Hi! I’m down to the wire on a project for my son who is going off to college in a week.
I am building him a smart cork board for his dorm.
I was thinking I might try to use homeassistant green (which I have new in box) connected to his dorm’s ethernet, but add a wifi dongle so an android tablet and other iot devices can get data without having to be directly connected to the campus network. I know my way around linux pretty well and think I could do it myself, but would want to do in the most HA-friendly way if possible, and can’t seem to find a guide.
Does anyone have any tips or recommendations? Still pretty new to HA - and love it!
Honestly I’d avoid the network part and just buy that. There’s safety and network considerations on campus LANs that may bite you.
f you’re down to the wire I’d strongly suggest focus on the cork board part - buy a cheap wifi access point to give wifi. Dorm wifi in every university I’ve ever worked with IS campus wifi. You’re just on a different segment that traversed the firewall with different rules. So I don’t quite understand that part. But I get that you won’t or can’t put wifi based IoT sensors on the campus Lan. (me - won’t. Security. You need a firewall)
That said. Ha was not intended to be a Wifi access point and if you try to do both I’m pretty certain you’ll blow the timeline just fighting with that part. (there’s a thread somewhere where a guy tried. To make his ha an access point and I can’t remember how far he got after a few months…
…and you can get a REALLY cheap router/AP (no, you don’t need the latest Wi-Fi7 AP) that will do the job. For dorm wifi in about half the places I’ve been (basically, if you néed to open a portal to acesss Internet.) you will need Mac spoofing on the router /AP to make it work, but that’d be about the only feature you need to ensure you have.)
24x36 cork board with:
WLED controlling WS2813’s around the outside, synchronized to class schedules and occupancy
13" android tablet displaying key dates and countdown clocks (hockey games, exams, etc). Parents can add items to calendar.
ESPHome with temp/humidity, a gesture sensor, PIR, brightness sensor
A couple other neopixel displays to perhaps show scores, etc. They are supposed to be studying engineering.
Charging station for assorted devices
Roommate-based automations and notifications for privacy, sleep in-days, etc.
I can provide part of the answer, perhaps.
My main HA installation is in a “no-broadband” location. I have a D-Link GSM router/AP that is about 4 or 5 years old. I have a pay-as-you-go monthly data subscription that runs about 15 EUR per month for 4G service, unlimited data. The D-Link connects to my RaspPI5 directly and with the WiFi used for various sensors, mostly D1minis.
I have read about the Kiosk mode in HA. Sounds like that is what you need. My remote access is through a Nabu Casa subscription, but I understand there are some free ways for that to be accomplished.
The GSM approach would allow you to really lock down the system…you would not need any campus support.