Setting up Home Assistant

Home Assistant is a home automation platform running on top of a central hub (Raspberry Pi, PC, etc.). It can be used to control and monitor all kinds of devices, from lights and thermostats to security cameras and smart home appliances.

Preparation

Before you start, make sure you have the following:

A Raspberry Pi that can run Home Assistant.
A stable internet connection.
An account on Home Assistant Cloud (optional, but recommended for remote access).

Installation

Open the terminal and enter the following commands:

Install Docker

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sunfounder/sunfounder-installer-scripts/main/install_docker.sh | sudo bash

Install Home Assistant

sudo docker pull homeassistant/home-assistant

Run Home Assistant Container

Here, we use Docker Compose to run Home Assistant. You can think of Docker Compose as an “automation script.” It will write all the configurations (such as image name, ports, volume mounts, environment variables, etc.) into a docker-compose.yml file. After that, with just a simple command docker compose up -d, Docker will automatically create and start all configured containers according to this “script.”

Enter the project directory: Go into that folder.

cd ~/homeassistant

Create the configuration file: In the ~/homeassistant directory, create a file named docker-compose.yml and copy the above configuration into it.

sudo nano docker-compose.yml

Paste the following content into the docker-compose.yml file:

Note

Please replace the - TZ=Asia/Shanghai with your timezone.

version: '3'
services:
homeassistant:
   image: ghcr.io/home-assistant/raspberrypi5-64-homeassistant:stable
   container_name: homeassistant
   restart: unless-stopped
   privileged: true
   network_mode: host
   environment:
      - TZ=Asia/Shanghai
   volumes:
      - ./config:/config

Ctrl+X to exit the editor, and then press Y to save the changes.
Start Home Assistant: In the ~/homeassistant directory, run the following command. Docker Compose will automatically pull the image and start the container.

sudo docker compose up -d
up: Create and start services.

-d: Run in the background (detached mode).

Check the running status:
```
docker compose ps
```

You should see the status of homeassistant as Up.

View the logs (if there are startup issues):

docker compose logs -f

For more command, please check:
```
docker compose --help
```

Setting Up

Now, you can open your computer’s browser and enter: http://<Your Raspberry Pi Address>:8123 to access Home Assistant.

Select CREATE MY SMART HOME, and then create your account.

Follow the prompts to choose your location and other configurations. Once completed, you will enter the Home Assistant dashboard.