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Founder Home Assistant here. Home Assistant is turning 8 years this week. To celebrate we have launched crowdfunding campaign for Home Assistant Amber, a devic

Founder Home Assistant here. Home Assistant is turning 8 years this week. To celebrate we have launched crowdfunding campaign for Home Assistant Amber, a device for both beginners and home automation enthusiasts and the easiest way to get started with Home Assistant. For more info see https://www.crowdsupply.com/nabu-casa/home-assistant-amber https://www.crowdsupply.com/nabu-casa/home-assistant-amber

oaiey 5y ago
Product request: make it simple to create devices. Doing custom entities in the config, i miss those.
- maartenh 5y ago
  I worked around this by creating a button that runs a git commit & push, and an iframe that points to a local running flask app that renders a <pre><code>{{ shell("git status")}}</pre><code>. Not as nice as fully declarative YAML, as this also captures the data files, but at least I have point in time restore.
3np 5y ago
Thanks for posting and your service! Any chance declarative configuration (tank or any other format) will be getting a second chance? Like many here it’s the one way of working with HASS that feels/felt nice.
- maweki 5y ago
  Yeah, I started out orchestrating Home Assistant via Ansible throughout many devices in my home. Now I feel that it would take me days to recreate the configurations that I needed to make with the UI. Deprecating yaml is bad for configuration versioning.
croon 5y ago
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but is there a reason for not having z-wave support on Amber? It wasn't mentioned in the picture and no ctrl+f "wave" hits on the page. I'm very excited about this device. I've been using Smartthings and then IKEAs gateway, but haven't been happy with their performance and features.
- jon-wood 5y ago
  The same is true of Blue, the current iteration of the hardware, and I believe its because people who are into home automation enough to buy a dedicated Home Assistant box probably already have a bunch of hardware and opinions on whether they like Z-Wave, Zigbee, HomeKit, 433mhz radios, or pulses fired down their power lines. Its much easier to provide some hardware which can support any of those via USB and GPIOs. Also, Z-Wave licensing is an absolute nightmare, and significantly expensive.
  - croon 5y ago
    That makes sense, thanks for the thorough response.
teekert 5y ago
I just want to say: Thank you. Whenever I buy smart-home stuff I first check if it is supported by HA. (So no more Kasa, and Nest was a huge compromise, I'm thinking there is a place for HA to make a [OpenTherm] Thermostat, like you made the P1 smartreader ["SlimmeLezer", reads energy and gas usage in the Netherlands]). The new Energy dashboard is extremely cool and useful and it's making a difference. I love what you are doing and it's making Home Automation/IoT a better place. It is how Home Automation should be, with privacy and local control as founding principles. Keep it up. Edit: Amber looks great! M.2 nice! I thought you were all about Odroid internally, so I'm a bit surprised it has a Pi compute module, I like that though. What drove that decision? Maybe you can go on the Self-Hosted podcast [0] again and talk about Amber, I enjoyed the previous interview [1] :) [0]: https://selfhosted.show/ https://selfhosted.show/ [1]: https://selfhosted.show/45 https://selfhosted.show/45
- edelans 5y ago
  I second this. I tried other platforms (jeedom, domotics) before stumbling into HA a few years ago, and my Home Assistant experience was so much smoother than the others. I never looked back. Most of the things just worked. When it did not, the community was super helpful and welcoming in the forums, even with the noobs, this is a big differentiator. Thank you.
- CrazyPyroLinux 5y ago
  SelfHosted and all the other shows at jupiterbroadcasting.com are fantastic! (Especially Coder Radio.) If anyone here somehow hasn't heard of them yet, congrats you're one of today's 10K. :)
  - teekert 5y ago
    Coder Radio never really sticks with me, I'm a big fan of Linux Unplugged (LUP) though. I also enjoy Linux Action News (LAN).
goodpoint 5y ago
I don't use Home Assistant because it's not being packaged by Linux distributions.
- hsbauauvhabzb 5y ago
  Then submit a PR to you local repository maintainers! The rest of us thank you for your service.
  - goodpoint 5y ago
    Various people tried but the project is not friendly towards packaging efforts.
  - kop316 5y ago
    I would encourage you to look here for context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27505277 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27505277
    - goodpoint 5y ago
      Whoa, that was really bad. I'll stay far from HA.
      - hsbauauvhabzb 5y ago
        Docker containers work fine and iirc are officially supported. I’m unsure of the maintainers motives, I’m also unclear on whether they’re even a hass core developer, but I don’t really care enough to read more either.
- spacemanmatt 5y ago
  It probably deserves its own distribution at this point. HA comprises multiple containers and container management so it would probably be an invasive install to your host OS.
  - 5y ago
InsomniacL 5y ago
