I have had my setup running on a RPi3b+ for years, moved to a RPi4 and my Aeotech stick was having issues with it. I guess its a known problem now. I have a Hyper-V 2019 Core server that hosts a lot of VMs the family uses, so I decided to finally just throw my Ubuntu HA install on there. Its been working well, but I have an issues with Hyper-V not being able to passthrough USB to the client machines. I’m currently using the free version of VirtualHere to pass USB over IP from my old RPi3b+ to my virtual machine, and it works ok, but reboots cause issues and I seem to have to always tinker with it.
So, my question to you guys. I have 3 options, not sure which is the best long term solution. Your thoughts are appreciated.
Get a hub like Samsung Smart Things and rebuild my entire Zwave network in ST, then add it to my HA setup. Would be nice to have the Zwave network always up even if HA is down. Not sure if ST does local control or only cloud control? I hate cloud control, even if I never have internet outages. (8 years without an outage…)
Get a new usb stick that works with RPi4, move my install back to the RPi…not a fan of this really as my RPi was getting a little bogged down as I run some other think on that Ubuntu install like PiHole.
Completely rebuild my VM host with ESXi instead of Hyper-V 2019, it should have native USB passthrough for linux machines and I can just plug my Aeotech stick into the host. This is a lot of work.
I would definitely rule out option 1. SmartThings requires the cloud and is definitely going to be a step back for you in terms of reliability and responsiveness.
Your best option long-term probably is option 3, but yeah, that is going to be a fair amount of work.
@Tricon This might be the best option. If you still have the Rpi 3+, I’d say use that actually. Set up the new Openzwave add-on in a Home Assistant instance on that compatible Pi, and then just use MQTT on your Hyper-V primary Home Assistant instance.
That’s interesting, does that only work for Zigbee or I shouldn’t have any issues with Zwave as well? How would I point my HASS install to the USB stick? Or does it show up as a /dev/Something on the HASS install?
I use Hubitat for my Z-Wave/Zigbee needs.
I tried HA, it was ok for Zigbee failed me for Zigbee. This was a little while ago.
Hubitat is local and has a really good custom component. It’s not perfect, it gets slow if you put custom code on it, so I don’t and it’s awesome.
I like having the hub separate that way when I restart HA it’s ready immediately.
Why set up a home assistant instance for this? I’m doing the same thing, with a separate Pi for ZigBee and Z-Wave, but I only installed the ozw daemon,not a full blown HA with the add-on. HA with the add-on sounds like overkill for me, except if you have some other use for HA on this separate Pi.
