Tutorial: Install Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi 5 in an Argon ONE V3 M.2 Case
A few weeks ago I put together a shopping list of parts to build what I think is the best beginner computer for someone looking to get started with Home Assistant and I'll stick a link to that down in the description for you to go and check out. In this video though I'm going to show you how it all goes together and how to install Home Assistant on it. So there are many reasons why I chose the Raspberry Pi as the ideal starter computer for Home Assistant and I covered those in the shopping list video so I won't go over them again but obviously there are many other types of computers you can run it on if you're confident enough, and there's the pre-made Home Assistant Green that you can buy too. But in this video I'm going to concentrate on this the Raspberry Pi 5. Now I also recommended you get an Argon ONE M.2 V3 case because this lets you use a solid state M.2 drive and keeps it all nice and safe in one single unit, but again that is all optional. You can get any old case you like for your Raspberry Pi and plug
in your SSD into the Pi just using a USB caddy or you could boot off a Micro SD card too if you really want to keep costs down. But an SSD is going to be harder wearing and probably last longer. So let's get on with the build then. So this is the Argon One case and it's got four screw holes underneath that you need to undo in order to get in into it. Now I've already taken these four screws out so I can just open this case up like this. Just here on the bottom section of the case is a little ribbon cable that's attached to this little port here, this little cream colored port. Now you need to take this ribbon cable out and you do that by pushing the
brown connectors forward just like that and then you can just pop the ribbon cable out. I'm going to put that safely to one side over there. Now I've got this little spudger tool here, actually I'll show it to this camera so as you can see it. It's just a plastic tool that you can use for separating components. It's a bit safer than using a screwdriver which is metal that could damage it
so if you've got something plastic like this that can easily open stuff up like a guitar plectrum if you haven't got a spudger. I'm going to put the base to one side for a second and we're going to look at the top section. Now in here you have got these two sticking out parts. Now on those two sticking out parts you get given in the box a couple of pieces of thermal contact pads and they're like these little gray square flappy bits that are stuck to it. Now these are already fitted on there ready for using the Raspberry Pi in it and all they do is help transfer the heat from the Raspberry Pi that's generated in the processors on there into the body of the Argon case which is made of metal and acts as a great big heat sink to keep it cool. So these are just thermal pads that transfer the heat. Now you can see on this one they're already installed because this was already built before. I've taken this apart so as I can
build it again and show you. So you can see this pad here has seen better days, I've got to replace that but pretend it's in perfect condition. Now the other side here is a little circuit board, now this circuit board we've got to undo that screw just there and take this circuit board out. So I'm going to put this down on my mat and I'm going to unscrew. Let's unscrew that single screw just there, okay, and I'll put that to one side. If I lift up on this corner just here you can see there's six little pins and those six little pins are connected to something on the main board inside the case so I'm just going to use my spudger to gently ease that up and you see it pops away and this board comes out just like that. Now we take the Raspberry Pi 5 and these just stick together.
You've got a USB-C port and two mini HDMI ports on the side there and all they do is just connect in like that. You push them all the way in nice and careful. Now we go and find that ribbon that we put to one side. So this little connection here that's labeled PCIe on the Raspberry Pi, we're just going to pop that up, it just lifts up, and then you take the ribbon cable that you removed from the case and contacts if you look at that there are little metal contacts on the one side of it. The metal contacts face inside to the Raspberry Pi and that just slides straight into the Raspberry Pi connector and then you push down on that little brown bit of plastic and it clamps it in place. So while I've got this open I want to show you something that's inside the top of the case. Now there are a couple of jumpers in here that you can move a little metal clip around to different pins depending on what functionality you want. So if you look at these pins here that I'm
pointing out with the screwdriver you can see that if it's set to pins one and two it's in default mode and if it's set to pins two and three then it's always on. Now this is referring to how power works on the Raspberry Pi. So default mode means that you have to press the power button if you want to turn it on but if I move this over to the other pins which I'm going to do then it will turn itself on as soon as you plug power into it. So basically if there's a power failure it'll always turn itself back on afterwards. So I'm going to take that little jumper off pins one and two
and I'm going to put it on pins two and three so this always stays powered on. Now I'm going to take my assembled Raspberry Pi and add-on board and I'm going to turn it upside down and we've got to put it into this case. Now there are two sections it's going to clamp into. So we've got this header section just here and then there's another six pins just down there that this part is going to plug into. So we have to lower the board down and plug it into the top of the case making sure that this ribbon cable is hanging out the bottom there. So let me do that gently here and if we can get it lined up... going to need to have a good look around there. There we go, that side's in and yeah
that's lined up so I just push it down. Okay that is all in. Now one thing to watch for here is on this particular one this is this little silver part here is an infrared transmitter. Now you see how it's kind of got caught on the board so the board hasn't gone down all the way? So I'm just going to apply gentle pressure on the top of the board while pushing it very gently to the side and there we go it's gone down all the way and now it's fully in place. So that's just something to watch for, I don't know if this is the same on all cases, it might just be a minor manufacturing defect on this one where it's slightly offside but just keep your eye on that to make sure that it doesn't get stuck on that transmitter. Now both of these boards have got to be screwed down into the case and there should be two tiny little screws that you put in. Now the
