You can look at xeoma...
also if you wanna go the wine route
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Xeoma looks interesting, but where are the servers located that make the recognition features possible? The same applies to BlueIris. I would prefer to not send video to servers in Russia or China. I am comfortable in keeping my video local except for access over a VPN if needed.
Welp...solved my "in bed" problem thanks to my wife. I have some Kasa plugs that report energy consumption. One of those for the chargers by the bed and I've got my triggers.
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I do something similar with my Kasa plugs as well. Just take into account the polling rate you have set in setting up any rules.
Hi @sburke781
I just started home automation in late May, and purchased some devices and my HE hub at the same time. My three overriding challenges have been:
- Expectations for HE. It's an outstanding device, and really shines with control of Zigbee and Z-wave devices. I also knew about the drivers for Ecobee thermostats, and that fit in well with my plans for home power management. What I did not appreciate, however, was the challenge of getting input from non-supported wifi devices. I now understand why. So I've gone down the rabbit hole called HomeAssistant.
- Dashboards and history/charting. Basic dashboards are not difficult, but it's cumbersome to develop everything I'd like and make it look good. I now have dashboards for my PC's and different ones for the phones. I also pull data from HE to HA and make Lovelace dashboards, which are easy to configure (unlike most other things in HA). For history and charting, I followed advice from the community and converted an old windows PC to Linux and configured InfluxDB and Grafana. That was a challenge (never used Linux before). I'm very happy with the results, though. (And now I'm charting data from HE- and HA-connected devices together.)
- The structure/syntax of RM (and essentially other automation apps). I found it hard to grasp that one needs to start with a fairly simple trigger, with the logic to follow in actions. I tend to think of triggers and restrictions together. What helped me here was to follow the tutorial video "wake-up light." I duplicated that automation and tweaked it a bit. It's still my favorite automation!
I'm also playing with Node-Red within HA. So far, I really like it.
Bonus item 4. Sometimes, I'm just a little "dense." But I've enjoyed learning so much with my new hobby!
What I found easy: Initial HE setup and connection to my devices, simple automations (I have a number of them), Alexa Skill and other apps... Really like HPM. Also, getting help. This community is awesome!
Cheers, Doug
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Blue Iris is all local and being a Mac user I understand what you’re saying about Windows. However, I look at it this way, the Windows machine I use for BI is dedicated as a local NVR and not used for anything else. So basically it’s the same as a stand-alone NVR.
solving problems that dont exist or dont add any benefit to anything other than saying "I made this"
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For me, most of the time, it is finishing something.... That can include my own setup, e.g. moving between different lighting solutions or the rpi4 sitting in my drawer waiting to be setup... Or the various driver and app projects I would like to develop. Small and manageable tasks like solving someone else's problem can seem more achievable.... Unlike many other Community members, I don't have the looming critique of other family members, so I rely on self-motivation.... which can be a problem on it's own...
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Ohhhh and its a deep rabbit hole too.. and Haven't even gotten to swapping out my actual weather station yet, soon though!!
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Have you used it yet??
I got the Tempest WeatherFlow a couple of weeks ago. This thing rocks! (using the WeatherFlow Lite driver).
See, this is another thing I find 'hard' about HA. Someone buys something, posts about how great it is ( in this case @rlithgow1 
), so I HAVE TO GET ONE! lol
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I've integrated my GSD into Hubitat. Want the name of a good breeder?
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Still on the slow boat to the US I expect. Hopefully by the end of August.
@ bob692006 Are you trying to avoid adding voice control with Alexa or Google Home into your system? At our house voice utterances are the start of any useful home control project - we actually don't do very much "automation" per se but we're focused on remote device control via voice. So e.g. I've got a whole set of device routines that trigger when I say "Alexa I'm going to sleep"...
Mainly for the night-time routine. With our (human) routines, we end up getting in the bed about 10 minutes apart. I'm often already asleep by the time she comes out of the bathroom and have been woken up more than once to her kicking off her "goodnight" routine using Google. It's also to get rid of that, albeit trivial, extra step.
It's all resolved now though. I tossed some Kasa plugs with energy reporting on the wireless chargers we use. A simple rule of "charger pulling power, no motion in the bathroom, and a cutoff time" gets me a trigger for kicking off other automations (e.g. setting the alarm, making sure the locks are locked, turning off lights, etc.).
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The things I find hard about Home Automation are 1) lack of (up-to-date) documentation for devices and software and 2) lack of integrated development and especially debugging tools. Crazy to still be relying on printf() debugging and log-filtering to do software development in 2022 - or is there a single-steppable groovy debugger I don't know about that will run on Hubitat?
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