Hey everyone! I would like to apologize ahead of time for some noob questions. I just recently discovered the world of raspberry pi's and was blown away by the potential. However, I don't really know much of the terminology and I have picked up a couple books on the basics to try and fix that.
My question is: LEDgardener recommends a raspberry pi 4 with 4gb ram for use in his automations. What are the limitations of this level of pi vs say an 8gb ram or a smaller one?
I would like to have 4 zones. Each zone would have monitoring for temp/humidity, ph and ec of the reservoir, lighting control, and watering times.
Lastly, I have a security camera system that I know works with home assistant, so that would be cool to add.
Also, are there certain types of "smart" devices I should aim for? I have some wifi thermometers that work great and do not break the bank, so I really am not interested in building that sensor if I can get the info to home assistant. All of the things I want to accomplish are way over my head at the moment. But getting an idea if things can work before I start fiddling would be great.
Again, these are all "starry eyed newbie" ideas from a guy with little to no knowledge of this stuff. But if I know something is possible, I tend to be able to grind until I figure it out.
Thanks,
Irie Farmer
Newbie question: picking your pi
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- LED-Curious
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Last edited by irie_farmer on Thu Dec 31, 2020 8:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
i started with a RPI3b+ , after burning 4 SD cards , switched to SSD ,then was slowing down has i was adding entities , recently i end up and buying a used NUC i5 gen6 with 16GB RAM/120SSD for 250$cad ,now see a huge difference on the NUC , reboots in 5~10 secs . and its fast https://www.intel.ca/content/www/ca/en/ ... i5syh.html
i probably have over 30 sensors , 6 ESPHOME nodes (Xiaomi BLE:10 soil moisture +16 temp/hum. Xiaomi BLE) and 30 sonoffs tasmotized switches/dimmers (lights,baseboard heaters,fans,blowers,etc ) a ton of automations .now im working on my alarm and Atlas PH / TDS.
costed me cheaper than a new RPI4 + SSD + PSU + enclosure and i got alot more Ressources , plus only consumes 10~15 watts .
i used this Temp/humidity Sensors in all my rooms in the house with ESP32(ESPHOME).Duracell batteries last about 7~10 months .i also used xiaomi MiPlant soil moisture sensors ,now i need to order the new outdoor sensor to test .
forgot: i have a recent Hikvision camera system and i can only see my cameras in HA on H264 , not h265 . hopefully they will sort that for us soon !
i probably have over 30 sensors , 6 ESPHOME nodes (Xiaomi BLE:10 soil moisture +16 temp/hum. Xiaomi BLE) and 30 sonoffs tasmotized switches/dimmers (lights,baseboard heaters,fans,blowers,etc ) a ton of automations .now im working on my alarm and Atlas PH / TDS.
costed me cheaper than a new RPI4 + SSD + PSU + enclosure and i got alot more Ressources , plus only consumes 10~15 watts .
i used this Temp/humidity Sensors in all my rooms in the house with ESP32(ESPHOME).Duracell batteries last about 7~10 months .i also used xiaomi MiPlant soil moisture sensors ,now i need to order the new outdoor sensor to test .
forgot: i have a recent Hikvision camera system and i can only see my cameras in HA on H264 , not h265 . hopefully they will sort that for us soon !
Nice one, stud.
The main issue with Pis is the SD card. If you are constantly writing everything to your log, it can kill the card eventually. I haven't yet had this issue, but I don't record a whole lot to mine. As stud mentioned, an SSD can fix this, or moving to a NUC, though the install may be a bit more difficult than the standard Pi install; @stud could probably verify that. I think the Pi works fine to start with though and once you get to be a baller, you can always move on to something bigger.
The main issue with Pis is the SD card. If you are constantly writing everything to your log, it can kill the card eventually. I haven't yet had this issue, but I don't record a whole lot to mine. As stud mentioned, an SSD can fix this, or moving to a NUC, though the install may be a bit more difficult than the standard Pi install; @stud could probably verify that. I think the Pi works fine to start with though and once you get to be a baller, you can always move on to something bigger.
