Home assistant Yellow, for whom?

Some time ago I introduced you to the box home assistant Green, a plug’n play box at less than 100€ which is causing a sensation in the world of home automation. Today it’s the turn of the Home Assistant yellow, released well before the green box, this box is not ready to work upon purchase, however the different options available still make it a home automation box of choice but for a more informed public!

For a versatile integration I decided to add a z-wave 800 GPIO key from the Zooz brand, so the Home Assistant yellow box will be natively compatible with the protocols (wifi, bluetooth, thread, Matter, z-wave 800 and zigbee 3.0), to continue I added a sandisk 500GB ssd hard drive to compensate for the storage present on the CM4 card, namely if the Home Assistant yellow box manages the SSD disk well!

Prerequisites

• A Home Assistant Yellow Box (wired or Poe )
• A USB key to transfer HAOS to the raspberry Pi
• Optional (an NVME ssd hard drive)
• Optional a ZOOZ ZAC93 z-wave gpio key fully compatible with Yellow

Unboxing the Home Assistant yellow

The similarities between the last two boxes produced by Nabu Casa are aesthetic, oh I would say 99% 🤠, just that you will tell me, but if you don’t believe me just look at the photos taken below.

The Home Assistant yellow box comes with an rj45 cable (for the POE version), a heat sink for the raspberri CM4, thermal pastes and everything needed to fix the whole thing. Nice stickers and an online installation guide accompanies the rest. The web page dedicated to the Home Assistant yellow box is very complete, I advise you to visit it without further delay.

Box Home Assistant Yellow

By Nabu Casa

Home Assistant Yellow is your Matter-ready, scalable and expandable home automation hub.

Buy Now out of Domadoo

Card features Home Assistant yellow

1. Jumper to control the external usb-c connector in uart or usb mode (by default it is in uart mode)
2. boot recovery button (with the jumper on usb) see the boot recovery function on the official documentation which allows you to reinstall HAOS
3. Connectors to directly connect a usb/uart connector in order to directly update the Zigbee firmware
4. GPIO port in my case will be used to install the Zooz ZAC 93 Z-wave dongle
5. Jumper (I didn’t find what it was for)
6. nvme connector
7. raspberry pi cm4 slot
8. POE power supply

Installing the Raspberry pi CM4

Zooz ZAC93 Z-wave 800 key installation

Good News Zooz, produces a Z-wave ZAC93 Europe/Us compatible 800 series key in GPIO format and all compatible with the Home Assistant yellow, what more could you ask for for this integration.

Dongle GPIO Z-wave 800LR

By Zooz

Z-wave Long Range 800 key GPIO format compatible Home Assistant Yellow

Buy Now out of Amazon

The Z-wave 800 key has recently become available on the Amazon site This is good news, you can also order it directly from the official American website of Zooz The Smartest House Zac93, the key will only cost you $18 but don’t forget the shipping costs.

Rendering of the ZAC93 GPIO key on the box Home Assistant yellow

Upgrade du firmware

Upgrading the Z-wave firmware is very simple, start by installing the famous Z-wave JS library. Z-wave JS is to the Z-wave protocol what Zigbee2mqtt is to the Zigbee protocol. The difference is that it works in addition by clicking on the link below

Below an animated gif of the Z-wave JS configuration for the Home Assistant yellow box (in the video I previously installed ZWave-JS)

Then it’s not over you have to link Z-wave JS to the Z-wave device nothing very complicated follow the doc available in the z-waveJS module Documentation section, retrieve or copy this address ws://a0d7b954-zwavejs2mqtt:3000 go to Settings > Device and service then add an integration, select in the z-wave search engine and deselect use the add-on …., finish by pasting the address, and there you go.

Watch the video which shows the manipulation

1. Download the latest firmware available on the dedicated Zooz page

SSD Installation

Nothing could be simpler, use the thread available on the card, insert the NVME disk and lock it all, I won’t draw you a picture because it’s relatively simple to set up.

Hard drive Nvme 500Go

By Sandisk

Quality hard drive 500GB ssd Nvme compatible Home Assistant Yellow

Buy Now out of Amazon

In the current state of things the nvme ssd hard drive will not be of full use so optional for the moment unless you have chosen a CM4 lite without storage space. The lite version costs 17€ less than the 32GB version. Choose wisely from the start.

