Ultimate Home Assistant Beginner’s Guide!
This is the ultimate guide to getting started with Home Assistant.
*Links (affiliate)*
Home Assistant Green on AmeriDroid: https://ameridroid.com/products/home-assistant-green?ref=jpvafmyq
Home Assistant Green on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3XUuMNA
USB extender: https://amzn.to/3NmjLQo
Z-Wave Zooz 800 USB stick: https://amzn.to/3ZYvE6y
ZBT-1: https://ameridroid.com/products/skyconnect?ref=jpvafmyq
Zigbee and Z-Wave combo USB stick: https://amzn.to/3Y4Gaqi
*Videos about how to install Home Assistant on a Pi or other device*
Boot from SSD https://youtu.be/QxtDyMbDOh4?si=gZzSV5SbOsNrqxxj&t=327
*Next level – Build a Home Assistant Dashboard*
0:00 Intro
0:38 What you need to get started
1:12 Navigating the UI
4:11 Adding devices
8:43 Connecting USB sticks
13:59 Create a custom dashboard
20:59 Automations
25:02 Scenes
26:00 Scripts
27:21 Blueprints
28:41 Add-ons
29:55 Rapid fire things to know
34:34 Wrap up
35:06 Message for spouses
My smart home favorites: https://www.amazon.com/shop/smarthomesolver
My smart home shirts!
USA: https://smarthomesolver.big3creative.com/
International: https://smart-home-solver-shop.fourthwall.com/
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MUSIC
Rinse Repeat by DivKid
All of the music throughout is by Nihilore.
Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7LVYQYkdLFkkpJiGdkzX9K
Ending song is The End by EVA.
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6UIs5b0zSXztIW5GHkCTkK
Hello i did buy home assistant recently and due to tuya integration issue i did try to reset the assistant it showCLI screen is getting ready if possible if someone can help me out please
If you’re gearing this video for noobs who feel overwhelmed by the idea of creating a smart home, maybe consider that we don’t need you saying "Wondering what this does? It does xyz ……JUST KIDDING, it doesn’t do that at all, it does abc instead." I know you’re trying to keep the mood light, but it certainly doesn’t add clarity to the content. We’re trying to pay attention to what you’re saying and make sense of it all, and can do without the "gotcha" moments. Trust me, we feel dumb enough already.
Hello, great video!! I was looking for adding Aranet4 to Home assistant. Do you have any video with it?
Great Video!!! Perfect for people dipping a toe into the water. Great job.
Question: Is the Home Assistant Green powerful enough to work as a surveillance system with to view live streams of 4-6 Google Home cameras at the same time?
This video was a beast! I worked on it for months, so I really hope it helps. Check out Home Assistant Green here: https://amzn.to/3XUuMNA
EDIT: If you want to keep learning, watch my Home Assistant dashboard tutorial here: https://youtu.be/pC-VBly1Y00?si=LeKdM04fJVx8-DdT
The most powerful home assistant? My wife.
How do you combine this with Apple HomeKit though?
❤❤ it all – ignore any noise!👍- yes the generator (orange cable) is wrong, but you are living the dream – just dont touch the prongs, when the genny is on 🔆🔆🔆
Hmmm. Imagine someone breaking into your home pulling their pants down and laying a big jobby on the floor. So why would any home owner have one of those green monstrosities in their home?
I was on the fence about getting one. I hadn’t bought a smart home gadget in a while so I bit the bullet…..and this time the bullet bit back. Too much time and trouble trying to get it to work as it should. I have managed to undo the problems it caused and will be sending it back for a refund. For what I want out of a smart home, there is no value add with Home Assistant.
How did you make your Babysitter mode? I want to make a away mode and I have been googling it, I have not came up with a good answer. THX
They have to make it easier, too many seem to have trouble. Nevertheless it’s a start I guess. Even this guy points out its current failings on how to set it up. I think i will wait till they have ironed out the more annoying problems and have a version 2 or 3 before i will think of spending money on it. Maybe then the whole ecosystem will work as we expect, not what we’ve been led to believe.
Have a "experimental/temporary" rockstor NAS installation (which have been in use for a year almost) and one of the docker addons was Home Assistant… googled it sometime ago and thought this was going to be my best install ever!… Tried it on/in a docker (addon, rockon) for Rockstor and soon realized I can not add much because of my mixed "smart home" devices that have own hubs, and brands, and so on and on… and I was never ever going to get a Zigbee (anything) working on Rockstor… so I gave up, loved the idea… I have had a semi working setup with 5 PIR’s (2 different brands) 10 Lamps (3-4 different brands) and a couple of sensors (1 brand) and two cameras (1 brand) but with only phone apps and 4-5 different ones it always felt like a hassle.. and there where somethings I wanted to change but either it was impossible or it was just such a hassle that I left it as good enough (but was irritating).
Bought a couple of SBC’s for different stuff and was going to Home Assistant on one of them, but never got around to it… so I bit the bullet and opted for a package (with a Zigbee stick)… it was PI 4 (4 Mb) with configured HAOS and Zigbee stick… and I love it (although have not configured everything yet… It does seem to just swallow every brand of Zigbee, and Wifi and stuff I never would image… and I can see this a hobby to get my ultimate "smart" home… just awesome!
I’m taking small steps but already I have 2 PIR’s that would not work in my old setup working perfectly in Home Assistant.
And then installing HACS… wow, so much more fun stuff! and it’s blistering fast with just a Pi 4, 4Mb and SD card… amazing…
Zo professioneel, echt top!
This is the best video for beginners, and there are A LOT of videos 😂
Thank you!
Ok started watching the video, before I watch the whole thing… Can the one app control multiple buildings with different wifi networks? Thanks
Great video! Thank you.
