Home Assistant 2024 - Which Hardware to Buy + Full Install Guide

[@digiblurDIY]

*UPDATE - Error flashing via etcher? Use this version of etcher, we found that the latest version has problems: github.com/balena-io/etcher/releases/download/v1.18.11/balenaEtcher-Portable-1.18.11.exe

[@shweenie]

This fixed my Issue.

[@russhumphrey-e7k]

I did this, and now the download flash seems to go OK, but when it boots on the BeeLink, it ends with a line that says "HAOS not found", and makes an emergency exit into PuppyLinux. I'll confirm that I've got the proper version of balenaEtcher & of the HAOS & run it all again. 😕

[@terryharrigan6324]

Ditto

[@neilsmith6638]

What about OSx users? 🙄

[@digiblurDIY]

Use the Mac version if needed.

[@icharlemagne]

Thanks for listing the wattage for each device

[@GigawattGarage]

I Have a very hard time believing the wattage numbers he provided. I know for a fact that little Dell computer he showed needs a 65w psu, so it at least pulls 30w at idle. Same story for that last piece of hardware with the i7, probably uses a 90w psu. But at US prices of 12¢/KWh it really doesn’t matter.

[@digiblurDIY]

@GigawattGarage we aren't processing video at full bore on all cores. These are efficient processors

[@mustang607]

I got a Beelink CPU box, set it up via this video, using a MacBook Air, and it worked! Took less than an hour.

[@digiblurDIY]

Woot woot!

[@tritontr21]

Did you have to delete windows 11 via formatting the m. 2? My bee link has windows 11 installed from the factory.

[@mustang607]

@@tritontr21 the process erased whatever was on there before to get Home Assistant installed and running on the dedicated mini PC specifically bought for that purpose. The next day I bridged Home Assistant to HomeKit, set up some virtual switches, some with delays, and learned some YAML.

[@chiraldude]

My Raspberry PI died. Instead of trying to figure out how to fix or replace it, I bought an old laptop on eBay for less than $100. Loaded VMware, installed HA OS and restored into a new instance of HA from my PI backups. Runs great! Rebooting my PI took about 5 min but the VM restarts in about 1 min so I know I have lots of CPU power to spare.

[@LeGiTKnifeZ]

Which Pi did you have ?

[@erbartlett]

I went back and fourth on this for a while. Tried it on a mac, then on a zimablade, and then just finally went NUC and installed it bare metal. Should have done the NUC right from the start. Eventually I'll get more comfortable with docker and try something more powerful, but for now this was pretty plug'n'play

[@plebius]

Just built one last weekend for the first time. Found docker and absolute nightmare. (Maybe it's just me.) I went hyper V in the end and it was extremely straightforward. If you go down that route, I'll be happy to answer any questions.

[@digiblurDIY]

Zima stuff is definitely expensive for what it is. Little bit of hype there. These little N95 NUCs have been awesome for the bang for the buck even doing non HA stuff.

[@Crystawth]

Just be sure to keep in mind that if you install the docker container for home assistant you will not be able to install add-ons.

[@digiblurDIY]

@Crystawth yes you can. Addons are simply docker containers and you can install as many a you want.

[@ForgeMasterXXL]

@@plebiusWhat problems did you have with docker? It’s one of the things I’m looking at as part of a ‘just-for-fun’ new server build.

[@jmorris644]

If you use a Blink, don't forget to save your windows license that comes with it for possible future use.

[@digiblurDIY]

Very true! I have saved some of mine from years ago on things. Some larger manufacturers like Dell have them cooked into the BIOS too which is nice.

[@squalazzo]

just start windows the 1st time, to it 1st setup, activation online, done... then even if you change ssd and reinstall, as soon as it will be online, it will self activate again, no need to save anything, ever done so, once activated, it will be forever... for anything else, "massgrave" exists :D

[@PCman50]

You neglected to mention the Dell Wyse Thin Client 5070. I purchased mine on eBay for only $35. It has a fast quad core Intel CPU with 8gb RAM and 16gb SSD. It however has an M.2 slot so for $12.00 more I purchased a 256GB SSD on Amazon. It's very fast in fact I use a second one for my desktop computer as it's as fast as a typical NUC or mini desktop PC. Draws about 4-5 watts and CPU never Hits more than about 10% CPU under full load running Home Assistant. I'm also using a 3rd unit as my home media server with an external 4tb hard drive. Streams movies and audio easily to all my home media devices. These Thin Clients are basically mini PCs and enterprise grade construction bullet proof.

[@digiblurDIY]

Pretty much the same thing for the USFF/SFF stuff on Ebay. Great deals on those if you dig a little and don't mind piecing stuff together a little.

[@riffdex]

The downside of the Wyse 5070 is they don’t support NVMe SSDs. As long as you have a SATA based M.2 SSD you’re good to go. I’m not saying it’s a big downside, it’s a great machine, but most people don’t have SATA M.2 drives laying around

[@AX-fx7ng]

Inter3sting find.

[@AX-fx7ng]

@@riffdex I have some from before

[@PCman50]

@@riffdex well they are only about $12 for a 128GB for an M.2 SSD so I don't see that as a problem myself.

[@MichaelBennett1]

Using an old second hand i5 NUC, chugs along at 5-10% CPU and has been solid for 3 years so far. I used an nvme to USB adaptor to initially image HASSOS and occasionally pull it and write a backup image in case the drive ever dies, I keep HASS config backups as well but it’ll be up and running again quickly if disaster strikes.