Home Assistant yellow the essentials

Find in this tab the essentials of the complementary installations for home assistant in order to best prepare your home automation such as automated backup, monitoring, simplified remote access, firmware updates, in short the essentials!

HACS (complementary directory)

It is becoming almost essential to install hacs in addition to the Home Assistant modules, it is a breeding ground for large-scale integrations and themes, the installation of this module has been simplified and revised this year. I will spare you the installation in image because the official instructions are very well done.

Official HACS Installation Instructions

Summary:

1. 
2. In the Get HACS add-on, select Install.
3. Start the add-on.
4. Access the add-on logs and follow the instructions provided there.
5. Restart Home Assistant
6. In Home Assistant, go to Settings > Devices and services.
7. Clear your browser cache.

HACS will not appear in the list unless you clear your browser cache or do a full refresh. In the bottom right corner, select + Add Integration.

Backup

Manual backup is available by default in HAOS Home Assistant yellow Systems/Backups, you will find in this tab all the backups available before updates, and those requested manually, but if you want to automate backups on a daily/monthly basis, etc, you will need to install an add-on, I chose Auto Backup.

The module manual is complete, if you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me.

JCWillox Home assistant auto backup

Downloads the Hass-auto-backup directory

Then add the integration

Blueprint Event and Service

JCWillox example Events and Service

Monitoring

A lot of functions like LED control are done natively with the Yellow version of HAOS. Go to Settings > System > Hardware or click on the link below:

However if you want to monitor all the functions available with the Raspberry CM4 as well as other functions (70 at the time of writing this article) you will need to install System monitor, that’s good because it’s ultra simple, click on the link below:

System Monitor Home Assistant

Reinstalling the complete system on CM4

A dedicated page of explanations and available by the Nabu Casa site

Option (recommended) reinstall Home Assistant OS using the red + blue button

1. Make sure that no USB device is plugged into the device.
2. Power off your system.
3. Power on the system.
4. Within 3s (or immediately upon booting), press and hold the red and blue buttons on the back of the device at the same time.
5. Hold both buttons down for about 10s. The yellow LED should not start flashing!
6. Remove the power supply from your system.
7. Follow the instructions to install Home Assistant OS using the Home Assistant OS installer for Yellow from a USB stick.

Zigbee Flash Firmware

Wiki Home Assistant for manual firmware flash

install the Advanced SSH and terminal add-on by clicking the button below directly

Don’t forget to disable Module Protected Mode, otherwise you won’t be able to access the hardware and therefore the key.

Below are the steps to install other firmwares and bootloader on the zigbee key

pip install universal-silabs-flasher

git clone https://github.com/NabuCasa/silabs-firmware.git

cd silabs-firmware

And install the latest firmware version

universal-silabs-flasher \
    --device /dev/ttyAMA1 \
    --bootloader-reset yellow \
    flash \
    --allow-cross-flashing \
    --firmware ./EmberZNet/beta/NabuCasa_Yellow_EZSP_v7.4.0.0_PA32_ncp-uart-hw_115200.gbl \

If you want to install the latest version of the bootloader and firmware available on the new Nabu casa repository, go to this address https://github.com/NabuCasa/silabs-firmware-builder/releases

go to the Bootloader directory

cd Bootloader
wget https://github.com/NabuCasa/silabs-firmware-builder/releases/download/v2024.10.21/yellow_bootloader_2.4.2.gbl

universal-silabs-flasher \
    --device /dev/ttyAMA1 \
    --probe-method bootloader \
    --bootloader-reset yellow \
    flash \
    --firmware ./Bootloader/yellow_bootloader_2.4.2.gbl

do the same for the firmware

cd EmberZNet/beta/
wget https://github.com/NabuCasa/silabs-firmware-builder/releases/download/v2024.10.21/yellow_zigbee_ncp_7.4.4.0.gbl

universal-silabs-flasher \
    --device /dev/ttyAMA1 \
    --bootloader-reset yellow \
    --allow-cross-flashing \
    flash \
    --firmware ./EmberZNet/beta/yellow_zigbee_ncp_7.4.4.0.gbl \

Access Externally with FRP

Unlike other manufacturers of home automation boxes, Home Assistant resonates the opposite by focusing its main strength on security. When you access the Home Assistant environment you have completely local access by default. If you want to access your box from outside you will have to either choose the Nabucasa cloud offer which is of course paid. But you can also set up a free service like the wireguard vpn, or use a duckdns module. But if you don’t know anything about it you can also set up a completely free system called FRP and integrated by Haade. I wrote an article about it, in 2-3 clicks you can connect remotely using a *.eu.haade.fr address and I want to say it’s all free for 2 years now. To do this, nothing could be simpler contact me and I will give you a login and password, our server is protected by a VPN, for the installation tutorial I wrote a complete article available at this address.

