HomeAssistant setup options?

[morton027]

Just got a battery setup added to our solar, and I’m completely new to the idea of HomeAssistant, looking for advice on what hardware I’ll need in order to get set up for the best data, plus I want to add my smart home devices to it too if I’m going to spend the sort of money that seems to be involved.

I’ve looked at the HomeAssistant Yellow as a base unit, is that worth going for? And what do I need to do to connect my inverter for more regular data than that provided by the Fox Cloud? Does it require and particular knowledge?

Once I have my basic setup I’ll also probably need advice on the integrations etc, but I’m willing to learn.

[calum]

I'd say something like this is your most cost effective option. Getting HA up and running on it is pretty straightforward, then you can just connect it (ideally via ethernet) to your network.

However you will also need to physically connect your HA box to your inverter. Have a read of this for more information. But the short version is that you need to make a physical connection to the RS485 connection on your inverter

This can then connect
- a serial to USB adapter
- serial to WiFi adapter
- serial to ethernet adapter

The first option needs the PC with HA to be in the same Rroom, the second and third just need it to be on the same LAN.

Once you've got HA installed and your inverter connected, you can install a suitable integration (the one I linked above is the most mature and capable one I'm aware of) and you're off to the races.

[morton027]

Does that Dell unit easily lend itself to other IoT devices with HomeAssistant (lights, thermostats, AC, HomeKit etc)?

And can you add Zigbee / Thread etc?

Also operation direct from an iPad through the HA app?

[calum]

ZigBee just needs the right interface eg https://www.mylocalbytes.com/products/s ... ongle-plus

Matter and Homekit are both supported:

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrati ... ontroller/
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/homekit/

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/matter/

All installations of HA support control via the app.