Home Assistant

[Sonnie Parker]

I have the NSLPanel running off home assistant.
Quick 1 touch buttons to activate scenes





View attachment 73448

Which model do you have Benny... is this the NSPanel Pro?

Are you only using the HA hub?

Is the only connection needed AC (electrical)?

I'd no doubt have to install it where my light switches are now to get current.

 

[BennyS]

Which model do you have Benny... is this the NSPanel Pro?

Are you only using the HA hub?

Is the only connection needed AC (electrical)?

I'd no doubt have to install it where my light switches are now to get current.

Yes the NSPanel pro
Yes you need power
I am using HA Green

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Actually, I might just get the stand mount and keep it on my table next to my main chair. That way, I can leave my light switches as Lutron controlled separately and control the lights from the panel on the table without having to pick up a remote control.

I use the AVA Cinema remote right now, but I'm not too fond of big remotes, so I use it only to turn on and off my system or switch from Apple TV 4K to Kscape to Dish Satellite (for an occasional football game that I can't get on ATV4K). So, I use my small Apple remote or my small Kscape remote. I love the smaller remotes for better/more accessible control. If Dish Satellite made a smaller remote, I'd also use it.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Yes the NSPanel pro
Yes you need power
I am using HA Green

What does your buttons do and was it fairly simple to setup with HA?

When I opened up HA once, it appeared to be rather complicated with several steps of this and that to get things going. Almost like I needed to be a programmer.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

I purchased the green unit a while back but could never find a use for it. I guess we are too simplistic. We have Lutron light switches and shades, but that is all easily controlled with the Lutron app. Our outside lights turn on at sunset, and certain shades open and close at different times. We control everything else in the house at will because other lights and shades need to be controlled at different times.

HOWEVER... the AV room is a different story. The wall panel is interesting and I think it would be nice to walk in and hit the Apple button or Kscape button and have everything turn on for those items. The one thing I haven't done yet is upgrade my light switches to Lutron in the AV room, which I sorely need to do.

Oh, Sonnie. Switch those switches. You have a Kaleidescape that can control all of that stuff when you're in the theater.

What I love about using Home Assistant to control all that stuff based on the theater is it takes it back to only requiring me to hit play. The extent of "getting ready to watch a movie" is starting an activity. Then I just hit play. It's like using the VCR at my mom's house as a kid. It's literally one-touch simplicity. There's no opening an app to shut off all the lights and close the blinds when you press play. It just happens.

WE LIVE IN THE FUTURE!

 

[BennyS]

I purchased the green unit a while back but could never find a use for it. I guess we are too simplistic. We have Lutron light switches and shades, but that is all easily controlled with the Lutron app. Our outside lights turn on at sunset, and certain shades open and close at different times. We control everything else in the house at will because other lights and shades need to be controlled at different times.

HOWEVER... the AV room is a different story. The wall panel is interesting and I think it would be nice to walk in and hit the Apple button or Kscape button and have everything turn on for those items. The one thing I haven't done yet is upgrade my light switches to Lutron in the AV room, which I sorely need to do.

Looks like most of the new remotes coming out use or rely on HA. I figure I would jump in front of it. Waiting on my unfolded remote to come it.
I also order the Haptique RS90 remote to test.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I have one of the Unfolded units on order as well with the last Kickstarter event. I'm not sure I'll ever even use it.

What I'd really like is a touchscreen on my table next to my chair where I can have an icon to turn on the system to ATV4K or Kscape, dim the lights, and then I'll use my smaller remotes. THEN... on the touch panel have a few of my camera thumbnails to see those live (watch for boogy monsters that might be approaching the house). I watched a guy on YouTube build one, but I don't want a 15" panel, so I may look for something smaller.

It's the HA part that will likely give me fits trying to program like I want it.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

This might be the ticket with the housing on the back to fit the Pi.

If the fans are not too loud.

Amazon.com

 

[Sonnie Parker]

This one is higher resolution and accepts Pi 5...

Amazon.com

 

[BennyS]

What does your buttons do and was it fairly simple to setup with HA?

When I opened up HA once, it appeared to be rather complicated with several steps of this and that to get things going. Almost like I needed to be a programmer.

When hit Apple TV will turn all lights , lumagen, projector, AVR and select the inputs.

When you hit welcome it turns on all the lights

When hit kaleidascape it turns berthing on like Apple TV button.

