Switched from Homebridge to Home Assistant...

[Athlon]

... and I'll never look back. I had no idea how customizable this thing is.

I have it on a RPi 4 - 4gig device and it's running fine. 17 active Integrations (turned a few off) and hundreds of devices and entities. 

I started by installing Mushroom Cards to get the hang of it for my HA phone app and have since switched to Custom Button-Card (all code, mostly CSS).  https://github.com/custom-cards/button-card

Mrs. Athlon loves it - first time she's used any app to control any smart home anything. WAF is off the charts.

It flawlessly imported everything from my Polisy, Kasa, Harmony and a bunch of other stuff including iOS Home. I was using Homekit for just one integration (Velux KIX 300) so we can use Alexa to control our skylights.

Velux only has Apple and Google native integration - not Alexa. So I created a Virtual switch (PG3 Node) so now when HA sees that button turn on HA talks to iOS Home which in turn opens our blinds on the skylights using the Velux Hub. I created an Alexa Routine ("Alexa, Open the blinds") to do that. With that Routine she turns on the Virtual switch. I have a few other routines that close them and/or adjust them as well.

Another use case is a drip system I use for flowers around the yard. I have an Orbit B-Hyve 4 port hose device on the faucet in my backyard controlling 3 zones for the plants back there. The 4th zone is connected to a garden hose I use to clean pool equipment and other things when needed. Because the faucet is back behind some foundation plants that scratch if you're wearing shorts, I use my phone to turn that on and off. (I know, I know ?) The Orbit app sucks. It takes 4 clicks to get to that control, and then it's a timer you have to program and THEN you turn it on. With HA, I have it in my Backyard folder - it's a one click toggle on or off. Awesome. I could have Alexa turn it on and off as well, but I'm a little nervous about that as I have one in the shed (feeds my backyard speakers). Don't want some kid to hear me say that and yell into my yard while I'm away ?.

Maybe I'll have HA text me when Alexa turns the hose on so I can turn it off if I'm not home.

The best part of HA, IMHO however, is how completely free you are to design your own interface in it's app. After a few hours I have a few rooms done and I think the app looks great. I may never use any of the other apps on my phone to control stuff ever again.

Though I'd share...

Thanks @MrBill for giving me the idea to do this.

[Cwoodhouse]

Congratulations.  There are tons of helpful HA videos on YouTube.  Beware, Paul Hibbert warns that your virginity will grow back if you get too deep into HA !

[Dub]

@AthlonSounds like you are getting a lot of value out of HA.  I read a few threads a while back on these forums that convinced me to try HA.  I may have seen some similar comments from Mr Bill as well.  For me I was more curious than anything.  One commenter made the statement the ISY/Polisy Admin Console is for programming the system.  That made the most sense to me and it is a great tool for programming my devices and running programs etc.  I do love the support here at UDI and the people in the forums, so I consider HA more of my toy, but count on my Polisy.  My family is way more dependent on 8 button KPL for control vs apps or voice.  I like that I can use HA to connect to HomeKit and use Siri for voice control for me. What has made me apprehensive about HA as my primary controller vs being just an overlay for a gui and Siri, is that that it is totally community driven while I do understand they have a revenue stream from Nabu Casa.  When evaluating my choices I liked that UDI was a paid model and even offered a paid programming option if needed.  Support before and after my purchase was prompt, friendly, and helpful.  My system is largely Insteon and the maturity of the UDI products and staff with Insteon was another deciding factor.  All that to say I will keep HA running and even bought an Ameridroid to run it on...hardware runs great by the way. My show stopper issue right now with HA is I'm on version 2022.6.7 and when I try the July updates I loose my connection to my Polisy.  It looks like its a known issue so I just rolled back and wait.  All that to say I have both as well, but I'm not leaving my Polisy and will be next version Michel has mentioned is coming in other threads.  Even with the UDI low failure rates, I don't want to be without a spare.

Since you are running Polisy and HA, curious if you are on 2022.7.6 and if it broke your integration to your Polisy box?

....now I'm off to read about the Mushroom Cards you are using. ?

[Athlon]

11 hours ago, Cwoodhouse said:

Congratulations.  There are tons of helpful HA videos on YouTube.  Beware, Paul Hibbert warns that your virginity will grow back if you get too deep into HA !

