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Home Assistant Tips'n'Tricks

Last modified by Normann P. Nielsen on 2025/12/12 15:13
Success

Most of this stuff is outdated - and I have become a somewhat wiser man (on Home Assistant). Do use Docker instead of the installation process below etc.

Custom Installation

Upgrade the Home Assistant installation

On my Ubuntu (See https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/installation/virtualenv/)

sudo su -s /bin/bash homeassistant
source /srv/homeassistant/bin/activate
pip3 install --upgrade homeassistant

Update pyatv

sudo su -s /bin/bash homeassistant
source /srv/homeassistant/bin/activate
pip3 install --upgrade pyatv

Renaming Devices etc

As stupid as it is, You cant rename via the GUI - this will give:

Screenshot 2018-12-15 at 16.57.05.png

The trick is to edit the file core.entity_registry

cd .storage
vi core.entity_registry

Change:

{
               "config_entry_id": null,
               "device_id": null,
               "disabled_by": null,
               "entity_id": "remote.sovevrelse",
               "name": "null,
                "platform": "apple_tv",
                "unique_id": "9465bb10bf1214d769bd2aca8377aaa5203e09ae3ea4a353a02d80e3e71e149c"
           }

to

{
               "config_entry_id": null,
               "device_id": null,
               "disabled_by": null,
               "entity_id": "remote.sovevrelse",
               "name": "Apple TV Soveværelse Remote",
               "platform": "apple_tv",
               "unique_id": "9465bb10bf1214d769bd2aca8377aaa5203e09ae3ea4a353a02d80e3e71e149c"
           }

And restart Home Assistant

ZenseHome Office Light

See more at ZenseHome API interfacing

switch:
  platform: command_line
  switches:
    office_light:
      command_on: /var/turnon-office.exp
      command_off: /var/turnoff-office.exp
      friendly_name: Office Lights
    kitchen_light:
      command_on: /var/turnon-kitchen.exp
      command_off: /var/turnoff-kitchen.exp
      friendly_name: Kitchen Lights

Adding HIK/Trendnet Cams

Success

Some discussion on Reddit here

Install ffmpeg on Linux

apt-get install ffmpeg

Add som config (see https://www.home-assistant.io/components/ffmpeg/):

ffmpeg:
  ffmpeg_bin:  /usr/bin/ffmpeg


camera 41:
  - platform: generic
    still_image_url: http://admin:******@10.0.0.140:80/PSIA/Streaming/channels/1/picture
    name: Bag hus

  - platform: generic
    still_image_url: http://admin:******@10.0.0.130:80/PSIA/Streaming/channels/1/picture
    name: Fordør
ffmpeg:
  ffmpeg_bin:  /usr/bin/ffmpeg

camera:
  - platform: ffmpeg
    input: rtsp://admin:******@10.0.0.140:554/Streaming/Channels/1
    name: Bag hus (stream)

  - platform: ffmpeg
    input: rtsp://admin:******@10.0.0.130:554/Streaming/Channels/1
    name: Fordør (stream)

NMap

apt-get install nmap
sudo setcap cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin,cap_net_bind_service+eip
sudo setcap cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin,cap_net_bind_service+eip /usr/bin/nmap
device_tracker:
 - platform: nmap_tracker
    hosts: 10.0.0.0/24

Sony Songpal discover

songpal discover


Found SRS-X77 - MINT1.9.1
* API version: 1.0
* Endpoint: http://10.0.0.114:54480/sony
* Services:
 - Service: guide
 - Service: audio
 - Service: avContent
 - Service: system
Found STR-DN1060 - STR-2015
* API version: 1.0
* Endpoint: http://10.0.0.120:10000/sony
* Services:
 - Service: guide
 - Service: system
 - Service: audio
 - Service: avContent

Plex

Getting the TOKEN:

root@robin:~/homeassistant# curl -X "POST" "https://plex.tv/users/sign_in.json" \
>      -H "X-Plex-Version: 1.0.0" \
>      -H "X-Plex-Product: Home Automation" \
>      -H "X-Plex-Client-Identifier: NPN" \
>      -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8" \
>      --data-urlencode "user[password]=******" \
>      --data-urlencode "user[login]=bnp@mos-eisley.dk"
{"user":{"id":********,"uuid":"**********","email":"bnp@mos-eisley.dk","joined_at":"2015-10-16T13:37:33Z","username":"bnp@mos-eisley.dk","title":"bnp@mos-eisley.dk","thumb":"https://plex.tv/users/**************/avatar?c=*********","hasPassword":true,"authToken":"**************","authentication_token":"*********","subscription":{"active":false,"status":"Inactive","plan":null,"features":["adaptive_bitrate","collections","photos-metadata-edition","radio","photos-favorites","federated-auth","Android - PiP","publishing_platform","news","kevin-bacon","client-radio-stations","TREBLE-show-features","web_server_dashboard","conan_redirect_qa","conan_redirect_alpha","conan_redirect_beta","conan_redirect_public","news_local_now","transcoder_cache","artist-tv"]},"roles":{"roles":[]},"entitlements":[],"confirmedAt":"2015-10-16T13:40:18Z","forumId":null,"rememberMe":false}}

Add it to

{
    "10.0.0.150:32400": {
        "ssl": false,
        "token": "*********",
        "verify": true
    }
}

BitBucket

For Backup and change tracking, I use BitBucket.

https://bitbucket.org/moseiseydk/home-assistant/src/master/

Links

https://diyfuturism.com/index.php/2017/11/26/presence-detection-with-home-assistant-bayesian-probability/

https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/57arhl/multiple_device_trackers_aggregation/

MQTT

Start a MQTT Docker instance

docker run --init --restart on-failure --name mqtt --restart=always --net=host -p 1883:1883 -d ansi/mosquitto