Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi • Hacker News Board

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#211

Post by nomel » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 12:49 AM UTC

syshum wrote: post #204

nomel wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but you are not the average consumer, who is making Wi-Fi popular. > all running Transmitting to Nortek GoControl USB stick attached to a rPI running Home Assistant > and FAR FAR simpler to setup than WiFi These two sentences are absolutely silly, for that average consumer. An average consumer can install a proprietary app in a few minutes and is totally uninterested in installing operating systems on little com…

Before I moved to HA, I was in the smart-things Ecosystem That was also very easy out of the box, far easier than WiFi Device I am not sure why you are doubling down on WiFi being easier, it is not The reason these companies are going for WiFi is because they want to Lock People into continue Telemetry being sent to the cloud, not local hubs. It has nothing to do with ease of access, or consumer friendly and everythi…

> Before I moved to HA, I was in the smart-things Ecosystem. That was also very easy out of the box, far easier than WiFi Device

No offense, but I think you've already proved that your perspective is a bit skewed towards the technical. I don't understand how buying and installing a hub, then installing an app to connect with that hub, and then using that app to pair is somehow easier than installing and app, and then using that app to pair.

> It has nothing to do with ease of access...

Looking at Amazon, I'm seeing many times the reviews for WiFi smart switches. This would make it appear that people are purchasing them. Why? Are they already locked in? My theory is that people see the product description, see WiFi, and say "I have that!". People see Zigbee or "hub" and say "I don't have that, it's $50 more!". If we could do a word count for "incompatible" between the two, I'm sure it would be many times lower for WiFi devices. I know I see that word often when I look through Z-Wave and Zigbee reviews.

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#212

Post by scottlamb » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 12:49 AM UTC

nomel wrote: post #105

scottlamb wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still figuring out Home Assistant. I love that it has a real ecosystem and that it seems to have a decent HTTP/WebSocket API (that I just started playing with). Some things I don't love: * A lot of the integrations seem half-baked or to not quite fit the generic Lovelace cards. I think to some extent this is an inherent problem in supporting a lot of devices that have crappy, non-standardized APIs. Example: if I…

> ... for the off->on transition and another for the on->off. It'd be nice to set a rule that defines a level rather than an edge and have it internally do the transformation The "solution" I found was to poll, and use "choose", and sometimes some helper switches for state, to do what is needed. But, I think at any reasonable level of complexity, you're better off using one of the three python components: the one bui…

Thanks for that. I just tried out pyscript. I found it a lot more pleasant to write automation in a real programming language. It also more or less addresses my complaint about needing multiple rules. In the tutorial, [1] the motion_light_rear example addresses this via sleeping + task.unique. It's not the approach I imagined, but it's aimed at the same problem.

[1] https://hacs-pyscript.readthedocs.io/en/stable/tutorial.html

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#213

Post by bpye » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 1:07 AM UTC

djanogo wrote: post #149

bpye wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still running an 8th gen HP micro server, but I would run something else if I could get >=8GB memory and 4 SATA ports for relatively cheap. I haven't seen anything that gets me there yet though.

Nope, no OEM wants to make that, not enough market for it. However you can buy NVMe to 6xSATA adapter, but your case might not fit those drives, I planned on buying NVMe extension cable, cut a slit in case, run the cable outsidde, plug in NVMe to 6xSATA adapter outside of the case and keep the SSD's outside, this would need reliable external power supply for SSD (Amazon sells them for ~$30, but I don't trust them). I…

Yeah there are some nice enough ITX cases with HDD bays [0], but any comparable replacement ends up relatively expensive, so it just hasn't made sense.

[0] - https://www.u-nas.com/xcart/cart.php?target=product&product_...

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#214

Post by hedora » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 1:12 AM UTC

bpye wrote: post #201

hedora wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like you want a Synology, at least hardware-wise. This one supports up to 6 GB of RAM, four SATA ports, and idles with low wattage and low noise. Built-in virtualization and docker. It's $500 at Newegg. https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/DS420+#specs They make bigger ones, of course.

Are you stuck with their software though? I've ended up pretty deep down the NixOS rabbit hole...

No idea. I'd love to know.

On the other hand, I'd wager you can look at what chipsets they chose, and cobble the same thing together for less (maybe even with 8gb).

I decided I didn't want my data backup to be a hobby, so I hold my nose and use their stuff.

It's fine, and it has some nice stuff like let's encrypt reverse https proxies, it emails every time the power or network drops, etc, etc.

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#215

Post by hedora » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 1:18 AM UTC

zrail wrote: post #126

djanogo wrote: post #42

Better yet, run your home on Dell/HP micro computers that get decommissioned by enterprises/hospitals/big-orgs every 3 years. Find them on Offerup or FB or Craigslist market place for $100-$200. These are built solid with metal enclosures, fan cooled, UL certified PSU, ~7k CPUbenchmark.net. Usually i5 6thGen Intel CPU, 8GB-16GB RAM and have REAL storage(SSD) and M.2 NVMe. If you are lucky you might find vPro version…

I just migrated all of my "production" home things to an HP Elitedesk 800 G3. It's great! Maxed out the ram and threw a 1TB SSD in. I'm using Proxmox and have: * home assistant VM * pi-hole primary LXC * UniFi controller LXC * media stack LXC (jellyfin is installed directly on the host to minimize hardware transcoding issues) * a VM running various docker containers with dokku, including AppDaemon It's barely ticking…

I have similar services running on my synology nas w/ docker.

