Home Automation controller Home automation assistant

Everyone likes the sound of automating their house, but the reality differs quite a bit, and its a minefield of options, with so many Chinese widgets and complicated setups, many of which aren't going to work in your country.

I have taken it upon myself to get some of the lights automated in my house. This started off as a "lets buy an amazon echo to give one of the kids an alarm clock" to using it to voice activate the lights.

So i have ordered the following bits and I have an Amazon Echo + i bought in a sale.

•  Aeotec in wall switch light controller
• Aeotec Z-Wave stick
• 2 x Phillips Hue lightbulb

I have an old raspberry Pi lying around, and this might end up being where i plug my Z-Wave stick into.

My house has lots of down lights ( about 60 ), and i replaced them with LED bulbs not so long ago, so i am loathed to replace them all with LED smart lights because of the cost. Not to mention that the current bulbs are R80, and no-one makes an R80 smart bulb yet.

 I have been keeping my eyes open for the right solution that is both cheap enough and simple enough that i can set it up. I will start with the lights, and only in a single room, and go onwards from there. The main issue was lack of light switches that are certified in New Zealand. There are plenty internationally, but they are either the wrong dimensions or not approved for use here. The only one i have found is the Wullian light switch, about $100 that replaces the existing one. Its not plain enough , but would probably look ok in my house. The issue is when i get to 2 way switches, which i believe this cannot handle. The Aeotec product can.

I am planning ( after much research) to use Home Assistant as my controller, and plug the Z-wave stick into this, copy some scripts off the internet and away we go.

Just need to wait until the goodies turn up and i can start playing.

I fished out my old Raspberry Pi 1B and using the guide on the home automation website, I installed hass.io onto the SD card and booted the pi up, so far that's easy.
Getting further, I don't have the DNS name registered, so the configurator won't load from the sidebar, I need to goto the UI page under hass.io, so looking at going back to the original file to set some additional security and network details

I spent agees messing with my TV settings and haven't got anywhere. My Z Stick has arrived and I have inserted it into the PI and its showing up in Hass.io. SO now I need to get the nano switch installed.