Make your home as smart as possible

HOME ASSISTANT

Credit: www.home-assistant.io

Part One

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OUR EXPERT

Matt Holder has been a fan of the open source methodology for over two decades and uses Linux and other tools where possible.

QUICK TIP

A huge number of smart home manufacturers are supported, including Ikea Tradfri lights, Phillips Hue and the Unifi network controller. Find out more: www.home-assistant.io/integrations.

Smart Home and Internet of Things devices have been popular for a number of years now. Unfortunately, the Internet of Things doesn’t have the best name in terms of security issues, thanks to poorly coded or secured devices. How many times have we read about hardcoded administrator-level accounts being left enabled on devices? Canonical and Microsoft provide IoT platforms with security in mind.

When using commercial smart home/Internet of Things devices it’s important to keep two things in mind. The first one is that of privacy. Would you be happy if a data breach caused your data to be made available to the public? The second matter is that of sustainability. What would happen if the device’s manufacturer decided to discontinue the web service that the device relies on?

The sheer number of manufacturers, protocols and communication methods can make it difficult to use all of these systems in a cohesive manner. This is where Home Assistant (www.home-assistant.io) comes in. Its lengthy tagline is “Open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first”. This is the perfect way to describe an amazing project, which ties together smart home devices from many manufacturers and many different protocols. Home Assistant will keep data on your local network wherever possible and can also integrate with third-party cloud products if required.

During this article we’ll be installing and then configure it