I’m running my Home Assistant in my home lab. This is overkill for most people - a cheap US $35 Raspberry Pi has enough processing power to automate your house.
This tutorial is a quick HOWTO on the basics of a Raspberry Pi, and how to install Home Assistant on one.
Although this HOWTO is written for Raspberry Pi 2, it should work for the 3 too.
And here’s the topic of the day MQA - Master Quality Audio.
MQA is a topic that generates a lot of negativity these days. One commentator even labeled the discussion as ‘nasty’ (Link). As with every audiophile topic on the Internet, audiophiles have taken sides without really looking at the one thing that’s important - the music itself.
Truth be told - all professions are to be respected; but not everybody holding a profession deserves the respect extended from his/her job.
There are some statements that irks me incessantly on the Internet. Some examples are:
I’m an engineer, cables makes no difference.
I’m a scientist, what you said cannot be true.
I’m a scientist, you are wrong.
Statements like this always surface in audiophile discussions when topics like inter-connects, power cables, and the latest craze right now - MQA. There is a very high probability the above statements will appear in any controversial topic where there is strong interest (i.e. lots of clicks), and strong opinions from two opposing extremes.
In my opinion statements like this is a lazy argument - it’s often as if the people have run out of things to say, and just throw this into the mix because they can. There are several problems with statements like these.
Using IFTTT and Voice Control to control lights isn’t as effective as initially anticipated - Google Home kept mis-interpreting what I said and go off some wild tangents. An easier way is to use the XiaoMi Gateway (Zigbee) and wireless switches.
This tutorial will show you how to register your Gateway into your Home Assistant, and then show you some simple automation examples with the XiaoMi Zigbee devices, like:
This tutorial is based on the standard documentation for XiaoMi Gateway.