No Pi? No Problem! Home Assistant on a Cheap Thin Client

Discover how to set up Home Assistant on a Thin Client Computer with this step-by-step guide. Today's video is perfect for those looking to start their smart home journey but are facing supply chain issues with Raspberry Pi. We'll walk you through the hardware requirements, the process of flashing Home Assistant to the hard drive, and configuring Home Assistant for the first time.

No Raspberry Pi? No problem! Our video will show you how a Thin Client Computer can be an excellent alternative for building your smart home.

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▶ Links in Video 🔗:

▶ Timestamps ⌚:
00:00 - Opening
01:16 - Introduction
02:23 - Hardware
05:47 - Flashing Home Assistant
10:02 - First Boot of Home Assistant
11:15 - Initial Setup
13:21 - Final Thoughts

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#smarthome #homeautomation #homeassistant #gettingstarted

[spug]

Great Video, I recommend this method because SD Cards are so unreliable in a Pie. My only comment I would make would be if your picking up one of there Thin Clients, Nuc, or any other Micro PC is to change the CMOS battery if it is equipped while you have the unit open. In my experience I setup my MicroPC and everything worked perfect for a couple months until it didn't. I thought what is happening, nothing was working, did something go wrong with the HA Setup. It was only after I installed a monitor that I noticed the PC was getting stuck on BIOS checksum error on boot because the CMOS Battery was dead. (These units are a few years old, so the 2032 Button Battery was probably the original... so for only a buck or two, change it while you have the cover off!)

[GadgetAddict]

I've also switched to using thin clients as an alternative to pis.

It's just too hard and expensive to get a pi. And with the pi, you still need to add a case, heatsinks etc.

And having a proper ssd is much better than relying on a micro SD

I know the new pi 5 supports real ssds, but good luck actually managing to find one in stock.

Thin clients use very little power, so it's still a viable alternative.

[danbrown]

I'm running HAOS on a Lenovo 1L PC (6th gen i5), but as a VM under Proxmox. Adds some complexity (mainly with USB device passthrough for the Zigbee/ZWave dongles), but it's still pretty straightforward, and you can do other things with the machine at the same time if you want. But lots of ways to skin this cat.

[vaughanza]

I bought a Wyse 5070 about a year ago and love it. Thanks for great video

[Hasse-swe]

I had many problem when i tried to install HAOS. So i scraped that plan and installed a very slim install of Debian 11 instead. The only i installed was openssh before i installed Home Assistant Supervised for Linux.
And i can use the same computer for other as well.

[blackdragon]

You are awesome! This is a great video. Could you please make a HomeBridge version of “how to” video with the Dell Wyse 5070? Thank you for explaining things where I can easily understand the complete set up! 👍

[linklickz]

watched this whole video knowing that im never going to do this lol the magic of 4am youtube browsing

[mtstek]

Thanks for the video, well explained. Thinking about getti ng optiplex for this project. I have one question: will there be a conflict for this HA and third party apps to run con-currently? Right now I have different apps for different devices. Not fun. Thx!

[JoseAlba]

I got my 5070 running great on DietPi. It has Ethernet driver ready Realtek. It's on CasaOS, jellyfin, ADguard. Currently working in getting a time machine apple on it/Nas compatible Apple 🍏😅

[tempdemp]

Great Video ... I have HA running on a RPi 4 with an SSD drive connected to ethernet. I also run Zigbee devices on Zigbee2Mqtt with a Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB dongle . Close to 160 devices run (40 on Zigbee) on present RPi 4+SSD, I have just got a "Dell Optiplex 7040 Micro Form Factor Desktop, Intel Quad Core i5 6500T 2.5Ghz, 16GB DDR4, 256GB NVMe SSD " . What would you suggest as the best way to migrate to the Optiplex ?

[sun]

Which Z-wave and Zigbee sticks do you recommend to buy and how do you add them?

[DanielSMatthews]

ZeroTier is one way of having very secure remote access to a Home Assistant installation that is otherwise hidden away behind a firewall. ZT has clients for phones too and you can also run it on an OPNSense firewall.

[jaspercas]

I'm using a Dell Wyze N03D for mine that I bought for 20$ it has 32gb mSATA SSD and 4gb of RAM, it runs home assistant on bare metal very well, it also idles at 5W and peaks at 15W so it's definitely worth it for the price that I paid for it

[MrMesropa]

I'm sitting on an Home Assistant Yellow. Compute Module 4s are all out of stock/backorder. Ill probably go this rout. It was stupid of me to not check for part availability.

[rsmasterng]

If you install home assistant can you also use the wyse for other things? I was hoping to do a vpn as well as home assistant. Is this possible? This will be my first time doing anything like this so guidance is welcomed. Thanks in advance!

[gandi]

Pis are great if you need things the gpio pins otherwise it’s thin clients all day. I have the 5070 with the slightly later j5005 and it idles at 3.5w which is equivalent to a pi

[barygol]

How do you compare the thin client Vs an EliteDesk 800 G2 with am i5 6500T?

[papa_oso]

Liked & Subscribed 👌

Thanks for this and all other vids Ryan!


I've been playing around HA on a RPi4 and now I want to install it on a thin client. What are your learnings about zigbee implementation (dongle, coverage, meshed network) when moving your home server away from either your studio, or to a laundry room? I've watched your other videos and couldn't find your insights on how to ensure proper zigbee coverage throughout your entire home when your home server is "hidden" in a laundry room or basement... 🤔

Thanks again from Chile 👍!

[ethelbertbodden]

Hi
I have been using HA for a while now but I have a issue all lights turning on by then self
The log in HA show that they have been turn on by service light.turn_on
What do you think is causing this.

[dimav]

thank you for this video!
Have you had a chance to measure power consumption of this system?