DEV Community: Takeru O'oyama

Setting Up Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B

Takeru O'oyama — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 06:04:23 +0000

Introduction

As part of my DIY smart home project, I've decided to explore Home Assistant to bridge various functionalities.
（Click here to read the article in Japanese.）

Previously, I was running Homebridge on a Raspberry Pi. However, after moving to a new place, several changes prompted me to reconsider my setup:

The Wi-Fi SSID changed.
The number of IoT devices increased or decreased.

Given these changes, I thought about reintroducing Homebridge. But upon researching, I discovered Home Assistant.

After skimming through the Reddit post Homebridge vs Home Assistant, unbiased opinion and its comments, I gathered the following points:

Homebridge is designed primarily for use with HomeKit.
Home Assistant is not fully integrated with HomeKit.
Home Assistant and Homebridge are not mutually exclusive; some people run both.
Someone managed to make all Homebridge plugins work within Home Assistant.

Given the variety of setups people have, I decided it might be quicker to try Home Assistant myself.

Who Is This For?

Those who want to set up Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B.
My future self who might forget these steps after three months.

Steps

I'll proceed according to the official documentation.

Downloading the Installer

Raspberry Pi 5 or Raspberry Pi 4 with power supply (Raspberry Pi 3 Model B is ok to get started, but the Model A does not have enough RAM).

Raspberry Pi3 Model B ボード＆ケースセット 3ple Decker対応 (Element14版, Clear)-Physical Computing Lab Date purchased: 12/30/2017

Since the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B will be used, there seems to be no problem.

Micro SD Card.

Ideally get one that is Application Class 2. Check for the label A2 on the card. Application Class 2 cards perform better especially on small read and write operations and are better suited to host applications.

Make sure to use a card that provides at least 32 GB.

Samsung microSDカード 32GB EVO Plus Class10 UHS-I対応スマホカメラ向け (最大読出速度95MB/s:最大書込速度20MB/s) Date purchased: 12/30/2017

I think I bought this with this Raspberry Pi when I bought it. Maybe a little more capacity?

SD Card reader. This is already part of most laptops, but you can purchase a standalone USB adapter if you don’t have one. The brand doesn’t matter, just pick the cheapest.

Anker 8-in-1 USB 3.0 ポータブルカードリーダー【microSDXC / microSDHC / microSD / MMC / RS-MMC / UHS-Iカード用】 Date purchased: 2/8/2020

(I think I bought this to move data from the SD card I used in my old digital camera...)

Ethernet cable. Required for installation. After installation, Home Assistant can work with Wi-Fi, but an Ethernet connection is more reliable and highly recommended.

This uses a LAM cable that was lying around at home, as appropriate.

Remember to ensure you’re using an appropriate power supply with your Raspberry Pi. Mobile chargers may not be suitable, since some are designed to only provide the full power with that manufacturer’s handsets. USB ports on your computer also will not supply enough power and must not be used.

I'm not sure if it's an AC adapter for a phone or a PC power supply, so I thought it would be safer to have a dedicated power supply.

Raspberry Pi用電源セット(5V 3.0A)－Pi3フル負荷検証済 Date purchased: 1/16/2020

I thought I could use this power supply set that I had bought with the Raspberry Pi.

When I continue reading Install Home Assistant Operating System, it seems that the installer can be easily created with Raspberry Pi Imager. Since I am working on Ubuntu right now, I downloaded it from software.

Install Home Assistant

Insert the SD Card reader with the Micro SD card into the USB port of the PC and start imager.

Proceed with the installation wizard.
Select Home Assistant OS 13.1 (RPI 3) as the OS.

Insert the SD card into the Raspberry Pi, turn on the power and wait for about 3 minutes, then the following screen will appear.

This may take 20 minutes or more

The indicator is running all the time, so I wait, literally, 20 minutes or so with a cup of coffee.

Create a user when the user creation screen appears. The account information should be in 1Password.

Set the data transmission policy, etc. as appropriate.

It found compatible devices in the same network on its own. It's amazing.

Setting up Wi-Fi on the Raspberry Pi

Go to Settings >> System >> Network >> WLAN0 >> Wi-Fi and select an access point.

No connection.

