Installing homeassistant over Wifi / with a Android phone as router

Installation
1

Hi There,
I have a bit of a odd case for installing home assistant. I don’t have a conventional router, I use an Android phone with a SIM card to open a hotspot and connect my laptop and other devices to it.

Now I bought a Raspberry 3 and flashed with Balena the following software on it :
https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/releases/download/7.4/haos_rpi3-64-7.4.img.xz

And since I cant plug a networkcable into my phone, I added some networkfolders to the SD card, that I flashed to make sure my pi can access the Wifi, did it as mentioned here:https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/blob/061a6e9860b5c43c255221132294c983514bf409/Documentation/network.md
And I also made sure I remove the .txt file extension.

Now I powered my pi up, but I can´t reach it over its IP ( I noted the IP down, when I had Raspbian still installed) and over the homeassist IP with the assigned ports, but I get nothing.

Also, when I plug the HDMI cord in, nothing shows, but I guess this might be expected behavior.

I also tried to plug a network cable into my laptop and in the pi, but also no luck.

Did anyone tired a similar setup ( Anroid phone as router) to install homassistant?

Would be really greatfull for some help.

Cheers

Sven

2

Just a side-note: would something like a FRITZ!Box 6890 4G LTE not save you a lot of trouble? :wink:

3

It probably would. But I had the phone still kicking around and there was no need for ethernet-connection so far. Plus, it seems that it should be no big deal to make it work over Wifi in general.

4

I believe you will (very) soon reach the limits of what the phone can do.

5

Could you elaborate, what limits this might be?

Are you thinking about DHCP / Portforwarding?

6

Pure muscles.
A typical router can only handle a dozen or two devices.
Some are capable of say 50 devices.
High end ones are typically 100 or more (some say).

An Android phone (especially old one) is not mean to be a router.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it gives up after just connecting a few devices.
But who knows…

7

Just for all the guys trying the same.
It worked with the links I provided above, looks like the SD card didn´t process my changes at the first time.
A Video that shows how to put you wifi credentials on the SD card is here:

Just skip to minute 7:10

cheers Sven
Works like a charm!