I have gradually built up a lot of hardware overtime to from sensors to switches which allow automations to come to life. As part of this journey, I learnt a lot and amassed a lot of different devices with varying compatibilities. This is the beauty of Home Assistant to use multiple eco systems together.
Home Assistant is running on a custom built computer running Unraid as the base Operating System.
At the heart of everything are hubs / controllers. These are devices that bridge the different protocols to talk to computers. For example Zigbee to WiFi.
We are an Echo/Alexa household due to the compatibility it has with devices. This is less of an issue since moving to Home Assistant.
Great value devices.
Replaced Unifi with Aruba for their PPSK, controllerless setup. Basic support in Home Assistant.
An alternative to the now end of life Harmony Hub from Logitech. I have the RM4 Pro.
Weather station for more local and accurate weather data. Unfortunately, it does not provide forecast data.
- Wittboy The rain sensor fails to accurately read rain.
I love Elgato products. They are generally well designed however you do pay a price.
From Everything Smart Home, Lewis has created an ESP32 mmWave kit.
Makes chips and used in popular commercial IOT applications like Tuya. I use Wemos variant of the older ESP8266 (see below) and the newer ESP32. To manage all of these, I use ESPHome.
- FSC-BP108 Waterproof (IP67) Bluetooth Low Energy iBeacon. A cheaper version of an Apple Air Tag.
Third party WLED to Zigbee controller.
An in home display (IHD) that supports live smart meter reading to APIs and MQTT.
Really like the casting feature to share content however found it was relatiely unstable and would loose connectivity or stop playing.
Solar manufacturer. I use Solar Assistant to get local and faster updates.
- SPH3000 Inverter
- GBLI 6532 Battery
Probably the first smart house item we purchased in 2010. I have since upgraded to gen 2 of the hardware which has improved on reliablilty on the hub.
Rock solid printer however limited support in Home Assistant for mine. For example, it does not say how much toner is left.
Love the Ikea blinds. They are easy to get hold of compared to other products and once you get over the pairing, they have worked flawlessly.
The light output is one of the best in terms of lumens. The colours are generally very good. The downside has been pairing them to the WiFi on Android has been hit and miss. Once connected, there has been no issues.
Until Broadlink came along, Logitech was the only player in town to integrate remote control. The hub has been unstable however there were no alternatives at the time. I haven't integrated any automations as a result.
UK based solar designer/manufacturer.
- Eddi Solar diverter or a fancy relay to turn on electrical devices on or off when there is excess solar.
- Zappi EV charger
A toothbrush manufacturer that now supports bluetooth enabled electric toothbrushes.
Well engineered and personally, asthetically pleasing compared to some of it's competitor. Whilst I have a Hue Hub, not all Hue devices are paired to the hue Hub e.g motion sensors are paired to the Samsung SmartThings hub.
- Dimmer switch
- Motion sensor
- Outdoor (motion) sensor
- White and colour ambiance (E14)
- White and colour ambiance (E27)
A powerful and relatively cheap SOC board to power home projects. I have these monitoring UPS through to in home display (dashboard) through to monitoring 3D prints using Octoprint.
Does not have all the support with Home Assistant, however HACS fills the gap. Not too many issues to report and works well in general. The 1st generation alarm works with 2nd generation sensors.
- Doorbell 2
- Security 1st Gen
- Ring Alarm Contact Sensor 1st Gen
- Ring Alarm Contact Sensor 2nd Gen
- Ring Alarm Motion Sensor 1st Gen
- Ring Alarm Motion Sensor 2nd Gen
- Stickup Cam Elite
Some real gems that Samsung has made like the multipurpose sensor where Philips doesn't have. Generally reliable and well packaged.
I like their hardware relays and fits into 35mm back boxes and allows switches to function normally.
Relatively cheap hardware and some unique offering however lacks out of the box support.
The first curtain rod devices. It uses bluetooth which isn't great for range so I pair it with the hub mini
Bought one of these as a potential replacement to the Belkin Wemos which had the killer feature of time to switch off when it was powered on built into the app/plugs. The TP Link did not have that but it does have all the other features like power monitoring. This has been installed behind a hard to reach metal white goods where Zigbee was not strong enough to reach but WiFi was.
Very well priced IoT device manufacturer. I am using the temperature sensor for inside the fridge and freezers. The radiator values are closes to the Tado TRVs. It's not as well built but the idea is you don't need to touch it.
Fully kitted networking gear of choice and provides really good integration with Home Assistant. I have also gone towards their cameras and protect system.
- G4 Instant
- G5 Flex
- G5 Turret Ultra
- Unifi Dream Machine Pro
- Unifi Swtich 8
- Unifi Switch Lite 8 PoE
- Unifi Switch Lite 16 PoE
- Unifi Swtich 8 60W
- Unifi Switch 24
A no name zigbee brand.
- SM-0306E-2W Sockets are individually controllable. USBs are all controlled together as a group. I wish it had power monitoring as well.
Small WiFi development board with an ESP8266 chip. I'm using ESPHome firmware.