I’m planning to build several WiFi connected devices for home automation: an AC remote control and air quality sensors. These devices would send data and be controlled through a local server. I’m considering two approaches: running custom software on a server PC (hardware to be determined) or integrating with Home Assistant’s protocols and purchasing their hardware. Would using Home Assistant be excessive for this use case?
If you aren’t locked in yet, I’d recommend against WiFi devices. Check Zigbee or similar. It won’t clutter your LAN and is independent. You usually need some kind of central station for that but it’s worth it imho.
The exception here would be ESP32 devices. These have been some of the most reliable devices in my home and the most versatile, no Internet access required. Zigbee works well, but runs in the same frequency space as wifi and Bluetooth. Matter and thread are the new hotness and run in that space too. They all work well together, but something to consider. Z Wave is in a separate frequency space, but is a less open protocol. I have at least a few of all of these and they all play nice. Consider your priorities and choose what’s best for your application.
ZigBee base stations are like 20€ or so if you get a simple usb dongle
Will do. Is it more for security purposes? Reliability?
Both! Connecting Iot devices to your LAN is a security risk, since they sometimes carry malware. Many DDOS these days are performed by smart bulbs or the like. May even sniff in your network. Of course you can firewall them, but why bother with wifi at all then? Zigbee is pretty reliable and works even if your router goes down (you probably can’t access Home Assistant Web interface anymore, but zigbee light switches etc will still trigger zigbee bulbs, zigbee thermeters will still report their sensor values etc).
I’m a Zigbee user so I use that in the examples but I’m sure the other options are fine as well.
Most wi-fi smart devices use cheap components and will often drop off the network for seemingly no reason. As long as you do some basic planning, Zigbee and Z-Wave are pretty solid. There are some folks here who will say one or both of these technologies are on their way out because Matter & Thread. I’m not sure I agree with them, but even so, HA supports Matter, so… when Thread devices become as ubiquitous as Zigbee & Z-Wave devices, you can replace them as they die.
Most WiFi devices these days are cloud-based, at least on the American market.
If you can find a Zigbee or Z-Wave (or the up-and-coming Thread), those only work locally. The only way to get remote control is to expose HomeAssistant (or a similar hub) to the internet - usually using a VPN from your remote devices into your network.
It’s a bit more upfront work, but no one can track your devices, they’re off grid/much harder to hack remotely, etc.
I’m planning on assembling and coding w/e needs coding on microcontrollers, and a mini PC/HA hardware won’t be connected to the cloud. But generally speaking yes: most IoT devices in the US connect to someone else’s computer these daya