Thank you! I feel like you're missing an opportunity by launching this as a DIY type device. That market segment can already cater for themselves with a Raspberry pi etc.. You've made big leaps with the Config Flow system, I feel like the time is right to launch a fully polished device. Cater for the people who don't want to ever see the PCB, they're tech savy but want a pretty device to sit on the mantle piece with a GUI that just works.
kristianpaul 5y ago
This is very interesting. I host hass my self and probably will get one. Have you considered bundling it with hardware to also measure and control home devices?
dkarp 5y ago
Just trying to see the benefit of the Home Assistant Amber over a Raspberry Pi 4 2GB. It looks like you get: * Zigbee module ($45 for rp4 https://phoscon.de/en/raspbee2 https://phoscon.de/en/raspbee2) * PoE module ($20 if desired for rp4 https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14882 https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14882) * M.2 Slot (but no SD card slot) * battery powered RTC * A case It's priced at $149 with all that, whereas rp4 2GB w. zigbee and PoE would be $45 + $45 + $20 = $110, so price seems reasonable if you need all those things as you're getting the rtc, m.2 and case all in a nice package. My use would probably only need the Zigbee module and I can 3D print a case, so I'd go with the rp4 especially as I have a bunch lying around anyway! But Seems like a really nice package if you need all those things, and especially PoE is nice to have built in.
- dspillett 5y ago
  > Just trying to see the benefit of the Home Assistant Amber over a Raspberry Pi 4 2GB. I'm guessing largely the "for beginners" part in the description. That and people who lack time or for other reasons want something working out-of-the-box?
- Wheaties466 5y ago
  Right now, I have an issue with a third party add on where if I upgrade the host OS it doesn't pass USB devices the same way to the guest container. Its stuff like this where I don't want to designate the time to figure it out. Where an out of the box solution would more than likely alleviate that and have more people working on a solution for everyone.
  - dkarp 5y ago
    Yea good point, although since it's a raspberry pi compute module anyway I wonder how different support will be. The Zigbee module is the main place that support will be better
- cryo 5y ago
  Note the Zigbee / RaspBee II in your link contains a battery powered RTC already.
kop316 5y ago
If I could ask, is there a reason that your development team is hostile to others packaging Home Assistant: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27505277 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27505277 To the point that they will threaten to relicense their own software: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-860066976 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-86... And when they ask about it: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/consider-to-avoid-adding-library-dependencies-from-frenck/315185 https://community.home-assistant.io/t/consider-to-avoid-addi... It gets delisted. As the author of FOSS tools, I have worked to make sure things I have developed get packaged and used, and I have even spent a fair amount of time helping others to port it to their systems, even if it does nothing to help my use case. Frankly, seeing tsuch a hostile stance towards redistribution makes me wary of using it.
- arcbyte 5y ago
  I just wasted half an hour reading through the threads. The gist is that NixOS has some weird dependency management that overrides Home Assistant's in a way that makes HA on NixOS a unique experience. And NixOS is not done repackaging HA, so it is in an unfinished state that only advanced users should attempt. ThIS will inevitably confuse users. Those users will then go to HA for support and will be unable to get it. HA doesn't want to support that and was pretty clear about it. Then this Jorg person got all up in arms and threw a hiss fit all over the internet and everybody got tense.
  - kop316 5y ago
    NixOS offers reproducible builds, which is why their package manager is the way it is. pip doesn't seem to offer very good support for that: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-860064953 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-86... (I don't use pip so I don't know enough to comment on it) The NixOS also offered several ways to prevent just "go[ing] to HA for support and will be unable to get it": https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-860050496 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-86... https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-860064953 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-86... Also, if you look, the HA dev has the same complaint about Fedora: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-860051291 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-86... So it is not just NixOS's "weird dependency management". The threat to relicense the software came after the NixOS devs offering several ways to prevent more burden, and after the HA dev discovered Fedora packages it too: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-860066976 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-86... (Feel free to scroll up from here to find the other two linked comments)
JGM_io 5y ago
Why not collab with the pine64.org peeps? They have a great amount of hardware already available and lots of knowledge to accelerate and cheapen your roadmap.... If you are willing to share the design of course.

