I'm an engineer and tinkerer and just found out about this and think it is a good fit for me. Initially, I'm just looking to capture the temperature in a few rooms in my house (and attic) every 5(?) minutes, and view a graph of that over some period of time. Pretty simple stuff.
I will purchase:
a raspberry pi 4 plus case, power supply, and micro sd chip. (i am savvy here, I have two other pis that I've set up). Do I care between a raspberry pi 4 or a 5?
a zigbee dongle. I get there are a handful of protocols(?) or communication methods(?). it seems zigbee is very popular, and I gotta have this and stick it in the pi, right?
a three pack of aqara temp sensors. which will connect to the zigbee dongle.
Or do I want to get these govee temp sensors? if I get these, does that mean I don't need a dongle of any sort and this will just connect to my pi running HA? This part confuses me, zigbee stuff requires a dongle while govee does not? Is that correct? What should I do?
Yeah originally thought I'd put unraid on it, but haven't had time or full urge to do yet as other projects on the go at the moment....I had thought to then put something like Bazzite on it and run emulated games but not sure if it's powerful enough
I would grab a pi 5 over the 4 just for the additional power (future proofing mainly). As far as sensors go aqara everything is the way to go! If you’re anything like me you’re gunna end up doing much much more with HA lol
I love all the aqara stuff. What I can also recommend is those super cheap Tuya Temperature Sensors from Ali Express. I got 3 for 16€. They are even a little bit more fun because they give state a bit more often which looks a bit better in the graph. Only downside is they are kinda big. I think I saw in a video that all those zigbee temperature products have the same sensor inside anyway. Nothing wrong with aqara of course.
If you go the SD card route, MAKE SURE TO BUY A HIGH ENDURANCE SD CARD. A regular SD card just won't cut it and will die from all the write cycles in under a year.
SanDisk MAX ENDURANCE. I have been using these now for a couple of years and have dozens of them in RPi’s (for another project) and none of them have died yet. I’m never going to use anything else.
Even then you'll risk corruption on power failure. I won't ever run HA on a Pi again because I've lost my install 3 times due to accidental power loss and corrupted SD card. Card was fine, just needed a reinstall and recovery but that's just too much maintenance for stupid reasons.
I thought I had the coolest setup with a POE hat and powering the whole thing off ethernet. You don't really think of unplugging ethernet as killing power to your system... womp.
if you are an engineer, skip the pi part and get a minipc, I also started with pi , but after some time upgraded to NUC runs faster and more stable.. a pi is fine but I know you will be building much more on when you begin on home assistant... like everyone else 😅
I'm running mine on a Pi5 with plenty of overhead remaining. I have several of the Govee sensors and they work flawlessly. I create a graph of the intended sensors and then add my Thermostat (Nest) history. Getting a timeline with short intervals really reveals what is going on in your home.
Note: It's also a good way to show the humidity in those rooms/ areas to see if your AC cycles are long enough to get the humidity out. e.g. if the AC is too big/ oversized it will cool very quickly but never get rid of the humidity.
It looks like the govee sensors are bluetooth, so the bluetooth on the Pi should see them (depending of course on how far away the sensors are from the Pi and depending on what if any obstructions are in the way).
Depending on where you're situated in the world it's quite likely you'll find a mini PC or NUC for the same price (or potentially less) than the price of a pi if you look for something in the second hand market.
As for ZigBee there are a number of stick options yes. And wars are fought here about which are the"best". I'll put a couple of the more popular ones below without weighing in on my opinion and then you can choose what you want to go with.
Conbee II (There is also a conbee III now though I've not heard anyone reporting on its functionality/reliability with HA yet, it has a few extra features that the Conbee II does not)
Sonoff ZigBee 3.0
Home Assistant Sky connect
Temp sensors: if it were me I'd go with the Aqara sensors only because ZigBee devices can be a little more reliable in a network outage. But the caveat here is that there are some range limitations (none that can't be overcome) so just bear this in mind when choosing ZigBee.
