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Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial

Plug and Play Home Assistant Green Setup Tutorial – Home Assistant Step-by-Step Tutorial EP 15

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Neil
Neil

If you are studying Home Assistant and see everyone talking about Raspberry Pi, NUC, NAS, x86, virtual machine...all the terms make you confused, then congratulations, you are in the right place!

After trying Home Assistant Green myself, I can say that this is the easiest way to set up Home Assistant! Because there is no so-called "setup" at all, you just need to plug in the cable, wait, create an account, and you can start using it! It’s almost the same as most off-the-shelf cloud hub systems (Apple HomeKit, Google Home), but the difference is that Home Assistant runs completely locally to provide higher privacy and more flexible customization functions. Let’s get started! 👏

Home Assistant Green Unboxing

Home Assistant Green 開箱
  • Carton Box: Normally you don’t pay much attention to the carton when opening a box, but this one is really beautifully made🤣
  • Host Home Assistant Green: The appearance is nothing to say, one word is "beautiful".
  • Various adaptersPlug adapters
  • Gigabit Ethernet cable

size

Home Assistant Green 主機

The size of the host is quite small, with a square shape of 11.2 cm and a thickness of 3.2 cm, which is about the size of the palm of an adult male’s hand. When you pick it up, you can feel that the assembly quality is very solid. There is a whole piece of aluminum heat sink at the bottom. Just put the host on Heat dissipation is not a problem in a well-ventilated place 👍

port

Home Assistant Green 連接埠

From left to right they are:

  • Power socket: special reminder! Never use an unknown power supply. It is safest to use the one provided by the original manufacturer!
  • USB 2.0 Type-A ⨉2: Used to connect external devices. The most common use is to connect external gateways or storage devices.
  • HDMI: Usually not used.
  • Ethernet hole: Connect to a wired network (Home Assistant Green does not support wireless networks).

Step 1. Plug in power and network

Home Assistant Green 插上電源、網路

After the cable is plugged in, the indicator light will start flashing, indicating that Home Assistant is being installed. The installation time is related to the network environment. The faster the network speed, the faster the installation. After the installation is completed, the yellow indicator light will flash steadily.

Step 2. Home Assistant initial setup

  1. Open http://homeassistant.local:8123 in your browser

If you see the following screen, it means that Home Assistant is still being installed. The latest version of Home Assistant Core (about 700 MB) will be installed by default. The installation speed depends on your network environment.

Home Assistant 安裝進行中
Image credit: Home Assistant
  1. Click "Build My Smart Home"

There are two options here: "Build my smart home" and "Restore from backup". Today I will focus on introducing how to start from scratch. Friends who already need to use backup and restore should have a certain foundation and can do it by themselves.

建立我的智能家庭
  1. Add new user

The new user here will be the main administrator of this family. Please set it carefully. It is strongly recommended to set a highly secure password!

Special attention! Please save your login information carefully. If it is lost, there is no other way to retrieve it. However, this also demonstrates the high security of Home Assistant as a fully local-run smart home system.

⚠️ There are two fields that are very similar and may cause confusion. Special reminder:
– Name (Chinese: name) is the name that will be displayed on the interface in the future
– Username (Chinese: user name) is used to log in

創建帳號
  1. Set home location

If you don’t want to set it, you can skip it now and update it in the system setting options in the future.

設定家庭所在位置

Done!

When you see a screen like the one below, it means that your Home Assistant has been set up! Next, start enjoying your smart home life!

Home Assistant Dashboard

Next, you can continue to improve your smart home. There are several directions you can start trying:

  1. Use Zigbee2MQTT to connect to smart home devices and get rid of dependence on brand gateways:
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How to connect Home Assistant to (almost) all Zigbee devices through Zigbee2MQTT – Home Assistant Step-by-Step Tutorial EP 2
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  1. Build your own home automation:
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Home Assistant automation setting tutorial, practical cases teach you how to integrate sensors and home appliances – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 3
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Use Blueprint to quickly complete automated settings in Home Assistant, and use Google Assistant to achieve voice notifications – Home Assistant Step-by-Step Tutorial EP 4
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  1. Want to control your home devices from God’s perspective? Read this:
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Home Assistant Floor plan A new experience in smart home control with visual floor plan! – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 6
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12 COMMENTS

  1. Thanks Neil for sharing~ I am setting up a new home network recently. Although I may test the waters with Homekit first, I want to ask if there is any restriction on where to connect HA Green to the Internet? Should I connect it directly to the router or behind the Switch?

