[kwlug-disc] Small low power server for HomeAssistant

Fri Feb 2 16:30:27 EST 2018

Since your requirement is large repository, I'd recommend Intel/AMD,
because x86/x64 repository would be larger than ARM.  So, refurbished
laptop or small PC brick.
-- 
William Park <opengeometry at yahoo.ca>

On Fri, Feb 02, 2018 at 11:57:05AM -0500, Khalid Baheyeldin wrote:
> It should, but I am evaluating the alternatives before committing to an RPi
> 3.
> 
> On Fri, Feb 2, 2018 at 11:47 AM, CrankyOldBugger <crankyoldbugger at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > While I can't say that I understand the requirements, but would a $50
> > Raspberry Pi do the trick?
> >
> >
> > On 2 February 2018 at 11:43, Ron Singh <ronsingh149 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> I just had a thought and hammer the idea of a laptop a bit more:-)
> >> See, Reality Bytes in Elmira has some X220T tablets for less than 200
> >> bucks/i5/4G/320G hdd) and I think one of these mounted on a wall will
> >> afford a touchscreen interface to quickly look at stats and will not take
> >> up too much space, about 12" x 10" I would think
> >>
> >> https://www.realitybytescomputers.com/
> >>
> >> As a reseller, they do the grade "B" X220T to my form for some $160, so I
> >> think the retail is around $190-$200.
> >>
> >> A headless solution, tucked away would be the best and very clean, but
> >> man, the $$$ is significant.
> >>
> >> Perhaps some old Intel NUC based on an older i3 or i5 would be perfect
> >> too if you can find one cheap o Kijiji or Ebay.
> >> I haven't looked at NUCs in quite a while with mostly the Atom-based
> >> units being fanless, Mebbe the i3-32xx boards can be had fanless too.
> >>
> >> A few years back we did some DFI mini-ITX boards with i5-520M as packet
> >> sniffing appliances for a local client and those boards had 4 NICs,
> >> watchdog, wireless, but no GPIO. Seems like anything fanless and with GPIO
> >> becomes "industrial use" with an "industrial" price attached:-(
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >>
> >> Ron Singh
> >>
> >>
> >> On Fri, Feb 2, 2018 at 11:19 AM, Khalid Baheyeldin <kb at 2bits.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> On Fri, Feb 2, 2018 at 10:27 AM, Ron Singh <ronsingh149 at gmail.com>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Khalid, this project is very exciting! Would like to have an idea of
> >>>> the networked devices you plan on using.
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> Home Assistant supports a huge variety of sensors and devices.
> >>>
> >>> Go here, and look at the list on the left, and click on each to see what
> >>> devices are supported.
> >>>
> >>> https://home-assistant.io/components/
> >>>
> >>> Some of that is 'cloud' which I will not bother with. Also supports
> >>> Alexa, Google Home, ..etc, which I will not touch.
> >>>
> >>> But they are there for those who want to go that way.
> >>>
> >>> One feature is using ping to check for devices that are up. Another uses
> >>> nmap, ...etc. etc. etc.
> >>>
> >>> If you put in enough time (and money and/or effort) you can end up with
> >>> a dashboard like this:
> >>>
> >>> http://appdaemon.readthedocs.io/en/latest/DASHBOARD_INSTALL.html
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> I wonder, despite the fact that they are not fanless, would a laptop
> >>>> not suffice?
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> A laptop suffices from a specs point of view. But it has a fan, and a
> >>> screen, so runs warm, and needs more ventilation, and is not really
> >>> headless.
> >>>
> >>> The Zotac run off a standard 12v wall wart, which means things are more
> >>> flexible.
> >>>
> >>> See, I have an X220(i5-2540M), set up as a torrent/playback PC that is
> >>>> never turned off, it is hooked up via a DP/HDMI cable to a TV set and uses
> >>>> a HID-compliant wireless mini keyboard(with trackpad)
> >>>>
> >>>> In the BIOS, I have the Intel SpeedStep feature turned off, the power
> >>>> settings are "battery optimized" and the thermal setting is also for fan
> >>>> optimized.
> >>>> Essentially, this 2,4Ghz CPu spends most of it's time at 800-ish Mhz.
> >>>> One can force it to stick around 800-ish Mhz via TLP, but I have not tried
> >>>> that.
> >>>> It runs Mint-Cinnamon-18.1, essentially Ubuntu 16.04.1 with the
> >>>> Cinnamon DE.
> >>>> With the laptop's screen set at minimum(it is all set up in the
> >>>> basement), the X220 uses 11 watts idling and 23 watts streaming/playing
> >>>> back 1080P media.
> >>>> The X220 has a slow-poke 5400rpm 750G HDD which is set for a 5 min
> >>>> spin-down when idle.
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> Seem viable with all those tweeks and an SSD.
> >>>
> >>> I need to compare the watt usage of a Raspberry Pi to your 11 W.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> Would this platform(an i5-equipped X220) or any other i3/i5 laptop be
> >>>> appropriate for this end-use?
> >>>> I have looked into fanless PCs in the past, based on mobile Intel chips
> >>>> and crippled desktop chips, but they are pretty spendy with current models
> >>>> starting at $400 and still needing RAM and storage.
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> That is where the Zotac will end up, and I don't want to spend that
