Like many who are switching, I want local control (or as local as possible) for my panel and devices. Simple as that. It wasn’t to learn anything about GitHub or VMs or dust off the old Linux cobwebs. Add to that, the “new” SmartThings Home Monitor (STHM, not to be confused with the legacy Smart Home Monitor, or SHM) was not as accessible for my ActionTiles and automations. I don’t hate on the “new” SmartThings App. But it seems like they are doing away with a lot of the customizable aspects like WebCore, custom device handlers, and SmartApps.
I frequent Reddit and there have been a lot of conversations about Home Assistant.
Simply put, we couldn’t find the Raspberry Pi I bought a year or so ago in a vain attempt to build a classic video game cabinet. A flood and a hurricane later and that board was lost to the wind. I had no sooner ordered the Raspberry Pi 4 from Amazon than I stumbled across this Youtube video detailing how to install Home Assistant in a VM on a PC using Oracle VirtualBox.
I’ll leave it up to you to follow the instructions there. I also set a static IP, the instructons for which are in this video.
My Requirements
Local control of the panel (no more “connecting” screens)
Alexa Integration
WAF, MILAF, TSAF
ZWave
Zigbee
Alexa