[@digiblurDIY]

Excellent point! I do this as well on some devices and there's also ways to USB boot backup across the network much like we did in the Norton Ghost days.

[@Leonvolt28]

I hope that someone will create a simple installer for hone assistant os that can run from a usb drive. I know it can be done via Ubuntu and stuff but a more streamlined option would be nice.

[@digiblurDIY]

Yes! That would be awesome. Something like the Opnsense, TrueNAS, etc installer would be amazing. Cuts the job down by 50% or more.

[@jmr]

@@digiblurDIY I don't see an advantage because you would still have to write an image file to the USB drive the same way you would have to write an image file to an SD card. RPI imager is a single piece of software and you just pop the SD card in then select HAOS to write. Am I missing something?

[@djashjones]

@@jmr When I did my install, you had to take the hd out of the mini pc and clone it to the usb.

[@jmr]

@@djashjones Oooh, duh. I was just thinking about the RPI install. Yeah that's a pain in the butt!

[@tamildesan837]

@@djashjonesyou can very much install without removing the hard/ssd drives. Just boot with Ubuntu bootable USB drive and restore the downloaded HA image. That’s what I have done and doing on hardware installs of HA.

[@djkilla5479]

I've watched alot of hours of people doing this. I had so much trouble getting anything to work but once I follow you step by step man thank you 🙏 it was very easy and I got it up and working. Please upload more videos showing all kinds of other stuff. I would love for you to show us because you explain everything for actual beginners like myself. Thank you again for the awesome video!!!!

[@digiblurDIY]

Awesome! Glad to hear from you that it worked out. Thanks for the kind words!

[@Lonestar101]

I'd love to see how you add Z-Wave and Zigbee controllers with MQTT these days. Also, Z-wave smart door locks with PIN codes are a hot mess with Home Assistant. Can you show us how it's done? Locks are a pretty important component of a smart home and Home Assistant doesn't make it easy, especially managing PIN codes.

[@digiblurDIY]

I will be showing some Zigbee and most likely Zwave soon. I don't have many Zwave items though due to issues I had with interference over the years.

[@ekeretteekpo3004]

Thank you for the video but this video isn't for beginners in any way. How did you get into the bios of the Beelink? Did you plug it into an external monitor? If so, why didn't you just use that to flash the HAOS on the SSD? This video was not helpful to me.

[@digiblurDIY]

I would suggest the HA Green then, as it would be a better fit.

[@rolandrohde]

I went with one of the Mini PCs for HAOS a while back, but returned to running HA on a Pi. The reasons were, that the Wifi and BT in the Mini PC didn't work with Home Assistant, some USB Perioherals didn't work well with the Mini PC and then rhe fan in the little PC started making horrible noises after a while. I am still wondering if I should give it another try, maybe with Proxmox this time, but am still hesitant.

[@digiblurDIY]

The devs say to actually use the BT proxy devices over the actual box now. I'd recommend not using WiFi for HA as well, hardwire it to your router.

[@rolandrohde]

@digiblurDIY My HA Server is hardwired anyway, but I need a WiFi connection to my Inverter. It's a direct WiFi link between the internal Wifi of my Huawei Inverter and the Pi I am currently running HAOS on. Not sure about Bluetooth...I don't use it much (outside Switchbot Stuff) and have never heard of BT Proxies.

[@jalbert472]

Thanks!

[@digiblurDIY]

You bet!

[@jalbert472]

Your latest vid on setting up home assistant on an nvme drive was great. Also like the coverage of the Shelly devices I enjoyed also. Keep up the great work!!

[@digiblurDIY]

Awesome! I have some other HA setup vids of various things I've learned and been using for a few years now.

[@clij5202]

Running of a BeeLink but BT driver and wifi not working well with current HAOS kernel. But also with older BT USB adapter I loose frequently connection to my IOT device

[@digiblurDIY]

I think they had issues with the N100 at one point? But I do remember the devs just saying to go BT proxy with ESPHome as it was more reliable and quicker anyways.

[@bp328i]

I am so glad I found this video. I'm getting ready to move away from HomeKit and going to Home Assistant. I was looking at a Pi 5 with a fancy case and adding a NVMe and the price for everything was getting pretty hefty. These look to be a much better option.

[@digiblurDIY]

Yup, the price adds up quickly and then not really worth it in the end.

[@bp328i]

@@digiblurDIY I went with the N100+16GB+500G version from your link and that SSD did not want to format. I have a SSD enclosure that I have used many times to clone SSD's when I was upgrading their size but for some reason the SSD that came in the Beelink wasn't having it. After several hours of pulling my hair out I ended up using the Ubuntu method and got Home Assistant loaded on the main SSD. Now to spend the weekend setting up Home Assistant.

[@jim5148]

Since many HA menus took several seconds to open on the RPi4, I thought I needed more processing power. However, the 8GB Pi 5 I set up (with a SSD) has the same long delays, so I think the RPi4 would be fine. The Pi 5 is waaay more expensive to set up than the Pi 4 too.

[@digiblurDIY]

Indeed and it isn't that cheap once you get there. One of the reasons I say just jump to a N100/N95 setup. Lots of power there for the future.

[@johnm9767]

Great timing. Finally ready to make the jump to HA. Was going to get the green until I watched your video on it. Been surfing eBay looking at older HP Elitedesk Minis now.