Ha! I may be far down that rabbit hole already... ?

And, yes, I've watched a number of videos. There are some very clever folks out there, this guy in particular:

 

[Athlon]

8 hours ago, WHaas said:

@AthlonSounds like you are getting a lot of value out of HA.  I read a few threads a while back on these forums that convinced me to try HA.  I may have seen some similar comments from Mr Bill as well.  For me I was more curious than anything.  One commenter made the statement the ISY/Polisy Admin Console is for programming the system.  That made the most sense to me and it is a great tool for programming my devices and running programs etc.  I do love the support here at UDI and the people in the forums, so I consider HA more of my toy, but count on my Polisy.  My family is way more dependent on 8 button KPL for control vs apps or voice.  I like that I can use HA to connect to HomeKit and use Siri for voice control for me. What has made me apprehensive about HA as my primary controller vs being just an overlay for a gui and Siri, is that that it is totally community driven while I do understand they have a revenue stream from Nabu Casa.  When evaluating my choices I liked that UDI was a paid model and even offered a paid programming option if needed.  Support before and after my purchase was prompt, friendly, and helpful.  My system is largely Insteon and the maturity of the UDI products and staff with Insteon was another deciding factor.  All that to say I will keep HA running and even bought an Ameridroid to run it on...hardware runs great by the way. My show stopper issue right now with HA is I'm on version 2022.6.7 and when I try the July updates I loose my connection to my Polisy.  It looks like its a known issue so I just rolled back and wait.  All that to say I have both as well, but I'm not leaving my Polisy and will be next version Michel has mentioned is coming in other threads.  Even with the UDI low failure rates, I don't want to be without a spare.

Since you are running Polisy and HA, curious if you are on 2022.7.6 and if it broke your integration to your Polisy box?

....now I'm off to read about the Mushroom Cards you are using. ?

I will not retire my Polisy. I consider it the backbone of my system. I'm going to use HA as my user interface and occasional bridge.

I'm using only the occasional Mushroom Card now - doing most of it from scratch (code) using Custom Button-Card. 

As for 2022.7.6 - haven't updated yet - must have been released late yesterday. I'm going to look into it before I pull the trigger on it - thanks for the heads up.

 

 

Edited July 21, 2022 by Athlon

[Dub]

20 minutes ago, Athlon said:

I will not retire my Polisy. I consider it the backbone of my system. I'm going to use HA as my user interface and occasional bridge.

 

That's where I am too.  

 

30 minutes ago, Athlon said:

As for 2022.7.6 - haven't updated yet - must have been released late yesterday. I'm going to look into it before I pull the trigger on it - thanks for the heads up.

I'm confused on the versioning.  I thought the 6th indicated the day of release, but it looks like the minor revision as most software.  Just for curiosity to see if its resolved, I just upgraded to 2022.7.6 and the UDI Integration wouldn't connect.  I dont know which 2022.7.x versions I have tried, but I have tried now 3 times and can't version 7 to connect.

Right now I don't have much time and even less skill to troubleshoot it so I just roll back to 2022.6.7

Here's a link to the Known Issues for the integration, listing 2022.7.x breaks the integration.

https://github.com/home-assistant/core/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A"integration%3A+isy994"

If you decidee to try it let me know what happens.

[Athlon]

11 minutes ago, WHaas said:

I'm confused on the versioning.  I thought the 6th indicated the day of release, but it looks like the minor revision as most software.  Just for curiosity to see if its resolved, I just upgraded to 2022.7.6 and the UDI Integration wouldn't connect.  I dont know which 2022.7.x versions I have tried, but I have tried now 3 times and can't version 7 to connect.

Here's a link to the Known Issues for the integration, listing 2022.7.x breaks the integration.

https://github.com/home-assistant/core/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A"integration%3A+isy994"

From what I can tell, the core version is named after the month and year - hence this month's core is 2022.7

There are minor updates throughout the month, the latest being 2022.7.6 (the 6th update this month).

See this page for details:

https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2022/07/06/release-20227/

So far so good with 2022.7.6 and Polisy, by the way (updated a few minutes ago). Your post pointing to the issue is 2 weeks old and the only post about that, so It does not look as though 2022.7.6 has an issue with Polisy.

