Much respect to Home Assistant for making everything as accessible as it is, but it’s inherently a complex project. It also has to deal with trying to be everything to everyone, which makes it hard to identify the easy path through setting it up among all of the options.
There are two ways to get through Home Assistant:
1. Identify the easy path instructions, get equipment that matches perfectly, and follow the instructions to the letter. Use only equipment known to have great integration. Upgrade only when necessary. Change nothing as soon as it’s all working.
2. Be willing to spend a lot of time tinkering and debugging. There’s a big Home Assistant channel in one of the big Slacks I’m in where everyone eventually hits something that takes days or weeks to figure out.
Many companies have tried to package or use Home Assistant as the foundation for plug and play IoT hubs, but they all seem to end up with the same realization that it really needs a capable and willing human in the loop as soon as you deviate even slightly from the list of devices with excellent support. This isn’t even entirely Home Assistant’s fault: Most of these devices were never designed for third party control.
There are two ways to get through Home Assistant:
1. Identify the easy path instructions, get equipment that matches perfectly, and follow the instructions to the letter. Use only equipment known to have great integration. Upgrade only when necessary. Change nothing as soon as it’s all working.
2. Be willing to spend a lot of time tinkering and debugging. There’s a big Home Assistant channel in one of the big Slacks I’m in where everyone eventually hits something that takes days or weeks to figure out.
Many companies have tried to package or use Home Assistant as the foundation for plug and play IoT hubs, but they all seem to end up with the same realization that it really needs a capable and willing human in the loop as soon as you deviate even slightly from the list of devices with excellent support. This isn’t even entirely Home Assistant’s fault: Most of these devices were never designed for third party control.