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I’ve been using a Pi 4 with Home Assistant for the last 2 years, but I’ve accumulated so many devices in its dashboard that just turning a light off felt too cu

by alin23 4y ago

I’ve been using a Pi 4 with Home Assistant for the last 2 years, but I’ve accumulated so many devices in its dashboard that just turning a light off felt too cumbersome. Sure, I’ve automated everything I could, but humans are not predictable so I often need to adjust brightness or volume of some device. I had some keyboard shortcuts in BetterTouchTool using the HA REST API but it felt too fragile. In the end I created my own app to make this easier, called Volum (https://lowtechguys.com/volum https://lowtechguys.com/volum) It gives you macOS keyboard shortcuts and a really simple UI on iOS and iPadOS to control your HA devices and it’s completely free if you want to try it. I’ve also made a short unprofessional demo video here about it: https://youtu.be/nzz-xrEon7g https://youtu.be/nzz-xrEon7g

pkulak 4y ago
Home Assistant really is about home "automation", not home "buttons now on your phone". I have dozens of automations in my Home Assistant install and I only interact with Home Assistant when I'm updating it or screwing with the automations themselves. In the morning, depending on the weather, both of my floors set to heat, cool or heat/cool. The lights adjust to a cool temperature, fully on. Maybe the lawn gets watered, if it hasn't rained in a while and won't soon (I live in the PNW, so that one doesn't trigger often, haha). At sunset the lights adjust again, and finally most of them turn off at 9pm and the hvac system again adjusts, depending on the weather. The lights and shades in the media room adjust when the TV turns on. And a million other things that I won't bother to type out. But the point is, it all Just Happens, and I go to great lengths to keep it that way. If manual control is needed, just flip the switch or turn the thermostat.
- alin23 4y ago
  Yes, I can go on about my automations in the same way, it does feel like a magical home sometimes :) But when I have guests and we need more light for a board game, or when the automation didn’t work as expected and lights are still off at sunset or the blinds got stuck at midpoint, or the heat is still too high and I’m already in bed etc. there’s a real need for fast and effortless manual control. I’m now investing in Zigbee switches and knobs to have more physical means for controlling the home, but in my engineer mind, an app made more sense at the time. I spend most of my time on my keyboard laptop anyway, why not use it for dimming the lights, or adjusting the speaker volume.
  - ghostpepper 4y ago
    I realized that I don't turn my lights on/off at the same time consistently enough for automation to be worthwhile.
  - some-human 4y ago
    > there’s a real need for fast and effortless manual control. On iOS i just pull down the control centre from the clock and it shows my most 6 most used home assistant things (a few lights, temp and door lock). HomeKit Bridge, I think is the integration that provides that. It provides essentially the same UI as your app, without any app needed, and allows for "hey siri, turn on the hallway light" too.
    - alin23 4y ago
      Yep, I have the same HomeKit integration, but I mostly needed macOS keyboard shortcuts which are not provided by the Home app. I also needed to control non-HA devices like standalone ESPHome lights/remotes, which Volum can do.
- llamataboot 4y ago
  I don't how this is true when lovelace is so well developed and you an have simple dashboards for anything you want to control. My partner hates home automation stuff and even she loves having a button that can pull up everything in the bedroom from the lights to the music to the humidifier as well as having easy switches for "going to bed" or "left the house forgot to lock things up and turn them off" etc
theshrike79 4y ago
IMO if you're using the dashboard to adjust something you haven't really automated anything, you just moved the physical buttons to a dashboard. The dashboard should be for setting larger scenes. Example: If you want to watch a movie, you should either be able to say something to your digital assistant of choice or press a single physical/digital button. That automatically sets the lights correctly, closes any blinds and turns on all AV equipment needed.
- alin23 4y ago
  Don’t you ever need to step out of the automation predefined values sometimes? I do have most of my house automated, but my pain point is in those rare moments when I need to do something that doesn’t fit anymore in my predicted automation. I said it in a previous comment as well, but I’ll give some more personal examples here: 1. We have friends coming and we need more light for a board game 2. My wife wants to sew some new clothing creation and needs bright white lights for short periods of time 3. Sun is still very bright at sunset but HA already turned on the lights (I kinda like the sunset natural light, and want to enjoy it without artificial lighting. I have a light sensor for this situation but it’s hard to get it right) 4. I want to change volume of a speaker but I’m not using the device playing the music 5. I want to get the blinds higher/lower without getting out of bed I’m not saying everyone needs my app, of course. I made it for myself, and just decided to share it with the world, in case there are other people sharing my pain points.
  - some-human 4y ago
    I still don't see why you're not exposing these devices to Homekit in Home Assistant so that they show up natively on your Apple devices in the control centre? Having my smart speaker volume control next to my iPhone's volume control just makes sense for that? Same for quick access to lights? Just pull down from the clock and tap to turn on/off specific lights, or have sliders next to the iPhone brightness slider for lights with brightness granularity. I don't see what an app adds to that?
    - tra3 4y ago
dheera 4y ago
I do agree it needs better default widgets. Like when turning a brightness dial it's easy to accidentally scroll the page. It's also insanely cumbersome to use things like circadian lighting at the moment, which I use extensively since my apartment doesn't that much sunlight. It requires editing a YAML file, which requires installing some editor plugin, which requires supervisor mode, which required a full reinstall as a VM because I'm an idiot and installed the docker version of HA at first. And then figuring out how the hell to get a VM to start at startup in headless mode. And then fumbling for hours with how to install HACS and other things. But yeah, it's nice for open source standards.
Nextgrid 4y ago
I use Home Assistant purely as an automation server and as a gateway between different (incompatible) ecosystems. Entities that need manual control are exported over HomeKit and controlled using any Apple device. I use HomeControl for easy access to all devices in the macOS menu bar: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/homecontrol-menu-for-homekit/id1547121417 https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/homecontrol-menu-for-homekit/i....
- evanpurkhiser 4y ago
  This is also exactly how i use HA. It works quite well. I don't have too many automations. I also recently started using https://raycast.com https://raycast.com which has a nice HA plugin

