hi,
I have a home assistant instance running in my van:
rpi4 with USB SSD
powered by POE hat (no power issues)
as attached USB Soundbar
integrated via VLC addon/corevlc-telnet
it all works fine (I use it with Google text to speech output)
BUT roughly every 8-10 hours (or based on usage … not sure yet) it hard crashes my HA (latest builds of all modules) so that it is completly offline and has to be un-powered and re-powered to get online again
narrowed the problem down to the Soundbar as when I disable the vlc integration … HA runs stable again
I also tried to find log entries to get more crash Details … but I cannot find something useful
I bet that is a power issue.
The RPi is really sensitive to power fluctuations, because it requires so much power that it is really not possible to power much over the USB connections at all.
A more powerful power supply for the RPi does not help much, because the power circuit inside the RPi limits it anyway.
Only solution is a powered USB hub.
You can find countless posts on the forum where anything more than a single, or if they are lucky two, small radio sticks are all that can draw power from the USB ports.
Anybody running a SSD expansion will also tell you this.
This 100%. Powered usb hub for EVERYTHING possible if on an rpi4
Yes even with the hat. People originally thought it bypassed the USB limits but unfortunately appears not to be the case unless you nodded the power injection somehow. Still use the powered hub…
Yeah. People really need to be told about the power bus on a Pi. It’s crap and incredibly easy to exhaust. I was actually wondering about your setup the other day and if you fixed it.
People overrun it regularly with just two usb sticks and an SSD. That sound bar had zero chance.
Glad you’re sorted and don’t forget to mark Wallys post with the solve - it helps other people see were not full of crap when we say Pi? No you REALLY need an externally powered USB hub.