this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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Not sure, HA itself is not very demanding. Most demanding thing I'm running are NZB's (extracting / par check), Photoview (to index the photos on my NAS), and Frigate (web cams with motion detection). I've set CPU limits for each docker container to ensure it's not overloaded, installed a fan, and now it seems to perform okay.
The RPi model B was the first iteration of Pi's available (they released two at the same time, A and B). It has 512MB RAM and a 700MHz CPU. It is painfully underpowered. I doubt the stuff you're talking about would be able to run on it. But since you mentioned running HA dockerised alongside other services and having it work OK, I think I'll do that method on my RPi4.
Yeah, the RPI4 is pretty good. I had to install a fan as it got hot pretty quickly and at 85c it will throttle.
Main issues I had were with photo management solutions, which would completely knock out the Pi. Photoview and Pigallery2 are ones that are working well on my RPI4. I still have CPU limits on those docker instances.
Also, had to tweak a bit with the settings for Frigate. They recommend a Coral for motion detection, but they are very hard /impossible to get or very expensive. I run 2 cameras with CPU motion detection and it works well. Load of my PI is between 1 and 2 so that's fine for a quad core CPU.
Yeah I had the same issue wirh photos. I have a plan to eventually upgrade the main board from my Framework laptop and turn the old one into a server to deal with photo/video stuff.
Check power usage. I also used an old Intel Desktop PC, but found it used about $150 / year power. Rough estimate, but if you leave something running 24/7 it's good to keep the power usage low.
It's a laptop so should have lower power usage than a desktop anyway. But I kinda expect anything doing photos/videos will use a bit of power. I might have to see if I can get a power usage measurer that's compatible with Home Assistant!
The smart plugs I linked before have power measurement built-in. It's Zigbee, so locally only.
Most of the ones sold in NZ are all WiFi based, which is annoying as they depend on the cloud. Philips Hue is I think the only proper local solution, but bring your wallet if you want to go down that route.
When you say Zigbee is local only, I presume if you have remote access to Home Assistant then you can use this to control them? But they don't rely on a cloud server. That sounds ideal.
Oh, for remote control to HA, I use Tailscale. So I can connect to HA from my phone anywhere by turning Tailscale on. And, I get e.g. notifications for motion sensors. Very convenient.
Yes, Zigbee is a protocol for a mesh network. Mains powered devices like smart bulbs and smart plugs are routers as well to extend the coverage. Temp sensors are end devices only (and not a router). You also have Zwave but I think Zigbee is more popular.
Downside is that not all Zigbee devices follow the Zigbee standard, it's a bit of a mess sometimes.
So... there's a new kid, Matter and Thread. It's very new, so not a lot of devices, but the SkyConnect dongle is Matter/Thread ready. It will come first to HASS, and afterwards to dockerized (another advantage for HASS).
The benefits are that it's indeed local only (i.e. your local network) and the batteries in end devices like temp sensors will last much longer than the wifi equivalent.
I didn't know about all of this 6 weeks ago, hope it makes sense.
You're making sense! I can't want to dive in and get started, but will probably take a month for anything to arrive from ali express.
Glad it makes sense! Delivery times seem to have improved. It still sometimes takes a month, the Zigbee smart plugs arrived within 10 days. For the SkyConnect I ordered at Seeedstudio and paid extra for quick delivery, it was here within 5 days. Any questions just DM me.
Will do, cheers!