by alin23 4y ago

pkulak 4y ago

Home Assistant really is about home "automation", not home "buttons now on your phone". I have dozens of automations in my Home Assistant install and I only interact with Home Assistant when I'm updating it or screwing with the automations themselves. In the morning, depending on the weather, both of my floors set to heat, cool or heat/cool. The lights adjust to a cool temperature, fully on. Maybe the lawn gets watered, if it hasn't rained in a while and won't soon (I live in the PNW, so that one doesn't trigger often, haha). At sunset the lights adjust again, and finally most of them turn off at 9pm and the hvac system again adjusts, depending on the weather. The lights and shades in the media room adjust when the TV turns on. And a million other things that I won't bother to type out. But the point is, it all Just Happens, and I go to great lengths to keep it that way. If manual control is needed, just flip the switch or turn the thermostat.

alin23 4y ago
Yes, I can go on about my automations in the same way, it does feel like a magical home sometimes :) But when I have guests and we need more light for a board game, or when the automation didn’t work as expected and lights are still off at sunset or the blinds got stuck at midpoint, or the heat is still too high and I’m already in bed etc. there’s a real need for fast and effortless manual control. I’m now investing in Zigbee switches and knobs to have more physical means for controlling the home, but in my engineer mind, an app made more sense at the time. I spend most of my time on my keyboard laptop anyway, why not use it for dimming the lights, or adjusting the speaker volume.
- ghostpepper 4y ago
  I realized that I don't turn my lights on/off at the same time consistently enough for automation to be worthwhile.
- some-human 4y ago
  > there’s a real need for fast and effortless manual control. On iOS i just pull down the control centre from the clock and it shows my most 6 most used home assistant things (a few lights, temp and door lock). HomeKit Bridge, I think is the integration that provides that. It provides essentially the same UI as your app, without any app needed, and allows for "hey siri, turn on the hallway light" too.
  - alin23 4y ago
    Yep, I have the same HomeKit integration, but I mostly needed macOS keyboard shortcuts which are not provided by the Home app. I also needed to control non-HA devices like standalone ESPHome lights/remotes, which Volum can do.
llamataboot 4y ago
I don't how this is true when lovelace is so well developed and you an have simple dashboards for anything you want to control. My partner hates home automation stuff and even she loves having a button that can pull up everything in the bedroom from the lights to the music to the humidifier as well as having easy switches for "going to bed" or "left the house forgot to lock things up and turn them off" etc

theshrike79 4y ago

IMO if you're using the dashboard to adjust something you haven't really automated anything, you just moved the physical buttons to a dashboard. The dashboard should be for setting larger scenes. Example: If you want to watch a movie, you should either be able to say something to your digital assistant of choice or press a single physical/digital button. That automatically sets the lights correctly, closes any blinds and turns on all AV equipment needed.

alin23 4y ago
Don’t you ever need to step out of the automation predefined values sometimes? I do have most of my house automated, but my pain point is in those rare moments when I need to do something that doesn’t fit anymore in my predicted automation. I said it in a previous comment as well, but I’ll give some more personal examples here: 1. We have friends coming and we need more light for a board game 2. My wife wants to sew some new clothing creation and needs bright white lights for short periods of time 3. Sun is still very bright at sunset but HA already turned on the lights (I kinda like the sunset natural light, and want to enjoy it without artificial lighting. I have a light sensor for this situation but it’s hard to get it right) 4. I want to change volume of a speaker but I’m not using the device playing the music 5. I want to get the blinds higher/lower without getting out of bed I’m not saying everyone needs my app, of course. I made it for myself, and just decided to share it with the world, in case there are other people sharing my pain points.
- some-human 4y ago
  I still don't see why you're not exposing these devices to Homekit in Home Assistant so that they show up natively on your Apple devices in the control centre? Having my smart speaker volume control next to my iPhone's volume control just makes sense for that? Same for quick access to lights? Just pull down from the clock and tap to turn on/off specific lights, or have sliders next to the iPhone brightness slider for lights with brightness granularity. I don't see what an app adds to that?
  - tra3 4y ago

dheera 4y ago

I do agree it needs better default widgets. Like when turning a brightness dial it's easy to accidentally scroll the page. It's also insanely cumbersome to use things like circadian lighting at the moment, which I use extensively since my apartment doesn't that much sunlight. It requires editing a YAML file, which requires installing some editor plugin, which requires supervisor mode, which required a full reinstall as a VM because I'm an idiot and installed the docker version of HA at first. And then figuring out how the hell to get a VM to start at startup in headless mode. And then fumbling for hours with how to install HACS and other things. But yeah, it's nice for open source standards.

Nextgrid 4y ago

I use Home Assistant purely as an automation server and as a gateway between different (incompatible) ecosystems. Entities that need manual control are exported over HomeKit and controlled using any Apple device. I use HomeControl for easy access to all devices in the macOS menu bar: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/homecontrol-menu-for-homekit/id1547121417 https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/homecontrol-menu-for-homekit/i....

evanpurkhiser 4y ago
This is also exactly how i use HA. It works quite well. I don't have too many automations. I also recently started using https://raycast.com https://raycast.com which has a nice HA plugin