Category: Automation
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Restarting Apache on Remote Servers via SSH from Home Assistant
Goal Allow Home Assistant to securely restart Apache on a remote server (e.g. AWS Lightsail instance) at the press of a button. This is ideal when a rarely unstable website goes down and a manual restart is sufficient, but you want the flexibility to trigger it from anywhere — even your phone. Step 1: Generate…
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Monitoring Website Status in Home Assistant
This post documents how I set up a simple and reliable system in Home Assistant OS (HAOS) to monitor the status of websites, display the result in the UI, and keep a timestamp of the last check. It uses native command_line and template sensors and is designed to be easy to maintain and extend. Goal…
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Smarter Radios, Cleaner Clothes: My Latest HA Tweaks
Wow, what a journey it’s been since starting this home automation project from scratch! Here’s what I love most about it: First Automation: Smart Radio Charger It all started with a small problem I had at home. We use two radios (walkie-talkies) – one in the ground-floor kitchen and one upstairs in the office –…
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Home Assistant Journey: First Impressions and Choices
My Home Assistant journey officially kicked off! 😄 I spent the first day diving into research – watching videos, reading guides, and gathering tips to get started on the right foot. A couple of important decisions were up first: choosing the hardware and selecting the right platform (installation type). For hardware, I looked into two…
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Home Automation Reboot with Home Assistant OS
Recently, I watched NetworkChuck’s video “your home automation SUCKS!!” that got me fired up about trying out Home Assistant. A few years back, when home automation started to gain traction through easy-to-use apps like Tuya and Google Assistant, I dove in and automated parts of my house just for fun. I set up smart lights,…