Home Automation

My personal home automation setup in Docker leveraging:

• Frigate - recording of full resolution videos
• Home-Assistant - integration and UI
• Watsor - camera object detection via GPU
• Docker Movement Detection - custom movement detection using OpenCV and Python

Setup

Install Docker and run Linux post-install steps so you don't need sudo for your regular user.

Install Docker Compose.

Copy .env-copy to .env and edit

Make sure /config/www/ which gets mounted is writeable.

Copy homeassistant/secrets_copy.yaml to homeassistant/secrets.yaml and edit

Run setup-certs.sh

Build via compose and bring up services

docker compose up --build -d

Run initial-setup.sh

Install the home-assistant Android application on cellphone

Setup Frigate on main Asus computer with Nvidia decoding of h264 video. Install Nvidia proprietary drivers and the nvidia-docker2 package, see details here. Use the nvidia-smi command to make sure you can launch Docker and pass the GPU through properly. Set FRIGATE_RTSP_PASSWORD in .env which is the camera password. See frigate folder. Run run-frigate.sh.

Setup Watsor on main Asus computer with Nvidia decoding of h264 video as well as object detection. See watsor folder. Run run-watsor.sh.

Leverages the integration with HA Script copies custom_components folder over to homeassistant as part of home automation refresh and update process. Go into integrations in Home Assistant if Frigate doesn't load properly and add it.

Use the run-home-automation.sh for future changes and to grab the latest versions of Docker images.

UI

• Frigate - https://192.168.1.226:5005
• Home-Assistant - http://192.168.1.226:8123
• ZWaveJS - http://192.168.1.226:8091

Frigate

Cameras

Don't use h265, Frigate may struggle with this and it's not supported to replay in some browsers.

Camera (Amcrest IP4M-1051W - 4MP)

• Web-UI:
  • http://192.168.1.111
  • inside camera
• main stream (recording)
  • rtsp://admin:secret@192.168.1.111:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0
  • 2688 x 1520 (20 fps)
• sub-stream (person detection)
  • rtsp://admin:secret@192.168.1.111:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=1
  • 640 x 480 (5 fps)
• h264 passthrough

Camera (Samsung Galaxy Nexus cellphone)

• Uses the IP Webcam application for Android
• rtsp://admin:secret@192.168.1.116:8080/h264_pcm.sdp
• 1280 x 720 (30 fps)
• h264 passthrough

Additional Setup

Home Assistant

Upon startup, register with name Patrick and username patrick.

See configuration.yaml for devices and setup

See ui-lovelace.yaml for UI configuration

Updating UI

Make changes, then run initial-setup.sh to copy the ui-lovelace.yaml file over, then refresh the page. Works with a live running container.

Smart Power Plug Switches

TP-Link HS105 smart switches with various hardware versions. Uses the Kasa Android app for setup. Don't update firmware because it locks out ability to communicate with devices.

Z-Wave

In zwavejs2mqtt, enable the WS Server option. Then go into Home Assistant and add the integration for zwavejs2mqtt. In zwavejs2mqtt, under MQTT set the hostname to be mosquitto instead of localhost, this will connect to the existing MQTT broker running in Docker.

Z-Wave Devices

• Qolsys IQ Dimmer - QZ2140-840
  • Single tap button to turn on inclusion mode
• In-wall switch front-door lights, GE
• Honeywell thermostat

Zigbee

In Home Assistant under integrations, add the Hubz Smart Home Controller for Zigbee.

Zigbee Devices

• Aqara motion sensor model: RTCGQ11LM

Networking

Setup Network -> Firewall rules in OpenWRT to reject any packages from the LAN to WAN. This allows it on the local network but disallows all Internet traffic. This way you can block things like the cellphone, smart plugs, etc.

Updates

If there are updates upstream in the Docker images:

docker compose build --pull --parallel
# or force a full rebuild
# docker compose build --no-cache --pull --parallel
docker compose up -d

Teardown

docker compose down -v

Cleanup files from the mounted Docker volumes

TODO

• check pihole status and notify if down
• add zwavejs version to update check
• add zwavejs devices back in
• update watsor to 20.04 and TensorRT 8.2 (PR in)
• send more forceful messages to phone on alarm, using TTS - https://companion.home-assistant.io/docs/notifications/notifications-basic
• get dimmer switch working, zwave, get integrated into automations
• create container on Pi to subscribe to mqtt and save person detection to usb drive, provide deep links to frigate recordings at this timestamp via the API
• check disk usage by Frigate
• check /video disk usage and frigate recordings amounts
• add explanatory text on containers, documentation, images/GIFs to README, add helpful links
• setup Frigate with SSL certs (is this possible to connect from HA?)
• secure Frigate RTMP ports?
• up substream FPS
• fix camera NTP