New Setup - HA insists I live in Baltimore!

Installation
1

I finally got lucky and got my Aeotec Z-Stick 7. (And I mean lucky - Aeotec, through Popp, says they’re sold out until January due to chip shortages.) So I set up HA on a Raspberry Pi and went through the setup stages. The map camp came up in the Netherlands. I moved it to my location, in Virginia.

Then I get to the Dashboard and, from there, pick Map. It shows my house in the middle of Baltimore. So I try again. I move the map to my house and hit Save. I go back to the dash and pick Map again and my house is back in the middle of Baltimore.

So how do I get my location specified and saved?

2

look up your coordinates in google maps, and in configuration.yaml :

homeassistant:
  latitude: xx.8235615
  longitude: xx.1915097
3

Thanks!

Is this because I did something wrong? Or does this kind of thing happen a lot?

4

Oops. Just remembered this is a web app. Where is configuration.yaml? If it’s on the host system (as I figure), can I use SCP to copy it in place?

5

oh, you will need configuration.yaml a lot. A lot of integrations are configured that way.

If you installed HA OS or HA Supervised, go to supervisor → add-on store and install the file editor

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6

Cool! Being a Linux lover, I tend to get into config files a lot!

I just found it odd that this wasn’t being configured when I tried to in the app.

I’m off to check out the file editor and to add my location. Thanks!

8

Okay, I got it.

Sorry - reading disability issue here. It’s VERY hard for me to pick out details like a comma in a string of numbers when it shouldn’t be there. I couldn’t perceive it in the editor. Once it was in the image and posted, for some reason I could see it immediately.

9

If you are a linux (or a windows) lover I can suggest two things.

  1. Install ssh add-on. Gives you a terminal in local website.
  2. Install samba add-on. I set up a share to the /config directory and linked it on my desktop as HA runs on a dedicated server.

I use the default text editor in Linux Mint and it highlights the yaml code. I also use notepad++ but it is slow loading. Not a VI fan because my brain just does not work that way.

Hope this helps.

10

A suggestion from someone who grew up in Baltimore…

If you have enough memory, Visual Studio Code is super nice. It’ll flag most formatting errors for a number of file types, and you can drag and drop files from your desktop computer to HA.

11

Thanks! I’ll check on VSC. I take it that has nothing to do with Microsoft Visual Studio? That it’s web based? (I’m on a Mac - just checking!)

My ex-wife grew up near Annapolis, so she had taken me through a lot of Baltimore, Annapolis, and the surrounding areas.

1 Like
12

Yes, it’s Microsoft VSC. It’s a download from the HA add-on store.

BTW, too many years ago I lived in Annapolis.

13

Adding a few notes here for those searching for an answer to this question.

I didn’t see the pencil icon in the Maps page. Click it to edit your location. Once it’s in “edit” mode, then you have to use the pointer to physically drag the house icon to where you want it on the map. That means zooming in and out in most cases. When done, I think you click on the pencil with the line through it to finish, but I found just going to another page and coming back, that it seems to automatically save your last specified position.

I know HA makes a big deal about NOT phoning home and sharing info, but it seems to me that one option during setup should be to provide an address, since moving the icon will pretty much make it possible to find someone anyway.

Another note: I don’t know if the initial info setup screen works the same way, but specifying to drag the home icon might be a good idea.

14

Putting the coordinate in your configuration.yaml file per @francisp might’ve been easier than what you describe. Most any mapping website (e.g. https://www.google.com/maps) will have a dynamic lat-long coordinate in the URL. Just type in your address and look at the URL. Unless you’re doing some fancy stuff, any coordinate close to home will do. You don’t really need precision to the nth degree.

Moreover, there’s the secrets.yaml file, which is useful for removing any sensitive information from the configuration file should you ever need to share it with others. You just make a logical reference between the two files. I’ve put home coordinates, API keys, tokens and the like in it.

https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/configuration/secrets