NAS, Media Center and Home Automation Server

Create and configure Home Assistant stack ​

We will configure the Home Assistant Docker stack and bring the stack up through Arcane. The stack consists of the following containers:

  • Home Assistant: Home automation engine.
  • Z-WaveJS: Z-Wave device driver.

Steps ​

  1. If you are not going to use Z-Wave devices, edit the script: nano ./scripts/create_home_assistant_folder.sh and delete the last 3 lines related to zwavejs. Save and exit with Ctrl + X, Y, Enter.
  2. Run: ./scripts/create_home_assistant_folder.sh to generate the containers' directories on the SSD.
  3. If you are going to use Zigbee or Z-Wave usb dongles, make sure to connect them to your server in an usb port.
  4. Run: ls /dev/serial/by-id/ and write down the paths of your usb dongles. For example /dev/serial/by-id/usb-Itead_Sonoff_Zigbee_3.0_USB_Dongle_Plus_V2_12345678901234567890123456789012-1234-port0.
  5. Edit the stack file: nano ./files/home-assistant-stack.yml.
  6. Replace TZ=America/New_York with your system time zone. You can use this list as a reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones.
  7. Set the attribute ipv4_address in the homeassistant container with an IP in the non-assignable range of the DHCP. For example 192.168.1.11.
  8. Under the homeassistant container, under devices, replace the device /dev/serial/by-id/usb-zigbee_dongle with the path to your Zigbee dongle. If you don't have a Zigbee dongle, delete the devices section from this container.
  9. Under the zwavejs container, under devices, replace the device /dev/serial/by-id/usb-zwavejs_dongle with the path to your Z-Wave dongle. If you don't have a Z-Wave dongle, delete the entire container. Notice that the device is being mapped to :/dev/zwave. This is important because it is the default path the service will look for. If you don't map it, you will need to manually configure the path of the device.
  10. Copy all contents of the file to the clipboard. Save and exit with Ctrl + X, Y, Enter.
  11. Add stack in Arcane from the browser.
    1. Access Arcane through https://arcane.myhome.duckdns.org.
    2. Click "Projects" on the left menu and create a new project.
    3. Name it "home-assistant" and paste the content of the home-assistant-stack.yml that you copied to the clipboard and create the stack. From now on, modifications to the stack must be made through Arcane and not in the file.
  12. Access Home Assistant through https://homeassistant.myhome.duckdns.org.
  13. Use the wizard to create a user account and password. It is again recommended to use Bitwarden for the same.
  14. Configure the name of the Home Assistant instance and your data and preferences with the wizard.
  15. Choose whether you want to send usage data to the Home Assistant page.
  16. Finish the wizard.
  17. Navigate to "Settings" > "System" > "Network".
  18. Under HTTP server in Reverse proxy, enable Trust X-Forwarded-For.
  19. Click "Add Trusted proxies" and add 172.21.1.0/24. Repeat with 172.21.4.0/24. We allow proxies from the 172.21.1.0/24 and 172.21.4.0/24 networks which are the homeassistant and ai networks respectively that we configured in the stack in Arcane.
  20. Under Network adapter, disable "Autoconfigure" and enable the adapter with IP 192.168.1.10/24. Do not disable the other adapter.
  21. Click on "Save".
  22. Configure Restful Command for notifications.
    1. Edit Home Assistant configuration: nano /Apps/homeassistant/configuration.yaml.
    2. Add the following section to the end of the file. Replace the {your_token_here} with the Home Assistant token you generated in Gotify and myhome with your domain registered in DuckDNS. We register a restful command that communicates with Gotify to send notifications.
      yml
      rest_command:
    notify_through_gotify:
        url: "https://gotify.myhome.duckdns.org/message?token={your_token_here}"
        method: "post"
        content_type: "application/json"
        payload: '{ "title": "{{ title }}", "message": "{{ message }}", "priority": {{ priority }} }'
    3. Save and exit with Ctrl + X, Y, Enter.
    4. Back in Home Assistant, navigate to Developer tools.
    5. Press Restart. Now you can create automations that call this service and get notifications through Gotify.
  23. Configure Voice Assistant.
    1. Navigate to "Settings" > "Devices & Services".
    2. Click "Add Integration".
    3. Search for "Wyoming Protocol" and select it.
    4. Set Host to whisper.
    5. Set Port to 10300.
    6. Click "Submit".
    7. Click "Wyoming Protocol".
    8. Click "Add Service".
    9. Set Host to piper.
    10. Set Port to 10200.
    11. Click "Submit".
    12. Go back to "Integrations".
    13. Click "Add Integration".
    14. Search for "Ollama" and select it.
    15. Set Url to http://ollama:11434.
    16. Click "Submit".
    17. Click "Ollama".
    18. Click the "..." button next to "http://ollama:11434".
    19. Click "Add conversation agent".
    20. Select the model you wish to use. The recommended is qwen2.5:7b-instruct.
    21. Enable "Assist" under "Control Home Assistant".
    22. Click "Submit".
    23. If "Ollama Conversation" does not show "1 service and 1 entity", click the same "..." as before and click "Reload".
    24. Navigate to "Settings" > "Voice Assistants".
    25. Select "Home Assistant".
    26. Set "Conversation agent" to Ollama Conversation.
    27. Set "Speech-to-text" to faster-whisper.
    28. Set "Text-to-speech" to piper.
    29. You can change the Language for the assistant, Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech. You can also change the voice for Text-to-Speech.
    30. Click "Update".
  24. Configure Zigbee Automation (Only if you have Zigbee dongle).
    1. Navigate to "Settings" > "Devices & Services".
    2. Home Assistant should autodetect and suggest you to add the "Zigbee Home Automation". Add the integration.
    3. Select from the dropdown the device path of your Zigbee dongle and click "Submit".
    4. You can now register your Zigbee devices, but that is out of the scope of this guide.
  25. Configure Z-Wave Automation (Only if you have Z-Wave dongle).
    1. Access in another tab to https://zwavejs.myhome.duckdns.org.
    2. Click the settings icon.
    3. Under General, enable Auth. This will log you out.
    4. Log back in using admin and zwave as credentials.
    5. Click the lock pad icon to change the password. It is again recommended to use Bitwarden for the same.
    6. Back in the settings page, Under Z-Wave, generate the 6 Security Keys using the randomizer icon. Backup these keys in a safe location like Bitwarden.
    7. Choose your RF Region.
    8. Under Home Assistant, enable WS Server and set the Server Host to zwavejs.
    9. Click "Save".
    10. Back in Home Assistant tab, navigate to "Settings" > "Devices & Services".
    11. Click "Add integration".
    12. Search for Z-Wave integration.
    13. Enter ws://zwavejs:3000 and click "Submit".
    14. You can now register your Z-Wave devices, but that is out of the scope of this guide.

TIP

If you want to use a small external device for voice commands similar to Alexa, check this guide to build you own Wyoming Satellite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd9qlR0mPB0.

TIP

You can test your new voice assistant from your mobile phone with the Home Assistant app. From the Dashboard, click the "..." at the top and select "Assistant" to launch the Assistant.

TIP

You can install Home Assistant Community Store (HACS) if you want more integrations. From Arcane containers tab, click the Home Assistant container, go to the Shell tab. Run the following command: wget -O - https://get.hacs.xyz | bash -. If you are not confortable running blind commands, you can go to the oficial site: https://hacs.xyz/. Next, restart Home Assistant, go to Settings > Devices & services and add the HACS integration. Follow the instructions to finalize the installation.

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Copyright © 2024-present Jurgen Cruz