Problem Start - How to proceed with HA

Not complaining here but I am hoping to get some guidance with my first HA setup and leaning it.

I am coming from HomeVision and a x10 based system. Too much line noise problems due to a new electric charger unit for my car lead me to deciding it was time to switch to HA and mainly Zigbee devices for now.

I have watched many videos and online information on HA. They are great but it looks like HA user interface has changed a lot over time. This is great but hard to learn when they say to do this and it is done differently now.

I created a simple automation with a Wiz bulb (all I have right now) and I was not able to get it to work. I finally found out that the bulb is the problem. Sounds like there is an issue with renaming it. It become non-functional in HA automations because entities are missing. I found info on this which is great but the step by step directions also state to delete the device and start again. When I tried to find a way to do that I came up with nothing. Sounds like maybe disabling it is the only way to do it now? I did find a post stating how to do that but the steps must be for a previous version of HA and again I think it is different now.

I have a bunch of Hue bulbs coming and the hub. I also ordered the Skyconnect Zigbee coordinator. That is a few weeks out.

I am wondering how to move forward here? Should I just get rid of the Wiz bulb and wait a few weeks and play with it then. Could a start creating automations etc with helper devices etc to get some to the programming done ahead of time. Can that be done? Is if worth it without having the actual devices? Can I get something else to play with that is local control and not Zwave or Zigbee? Not played with YAML much yet but I like what I see. Maybe focus on learning more of that?

I am assuming the instructions from HomeVisionXL software will not be really useful in getting started here? Seems like HA is way different from the what was used back then.

Thx in advance for the help here. I think HA is great and I expected a learning curve. Just need to get past the hiccup’s here. Hoping some direction here will help me speed up the process.