this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
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homeassistant

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Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server. Available for free at home-assistant.io

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Okay, so years ago, I bought the original Western Digital MyCloud EX2 (model number: WDBVKW0080JCH-EESN) and have been happy with it, it does what I need it to do, which is store my music and films. I didn't need it to do more than that so hard never needed to upgrade or invest again.

However a couple years ago, Western Digital yanked support, stripped some features and left me to fend for myself. No issue it does what I need.

I also happened to have a Hive Home setup for my lights and heating. Again the first generation. They too recently yanked support and stripped features. Only they emailed and said if I want to be able to use my lights or heating, I had to upgrade. Fool me once!

So reading around on Lemmy. I read a conversation one day where someone was looking for a setup that didn't need to depend on proprietary services and Zigbee was recommended.

After much delay, given that it's now getting darker earlier, I took the plunge on some Zigbee bulbs and they've arrived.

However the beautiful fantasy I constructed in my head isn't that of reality and it turns out I need a third party management hub of sorts, basically HomeAssistant or OpenHAB.

This time I did some reading, everyone seems to prefer HA in the end and apparently there's some other cool stuff I can do with it too regarding my watch notifications.

But... There's always a but. Given that there's no support for my MyCloud and given that I'm an idiot in regards to these things, I have no idea how to get set up.

Would anyone be so kind as to help me please?

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[–] nemanin@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

First google link that looked reasonable. I have not followed this. But I bet it will work.

https://pimylifeup.com/home-assistant-raspberry-pi/

[–] sabreW4K3@lemmy.tf 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I know HomeAssistant can run on my NAS, so buying more hardware seems like overkill

[–] Cyber@feddit.uk 1 points 1 year ago

I have never seen nor used a WD MyCloud, but if you know that an upgrade allowed for HA to run (I presume in Docker), then how about just wiping whatever OS is on the NAS and installing a Linix distro, then moving up from there?

A few use TrueNAS to run HA in docker, but a few quick searches shows that won't work on your hardware.

Probably a lot more work than you were intending, but should simplify the future for that NAS and prevent any kludgy workarounds from trapping you again in the future.

And... I presume you have a backup of everything on that NAS 😉

[–] paf@jlai.lu 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You need something like a raspberry or a small computer to run home assistant 24/7 and you also need a zigbee coordinator (to be able to use your ZigBee devices) like sonoff CC2652P or conbee 3 (others are available). Install home assistant, and learn how to manage/customise as you wish.

Home assistant is great but it's not a plug and play option, settings basics stuff isn't complicated but you will have a learning curve to be able to do more (depending of knowledge you already have)

https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/

[–] sabreW4K3@lemmy.tf 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was hoping someone could tell me how to get it to run on my NAS. I know people use Docker for it, but I don't know which one or how to? I do have a Sonoff Dongle.

[–] paf@jlai.lu 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] sabreW4K3@lemmy.tf 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thank you so much for the time and effort you're putting into helping me, I really appreciate it. Unfortunately though, that's not for the original MyCloud. My version didn't get the update to version 5 of the operating system, which is step one of the instructions you linked, hence the conundrum I'm in and subsequent plea for help. It was kind of a hail Mary, hoping for a miracle.

[–] paf@jlai.lu 1 points 1 year ago

Unless you can find an alternative firmware that can run docker, I don't see any other options. Wish you luck