I have tried Home Assistant several times. Each time I try it, I get it installed on a VM under my Proxmox hypervisor and start configuring my devices. I’ll use my most recent try as an example. I have several Wyze WiFi power switches, and two “Smart Life” (Toya internally) combination thermometer/switch devices. The Toya devices integrated with HA after I signed up for a Toya developer account and did a bunch of configuring. I was able to read the temperature values, but switching the devices on/off did absolutely nothing. I didn’t even try the Wyze devices; apparently Wyze doesn’t integrate with HA.
I’m not opposed to buying new “smart home” devices, but I want something that actually works properly. What I’m looking for are:
- Devices that don’t require internet access and an external API; I want to control them directly over my LAN.
- Devices that have built-in integration with HA.
Is there a list of devices that just “work” with HA? I’ve looked at the list of available integrations that “technically” work, but they often require signing up for API access with a 3rd-party company and jumping through hoops to get the devices working. I want something where I can assign it a static IP or DHCP lease and HA just talks to it. I was able to get my BlueIris DVR integration working, and it can double as a motion sensor, so I’m specifically looking for plug-in switches, thermometers, sensors, etc.
ZigBee devices are probably the obvious choice. You’ll need a ZigBee dongle which acts as a controller, then HA can talk to all the devices.
This is my advice after moving house and setting everything up from scratch again.
Attach the dongle and then go through the smart device’s pairing procedure and it should just pop up on HA.
Xiaomi/Aqara, Tuya, IKEA, etc are all or largely Zigbee (although check as I have some Bluetooth Xiaomi kit and they’ve been a pain in my backside) are all inexpensive but are solid and you don’t need a hub.
HomeKit also seems to work well but I only have 1 HK compatible device and I didn’t realise it was when I bought it. However, you may pay more of a premium for them (although I didn’t).
Thanks for including the list of companies with compatible devices! It wasn’t until reading your comment I realized Zigbee was more of an industry standard than rather than a single manufacturer.
I’ll be getting me one of those dongles, now.
Yes, Matter/Thread may change things but, as it stands, Zigbee is the format that seems to be absolutely solid and available in the lower-priced end of the mark (so you can get handfuls of sensors for not much).
If a friend asked for my advice to get a smart home up and running, I’d say grab a ZBDongle-E (discussion here) and whatever Zigbee devices you like. With the latest versions of HA being so much more user-friendly than when I started out, it is about as easy as it gets without buying some fancy bespoke system. I got all my Zigbee devices up and running in about the same time it took to get a single Bluetooth device onboard, so just stick with Zigbee and you can’t go far wrong, at least in my experience.
Don’t skip out on Z-wave too. They’re typically more expensive devices, but they use less power and are more reliable. You’ll obviously need a separate Z-wave transmitter/receiver but they’re under $30. You might also buy a couple USB extension cables so you can move both the Zigbee and Z-wave transmitters away from the ports since with some setups you can run into signal interference from the ports themselves.
Reading through the replies here, there are multiple suggestions for ZigBee. I think that’s the route I want to go, but I’m not entirely sure how to lay everything out.
I have three separate buildings that need ZigBee devices. I could attach a dongle to the HA server, but that would only have range to work with the devices in that building. My house is much too far away for any wireless access, but it has a 10Gb fiber link to my server rack. The third location doesn’t have a wired connection, but it’s close enough to get WiFi, and probably close enough to mesh with the ZigBee devices in either of the first two locations.
Is it possible to have multiple ZigBee base stations on the same network; will HA work with this setup? As an alternative, I could maybe install repeaters, but I’m not entirely sure if the locations on my property with electrical connections are close enough together.
Don’t use the built in zigbee implementation, your best bet imo would be either a network zigbee adapter or roll your own with a raspberry pi (or equivalent), a sonoff zigbee dongle and zigbee2mqtt.
Zigbee can be set up with either a USB dongle on the HA server (if you go that route get a dongle with a proper antenna), via hardwired networked hubs, or by Zigbee2mqtt or similar DIY options.
So for coverage across a large property with multiple buildings, networked hubs would be a good bet.
Most zigbee devices act as repeaters/routers for other devices, but they all need some route to the hub. so in your case, multiple hubs would be an option.
Nearly all Zigbee and Z-wave devices JUST WORK or are very close as long as you just double check they are on the compatibility lists. They are also fully local, mature and have devices from switch / hardware makers that are reputable in making switches and outlets. (unlike most wifi devices)
I would also suggest matter devices but that is still beta in home assistant and too EARLY to say anything about the quality of devices that support the limited 1.0, 1.1 specs.
the compatibility lists
What compatibility lists? That’s what OP is asking for.
Zigbee via Zigbee2MQTT: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/supported-devices/
Zigbee via ZHA: https://zigbee.blakadder.com/zha.html
Zwave via Z-Wave JS: https://devices.zwave-js.io/ ( I will note that even if a Z-wave device is not on the official known supported list most will work if they are basic devices like a switch)
I’m a big fan of tasmota and esphome. There’s plenty of cheap esp32 devices that you can flash these onto and all will work via regular old wifi.
If your in the market for WiFi stuff, shelly is my go-to. They have local access, ha integration and even mqtt if thats your bag
Zigbee, Z-wave, and Matter all should work, but they need special radios that require extra hardware on your server (except sometimes Matter—some devices use WiFi, while others use Thread, which is based on Zigbee). SkyConnect gives you Zigbee and Thread. Homekit usually works too, but at this point it’s better to get a WiFi Matter device. Anything running ESPHome will work automatically. Athom has a lot of products that are preflashed with ESPHome, so the firmware is designed by the same people that make Home Assistant.
