Hi everyone,
I wanted to share an installation guide and my experience running Home Assistant as a rootless Podman container on a highly interesting piece of hardware: the Catan C1 (powered by PLCnext Core).
While many of us use Raspberry Pis, NUCs, or Home Assistant Green/Yellow, I wanted to explore an industrial-grade alternative that brings robust hardware reliability and a massive array of onboard fieldbus capabilities directly to the DIN rail.
Why Catan C1 as Home Assistant Hardware?
The Catan C1 is developed by Phoenix Contact, a well-known, premium brand in industrial automation. This means the build quality, long-term availability, and environmental tolerances are at a full industrial standard.
Key Hardware Specifications:
- Form Factor: REG / DIN-rail mountable (perfect for central electrical cabinets/distribution boards).
- Processing Power: 4x Arm® Cortex®-A53 (1.6 GHz) + 1x Arm® Cortex®-M4 @ 400 MHz (dedicated real-time processing).
- Memory & Storage: 2 GB RAM, expandable via microSD card.
- Network Connectivity: 3x physical Gigabit Ethernet ports (by default, LAN1 + LAN2 are switched).
- Industrial Single Pair Ethernet (SPE): 2x physical SPE T1L interfaces (10Mbit/s) to easily connect add-on modules.
Incredible Onboard I/Os & Protocols:
Unlike standard consumer hardware, it features native interfaces that eliminate the need for dozens of separate USB dongles or gateways:
- 2x RS485 Ports: Ready for Modbus RTU, BACnet MS/TP, DMX, etc.
- Native KNX Capabilities: Onboard KNX TP (Twisted Pair), KNX IP, and functionality as a KNX Router.
- Universal Inputs (UI): Analog inputs (Voltage, Current, Resistance, RTD, NTC), Dry contacts (signal levels according to EN 61131‑2 Type 2 + 3), and fast Counters.
- Universal Outputs & Digital Inputs (UOI): Configurable for dry contacts or counting.
- Digital Outputs & Digital Inputs (DOI): Dry contacts, counter capabilities, and 24 V / 500 mA digital outputs.
Driver Status: There is currently active development underway to create a dedicated driver/integration for Home Assistant to natively expose all these hardware I/Os directly inside HA.
The Highlight: Native KNX Integration
The KNX integration is particularly exciting. Because the hardware features a native KNX TP interface and can act as a KNX Router/IP interface, you can bridge your Home Assistant ecosystem to physical KNX actuators flawlessly.
I have already successfully coupled physical KNX hardware with the Catan C1, and it works incredibly well. Here is a quick look at my successful KNX bus connection through the device:
Step-by-Step Installation: Running Home Assistant in Rootless Podman
The underlying operating system is PLCnext Core, which natively utilizes Podman for containerization. Running Home Assistant as a rootless container ensures maximum security while keeping your host system clean.
Step 1: Connect to the Device via SSH
Access the Catan C1 CLI using your terminal:
ssh admin@<your-catan-ip>
Step 2: Prepare the Storage Directories
Create a persistent storage directory within the user space to hold your Home Assistant configuration files:
mkdir ~/hass mkdir ~/hass/config
Step 3: Create the Container Configuration File
nano ~/hass/compose.yaml
Step 4: Add the Home Assistant Configuration
Copy and paste the following content into your compose.yaml:
services:
homeassistant:
container_name: homeassistant
image: "ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:stable"
volumes:
- ~/hass/config:/config
- /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
- /run/dbus:/run/dbus:ro
- /dev/usb-devices:/dev/usb-devices
devices:
- /dev/ttymxc2:/dev/ttymxc2
- /dev/ttymxc3:/dev/ttymxc3
restart: unless-stopped
network_mode: host
userns_mode: keep-id
user: 1002:1002
environment:
TZ: Europe/Berlin
Notes: The container runs rootless using user namespace mapping (keep-id) USB and serial devices are passed through for IoT integrations Host network mode ensures easy web access
Step 5: Start the Container
Run the following command to start Home Assistant:
podman compose -f ~/hass/compose.yaml up
The first startup may take a few minutes while the image is downloaded and initialized.
Access Home Assistant
Once the container is running, you can access Home Assistant in your browser:
Bonus:
Zigbee Stick Integration
Verify USB Device Mapping
All USB devices are exposed under:
/dev/usb-devices
To identify your Zigbee stick, run:
ls -l /dev/usb-devices/symlinks/
Example output:
lrwxrwxrwx 1 app_user plcnext 16 Jun 12 11:07 usb-ITEAD_SONOFF_Zigbee_3.0_USB_Dongle_Plus_V2_20221129211414-if00 -> ../nodes/ttyACM0
Important: The device name will differ depending on your hardware.
Configure Zigbee in Home Assistant
After logging into Home Assistant:
Go to Settings → Devices & Services
Add a new Zigbee integration Use the correct device path, for example:
/dev/usb-devices/symlinks/usb-ITEAD_SONOFF_Zigbee_3.0_USB_Dongle_Plus_V2_20221129211414-if00
For the Sonoff Zigbee Dongle E, use:
EZSP driver
Software data flow
Final Result Once everything is configured:
Your Zigbee network can be initialized Devices can be paired and controlled Automation workflows can run locally on the Catan C1
Once the container status shows as running, you can access your clean Home Assistant dashboard by opening your browser and navigating to: http://<your-catan-ip>:8123.
How to get one?
Disclaimer / Disclosure: I received this hardware as a sponsored unit. For those looking to buy one, it is currently available (at least in Germany) through major electrical wholesalers (Elektrogroßhändler).
Feel free to ask any questions regarding the container setup, the hardware, or the KNX configuration below!
