Compatibility NUC8i3 / Aeotec Z-Wave / Ubuntu

Hi there,

I would like to get some feedback on my desired hw configuration I am currently planning for our new house. With the Aeotec Z-Wave stick being incompatible with the RPi4, graphics support for NUC8 seems to be difficult on ubuntu etc. I got a little bit cautious…

Here is what I am planning:

  • Buy a NUC8i3 with (probably) 8 GBs of RAM and an M.2 SSD, the system should be able to operate HA/HASS.IO together with Mosquito, InfluxDB and Grafana and maybe ELK stack for log aggregation but that’s optional and more a hobby project. I want to use a Docker environment for this.
  • I was wondering if I should go for the double height NUC and put a Raid1 in it for reliability, but I guess I will just use a backup solution on an external disk for this and/or store most of the configs through GitHub on my NAS which is running a Raid5 anyway.
  • I will probably go for ubuntu core 18.x LTS because that’s simply the Linux OS I am mostly familiar with, Debian would also be an option but I kinda hate that some basic tools are just way outdated, for example letsencrpyt certbot. I will do a regular install of the OS, no virtualization (esxi) or what so ever, simple dedicated machine just for home automation.

What I want to have working hardware wise:

  • I am planning for about 50 Z-Wave devices, i.e. switches, shutters and motion sensors. I want to use the Aeotec Stick for this, has been working flawlessly in my apartment together with an RPi3 for 2 years now. NUC8 seems to have all USB3.0 ports expect for some port on the mainboard itself and the Aeotec seems to behave strangely on USB3, at least on the RPi4 controller.
  • I don’t need hardware acceleration for graphics because it will be operated headlessly anyway, however halfway decent support to hook it for example up to the tv would be nice.
  • Wireless LAN is totally optional, since it will get a wired connection to my router anyway.
  • Bluetooth should be working, I want to use it for presence detection, most probably together with some RPi-Zeros running this: [monitor] Reliable, Multi-User, Distributed Bluetooth Occupancy/Presence Detection

Can anyone confirm that this HW setup would work as I expect it from compatibility and driver support points of view?

I know that this does not look too complicated and should not be a problem at all, just being cautious…

Any answer is appreciated.

-Christian

Yep. I run a headless NUC with the Aeotec stick and it works great.