In the middle of building my Van and was planning on adding home assistant as well. We have very similar system selection as well as building methodologies. Looking forward to this series!
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think your videos would benefit from a slightly slower speaking cadence. Like 10-15%. You do a good job of sticking to the meat of topic. Ironically, I am someone who frequently uses youtube's settings to speed up slow talkers, but in your case, we wind up with so much information in a single 60-second sentence that it feels rushed. Looking forward to the next one! Maybe I'll build out my vanpi alongside you.
I've recently been looking into a fully local LLM AI chat assistant. Goal is to have a decent conversational voice assistant. Really looking forward to your upcoming videos. 🙂
Perfect timing for me . I used your links and purchased pi 5 and accessories. I’m stuck at the install home assistant stage. I’m using pie transfer, but the SD card doesn’t show up as a storage location. I’m sure I’ll figure it out and catch up on the next video. I really want the local Bluetooth functionality.
Glad you're joining in! Make sure your SD card mounts to your computer. I have heard of some PC internal SD card readers not working with modern cards where an external USB card reader might. What kind of machine are you using?
It’s like you got inside my head and copied my ideas! I’m in the middle of doing the exact same thing with my RV. I want the smartest of mobile smart homes on wheels!
II installed Hubitat in my van back in 2020, and it has generally met my needs. However, I've always wished for more advanced features and easier creation of visually appealing dashboards. While Hubitat offers extensive compatibility with various sensors and devices, and has proven reliable, its interface often felt cumbersome to me. Additionally, the closed-source nature of the platform was somewhat disappointing. When I initially set up my system, Home Assistant lacked support for some of my required hardware, which led me to choose Hubitat. Now, I'm eager to reassess Home Assistant to see how it has evolved. I'm looking forward to following this series to determine if Home Assistant might better suit my current needs.
I only gave it a quick glance but even revisiting it now, all I see is their "buy now" button all over the website. This doesn't scream open. As @alfredm99 mentioned, it didn't seem it would offer the power I'd need to control every single system in the van. ESPHome is a big part of this equation and once I saw that, I was sold on Home Assistant.
Can this automate the onboard air compressor? I am a soko female traveler my van is being built now professionally, I would like to be able to set the psi on the system and have that work. Is that doable? Safety and convenience when driving say on the beach. Is this smart van able to be set up even after electrical is finished? Thanks I want a list of ehat I need but Ideally I need help to get it done. Perhaps you can talk to my builder?? Hoping.....thanks¡
We do have our ARB air compressor on the home automation system-in conjunction with a dash switch (either works). We cannot set the PSI-I assume you mean tire pressure-from our system? This IS possible (and exists on some vehicles) and would likely be something that can be integrated into a home automation system. You can indeed retrofit much of what I've done after your build is done, though life will be easier if some groundwork is laid ahead of time. Who's your builder?
I'm really curious to hear more about how you integrated your van systems with Home Assistant. I've been running Home Assistant in my house for 6 or so years, I have developed a project using ESPHome (Yet Another Smart Vent), and recently wrote a Home Assistant Integration. I also have a campervan (Winnebago Revel) have been flirting with the idea of running a small server and adding some "smart relays" (or whatever term you'd like to use). Integrating things like lights seems straightforward, I'm more interested in everything else. Thanks for working on this content! It is likely going to inspire me to at least do a proof of concept.
