[kwlug-disc] Small low power server for HomeAssistant

Sat Feb 3 12:07:33 EST 2018

A couple of solutions(from China, so ship time will be a while) for the
mobo(sans ssd/ram) and a kitted solution(again, without ssd/ram) based on
the Intel Celeron J1900 SOC --

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2017-New-4-LAN-J1900-Mini-ITX-Fanless-motherboard-Q1900G4-M/263105808367
&
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Fanless-Mini-Computer-Barebone-2-Gigabit-Nic-4-USB-VGA-HD-COM-Intel-J1900-Nettop/162546020408

Thanks,

Ron Singh

On Fri, Feb 2, 2018 at 11:57 AM, Khalid Baheyeldin <kb at 2bits.com> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> kwlug-disc mailing list
> kwlug-disc at kwlug.org
> http://kwlug.org/mailman/listinfo/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org
>
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