I’m a newbee in home assistant and currently using homee (German company) with a ZWAVE extension cube to use my zwave devices (shutters, fibaro plug ins etc.). Due to some inconveniences with this solution a friend of mine recommended to go for a docker installation of home assistant. Thus I installed an UNRAID server on an Intel NUC device and managed to set up home assistant in a docker container.
This works quite well. But now I want to take the next step to integrate my zwave devices. Another possibility might be do use my homee as a whole. Still do not know how but guess that I would end up with the same incoveniences.
Know that there are many experienced home assistant experts in this community and that there are different possibilties to integrate zwave (zwave controller usb stick, inbuilt zwave server/controller….).
What would you guys recommend to me given the environment described above?And how to do?
Thanks a lot in advance,
Wolli
I started with HA in a docker in Unraid and got confused/frustrated trying to get the usb device exposed to the container. I found it easier to run Home Assistant OS as a VM on Unraid. As a bonus you get access to Home Assistant Add-ons.
What kind of usb device do you mean? Did your HA in the docker container work?
Zwave and Zigbee USB adapters. The container worked fine otherwise.
It’s definitely a decision point. There are many benefits to running in Docker but they come at the expense of requiring more technical expertise. You’ll need skill is using docker-compose, shell command line, setting file permissions, bridge networks, etc. if that sounds daunting then the VM approach is probably for you.
Agreed. I’d never used docker before setting up my HA instance, but I’m really glad I learned because of its flexibility, performance, and maintainability. Edited to add: I use a usb dongle and Ubuntu.
I noticed there is a HACS integration for Homee that might bridge your Z-wave devices to HA, or possibly the (beta?) Homee Matter Bridge could work (but Matter, as a fledgling standard, may not have full support for all the devices Z-wave can handle).
For more constrained installs, there’s the option to build your own off-server hub with a “Z-wave hat” or gpio module like a ZAC93. A Pi zero 2 can run zwavejsui, or if you don’t want to manage another OS you can use an esp32 to bridge the serial module over IP to your unraid container.
Thanks a lot Pete. Since I’m not at the same level of expertise as you are obviously, I will start with the VM approach. Currently I run HA in a docker env. If I got you right I need to abandon the docker installation of HA in docker and set iy up on a VM. There is no other OS needed, right? Is there anywhere a detailed description of the installation procedure and apart from the fact that my unraid is working on a nuc in my LAN, are there any other HW or SW requirements? Thanks for your very helpful comments in advance! Wolli
Check out this vid,
Thanks a lot Pete! Great support!