A while ago, I wanted to try Home Assistant. Then I realised that I didn't have a single thing to use it with. The locks are mechanical, the lights are simple LEDs, the irrigation system is manual, my car has push buttons, and I live in a safe enough area (by European standards) to not need doorbell or security cameras. Nothing I own depends on any external services other than the electric transformer down the street.

Never a better time to be a modern Luddite.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 5 points 6 days ago (5 children)

I can be a bit neurotic about turning off lights when I leave a room, so Home Assistant was a nice way to free up brain space for me. A few motion sensors here and there + some simple automations, and the lights mostly handle themselves. Zigbee sensors and Zigbee or Matter-over-WiFi bulbs, so everything is local. A free VPS+WireGuard setup means I can access them remotely should I need to, with TailScale as a backup.

Cloud failures mean I can't access remotely, but local control is unaffected---if my smart devices stop working it's almost certainly my fault :)

[–] MarauderIIC@lemmy.zip 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

What VPS do you use?

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Oracle Free tier, amd64. Only use it because it's free---limited bandwidth, but given I have slow upload at home it's never really been a bottleneck. Hate to admit it given it's Oracle, but I've been completely happy with it.

If I switch to a paid VPS I will probably go with racknerd (suggestions welcome though if you have thoughts).

load more comments (3 replies)

load more comments (4 replies)