Where to ask "Beginners" questions for a "not-so-bloody-beginner"?

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Hi all,

I do post this in the uncategorized forum as I do not want to spoil other forum parts …

I am a newbie to Home assistant but I have some 15 years track of doing home automation (the last 10 years almost “full time” as I am “retired”. Allow for a short intro so you might better understand my questions at the end of this post …

PREFACE:
I started with ELV’s FS20 in the late 90’s in my “holiday home” which brought me to IP-Symcon and PHP. I always wonderes, why there is still no “pure IP based” (professional) systems that do not need cloud … why not send a small IP packet from a touch point to a IP-relay and broadcast the status by UDP every now and then so new devices will get a complete system status soon … ?

I tried out a lot of Systems, be it EIB/KNX, Webbrick or Net-IO based things, being an electronic freak (I studied electrical engineering) with a decent lab, I even routed my own solder plates.

When doing projects for friends and family, I used “professional” systems like Comexio or Loxone, to make sure these systems can be maintained also by “other people”. But even for these systems, I developped additions in Hardware.

I have written a significant amount of code and class-libaries in PHP and I am a fan of open source, standard systems and protocols. Having said that, I need to add that I am a fan of “wired systems” rather than WiFi or any other radio, haven made some (bad) experience with those.

In my main home, a lot of different systems are running. Said Loxone, Comexio, Open Sprinkler, Koukaam Net-IO, EIB-KNX, LAN-Based IP-Relais and still a number of FS20 devices (that I re-designed to be on the “hutschiene” - 35mm rail).

QUESTIONS:
I am considering to switch to another “central system” (which is the IP-Symcon as of now). In the future, I want to use more Microprocessors and I want to develop a few devices by myself. But in the short run, there must be the possibility to use the installed setup (especially the FS20 devices) and replace it in a step-by-step method.

The goal for me is a system that I can widely configure and change with own code and the programming language I am heading for is Python.

This is, because I did also program a lot of “non-home-automation” things (like a small accounting system helping me to fulfill my tax obligations quickly). All of that at the moment runs as PHP. The turnside is that this needs a PHP server running and I cannot give it to “non-teckkies”, even not parcial.

I would like to be able to use the same language for:

  • stand alone apps (like said accounting system, backup, code-versioning)
  • home automation extensions and the main server
  • microprocessor code

AFAIK, this can be done using Python. Micorpython for certain Microprocessors, Python under Win or Linux for stand alone and it looks like Python is also useful for Home Assistant?

Bevor investing hours and hours in try-and-error and in the end might find out that I am on a dead-end road, I would like to learn about what I can do using Python in Home Assistant - and what are other programming languages/tools necessary for … whatever?

Are there any “Tutorials” for, let’s say not-so-bloody-beginners that help me jump quickly into?

Appologies that this post has grown a bit big …

J.

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I do not know IP-symcon or FS20 devices, but if it can send and receive information through MQTT, then that will be an extremely easy way to integrate the systems.

HA is based on python, but most normal users don’t see it.
Developers will use it for making integrations.

There are several ways to integrate with HA and if it does not exist, then it can be made.
ESPEasy devices should also be able to be integrated through MQTT and there are also ESPHome for the same devices, which is a side-project to HA with a deep integration into HA.
AppDaemon should also be mentioned here, since you are looking into Python.

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The Community Guides section of this forum may help including this: The Home Assistant Cookbook - Index.

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EspHome if you don’t invent the wheel again. It is a no/low code approach but also allows very abstract goals with the help of lambda. :goal_net:

The native api allows encrypted communication without hassle and lots of tasks can be handled on the espHome nodes (devices) themselves which allows greater resilence even in case HA is down (temporarily - in case a update is applied for example). :lock:

It really does allow maximum flexibility (like a relay should turn off if running for x-minutes if HA is unavailable) while at same time minimizing complexity and leveraging best possible local (push) integration with HA. :rocket:

If you want to spend more time (because it is your hobby and you enjoy the challange) you obviously can also take a harder approach and use something like micropython, espeasy, tasmota or any other project :hammer_and_wrench: