Is adding Home Assistant the right way to go?

[British_Kiwi]

@sdetweil thanks Sam as always!! So if I install docker and then follow the HA install instructions for the container, then should be fine. I think i eventually found the correct instructions.
I do have a Synology NAS which I could possibly put it on, would need to check where to put it and what permissions.
Could I add docker directly onto the Pi?

[sdetweil]

@British_Kiwi for synology use the container manager community tool (added to package manager), HA install link https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/alternative/#install-home-assistant-container

Each App has its own compose file

You could put docker on pi 4/5

I run a mosquito mqtt server there too
And dozzle to be able to see all the container logs
And uptime-kuma to monitor apps
And watchtower to keep the containers up to date

I use zigbee devices, so run the zigbee2mqtt server there too
And the esphome server for ha integration of esphome devices (new ha assist devices for voice)

I Moved all my pi docker stuff to synology
here is a dozzle list of all the containers I am running on my synology 923+ nas, 32 gig memory

[Hilt]

@British_Kiwi

I too use HA in a container on Synology. I make the dashboards within HA and use iFrame’s to display them on the MagicMirror. This way you can make the dashboards as pretty as you like. You really don’t have limits.

To get some idea :

https://forum.magicmirror.builders/topic/19738/home-dashboard?page=1

Initially I was running an older version of MagicMirror and I had to add the following in the configuration.yaml file of Home Assistant to have them to display :

http:
  use_x_frame_options: false

To be fair, I haven’t tried excluding this since I rebuilt the MagicMirror using the latest build at the time. But it’s still in there today and isn’t causing any harm. It was more a HA workaround in any case

[British_Kiwi]

@Hilt @sdetweil sorry for the delay in response. School holidays, plus investigating options for heat pumps and keep getting distracted. I did manage to install Docker and Portainer (hadn’t seen your response yet) to my Pi and so am going to have a play with HA today. However, also going to check all your suggestions to see what can be useful :)

[sdetweil]

@British_Kiwi have fun. Lot to learn…