[@digiblurDIY]

Of course if you find a better deal on eBay go that route if it makes sense. I like the N95 option for people as I know a lot of people just want to buy something new that they can easily return if necessary and they aren't taking a bit of gamble on. Yet this one doesn't break the bank and still offers great performance.

[@kevinhilton8683]

Wish this beelink unit had holes on the side to screw in some rack ears.

[@digiblurDIY]

Some big ears! I have a 2U shelf for stuff like this.

[@wstrater]

See a lot of videos starting with HAOS where integrating plug-ins is easy. How about putting Debian and Docker on a device and integrate NodeRED, MariaDB, Mosquito, InfluxDB, … into HA for those that want to build out a more robust home auto / home lab server? HAOS does run Docker but gets upset if you install anything on it.

[@digiblurDIY]

Yep. I love some Debian and docker compose. Although it isn't for everyone. I might circle back to that on some supervisorless setups after I catch the beginners up on things.

[@wstrater]

@@digiblurDIY Didn’t think it would be a priority but I have seen enough videos were people say “then can” or “they do” but don’t follow through and talk about how to do it. It may be low bandwidth content but not sure who is stepping people through the next step and how to integrate all the different pieces manually.

[@digiblurDIY]

I've done a full step setup of MQTT, HA, NodeRed, etc on the docker setup with Unraid before, I haven't done it via docker compose yet in a video.

[@jmr]

I'm starting to hit some bottlenecks on my PI4. My plan for now will be to continue running basic HA and most add ons on it. I'm going to run more CPU intensive parts of HA elsewhere however. My thought is basic home automation tasks will continue to run normally when I'm playing with advanced stuff on another server. Perhaps at some point I'll move everything over to something more "beefy" but I don't see a point of breaking a very stable and snappy system.

[@leblancexplores]

What CPU intensive parts are you doing?

[@digiblurDIY]

@leblancexplores frigate and Esphome compiles are two big ones for me.

[@sircoynie]

⁠@@digiblurDIYsame for me. Looking at pi 5 due to knowing how fool proof it will be or N95 but not sure how much of a pain setup/support will be especially for frigate and coral support as the dependability of my old pi 4 has been bullet proof. I tried playing around with utm and a home assistant vm on my spare M2 mac mini but kept getting memory leakage issues (UTM Apple silicon bug) which was a shame as it ran like a beast.

[@TortillaVideo]

Does HomeAssistant have a plugin for the horse carriage at the end of the video?

[@digiblurDIY]

Yes... Its called HASSS

[@jackipiegg]

9:39 Waste of potential installing HaOS on a N95 chip. You should run proxmox instead, HAOS doesn't use much procession power. Heck, docker is good enough for home assistant.

[@digiblurDIY]

Probably a little bit more for someone just starting out to tackle unless there is a ready to go image of Proxmox and HA setup. Once they get some smart home stuff under their belt and they want to do more, then at that point they can use the same machine to load Linux, Proxmox, etc.

[@jmr]

HaOS is essentially Docker. You can find add ons that will challenge the hardware although I take your point. Full Docker or proxmox are more configurable.

[@jackipiegg]

@@digiblurDIY I disagree. Once you setup everything, even me, much less a layman will not start everything fresh again. Weird because proxmox has the same image guide in this video. Idk if you're out of the loop but proxmox has gone a long way in ease of use. Just point the image and it will do everything for you.

[@jackipiegg]

@@jmr I've tried using HaOS as the main OS. It is too limiting as the dependency/driver support is not up to date for other stuff. You need to manually find it yourself in command line which is a headache in of itself.

[@jmr]

@@jackipiegg What about using dongles like for ZigBee? I'm always seeing people fighting to get USB passthrough. Was that an issue for you in Proxmox or did you have to do something "extra"?

[@JoshFisher567]

you can also install it without removing the internal drive. Create a USB Ubuntu bootable disk, boot to it, right the image to the internal drive and reboot taking the USB stick out before it does

[@digiblurDIY]

Yep. Live boot option. A little more involved for people that don't know Linux

[@JoshFisher567]

True, it does depend on the user. A lot of the guides on here are overcomplicated IMO and have you run a bunch of terminal commands so you can install Balena Ether but it's not even needed. You can use the KDE drive manager already installed so no terminal commands need to be run. In fact with Balena Ether you have to completely erase the drive to blank to write the image (per guides on here) KDE doesn't care and just writes the image I also understand that some might not be comfortable at all with Linux or may get confused and write Ubuntu to the internal drive instead of trying Ubuntu to boot from USB. I just mentioned it because most people have a USB thumb drive sitting around. Not everyone has a nvme USB adapter or whatever internal drive adapter is needed to write the image Just saves some money in that scenario. If you own an adapter and aren't comfortable with Linux then this is the better option as long as the user is comfortable removing the internal drive and putting it back in after writing the generic x86 image. Create USB drive Turn off secure boot in bios and power on after power failure Hit F10 at boot, choose USB drive and try Ubuntu Download x86 image if not already copied to Ubuntu USB drive Open KDE drive manager and write image to Internal drive Shutdown, remove USB drive and boot Done At the end of the day you get the same results no matter what method you choose.

[@justatiger6268]

I'm wondering, are there any potential compatibility issues if one goes the old refurbished route such as seen at 2:55?

[@digiblurDIY]

You would have to go reallllly old where 64bit wasn't a thing.

[@xavier_le_x]

Why, don't you boot from live linux from an usb device and let the SSD inside of computer, and then, launch balena and select the SSD as target ?

