Hello all,
I’m looking to install home assistant for my sister’s house. She’s on the east coast and I’m on the west coast (usa). She want to control here lights, HVAC, 2 or 3 cameras for now. I want to use zwave for the lights switches and HVAC system. Her cameras are ip cameras. So I won’t have a problem with the cameras.
My idea is to take a mini computer and install something like team viewer on it, send her it and when she plugs it in I’ll have access to install home assistant and the cameras. She’ll have a friend who’s a electrician install the light switches and thermostat. I think she’ll be able to take the zwave usb hub and connect them together. . I can programme her router so I can connect home assistant using duckdns. I think after a month after everything installed I can look at her data to figure out what best automation will work for her on node red.
If you guys have and other ideas of anything that might help me or if I forgot something. Thank you!
I manage a Home Assistant instance remotely at a friend’s house and can give some advice. I’m able to maintain Home Assistant remotely by using a VPN solution (the Wireguard Hass.ioadd-on is fairly easy to use) or Zerotier (easier to setup, but only gives access to HA). The biggest issue I have is changing router settings as that is done using a mobile app vs. web UI. It won’t be a problem if your sister doesn’t mind you having an admin account on the router.
I never used Teamviewer but that approach sounds fine. You could also install Chrome Remote Desktop (Windows only I think) for another easy way to remotely access the computer’s UI. It’s good to have more than one option in case Teamviewer decides to stop working. I highly recommend using Wireguard VPN Hassio add-on as a backup.
You will need a way to access her router’s settings to set up static IP addresses, port forwarding (for VPN). Teamviewer and Wireguard work the router uses a web UI for configuration. Some modern routers use a mobile app to configure router settings, even when not connected to the network. Make sure to set up an account on the router if this is the case.
If there are any devices that are installed using a mobile app or QR code (e.g. cameras), your sister will need to do that with her phone or you do it in-person.
Here are some things to consider. After the light switches are installed, they need to be paired to the Z-Wave hub. The hub and the light switch need to be physically close to each other, so that means someone has to move the mini computer around to each light switch, turn on the PC and load Home Assistant, then run Z-Wave pair commands in HA UI while flicking the light switch on and off (or however the switch goes into pairing mode). If you can do this in-person, it would save a lot of headaches.
If you want to integrate a smart TV or media device to Home Assistant, there may be some manual intervention needed by your sister. Either to read a PIN code that’s displayed on the TV screen, or to press ‘OK’ on the Fire TV remote to accept ADB connections. Look through the HA component instructions to see if setup requires in-person intervention.
Thank you!
I’ve used teamviewer before to work on her router, so I don’t think I’ll have a problem with that. I really like the VPN addon that will help me a lot in the future. I set the cameras up a year a go so I could do this eventually. Lol. This is her Christmas present, apart of last year and this year. Lol. I’m thankful she doesn’t want the tv done because she cast everything from her phone. My ha is half assed when it comes to the tv part because I had harmony before ha. So I know very little about tv stuff for ha.
That’s what I hope happens but if not I getting her the usb hub with toggle button that when the switch is pairing mode it pairs and I know that will be a long phone call on how to get the switch into pairing mode. Or a couple calls. Lol
