Forget the Raspberry Pi - Here's the Better Way to Setup Home Assistant

This video addresses the perceived complexity of Home Assistant, aiming to make its installation process more accessible. Foxy demonstrates how to install Home Assistant on a blank mini computer, moving past the common hurdles of setting it up on custom hardware, making it a great do it yourself project. This home assistant tutorial focuses on getting the system operational from scratch, covering a full home assistant setup and how to integrate zigbee home assistant devices for a complete home automation system. # Links The guide we are following: https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/generic-x86-64/ Home Assistant Community Store (hacs): https://www.hacs.xyz/ Balena Etcher (MacOS): https://etcher.balena.io/ Rufus (windows): https://rufus.ie/ Ubuntu desktop: https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop Github (account needed to use HACS): https://github.com/ # Products mentioned in the video A Raspberry Pi 5 if that's your thing (I don't recommend this though, they are now too expensive to be worth it in my opinion): https://amzn.to/4cWxx91 Home assistant green (excellent choice but you'll still need the zigbee dongle below): https://amzn.to/3Ophybd Rii X8 mini keyboard: https://amzn.to/4cwd2zx Sonoff ZB Dongle-E (Zigbee dongle): https://amzn.to/4eq25SI The Beelink SER5 Mini PC used in this video: https://amzn.to/4sKo22y A cheaper MiniPC which will be perfectly good enough: https://amzn.to/41H2IQo A Sandisk thumbdrive (shop around though, sometimes larger capacity ones are actually cheaper for some reason!): https://amzn.to/4mAPEpn USB Extension lead to defeat port interference: https://amzn.to/4cWxjib 2m Cat5e Ugreen eithernet cable: https://amzn.to/41HVETt The Zigbee IKEA stuff is very hard to find now as they have replaced it with Thread/Matter stuff but here are some other great Zigbee equivalents: Innr E27 Zigbee bulb (2-pack): https://amzn.to/4esKucK Sonoff 4 button Zigbee er... button: https://amzn.to/4tQinZt # Videos mentioned in the video What the heck is home assistant?!: https://youtu.be/MLupKqxYcaw What the heck is home Docker?!: https://youtu.be/OHKYRENMqf0 What the heck is home Zigbee2MQTT?!: https://youtu.be/IZwzQI25K78 What the heck is Node-RED?!: https://youtu.be/xl56Z4mTYoQ # Chapters 00:00 Intro 00:31 Things you'll need to get started 01:45 Getting the machine set up 07:20 Post-installation configuration 08:50 Setting up areas (map locations) and zones (rooms) 10:02 Setting up the Zigbee network 11:07 Adding new devices to the Zigbee network 13:16 Setting up your first automation 14:58 Setting up HACS (Home Assistant Community Store) 17:08 Why use this installation method 17:30 The power of 'Apps' (Node-RED example) 19:03 Setting up the phone application 19:43 Setting up integrations (Met Office example) 21:41 Outro and summary --- # My links: My website: https://www.foxyslab.com My blog: https://foxleigh.me Discord: https://discord.gg/tPdaADbM2N Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/foxyslab LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexfoxleigh/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/foxleigh81 GitHub: https://github.com/foxleigh81 # Gear + stuff I use My studio kit, homelab builds and recommended gear are listed here: https://www.foxyslab.com/resources # Support the channel If you like my videos and want to help me keep making more of them, Patreon is the best way. You also get Discord roles, behind-the-scenes chats and your name in the credits depending on the tier. If you just want to send a one-off tip then you can do that over at ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/foxleigh81 If you want to support me but you can't afford to donate money then simply engaging with my videos with a like or a comment goes a long way, I'd be especially grateful if you shared a link to my videos to someone else. However you choose to support me, I will be very grateful :) Disclaimer: Some links in this description are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support the channel! Transparency: Unless stated otherwise, all products were purchased by me. Opinions are 100% my own.