[@digiblurDIY]

I tried that method and it got a little deep in the rabbit hole with dependncy installs and such and a bit too daunting for non Linux folks. That method is there in the docs though for the pros but then again at that level I doubt they want to run HAOS

[@wesrishel5828]

what is the device that shows up as "living room clock" on this device. I've been looking for a clock that tracks time date and DST from the Internet rather than from WWV

[@digiblurDIY]

Is that something on yours?

[@Destide]

Old chromeboxes are getting cheap, just require a little tinkering to unlock, x86 based so you can run some more docker containers than a pi with the overhead.

[@azoarmy5331]

GREAT Video! Helped me get my Beelink up and running!!

[@digiblurDIY]

That Beelink is solid hardware and runs great for the price!

[@russhumphrey-e7k]

Hi - loved this video. Decided to go for it, got the gear, following the directions, but Etcher is not wanting to flash the file. Downloaded based on the URL in the video, so ver. 12.2. I get "Something is wrong. If it is a compressed image, please check that the archive is not corrupted. The writer process ended unexpectedly", and the internal error in Etcher is a Checksum error for the file. The version of Etcher is 1.19.21, and this is happening on a Mac. Target is a Beelink Mini S. Tried V 1.18.11 of Etcher - looks like the same error. Going to try to find a new version of the haos. OK - found v 12.4 of HAOS - this loaded successfully. Life is good again. thanx r

[@digiblurDIY]

Try 18.11 github.com/balena-io/etcher/releases/tag/v1.18.11

[@ggianne]

Nice video ! if u got 2 minutes i wanted to ask some questions... HA+Beelink n95/n100 allow me to use SwitchBot contact sensor and SwitchBot Indoor/Outdoor Thermo-Hygrometer without owning a SwitchBot Hub? And if they do, based on conditions mentioned: 1) it's easy to integrate them in HA? 2) would they work both offline/local and in cloud? 3) for contact sensor do all statuses (open, closed, left open, light sensor, movement sensor, battery low notification) work to activate devices in smart home recognized by HA wich are not switchbot branded? 4) for thermo-igromerer is it also by humidity and temperature (and eventual other status) able to trigger non switchbot devices in HA? Thx!

[@digiblurDIY]

Yes. You would just need a Bluetooth proxy or two.

[@Ecoi1]

Thanks for this. I was really looking for this type of video. All of the other videos I saw were about installing on a rasp pi without really considering the other options. I feel rather committed to getting into HA and there's a lot I am interested in so willing to put in some more thought into hardware choices.

[@digiblurDIY]

Nice! Yeah Raspberry Pi isn't really a great starting point anymore.

[@ajaffarali]

A bit new to this, so my question might sound stupid- but why do you need to remove the NVMe from the NUC and install it on a USB enclosure? Why not just directly on the NUC's NVMe?

[@digiblurDIY]

Because they don't have a direct installer via USB like some other projects. There's a live Linux USB deal you can do but it is a major PITA

[@YakovD71]

Is it a must to have ZeegBee devices, or I can use my existing Tuya Wi-Fi devices?

[@digiblurDIY]

Those are most likely cloud unless you flashed them.

[@tamildesan837]

Tuya aka smartlife killed the support for HA. So a big no for those devices. There are few devices that can be flashed with Esphome or LibreTiny but there is steep learning curve out there

[@nateF888]

with a mini pc hardware, what are the pros and cons of installing HA OS compared to just installing virtualbox and running it containerized?

[@digiblurDIY]

Gives you more flexibility. Some people don't want to do their own OS and such is all.

[@ZyxxyDigitalMedia]

Watching a bunch of HA stuff because I'm planning on settingg it up ofor my new house. I was pleasantly surprised to see Baton Rouge pop up! I'm watching from Covington!

[@digiblurDIY]

You are like... Wait, this dude talks normal.

[@ZyxxyDigitalMedia]

@@digiblurDIY I THOUGHT you sounded normal!

[@digiblurDIY]

@ZyxxyDigitalMedia lol. Mixed up Lake Charles/Lafayette accent combined with odd Baton Rouge now.

[@AlanCuthbertson-XR]

I am totally knew to this, so I am not sure how to proceed. I have a Beelink box and I followed through the video, downloaded the image and flashed the memory using Balena. I, booted and changed the BIOS settings then booted the box. The console showed lots of things happening, but I had an error message during the boot: failed to start network manager wait online It continued then stopped with a message: Home assistant CLI not starting I am really not sure what I should do from here. I googled the error and most of the problems relate to VM machines. Any assistance would be appreciated.

[@digiblurDIY]

I think you jumped into Discord and found the other port needed to be used right?

[@ton-thattai8952]

I am a new home assistance (HA) user. Which HA hub I should use? Thanks

[@digiblurDIY]

I would suggest a N95 NUC or something cheap like a refurb or i3 6th Gen or better

[@ton-thattai8952]

@@digiblurDIY Thanks

[@Hasse-swe]

Well. I just upgraded my HA machine to a HP Elitedesk G3 35w with a Intel i5-6500T 8gb DDR4 RAM, 256gb Sata SSD, that i got for free. The best thing is that it is repairable and upgradeable when needed. For me it is overkill atm but it is more power efficent and morre powerful then my last machine.

[@digiblurDIY]

Huge difference I bet!

[@Hasse-swe]

@@digiblurDIY Yes. It is. This time i installed haos on it instead of debian and docker. I guess i put docker on it in the future. But i dont need the machine for anything else then ha.