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- LED-Curious
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Sounds like a little more ram won't hurt.
At $250 ca, that is a heck of a deal. Unfortunately, it looks like most NUC's are outside the price range for this diy project.
Thanks, again!
irie_farmer
At $250 ca, that is a heck of a deal. Unfortunately, it looks like most NUC's are outside the price range for this diy project.
Thanks, again!
irie_farmer
i'm in a rural area and we have a lot of power surges when weather is bad .i think that's what was killing my SDs on RPI at that time .i also needed more speed so i decided to switch to SSD .LEDG wrote: ↑Sun Jan 03, 2021 11:24 amNice one, stud.
The main issue with Pis is the SD card. If you are constantly writing everything to your log, it can kill the card eventually. I haven't yet had this issue, but I don't record a whole lot to mine. As stud mentioned, an SSD can fix this, or moving to a NUC, though the install may be a bit more difficult than the standard Pi install; @stud could probably verify that. I think the Pi works fine to start with though and once you get to be a baller, you can always move on to something bigger.
the install on a SSD is easy , there is a couple of steps extra .but you only have to do it 1 time .
and the HDD needs external power ,this was on the RPI3b+ ,if im not mistaking ,RPI4 is SSD ready .i didnt play with 1 yet .
after i installed the SSD i was still unhappy with the performance , i have a lot of stuff on my Home Assistant and reboot would take 40+ secs .
i endup turning my old gaming PC into a VMS on Proxmox and i runned 2 HA instances on it for over 2 years with no problem , i also used it for my NAS ( OMV) .
another way that i never tried is if you have a NAS with Docker ,Qnap or Synology , etc , you can also install HA .
Here's another alternative, booting an rPi from USB instead:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/booting-m ... sb-device/
https://www.zdnet.com/article/booting-m ... sb-device/
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- LED-Curious
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i'm in a rural area and we have a lot of power surges when weather is bad .i think that's what was killing my SDs on RPI at that time .i also needed more speed so i decided to switch to SSD.irie_farmer wrote: ↑Thu Dec 31, 2020 5:15 pmHey everyone! I would like to apologize ahead of time for some noob questions. I just recently discovered the world of raspberry pi's and was blown away by the potential. However, I don't really know much of the terminology and I have picked up a couple books on the basics to try and fix that.
My question is: LEDgardener recommends a raspberry pi 4 with 4gb ram for use in his automations. What are the limitations of this level of pi vs say an 8gb ram or a smaller one?
I would like to have 4 zones. Each zone would have monitoring for temp/humidity, ph and ec of the reservoir, lighting control, and watering times.
Lastly, I have a security camera system that I know works with home assistant, so that would be cool to add.
Also, are there certain types of "smart" devices I should aim for? I have some wifi thermometers that work great and do not break the bank, so I really am not interested in building that sensor if I can get the info to home assistant. All of the things I want to accomplish are way over my head at the moment. But getting an idea if things can work before I start fiddling would be great.
Again, these are all "starry eyed newbie" ideas from a guy with little to no knowledge of this stuff. But if I know something is possible, I tend to be able to grind until I figure it out.
Thanks,
Irie Farmer
Im also in rural area wt lots of power outages on bad weather and also lost multiple sd cards on RPI3b+ .my new solution : Intel Nuc i5 version 6 wt 16gb ram /120gb SSD and got tons of stuff running on my HA and it's been super loyal to me for the last 1.5 year .paid 250cad used on marketplace .
To install HA on it , just flash the SSD of the NUC with the HA version of NUC , exactly the same way like you would flash a RPI , wt the Balena flashing tool . Good luck Smart Gardeners
To install HA on it , just flash the SSD of the NUC with the HA version of NUC , exactly the same way like you would flash a RPI , wt the Balena flashing tool . Good luck Smart Gardeners