first one goes where, basically where you took it out for the add-on board which is this corner up here and if I just screw that down... oops hang on, here we go. There we go. First one is going in and then the second screw is to secure the Raspberry Pi and it goes kind of in the middle but diagonally opposite that one. So uh let's do that, there, in it goes. Okay so that's secured. Now we have to put the ribbon cable that has to connect into the base. Now in the base if you remember
we had to pull this little brown bit of plastic out and now this is a bit tricky to do because we've got to reattach that ribbon cable into there. So the contacts are showing upwards and then once that's in place you got to hold it steady and push the little brown connector all the way in until it clicks shut and it should be in pretty solid. That's brilliant. Now we very carefully so as we don't damage that connector close the whole case up and it should fit nice and snug. We turn it over and then final thing is just to put the last four screws into these screw holes here and I'm not going to show you that on camera cuz I would take too long. So we're going to put the Raspberry Pi in the case to one side for now because we don't need it for a few minutes. The next job is to install Home Assistant on the SSD and for that you need a USB caddy and I'm going to show you how to do it if you've got the caddy that I suggested you get. So this is a case made by a company called
UGreen and you'll notice there's a little arrow on one side of it and that arrow is on the same side as the USB port. But the other side of it is a button and if you press that button, push it in, the entire insides slide out so you can put the outer casing to one side for a minute. Now let's pick up the SSD and that goes into the case. It just goes in like that all the way in nice and gentle. Then I'm going to grab my spudger again because there's a little bit of rubber at the end
that I just want to pull out of the way and if I lift that rubber bit up I can push the SSD all the way down and now it it's clamped in at one end and the little rubber stopper is holding it down at the other end. I can just take the whole thing, slide it back in to the arrow side all the way in until it clicks and that is ready to use in your computer. So this next stage requires a computer so I'm going to do this on a MacBook but you could do this on Windows or Linux too. I
don't think it works on a Chromebook but someone can correct me in the comments if it's possible, I just don't know of a way to do that. So you're going to open your web browser and you're going to go to raspberrypi.com/software, scroll down on this page until it gives you some links to download the software. I'm going to download for Mac OS and you can see it's downloading just
here. I'm going to click on that now to start the installation, hopefully that is working, yep here's the window. I can now drag that that across to my applications and it should start installing. There we go yeah that's done. I'll click on close, now I'm going to open the Raspberry Pi imager app. It's downloaded from the internet, yes I am sure. Now you need to plug the caddy into a USB port
on your computer so I'm going to do that just now. Now this is using a USB-C cable but you can get a USB-C to USB-A if you don't have that sort of port on your computer. And then back in the Raspberry Pi imager software we are going to choose a device. Now this is a Raspberry Pi 5, then we're going to choose an operating system and in this list of operating systems we scroll down to other specific purpose OS; home assistant and home automation; and scroll down to the bottom there and it says Home Assistant. We'll select that one and we want this one here with the Home Assistant icon which is Home Assistant OS for RPi5 (Raspberry Pi 5). So I'm going to click on that, now we go over to choose storage and I've only got one USB drive plugged in - in this case I've got a 500GB SSD in there but whatever works best for you. You select it, click on next, warning that it will
be erased which is fine and then say yes. I'm going to put my password in here. Okay allow access and then we wait for it to finish writing... and that's done. So I'm going to click continue and I can unplug the USB drive now and it is all ready to go. So the next task is to take the SSD out of the caddy and put it in the Raspberry Pi case. So we remove the SSD first, same process as
we used to install it so we push the button on the end and slide the whole body out. I'm going to use the spudger to move the little rubber stopper aside. It's a lot easier to take it out, and then pull the SSD backwards to release it and put it safely to one side. Let's put the case back together and move that out of the way. Now the main case here of the Raspberry Pi, underneath it you can see we've got these four screws here just behind this panel. This panel is where the SSD goes
so I'm going to unscrew that, now fast forward a little bit so you don't have to watch, and then this panel lifts up. Now look under this panel, you'll see this big strip of heat transfer pad. Now I think that comes separate in the box, I can't remember it's been a while since I had it but if it comes separate then make sure you apply it to here and all that that does is when your SSD is in the case it will clamp down on top of the SSD and transfer any heat to the case itself. To be honest SSDs don't get that hot anyway so that's probably a bit of a gimmick in my opinion, but the heat transfer pad is there for you to use if you want. Alright, take the SSD and you'll see at this end which is the front of the case there is an SSD connection. So we just slide it in
and we'll push it down but it goes boing back up again and they've supplied a little screw for you to be able to clamp that SSD down properly. Let me just put that in there, just be gentle, don't want to go too tight. So that is in nicely and then we want to take the cover and put it back on. I can't remember which way around this goes now. Was it that way around? Or was it the other way around? Well that seems to have gone on nicely that way, let me just check that way.