[@linearburn8838]

I would recomend a N100 firewall box you can get them for around 150 buck with 8g ddr5 ram and a 128g nvme SSD 4 core atom

[@afkafkdk]

Why N95? - sure, I understand your view/mission for the easy entry/substitution for HAOS but the N100 models are just as cheap and faster, right? You can get a 16GB/512GB version for $200 but then it is twice as good by having more expansion room - eventually for proxmox, etc in the near future if/when you want more ❤

[@digiblurDIY]

All depends on the users budget and availability, by all means if the N100 isn't much more than make the jump.

[@lamberbee]

@@digiblurDIY @afkafkdk Power consumption is also less of the N100

[@The_Mup]

Another option is an Asrock N100DC-ITX motherboard in a small itx case with an external DC power supply. You'll have a RAM slot and a PCI-E slot. And the boards are relatively cheap.

[@digiblurDIY]

That gets a little pricey for some people for this. Might as well just go with refurb SFF at that point for the same or better performance and save a little coin. It becomes that tipping point if you plan to build a NAS or server too.

[@phillipzx3754]

I bought the HA Green thinking it could handle my HA setup. And it does, sorta. But when I need to compiling code in ESPHome, it takes FOREVER! I was using Virtual Box with an i7 10700k. Total overkill for Home Assistant, but it sure made compiling fast. I'm going to move HA to a mini pc. Probably a BeeLink with one of the Ryzen 7 models. Total overkill for HA, but ESPHome should compile more like my i7 10700k.

[@digiblurDIY]

I feel ya. I run my HA on and such in containers on my Unraid box that is an i7-14700 and it compiles stupid fast. But it is brutal on a Pi4 speed like the Green. That's where the N95/N100 setup comes in, nice decent speed for the money.

[@phillipzx3754]

I found a sweet deal for a Beelink Ryzen 9 6900HX. Delivery at the end of the week, so says Amazon. We shall see. "Stupid fast" 😃 is how it compiled on my "old" 10700K. This Beelink should be close enough I'll be happy again. I'm playing with some LD2410C motion sensors. Each compile is an easy 3-4 minutes. It takes all the fun out of playing around. If my old Amiga 3000/040 wasn't such a power hog, I'd run Home Assistant on it under Linux. 🤣 I'd give the HA Green away to a friend, but they'd no longer be my friend with the first compile.

[@phillipzx3754]

@@digiblurDIY Update! The Beelink SER6 arrived today and I've moved HA over from the HA Green. Compile times in ESPHome are easily as fast as the I7 10700k I was using. And it absolutely SMOKES the Home Assistant Green! "Stupid fast," you might say. 😉 The Beelink came with a 500 gig m.2 and Windows 11. I moved Win 11 over to a 1 TB NVME. I kept Windows because I'll also be using this machine for portable ham radio use, and Windows has the "coolest" ham radio software. I Installed HA on the 500 gig drive. I wonder if HA WILL run out of storage? 🤣

[@digiblurDIY]

@phillipzx3754 nice! Once you go to that speed you can't go back.

[@victoradao1965]

When trying to flash image with balena etcher I get a "Something went wrong. If it a compressed image, please check that the archive is not corrupt. The writer process ended unexpectedly."

[@digiblurDIY]

Use this version of etcher, we found that the latest version has problems: sourceforge.net/projects/etcher.mirror/files/v1.18.11/balenaEtcher-Portable-1.18.11.exe/download

[@jeremyjedynak]

This channel is always informative and down to earth. Thanks for this video!

[@digiblurDIY]

Thanks! Keeping it real and telling it like it is type thing. No paid reviews / projects.

[@dazealex]

Any recommends for a home security setup like door/window sensors?

[@digiblurDIY]

Probably Zigbee sensors would be my go to.

[@jolyonfavreau3160]

so im curious if the beelink n95 is a better option than installing on the Synology DS223 2-Bay 16TB NAS, as i intend on getting one of those so the family can offload from google/apple photo storage....and of course as a good old media drive.

[@digiblurDIY]

Can you run a VM on it?

[@yjerinqby09]

Hi! I followed your directions up to the point of getting everything flashed and turning it on. I am however trying to migrate from my existing HA green to one of these geekom computers. I am able to restore it from a backup on google drive but then when it asks me to log in it keeps giving me an error saying my log in and password are different. Now the only thing that’s different seems to be the IP address of of the 2 devices, the original ending in 194 and the new one in 202 but they are both plugged into the same Ethernet port. I know the username and password are correct, even tried Changing it several times and re-imaging but i can’t get it to work. I tried setting it up as a new device but then i can’t restore from the files. Please help! Just wanted to upgrade my hardware and i am very frustrated. Thank you!

[@digiblurDIY]

Could you use usb to copy over?

[@yjerinqby09]

@@digiblurDIY how would I go about doing that?

[@digiblurDIY]

Can you copy the backup to a USB stick? That's what I did before - www.home-assistant.io/common-tasks/os/#restoring-a-backup

[@mykeljewell]

Man I’m stuck at waiting for Home Assistant CLI to be ready 😕

[@digiblurDIY]

I think you jumped into Discord and got the networking issue taken care of?

[@Alcorelli1]

I unpowered and repowered it about 6 times till it went through.

[@bigneilh]

can you do one for HomeSeer now?

[@digiblurDIY]

Right have X10 and SmartThings okay?

