Home Assistant

By the end of this section, you will have knowledge about the following topics:

Home Assistant smart home system installation on the T3 Gemstone O1 development board
Connecting sensors using the Deneyap Kart and providing home automation to develop smart home applications with this project

1. Introduction

Today, controlling home automation data and securing smart devices is more important than ever. You might want to manage your lighting, security cameras, smart plugs, and sensors in a centralized system without depending on major cloud providers like Amazon, Google, Xiaomi, or Tuya. To do this, you need to host your own smart home server on your own device and control your devices over your local network. However, running such a hub in your home brings technical challenges: enabling communication between devices from different brands, providing secure remote access from outside the world, and keeping the system continuously operational. These problems are often solved with complex configurations and high-cost hardware. The T3 Gemstone O1 development board, with its Home Assistant integration, provides an easy, cost-effective, and secure solution to these problems.

2. Home Assistant Installation

Home Assistant is an open-source smart home and automation platform. It offers features such as monitoring sensor data, controlling lights, plugs, and other devices, creating automated scenarios, and providing mobile access—all in a single system.

The Home Assistant installation only works on Debian images. Images of other distributions such as Ubuntu are not supported, because the Home Assistant Supervisor service does not work properly on them. Therefore, make sure you select a Debian image when writing the image to the board, as explained in the Select the operating system to install on the board section.

After establishing a terminal connection to the T3 Gemstone O1 development board, start the Docker installation with the following command:

sudo curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sudo sh

After the Docker installation is complete, you can install Home Assistant.

sudo apt install homeassistant-supervised

After the installation is complete, you need to reboot the development board so that the Home Assistant services can start properly.

sudo reboot

After the board restarts, it may take 5-10 minutes for the Supervisor to download and start all services, depending on your internet speed. You can monitor the status with the following command:

sudo docker logs -f hassio_supervisor

When you see that the hassio_supervisor and homeassistant services are in the Up (Running) state on the screen, you can access the interface from your browser: http://gemstone.local:8123 or http://<your-gemstone-ip-address>:8123 To access from outside your home, you can use the Tailscale network for which an installation guide is available, and securely connect to your system via your Tailscale IP address (http://<tailscale-ip>:8123).

3. Accessing the Home Assistant Interface and Initial Setup

Once the system services are active, when you first access the interface via your browser at http://gemstone.local:8123 or http://<your-gemstone-ip-address>:8123, Home Assistant will greet you with a setup wizard. At this stage, you can create your administrator account and complete the basic configuration of your smart home. You can easily complete the interface setup by following the images below:

If you encounter an error connecting to the interface, you can resolve it by changing https:// in the address bar to http://.

When you enter the address, you will see the Home Assistant preparing screen. The screen displays an estimated time.

If you are setting up for the first time, you can proceed with the setup from the Create my smart home section. If you have installed before and have backups, you can proceed with the options at the bottom.

After entering your name, username, and password, click the Create Account button to create your account.

You can select the location of your device, i.e., your Home Location.

Home Assistant Data Sharing Selection Screen

You need to give your consent for Home Assistant to use your data. You can continue with these settings enabled or disabled.

Congratulations! You have successfully completed the setup steps and are now on the Home Assistant main screen. You can now freely configure the hub of your smart home on the T3 Gemstone O1 and start managing your devices.

4. Sensor Integration with Deneyap Kart

This section covers the steps for connecting a motion sensor to the Deneyap Kart 1A V2 development board and integrating this sensor into the Home Assistant platform.

4.1 Installing ESPHome in Home Assistant

After opening the menu on the left side, click on the Settings option.

From the opened menu, select the Add-ons option.

Home Assistant Add-ons Section — Home Assistant Settings Section

Click the “Install Add-on” button located in the bottom right corner.

Type “esphome” in the search field in the opened menu.

Home Assistant Add-on Store Search Result

Click on the ESPHome option displayed in the search results.

In the opened menu, click on the Install option and wait for the installation to complete.

Home Assistant ESPHome After Installation

After the installation is complete, click on the Start button in the displayed menu.

Click on the “Open Web UI” button.

4.2 Configuring ESPHome for Deneyap Kart

In the opened menu, click on the “Create Device” option.