I don't know, I don't think it matters, I'm going to put it on that way around and put all of the screws back in. Now it's time to boot it up for the first time. You must plug it into your home network using a network cable. You can set up Wi-Fi later if you want but initially you have to use a wired network connection and you'll also need to use a 27 W USBC power supply. Now go to your computer and open a web browser and navigate to http://homeassistant.local:8123 It should open up the initial configuration page for Home Assistant but if you get an error saying that the page can't be found then go and plug a monitor into your Raspberry Pi using an HDMI cable. This is another reason I recommend the Argon case because it has normal HDMI ports on it. Plug in the cable and on the screen you should see the IP address of Home Assistant as I'm showing here.
You can then use that in your web browser instead of the words homeassistant.local so that's what I'm going to do here. I'm going to type in HTTP colon forward slash forward slash 192.168.1.188 colon 8123 and press enter. Here we go, here is the welcome screen. I'm going to click on create my smart home and I'm going to create a user account and I'm going to call that sttg and that's the username, and the password is something super secure that you will never guess. And create account. I am not going to save the password and I'm going to pretend I am in Amsterdam for now. Country, United Kingdom, next. Okay you can choose to share analytics data if you want to but it's disabled by default so click on next. It's scanned my home network and found absolutely tons of things but I'm not going to
add anything now, I'm just going to click on finish. So this is the default dashboard that you get with Home Assistant. Now you might have noticed that the Argon case has got a built-in fan. Now Home Assistant can control fan but you've got to install a couple of add-ons in Home Assistant to get it working. The first thing we need to do is enable advanced mode and we do this by going down
to the bottom left hand corner and clicking on your profile name which in my case was sttg. Scroll down a little bit and tick this option here that says advanced mode. Now go over to settings, add-ons and this little blue add-on store button in the bottom right and we go up to these three dots in the top right and choose repositories. Now the first repository we want to paste in is this one here called HassOS Configurator. So we just copy the URL, don't worry I will put these down in the description for you so as you can copy and paste them, and we paste this one into that box and click on ADD and close. Okay so now we have to refresh this page so as it appears and you can see see this new section called HassOS Configurator. Now this first one here we need to enable
something called i2c. Now there's some little pins on the board that the of the Raspberry Pi that the fan is connected to and they use a protocol called i2c but that isn't enabled by default in the Home Assistant operating system. So all we're going to do is install this addon by clicking on it, choosing install, might take a few seconds and then when we run this here or actually we have to turn off protection mode which will give us a big warning it's a bit of a security risk but we know what we're doing with this. So I'm going to click on start. Now if I look in the log you'll see here it's going to say this configurator did its job. We'll ignore
the apostrophe error there and it says we need to do perform a hard power off reboot boot now. You will need to reboot twice total, once to place the files and again to activate i2c. So all you need to do now is go over to your Raspberry Pi, unplug the power, plug it back in, wait for it to boot up, test that it's working, and then do that again. Unplug the power, plug in the power and wait for it to boot up and then you're all good. So I've done my two restarts and now we need to install another
add-on so I'm going to go to settings, add-ons, add-on on store, three little dots in the top right and repositories. Now the repository I'm going to install this time is called HassOS ArgonOne add-on. Again I will put this in the description so as you can copy and paste it, you don't need to remember that. So I copy and paste it into this box, click on ADD same as I did before, click on close. We're going to refresh that, scroll down and we should see this new section here called ArgonOne Active Cooling. Now we're going to install the third one here ArgonOne V3 Active Linear Cooling because we've got the V3 case. So I'm going to click on that, click install, and in a few seconds it should have sorted itself. Before we start it we're going to go to configuration. I'm going to change this to degrees C and I'm going to set the minimum temperature here to 32. That's the temperature that the
fan will start to come on, and then the maximum temperature is 65 - that's the temperature at which the fan will be running at 100%. And then I'm going to tick this option here that says create a fan speed entity in Home Assistant and save it. Back over on the info page I'm going to click on start and then that's it that's all running. What we can do now is create a little card on the dashboard so we can see what's going on. So I'm going to click on the little edit pencil in
the top right of my dashboard, these three little dots here and take control. Start with an empty dashboard and take control. Going to click in this section here to create a new section. I don't want that title bit. Going to click on this little plus symbol here and search for gauge and select that from the results. In the entity I'm going to choose argon fan speed, I'm going to scroll down a bit and we're going to display as needle gauge, define severity: so green is 0; yellow could be 33; and red can be 66. And then I click on save and done. We've got a nice little card on our dashboard that tells us the speed of the fan at the moment. And now you have Home Assistant all
ready to go for whatever purpose you need it for and that's where I'm going to leave it for now. I'll put the shopping list of parts in the description for you so as you can go and build your very own Raspberry Pi Home Assistant server if you want to. A massive thank you as always to my amazing channel members and patrons listed here for supporting the channel. If you'd like to support the channel by becoming a member or a patron then check out the links in the description. In return I'll give you early access to my videos and some bonus content too. Don't forget to give
this video a like and subscribe to my channel for free to see more from me. Thank you for watching, goodbye!
2025-03-19 19:58
