Ok, so you’ve decided that you want to go ahead and make your home smarter.
I tried to summarize the basic hardware you need to get started.
It’s less expensive than what you may think, and it’s a lot of fun to build.
- Raspberry Pi 5
Purchase Raspberry Pi 5 Kit
It’s a very capable mini-computer, that can run Home Assistant (and possibly other add-ons later on).
This specific kit includes:
- The Raspberry Pi 5 itself (the “brains” of the computer)
- An SD card (for storing the Home Assistant software)
- A case for the Raspberry Pi, including a heat sink and a fan for cooling
- A good power supply adapter.
If you’re on a budget, you could save a few bucks and get the 4GB version (rather than the 8GB).
You could also go for a Raspberry Pi 4 which is cheaper, and would probably suffice for most users. However, if you want to future-proof your home assistant, I recommend the Raspberry Pi 5.
Alternatively, you could also run Home Assistant your PC using a virtual machine, but this requires your PC to stay on continuously (I’ll try to cover this topic later on on a separate Blog).
2. ZigBee adapter
This is required for your Smart Home to support ZigBee devices.
This is the best way to add multiple smart devices to your smart home without overburdening your WiFi network.
Also, since ZigBee is a mesh network technology, the more devices you use, the better the ZigBee coverage is, which would extend the reach of your smart home to your entire home.
SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus ZBDongle-P
I personally prefer this specific ZigBee adapter, since it’s relatively cheap, from a reputable company, and recommended by the ZigBee2MQTT open-source project.