    • Hi K,
      If the bandwidth is sufficient, then it's almost the same. In theory, the closer to the source, the better. I connect it to the router.

  2. Hi Neil,
    Thank you for sharing. It is a great honor to have you as a pioneer and selfless sharer in the journey of building a smart home.
    I was inspired after reading your article and wanted to buy Home Assistant Green to play with at home. However, SeeedStudio could not be delivered to Taiwan for some reason.
    I hope I can buy it successfully before moving in and set up a smart home well!!!
    I wish you, Ashan and your baby all the best and happiness♥

      • Received, thanks for sharing!!! I found it on Taobao, the price seems to be similar to that of seeedstudio
        But are the products bought on Taobao the same as the international version? I tried to look up information but couldn't find any relevant instructions. I'm also worried that there might be restrictions if I buy it on Taobao. Does Neil know?

      • Hi L, as long as it is Home Assistant Green, there is no version difference. Be careful not to buy a strange HA box.

      • Thanks to Neil for the help
        I just got the Home Assistant Green today and have just finished setting it up. I will start researching how to set up my own smart home.
        Thank you so much for your selfless sharing. I'm so excited.

  3. Thank you, Brother Neil. I have been exposed to smart homes since last year and have benefited a lot from your teaching articles. Now I have lived in my new home for half a year and I am very satisfied with the smart home I built.
    I wish you a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and all the best

  4. Thank you Neil, you are my mentor on the journey of smart family, you have inspired me many concepts and practices. The festival is approaching, I wish you and Ashan happiness and peace~~