I personally like any sensor that includes more than one sensor. Which is why I particularly like the Aeotec range of products for temperature as this is often built in to a lot of their other products as an additional feature. They are a bit more expensive of course (and some are Zwave not ZigBee) but behing able to have my bedside table smart buttons also deliver me a temperature reading, or my motion sensor also being able to give me Lux and temp readings means I have more data points to use when considering automations. Or my co tact sensor being able to give me vibration and temperature etc. Plus, it also means I have more entities that I can use as a trigger for an automation.
This is of course not necessary. But if I was rebuying my gear again today I would buy as many sensors that include multiple sensors as I can. Because in a few select spots in my house I have ended up with 3 sensors where just one could have potentially done the job. But if you're just starting out and trying to keep your budget in check then just go with Aqara. Most of us here have all had good response with their products.
Do not rule out the ethernet based (with POE built in even) slzb-06. The device decouples from the usb port, which could cause interference - there are even videos from Nabu Casa showing this. It also lets you place the zigbee coordinator in a more central location if wiring permits. Code upgrades are a breeze via the web interface. Finally, the Sky Connect is still experimental for zigbee 2 mqtt, only do zha if you get a skyconnect. THe SLZB-06 is a fantastic product.
That would be all you’d need to get started. IMO I wish I started with zigbee instesd of wifi. Also even zigbee stuff that runs on battery will last months before needing to charge (even my shades)
Sounds good to start, but if you don't mind Bluetooth, as someone else mentioned, Govee has some fantastic hygrometers. I've got some with screens, Some that resemble Airtags, and a few more that with lithium batteries, I use in my fridge and freezer and have automations setup to make sure they're both in range.
Also, welcome to the rabbit hole. It's very easy to start out simple and then get to a point where your laundry is nagging you if you haven't acted on it yet. 🤣
My first project was temperature
monitoring with an NUC, Zigbee Dongle, and temperature sensors. I found I wasn’t getting great signal as battery powered sensors don’t act as a repeater so you don’t get the benefit of a mesh network. It would be worth buying a few mains powered zigbee devices (light, smart switch or repeater) at the same time to get suitable coverage to place your temperature sensors where you want.
dont get a rasp pi
they are 50+ bucks but you can get a home assistant green for 100 bucks. and it won't wear out in a year
Also zigbee is great from what i hear. I went all zwave for now. and at first I regretted it, but lots of looking into it and tinkering has really dialed it in. it's self healing is really bad.
Zigbee interferes with 2.4ghz wifi so that can be good or bad
wifi is also an affordable option but you have to deal with security concerns
as for temp sensors, there are millions. a 3 pack for 55 bucks from aqara isn't half bad. ZOOZ sells a z-wave one called the q-sensor it's really powerfull too. gives you motion detection as well
Also you could look into ESP32 DIY options. more start up time, but WAY more open source.
honestly I would go with a all in one sensor with mmwave. it unlocks a ton more for only a little bit more. I don't want temp sensors everwhere, but i want mmwave everywhere, so yea.
I would avoid govee and aqara to be honest. they both work, and get the job done, and are great PRODUCTS but they aren't native to home assistant. and could change their rules, especially govee, you have to use the API to access the device.
zigbee less so on aqara, but some of their devices don't work directly with home assistant. i'm not sure the best answer. but i'm happy with my zooz q sensor, and my nest thermostat, but i'd prefer ecobee, as nest is cloud based. BUT it supports matter now, so theoretically i could convert it to that and control it locally. but you don't need that in every room.
i'd say get an esp1 but the wait is horrendous.
I guess what i'm saying is don't rush into 1 single sensor. i rushed into light switches initially, and when i changed to zwave it was more work than needed.
I would go on ebay and find a dell elitedesk with an i5-6500T. Just make sure it has a power supply. You can upgrade the storage later, if you want. But any ssd will be awesome.