Click the “Create new project” button to continue.

On the opened page, search according to the MCU model you will use.

At this step, select the appropriate model.

At this step, you need to assign a name to the board.

At this step, enter your modem’s SSID and password in the “Network Name” and “Password” fields.

substitutions:
  LED_PIN: GPIO48      # Onboard RGB LED
  BUTTON_PIN: GPIO0    # Boot Button
  
  # Pin Mappings
  D0: GPIO1
  D1: GPIO2
  D4: GPIO42
  D8: GPIO38
  D9: GPIO48
  D12: GPIO10
  D13: GPIO3
  D14: GPIO8
  # I2C
  SDA_PIN: GPIO47
  SCL_PIN: GPIO21

Then, copy the pin definitions made in this section to the bottom of the YAML file.

Since a motion sensor will be connected in this example, paste the following definitions at the bottom of the YAML file as shown above.

binary_sensor:
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 
      number: GPIO42
      mode: INPUT
      inverted: false
    name: "PIR Sensor"
    device_class: motion
    filters:
      - delayed_on: 1s

The motion sensor is connected to the D4 pin (GPIO42). If you connected it to a different pin, you need to update the number field accordingly. For the required pin assignments, you can refer to the Deneyap Kart Pin Guide page.

Click the “Install” button in the bottom right corner. This step completes the configuration.

4.3 Uploading Software to Deneyap Kart for ESPHome

First, connect the Deneyap Kart to any USB port of your T3 Gemstone O1 development board. Various upload options will be displayed in the opened menu, but for the initial upload, you should select “Plug into the computer running ESPHome Device Builder”. For subsequent uploads, you can perform wireless uploads.

In the Port selection section, select the appropriate option from the list. If multiple ports are visible, the port that disappears and reappears when you unplug and replug the Deneyap Kart is the correct port.

Start the upload process. The first upload may take some time, so patience is recommended.

After the upload is complete, go to the ESPHome main screen and click on the “Logs” section. In the opened menu, the “Wirelessly” option is now available.

On Home Assistant, go to Settings > Devices & Services > Add Integration and click the “Add” button on the ESPHome device found there.

At this stage, click the Send button that appears.

At this step, give the board a name for Home Assistant. Then click the Skip and Finish button to continue.

Click on the “1 device” option under ESPHome.

Congratulations! A motion sensor has been successfully integrated into the Home Assistant platform. The status of the added sensor can be viewed in real-time.

5. Frequently Asked Questions

I get an “Unsupported System” warning after installation, why?

This warning may appear when using an operating system other than Home Assistant OS or when there are other manually running services on the system (such as Nextcloud or Tailscale). It is not an obstacle to the stable operation of the smart home system; it is only for informational purposes.

When will the Add-on store appear?

If you access the interface immediately after installation, the Add-ons menu may not be visible. The “Settings -> Add-ons” tab will automatically become active after the system completes the necessary configurations in the background (usually within 5-10 minutes).

Getting Started

Development Boards

Operating System

Image Writer

Projects

Sdk

Guides

Other

1. Introduction

2. Home Assistant Installation

3. Accessing the Home Assistant Interface and Initial Setup

4. Sensor Integration with Deneyap Kart

4.1 Installing ESPHome in Home Assistant

4.2 Configuring ESPHome for Deneyap Kart

4.3 Uploading Software to Deneyap Kart for ESPHome

5. Frequently Asked Questions

​1. Introduction

​2. Home Assistant Installation

​3. Accessing the Home Assistant Interface and Initial Setup

​4. Sensor Integration with Deneyap Kart

​4.1 Installing ESPHome in Home Assistant

​4.2 Configuring ESPHome for Deneyap Kart

​4.3 Uploading Software to Deneyap Kart for ESPHome

​5. Frequently Asked Questions

1. Introduction

2. Home Assistant Installation

3. Accessing the Home Assistant Interface and Initial Setup

4. Sensor Integration with Deneyap Kart

4.1 Installing ESPHome in Home Assistant

4.2 Configuring ESPHome for Deneyap Kart

4.3 Uploading Software to Deneyap Kart for ESPHome

5. Frequently Asked Questions