oaiey 5y ago

Product request: make it simple to create devices. Doing custom entities in the config, i miss those.

maartenh 5y ago
I worked around this by creating a button that runs a git commit & push, and an iframe that points to a local running flask app that renders a <pre><code>{{ shell("git status")}}</pre><code>. Not as nice as fully declarative YAML, as this also captures the data files, but at least I have point in time restore.

3np 5y ago

Thanks for posting and your service! Any chance declarative configuration (tank or any other format) will be getting a second chance? Like many here it’s the one way of working with HASS that feels/felt nice.

maweki 5y ago
Yeah, I started out orchestrating Home Assistant via Ansible throughout many devices in my home. Now I feel that it would take me days to recreate the configurations that I needed to make with the UI. Deprecating yaml is bad for configuration versioning.

croon 5y ago

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but is there a reason for not having z-wave support on Amber? It wasn't mentioned in the picture and no ctrl+f "wave" hits on the page. I'm very excited about this device. I've been using Smartthings and then IKEAs gateway, but haven't been happy with their performance and features.

jon-wood 5y ago
The same is true of Blue, the current iteration of the hardware, and I believe its because people who are into home automation enough to buy a dedicated Home Assistant box probably already have a bunch of hardware and opinions on whether they like Z-Wave, Zigbee, HomeKit, 433mhz radios, or pulses fired down their power lines. Its much easier to provide some hardware which can support any of those via USB and GPIOs. Also, Z-Wave licensing is an absolute nightmare, and significantly expensive.
- croon 5y ago
  That makes sense, thanks for the thorough response.

teekert 5y ago

I just want to say: Thank you. Whenever I buy smart-home stuff I first check if it is supported by HA. (So no more Kasa, and Nest was a huge compromise, I'm thinking there is a place for HA to make a [OpenTherm] Thermostat, like you made the P1 smartreader ["SlimmeLezer", reads energy and gas usage in the Netherlands]). The new Energy dashboard is extremely cool and useful and it's making a difference. I love what you are doing and it's making Home Automation/IoT a better place. It is how Home Automation should be, with privacy and local control as founding principles. Keep it up. Edit: Amber looks great! M.2 nice! I thought you were all about Odroid internally, so I'm a bit surprised it has a Pi compute module, I like that though. What drove that decision? Maybe you can go on the Self-Hosted podcast [0] again and talk about Amber, I enjoyed the previous interview [1] :) [0]: https://selfhosted.show/ https://selfhosted.show/ [1]: https://selfhosted.show/45 https://selfhosted.show/45

edelans 5y ago
I second this. I tried other platforms (jeedom, domotics) before stumbling into HA a few years ago, and my Home Assistant experience was so much smoother than the others. I never looked back. Most of the things just worked. When it did not, the community was super helpful and welcoming in the forums, even with the noobs, this is a big differentiator. Thank you.
CrazyPyroLinux 5y ago
SelfHosted and all the other shows at jupiterbroadcasting.com are fantastic! (Especially Coder Radio.) If anyone here somehow hasn't heard of them yet, congrats you're one of today's 10K. :)
- teekert 5y ago
  Coder Radio never really sticks with me, I'm a big fan of Linux Unplugged (LUP) though. I also enjoy Linux Action News (LAN).

goodpoint 5y ago

I don't use Home Assistant because it's not being packaged by Linux distributions.

hsbauauvhabzb 5y ago
Then submit a PR to you local repository maintainers! The rest of us thank you for your service.
- goodpoint 5y ago
  Various people tried but the project is not friendly towards packaging efforts.
- kop316 5y ago
  I would encourage you to look here for context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27505277 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27505277
  - goodpoint 5y ago
    Whoa, that was really bad. I'll stay far from HA.
    - hsbauauvhabzb 5y ago
      Docker containers work fine and iirc are officially supported. I’m unsure of the maintainers motives, I’m also unclear on whether they’re even a hass core developer, but I don’t really care enough to read more either.
spacemanmatt 5y ago
It probably deserves its own distribution at this point. HA comprises multiple containers and container management so it would probably be an invasive install to your host OS.
- 5y ago

