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this is my second Insteon’s Home Assistant post, I’ll be writing a few more posts to help anyone trying to get their Insteon smart home back up and running.
Earlier this month, Insteon unexpectedly stops trading and disabled all its cloud server features, effectively rendering the Insteon hub useless.
Not all is lost, though. You can still control your device using a service like Home Assistant, which connects to your device using the Insteon API available on the hub. It is important not to reset the hub or device.
Unfortunately, one reader pointed out that my quick and easy way to get Home Assistant up and running wasn’t as easy as expected.
Home Assistant Windows Portable (HassWP) requires Hyper-V, which is not available on Windows Home.
Usually I don’t bother with Windows at all and prefer the Raspberry Pi, but with the various global issues we face, buying an RPi has proven difficult.
It turns out that Hyper-V can be installed on Windows Home, and I’ve started writing that guide.
However, you don’t want to run Home Assistant on a large desktop PC or your work laptop. It would be better to use a dedicated machine running Home Assistant.
Although you may be hard-pressed to find cheap RPi4, there are plenty of affordable alternatives. Most of these are hardware used on eBay.
The options below aren’t as cheap as the RPi4, and they’ll use more power, but still have decent price and power efficiency. You can also set them up to run other services like Plex.
Linux/Docker and Home Assistant
With all the options below, I’m going to install some form of Linux.Personally, I tend to use not raided Because it’s so easy to use; however, it’s paid for the software and costs $59. This is well worth the investment as it will be the easiest to set up and it opens up the world of home servers for you.
OpenMediaVault supports Docker, but I’ve never tried it.
Alternatively, you can set up an Ubuntu server and follow the many guides on setting up Docker and Home Assistant.Probably the most user friendly way is to use DockSTARTerwhich automates a lot of the Docker setup process.
Used Intel NUC Mini PC
I think the Intel NUC mini PC might be the best option. You don’t need anything too powerful, so you don’t need the latest model.
Intel NUCs are small, quiet, and low power. You should be able to easily hide it in a cabinet without causing fan noise.
It’s a bit expensive to buy a new one, there is a price Usually over $500 Or for UK buyers, they From around £350.
eBay has a lot of used options, with quite a few models under £100/$100
For US buyers:
this Intel NUC D54250WYK for $76.49 And has Intel Core i5-4250U and 4GB RAM but not HD.
Search for Intel NUCs on eBay USA
For UK buyers:
this Intel NUC NUC5i3RY for just £99.95it uses a fairly old i3 5010U, but it should offer plenty to run Home Assistant and whatever else you want to install.
The TDP of the NUC kit NUC5i3RYHS is only 15W. It’s not just an RPi or Insteon hub, but a fraction of the usual pulse of desktops.
Gigabyte Brix / Zotac ZBox / Other Mini PCs
Intel NUCs are probably the most famous mini PCs, but there are several brands that make them too.A few years ago, I reviewed Azulle Byte4 Fanlesscan be purchased new from $280.
For US buyers:
OUVISLITE Mini PC Featuring an Intel Celeron N3350, 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. It’s even listed as using Windows 10 Pro, so if you don’t want to install Ubuntu, you can run Home Assistant Windows Portable (HassWP).
Or a lower spec model with Intel Atom Z8350, 2GB RAM and 32GB Storage under $100.
For UK buyers:
Amazon UK has a lot of new mini PCs, some of them very cheap.
The SNUNMU Mini PC is under £100, it only has 2GB RAM, 32GB storage and an Intel Atom Z8350, but it should still be enough to run Linux/Docker/Home Assistant comfortably.
What’s more, the NiPoGi Mini PC comes with an Intel Celeron J4125, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage.
This HP EliteDesk 800 is in good condition, with an Intel i3-6100T, 8GB RAM and 160GB SSD, and Windows 10 Pro.
Used SFF Computers
Small PCs are larger and more power-hungry than mini PCs, but still smaller and more power efficient than most desktops. These are usually used in offices, so you can usually get them for cheap on eBay. They usually have more processing power than a mini PC or a proper NAS.
For UK buyers:
This Dell OptiPlex 3040 SFF PC is just £125 and comes with 6th 1st Gen i3 Intel CPU with 8GB RAM, 240GB SSD and Windows 10 Pro.
Amazon UK has been updated Intel i5 6500 version for just £195 The i3 is under £120.
For US buyers:
Amazon has the Dell OptiPlex 3040 with Intel Quad Core i5 6500, 16GB RAM, 1T HD and Windows 10 Pro under $200.
TerraMaster / Synology / QNAP NAS Chassis
As far as I know, no NAS OS has Home Assistant as a native app, but most/all of them can run Docker.
Both Tarramaster and Synology have Docker packages. I personally find Docker to be a bit confusing to use on Tarramaster OS, I’m running UNRAID on two of my TerraMaster NAS boxes right now.
You can buy a TerraMaster F2-210 for just £150 or $160 on Amazon.com
The cheapest Synology I can see is DiskStation DS220+ for $300 (I’ll skip a disk option).
Last updated on April 28, 2022 / Affiliate Links / Image from Amazon Product Advertising API
