Hiya, so I have a spear RaspberryPI 4b, and want to selfhosted HomeassistantOS on it, heard there were some advantages of running the full OS and not just the docker container. However I currently don’t have a casing for it.
So: Is there anything I should know before buying one? Does the rpi get very hot running HomeassistantOS? E.g. Do I need one of these cases with a fan built into it? Or is it OK without?
Appreciate any tips or suggestions! however I will not order anything from Amazon or Ali Express or any of those type of websites. Feel free to recommend via them though as I might find the same case elsewhere, perhaps.
🌻
This Flirc case is fantastic. It uses passive cooling so you don’t have to worry about the noise or air flow of a fan and it still does a great job cooling.
I prefer the Geekworm and similar cases. They have ribs for better heat dissipation. Even under full load I get my Pis barely over 60℃.
Geekworm Pi 3 case (also fits Pi 2)
I’ve also ordered some extra strips of cooling pads and added them to the bottom side of the CPU and the RAM chip beneath - so that heat gets sent to the case as well.
Seems to be this one; https://geekworm.com/
Yep the Flirc case is good looking but it stops there, it’s not as efficient as one would expect from passive cooling.
I tried few fanless cases, Flirc included and I was not impressed, the top of the case is not aluminum but plastic, strange choice.
Geekworm does a better job, at least the one I’ve got, never goes over 55°C in hot summer, the rest of the year is around 39°C to 43°C not more.
The case is heavy and sturdy, it doesn’t feels cheap at all.
https://geekworm.com/collections/raspberry-pi/products/raspberry-pi-4-heavy-duty-aluminum-passive-cooling-metal-case
Don’t have particular case to recommend as the one I have has been printed but get one where you can add an SSD. SD card are not well suited for home assistant due to the amount of overwriting.
I highly recommend a fan and heatsink. I’ve run one without, but it throttles with heat and why stress the little bugger. The fan is tiny, quiet, and easily replaceable.
Some tasks in HA are resource intensive (video, voice recognition, etc) so best to do it now even if you don’t plan on using that right away.
No idea why the OS of someone should be better than your favorite distro. Sounds like bull shit.
But, the docker version is a second class citizen for home assistant. You have to manually install stuff yourself. Which is usually no problem but the how tos and tutorials etc. Aren’t as easily visible and hence it’s unneccessarily complicated in my opinion.
If you install it via docker and it’s the first time, you won’t know that the stuff is missing. Look for how to install HACS.
I’d always go the container route. You can just move the files to a new server, you can spin it up and down, install a second isntance, back it up, share it with friends. Containers are awesome.
I already have a server running Unraid, where everything else is containerized. I just simply wanted to find a use case for this RPI as it is just collecting dust atm.
Nope, never heard of it either. Care to elaborate?
Ohh, so its for building DIY TV backlighting, seems cool!
I was mostly referring to this chart they have on their website. Source; https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/
That’s wrong and missleading.
You have to install HACS yourself (which isn’t difficult). That’s why they can write that it has no addons. They are stupid for doing this
Managed restore? With a container you just backup the folder. No fancy weird backup stuff required. Idiots.
Managed os? No idea what that means. Probably bs as well. Your computer is yours, not theirs.
pishop.us and adafruit.com both sell flirc cases which are supposed to be very good. I decided to buy a pi 400 instead of a 4 a while back, since it already comes with case and a keyboard at lower cost than buying that stuff separately, plus at the time it was still hard to buy pi 4’s. No idea about home assistant os which doesn’t sound like something i’d want to run.