But another subscription :'(?!
So without paying you can not access anything when you are away? For example: take a look at your cameras? Heat up the house when you’re almost home?… This can’t be right, right? Maybe I missunderstood…?
Forgive me, I’m new at this. In your links, you have a USB for Zigby, a USB for Z Wave, and a combo Zigby/Z Wave USB. In your video, you use the first two. Why not use the combo USB instead?
where is that advanced video? I want to see all the details on your latest dashboards. Thanks for all your content!!
Got a little confused.. What USB stick adds thread matter support??
Amazing video. I’d love to get rid of all my hubs but this seems like a lot of work to setup 😂
Hey Reese, well you talked me into wanting to do home assistant. I love all that type of stuff and maybe this would make it even more efficient and fun in my home than what it is now. The only thing is I want to do it right the first time. There’s a lot to it with HA, I just hope that it’s not over complicated with all the plugins of programs that need to be loaded to run applications I’m not a newbie to automations but I’m not an expert either so I’m a little bit hesitant but your videos make it look like so much fun so what do you think about the bee link Device mini computer? Or do you think HS green would be enough or raspberry pi. I do have 50 plus devices running in my home so Any advice that you can give me? I truly appreciate it. I just can’t afford to blow money$$
LOL 🤑
I cannot import any of my wifi lights into HA can you please advise they are not in integration list
I dig the name, lol
I just paired a motion sensor! now I will try an automation to flip a zigbee switch. yeaaaah.
literally the best tutorial ever, so relatable!
Great video, well explained and really hit all the things new users need to know about. Wish I watched this first I would have saved myself a bit of hassle.
sorry this is for amater? I dont think so. you are doing for normal people? no fot it people ? right
This is a very helpful video and I decided to go ahead and get Home Assistant Green as a result of this.
However, is there a bug with the iOS app for the iPhone? (Jan 30th, 2025). I can access HA fine from my PC and from the HA app on my iPad, but not from either of my iPhones. It keeps showing "Unable to connect to Home Assistant. Retrying in xx seconds." Any ideas??
wow, what a great video! I’m in the process of starting a smarthome and when I first looked into it I found it to be a jungle… So many different takes, varieties, brands and direction to go. So when I first heard og HA i thought it wasen’t necessary and to complex to look into, but this video changed my mind. Thank you for a great explanation of the most important features. Can’t wait to see more of your videos and to get starting using HA myself
a million times thank you! and dang, that dashboard custimization alone convinced me I need to have HA haha. I will be binging you channel in the coming weeks for anything i can learn about HA. Sub!
🙋♂️
Is there a USB stick that adds thread/matter support?
Thank you so much! liove your vids, big fan
So if you want to add in example hue bulbs you need to have the hue bridge and then add the bridge in the Home Assistant ? Cant just add any type of devices without the bridge or hubs etc ?
Greetings from Australia. New to smartening up my home, at the moment I’m using Tuya wifi and the sensor pick up and turn the light. However it takes a minute to put the light on. Is that because it uses the cloud wifi and not Bluetooth ..
Can you help me?
I want to integrate Google cameras to my dashboard, can you show how its done?
Also why all my Ikea products are not showing in HA?
Like lights or shades
Your help will be
Greatly appreciated.
Greek video I finally did it and got a home assistant green thanks to this video I did have request for your help I currently have solar panels through in phase. I am having a little bit of trouble setting it up call my do you think you can help me
What are the model numbers of the 3 motion sensors?
Thanks for the great video Reed. I have officially made my jump to home assistant thanks to watching your videos. Looking forward to more home assistant videos!
Hi Home Assistant fans,
I´m thinking of getting a Home Assistant green, but don´t know if the power is enough. Do you think it can robustly handle 10 sensors, 10 lights and stream 4 cameras?
@Reed: Great video as always. You are a great asset of the community!
So Home Assistant is supposed to be good for security right? It’s not like Alexa sending data to the corpo overlords? What about the smart devices themselves? Bulbs, smart thermostats, ect ect?
Excellent guide – much of the Home Assistant documentation assumes prior knowledge. This video is very easy to follow for a complete beginner. Many thanks.
Hello, how are you? I’m from Brazil and I love your content. Lately, your videos have always been updated with simultaneous translation into Portuguese. This one isn’t working. Could you activate it too?
Excellent tutorial. I’ve been wanting to go down this rabbit hole for a while and this is a perfect guide to get me started. Thanks!
Home Assistant is so powerful but so hard to understand. If they hired a UI UX pro for a few months it would be so valuable.
Wow, I needed this. I’ve tried building my own, and though I got it up, I could not figure it out. So, I bought the Green Machine and that helped. But still could not figure it out on my own. Baby steps, I could not get most of my smart home to show up inside. With your help, I learned how to add Integrations and Devices.
Though I wanted to try HA, I wasn’t willing to get to deep, because I have almost 100 Sonoff devices and few are ZB. And was not willing even for free to give up my Sonoff stuff. I’ve got several hubs, even the Sonoff ZB dongle, Aqara, Flic LR hub, Sonoff Ultra Bridge, and several othes. Took some trails and fails to get Tuya, Broadlink, Tapo, and iRobot stuff in it. But I was shocked when, just because I was willing to test, I added my Smartthings V3 hub, just to see if I could pull my Samsung TVs in. But the shock came, when I see 100+ Sonoff device as a result of the Smartthings V3 hub integration. Wow, still don’t understand how I got that to work, but maybe it will makes sense, later. But thanks. I would not be here where I am without you, Reed. Thanks much.
OK. That is what i need. 🙂
The home assistant green link is down. Is there an alternative?