Rohan and Phil talk 0.97, and catch up with Brandon to see how he monitors his Beer with Home Assistant.
Tasker Alarm from Monty
I found a way to integrate my phone’s alarm app with HA so that HA knows when I’m planning to get up, but leaves the waking me up part to my phone. I use the app AlarmDroid as my alarm clock app, but this could be adapted to many other apps as well. In AlarmDroid there is a setting to display a notification for upcoming alarms. I think the default is something like 30 min before alarm, but I raised mine to 1 hour. The next step uses Tasker. I have a profile setup in Tasker to look for a Notification that has the text “Next alarm: *”. Once Tasker sees this, it sends an http post to a webhook I have setup in Home Assistant. So that webhook gives HA a 1 hour notice for when I am actually waking up. Some automations fire at the 1 hr notice, but I also start a 1 hr timer so that HA can trigger other automations at the time my alarm actually goes off. Note: This app is no longer available from the Google Play Store, but can be downloaded here: https://apkpure.com/alarmdroid-alarm-clock/com.splunchy.android.alarmclock0.97
Python 3.5 No Longer Supported
As of this release Home Assistant requires Python 3.6 or later!New Features
- Improved Accessibility There will be some less obvious changes in this release for visually impaired users of Home Assistant. So things like labelling buttons correctly in the HTML, to make them easier for screen readers and other accessibility software.
- Server control has been moved to its own Configuration area After a Reddit suggestion, Marijn Pool has moved the server control settings, such as validating config and reloading your Home Assistant config into a new section in the Configuration screen. https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/cg6tc5/anyone_else_think_it_would_be_useful_if_there_is/
- Apache Kafka Integration You can now have Home Assistant events sent to an Apache Kafka instance.Kafka is used for building real-time data pipelines and streaming apps https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/25085
- Twente Milieu Contributed by Franck, allows Home Assistant to see the waste pickups by Twente Milieu in The Netherlands. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/25129
- FortiGate Firewall Presence Detection If you’re running a FortiGate firewall, you can now have devices that connect to it exposed to Home Assistant for presence detection. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/24908
- Avea Bluetooth Lightbulbs Although no longer supported by Avea, Home Assistant can now control these Bluetooth lightbulbs! https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/24281
- Rainforest Eagle200 Integration The EAGLE-200 connects using ZigBee, Ethernet, and WiFi to various behind-the-meter devices. This includes smart meters, hot water tanks, smart outlets, solar inverters, and energy storage systemsWith Home Assistant you’ll be able to monitor energy use of your home. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/23844
- French water provider Suez With this integration Home Assistant will be able to monitor how much water your house has used over the past few months, as well as the previous day. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/23844
Breaking Changes
- Google Maps Location Tracker no longer accepting passwords If you use the Google Maps Location Tracker, you can no longer provide Home Assistant with a username and password to login to Google.You will now need to add a cookie file to your Home Assistant configuration directory in order to use this component. Instructions on how to generate this file are available on the component page.If you previously have used this component before 0.97, the only change you should have to make is to remove password from your configuration file, as Home Assistant will already have a cache of the cookie file in your system. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/25316 https://www.home-assistant.io/components/google_maps/
- Z-wave network keys in configuration.yaml will now override the UI If you have a z-wave network key in your config files, it will now be used to override any other areas where you have set a network key. So if you have trouble connecting after your upgrade, try commenting out this key first if it exists. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/25112
- Scan Interval has been removed from the Ring Camera Component To better support more ring products in the future, the scan interval setting has been removed from the Camera Component.If you’re using this setting, you’ll need to move it from the camera portion of your config, and put it in the ring component options, where you set your ring username and password. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/24950
- Calendar Platform The Calendar platform in Home Assistant has had some big updates. This affects different types of integrations, including Google Calendar and todoist.Before 0.97, when an event was over, the Home Assistant sensor would change to a default value to denote that there is no upcoming event for the calendar. From 0.97 once an event has passed and there is no future event, the state of the sensor will not be updated and will remain as-is. This makes the sensor more compatible with other Home Assistant sensors.Automation that rely on state attributes getting reset will need to be updated. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/24950
- Nuki Lock Services have changed If you have a Nuki lock, you’ll need to use the new lock.open and nuki.lock_n_go services. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/22888
- Multiroom Support has been added for Snapcast There are two new services to be consistent with Sonos, snapcast_join and snapcast_unjoin.Because of the changes to this component the snapcast snapshot and restore services have been renamed. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/24061#issuecomment-495931399
Other Noteworthy Updates
- New Spotify Service to play a playlist You can now call spotify.play_playlist with a Spotify Playlist ID to have Spotify play a playlist. Can also be set to choose a random song. https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/24991
- Area’s now supported for Fans, Covers, Automations, Counters, Alarm Control Panels, Scripts, Scenes, inputs, Wink … Aaron Bach has gone ahead and really expanded the Area support in Home Assistant this release.Thanks Aaron!
