Newbie with a looot of doubts

1

hey guys. A short summary:
I’m a Smartthings (ST) user. So my little knowledge is about that. At home I have a google home, 3 google home minis, a shield tv, 2 chromecast audios, a harmony hub, a hue hub with a couple of devices, 2 ST presence sensors, and a bunch of Xiaomi sensors.
So, i bought Smartthings because at the time it sounded like the easiest and the most embracing platform.
Because of budget limitations I embraced the Xiaomi sensors. Despite the difficulty of pairing them to ST I always used them to trigger my light automation’s and door triggers. They worked fine for a couple of months. The problem is that they loose connection to the ST often and the re adding is very time consuming and painfull.

So i’ve read about something to integrate ST with the Xiaomi gateway. There they talked about raspberry pi+ and the xiaomi gateway and I ended up buying them. Always for the purpose of using the Xiaomi / Aqara sensors.

But them on that same post i’ve read about hassio. Them I came to read about it… And I’ve got confused… Do I need it? Will it work better than my ST? Will my sensors finally give me a rest? Should I migrate? I’ve read a couple of things but I really got confused about what are my options and what could be the best solution for what I have and need.

So i have now a raspberry pi b+ that I am at this moment trying to install hassio to experiment.

Doubts:

  • Can I use all my stuff with hassio? or I need to get something else?
  • Is it better to add all the devices to ST and connect ST to hassio or just ditch ST? Cause as far as I know I can connect all those devices to ST but not to my raspberry without buying more stuff.
  • Or with hassio and (still to arrive) xiaomi gateway I could control everything?

Anyone with suggestions for me how to take the most out of this stuff I have?
My main purpose is just use the cheap xiaomi sensors to light automation. Voice control I can do wiht google home.

Sorry about the long post…

1 Like
2

That’s the best way to learn. Welcome.

Yes.

No. But you might want to once you discover the possibilities.

I don’t use smarthings so someone else might comment on this. But I believe the post below answers your question.

You can indeed control devices through your xiaomi gateway as well.

Think of Home Assistant as a hub for hubs. But that is selling it a bit short. It can do a lot more.

3

thanks for the answer… I’ve seen that post… But i’m already stuck… trying to figure out how to use / install the terminal and use it. I’ve installed the addon ssh/terminal but somehow i still cant enter via web ui or ssh.

But, like you wrote, a hub for the hubs… But since I still don’t really have an idea how hassio works and still can’t see how it can be easier / better. The learning curve for the basics seems harder. I’ve been reading for a couple of hours just to install hassio and config the basics

4

To get to the web UI just navigate to http://[your Hassio IP address]:8123 in your web browser.

Note it can take a while (hours in some cases, depending on connection speed) for HA to update after installing. During this time the web interface is not available.

Did you configure and start the SSH addon as per the instructions?

5

well, it depends what instructions you are talking about…
I’ve installed the SSH & Web Terminal addon… inserted a login and passw in config. But I start the addon and after a few seconds the addon stops again… So, i still havent figure it out how can i use a terminal…lol…
I’m stuck at the hassio interface, the web ui.

6

Try the simplest login config for SSH:

{
  "authorized_keys": [],
  "password": "somepasswordyoulike"
}

Save the config and start the addon.

You should then be able to SSH (port 22, Hassio IP) to your HA server as user: root with your configured password.

Or try the SAMBA addon. You can then navigate to your /config directory and edit the configuration files there.

7

I was able to follow the tutorial and installed configurator add-on. There I could edit files, like the configuration.
Also I could install the ssh server add-on, but afaik I can’t use it to install packages in a terminal…

Still haven’t figure out why the ssh/web terminal add-on shutdown… :frowning:

8

I’d avoid Smartthings unless you have tons of devices. I did, but I have swapped them all out for Xiaomi devices at a fraction of the price and without the need for the addon that hasn’t been updated in ages.

I could not get two way traffic on Smartthings using the addon

My Smartthings devices are going on Ebay

9

Well, kind of my idea, since my main goal are cheap Xiaomi devices. I know they work. But most the devices I have should work with Hassio.

Damn all my devices work with my Google home. Lol

Today I’ve linked the ST and my Hassio using mqtt. Hurray. Still don’t know how to create automations with it, but I’ve done it.

With that I probably realized that the only devices I really have that need ST are the Samsung presence sensors.

Let’s see try and learn…

10

To be honest the presence sensors are ok.

Try Life360, its free for 3 locations (e.g Home/Work/other)

Install that on the phones you have and it works much better than the Smartthings sensors. I had mine showing different images for different locations (E.g when my missus was at her parents in France it had her name on a French Flag etc)

Theres a custom component for Life360, highly recommend you check it out

The Xiaomi devices are great. If you live in the UK like me dont bother with the mains plug! It’s chinese with a UK adapter, but problem is the socket on the plug is chinese, so you need another adapter and then the UK plug. By this point you are 4 plugs high!!! Or if out of the wall socket about 15 cms out! It looks ridiculous and I’d rather buy a cheaper wifi model that is HA compatible

11

Here’s a couple of simple automations I set up to notify me when the door was open/closed

# Monitor if the front door is opened or closed
- alias: Monitor Front Door Open
  trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.front_door
    to: 'open'
    from: 'closed'
  action:
    service: notify.pushover
    data:
      message: "Front door is open"
      title: "Front Door Open"
- alias: Monitor Front Door Closed
  trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.front_door
    to: 'closed'
    from: 'open'
  action:
    service: notify.pushover
    data:
      message: "Front door is closed"
      title: "Front Door Closed"

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# Monitor if the back door is opened or closed
- alias: Monitor Back Door Open
  trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.back_door
    to: 'open'
    from: 'closed'
  action:
    service: notify.pushover
    data:
      message: "Back door is open"
      title: "Back Door Open"
- alias: Monitor Back Door Closed
  trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.back_door
    to: 'closed'
    from: 'open'
  action:
    service: notify.pushover
    data:
      message: "Back door is closed"
      title: "Back Door Closed"
12

thanks for those sample… will surelly use them to learn.

But today i have a bigger issue… that worries me… I can’t acess my hassio web interface…
I ping the device and it’s responding… but everytime i try to go to the web interface it just doesnt work. Tried to use the ip address and the hassio.local:8123.

have no idea what happened… Yesterday I manged to link it to the ST and was working… I just turned it off for the night since I’m just testing…

And now? I’m worried something like this happens while everything is configured and I don’t know how to bring it back :frowning:

13
14

lol.

Well, I thought about backups… But, later… since im just learning and testing…
Still, since you mentioned that? Is it possible to do regular automatic backups?

And back to the issue, i have the rpi3 connected to a monitor, and i can acess it by ssh… Only the web server / web configuration isnt acessible… isnt there anything i can do than start over again?? It’s been 3 days and with no use…

15

Yes

You can re-image the SD card but without having a snapshot to recover from you will lose everything you have done.

You might be able to recover the frontend. What errors are in your log, issue this command via SSH:

tail -f home-assistant.log

16

thanks for the help tom…
but I tried by myself and got nowhere… ended up right now just reinstalling things…
it works as pratice… Im gonna tray link it again to my ST and my just arrived xiaomi gateway…

If everything works out first thing Im gonna do is add automatic backups…

17

last night took me hours…

now in 15min i’ve done the same thing… LOL

18

Is it? I only get two free locations.

As an aside, is it possible to rename “work” either in Home Assistant or on the Life360 side?