[Dub]

27 minutes ago, Athlon said:

So far so good with 2022.7.6 and Polisy, by the way (updated a few minutes ago). Your post pointing to the issue is 2 weeks old and the only post about that, so It does not look as though 2022.7.6 has an issue with Polisy.

Thank you for letting me know.  I want to get to ver 7, but the first time it happened I kinda threw the hammer at it...so to speak.  I disabled the integration.  Enabled.  Restarted the OS.  Checked my IP configurations.  Deleted the integration and added it back.  The next minor version I tried, it did the same thing and I didnt have time to dig further.  So when I did it this morning it still didnt work.

Knowing its working for you I may spend some time looking at this weekend and not be following the known issues.  The known issue link came directly from the integration, and I assumed if it were resolved it would work or the issue would be closed.  I'm also assuming ISY and Polisy are enough alike it would be the same problem, but thats my ignorance if they is a enough difference there.  Someone was asking 13 hours ago if there was an update.  It's weird because someone was able to add one ISY but not their second one....anyway.  

Thank you again for letting me know your versioning its working for you!!  

[MrBill]

18 hours ago, Athlon said:

Mrs. Athlon loves it - first time she's used any app to control any smart home anything. WAF is off the charts.

 

18 hours ago, Athlon said:

The best part of HA, IMHO however, is how completely free you are to design your own interface in it's app.

Both of those points are why HA is a winner in our house. 

 

32 minutes ago, Athlon said:

From what I can tell, the core version is named after the month and year - hence this month's core is 2022.7

There are minor updates throughout the month, the latest being 2022.7.6 (the 6th update this month).

See this page for details:

All true statements on versioning...  year.month.minor#  

The .0 version is released on the first Wednesday of the month, and I've learned to wait 7-10 days for it to get to .3 or .4 before I upgrade.  Then at the end or first of the month i make sure to get the last dot release.

Keep up with your updates, don't get too far behind (months, not minors) and be sure to check the "breaking changes" of the release notes before upgrading.  Releases move fast and literally if you waited 6 months you may have a lot broken.

[Dub]

2 minutes ago, MrBill said:

The .0 version is released on the first Wednesday of the month, and I've learned to wait 7-10 days for it to get to .3 or .4 before I upgrade.  Then at the end or first of the month i make sure to get the last dot release.

Keep up with your updates, don't get too far behind (months, not minors) and be sure to check the "breaking changes" of the release notes before upgrading.  Releases move fast and literally if you waited 6 months you may have a lot broken.

Great info as always @MrBill

Thank you!!

[asbril]

I was also using HA as a front for iSY and then mostly used  the very nice UD Mobile. However, I have now learned that HA has some integrations that ISY-Polisy does not (yet) has.

I can not imagine ever leaving the Rolls Royce of home automation, ISY-Polisy, as the back-bone of my system as my core, but because in principle ISY integrates nicely into HA, I'd like to make use of the best of both, but I have several issues :

(1) Until there will be a migration tool for my large Zwave network, I am using both ISY and ISY on Polisy.   My ISY used to be integrated in HA but when I added ISY on Polisy, my ISY no longer works in HA. It is there but without any entities.

(2) Even though I watched several YouTube  videos, I just do not understand anything about configuration.yaml and Templates. That is where ISY shines, but understanding configuration.yaml and Templates would improve my setup. I am looking for idiot proof (I am not a programmer, just a novice techie) step-by-step instructions and explanations.

Edited July 21, 2022 by asbril

[Athlon]

24 minutes ago, asbril said:

I just do not understand anything about configuration.yaml and Templates. That is where ISY shines, but understanding configuration.yaml and Templates would improve my setup. I am looking for idiot proof (I am not a programmer, just a novice techie) step-by-step instructions and explanations.

Haven't changed anything in any yaml files myself yet.

