Tag Archives: ESPHOME

Electronics, ESP32, ESP8266

FREE HA SERVER SETUP

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#61 FREE HOME ASSISTANT SETUP

Since I have been using a ton of ESP8266 and ESP32 devices in my projects I decided to look for a suitable server with a good track record. During my research I singled out Home Assistant coupled with the ESPHOME Add-on as my go to software.

The ESPHOME Add-on is perfect for my projects since it does not require a MQTT broker and supports both the ESP8266 and the ESP32 development chips.

Step 1: Install Home Assistant on a suitable device to act as the server ( in my case it was on a Raspberry Pi 4 B) Link to install instructions here.

Step 2: Setup Port Forwarding/Virtual Server for port 8123 and DMZ Settings + uPnP.

On my D-Link router I had to setup a virtual server for port 8123 using internal static IP 10.0.0.9

I setup 10.0.0.9 to my DMZ host address and enabled it.

I enabled uPnP for my router.

Step 3: Setup Duck DNS for your Home Assistant server.

Go to Duck DNS create an account and setup your domain name then copy your token to paste in HA.

On your HA panel install the DuckDNS Add-on and go to configuration. There paste your token and domain name. Also change the accept_terms to: true.

Using the file editor navigate to /config/configuration.yaml and insert your certificate and key paths.

Step 4: Restart Home assistant.

Go to configuration-> server controls->restart to restart HA.

If you are using LTE with Telkom ( like me in South Africa ) be sure to set your APN to unrestricted …. link to tutorial here.

Once your server is up and running and using HTTPS instead of HTTP you can download the HA APP to your mobile device and insert your DuckDNS domain name into the Home Assistant URL field.

Tap on Enter Address Manually.

Enter your URL.