So this guy is using RFID readers to play music but he is basically doing what I want to do. Building a database of RFID cards that are associated to music in his library and then sending a command to HA to play the music that is associated with the card. Just replace music with unlock the door and it is the same thing.
Edit: Found this
These two maybe:
If home assistant was a spider, think of esphome as a spider web.
You get to deploy a single instance of home assistant in some nice and powerful cushy VM, but you need that VM to interface with hardware pins and sensors and stuff in various other places in your home.
ESPHome can’t do complex stuff like run neural networks for speech / picture / object recognition, or serve large multi megabyte UIs, or store years worth of timeseries … but can do simple wifi connected micro controller level of automation, and it has basic watchdogs and logging for reliability.
It’s based on FreeRTOS / Espressif SDK (not Linux/less complex) and mostly lets you do things with yaml configs that it translates into c++ that then get built into an image that can be updated OTA(wifi). If you want to do something really custom, it provides various hooks letting you write your own c++ either to interface with custom hardware or to talk custom network protocols.
It’s really easy to run these esp82xx / esp32 ; with esphome off of batteries / solar panels; depending on use case. For example, a motion/distance sensor can wake the RFID coil that can boot within milliseconds do it’s business, like get on wifi and talk to whatever, and then go back to single digit microamps deep sleep half a second later.
Look into getting some cheap esp32 boards and random sensors to play with, it’s loads of fun. Look at how people make doorbells and that kind of stuff with it.
Not sure about Mycroft vs Ada/Almond. I have home minis scattered around the house and have home assistant exposed to Google home / google assistant.
Ada/Almond are supposed to be more flexible and let you do non home related stuff, or stuff not supported in Google home models, but i haven’t tried them.
I started reading up on esphome this evening. I love it except that it is all WiFi and I would really like to keep the security stuff on a wired network. I will definitely use it for non-security automation stuff. It seems like a fantastic platform.
So after thinking about the server for the security and HA stuff I think that I will do a AM4 platform in a rack mount case. Blue Iris requires Windows so I am trying to decide on ProxMox with with a Windows VM and a HA VM or do I just do Windows Server and run hyper-v vm’s? Ideally I would like this to be as low power as possible so if I could get away with an Athalon that would be great but idk how much horsepower Blue Iris needs. Would also have a couple of HDD’s for video recording.
It’s a bit more expensive, there’s some boards that do ethernet and a couple of them can even do POE (even more expensive).
Shameless self-plug on my Wiki:
This is a work in progress for the IPv6 network stack (have to deal with some issues), but should give anyone interested a few indications on how to setup the network. Depending on one’s threat model, one can block all outgoing traffic coming from the UNTRUSTED network. I tried not to completely block the untrusted network’s access to the internet, as you may want things like software updates (port 80 and 443). Depending on what untrusted devices you get, you may want to block them completely, but that’s up to the individual. That is how my network is set up, because I don’t own IoT devices.
Any suggestion for improvements is welcome.
Also, I’m at a point where I don’t really trust most computers and I try to avoid home automation. I prefer to get up and press a light switch instead of using some wireless remote controls. Also a fan of wiring everything up, but I also tend towards minimalism (not a minimalist per se though).
Have you considered that voice is easily spoofed, and what that can do to your security goals?
Do you have a solution for access control for voice that relies on a 2nd factor?
Cheesy codephrase might be easier than having ports for Yubis everywhere.
Have you considered the legal status of having this much information and (presumably) logging it?
You can be bitten by this as much as a home invader could be.
Voice will not interact with security system other than to set alarm (you can increase security posture but not decrease it via voice). I did have a thought about having microphones in the RFID readers and having to authenticate with yubikey before you give a security related voice command but haven’t had a lot of time to think it out. What information do you mean? Like camera footage?
I recall some jurisdictions won’t accept footage that contains sound as valid in courts (which is dumb), in some jurisdictions recording sound is completely illegal, which you can be fined for (which is even dumber) and in some jurisdictions you are allowed to record both, but separated streams (separated audio and separated video). Recording voice separated is your best bet if you want to.
I’d give a local lawyer a call and see if they know whether local PDs are acting unethically with these sorts of things, too.
All good points. I imagine most of that would be solved by simple signage at the front door but I will look into it.
According to my 5min google search CO seems fine as long as you are just looking at your own property and not recording bathrooms or changing rooms.
https://dre.colorado.gov/division-notifications/audio-and-video-surveillance-properties
Just posting a sign is enough.
Is that an input device for pin codes and fingerprint scanner?
Yeah, just like the ones I found on aliexpress for $30
So as unsexy as they are these Dell Optiplex machines seem to be the best bang for the buck when running Blue Iris. I think I should be able to get a pci Ethernet card to throw in there and have enough networking and processing power to run blue Iris and HA on it at the same time.
I am trying to decide if I install windows server and use hyper-v or proxmox and have a HA native VM and a Win10 VM. Anyone have any input on which would be a lighter weight solution?
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/173739311484161/
Somebody tell me I don’t need to buy this…
Tbh I don’t know if it is worth it for me to rack mount stuff at this moment. I don’t have any rackmount gear and I don’t really have the budget atm to start buying only rack mount equipment. Should I buy a rack and then slowly fill it or do I buy the equipment first then get a rack when I have a better idea of my U space requirements?
Putting this here for my notes.
The author here uses all Genetec and is very $$$$$ but might be a good reference for later.
So I just got this guy for free so this will be the HA/Security system server.
It has 2 gig Ethernet ports on the mobo, 2x gig Ethernet nic, 2x 300GB SAS drives. Should be perfect for what I want to do. I won’t have some of the Hardware Acceleration that would be ideal for running Blue Iris but if I really have to I can get a old Nvidia card to offload hardware decoding.
