[kwlug-disc] Small low power server for HomeAssistant

Fri Feb 2 11:19:50 EST 2018

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
>>
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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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