In case this helps anyone, I spent a day trying out different methods to set up HomeAssistant on my QNAP NAS and think I found the easiest solution which worked out of the box.. The goal was to try to get some unsupported devices on HE to be accessed. I believe they can be used together to form a more complete automation solution. It’s my first time using HA and I don’t have a solid opinion of HA as of yet.
Here’s what I tried and failed in different ways (try at your own risk or just skip to bottom):
My first attempt was to use Container Station and try to load in a Docker of HomeAssistant. Followed many tutorials including the one posted on HA. Got it to work, but the install wouldn’t respect my locations by default, and when I tried to install some integrations, I found out HACS (used to install 3rd party integrations) wasn’t supported by the HA version installed which is the basic one. It is very limited. Many devices will also not properly connect although they show up. I found myself going crazy and attempting to edit all kinds of files.
Second option is to directly use a QnapClub (3rd party App Center) HomeAssistant .qpkg install. Attempted to do this but it asked for Apache81 to be installed first. I went searching for it and there’s a charge plus several security warnings floating around the web regarding this Apache81 install. Decided to find a different method or give up.
Here’s what worked easily and provides the most capabilities:
Install Virtualization Station if you haven’t already.
Download and import the .ova file (VMware ESXi/vSphere) of HomeAssistant at the link below. Keep in mind that I wouldn’t follow the instructions provided by HA on this page: https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/alternative
Use default settings in Virtualization Station.
Wait as it installs and proceed to setup. Note that the IP address will be different from your NAS now.
May I inquire what you are not able to control with Hubitat that you will be able to with Home Assistant? I am currently a Home Assistant user here to investigate switching over to Hubitat for easy integration with Alexa.
For me its my Growatt inverters, my sofar ac coupled battery inverter, myenergi Eddi (cant get the hubitat integration to install), My nanoleafs HA integration is better at getting scenes to syncs, TUYA integration ( hubitat integration just stopped one day and couldnt get it working again), linking my smart meter and my mobile phone. i think thats pretty much all of it for me i then import most of the data into hubit for automations
I have Velux with Netatmo skylights that are only supported by Homekit and Google Home. Velux were supposed to release echo/Alexa compatibility but they scraped it.
Someone recently wrote a HE driver for Velux with Netatmo, but it only really works with their windows and shades — not this particular system.
I also have a few Ikea buttons and a Motion Sensor which is unsupported (or work flakey) on HE.
There’s also other integrations HA has that he doesn’t, or that some of theirs is more polished and vice versa. Off the top of my head, there’s a Toyota car starter app, Emporia Vue monitoring, a better Solaredge (solar panel inverter) tracking system, etc.
Should add that I’m pretty happy with HE and have been using it for years now. I’m also platform agnostic.
It doesn’t have an attractive interface, but it’s much easier to use than HA when it comes to setup and automations. It has very good receivers (covers my entire home) and most things other than REALLY obscure stuff is supported. Honestly, I rarely use interfaces on smart devices—my home is mostly voice-controlled.
I was pretty spoiled and disappointed when I first installed HA to find out that there’s a monthly charge for Alexa integration (although there are workarounds for this.) I understand where their developer is coming from when having to earn a living, but $80/year is steep for me. HE makes it much simpler and free to Use. So I finally managed to hook voice control via HE to tell HA how to control my skylights.
From what I understand it's more complicated to do with Synology because they have disabled USB for a lot of use cases including ZigBee/z-wave dongles.
I use HE for my Zigbee devices (switches, buttons, lights, contact sensors, motion detectors) plus my two Ecobee thermostats. The HE has been very reliable, and I find it easy to write automations (at least so far!).
I use HA for devices not supported by HE. For me, the most important of these is a Sense home power monitor. I've been experimenting with automations written in YAML and Node Red to set virtual switches, which are shared with the HE. I plan to use the switch states to automate AC/Heat pump settings to save on my electric bill.
HA is running on an ODROID-N2+ with an external SSD. It has plenty of power for my needs.
I also record sensor data from both HE and HA on an Influx Database (running on an old PC), and I use Grafana within HA to create trend charts/dashboards.
