Heyho,

I am an absolutely beginner when it comes to Smart Homes, but have some knowledge when it comes to coding, Linux, Docker and Co.

So, I decided to make my home smart and bought some stuff and hopefully I am now able to connect it somehow, but I am missing a good explanation/tutorial.

If I understand correctly then I should install some software on my minipc, connect it to my ZBT-2 which then form a Matter Controller which then can be somehow connected to the Matter lightbulbs. Is that general notion correct or am I already off? If it is correct, does anyone know a good tutorial for it? When I try to google Matter Controller I often find ready made ones and nothing on how to set it up on my own.

I bought the MiniPC because I want to set up a small home server, too, but that is largely unrelated.

  • eutampieri@feddit.itEnglish
    5·
    9 days ago

    If you use HAOS, then it’s a matter of installing the Matter (sorry) and Thread addons and you should be good to go. The official documentation explains this well.

    • VoxAliorum@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      11·
      9 days ago

      I am still flexible regarding the OS, but I thought about installing a “regular” Linux OS to give me a known environment for the home server side of things and install HA on top.

      • eutampieri@feddit.itEnglish
        4·
        9 days ago

        If you’re starting HAOS is the way to go. It’s really effortless and I’m considering to switch back to it from Kubernetes

        • davad@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          9 days ago

          I recommend this too. I’m using kubernetes for other stuff, but HAOS for Home Assistant. Super easy to manage. And it works great on small, appliance machines (I’m using Home Assistant Green).

        • Badabinski@kbin.earth
          1·
          9 days ago

          That’s the route I took. I still pray for a nice Home Assistant helm chart because I’d really like to be able to quickly bounce a Home Assistant container around between nodes and also have easier monitoring and alerting, but all the k8s options just seemed too jank.

          • eutampieri@feddit.itEnglish
            1·
            9 days ago

            Yes, but then I had to setup Multus to have Home Assistant have an interface on my LAN (i.e. for HomeKit) and it’s added complexity at that point

          • spitfire@lemmy.worldEnglish
            4·
            9 days ago

            If you plan to run other stuff, I’d rather recommend using HAOS in a VM, possibly on Proxmox VE.

          • isgleas@lemmy.mlEnglish
            2·
            9 days ago

            If you decide to install HA as container on any other host, then you will have to install any other component/plugin/etc as external containers or services as needed. HAOS has everything included.

  • SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zipEnglish
    1·
    9 days ago

    It’s pretty simple: Spin up a VM or container with HAOS; do the initial Home Assistant config; and ensure that the ZBT-2 is assigned to it via USB passthrough. HA will detect the ZBT-2, and offer to add it to your instance with a card in the Devices & services settings. (I think it’s more obvious these days, but they’ve made some changes recently, and I haven’t added anything since then to see.)

    Once it’s added, you can then pair Matter devices with HA. That’s most easily done with the Home Assistant app on a phone or tablet, but can be done through the web interface using the Add device button on the Matter page in settings.