Try this:

Install Custom Button-Card

Click 'Add Card' on one of your Dashboards

Search for button and chose 'Custom:Button-Card'

Replace ALL of the code in the box that opens with this:

type: custom:button-card
name: Flag
icon: mdi:lightbulb
size: 40px
styles:
  card:
    - height: 118px
state:
  - value: 'on'
    name: Flag
    styles:
      icon:
        - animation:
            - rotating 1.5s
        - color: orange
      name:
        - color: orange
        - font: bold 15px Arial
      card:
        - background: black
  - value: 'off'
    name: Flag
    styles:
      icon:
        - color: gray
      name:
        - color: gray
        - font: bold 15px Arial
tap_action:
  action: toggle
entity: switch.flag_light_2

Be sure to replace at least the last line's entity with one of yours.

Enjoy!

Edited July 21, 2022 by Athlon

[MrBill]

12 minutes ago, Athlon said:

Haven't changed anything in any yaml files myself yet.

You have.... but you did it in the UI, and you just posted the YAML ?

Seriously tho, not so long ago there was more need to edit the config file or another file in that directory.  More and more has moved into the UI, but there are cases that the UI still isn't completely smart and one must use YAML like you did here, even if it is pasted into the UI rather than editing a file.

[Athlon]

1 minute ago, MrBill said:

You have.... but you did it in the UI, and you just posted the YAML ?

Seriously tho, not so long ago there was more need to edit the config file or another file in that directory.  More and more has moved into the UI, but there are cases that the UI still isn't completely smart and one must use YAML like you did here, even if it is pasted into the UI rather than editing a file.

LOL - yep - the code is passed (saved) to those yaml files. Just wanted to show @asbrilit might be easier than he thought to get 'fancy'.

Took me a couple of hours of experimenting and research to get that code to work as I wanted it to, btw. Still tweaking it (damn rabbit hole).

[MrBill]

18 minutes ago, Athlon said:

(damn rabbit hole)

never more true.... and it's the deepest one i've ever been down.

[Geddy]

Same here...also after some discussions with @MrBill and reading other posts here and there. Interesting to see the overall abilities that HomeAssistant supports. The latest for "Works With..." seem to be promising moving forward.

I too have kept the ISY/Polisy as the backbone and plan to. I haven't gone too far down the rabbit hole of actually getting things to work with HA, but soon enough. I have it working, but getting things the way I want them before opening up the options for the wife and kid are where I'm still at. 

Might have to look at those custom buttons @Athlon mentions. While I like what I'm currently using some flare would be appreciated for fun.

 

[asbril]

Maybe I was thrown off by the "custom button".  I now think that I have been using this already... In Overview , Edit, add Button etc. If that what you mean with Custom Button, then I understand and use this. But when I need configuration.yaml to add an Integration (that can not be done in the UI in some cases  as @MrBill mentions), then I am utterly confused.

Furthermore I don't really understand the concept of Templates. Are these part of the system or do I need to create these. What is the difference between Blueprints and Templates ? Iguess that my questions show my novice level   

[Dub]

3 hours ago, Athlon said:

So far so good with 2022.7.6 and Polisy, by the way (updated a few minutes ago). Your post pointing to the issue is 2 weeks old and the only post about that, so It does not look as though 2022.7.6 has an issue with Polisy.

Quick update and dont want to turn this into my troubleshooting thread as I have more work to do first before tying up other time too much and will start a new thread if I get to that point...but If I delete the integration and add it back, it works fine.  If I delete then upgrade then add the integration it works fine....

My new problem is I changed my {IGNORE ME} string to {IGNORE} to save characters in my Polisy as some of my devices names were too long...The problem comes when I add the Integration back I dont see a way to change the {IGNORE ME} string before the integrations loads all my devices with the {IGNORE} tag.  Changing the tag after the fact leaves all theses {IGNORE} devices in HA as unavailable and requires a manual delete.

[Athlon]

I haven't done anything like that - sry - can't help.

 

[MrBill]

1 minute ago, asbril said:

Maybe I was thrown off by the "custom button".  I now think that I have been using this already... In Overview , Edit, add Button etc. If that what you mean with Custom Button, then I understand and use this. But when I need configuration.yaml to add an Integration (that can not be done in the UI in some cases  as @MrBill mentions), then I am utterly confused.

Furthermore I don't really understand the concept of Templates. Are these part of the system or do I need to create these. What is the difference between Blueprints and Templates ? Iguess that my questions show my novice level   

I think from my memory that you are just using "Button"...which is a built-in dashboard button.  "Custom Button" is added via HACS and allows you configure many more aspects of the "button" otherwise they are similar in what they do they put a button on a dashboard.

