I’m brand new to Home Assistant (just on-boarded my HA Green yesterday). I am a professional, educated person; but have no background in IT (apart from as a computer user). I was using HomeKit (via an Apple TV) and thought I would ‘upgrade’ to HA; but having started it, and feeling utterly overwhelmed and unsure what to do next.
I feel like I have been given a toolbox full of unfamiliar tools with user manuals on each ('How to use a pipe bender’) but no guidance about how I use these tools together to build something useful.
Is there a beginners’ section to this forum (I have not used Internet fora much before, so even the ‘help’ system seems pretty baffling)?
Is there a canonical list of ‘the documentation’ which everyone keeps referring to?
Is there any sort of mentor/buddy/hand-holder system to help newbies?
Can anyone recommend a beginners’ course or book (I have already read Marco Carvalho’s ‘Building Smart Home Automation Solutions with Home Assistant’ - a bit of a technical struggle, but I got though it)
The forum is huge, but seems to be focussed on very narrow questions. However, I am currently at the early stage of learning when I do not know what I do not know - how do I find out, for example, about developing an overall strategy for my HA system, rather than the minutiae of the individual components?
I have heard that Home Assistant/Nabu Casa is trying to expand its customer base to people other than those with IT professional levels of computer skills. I am such a person - minimal IT knowledge but keen to learn, and willing to put in time and effort. But I just feel ‘at sea’ with the system so far surrounded by vast swathes of information, but not knowing where to start or how to ask for help.
I did that over 6 years ago and it provided me with a solid foundation.
Reading posts in this community forum helped to fill in any gaps and, through its many examples, showed me how to implement what I had learned (and much more).
Not really, but we do have a list of articles in the Cookbook Index that include quite a few articles related to using the forums.
Taras has provided the most important link above, but I would also include the following link to the docs for the companion app since most users use it:
There are a number of YouTube channels that have done good beginners series. Unfortunately, since HA is under very active development those resource tend to become outdated in one way or another within a year. Mostly the differences are small and inconsequential, but occasionally videos or tutorials do contain severely broken automations. Because of the lack of economic incentives, creators rarely update or de-list old videos.
Any tutorial, or forum post for that matter, 2+ years old should be approached with the understanding that it is pretty likely something isn’t going to work as described.
I’ve already downloaded the HA Companion app (though I did not know it was called that, as the Apple App Store just calls it ‘Home Assistant’) - I haven’t noticed it being much different from just logging on via a browser, but maybe I’ve missed the good stuff.
I’ve also looked at some of the Cookbook articles, but to be honest a lot of them are too advanced for my current state of knowledge. Maybe I can come back to that after reading the documents recommended by Taras?
Anyway, I’ll keep on keeping on; and see how far I can get.
Well there is not much to it. I never used Ha Green but as I saw they already installed ha on it. The only thing for you is to plug it in and connect it with lan cable to router.
Go to router, check ip address for your ha green. In router assign static addres to your ha.
Next go to http://some_ip:8123 and create new user. Log in and see will it automatically find some devices.
And that is it.
Browse a bit see what is in there and so…
Good assessment. That’s indeed what you got: a toolbox. Use the links provided to get accustomed to the core concepts: entity, integration, automation, trigger, condition, action, dashboard, view, etc.
To keep things simple at first, try to stay away from custom dashboard cards and integrations.
BTW, you can use the two ecosystems side-by-side via the HA HomeKit bridge integration.
Just show people what you’ve tried, what you’re struggling to understand, what you’ve read, and, importantly, the problem you’re trying to solve. With that approach you’ll definitely get good help.
Many times I go to the docs but even though there seem to be a lot of examples, there are a great many ellipsis. I know a little now, but starting out, none (mostly) of the examples worked as you need to know what’s in that dang ellipsis.
end $0.02 (AND, thanks for all the help you guys give us !!)
As soon as you’re ready to dive into the ‘real fun’ with automations and scripts (which are basically the same as automations, just sans triggers) try to stay with working from the GUI at least at the beginning BUT familiarize yourself what the YAML code behind them actually looks like because - if something’s not working for you - that’s most likely what you need to provide in order for somebody to be able to help you.
You can always switch between the GUI (visual editor) and the code (YAML) by clicking in the top right corner, but make sure that your code is formatted properly in the forum and do NOT post screenshots of automations or scripts.
Thank you for the suggestion, but I think I am a looooooong way from being able to write any computer code. (I tinkered with BASIC at school, but that’s my only ever experience of computer languages)
I will stick to the Graphical User Interface for the foreseeable future.
Hi nickrout - I saw the mention in the HA Cookbook page to a course run by someone called discobot, but I can’t see how to access it. Can you direct me to the course, or provide a link?
That will be fine when you work by yourself - but if something doesn’t work and you need help, you’ll need to post the YAML code (that the GUI automatically creates); and then you need to know how to find it and manipulate it once somebody tries to help you with your issue.
That kind of feels like taking step back before moving forward (like a book on ‘How to read a book’!) but if you think it has value then I’ll do it. I have not used Internet fora much before, so it’s safe to assume I probably will learn something.
Thank you for the tips, but I am a bit confused when you say to ‘stay away from integrations’ as I thought that they were essential for accessing smart home devices. For example, I have lots of Phillips Hue lights and a Hue bridge which they connect to: do I not have to have the Phillips Hue integration to access that from HA?
In terms of forum usage, notice how I quoted you — which will ensure there’s context for a reply and notify the poster.
There are also two reply buttons: one on each response and a general reply button. They behave differently. The cookbook has a link to the forum’s software, Discourse.
It’s more like learning words and using flip cards and then try to read a book. Nobody makes their first book Shakespeare.
And yes, you’ll need to become proficient at using the forum.
You’re now making this topic your personal assistant. Get into things and start tackling real issues. Then ask questions in new topics about those things to get specific help (and always first search for existing solutions). You’re starting to ask things that are covered in the cookbook and docs.
and unsure what to do next.