[@shaunwhiteley3544]

Great video, on something like the N95, how hard is it to get a google usb tpu frigate stick working, also 2 external spinning rust drives, one for frigate and another as a nas to share media for external kodi machines etc. Cheers, p.s, kids a great shot, handguns not allowed in UK unfortunately 😔

[@digiblurDIY]

The Google USB TPU is easy peasy. Plug and play. The external drives from what I have seen is not with HAOS. Only network storage at this time is supported there according to the devs on HAOS. Of course if you did your own OS like Debian, Proxmox etc. Then you can control it all. His first time shooting. Figured we were at the hunting camp doing some mud riding and other work, let him crack off his first rounds and teach him some safety.

[@shaunwhiteley3544]

@@digiblurDIY You got me into Unraid lol but UK energy prices stink! I'm wanting something a bit lower powered to run 24/7 instead. Archery would be good for him too, also shouldn't annoy any neighbours. Strengthens up some muscles.

[@digiblurDIY]

You can run those OS I mentioned on the N95/N100 with ease. We have a BB gun and bow for the back yard with lots of boxes for him as we have neighbors at home. At the hunting camp it's nothing but cows and hogs

[@rick9083]

Can use some help for a newbie. Running windows 10. After starting etcher and opening down loaded file nothing happens.

[@digiblurDIY]

could you jump into discord and share some screenshots? discord.digiblur.com

[@tahaiftekhar6466]

Hi guess. Dumb question. I just ordered a Beelink S12. I see it will come as a windows 11 preinstalled on it. Should I keep windows and run HA over it (I am guessing VM)? Or format the SSD (remove the windows) and put fresh HAOS on it ? Recommendations?

[@digiblurDIY]

Not a bad idea to backup the SSD in case you want to repurpose it later. I wouldn't run HAOS on Windows though unless you are just wanting to test it temporarily.

[@tahaiftekhar6466]

@@digiblurDIY So I already tested on my PC and then I set it up on Rasp pi 5 which was crazy expensive with heat sink + fan kit. I am returning that. I am already in deep with HA but with a lacking hardware lol. I will backup SSD and format it, install HAOS on it directly. Thanks !!

[@tahaiftekhar6466]

@@digiblurDIY I am also exploring PROXMOX. Don't have a clue what that is yet, will check and see if it is good for me and choose that

[@digiblurDIY]

@tahaiftekhar6466 yeah. Not worth it with the Pi anymore with how competitively priced the NUCs are.

[@tahaiftekhar6466]

@@digiblurDIY Thank you sir, you are awesome :)

[@adventure4thrills]

Great video! I’m a newbie to the HA and I bought the Beelink N95. Question I have is does it come with windows 11? And if so would I be able to use it if it’s downloaded already on the mini S to another computer? It seems a waist to write over it. I’ve not opened the beelink yet so thought I’d ask about it. Thanks

[@digiblurDIY]

I haven't moved it myself. I did do a read on mine and saved it though. It is worth a try and see if it works, it might not though as it would see it as a hardware change.

[@adventure4thrills]

I found a KZbin video where I was able to use a 32GB USB flash drive to create a recovery back up. I’m hoping that works. Now I’m having a bit of difficulty following your instruction on the site to download the Balena & Etcher the site looks different and I can’t find the etcher for windows portable. Could you update the site. Thanks!😊

[@cjschneidt9089]

Do an advanced hardware video. What hardware do I need to run AI, the assist pipeline, etc?

[@digiblurDIY]

I haven't been impressed with any of the voice stuff myself in Home Assistant as of yet.

[@mikalnaugaas541]

Anyone else having problems with the m.2-disk not showing up in Windows when plugged into the NVME? I've tried in both Windows and Mac OS.

[@digiblurDIY]

Haven't heard of this one. Bad disk maybe? Is it seated all the way?

[@mr.bianchirider8126]

The HA Yellow has Zigbee. How hard and $ is it to put Zigbee on the Beelink ?

[@digiblurDIY]

You are probably looking at around $30 for a decent USB stick which in my opinion will be better than the radio in the Yellow given it works damn solid with both ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT.

[@kevinhilton8683]

@@digiblurDIY What Zigbee USB stick you running? Conbee or something else?

[@digiblurDIY]

@kevinhilton8683 CC2652P2 based chipset stick as I use Zigbee2mqtt myself for production.

[@kennethojeke5119]

thanks. can we install it on HP or Dell wise terminal ?

[@digiblurDIY]

Yes. I have seen people use these as well.

[@ihasmax]

Great timing. I've been frustrated with my rp4 + HA setup (specifically z-wave issues and SD card concerns/performance). Had a few rp5 boards on hand but started doing all the math to put together a complete setup with SSD and everything and the beelink S12 just seems like a no brainer for what I need.

[@ihasmax]

update: just finished moving over to a beelink S12 and it worked flawlessly following this guide. I'm now fully off my raspberry pi + SD card setup which feels amazing and I'm already noticing performance + reliability improvements across the board

[@digiblurDIY]

Noiceeee!!! Massive improvement for sure!

[@dantyr11]

Great video Thanks. Can I connect a touch screen and use the Hdmi?

[@digiblurDIY]

You'd probably have to use your own OS at that point with a GUI. You could still run HA on it though in a container or VM.

[@silverclifflightshow]

I’ve been running Home Assistant on my NAS as a virtual machine for years, but lately after an update, I received an error message that my operating system is unsupported, but still work any advice?

[@digiblurDIY]

What version of HAOS?

[@krunge]

Would you recommend running Home Assistant on a Synology NAS (DS918+) or would it be better to have it on a mini PC like in the video?