The template integration and Jinja templating really mean two different things, although you often using a Jinga Template or templates with the template integration.  I was hung up on this for awhile.  The integration essentially allows you to create new entities with custom properties.  The template engine allows you to extract values to use elsewhere, for example if you want to update an ISY variable with a value from HA.

I haven't yet found a use for blueprints.  they are the method to share automatons between users, but unfortunately I don't think anyone's setup is really compatible with anyone else's.

[MrBill]

12 minutes ago, WHaas said:

Quick update and dont want to turn this into my troubleshooting thread as I have more work to do first before tying up other time too much and will start a new thread if I get to that point...but If I delete the integration and add it back, it works fine.  If I delete then upgrade then add the integration it works fine....

My new problem is I changed my {IGNORE ME} string to {IGNORE} to save characters in my Polisy as some of my devices names were too long...The problem comes when I add the Integration back I dont see a way to change the {IGNORE ME} string before the integrations loads all my devices with the {IGNORE} tag.  Changing the tag after the fact leaves all theses {IGNORE} devices in HA as unavailable and requires a manual delete.

Correct.   First, consider using ~ as your ignore string.... wish I had started that way and someday soon I may convert.  I've tested (I have multiple ISY's being read into HA--My production and my "test" unit). 

Second, after you have made changes, First RELOAD the integration, then navigate to Developer Tools in the left hand menu.  then "Services" in the header menu, then run the service "ISY994.cleanup_entities"

[Athlon]

I'm trying to add a button on a dashboard that will tell my thermostat to go into away mode. That is simple to do.

For the moment I'm finding what's not so simple is I'd like to be able to toggle that same button to set home mode rather than have two separate buttons (one for home and one for away).

Ideally:

On = Home

Off = Away

I've spent a lot of time trying to find a solution.......

 

[asbril]

14 minutes ago, MrBill said:

I think from my memory that you are just using "Button"...which is a built-in dashboard button.  "Custom Button" is added via HACS and allows you configure many more aspects of the "button" otherwise they are similar in what they do they put a button on a dashboard.

The template integration and Jinja templating really mean two different things, although you often using a Jinga Template or templates with the template integration.  I was hung up on this for awhile.  The integration essentially allows you to create new entities with custom properties.  The template engine allows you to extract values to use elsewhere, for example if you want to update an ISY variable with a value from HA.

I haven't yet found a use for blueprints.  they are the method to share automatons between users, but unfortunately I don't think anyone's setup is really compatible with anyone else's.

Thanks as always @MrBill but when you write "        "Custom Button" is added via HACS           ", I have no idea what HACS is.  Unfortunately this is an old song for me as it took me a very long time to understand the concept of variables in ISY. I am just not that smart but so eager to understand.

As far as Templates, forget the difference between template integration and Jinja templating, as I have zero idea what this means and how to use it. Someone or divine intervention must switch that light on for me.

[MrBill]

7 minutes ago, Athlon said:

I'm trying to add a button on a dashboard that will tell my thermostat to go into away mode. That is simple to do.

For the moment I'm finding what's not so simple is I'd like to be able to toggle that same button to set home mode rather than have two separate buttons (one for home and one for away).

Ideally:

On = Home

Off = Away

I've spent a lot of time trying to find a solution......

So tell me how you change it to away mode with a button, and how do you change it back with a second button.  I can probably help if I know more....

[MrBill]

6 minutes ago, asbril said:

Thanks as always @MrBill but when you write "        "Custom Button" is added via HACS           ", I have no idea what HACS is.  Unfortunately this is an old song for me as it took me a very long time to understand the concept of variables in ISY. I am just not that smart but so eager to understand.

As far as Templates, forget the difference between template integration and Jinja templating, as I have zero idea what this means and how to use it. Someone or divine intervention must switch that light on for me.

HACS is the Home Assistant Community Store.   Its an optional component of HA, that lets you add more optional things to HA.  I was pretty sure you had already added HACS back when shbatm was helping troubleshoot when an update broke the ISY994 integration for you.