Set up Home Assistant for Insteon – Cheap Hardware for a Linux Docker Server



This is my 2d Home Assistant for Insteon publish, and I might be writing a pair greater to assist anyone that is trying to get their Insteon smart domestic lower back up and walking.

Earlier this month, Insteon abruptly ceased buying and selling and disabled all its cloud server functionality, successfully making the Insteon hub vain.

Not all is lost, though. You can still manipulate the devices using services consisting of Home Assistant, which connects in your gadgets using the Insteon API to be had on the hub. It is critical that you do no longer reset the hub or your gadgets.

Unfortunately, one reader talked about that my quick and smooth method to get Home Assistant up and running wasn’t pretty as smooth as expected.

Home Assistant Windows Portable (HassWP) calls for Hyper-V, which isn’t always available on Windows Home.

Normally I wouldn’t bother to use Windows at all and prefer a Raspberry Pi, however with the various worldwide issues we face, buying an RPi is proving to be tough.

It seems it is possible to get Hyper-V on Windows Home, and I actually have started out writing that guide.

However, you don’t really want to be going for walks Home Assistant on a huge computing device PC or perhaps your work pc. You’d be higher off with a dedicated system strolling Home Assistant.

While you can warfare to find a reasonably-priced RPi4, there are lots of affordable alternative alternatives. Most of that is used hardware on eBay.

The alternatives underneath aren’t as reasonably-priced because the RPi4, and they may use greater electricity, however the charge and electricity efficiency are still desirable. You can also set them up to run other services inclusive of Plex.

Linux / Docker and Home Assistant

With all the following alternatives, I’d installation a few shape of Linux. Personally, I’d be inclined to apply UnRaid as it is distinctly clean to apply; however, this is paid for software program and could price you $fifty nine. It is properly really worth the funding as it might be the perfect to set up, and it opens you as much as the arena of domestic servers.

OpenMediaVault helps Docker, but I have in no way tried it.

Alternatively, you could set up an Ubuntu server and comply with the numerous publications on setting up Docker and Home assistant. Probably the most user-friendly direction to do this is to apply DockSTARTer, which automates a whole lot of the Docker set-up manner.

Used Intel NUC Mini PC

The Intel NUC mini PC is probably the exceptional choice, I assume. You don’t need something too powerful, so that you don’t need the modern-day fashions.

The Intel NUC is small, quiet and coffee powered. You must easily be able to conceal it away in a cabinet with out causing fan noise.

They are a bit pricey to buy new, with fees typically over $500 or for UK buyers they start at round £350.

eBay has quite a few used options with quite a few fashions priced underneath £100 / $one hundred

For US customers:

This Intel NUC D54250WYK is simply $76.Forty nine and has Intel Core i5-4250U with 4GB of RAM but now not HD.

Search for Intel NUCs on eBay USA

For UK shoppers:

This Intel NUC NUC5i3RY is simply £99.95, it uses quite an antique i3 5010U, however it should offer masses of grunt to run Home Assistant and some thing else you want to put in.

The TDP of the NUC Kit NUC5i3RYHS is simply 15W. It is lots more than an RPi or the Insteon hub, however a fraction of what a desktop typically puls.

Gigabyte Brix / Zotac ZBox / Other Mini PCs

The Intel NUC might be the satisfactory recognized mini PC, but numerous manufacturers additionally cause them to. A couple of years ago, I reviewed the Azulle Byte4 Fanless, which is to be had to shop for new from $280.

For US Buyers:

The OUVISLITE Mini PC has a Ιntel Celeron N3350, 4GB RAM, and 64GB storage. It is even listed as the use of Windows 10 Pro, so if you don’t want the faff of installing Ubuntu, you may run Home Assistant Windows Portable (HassWP).

Or an excellent lower-spec model with Intel Atom Z8350, 2GB RAM and 32GB garage is below $100.

For UK buyers:

Amazon UK has lots of new Mini PCs, and a number of those are extraordinarily reasonably-priced.

There is the SNUNMU Mini PC for below £a hundred, it only has 2GB RAM, 32GB garage and Intel Atom Z8350, however it have to nonetheless be good sufficient to with ease run Linux/Docker/Home Assistant.

For a piece extra, there may be the NiPoGi Mini PC which has the Ιntel Celeron J4125, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

This HP EliteDesk 800 is in used good circumstance and has an Intel i3-6100T with 8GB of RAM, and 160GB SSD and additionally comes with Windows 10 Pro.

Used SFF PCs

Small shape aspect PCs are larger and greater energy-hungry than a mini PC, but still lots smaller and extra energy-green than maximum computer systems. These are often used in offices, so you can usually choose them up cheap on eBay. They will usually have a chunk more processing oomph than a mini PC or a right NAS.

For UK buyers:

This Dell OptiPlex 3040 SFF PC is simply £one hundred twenty five and has a 6^th gen i3 Intel CPU with 8GB RAM, 240GB SSD and Windows 10 Pro.

Amazon UK has a renewed Intel i5 6500 version for just £195 and the I3 for under £one hundred twenty.

For US Buyers:

Amazon has the Dell OptiPlex 3040 with Intel Quad-Core i5 6500, 16GB RAM, 1T HD and Windows 10 Pro for just beneath $200.

TerraMaster / Synology / QNAP NAS Enclosure

No NAS running gadget has Home Assistant as a native application that I am aware of, but most/they all can run Docker.

Both Tarramaster and Synology have the Docker package deal. I in my view located Docker a touch puzzling to apply on Tarramaster OS, and I now run UNRAID on both my TerraMaster NAS enclosures.

You can choose up the TerraMaster F2-210 for just £150 or $one hundred sixty on Amazon.Com

The cheapest Synology I can see is the DiskStation DS220+ for $300 (I’d skip one disk options).