my experience in using https://github.com/rospogrigio/localtuya are sometime after restart (usually my smart multi outlet) some device having problem connecting, unlike the sonoff which always running without problem.
Local devices is not the only prerequisite. For example if you have Shelly devices (in local mode) and chose to controll them by Shelly HA core integration, then you are asking for potential troubles. But if you chose MQTT then you are likely safe for good.
TBH integrations are not the only issue. Original GUI itself offers not too much. Let’s say the truth. Without all those custom additions to lovelace - it’s really poor and not satisfying. Creating decent dashboard with use of 3rd party extensions, but still using yaml… doesn’t belong to easy jobs.
And until you reach final version of dashboard, you have to upgrade all those components pretty often. Good news is, that those 3rd party works come with less breaking changes over the time than HA itself
Speaking about Node Red, it offers built-in gui. I didn’t try it yet but I know there are people who built their smart homes over NodeRed alone. Google shows that the gui may look decent. The point is, if one decides to use limited set of home technologies (as you are suggesting as an option to avoid HA upgrades) and those are supported by NR (a lot of them are), likely he doesn’t need HA to build smart home. NodeRed alone could satisfy his needs too
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I’m not sure what you’re doing, but this is not my experience at all. I go weeks without even thinking about touching HA - it just works. Don’t get me wrong, it’s taken a lot of effort to get it to a point where it is largely set and forget, but it is most certainly achievable if you choose products carefully and don’t just purchase any old thing and try to make it work with HA.
That is assuming you need and or want to use the web interface a lot, I certainly don’t. I’ve set my home up to almost entirely work on automations, or voice commands and I very infrequently need to use the dashboard, so introducing a large number of custom integrations to make things pretty and have breaking changes often aren’t of concern to me.
One thing I’ve come to learn about my own HA over the years is that keeping it as simple as possible is best. I’ve eliminated as many cloud polling devices as possible, simplified automations and scripts where possible, removed a large number of custom integrations and so on. The system is very stable and almost never requires maintenance, other than me choosing to update each month.
Of course, everyone has their own desires with how they choose to use HA, interfaces, products and so on, but achieving a reliable system that is almost entirely maintenance free is most certainly possible, to state otherwise is inaccurate.
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it’s taken a lot of effort to get it to a point where it is largely set and forget, but it is most certainly achievable if you choose products carefully and don’t just purchase any old thing and try to make it work with HA
I guess that’s my problem - I purchased lots of any-old-things first before choosing Home Assistant, and now I have to keep the whole arrangement creaking along. 
But seriously, I don’t want to spend my time pointlessly fiddling with breaking updates and components (physical and software) that just stop working. I want stability and reliability over anything else. Maybe other people want other things, but that’s my position, and I stand by it.
Not sure why you answering me , especially this way.
Yes, I assume that most home automation users want to be able to interactively control their houses (through dashboards, mobile phones etc). And don’t forget we still answering OP who didn’t refused usage of GUI.
Again, maybe for usecases like your, HA is overkill. There are more simplistic, more stable and reliable solutions than HA.
I don’t get this, I want a smart home, meaning the system should act by itself when needed, not me interacting with it. I don’t want to pull out/search my phone or walk to the closest wall panel to control anything. I only use the frontend for system monitoring and also this is only to feed my inner geek.
Namely?
FWIW, my system runs stable for around 4 years and I never had any unplanned downtime, apart from the day when I migrated from a Pi to a NUC.
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I don’t get you don’t get it. Ability of control house locally or remotely, answering on questions sent from home automation systems, changing the system settings, this is not any new or uncommon. Smart home is not AI yet and cannot work without feedback until that.
But I have feeling I wasting time describing obvious things. Anyway - say it to HA developers (actually to all home automation systems developers) and other programmers who invest time to improve GUI: why do you waste time on things Burningstone called not needed.
I mentioned one already. Node Red.
Yes, we know that. Then go to release thread and repeat it to all those guys who experiencing their integrations stop working with every new HA release.
No need to get personal…
Node Red is not an alternative to Home Assistant…
I’m out.
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After skimming the other replies to this question I can’t help but laugh at the Home Assistant Community…
Great Things About Home Assistant…
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Watching people insist that because something doesn’t affect their install that it isn’t valid criticism, then watching them stick to their guns after finding out their install is different is some significant way. (people running NUCs insisting that RaspPi SD cards don’t fail).
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A forum that is near impossible to find current and relevant information on most things.
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A Wiki that commonly lacks interconnecting links to other associated and relevant pages. Random stub pages that you can only find after hearing rumors that they exist.
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Random changes that happen during developer livestreams with no discussion or documentation.
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Want to do something? Your search will come back with 7 ways to do it- 6 are old ways, 7th is the most recent old way and will only give you hints on how to do it the new way. But you’ll have to backtrack to the 3rd old way to copy a config snippet you still need.
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Have a differing opinion? …just… …don’t bother.
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Maybe HA isn’t for you then.
ooh… thanks for reminding me…
- snide remarks from random community members that inflame more than contribute and add absolutely nothing to the conversation at hand. (ie: being critical and getting a ‘don’t like it then piss off’ in response.)
