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Getting Started with Home Assistant

Your take-home guide · Dallas Makerspace

What it is: Home Assistant puts every smart device in your house, whatever protocol it speaks, into one app that runs locally. Your data never leaves home and there is no subscription. It's free and open source, backed by the non-profit Open Home Foundation.

Run It On

  • HA Green: official plug-and-play box, easiest start (HAOS)
  • Raspberry Pi: popular and well-documented
  • Mini PC or old laptop: needs 6th-gen Intel or newer (a laptop works even with no screen). Lenovo M910q, or a new N100/N150 mini PC off Amazon.

Protocols at a Glance

Protocol Good for What you need
Z-Wave Very reliable, less congested. Great for door locks & critical sensors. A controller: Home Assistant Connect ZWA-2
Zigbee Huge, cheap device selection. Self-healing mesh. A coordinator: Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 (ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT)
Wi-Fi / Ethernet Simple, no hub. Cameras, Shelly relays, ESP devices. Just your network
Bluetooth / BLE Cheap room sensors, presence detection. A BLE proxy (e.g. an ESP device) for range
Thread / Matter The future, but still maturing (firmware/reliability). Wait if you're just starting out

Bulbs vs. Switches vs. Relays

  • Smart bulbs: per-bulb color & dimming, but if someone flips the wall switch the bulb loses power.
  • Smart switches: replace the wall switch, keep normal bulbs, the wall still works for everyone.
  • In-wall relays (Shelly): hide behind your existing switch; best for retrofits and dumb fixtures.

Rule of thumb: switches & relays keep the wall working for family and guests; bulbs are for color everywhere.

Gear Worth Buying

  • Z-Wave controller: Home Assistant Connect ZWA-2 (the best, by far)
  • Zigbee coordinator: Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2
  • Zigbee devices: Philips Hue bulbs (pair straight to Zigbee2MQTT, no Hue bridge), Aqara (T1M, door/window sensors, Magic Cube), Third Reality
  • In-wall / Wi-Fi: Shelly relays
  • LEDs: WLED (on bulbs or LED controllers); a HUB75 matrix for DIY scoreboards
  • Voice: Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition (local, but takes setup to rival Alexa/Google today)

Integrations to Explore

UniFi & UniFi Protect (network presence + cameras) · WLED · Z-Wave · ESPHome · Alarmo (free alarm system) · BTHome (local Bluetooth sensors) · Frigate (local AI camera detection) · HomeKit Device (pair Wi-Fi devices via HomeKit) · HomeKit Bridge (push HA out to Siri) · Plex · Team Tracker (light effects when your team scores)

Cool Things You Can Build

  • Automations run themselves: when X happens, do Y. Example: the mailbox opens, a camera grabs a snapshot, your phone gets the photo, and "You've got mail" plays on the speakers.
  • Leaving home: lock doors, arm the alarm, turn off lights, sleep the PC, all automatically.
  • Scripts are routines you trigger on demand: a "Wake Up" or "Goodnight" button, voice command, or dashboard tap.

Go Further

  • ESPHome: turn cheap ESP32 chips into your own HA sensors with simple YAML. (An ESPHome class is coming, watch for it.)
  • HACS: the community store for custom dashboard cards, themes, and integrations.
  • Wall tablets + Fully Kiosk: a cheap tablet as a wall dashboard that wakes on motion.
  • Claude Code + the HA MCP: an AI agent that builds dashboards and automations for you, just by asking.

Where to Learn More

Support the Volunteers

Almost every integration talks to your devices through small open-source libraries (like aiohttp) that volunteers maintain for free. If HA saves you money, consider chipping in: https://opencollective.com/aio-libs

Presented by Brandon Harvey (SmartHomeSellout) · https://smarthomesellout.com