Use Mini PC / Minix (Neo Z83-4) for Home Assistant - what extra hardware for Zigbee and IOs?

Hardware
1

Hi All,

I have a Minix (Neo Z83-4) with Windows 10 installed catching dust here. I plan now to use it as my platform for HA.
Bcs I already have this Minix, I have no intention to buy a separate Raspberry Pi to run HA.

I would like some advice on any extra hardware I need to make this platfrom fully suitable for my HA needs.
Also, the whole set-up will be installed somewhere in the house in a wooden closet, so no need for any goodlooking HW, plastics cases around any of the components are not needed.

The requirements:

The whole set-up must work stable, with good performance and at lowest possible HW costs.

  1. Minix + Windows 10 as the base platform (I already have)
  2. A USB hub to connect various components with USB connector to the Minix (I have)
  3. A suitable Zigbee dongle (USB) for Home Assistant use, as cheap as possible, proven for HA, could even be a naked print board version.
  4. An IO board I can connect via USB to the Minix set-up to have as well the possibility for hard-wired IO to Home Assistant (in fact to replicate the GPIO ports you would have with a Raspberry Pi)
  5. With this IO board or a separate USB IO board, the possibility to connect 1-Wire temperature sensors to this Minix-HA set-up (to replicate the GPIO 4 port of the Rasp PI which uses that port for that function).

Could people advise me on the hardware I could select for components 3), 4) and 5)?

Thanks!

2

How are you planning to install Home Assistant?

3

I am planning Oracle VM VirtualBox

4

This has an Intel Atom Intel X5-Z8300 and 4Gb RAM? Let us know how well Home Assistant performs on that platform with Win10 and Oracle VM.

5

I understand from elsewhere that it should work with VM VirtualBox on Win10. I needs to be tested of course.

The HW specs of the Minix Neo Z83-4 are:

  • 1.44 GHz Intel Atom x5-Z8300 Quad-Core
  • 4GB of DDR3L RAM
  • Integrated Intel HD Graphics
  • 32GB of eMMC 5.0 Storage
  • 1 x Gigabit Ethernet Port
  • 802.11ac Wi-Fi & Bluetooth 4.2
  • 1 x USB 3.0 & 3 x USB 2.0
  • 1 x HDMI & 1 x Mini DisplayPort
  • 4K/2K UHD Video Playback
  • Windows 10 (64-bit)
6

And I would like some advice from the forum members on what make&model of additional components I can add to this set-up for:

  1. A suitable Zigbee dongle (USB) for Home Assistant use, as cheap as possible, proven for HA, could even be a naked print board version.

  2. An IO board I can connect via USB to the Minix set-up to have as well the possibility for hard-wired IO to Home Assistant (in fact to replicate the GPIO ports you would have with a Raspberry Pi)

  3. With this IO board or a separate USB IO board, the possibility to connect 1-Wire temperature sensors to this Minix-HA set-up (to replicate the GPIO 4 port of the Rasp PI which is suitable for that function).

7

The only integration I could find to do this:

Note that it does not support 1-wire, only ADC inputs.

I’ve never used it so can’t comment on it’s reliability.

8

Cheapest Zigbee solution nowadays would be either a CC2531 flashed with firmware from the zigbee2mqtt project or a Sonoff Zigbee Bridge flashed with Tasmota firmware and used with the ZHA integration.

1 Like
9

Looks interesting! Not sure which USB version it uses and how it will operate in WIN10 / VM VirtualBox environment.

10

For the Zigbee dongle I saw the Sonoff one as well: https://www.itead.cc/cc2531-usb-dongle.html
No idea if that will work out of the box with the set-up I am aiming with the Minix Neo / Win10

11

The CC2531 is sold by everyone and their dog (Sonoff, eBay, countless Chinese web stores, etc). Its Texas Instruments Zigbee chip is what zigbee2mqtt is designed to work with.

In contrast, the Sonoff Zigbee bridge is Itead’s design and uses an Ember Zigbee chip, which is supported by ZHA (which supports a broader range of zigbee adapters).

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12

I see that there is a whole range of zigbee2mgtt supported devices, some (assumed) better than others: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/information/supported_adapters.html

13

Yes and, per your stated requirement, the CC2531 is “as cheap as possible”.

14

Thanks. Indeed, I do not need a fancy looking Zigbee USB dongle, but it needs to be stable and fit for purpose. And I need good Zigbee (RF) coverage across the house and to the garage ca 10 meters from the house.

Would I need then a Zigbee USB dongle with a mounted antenna to it?

Furthermore, I need to find a suitable 1-wire USB board so I can connect temperature sensors as well to the HA set-up. Would you have some ideas around this?

15

Most non-battery-operated ZigBee devices act as repeaters and help to extend the “reach” of transmitted commands. So depending on what kind of ZigBee devices you have, an external antenna may not be required. However, if there’s a 10-meter ‘hop’ between any two devices, what’s between them will determine how much of the signal is attenuated (open air vs walls made of brick or metal siding, etc).

FWIW, there are countless existing threads on this forum that discuss ZigBee networks.

1 Like
16

Yes, thanks. I agree there are probably quite some threads around this topic. But I am looking for proven hardware (the 3 items above) which will likely will work just fine with the planned Minix Neo + Win10 + HA set-up. I was wondering if there are experiences at the forum with the successful selection of those 3 hw items.

17

For the GPIO why not a NodeMCU esp32 and ESPHome? It would be standalone (wifi) independent of your Mini PC. These things are cheap, have a ton of I/O and work really well.

1 Like
18

Thank you Steve for the suggestions, interesting! I will for sure look into that.

So far I had the approach to have several hard-wired IOs available via a (USB) board to the Mimix+Win10+HA set-up, this to be able to connect several existing (wired) home alarm contacts to the system.

Similarly, I have various existing 1-wire temp sensors of my floor heating system of my house which I also like to connect to the Minix (via a 1-wire board).

19

ESPHome is fantastic for wifi sensors but if you have a spare pi lying around you can’t beat this for hardwired:

1 Like
20

I have 3 door sensors, 1 window, and 3 motion sensors from my home alarm connected to a NodeMCU, works great for that.