Completely new to Home Assistant, I want to learn more.

[pliant sierra]

Hello, I am completely new to Home Assistant and want to automate my home with useful features. First of all, I should mention that I have knowledge of computers and Linux, and I also have a small Proxmox server with a Home Assistant VM, so I should already have a large part of the hardware sorted. Right now, I only have the Home Assistant VM, but I haven't installed anything because I have no idea what to do. What do I need to know? The only thing HA has detected is my TV and a couple of other things.

My goal is to learn little by little and automate my house a bit. My parents aren't convinced by the idea, but I'm sure they'll end up liking it once there are interesting things to do. Where do I start?

I'm thinking of starting with some lights and also an LED strip behind the TV that changes color depending on what you're watching, for example, according to the scene in a movie. It would also be great to have a small tablet in the hall that tells you the weather and other things. How do you connect all these devices, and what brands should I buy? At the moment, I have the server connected by cable and nothing else. I don't know if I need some kind of device or receiver for the gadgets. Please help me. I love this world! I'll be active around here.

[latent remnant]

Firstly, I'll tackle your idea about an LED strip behind the TV that changes color depending on the scene. This is not really something that you should use Home Assistant for as you would need to constantly monitor the image on the TV and update the LED Strip accordingly. Instead you should look at https://github.com/hyperion-project/hyperion.ng

Since you have installed HA already, I would suggest you start with your idea of a tablet that shows Weather - other stuff can be added in the future. To do this you will need to install a Weather Integration of which there are several, so you should evaluate which provides the data you want for your region.

Lighting is probably the most common thing that people look to automate as it is relatively simple. However, there are many options and a variety of ways that would vary depending on requirements and budget. If for example you have lots of bulbs in a single room, it may not be cost effective to replace the bulbs with Smart Bulbs - instead changing / adapting the switch so that it is smart maybe a more cost effective solution. Depending on the size of the room and the number of bulbs it may be wiser to look at Smart Bulbs in order to control them individually as you could reduce cost by not needing to have all the bulbs.

Above all, you need to decide how you will build out the network. There are several protocols available of which the most common are WiFi, Zigbee, Z-Wave and the new Matter / Thread. Each has pro's and con's, so you should eveluate before deciding which. For WiFi, you could experience issues with connecting things back to the access point, resulting in frequent drop outs and the inability to control the devices. Zigbee and Z-wave both use Mesh technology allowing most wired devices to act as routers and hence adding devices can actually improve your network. As you haven't really started yet, I would suggest you look at Zigbee. I personally feel Matter / Thread is still in its infancy and needs some more time for things to develop.

The final thing I would suggest is you focus on improving the day to day lifestyle as you build the automations up. Start by deciding what you want the automation to do and then look at the hardware that maybe required. For example think of this scenario:

A person sleeping wakes up at 3am to go to the toilet.

So adding a bed sensor will allow you to see when a person gets out of bed. The fact that it happens at 3am is a good indication they want to go to the toilet. So the automation starts by turning on the Bedroom lights in a red color since that allows the person to see whilst having less impact on their sleepy state (color smart bulbs are fitted in the bedroom). When they open the Bedroom door, the hallway / corridor lights come on also in a red color. As the bedroom door is opened it also triggers the lights in the bathroom since we predict that the person is going to the toilet. When they finish in the bathroom and return to their bed the lights go off. You would use door sensors and / or motion sensors to implement this.

Once you get the above running, you may realize it needs to be modified. In our example, lets say that the person didn't actually want to go to the toilet but instead just wants a glass of water. So, should the bathroom lights be triggered or the kitchen lights. We can be clever if we use mmWave sensors that allow us to track distance, as we can see if the user is heading towards the bathroom or towards the kitchen and react accordingly.

[feral vale]

Avoid WiFi Tuya devices because is not reliable and the control is on the maker of the device. This means that, privacy apart, you need an Internet connection and can stop working at any time. Go ZigBee, via a SMLIGHT SLZB-06 router or similar, and the addon Zigbee2MQTT. Search in YouTube for this setup before buying it. It's not difficult but needs time and some basic technical skills

Once into ZigBee, I recommend Ikea ZigBee devices. Cheap and reliable.

But once with ZigBee, you can use ZigBee Tuya devices because then will work locally

No Tuya app needed, direct connection to HA