Recommended rasberry pi kit?

[Diesel]

18 hours ago, Blackbird said:

Are you referring to this https://www.amazon.ca/Hubitat-Elevation-Home-Automation-Hub/dp/B07D19VVTX ?  If so Im confused, If I need another device to run zigbee and zwave, what is the purpose of the synology NAS.  If I used a RP4 or a  Odroid, would I still need a hub like this to run zigbee or zwave divices?

Thanks

Using a Hubitat for your zigbee and zwave devices is just one option. You don't have to use one. I had one before I started with HASS so I used that as my zigbee & zwave hub. It's very stable and works well for everything I've thrown at it. Very active community & device driver development. If you do decide to go with it get the current C-8 model. 

If you go the RP4 route you'll still need to buy zigbee and zwave radios. 

My advice would be not to buy any hardware just yet. Instead get the HASS VM installed on your Syno first over a cup of coffee. Go thru the initial HASS setup, and add the ISY integration to get all your Insteon devices added to HASS. You can also add the integrations for any WiFi, Network, and cloud devices you may have. HASS will detect a bunch of devices on your network that you can add (ex; Hue, Apple TVs, Android, Samsung, LG TVs etc). Learn how it all works to see if you like it. 

Spend some time on the HASS community forum and ask questions. It's a very active place with a lot of helpful people. Once you get a good feel for HASS and you know you like it, then you can either get USB dongles for zigbee & Zwave radios and pass them thru to the VM, a Hubitat, or something else. If at that point you're convinced to go the RPi route, just create a HASS backup and restore the config on the RPI and you pickup where you left off in minutes.

Good luck  

  

[Blackbird]

5 hours ago, Diesel said:

Using a Hubitat for your zigbee and zwave devices is just one option. You don't have to use one. I had one before I started with HASS so I used that as my zigbee & zwave hub. It's very stable and works well for everything I've thrown at it. Very active community & device driver development. If you do decide to go with it get the current C-8 model. 

If you go the RP4 route you'll still need to buy zigbee and zwave radios. 

My advice would be not to buy any hardware just yet. Instead get the HASS VM installed on your Syno first over a cup of coffee. Go thru the initial HASS setup, and add the ISY integration to get all your Insteon devices added to HASS. You can also add the integrations for any WiFi, Network, and cloud devices you may have. HASS will detect a bunch of devices on your network that you can add (ex; Hue, Apple TVs, Android, Samsung, LG TVs etc). Learn how it all works to see if you like it. 

Spend some time on the HASS community forum and ask questions. It's a very active place with a lot of helpful people. Once you get a good feel for HASS and you know you like it, then you can either get USB dongles for zigbee & Zwave radios and pass them thru to the VM, a Hubitat, or something else. If at that point you're convinced to go the RPi route, just create a HASS backup and restore the config on the RPI and you pickup where you left off in minutes.

Good luck  

  

Can the zigbee and zwave radios be plugged into the synology nas?

[Diesel]

1 hour ago, Blackbird said:

Can the zigbee and zwave radios be plugged into the synology nas?

Yes, as I mentioned a couple of posts ago, in Synology VMM you can pass through USB devices to virtual machines.

But due to the great development and driver support on Hubitat, I think your life will be a lot easier going that route...but first setup and play with a HASS VM without making any hardware commitments and see if you like it.

 

[Blackbird]

2 hours ago, Diesel said:

Yes, as I mentioned a couple of posts ago, in Synology VMM you can pass through USB devices to virtual machines.

But due to the great development and driver support on Hubitat, I think your life will be a lot easier going that route...but first setup and play with a HASS VM without making any hardware commitments and see if you like it.

 

Thank you

[Blackbird]

On 7/10/2024 at 6:36 AM, Diesel said:

Using a Hubitat for your zigbee and zwave devices is just one option. You don't have to use one. I had one before I started with HASS so I used that as my zigbee & zwave hub. It's very stable and works well for everything I've thrown at it. Very active community & device driver development. If you do decide to go with it get the current C-8 model. 

If you go the RP4 route you'll still need to buy zigbee and zwave radios. 

My advice would be not to buy any hardware just yet. Instead get the HASS VM installed on your Syno first over a cup of coffee. Go thru the initial HASS setup, and add the ISY integration to get all your Insteon devices added to HASS. You can also add the integrations for any WiFi, Network, and cloud devices you may have. HASS will detect a bunch of devices on your network that you can add (ex; Hue, Apple TVs, Android, Samsung, LG TVs etc). Learn how it all works to see if you like it. 

Spend some time on the HASS community forum and ask questions. It's a very active place with a lot of helpful people. Once you get a good feel for HASS and you know you like it, then you can either get USB dongles for zigbee & Zwave radios and pass them thru to the VM, a Hubitat, or something else. If at that point you're convinced to go the RPi route, just create a HASS backup and restore the config on the RPI and you pickup where you left off in minutes.

