HA SSH access (not via the add-on! you can read more here).

   The alternative is to use the solution presented in the gist here. Nice thing about it is that it will automatically mount any USB you stick into the port and it will make it available for docker containers.

   • Format USB stick (FAT/EXT4) and label the drive "CONFIG"
   • Create udev folder
   • Download the gist file and put it inside created folder
   • Insert USB to the port on your HA device
   • Go to Configuration > Addons, Backup, Supervisor > System > Host, click on the dots button and chose Import from USB
   • Remove the USB stick
   • If you want to use the same USB stick you need to rename it (drives with "CONFIG" label won't be mouted). Ofcourse you can remove the udev folder now.

   Note: Now if you plugin your USB the drive will be mouted in /mnt/data/supervisor/media/XXX. Where XXX is the drive label name.

2. Exposing share - use "Samba Share" add-on

3. Automatic backups - use "Samba Backup" add-on

   This add-on has to be installed manually. More info here.

   E.g. I have formatted USB stick and I labelled the drive "BACKUPS". So add-on configuration looks as follows

Devices

Connection	Brand	Model	Photo	Notes
WiFi
	Sonoff	S20		Smart plug; ESPHome firmware
	Sonoff	Touch		Smart wall switch; ESPHome firmware
	Shelly	1		Smart switch; ESPHome firmware
	Tp-Link	HS110		Smart plug with energy monitoring
	Broadlink	RM mini 3		IR remote controller (not configured yet)
	Sonoff	GK-200MP2-B		IP camera; Pan-tilt controlled via Home Assistant
	D-Link	DCS-932L		IP camera
RF433
	RFXCOM	RfxTrxE		USB RF transceiver
	OWL	OWL Intuition Gateway		Energy monitoring via CT (current transformer) sensor
	Nexa	LML-710		Doorbell
	Nexa	LWST-605		Wall switch
ZigBee
	Phoscon	ConBee II		USB ZigBee transceiver
	Aqara	RTCGQ11LM		Human motion sensor
	Aqara	WSDCGQ11LM		Temperature and humidity sensor
	Aqara	QBKG04LM		Smart wall switch (2 gang) connected to mains (no neutral version)
	Aqara	QBKG02LM		Smart wall switch (2 gang) battery powered
	Aqara	MCCGQ11LM		Door sensor

Devices used in the past

Connection	Name	Notes
Wifi	Tp-Link HS100	Used in the past mainly with Domoticz and I switched to Sonoff S20 in the same time when I've migrated to HA
RF433	Telldus TellstickNet	Both mainly for connecting with Nexa devices. It was working but just partially - RfxTrxE works much better with Nexa and other RF devices.
RF433	CoTech motion sensor	Battery lasts for 2-3 months. Not convenient to use as different ID sent when motion is detected and different when there is no move any more
RF433	Nexa (random devices)	Smart sockets, motion detectors, wall switches, remote controls, etc. Replaced all with ZigBee devices. The main drawbak of RF is that you never know if the signal reached the device or not.

Configuration

ESPHome

Tips for beginners:

• After adding new deive in ESPHome Dashboard refresh the page

ESP32-Wroom-32D

Alexa

• Used Alexa integration for controlling Echo devices.

• Home assistant lights and switches exposed via Emulated Hue integration.

• Tip: It is easier to manage smart devices via alexa website than the mobile app.

My other HA related repos

battery-state-card | github-flexi-card