[@digiblurDIY]

Can you run VMs on that thing?

[@krunge]

@@digiblurDIY yes that should be possible (according to a quick Google) but never tried it. Was just thinking that if it was possible I wouldn't have to have another device running 24/7 when my NAS is already on all the time.

[@lamberbee]

Activate the Docker App in your Synology NAS and user the HA docker image

[@krunge]

@@lamberbee but what would be best, having it on my Synology or a dedicated mini PC?

[@lamberbee]

@@krunge There are several options. Haven't started testing yet. If your NAS is performant enough, just try it out. If it's only for HA, the QNAP is enough. Ik you want to add additional functionality, go for a mini PC.

[@shweenie]

Not sure if anyone else is having this issue but when using balena etcher, my writer process fails when attempting to install Home Assistant

[@digiblurDIY]

I haven't heard anyone reporting this.

[@shweenie]

@@digiblurDIY Using the version of balenaEtcher in your pinned comment solved the issue.

[@chrisgrose3137]

Thank you for the sabrent tip and explaining so well I have switched to haos fun times

[@motty154]

Nice video! How do make a backup of the software ?

[@digiblurDIY]

Of which one?

[@adventure4thrills]

@@digiblurDIY The windows 11

[@jolyonfavreau3160]

Hey can I get some assistance here pls. I see there are two beelink links, amazon and aliexpress. The amazon looks cooler and doesn't appear to be the device used in the tutorial..... Is either device OK to use does anyone know?

[@digiblurDIY]

What does it come up as? I am seeing it match what I have. Comes up as the S12 N95 model.

[@jolyonfavreau3160]

@@digiblurDIY comes up as the NiPoGi Mini PC,12GB DDR4/256GB M.2 SSD,Ιntel Celeron N5105 Mini Computer(up to 2.9 GHz), Mini Desktop PC Support 4K Triple Display,Extended SSD,WiFi5,BT4.2, Small PC Home/Business/Office

[@digiblurDIY]

Weird. Must be Amazon switching the listing in your area. Is the Beelink S12 available?

[@riffdex]

Can I boot HomeAssistant directly from a USB drive without an internal drive?

[@digiblurDIY]

I think that's people are doing on the Pi with other drives.

[@tritontr21]

So my Bee link has windows installed on the m.2. Do i need to format the drive?

[@digiblurDIY]

HAOS will install over that.

[@ArturoRubio-h3i]

What about running as virtual machine

[@digiblurDIY]

Some people do that on some machines. I wouldn't recommend it on Windows like some guides have done. Unless maybe you were testing it.

[@dsdlonyer]

Very useful video, thanks. I would also love to see HAOS installed on similar hardware with proxmox. :)

[@tonygil8617]

Hi I have PI4 can i restore backup to the Beelink ?

[@digiblurDIY]

Yes, HAOS has the ability to do a full backup and then it walks you through the restore on the new box at onboarding.

[@MarkJones-lr2lk]

Disappointed that you did not mention running HA on the lava lamp shown in the thumbnail 😂

[@digiblurDIY]

It overheated and stopped working.

[@The_Alpha_Channel]

When running home assistant on the windows box, I presume this requires python as well? Does it run as fast on a Linux box?

[@digiblurDIY]

Not really recommended in my opinion. You could do a VM with it on Windows but again not really recommended.

[@emmgeevideo]

I'm stunned that the HA developers haven't spent more time on ease of use. There are a lot of people (like me) who think it's kind of fun to open up a computer and fiddle around and type in commands, etc. I'll bet 98% of the potential user base isn't interested and/or doesn't have the skills. Why not create an HA installer that you could download onto a NUC or used Dell running Windows that you used to use for home computing, install via a few clicks, then reboot into HA?

[@digiblurDIY]

Totally agree.. I'd love to see a USB installer like many other projects have. Those are so damn simple.

[@gadget1968]

Many thanks for the content and you are correct the Beelink is a better choice...It has all that you need and tad more .... And point you missed on the "Kamrui " it has a fan where as the BeeLink does not ... so the Beelink is a lot more quite .... My only gripe with HOS is how big of pain in the ass it is to use the second drive that the Bee has available to install... .. Again thanks for the the work and content

[@digiblurDIY]

I think the beelink does have a fan. Look on the back in one of my shots, there's fins for the vent. It just idles down most of the time I assume. Now you've got me wondering...let me throw a benchmark test on it to see if will get warm and kick on. And yes, that would be great if HAOS supported second drives without people having to jump other things but I guess that's when you have to switch.

[@gadget1968]

@@digiblurDIY Go to time 7:11 you have yours open no fan there speak of also when I opened mine I could not see one

[@goodcitizen4587]

Pi devices are too slow. Those beelink or any x86 are great.

[@digiblurDIY]

Exactly! They have their place of course for small projects but for full blown home automation. Nahhh... this is 2024.

[@khatuntsovmikhail6223]

when you saying wat you mean w/h?

[@VictorW168]

it doesnt work.. both downloaded or url link. why?

[@digiblurDIY]

What's the error?

[@rick9083]

I am having the same issues

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

What are yhe bluetooth requirements?

[@digiblurDIY]

None. I would recommend bluetooth proxies at this point like the Devs do.

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

@@digiblurDIY Is that a component brand or software-centric?

