My New Home Assistant Setup and Journey

Configuration
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Hi there,

I am still fairly new to Home Assistant and wanted to ask a few questions.

Apologies for the initial ramble, it explains my setup and current situation.

I currently have HA installed on a NUC running HAOS directly which has been working great, I also have the HA Connect ZBT-1 and the HA Voice Preview Edition as well. The ZBT-1 is configured to work as an Open Thread Border Router.

I have a range of accessories, I started off with 2 LIFX lightbulbs, then added a 3rd (two are ES and the third is a B22 Bayonet fitting). Recently I have added accessories from the IKEA smart home range including 2 MYGGSPRAY motion sensors, a MYGGBETT door/window sensor, BILRESA remote and two KAJPLATS GU10 smart bulbs. All the IKEA stuff runs over Matter which I am also new to.

I have been playing around with a few automations and learning HA as I go along.

Now comes the “tricky” part, how to expand but not waste money or time.

I want to replace my existing Doorbell and non-working CCTV camera, which I have talked about here and then I am also looking at integrating Shelly dimmers into my existing light switches in the rooms that don’t have smart bulbs.

Also, I want to have a “smart” extractor fan for my bathroom (once the fan is fitted) so I am looking at having a Shelly relay installed to control that.

I’d like to have a few presence sensors, such as the ones from Everything Smart or Lafaer?

  • When I replace the Doorbell, can I get it to announce the doorbell being pushed via Voice Assistant?
  • Can I view the Doorbell’s video via HA?
  • Once the CCTV camera is replaced can I view that via HA?

I am happy to answer any questions about the set up, or my hopes for a smarter home as best I can.

Thanks for reading and in advance for any support :slight_smile:

2

If you use something like a Reolink camera and Reolink doorbell, you can very easily integrate with HA and get all sorts of controls and sensors. You can see the Reolink integration options here. You can do the same with other brands if you’d like, but Reolink is popular because they are great for the price.

On ours, I even did an automation that plays the doorbell sound and opens the live feed on our wall mounted tablets when the doorbell is pressed. It is trivial to create an automation to announce on a Voice Assistant.

3

@inventor7777 ah thanks for the heads up on that. That makes much more sense. I could set up a Tablet (old iPad or an Android tablet) in the room I want to view the feed on and that would make life easier. How did you get it to play the chime?

4

You’re welcome!

The (Android app) Fully Kiosk Browser creates a Media Player entity in Home Assistant when you integrate it.

Since our family migrated from Ring, I just downloaded the Ring sound and it plays with an action like so:

action: media_player.play_media
metadata: {}
target:
  entity_id:
    - media_player.kr_tablet_fkb
data:
  media:
    media_content_id: media-source://media_source/local/Ring Doorbell Sound.opus
    media_content_type: audio/ogg
    metadata:
      title: Ring Doorbell Sound.opus
      thumbnail: null
      media_class: music
      children_media_class: null
      navigateIds:
        - {}
        - media_content_type: app
          media_content_id: media-source://media_source
      browse_entity_id: media_player.kr_tablet_fkb

The YAML looks complex but the UI editor is much simpler.

The trigger is when the Reolink Visitor sensor turns on, like so:

trigger: state
entity_id:
  - binary_sensor.front_doorbell_visitor
id: Front Doorbell
from:
  - 'off'
to:
  - 'on'

And for making the feed come up automatically, I use Browser Mod, like so:

action: browser_mod.more_info
metadata: {}
data:
  entity: camera.front_doorbell_clear
  user_id:
    - person.kr_tablet
    - person.sr_tablet
    - person.lr_tablet
5

@inventor7777

Wow thanks for that. I’ll have to look over that tomorrow try and understand it better.

EDIT: I just wanted to add, at present I don’t have any working CCTV camera and I am waiting to buy and install a new Doorbell, but this WILL come in useful once that has happened :slight_smile:

6

+1 on Reolink like @inventor7777 said. I do something similar on my own dashboard, it has a live view of the doorbell and when someone presses the button it rings and the video goes full screen on its own.

For the announcement part, once the doorbell is in HA you get a Visitor sensor, so you make an automation that triggers when it turns on and use the Announce action on your Voice PE with something like “Someone’s at the door”. It plays a chime first and then says it.

For presence sensors I’d go mmWave anywhere people sit still, like the living room or an office. PIR only sees movement so the lights go off while you’re on the sofa. PIR is fine for hallways and the bathroom.

7

@Estanza thanks for the recommendation, I have found the camera/doorbell and a Home Hub all on Amazon with next day delivery so I’m going to take the plunge. Just need a chat with the Electrician about the doorbell as it’ll need an Ethernet cable routed in the wall and I’m not confident in doing that TBH. :neutral_face:

8

Ethernet is better if the electrician can do it. If your old doorbell is wired and the wifi reaches the door ok though, Reolink also do a wifi version that just uses the existing doorbell wires.

9

I think he should be able to. Sadly I didn’t have any wired doorbell when I moved in so I have a Blink battery powered one

10

Little update:

During the Amazon Prime Day deals I purchased two products from Switch-Bot and I am not happy with them.

A two-pack mmWave Presence Sensor and the LED-3 Strip

What I, as far as I can tell, seem to have misunderstood is the implementation of Matter with these devices.

As far as I can tell they require the Switch-Bot app and an account, neither of which I want to download/have.

The presence sensor has been returned and two SONOFF SNZB-06P24 sensors and a SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus now I know that runs on Zigbee hence the dongle.

Hopefully I can get them working OK.

If the LED Strip is not going to work without the app/account that’s going back to Amazon and I need to get a new strip. :frowning:

It’s all a learning curve!