Where do you get the LXC container images from? I build most of mine from scratch because people on the Internet have no sense of propriety or taste, but now that means I'm maintaining a pile of Dockerfiles, which I never update in practice.

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#216

Post by bmurphy1976 » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 1:22 AM UTC

kkielhofner wrote: post #114

wyager wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a terrible experience with Home Assistant. Slow, buggy, unreasonably difficult to implement non-trivial automations. My heuristic since then has been to minimize the amount of node.js in my home automation codebase and this has worked wonders for its reliability and usability; currently the only component I still have that's node-based is zigbee2mqtt, which (possibly not) incidentally gives me more issues than…

I'm not understanding how node.js relates to Home Assistant (written in python)?

I don't speak for the op, but the current recommended z-wave integration is via a sidecar javascript service: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zwave_js/

One of HA's selling points for me originally was that everything was written in Python. It's frustrating that I am now faced with pulling a javascript service into the mix. Most of my devices are z-wave and I'm still running on the legacy integration and dreading this migration.

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#217

Post by hedora » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 1:24 AM UTC

tomxor wrote: post #192

Unless it magically cleans and tidies everything I really don't see the appeal of home automation. Pressing a switch is far more convenient to me when walking into a room than fishing out a smartphone - whether it be through a raspberry pi or otherwise. Same with central heating, I rarely need to adjust it and I don't see the appeal of messing around with some integrated interface, i'd rather an old fashioned radiato…

We just built a dumb house (intentionally). The electricians put in Lutron switches everywhere.

Each one seems to contain a computer, as do some of the LED fixtures.

You can turn on the lights in the bathroom, and start your business before the lights come on. Some of the other switches simply don't work at all (motion detector in the garage? Bypassed! Auto humidity fan switches? Always the wrong policy, haven't figured out how the override button works 6 months in.)

Don't get me started on the compatibility issues between the dimmers or the LEDs, or manufactures endeavors to "minimize nuisance trips" because the new AFCI breakers hate high torque motors.

If humanity ever masters time travel, I'm going back to the 80s to buy light switches!

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#218

Post by zrail » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 1:37 AM UTC

hedora wrote: post #215

zrail wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just migrated all of my "production" home things to an HP Elitedesk 800 G3. It's great! Maxed out the ram and threw a 1TB SSD in. I'm using Proxmox and have: * home assistant VM * pi-hole primary LXC * UniFi controller LXC * media stack LXC (jellyfin is installed directly on the host to minimize hardware transcoding issues) * a VM running various docker containers with dokku, including AppDaemon It's barely ticking…

I have similar services running on my synology nas w/ docker. Where do you get the LXC container images from? I build most of mine from scratch because people on the Internet have no sense of propriety or taste, but now that means I'm maintaining a pile of Dockerfiles, which I never update in practice.

Proxmox has a template library. Most of my LXCs are just the Ubuntu 20.04 template with auto-updates turned on.

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#219

Post by bmurphy1976 » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 1:37 AM UTC

tomxor wrote: post #192

Unless it magically cleans and tidies everything I really don't see the appeal of home automation. Pressing a switch is far more convenient to me when walking into a room than fishing out a smartphone - whether it be through a raspberry pi or otherwise. Same with central heating, I rarely need to adjust it and I don't see the appeal of messing around with some integrated interface, i'd rather an old fashioned radiato…

All my lights have a physical switch or button. The smarts come in subtle ways:

1. Turn lights on 45 minutes BEFORE sunset at any time of year

2. Turn lights on and off at specific times, automatically adjust for Daylight Savings Time (I'll never have to listen to my wife complain about the lights needing adjustment again)

3. Start warming up/cooling off my house BEFORE I get home from vacation

4. Double click a button in my Family Room to put my whole house into Movie mode

5. Some of my buttons are also temperature sensors. This gives me the ability to monitor the temperature of parts of my home very closely. I've had some struggles with our boiler this winter and we also had the insulation redone in our attic. Instead of relying on anecdotes, I have actual concrete data that I can use to make decisions and gauge the effectiveness of various mitigation strategies.

6. Put hard stops on devices (such as TVs or connected network devices) (i.e. turn the TV power off at my children's bed time).

7. Monitor my garage door and notify if it's open too long or if it's been left open accidentally at night.

8. Fans!! I can turn my ceiling fans on and off based on a variety of triggers (temperature, time, etc). I hate having the fans off but my wife can't sleep with the fan on. Now the problem is solved and we don't even think about it anymore, the fan runs on a schedule.

One of my next big projects will be to automate the opening and closing of our front window blinds. They are in an inconvenient place and are difficult to get to, but I really like to have light coming in during the day but have them closed at night.

There's more but I tire writing this. I hope I made the point. None of this is revolutionary or changes any existing behavior (all the buttons/switches we had previously work same as they always did). But boy does it make some things a lot more convenient.

Re: Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi

#220

Post by coder543 » Thu, Feb 03, 2022, 1:43 AM UTC

arcbyte wrote: post #118

m4tthumphrey wrote: post #55

Slightly OT: > Run Your Home on a Raspberry Pi If you can get hold of one! I've been looking for a Pi4 for ages to use with PiHole but sold out everywhere, some have back orders for 2023 O_O Anyone got any recommendations of other devices that work well with PiHole? I have a Mac Mini acting as a home server but from what I've read, PiHole does not run great on it via Docker...

They only made 150k in all of 2021, so we're seeing the result of that right now. Good news is they're expecting to make 250k in Q1 2022 with 500k planned for Q2.

Source? That sounds like fun information to track.