[@digiblurDIY]

@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios it's an external component using an ESP32

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

@@digiblurDIY Thank you. I just got home and am trying to absorb as much as possible. Especially to catch Amazon day sales (if possible)

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

@@digiblurDIY BTW (not trying to be a "jerk" or anything), one of the things that really confused me, is that the term "hardware" in the headline drew me to the video... Because I thought it would be the video in my search results which showed me ALL of the hardware (not just computer) that I would need for Home Automation. I believe that multiple people probably interpreted it the same way. Please keep makin' AWESOME videos!

[@ronm6585]

Thanks Travis.

[@vaughanza]

Thanks for great video, your son is really growing up , awesome.

[@digiblurDIY]

Thanks!! He still has fun helping out with things as well!

[@nickylast7405]

So if I buy the Beelink I don't have the buy the Home Assistant Green? I can just download the Home Assistant software to Beelink? Total Noob.

[@digiblurDIY]

Yes. You can buy the HA Green if you want something slower, less space, etc but already preloaded. Pros and cons.

[@WimVeen]

Such a nice detailed explanation. I like what you did here. Just as it is, no bla-bla-bla ;-) Thanks Digiblur!

[@digiblurDIY]

Awesome! Thank you so much and glad you enjoy my style.

[@nczioox1116]

Why does Home Assistant need a raspberry pi when the tablet has hardware?

[@digiblurDIY]

It needs to run somewhere in the closet or cabinet. I wouldn't run it on a tablet unless maybe you were just trying to out in a VM or something.

[@nczioox1116]

@digiblurDIY ok thanks. I saw some people control their HA with a wall mounted tablet but wasnt sure why the tablet couldnt be the brains as well as the interface

[@digiblurDIY]

I have seen some solutions like that but I would pass on that myself. When I get tired of the tablet since I didn't use it and just automated stuff what now?

[@peteyx44]

I like the new look

[@digiblurDIY]

Thanks!! Can't go back, that's for sure!

[@Hupihovi]

Dude! I love your new style, you fucking rock Stone Cold Steve Austin. :)

[@digiblurDIY]

Thanks bro!! Love it ! Keeping it real and fun as always. None of that fake crap.

[@SuperDancingdonkey]

Just get a ryzen 5900 and use 2 of the 24 cores to virtualize it.

[@digiblurDIY]

That would work!

[@rick9083]

After a power outage, is there anyway for the Belink to automatically restart without having to push the power button. Experience this on yesterday, and entire house was shutdown. No lights, roller shades open. My major concern would be if me and my family were on vacation. Thanks

[@digiblurDIY]

Yes. It is in the BIOS. I want to say I covered this option?

[@rick9083]

@digiblurDIY Can it be done now after HAS has been installed. Thank again for all your help. You have really helped me thru this journey.

[@digiblurDIY]

@rick9083 yes. You just need to attach a keyboard and video to it in order to get into the BIOS

[@rick9083]

Will do. My Man

[@The22v10]

Great stuff, I just picked up some Intel NUC's I5 CPU with 16 meg ram and 128 m2SD , i scored 2 for $40 bucs each. 😁✌

[@digiblurDIY]

Definitely a steal! What Gen of i5

[@MM-vl8ic]

get the kid to put shoulders slightly in front of hips and drop right leg back.....

[@digiblurDIY]

Thanks and will keep in mind! His first round ever on both of them. Mainly going over the mechanics of things, safety & handling right now.

[@OGKenG]

{FACEPALM} It's Balena, not Balean.

[@michaels5167]

Da BEST😂

[@digiblurDIY]

The BEST part ;)

[@Backedone-ss5vw]

Okay so you sponsored that long black adaptor got it 😂 I probably don't pop anything out. That is the most unnecessary thing in this video. Everything else good. Refurbished pcs great choice. If you got extra money go crazy.

[@digiblurDIY]

No sponsor. Just the adapter I have used for nvme drives.

[@nothingimpossible6565]

Synology

[@JbVest]

Bah lean ah etcher Not baleen, had me questioning how it was pronounced 😂

[@digiblurDIY]

But do they use Yawmill?

[@JbVest]

@@digiblurDIY lol 😆 The yawmill 🐪 ? But seriously dude I'm still trying to learn yaml 😩 go2rtc etc. So much info but not what I need!!

[@JbVest]

The camel signifying the hump I'm trying to get over learning this stuff😂

[@chrisw1462]

You probably called your kid's first years 'onboarding'. #stupidbuzzwordsFTL

[@digiblurDIY]

Nope, that was called parenting. HA made up the term you don't like - www.home-assistant.io/getting-started/onboarding/

[@djashjones]

Pi's are for Vegans and none of the cool kids hang out with the Vegans 🤣🤣

[@janklamer]

"beginner" and then you throw in abbreviations like "HAOS", "NVME" without explaining them. slowly spool your video and note all the things you have ASSUMED to be clear, because they are clear for yourself. Further - thanks for the vid.

[@digiblurDIY]

Thanks

[@TechySpeaking]

first

[@dizzle8465]

Wish I could down vote this video more than once. Since when did people get the brilliant idea to start putting out tutorials without any troubleshooting attached to it? Why on Earth would you try to drive people to your discord or basically anywhere else that isn't this video for troubleshooting? Here I am following exactly identical tutorials and none of them have a single piece of troubleshooting to help people when things invariably go wrong. I appreciate the effort that you guys do but this is honestly half-assed because here I am f***** and now I have to f****** drag myself to some discord instead of some clearly laid out and simple troubleshooting.

[@digiblurDIY]

I will try to cover all the issues next time in a troubleshooting one for you. What's your error so I can make sure it is covered?