Hi Guys Just Wanted to say hi,
i am new at all this stuff and tbh its a tad overwhelming atm.
is there a place on here where newbies can go to gen up on all things Homeassistant ?
otherwise i fear i will be posting for you guys too many silly and mundane questions
Thanks in advace
T
This reply has some tips:
Most of us don’t mind as long as you show you tried. We know how deep the rabbit hole can be; and we know that things change, tutorials and documentation age out, and it’s not always simple to figure out how to get from point A to point B.
One thing that confused me as a beginner is that there are usually at least 3 ways to do something in HA. So, when you get answers from multiple users (or from different tutorials), and they are completely different, just know that they can both be right… pick one, try it, ask for more help if you can’t get it working.
There is also a good reference here
Introduce yourself and tell us how many decades experience with IT you have.
Say what device you intend to use for HA and then everyone can chip in and tell you not to do that. LOL
Most important tell us whats your stance on AI?
Even more important dont take anything too serious except any advice if you are doing anything dangerous with AC.
Tips above are good.
I suggest you get some lights or plugs, and maybe a motion or presence sensor, and set up a light automation that provides convenient light based on time and/or motion. That should introduce you to the tools and give you a confidence boost.
If you are not IT inclined a HA Green would probably be a good starting point for the hardware server.
One thing I haven’t found in the getting started docs is a page that asks:
Is Home Assistant right for you?
All smart homes have their pros and cons it may we worth googling / youtubing that question, before going too far down the rabbit hole.
As for tips, I would say create a ‘screw up budget’ you likely won’t get everything right first time so you will spend a bunch of time and possibly some money on stuff that it turns out you don’t need.
In my case I have about $150 USD worth of odds and ends that I have bought and don’t really use. Note that was not all in one go, it was $30 here, $40 there.
My “screw up time” was much more significant I have probably spend 50-100** hours on stuff that I later rejected or went in a different direction.
** - I am a tinkerer that may not be typical of everyones experiance.
You have to be comfortable with both the time and money costs.
Biggest tip.
Setup an off server backup strategy straight after the onboarding setup, you will not regret this.
One thing that nobody has mentioned:
It doesn’t matter.
If you are planning a system with life-threatening powers, stop now. You, your family, your plants and your pets are more important than a few gadgets.
Otherwise, if the lights don’t come on occasionally, who cares? Home Assistant is for hobbyists, things go wrong all the time, fixing them is part of the fun.
Good point always have a normal way of switching something on, a switch on the wall or a button on a plug, this will be far easier than trying to explain to visitors how to open a dashboard to turn a light on. When you HA crashes which no doubt it will when you are learning, being able to press a physical switch will be the most useful thing you included.
Hi Tony, welcome to the forum!
Also, be careful with outdated YT instruction vids since they can be wrong.
Welcome. No such thing as silly questions here. Start with the docs and youtube, then ask away. We all started somewhere. (I’m new here too)
Welcome to Home Assistant. I’m just starting to use it again fully after tinkering around with it previously.
be prepared to go down rabbit holes learning new things, and possibly spending money
Absolutely this. As one of the people who make those YT videos, I would strongly caution anyone that anything more than 6-12 months old may be “conceptually” good, but the actual nuts and bolts of a video will become more and more incorrect the older the video gets. This goes for all channels - including mine. Watch old content for ideas/inspiration, NOT execution.
As others have said, plan to screw up. Only buy one of something to see if it works for you and if you like it before going whole-hog.
On the flip side of that, if you find you DO like something, it may well be worth your while to buy extras of that item to replace broken/failed ones down the road. This is especially true for things like lightswitches, where uniformity may be important to you. Smart home vendors come and go, and features change over time.
And remember - the more complex you make it, the more maintenance will be required, so KISS.
No it will not if you build it around Open Source Software.
The goal is pretty simple. Make it complex but usable. And OSS is the right tool to do so. At least it is in my experience with home networking.