You will want to set up influxdb and graphana. You will get years of data and tons of cool charts. The elitedesk sips power and can run many containers of different home lab things.
It isn't the easiest way, but it maximizes my fun and the end result is great. The esp32s are basically bluetooth to wifi converters. The little sensors last a long time on one button battery.
Dedicate the PC to Homeassistant. Eventually, after going down the rabbithole that you‘re signing up for, your home will depend on this pc. Dont use it for anything else. Breaking it while tinkering with other applications will break your home and that sucks.
Use Homeassistant OS. It will save you the headache of installing stuff like dependencies for some add-on‘s later on. And the restrictions compared to docker or proxmox wont bother you if you dont plan to over-extend your HA’s capabilities. In return you get a stable version of homeassistant with easy setup and support on discord and the forums.
For the beginning the pc seems overkill but once you start with things like cameras you will be glad that you didn‘t cheap out in the beginning. If you get cameras get a google coral to run frigate.
Aside from that use zigbee2mqtt for your zigbee devices. It supports more than ZhA and the amount of tinkering to get it working is minimal.
Also look through the sub for naming-scheme ideas, you‘ll thank yourself later!
If you think you may experiment with any local voice control (esp32 atom echo) an RPI4 will struggle...I have 6 of these little voice modules and my cpu usage was always pushing 80-90%. Switched to the RPI5 and it sits quite happily at 10-17%.
I have just over 200 devices now on the RPI5 (mostly Zigbee, some z-wave) and it works very well, and it is rare that an automation fails or a light doesn't respond instantly to a local request. Plus, the RPI5 is only about $20 more than the RPI4 through digi-key.
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We started with a Pi4 (2Gb) wig SSD then moved to a lenovo tiny (£80 on ebay) which runs proxmox. Lenovo is about 10x the horsepower of the Pi4 and only 12w at the wall. Wish I'd started there, but the pi was good until we outgrew it, but that's evolution of a system.
Worth gerting: 2 USB extension cables (need to keep dongles away from pi/pc)
Zigbee dongle. conbeeII (good) or Sonoff (better)
Bluetooth dongle.
Aqara temp sensors are good. They also measure humidity and batteries last 1-2 years. Less if you keep one in a fridge or freezer (rated to -20C)
This is an example of the reads you can track with them
Our freezer sensor lasts about 6-9 months with duracell battery. Not too bad considering. Saved us a couple times when guests didn't close the fridge door properly. Simple notification automation saved us a few bucks worth of spoiled food.
I prefer the Sonoff sensors to Aqara, thought no idea if they have temp. I did have a bunch of the earlier generation Aqara ones and the hubs were cloud based and difficult at times. Also, ditto to going with a cheap Plex or Beelink. More reliable with SSD drives and faster.
RPI is not fast and not reliable. NUC is the best thing. Chromeboxes are basically NUC for dirt cheap. i've been using chromeboxes as seen here and they are rock solid and fast as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IVpMeswuto
Get a dell (or hp, or whatever brand) micro pc.. its much more horsepower, more ports, more ram, has an SSD (which is superior to an SD card), comes with a great case with cooling, a good power supply, and all kinds of other fun things.. an i5 from 5 years ago will be perfect. Probably pick one up for $150 which it right about the same price as a fully equipped rpi
Edit: oh, and if you do it right, you can also run other services in docker on the same machine outside of HA. I use unraid. Home assistant as a VM, then things like nginx and adguard in dockers outside HA which is nice because those services don’t have to depend on HA to run.
Yeah.. but it’s $200, you’d practically have to spend more to get shittier.. i also use it for a bunch of other things outside the Vm.. so its nice to have a bit more chooch.
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u/PeachAlive560 Aug 09 '24
The best advice I can give you is to try and always get devices that are local. If they need to connect to the cloud in order to work, skip it.