I am currently a SmartThings user and planning my switch over the world of HA. I want to completely transfer over all the ST devices to HA and don’t really want to keep the ST hub anymore. I managed to get hold of the following second hand computer “Dell Mini PC Intel i3 4th gen 2.6GHz 16GB RAM 240GB SSD”
Is this a good spec mini pc to run the latest HA and be future proof? I am assuming before I start just to be safe I should change the motherboard battery as the battery age on it cannot be determined.
Do I need a WiFi dongle if I’m going to connect it via LAN? Only thing I can think of for a my TPlink router has iOT isolation so all my smart home devices are on a dedicated iOT WiFi SSID. So I’m wondering even if I put the dell computer the Ethernet, will HA be able to detect the devices on the iOT WiFi channel?
I will watch a few YouTube videos to figure out how to install home assistant but wanted some clarification about the terminology HA OS vs Container vs Core vs Supervised. What are all these? If I’m doing a fresh Linux install isn’t it just the complete system ?
Also, once the system is complete set up and configured, can I back up the entire HA configuration like settings and all devices etc so that if the computer ever failed I can just reload a new os and import it and not have to configure everything from scratch?
Thanks and sorry for so many questions. Just want to make sure I get it right from the beginning
Computer is better than a Pi to run HA, so no problems there.
Backups, copy them off the device, everything is saved.
I would use HA OS, not docker, but that is your choice. Supervised is still supported until 2025.12, so you can still use it for 2 months, maybe pick HA OS or Container (docker) instead?
The PC is fine, however, you have not mentioned what devices are connected to the ST Hub. The ST Hub provides both Z-Wave and Zigbee, so to remove that you may need to get additional co-ordinators to provide that connectivity.
So the HA OS is the actual full OS installation I’m assuming? I’m not sure what the other stuff means. Just know I’ve for the pc which will act as the HA server so from what I can tell the HA OS is the entire HA OS right? The other methods I’m assuming is if you want to use the hardware for other stuff too then can virtualise or dock it if using something like a Mac ?
Oh yes sorry forgot about that. I’ve got a variety of zigbee and zwave devices and I’ve purchased a Aeon Zwave Z-Stick Gen5 for zwave functionality. I still need to get a dongle for zigbee and matter. And probably a Bluetooth dongle too.
Yes, Home Assistant Operating System, HA OS in short. The alternative is using a standard Linux distribution and running HA as a docker container.
Running HA in a python venv or running HA Supervised is no longer supported after 2025.12
The system should work well, really well, the only pending question is the idle power consumption here - and that’s something you can only measure (guesstimating only goes so far, but would require further information).
Thanks. So if I’m going for the full HA OS, do I not need to install Ubuntu or something first? Or is there a complete iso equivalent HA OS that installs and configures the Linux aspect of the OS and the HA OS too in one single iso?
You do not need to install Ubuntu at all, but you somehow need to write the haos image to disk. One easy (and documented as preferable) way is booting a recent linux live system (Ubuntu is one of the options for this) on the target hardware (from a USB stick) and using that live system to write the haos image (and maybe configure an UEFI boot entry); that’s just temporary running from a USB stick and doesn’t need to (shouldn’t) be installed.
The other approach would be removing the system drive of your target system and using a USB to SATA/ NVMe/ whatever_applies adapter and writing the haos image that way from some other system.
Again, multiple ways to achieve the same outcome, the -documented- way of using a USB stick with a linux live system is just the most sensible, if you can temporarily (~5 minutes, once) connect keyboard/ mouse/ screen and a USB stick to the target system.
Yes, from a purely technical point of view, you could even use the haos image (on removable media) for this, but that would very-very inconvenient (host level console access is possible, but not the default, a dedicated linux live system just makes this considerably more straight forward).
Thank you. So in summary booting from a live usb with Ubuntu or similar but not installing Ubuntu itself just run it using a live usb and then possibly have the haos image on another usb to install via the live booted Ubuntu usb?
Do you have any recommendations on which for zigbee and which for matter? Do these dongles get detected out of the box? Like do I need to have them plugged in before turning on and starting up HA OS?
That is a USB dongle, so it will be powered via the USB port you connect it to on the Dell PC. It is recommended to use a cable to allow the dongle to be placed a short distance from the PC to reduce interference.
For Zigbee, I would recommend Zigbee LAN POE Coordinator SMLIGHT SLZB-06M – Zigbee Smart. This device supports a LAN connection and hence can be placed elsewhere on your network - ideal if you want to place it centrally but have your HA Server in a corner. If connected via USB it will draw power and be available when you turn on the Dell PC, if using LAN then it will need to powered and ON when the HA Server starts (power can be provided via POE or USB when connected via LAN).
Thank you. So basically any usb dongles should run on a usb extension and plugged in further away from the pc itself? Also any suggestions on threads matter dongle?
So z-wave, zigbee, threads matter, and possibly Bluetooth is that all the possible wireless technologies I would need? Since the pc will be on a Ethernet lan then I’m assuming wouldn’t need WiFi dongle?
Yes, it is best to use a usb extension lead to get the dongles away from the PC to reduce interference.
I don’t use matter / thread at the moment, so have no recommendations.
Since the PC is via Ethernet it will not need a WiFi dongle - I also do not recommend running HA via WiFi since it may drop connections / data due to interference.
I wouldn’t start by trying to support all the wireless. Instead build the system to support the devices you currently have. When thinking about purchasing new devices, start with looking for ones that work with the Wireless technologies you already support.
Thank you. I do currently have a combo of zwave, zigbee and a few matter devices.
I read somewhere that you could just get 2 zigbee dongles that also support threads matter with a firmware flash and then only flash one of them with the matter firmware and then that way have a dedicated one for zigbee and another for matter.
When I plug these dongles in, are they plug and play? I read something about needing to enable add ons and integrations. So after installing the zigbee and zwave sticks can I just go to add device or do I need to enable a zwave, zigbee addon and integration etc? Sorry for all the questions. I’m coming from ST where all this was native and built in so it’s a lot of learning
FWIW I use a Dell Wyse 5010 with HAOS. I installed HAOS on the SSD using balenaEtcher on a Windows PC. Works like a charm. Only quirk with the Wyse 5010 is that the older processor can’t transcode video/audio on the fly, so using the Music Assistant Add-on past v2.3.6 is a no-go. Other than that, it’s been a work horse.
If you want Thread support, I would recommend the ZBT-1, since support for it is built-in in the OTBR add-on. Other dongles work too, but you have to flash them outside Home Assistant.