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recent discussions

  • Jerry 2025/04/14Thank you very much Neil for your selfless sharing. The websites you provided are of great help to me. I will save it first and digest it slowly^^ I also look forward to Neil's industry news and teaching articles in the futureHome Assistant Floor plan A new experience in smart home control with visual floor plan! – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 6
  • Neil 2025/04/13Hi Jerry, I usually get information about HA from these places: Website: – Home Assistant official Release notes – Automata – Home Automation Community – Weijia Home Intelligence FB Group: – Taiwan Home Assistant enthusiasts exchange – Home Assistant YouTube channel: – Smart Home Solver – Everything Smart Home – Home Assistant Programming language: Strictly speaking, YAML is not really a programming language (let me make this clear in case some people mind 🤣), but if we include these data formats or style languages that “look like” programming languages, and sort them by depth of use in HA (the deeper the bottom, the deeper the bottom): – YAML (data format): a language for configuration files used in many places in the HA environment. – CSS (style language): used to adjust the interface style (font size, color, image, position, etc.). – JSON (data format): If you use Node-RED, you will probably come across it. – Jinja2 (Python template syntax): You may encounter it when you explore automation or Dashboard in depth. ※ But in fact, even if HA does not know the above, it can still make a smart home complete. You don’t have to put so much pressure on yourself, but if you are interested, it is also good to know more. It is actually difficult to generalize about the support of devices. Now, even if the home appliances themselves do not support it, there are still many different ways to connect traditional home appliances to HA. In addition, cases like Haier do require in-depth research. What I usually do is to crawl a lot of information on the Internet, and usually find attempts made by others. It just so happens that when I was looking up other information recently, I saw someone sharing how Haier water heaters were connected to HA. But it is indeed like what you said, if you get involved for a while, you will understand these details more and more. 🤣Home Assistant Floor plan A new experience in smart home control with visual floor plan! – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 6
  • Jerry 2025/04/10Hello Neil: After observing for 1 or 2 days, everything seems to be normal. Maybe it’s because the system was not stable during the initial setup period!? The more I play, the deeper I feel. I also find that I still have many shortcomings. I wonder if Neil can share and teach everyone how to fish? For example, recommend good websites, forums, FB groups, youtube videos, or give some guidance. In addition to the YAML language, would it be helpful to know some CSS syntax? Do I need to know other languages? I can even start a new teaching direction. When I see non-big-name products that claim to support APP (such as products from mainland China), I can teach everyone how to identify whether they can be connected to HA and how to ask customer service? Where can I see supported articles or platforms? This kind of experience sharing, I think, will be very helpful to everyone. I am currently looking to buy a heat pump water heater from Haier. Haier is a big manufacturer in the world and has its own APP. I have also found Haier's kit from HACS, but it does not seem to support heat pump water heaters. Does that mean it cannot be connected to HA? Or is there any channel to check it? There are also many flat panel lights and fan function lamps on the other side of the strait, which also claim to support APP connection, but they are all small manufacturers and it is difficult to tell whether they can be connected to HA. These are the problems I am facing now. If the home appliances I buy are different from what Neil shared, I don’t know where to start. Maybe I'm still too inexperienced. If I play for a few more months, maybe the above problems won't be a problem anymore, haha^^Home Assistant Floor plan A new experience in smart home control with visual floor plan! – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 6
  • Neil 2025/04/09Hi Jerry, I tested it myself and it was fine, but please note that because it is controlled through the cloud, there is an extra layer of brand mediation, so it is not suitable for fast switching. I tested it myself and it took about 1 second to complete the synchronization after clicking. Remember to put the entity in entities, otherwise the status display may have problemsHome Assistant Floor plan A new experience in smart home control with visual floor plan! – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 6
  • Jerry 2025/04/07Thanks Neil for clarifying this. I tested it later and found that when using the "button panel" to control the switch of the Electrolux air conditioner (the same model as Neil), the device will respond to turning on or off in about 1 second, but the "status icon" for turning on is much slower, and it takes about 30 seconds. The "status icon" for turning off is normal, and the "status icons" of other negative ion switches and the "status icons" of the monitoring light switch are also normal, which made me think there was a problem with the synchronization. I'll test it again, maybe it's caused by the wrong setting.Home Assistant Floor plan A new experience in smart home control with visual floor plan! – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 6
  • Neil 2025/04/07Hi Jerry, 1. This method is through cloud integration, which is actually using HA to call Xiaomi/Electrolux to control the device. 2. It is not normal. If this happens, you may need to check whether the entity you display on the floor plan can truly represent the status of the device. If not, you may need to try other entities of the same device.Home Assistant Floor plan A new experience in smart home control with visual floor plan! – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 6
  • Jerry 2025/04/07The problem is solved. Thanks again to Neil for his help^^ I have two more questions about concepts. Neil, do I have any misunderstandings? 1. I connected Xiaomi and Electrolux devices to HA through HACS. Is it still connected through WiFi? Before connecting, you need to obtain API key and Access Token from the official. This means that the communication between HA and the device still needs to go through the official. It’s just that the official APP can be replaced and all integrated into the HA APP for control? 2. After testing, when controlling the device through physical operation or the original official APP, the HA app cannot know the status of the device synchronously, but it can know the opposite. Is this normal? For example, the Xiaomi electric fan at home was turned on by someone physically before going out, but when the person is outside, he cannot know through the HA app that the device was forgotten to be turned off. He has to connect to the Xiaomi app to know!?Home Assistant Floor plan A new experience in smart home control with visual floor plan! – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 6
  • Jerry 2025/04/07Xiaomi Home can be used in Singapore by selecting the countryHome Assistant must-install HACS plug-in installation steps detailed explanation – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 17
  • Ghost 2025/04/07Xiaomi Home currently does not support Taiwan. For now, you can only use Xiaomi Miot Auto. As for Xiaomi Cloud Map Extractor, I currently have a 2FA problem. There seems to be no simple solution. I haven’t tried it successfully yet.Home Assistant must-install HACS plug-in installation steps detailed explanation – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 17
  • Neil 2025/04/07Jerry, it seems that the click action cannot penetrate the part where the picture changes because of the overlapping pictures. Try adding pointer-events: none to the style.Home Assistant Floor plan A new experience in smart home control with visual floor plan! – Home Assistant step-by-step tutorial EP 6

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