InsomniacL 5y ago

Thank you! I feel like you're missing an opportunity by launching this as a DIY type device. That market segment can already cater for themselves with a Raspberry pi etc.. You've made big leaps with the Config Flow system, I feel like the time is right to launch a fully polished device. Cater for the people who don't want to ever see the PCB, they're tech savy but want a pretty device to sit on the mantle piece with a GUI that just works.

kristianpaul 5y ago

This is very interesting. I host hass my self and probably will get one. Have you considered bundling it with hardware to also measure and control home devices?

dkarp 5y ago

Just trying to see the benefit of the Home Assistant Amber over a Raspberry Pi 4 2GB. It looks like you get: * Zigbee module ($45 for rp4 https://phoscon.de/en/raspbee2 https://phoscon.de/en/raspbee2) * PoE module ($20 if desired for rp4 https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14882 https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14882) * M.2 Slot (but no SD card slot) * battery powered RTC * A case It's priced at $149 with all that, whereas rp4 2GB w. zigbee and PoE would be $45 + $45 + $20 = $110, so price seems reasonable if you need all those things as you're getting the rtc, m.2 and case all in a nice package. My use would probably only need the Zigbee module and I can 3D print a case, so I'd go with the rp4 especially as I have a bunch lying around anyway! But Seems like a really nice package if you need all those things, and especially PoE is nice to have built in.

dspillett 5y ago
> Just trying to see the benefit of the Home Assistant Amber over a Raspberry Pi 4 2GB. I'm guessing largely the "for beginners" part in the description. That and people who lack time or for other reasons want something working out-of-the-box?
Wheaties466 5y ago
Right now, I have an issue with a third party add on where if I upgrade the host OS it doesn't pass USB devices the same way to the guest container. Its stuff like this where I don't want to designate the time to figure it out. Where an out of the box solution would more than likely alleviate that and have more people working on a solution for everyone.
- dkarp 5y ago
  Yea good point, although since it's a raspberry pi compute module anyway I wonder how different support will be. The Zigbee module is the main place that support will be better
cryo 5y ago
Note the Zigbee / RaspBee II in your link contains a battery powered RTC already.

kop316 5y ago

If I could ask, is there a reason that your development team is hostile to others packaging Home Assistant: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27505277 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27505277 To the point that they will threaten to relicense their own software: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-860066976 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-86... And when they ask about it: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/consider-to-avoid-adding-library-dependencies-from-frenck/315185 https://community.home-assistant.io/t/consider-to-avoid-addi... It gets delisted. As the author of FOSS tools, I have worked to make sure things I have developed get packaged and used, and I have even spent a fair amount of time helping others to port it to their systems, even if it does nothing to help my use case. Frankly, seeing tsuch a hostile stance towards redistribution makes me wary of using it.

arcbyte 5y ago
I just wasted half an hour reading through the threads. The gist is that NixOS has some weird dependency management that overrides Home Assistant's in a way that makes HA on NixOS a unique experience. And NixOS is not done repackaging HA, so it is in an unfinished state that only advanced users should attempt. ThIS will inevitably confuse users. Those users will then go to HA for support and will be unable to get it. HA doesn't want to support that and was pretty clear about it. Then this Jorg person got all up in arms and threw a hiss fit all over the internet and everybody got tense.
- kop316 5y ago
  NixOS offers reproducible builds, which is why their package manager is the way it is. pip doesn't seem to offer very good support for that: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-860064953 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-86... (I don't use pip so I don't know enough to comment on it) The NixOS also offered several ways to prevent just "go[ing] to HA for support and will be unable to get it": https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-860050496 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-86... https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-860064953 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-86... Also, if you look, the HA dev has the same complaint about Fedora: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-860051291 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-86... So it is not just NixOS's "weird dependency management". The threat to relicense the software came after the NixOS devs offering several ways to prevent more burden, and after the HA dev discovered Fedora packages it too: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-860066976 https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/126326#issuecomment-86... (Feel free to scroll up from here to find the other two linked comments)

JGM_io 5y ago

Why not collab with the pine64.org peeps? They have a great amount of hardware already available and lots of knowledge to accelerate and cheapen your roadmap.... If you are willing to share the design of course.