So starting down the path to build my first HA Appliance. I’ve decided to go down the path of a dedicated hardware appliance for the time being. I have an unRAID server but its in need of a hardware upgrade. A dozen or so dockers, up to 3 VMs with one of them being a mining rig is about all she will handle right now.
Hardware List for the Pi appliance:
**Software: ** Hassbian and Node-Red for starters Board: Raspberry Pi3 B+ UPS:UPS PIco HV3.0B Case:Flirc Raspberry Pi Case Gen2 (New Model) SD Card: Samsung 32GB EVO Plus Class 10 Micro SD Z-Wave Adapter: Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5, Z-Wave Plus
For a power adapter I have the latest generation Moto Turbo Power that is rated at 5V 3.0A. It also supports 9v and 12v but according to its docs the device hooked to it has to ask for those and the default is the 5v 3A. Will this work to power the Pi3 B+ or am I better suited ordering something else?
An unRAID server upgrade is planned in the near future. Once i figure out what all I want to do with Home Automation I will be upgrading my server hardware and would like to move the HA install over to a docker container. Is this relatively easy? I’ve seen some forum topics saying all you have to do is move your configurations over after setting up the new docker and you’re good to go. But these have had mixed success from what i can tell.
I’m a full stack developer by trade so Dockers and Linux is quite familiar to me. I’m not an expert but Google helps there. I’ve never written in Python but whatever it cant be any harder than the other 7 or so languages I work in. My main concern is getting the hardware list correct before I order so I know I didn’t miss anything and to know if I’m heading down a bad road with a planned migration to a docker on a server in the future.
Is the pi only powered through the hat with that setup? Make sure it can provide a decent amount of power (they recommend 2.5 amps) many users of Pis have struggled due to a power supply issue.
I recently was struggling with Zwave issues and moving off the power hungry pi3+ to a pi2 and it seems to have fixed it (maybe to soon to tell) Nothing else changed.
Moving your instance is relatively easy. With a basic config. Install HA, move the config and reboot. Any local device connections/sensors in the config need to be updated.
@silvrr the Pi is powered like normal and the HAT is used in case power goes out. The main purpose is to safely allow the Pi to power down and avoid SD card corruption. The vendor recommends at least a 3A power supply. I assume this is for the 2.5A necessary for the Pi with headroom to charge the battery.
I’ve been on the fence about getting a Pi3B vs the Pi3B+ due to power requirements and the fact i cant install Hass.io if i wanted to try it out.
@tmjpugh the server is running a rather large Emby instance on it right now. And altho it doesnt transcode that often when it does it gets bogged down to the point Rocket Chat and Nextcloud web uis can become laggy. The main reason for not upgrading the server is budget constraints. I’m starting with 0 home automation now. Looking to get it sorted with this years budget and upgrade server hardware next year.
The server upgrade will be from desktop hardware to an off lease dual xeon machine. So its going to be a years worth of tech budget in one go.
To your note about the recorder component is it better to configure the Pi to boot from usb and use an external dive? Like a micro USB thumb drive? Or does the recorder component simply wear out all NAND flash chips?
For a power adapter I have the latest generation Moto Turbo Power that is rated at 5V 3.0A. It also supports 9v and 12v but according to its docs the device hooked to it has to ask for those and the default is the 5v 3A. Will this work to power the Pi3 B+ or am I better suited ordering something else?
I would strongly suggest against using a phone power supply to power your pi. They’re rated for 5v, but 99% of them put out around 4.7v. You’re better off spending $10 on a real power supply. Running a Pi with a phone charger is just asking for issues.
@Bahnburner thanks for the heads up. Any recommendations on a proper power supply? I was looking at this one on Amazon but i trust their reviews about as far as i could throw most of the people leaving them.
No experience with flash drives so cannot comment.
SD card has high fail with high writes. Read only is no issue. This is not big deal honestly. Just keep recent backup and this is 1-10minute recovery
Sorry went MIA on this. Once i got my hardware it was time to play. I ended up picking up an open box NUC7PJYH with 8GB DDR4 sodimms for a little over $200. I already had a 120GB Toshiba OCZ ssd laying around.
Its complete overkill with the J5005 quad core @2.8ghz but it means I can run things like pihole in a docker right next to HA without any latency issues.
On the NUC:
Installed Ubuntu server 18.04
Installed Portainer for docker managment
Installed HA as a docker via docker-compose
Installed pihole as a docker via docker-compose
Installed Mosquitto on unRAID for MQTT broker
I have several lights and switches integrated already. Nest, Emby, Harmony, and my google minis are all integrated.
A couple of pain points still but I’m working on them. Linear GoControl lights aren’t working quite right. There is a delay in the UI when you switch one on or off. Also Owntracks and the Nmap device trackers dont seem to be playing well together.
Other than those few issues I’m super surprised at how easy it was to start setting up automations. Even integrating IFTT was quite simple.