Good luck  

  

I installed HA on my synology and I am very happy so far.  Without your recommendation I wouldn't have thought of using my NAS.  Thanks again

[Diesel]

6 hours ago, Blackbird said:

I installed HA on my synology and I am very happy so far.  Without your recommendation I wouldn't have thought of using my NAS.  Thanks again

Glad you're happy. My pleasure.

[Blackbird]

On 8/27/2024 at 8:18 PM, Diesel said:

Glad you're happy. My pleasure.

1.  Have you used  a usb hub connected to your Synology NAS, if so which one do you use?  

2. Have you connected Bluetooth to the NAS for HA devices?

Edited August 29 by Blackbird

[Diesel]

17 hours ago, Blackbird said:

1.  Have you used  a usb hub connected to your Synology NAS, if so which one do you use?  

2. Have you connected Bluetooth to the NAS for HA devices?

1. No, you can search reddit or synology forum for specific models, but just about any externally powered 3.x USB hub should work fine. 

2. I don't have any bluetooth devices in my HA. But if I did, BT is generally short range. My NAS is in a network closet in the basement of a large home and not an ideal location for a BT radio. A lot of users in the HA community use an ESP32 for this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=endqy0G6Dks

    

[Blackbird]

Thanks

[Ross]

Sorry I'm late to this party, but what is the story with Home Assistant Yellow?

Can that be used as well?  Downsides?

Thanks,

Ross

 

[PB11]

On 7/7/2024 at 7:47 AM, Diesel said:

IMHO, if you don't already have one I would put the money instead into a Synology NAS and run HASS as a virtual machine on it. The NAS will do so much more for you, like provide network storage for all your files, documents, Windows and Mac (TimeMachine) client backups, storing Eisy backups. A 2 bay Synology DS224+ is only $299. It also runs Docker for other containers you may want to explore.

There's a premade OVA (virtual machine) for HASS that can be imported into Synology VMM (virtual machine manager). It's practical because you can run snapshots on the VM before making any major changes and simple to roll back if things go wrong. 

 

 

Greetings

I’m hoping to introduce Home assistant into my fairly extensive Insteon/polisy net worth. 
Originally planned to run it on my 2018 Mac mini, which connects wirelessly, but apparently it has to be hardwired.

My next thought was to run it off my synology  Nas through docker, but I thought I had read this would not allow add-ons.

My whole focus is to get HomeKit interface access.

Are you finding you’re able to introduce add-ons running it off the symbology Nas?

[Diesel]

2 hours ago, PB11 said:

Greetings

I’m hoping to introduce Home assistant into my fairly extensive Insteon/polisy net worth. 
Originally planned to run it on my 2018 Mac mini, which connects wirelessly, but apparently it has to be hardwired.

My next thought was to run it off my synology  Nas through docker, but I thought I had read this would not allow add-ons.

My whole focus is to get HomeKit interface access.

Are you finding you’re able to introduce add-ons running it off the symbology Nas?

While you can run an HA container in Synology Docker, it's a somewhat neutered version and won't have some essential functions like HA Supervisor which makes updating the components, OS and releases very simple. In Docker you'll need to make these updates manually by downloading and updating to the latest HA container each time. 

A much better option is to run the full version of HA as a virtual machine in Synology VMM (Virtual Machine Manager) by simply downloading a premade OVA. 

You'll find quite a few tutorials out there. Here's one I posted earlier on this thread.

 

[PB11]

Ok. so i ended up running what i understand to be the full HA OS on my mac mini in virutalbox.

Things seem pretty good, if not a tiny bit slow to respond.

One odd thing i've just discovered is that any devices i expose to hoembridge are showing as not available in my Admin Console on Polisy.

Red crossed circle. If this is part of the HA integration i have to say i am out.

[PB11]

4 minutes ago, PB11 said:

Ok. so i ended up running what i understand to be the full HA OS on my mac mini in virutalbox.

Things seem pretty good, if not a tiny bit slow to respond.

One odd thing i've just discovered is that any devices i expose to hoembridge are showing as not available in my Admin Console on Polisy.

Red crossed circle. If this is part of the HA integration i have to say i am out.

Wait a tick. It seems they have been disabled in Admin console. Enabling seems to have brought them back into my Polisy scenes. Strange

Edited December 9 by PB11

[PB11]

Other then going with HA so i have more device options in HomeKit, whats the benefit?

Kinda seems overly complicated with all the entities

[slimypizza]

There are a lot of entities but you might end up being glad they’re there.  HA makes available plenty of sensors and items to control.