Split Home Assistant Hardware

Installation
1

Hi there,
I would like to split Home Assistant across two pieces of hardware:

  1. I would like to run the main Home Assistant entity on my Synology NAS but it resides in my study.
  2. I would like to build a robust ZigBee mesh using mainly Philips Hue devices but including devices from other manufacturers. To do this, I would like to run everything locally (avoiding the need for Internet/Cloud connections) by running a ZigBee Controller USB-attached to a centrally-located Home Assistant Raspberry Pi.
    The Raspberry Pi wouldn’t be powerful enough to run everything that I want to run in Home Assistant, which is why I would like to run it on the Synology NAS. The Synology NAS is too noisy and big to locate centrally, which is why I would like to use the Raspberry Pi. Ideally, a hybrid Synology NAS/Raspberry Pi Home Assistant solution would deliver my requirements.
    Can anyone provide guidance on how to achieve this, please?
    Failing that, any alternative suggestions on how to achieve what I need would be appreciated.
    Many thanks
    Joe
2

I don’t really know but my guess is zigbee2mqtt on the Pi with an MQTT broker and an MQTT integration for HA.

3

hi to you and Prodigplace ,

Just to clarify do mean you want to run two HA instances ?
If so then what are you planning to do with your setup , number of devices …etc

A pi4 8GB is more then enough for most cases

If i misunderstood then please forget this

4

No just run zigbee2mqtt on your pi and point it to the home assistant mqtt broker.

1 Like
5

I have Home Assistant running on a Proxmox server.
Zigbee2MQTT is running on a Pi in the LivingRoom.
ZWaveJS2MQTT is running on a Pi in the Server Room.

Home Assistant connects to Zigbee2MQTT via MQTT.
Home Assistant connects to ZWaveJS2MQTT via the Websocket.

1 Like
6

Hi ALDIY,

Many thanks for your response.

I thought that I needed two HA instances (one main HA instance on the Synology NAS and another instance on a centrally-located Raspberry Pi to be the ZigBee Controller at the centre of the ZigBee mesh). I thought that the two instances could communicate; sharing automation scripts from the main HA instance to control ZigBee devices on the Pi-based instance and taking data from those devices, where applicable.

I currently have around forty Philips Hue lights and bulbs; around fifteen Philips Hue Dimmer Switches (V1 & V2); a few buttons; a number of Wi-Fi power sockets; a few Z-Wave sensors (motion, door and lux); a couple of Ring Video doorbells and a number of Reolink (mixed PoE and Wi-Fi) Security Cameras; with automation provided through a Vera controller.

I plan to replace Vera (and Z-Wave) with Home Assistant (and ZigBee - retaining Z-Wave where absolutely necessary).

I’ve found the Philips Hue Dimmer Switch V2 to be more resource hungry than the V1 but appreciate the features provided. That said, I’m considering delivering the wanted features through HA automation run locally rather than having to use the Philips Hue bridge connection to the cloud - this will save the need for additional Hue bridges, as well.

My RPi is a Pi2 rather than a Pi4 but (given the low cost of these devices) I will consider your suggestion for an 8GB Pi4.

7

Hi Prodigyplace, nickrout and mobile.andrew.jones,

Thank you for your response(s). The consensus is clearly to use Zigbee2mqtt. I had been planning to use ZHA (ZigBee Home Automation) so I’ll need to reconsider that.

@mobile.andrew.jones - Thanks for providing the information about your setup. It certainly gives me some scope to read up on how that links together and whether I can use your method as the solution to my requirements.

It’s great to get some alternative ideas to consider and research.

Many thanks.

1 Like
8

What a big setup you have . 40 + hue ? your setup is mainly Hueish . You must already own a hue
bridge ? If you do then fine and skip to the end but if you dont then may I dare recommend you
get one? Its a bit pricey but it is like everything from hue just get and forget with 100% stability . Specially given you are heavily invested in Hue .

Everything else in your setup can be done with your PI2 for the time being and few small additions . I am running the test instance on PI2 ( its not like the PI4 but is just okay )

Cheers and please follow the advice of the guys because I am also thinking to get a zigbee stick not because I need it but because everyone here is using one and it would be nice to be part of the herd

9

If they are using Home Assistant OS, ADR-15 says the Pi 2 is not supported.

Supported boards/hardware/machines
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B and B+ 32bit
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B and B+ 64bit
Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 32bit
Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 64bit
Tinkerboard
ODROID-C2
ODROID-N2
ODROID-XU4
Intel NUC
Virtual Machine (64 bits intel-based)
1 Like
10

You do know that hw could still run fine even if it is mentioned as not supported ?
it would be just okay ( not great ) as mentioned if no alternative is available.

I am also using home assistant supervised on an ubuntu laptop and it is
running fine even though it is not supported and the hw is really old and slow
cheers

11

And since then intel nuc has been broadened to all x86-64 pcs.

12

How is the op going to run his non philips gear from a philips hub?

13

I do not know either way but I do know it would be difficult for anybody here to assist.

They did not update their official architecture design and get the required votes… Perhaps an oversight.

14

I think you are right and given that you are the first to reply to this it is best to go for
you initial advice

I wish you all the best

1 Like
15

Sorry for the delay in allocating the Solution to Nick (@nickrout). I have been running this way since Nick’s response and it is delivering exactly what I needed, thank you.

Many thanks to all the other contributors.

Cheers
Joe.