Advantage for me is low power consumption (ecologically interesting, not financially)
This is nothing personal against you, but I want to write my thoughts on this so others can consider it too.
The power consumption of modern laptops as well as RPis is so negligible that it almost doesn’t matter, as I calculated above (i.e. you are producing about ~6 tons, even 15w laptop generates like 30kg CO2/year, it’s <0.5%). Even if it’s factor 5, it still doesn’t matter.
I would actually say that the fact you would be reusing old hardware (that would be likely thrown away or not used) instead of buying new hardware, you are actually having more of an environmental impact. Producing a new laptop takes ~330Kg CO2, I can’t find numbers for RPi, but my guess is unlikely to get <50Kg. If you are going to get it shipped, that’s another CO2 (this is only if we compare it to old laptop you have at home). As I said, I think it doesn’t actually matter, but even if those <0.5% did matter to you, you are likely net negative on achieving your stated goal [as you have higher environmental impact] .
I btw. didn’t understand buying NUC compared to using older hardware (like a 2018-decent laptop). They seemed to be more expensive for not much-added value, but I agree it’s more based on personal preferences (e.g. I understand that some people want a new thing).
Hello @kotrfa,
I agree, reusing old hardware (as long as it only has a marginally higher power consumption), is the better way to go. However, seems like a lot of people are buying used hardware for it and not using their old hardware. So shipping would not be a factor.
I usually re-use my hardware as long as I can. I am still using a 12 year old notebook as my primary notebook at home for everyday use. I have a new one for work from my employer, but I generally don’t need much more performance than what I get from my old notebook. Will continue to do so until it dies (looks like the screen will be too dim to work soon).
What I do think matters is the sum of products one uses. Right now I have two NAS with 6 HDDs plus the RPi plus switches, hubs, router/APs etc.
All in all I think the power consumption will exceed 50 W and head towards 100 W when all drives etc. are running at max. And that is without the notebooks and TVs.
But well, there is always room for improvement and if you want to enjoy your hobby, you will have to consume power somewhere.
As I said, I like the idea of re-using old laptops as servers. They are definitely better than a RPi. Just less convenient regarding space and noise. That is probably not an issue for people with dedicated server rooms or servers in their attic or basement. If my laptop was not running with an Intel Core2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.40GHz, I might consider using it as a server. But unless I can find a sound-proof place to put it, it is too noisy to use in the apartment and I will stick with the silent RPi 4.
My HA laptop is in my bedroom. The fan only spins up if I am upgrading the OS. Otherwise silent. An 10 yr old i7 with 8GB of memory. The 4GB upgrade cost me $17.
Pretty heavy mariadb usage and text logging. Probably less than a heavy HA install with dozens and dozens of devices, but more than a lighter HA install.
Partitions are basically completely overwritten every few months.
But, we leave at least 30% of the card unallocated to help the wear leveling, use quality SD cards and power supplies, etc.
We also put Pis through extensive bench testing. There was a point in the 3B+ period more than a third were failing our bench tests. No where near that now, but it is still possible to get a bad Pi4.
I just ordered the [ODROID-N2+ Home Assistant Bundle] from Ameridroid Is that the only hardware I need to get my Insteon system back operational in conjunction with my current Insteon Server?
Would not buy the odroid n2+ again. I own the HA Blue, hardware is not robust at all. Known issue is USB port failure, in my case the USB ports no longer work following a power outage ( no solution, no warranty).
If you decide to buy it do so within the EU and not through ameridroid or hardkernel as is advertised above, they have crappy warranty (3months) and crappy customer service .
I would not recommend using an RPi3 for a new deployment if it can be avoided since you’ll likely be disappointed with the performance if you have more than just a few integrations or are using camera(s).
An RPi4b or Odroid N2+ (lot 2106, rev0.6 20210121 or later if you use the USB ports – https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-n2/hardware?do=export_pdf) is a better choice. I’m happily using the Odroid N2+ for production for 10+ instances without any issues.
Are you using any of the Z-wave or zigbee USB dongles? If so, how on earth did you configure it? In general I have been very happy with my Synology docker image, but I can’t figure out how to recognize/setup my Sonoff dongle.
Hello. We recognize that you probably did not mean to trample on our feelings. Unlike a lot of companies, we spent a lot of resources providing customer service over many channels. In fact, even the president of ameriDroid spends most of his day resolving customer issues. Regarding the warranty, we cannot offer a longer period than the manufacturer offers to us, and if they offered a longer one we would still have to pay round-trip shipping to and from South Korea, and after that we are often charged for the fix if the device is fixable. That is the main reason we recommend the extended warranty by “Extend” which is offered upon purchasing any product through our site. Extend will easily and quickly replace any defective item within the warranty period without any return hassle. Regarding the customer service, I’m truly sorry about how you feel about it, we are working our hardest to give our customers the best experience we can, being as available as we can via chat on our website, email, phone, various messaging apps, in addition to investing thousands to create manuals to guide users on how to set up and use different OSes and applications like Home Assistant, Linux, Android, etc.
I mean to discourage anyone in Europe from buying with you and or Hardkernel directly - no need to be sensitive about this, just a rational advice. Better to buy it locally as here in the EU we enjoy a much greater / better level of consumer protection - selling a product which performs is in first instance a seller’s responsibility.
As for customer service, all your intentions don’t fix my odroid so what good is it to me? Customer experience in this case is substandard - Hardkernel confirms their original odroid n2+/ha blue design is flawed - to me that has not much to do with what warranty is intended for. This is not accidental, they actually admit they made an inferior/imperfect product in first instance. Its a disgrace that they, and by proxy you as a seller, do not do anything to correct this/compensate buyers.
I agree - I have two. Home Assistant , Nabu Casa or whoever never owned or really supported this platform, in fact it appears they almost disown it.
It seemed more of a PR exercise for Paulus at the HA annual event and maybe test ground for the Orange launch. There is not even a specific sub forum on this forum for Blue - go figure. Wow ‘we have our first hardware launch go try and tell us what our second should be’.
The Docker version is fully supported though, and that can run on any system that supports Docker. I’m running Home Assistant in Docker on a Raspberry Pi (since I have other stuff running on the Pi too), but old laptops are fine as well.
I switched to using a 500GB Samsung 870 EVO drive with my Pi, via a StarTech USB 3.1 to 2.5" SATA cable. Raspberry Pi 4 can boot off a drive connected via USB as long as you have the latest firmware. It’s MUCH faster than using the MicroSD, and gets even faster if you overclock the Pi a bit. I overclocked mine from 1.5Ghz to 1.75Ghz, but you can still safely go a bit further.
I’m not familiar with Synology, but in general you need to mount the relevant USB device in the docker container via a bind mount. I use zigbee2mqtt and my docker-compose section for it looks like this:
No suggestions for a Pi4 Model B in an ArgonOne M.2 case?
The odroid product line unfortunately appears to be in a huge mess… There’s the new M1 unit which sacrifices CPU power of the N2+ for SATA/M.2 connectivity (but more RAM), that’s a no go for me.
N2+ itself has decent CPU power but only 4GB RAM and no SATA/M.2 connectivity (easy options anyway)
I had a look at NUC units but I’ve just decided to give pi4b a try in the argonone case (much cheaper option than NUC), will see how it goes when the case arrives!
Its actually a great choices. ArgonOne M.2 is one of the best case for RPI4 models. I have two sets which run perfectly good. For HA however better to go with NUC if you ask me. Home Assistant 2022 - Which Hardware to Buy + Full Install Guide - YouTube is giving his advice which I’m totally agree with.
.
