I have tried Home Assistant several times. Each time I try it, I get it installed on a VM under my Proxmox hypervisor and start configuring my devices. I'll use my most recent try as an example. I have several Wyze WiFi power switches, and two "Smart Life" (Toya internally) combination thermometer/switch devices. The Toya devices integrated with HA after I signed up for a Toya developer account and did a bunch of configuring. I was able to read the temperature values, but switching the devices on/off did absolutely nothing. I didn't even try the Wyze devices; apparently Wyze doesn't integrate with HA.
I'm not opposed to buying new "smart home" devices, but I want something that actually works properly. What I'm looking for are:
- Devices that don't require internet access and an external API; I want to control them directly over my LAN.
- Devices that have built-in integration with HA.
Is there a list of devices that just "work" with HA? I've looked at the list of available integrations that "technically" work, but they often require signing up for API access with a 3rd-party company and jumping through hoops to get the devices working. I want something where I can assign it a static IP or DHCP lease and HA just talks to it. I was able to get my BlueIris DVR integration working, and it can double as a motion sensor, so I'm specifically looking for plug-in switches, thermometers, sensors, etc.
Reading through the replies here, there are multiple suggestions for ZigBee. I think that's the route I want to go, but I'm not entirely sure how to lay everything out.
I have three separate buildings that need ZigBee devices. I could attach a dongle to the HA server, but that would only have range to work with the devices in that building. My house is much too far away for any wireless access, but it has a 10Gb fiber link to my server rack. The third location doesn't have a wired connection, but it's close enough to get WiFi, and probably close enough to mesh with the ZigBee devices in either of the first two locations.
Is it possible to have multiple ZigBee base stations on the same network; will HA work with this setup? As an alternative, I could maybe install repeaters, but I'm not entirely sure if the locations on my property with electrical connections are close enough together.
Don't use the built in zigbee implementation, your best bet imo would be either a network zigbee adapter or roll your own with a raspberry pi (or equivalent), a sonoff zigbee dongle and zigbee2mqtt.
Zigbee can be set up with either a USB dongle on the HA server (if you go that route get a dongle with a proper antenna), via hardwired networked hubs, or by Zigbee2mqtt or similar DIY options.
So for coverage across a large property with multiple buildings, networked hubs would be a good bet.
Most zigbee devices act as repeaters/routers for other devices, but they all need some route to the hub. so in your case, multiple hubs would be an option.