Guide: HomeAssistant WiFi Setup / Troubleshooting HomeAssistant WiFi (Works!) I tried this because many people seemed to be helped by it.

connect an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse to the Raspberry Pi
set up wireless in the manual

# Check the name of the network interface for wireless. Default is wlan0
network info

# Set up wireless in manual
network update <interface_name> --ipv4-method auto --ipv6-method auto \
  --wifi-auth wpa-psk --wifi-mode infrastructure \
  --wifi-ssid <WiFi_network> \
  --wifi-psk <WiFi_password>

# Check network connection status again
network info

Return to PC and check wlan0 configuration status.

Since it was connected properly, unplug the wired LAN from the Raspberry Pi.
Go to Settings >> System and reboot from there as the power button appears in the upper right corner of the screen.

Final Thoughts

The setup itself went smoothly, but I had a hard time setting up the Wi-Fi.
I'd like to link with Amazon Alexa Skill and Homekit, so I'm going to proceed as is.

Getting Started with Nature Remo: Control Your Room's Lighting via Shell Script and API

Takeru O'oyama — Sun, 06 Oct 2024 01:50:06 +0000

Introduction

I recently purchased the Nature Remo 3 to build a DIY smart home and control my appliances. In this article, I'll guide you through the steps to control your room's lighting from a local shell script by interacting with the Nature Remo Cloud API.
（Click here to read the article in Japanese.）

Nature Remo 3

Sequence Diagram

Who Is This For?

Anyone looking to experiment with the Nature Remo 3 API.
My future self who might forget these steps after three months.

Steps

Logging In

Access the Nature Remo API login page:
https://api.nature.global/login

Follow the prompts to log in with your Nature Remo account.

Generating an Access Token

Navigate to the access token section and generate a new token.

Save the generated token securely, for example, in a password manager like 1Password.

Checking API Limits

Before making API requests, it's essential to understand the rate limits.

From the Nature Remo Developer Documentation:

RATE LIMITS #
If we observe more than 30 requests in 5 minutes, we throttle your requests and you’ll see 429 status codes. See following headers to check your throttling status.

X-Rate-Limit-Limit

X-Rate-Limit-Reset

X-Rate-Limit-Remaining

For personal use, this limit should suffice. Even if you exceed it during testing, you can resume after 5 minutes.

Determining Which Appliance to Control

How can we turn on or off our room's lighting?

Let's look at the API specifications in the menu.

This opens the Swagger documentation. Let's try a simple GET request.

ACCESS_TOKEN="your_access_token_here"
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ${ACCESS_TOKEN}" \
     -H "Accept: application/json" \
     -X GET "https://api.nature.global/1/users/me"

# Result
{"id":"XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX","nickname":"tqer39"}

Next, let's get a list of registered remote configurations.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ${ACCESS_TOKEN}" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -X GET "https://api.nature.global/1/appliances" \
  | jq | pbcopy

This command fetches the appliances and copies the formatted JSON to your clipboard.

[
  {
    "id": "XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX",
    "device": {
      "name": "Remo3 Room",
      "id": "XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX",
      "created_at": "2024-09-17T17:13:49Z",
      "updated_at": "2024-09-22T05:58:38Z",
      "mac_address": "xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx",
      "bt_mac_address": "xx:xx:xx:xx:xx",
      "serial_number": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
      "firmware_version": "Remo/1.14.6",
      "temperature_offset": 0,
      "humidity_offset": 0
    },
    "model": null,
    "type": "IR",
    "nickname": "Lighting",
    "image": "ico_light",
    "settings": null,
    "aircon": null,
    "signals": [
      {
        "id": "XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX",
        "name": "Off",
        "image": "ico_off"
      },
      {
        "id": "XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX",
        "name": "Night Light",
        "image": "ico_night_light"
      },
      {
        "id": "XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX",
        "name": "Dim",
        "image": "ico_lightdown"
      },
      {
        "id": "XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX",
        "name": "On",
        "image": "ico_lightup"
      }
    ]
  }
]

Let's try the "Off" signal for the "Lighting" appliance.

Since we're updating, we'll use a POST method.
We have a signalId from the signals array.
The appropriate API endpoint seems to be POST /1/signals/{signalId}/send.

Looking at the send method's Example Value | Schema, it's empty {}, so we likely only need the signalId.

Command:

signalId="your_signal_id_for_off"
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ${ACCESS_TOKEN}" \
     -H "Accept: application/json" \
     -X POST "https://api.nature.global/1/signals/${signalId}/send"

# Result
{}

It worked! :smiiley:

Warning: Since this operation affects your actual room lighting, ensure you're testing with a device you can safely control.

Conclusion

The operation worked as I had envisioned. I plan to utilize this to integrate with other services and IoT devices moving forward.