Media off it turns everything off

The process was very confusing actually.
I have hire a guy overseas to set up for me

He remote in on my laptop and set it up. He spends hours on it.

There is an easier way to achieve this. The nspanel has webpages and you can just paste your HA page on there but you will have to refresh every once in a while.
The NSPanel Pro is only $100 if you want to play with it.

 

[BennyS]

This one is higher resolution and accepts Pi 5...

Amazon.com

View attachment 73450

I was looking at something like that but wanted something smaller for my wall.
Would that be to bright inside your room?

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I think Travis is going to help me set it up, although I don't know to what extent yet. We may stream the setup on our YouTube channel for fun.

I don't think the 10" screen will be too bright as long as I use a dark background. I have an 11" Tab S9 on my desk beside me in a dark room, and it's hardly noticeable. The camera thumbnails will be small.

I'm not against hiring freelancers for work... been there and done that quite often. We've done it for some customizations here on the forum.

 

[BennyS]

I think Travis is going to help me set it up, although I don't know to what extent yet. We may stream the setup on our YouTube channel for fun.

I don't think the 10" screen will be too bright as long as I use a dark background. I have an 11" Tab S9 on my desk beside me in a dark room, and it's hardly noticeable. The camera thumbnails will be small.

I'm not against hiring freelancers for work... been there and done that quite often. We've done it for some customizations here on the forum.

NIce
The guy I hired was off Fiverr. I could forward you his information if you want to go that route

 

[Sonnie Parker]

NIce
The guy I hired was off Fiverr. I could forward you his information if you want to go that route

Yes... that would be great since he is already familiar with it... just in case we end up needing him.

 

[BennyS]

Yes... that would be great since he is already familiar with it... just in case we end up needing him.

PM sent

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Are any of you using HA to control your thermostats?

It would be nice to control the thermostat in my AV room with HA on the tablet.

I saw recommendations in the HA forum for this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HFL7R44?tag=avnirvana03-20

It uses Z-wave, which I know nothing about.

I assume I'll need some sort of Z-wave controller to connect to my Ethernet switch in the AV room to enable automation.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

It appears I might can use this Aeotec Z-Stick 7 and plug it into the Pi-5 on the back of the 10" tablet and integrate it with HA.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I figured I better get my tablet and Pi5 board out and try to put them together before I run out of time to return them to Amazon. My 30 days are up tomorrow, and I wasn't sure if I might have issues or if something might not be working. I got it all installed, and HA appears to be working on the tablet.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I was not happy with the Pi5 tablet... got too hot and the fan was too loud. I decide to use my S9, since my wife was not using it. She prefers using her phone to control HEOS, so the S9 will now be put to good use. Everything works beautifully, other than the system off and on do take a couple of presses if it's been a few minutes. Otherwise, volume, lights and input selection work great, then I use the smaller remotes to operate. Well... the UB9K remote is not small, but I don't use it much. The Dish remote is a bit larger than I'd like, but also don't use it that much either. The camera works great and allows me to see anyone arriving at the house. I may add more cameras later and use four thumbnail views.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

I finally got around to recording this step-by-step walkthrough of configuring Home Assistant automations with Kaleidescape triggers. Which also works on AppleTV, Roku and more.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I finally gave up on Home Assistant. Half the time, it wouldn't work right. The screen would go away. I later started opening it in Chrome, and it worked for a while and better than the IP address, but every time there was an update, it broke my setup. It was just too unreliable for me to use it on my tablet. I ended up sticking four camera views on the tablet and using my MX-890 to power up everything. I still prefer using the small remotes, but it was convenient to reach over and touch the tablet and change the volume, the lights, and the inputs rather than grabbing the remote.

I may try using 1/3 of the tablet screen for the StormAudio Android remote and use the rest for the cameras.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

I finally gave up on Home Assistant. Half the time, it wouldn't work right. The screen would go away. I later started opening it in Chrome, and it worked for a while and better than the IP address, but every time there was an update, it broke my setup. It was just too unreliable for me to use it on my tablet. I ended up sticking four camera views on the tablet and using my MX-890 to power up everything. I still prefer using the small remotes, but it was convenient to reach over and touch the tablet and change the volume, the lights, and the inputs rather than grabbing the remote.

I may try using 1/3 of the tablet screen for the StormAudio Android remote and use the rest for the cameras.

Something isn't right, then. I've been using it for over a year and have only had one update break anything, and it took me 4 or 5 clicks and a 10 minute wait to get a backup restored which has worked flawlessly ever since.