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Shelly for sure does, there are limitations of course but every new firmware update seems to bring a little more offline functionality. In fact, I believe that Shelly and Tasmota can talk to eachother for hubless automation as the protocol is nearly identical, so Shelly devices can retain their original firmware
As a counterpoint to some of the doomsayers in this thread, I have two “live” HA installs:
- My Z-Wave controller, which runs HA 0.88.2, from February 2019. Yes, it’s over two years old. I’ve interacted with it to add a new Z-Wave device a few times, but it’s basically been “set and forget” - after that initial period of tinkering with it anyway
- My main HA instance, that is actually mostly up to date (well, usually a few point releases or a whole release behind). I “tinker” with that fairly regularly - as I add new sensors or spot things I can improve. Most weeks see something change.
So, it’s a bit of both really. You can “set and forget” if your goals are small and don’t change, and all your devices are 100% local. However I think most people that use HA and are active in a community aren’t looking for that. They’re looking at how they can expand their setup, or improve it.
Of course, there’s the others - it’s not uncommon for somebody to turn up who hasn’t updated HA in many months, or years, asking for some guidance or support in updating to something recent. They’ve spotted a new feature they want, and will make another “big bang” update before leaving it alone for months/years. I suspect there’s even more people that run ancient versions and just leave it alone.
TL/DR: It’s about you, and your goals and choices.
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Completely agree with what @Tinkerer said. Depending on your goals it might take a long time to build, but once you’re finished, you can almost forget as long as you choose the right devices and integrations.
Besides I mentioned that as alternative in conjunction with specific needs I would like to know why you deny it at all… seriously. It provides automations, connectors to devices, storage, GUI (actually a few solutions), mobile app, location tracking… Probably HA is superior in number of integrations area… but it cannot be the only reason why you said what you said.
Thanks for all the insight guys. Very useful.
@kanga_who I’ll take your advice and stick with Wi-Fi over Zigbee, especially because it seems integrating Sonoff TH’s into an automated system sounds easier and more reliable than the Tuya TRV’s, even though I would have to wire thermoelectric actuators to the Sonoff but I’m happy with that.
@KingRichard I wanted to try the local mod by AlexxIT but it looks like I need HA for that. I wanted to exhaust non-HA solutions before giving it a go.
Do you know if there is another way of using Sonoffs locally using eWeLink, the obvious other choice is Tasmota but I’m not sure how to use hubless automation with Tasmota.
What is the advantages and disadvantages of ESPHome?
@richieframe I did consider Shelly first, unfortunately it will cost me literally twice as much to go Shelly over Sonoff, and there are no burning features on the Shelly that I need.
@maxym I didn’t know about Node Red, how easy is it to set up and how reliable will this system be compared to eg. Home assistant or automation via Tasmota or using eWeLink cloud.
@obaldius I might do as you say and just start off with stock Sonoff Firmware, how do I lock down my network to stop anybody on the cloud interacting with my main network?
Kind regards
CF
Cloud based solutions are least reliable. Don’t know Tasmota automations, but if it does work the same way as Shelly ones (DDD - direct device to device communication), then it’s hardest option maintenance-wise. It;s because the management is not done at single place, but you have to connect every device separately instead, to set action triggered by this device activity.
NodeRed can be installed as component inside HA to be used as framework for creating automations in visual way. I’m using it this way and found literally no issue. I’m using it intensively with my local MQTT to communicate with most of my devices (Shelly in 99% and a few ZigBee). From this point of view HA is only the environment those components are running in.
NodeRed may also run separately as autonomous automation system. It’s used not only for home automations but also in industry (initially it has been created by IBM for this purpose).
This plus my personal experience makes me assume it must be pretty reliable
I must say that however I have no experience with using it alone. I’ve read several articles which give general idea what it is capable of. I must say that a thought of using only NR+MQTT to run home automation is pretty tempting to me. But had no time to try it.
Well if you wanna skip HA then eWelink can only be done via the cloud (either way you will need to set it up first before running AlexxIT). So when you are ready to onboard with AlexxIT mods you don’t need to do anything to the device simply install HA + AlexxIT mods and your SonOff will be visible and for the 1st time, it will require to connect to ewelink cloud to get all the local information.
Tasmota on the other hand will require cable, soldering, and Lil bit of knowledge for the device, so this will surely need time to process. Once you insert Tasmota FW then you are set for no cloud forever since you can’t go back to ewelink.
NodeRed or Mods is just a setup for your automation whichever way you choose you will usually get the same result anyway.
I’ve been using HA for about 6 months and for me it has indeed become a hobby, but that is my choice, because I love it so much.
But it absolutely does not need to be a hobby, in my opinion.
If you can resist constantly tweaking it and looking for new things to do and also if you do not execute every update as soon as it becomes available, I would say it is as set and forget as other systems (I also have Smartthings). I think all smart home systems need intervention from time to time, even if it’s once every several months.
PS I also want to say that I found it pretty easy to learn how to use and also how to do fairly complicated stuff. Mostly it’s just a matter of watching youtube tutorials and copy/paste pieces of code, so anyone can do that.
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So DDD is off the books then. so really, my automation (Sonoff TH10 in each room calling for heat from the boiler) options are now limited to:
- Stock Sonoff firmware and eWeLink
- AlexxIT mod + HA
- Tasmota + HA
It seems pragmatic to start with option 1. If I do opt for this, how do I secure my network?
Thanks for the heads up re: never being able to go back to Stock eWeLink. Flashing Tasmota doesn’t phase me. I have no qualms with the initial investment in time. As it stands this is still a hobby 
My concern is the continued investment in time. This is where my desire for set-it-and-forget-it comes in.