Tag: Home Assistant
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How to connect an ESP Board to HAOS: My Go-To Setup Guide
I always struggle a bit with the steps required to connect an ESP board to HAOS for the first time. Even though it’s super simple and straightforward, the sequence of steps does matter for a clean setup. So, just for my own reference – here’s what needs to be done. Open ESPHome Builder and add…
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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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Web Monitoring on My Terms: Powered by Home Assistant
I used to monitor my websites with SolarWinds Pingdom. Recently, they migrated me to their new observability platform. It’s not bad – in fact, quite powerful – but way too complex for what I actually needed. I managed to reconfigure everything and set up SMS alerts through another provider (apparently, they no longer supports SMS…
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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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A Minimalist’s Raspberry Pi HAOS Server
Since I decided to set up my home automation server on a Raspberry Pi, I needed a case to house it. I found this cool, high-tech-looking case for the Raspberry Pi 5 that resembles a mini gaming PC, complete with LED lights that would make it stand out like a Christmas tree! Unfortunately, it wasn’t…
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Flashing My ZigBee Dongle: A Not-So-Straightforward Start
Before connecting my ZigBee dongle to Home Assistant OS (HAOS), I decided to upgrade its firmware first. While this step isn’t strictly necessary, I wanted to take my time, learn the process, and set things up right rather than rushing through. So, onto the firmware upgrade… After some research, I found that there are generally…
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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,…