Let’s talk about price

To have such a configuration and let’s start with the fact that we want to transfer the storage space of the HAOS operating system to an SSD, it cost me:

• Home assistant yellow POE version: 159€ (the power supply version costs 10€ less)
• raspberry pi CM4 8GB Lite version with wifi: 88€
• Zooz Zac93 z-wave key: 36€
• Sandisk 500GB Nvme SSD: 40€

To have an installation with different protocols (Z-wave, Zigbee, Wifi) the whole thing cost me: 323€ WAF but expensive ..

Technical specifications Home Assistant yellow

• Carrier board for Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 (CM4)
• CM4 board-to-board connector
• Supports direct booting from NVMe devices (e.g. for CM4 Lite)
• 12 cm x 12 cm
• Compatible with all 32 CM4 variants
• Quad-core Cortex-A72 (ARMv8) 64-bit / 1.5 GHz
• Up to 8 GB RAM
• Up to 32 GB eMMC storage
• Regulatory approval does not cover wireless variants
• Integrated wireless connectivity for the smart home (Silicon Labs MGM210P Mighty Gecko module)
• Supports Zigbee 3.0, OpenThread and Matter
• 2.4 GHz radio with up to +20 dBm transmit power
• 1024 KB program flash memory, 96 KB RAM data
• Pre-installed with Zigbee 3.0 firmware (EZSP), can be updated
• Expansion slot
• For NVMe SSDs (M-Key)
• M.2 M-Key socket
• ​​Supports 2230, 2242, 2260 and 2280 modules
• PCIe x1

Note: Google Coral AI Accelerator does not work in the expansion slot. For more details, see this issue

• Gigabit Ethernet
• 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A Host Port
• 1 x USB-C 2.0 Port (Silicon Labs CP2102N USBXpress USB Bridge)
• UART Mode (default): USB to Serial Debug Adapter
• USB Mode: USB 2.0 CM4 Interface for USB Recovery
• High-quality stereo DAC
• 2V RMS line out on 3.5mm audio jack
• 106dB SNR
• 2 x Push Button
• Red: Factory Reset
• Blue: TBD
• Real-time clock backed up by a CR2032 battery</li>
• Status LED (can be turned off during regular operation)
• Red: Power
• Green: Disk Usage
• Yellow: Home Assistant System Status

Power:

• 12V / 2A via barrel DC power connector (5.5mm x 2.1mm)
• Ethernet: PoE+ IEEE 802.3at-2009 Class 3 or 4 (jumper selectable)
• Typical power consumption
• Standby ~1.5W
• Standby with NVMe ~2.5W
• Charging ~5-9W

Case:

• 123mm x 123mm x 36mm
• Translucent injected polycarbonate plastic
• Tool-free assembly
• Accommodates a custom heat sink (included)

Product + points:

• Design
• Versatility (especially thanks to the raspberry pi)
• Build quality
• Quality of materials used
• LED controllable in the application
• 5 integrated protocols (zigbee, *Z-wave, Thread/Matter, wifi, bluetooth)

The - of the product:

• Great versatility thanks to Home Assistant
• the price more than 200€ for a functional system
• For the moment incompatible with Google Coral
• Incomplete external SSD management
• Mandatory assembly upon purchase (not made for a beginner)

Box Home Assistant Yellow

By Nabu Casa

Home Assistant Yellow is your Matter-ready, scalable and expandable home automation hub.

Buy Now out of Domadoo

Conclusion

So I’ve pretty much covered everything by presenting the Home Assistant yellow box to you, it’s a box certainly of quality but it’s not recommended for novices because you’ll have to get your hands dirty for the installation, nothing very complicated but not at all plug’n play. As a result, it’s more oriented towards experienced home automation engineers. Which is also its strength because it’s modular and you can use 5 protocols without having installed a single USB key.