> >>> money.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> I have not played yet with this tool:
> >>>> https://01.org/powertop/downloads/powertop-v2.9
> >>>> but it looks real promising in its ability to really fine tune some
> >>>> powersaving features of an Intel platform.
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> I have 2.8 installed. It is in Ubuntu's repositories. apt-get install
> >>> powertop.
> >>>
> >>> Played with it on the older laptop, and on this one. Basically there is
> >>> a tab menu on top and one of them is 'Tunables'. If you go there, you can
> >>> turn power saving per device. It can also generate for you the commands to
> >>> turn this power saving in /sys, and you can create a script and put it in
> >>> /etc/rc.local and it will do that for you on boot.
> >>>
> >>> The reason I used it was to prevent the fan from kicking in a lot, since
> >>> it bothers me.
> >>>
> >>> It worked fine on my old laptop (Core 2 Duo). On the newer laptop (Core
> >>> i5) I turned this script off for some reason that eludes me now.
> >>>
> >>> I did not measure any watts with any watt usage of the above.
> >>>
> >>> Another reason for an SBC like the Raspberry Pi, is having GPIO pins
> >>> that can be connected to sensors (say an Arduino gateway for something or
> >>> other). With laptops, you are limited to USB and serial.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On Thu, Feb 1, 2018 at 2:40 PM, Khalid Baheyeldin <kb at 2bits.com> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> Looking into home automation, I settled on Home Assistant
> >>>>>
> >>>>> https://home-assistant.io/
> >>>>>
> >>>>> This is written in Python, and there is a Raspberry Pi 3 image for it
> >>>>> already (Hassbian, based on Raspbian, which is Debian derived).
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Alternate install methods do work, and I managed to get it up and
> >>>>> running on a good old AMD server running Ubuntu 16.04 using Python venv.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> https://home-assistant.io/docs/installation/virtualenv/
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Now, I want it to be permanently hosted on its own lower power server.
> >>>>> The Raspberry Pi 3 is an option, but I want to make sure I explore other
> >>>>> lower power servers that run stock Debian or Ubuntu 16.04 (or 18.04 soon).
> >>>>> The reason is: the rich repository. If you want some package, it is already
> >>>>> there, and you are not stuck.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> So an Intel/AMD server is desirable.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Zotac have some servers that take power from a 12v adapters, and
> >>>>> fanless, but they will be over $300 and up after one puts a CPU and SSD
> >>>>> disk in them. An RPi3 is ~ $100 with a case and a microSD card.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> There is Beagle Bone Black, and Pine64. There is also Odroid. But all
> >>>>> these have a very small community and running Debian/Ubuntu on them with a
> >>>>> rich repository will not be viable in the long run.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> So the questions are:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> 1. Does anyone here use Home Assistant? Would like to hear your
> >>>>> experience with it.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> 2. What other options are there for low power, low footprint servers
> >>>>> that run stock Debian/Ubuntu?
> >>>>>
> >>>>> --
> >>>>> Khalid M. Baheyeldin
> >>>>> 2bits.com, Inc.
> >>>>> Fast Reliable Drupal
> >>>>> Drupal optimization, development, customization and consulting.
> >>>>> Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. --  Edsger W.Dijkstra
> >>>>> Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --   Leonardo da Vinci
> >>>>> For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple,
> >>>>> and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken
> >>>>>
> >>>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>>> kwlug-disc mailing list
> >>>>> kwlug-disc at kwlug.org
> >>>>> http://kwlug.org/mailman/listinfo/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> Khalid M. Baheyeldin
> >>> 2bits.com, Inc.
> >>> Fast Reliable Drupal
> >>> Drupal optimization, development, customization and consulting.
> >>> Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. --  Edsger W.Dijkstra
> >>> Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --   Leonardo da Vinci
> >>> For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple, and
> >>> wrong." -- H.L. Mencken
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
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> >>> http://kwlug.org/mailman/listinfo/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
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> >>
> >>
> >
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> >
> >
> 
> 
> -- 
> Khalid M. Baheyeldin
> 2bits.com, Inc.
> Fast Reliable Drupal
> Drupal optimization, development, customization and consulting.
> Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. --  Edsger W.Dijkstra
> Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --   Leonardo da Vinci
> For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple, and
> wrong." -- H.L. Mencken

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