The green is a good option for people who are just starting out, but it isn't a replacement for a Yellow or similar device. The Green is really good if you just want to dip your toes in and don't yet know what devices you will use, and have other hubs such as Hue or voice assistants, that can come in without needing radios on the Home Assistant project. Paulus actually started with Philips Hue. He wanted to have a few extra smarts, so he started playing with the Hue API's :). If you currently have a working Home Assistant install on a Raspberry Pi 3 or 4, then a Green may be a good update. Otherwise, Green may not be for you. The Green is more like the Blue. No radios. Yellow is actually a very different project. The Green is more a successor of the Blue. Yellow will remain available for the foreseeable future. Yellow is not a dedicated Thread Border router out of the box. It does have the SiLabs IoT accelerator chip, and is configured as Zigbee out of the box, and can be upgraded to mulit-protocol or dedicated Thread, like the SkyConnect can be. Just as a note, if you don't want a Home Lab, Home Assistant will run perfectly on anything from Raspberry Pi 3 up, and use a lot less power than any of those mini PC's. Only consider a PC based solution if you are going to run a home lab. They are not worth the power usage otherwise.
Agreed. However I still think the Mini PC's are a better option. Doesn't need to be as a home lab, but how many want to run Plex or Frigate or Jellyfin, these are some basic apps that won't run on HA hardware and a Pi is not powerful enough to run these successfully, especially transcoding. But as I said in the video, its all down to your user case and building for the current requirements with capacity for the future.
@@Tabiii I guess it all depends on your needs. In my opinion the green is not the first thing to buy. I'd generally suggest buying something like a Shelly first. See how that free service works out and later consider if a green or maybe a second Shelly is appropriate. I mention Shelly because that's what I decided on but I expect other brands are also worth considering... I'll look at the green again if I find my needs or interest grow to suggest it but I couldn't describe the green appropriate for a newbie or best to start off with
Nevermind. Couldn't wait lol. I had a VM40B Asus NUC lying about, so i pulled it open, put in an SSD, and its already up and running. If that turns out not to be enough, I, in a former life was a Digital Equipment/Applied Materials/Intel fab enginner, I have some i7's from their employee discount program.
LOL i7's would be amazing performance and give you ALOT of performance. I hope you got them at a good price and check out the video that premiers 19th Oct if yo would like to install HA on a virtual machine running on a Windows host.
I've tried Pi's and Synology installations (which were great!) of HA but ultimately I always needed more performance and when you factor in Frigate, Plex, JellyFin, PfSense etc. it makes so much more sense to migrate to a mini PC. Yes its 35W (max) as opposed to 5W with a Pi but the benefits it gives you and ultimate flexibility for scalability and upgradability, it makes so much more sense. Keep tuned and any issues please drop them in the comments and I'll come back to you. Thanks for joining us all on our Smart Home journey.
I did. I bought it. Easiest product to setup, I've ever seen. But, but, doesn't support native Sonoff or Yolink, or Wyze, so until it does, I won't/can't/don't use it. But easy to setup.
Hi, The Sonoff dongle works with the Green as far as I know (ref shorturl.ac/7cu7g), but if you provide me your model ref I can reach out to Sonoff as a channel partner to help out. Likewise with Yolink, although I don't own any (ref: shorturl.ac/7cu7h). Wyze is not supported currently as far as I know (ref: shorturl.ac/7cu7i).
Hi @jimmymcguinn2885, Are you sure? Check out this advertisement to sell the Green and a Sonoff Zigbee Dongle (Ref:shorturl.ac/7cy5l). Even on the HA Green site it states "You can add Home Assistant SkyConnect to connect Zigbee and Thread* devices, set up Home Assistant Cloud for voice assistants, and integrate third-party USB accessories to support other smart standards, such as Z-Wave or Bluetooth."
Hi @@smart_home_australia. No, I'm absolutely not sure, that's one of the problems. I can't access the link by the way... I understand the Sonoff dongle works on HA and I don't know that it doesn't with HAG but I haven't been able to confirm it does... I mean, can we assume everything confirmed as compatible with HA must also be compatible with HAG?
Thanks for your informativ video. :) I just bought the green version with the sky stick. Now my question. If I buy for example a Philips hue light bulb, do I need still the hue bridge? Thanks I'm advance :)
Yes, it is possible to connect Philips Hue lights to Home Assistant without a Hue Bridge. However, please note that you might need the Hue Bridge for updating the devices. If you only have newer devices with Bluetooth connectivity, then you have a way through that, but older devices with only Hue ZigBee need the hub. You can choose to ignore the updates, but there can be both feature additions as well as security patches. Check out this article, shorturl.ac/7c6s9.
Make sure it has an SSD then definitely. Plus you get a lot more flexibility and expansion options. I run a very similar system to that for my production system, just with a newer CPU with more cores for virtualisation.
Save your $$$ and buy an OrangePi 5 instead as the RK3588S chip is faster and costs similar yet gives you better I/O and speeds comparable to upcoming RaspberryPi 5. I've spent near 12 months running HA on 16GB OPi 5 and it handles it with no fuss and only 5v4a power with heatsink+5v fan. HA Green is equivalent power of RPi 3 so IMHO a downgrade.
Totally agree, there are better options than the RP4/5, I respect the OPi5 (it's a great machine) but I'd still to a mini computer (ie. Dell OptiPlex) then you can run literally everything you want on it (ie. Frigate, plex etc.).
The green is a good option for people who are just starting out, but it isn't a replacement for a Yellow or similar device. The Green is really good if you just want to dip your toes in and don't yet know what devices you will use, and have other hubs such as Hue or voice assistants, that can come in without needing radios on the Home Assistant project.
Paulus actually started with Philips Hue. He wanted to have a few extra smarts, so he started playing with the Hue API's :).
If you currently have a working Home Assistant install on a Raspberry Pi 3 or 4, then a Green may be a good update. Otherwise, Green may not be for you.
The Green is more like the Blue. No radios. Yellow is actually a very different project. The Green is more a successor of the Blue. Yellow will remain available for the foreseeable future.
Yellow is not a dedicated Thread Border router out of the box. It does have the SiLabs IoT accelerator chip, and is configured as Zigbee out of the box, and can be upgraded to mulit-protocol or dedicated Thread, like the SkyConnect can be.
Just as a note, if you don't want a Home Lab, Home Assistant will run perfectly on anything from Raspberry Pi 3 up, and use a lot less power than any of those mini PC's. Only consider a PC based solution if you are going to run a home lab. They are not worth the power usage otherwise.
Agreed. However I still think the Mini PC's are a better option. Doesn't need to be as a home lab, but how many want to run Plex or Frigate or Jellyfin, these are some basic apps that won't run on HA hardware and a Pi is not powerful enough to run these successfully, especially transcoding. But as I said in the video, its all down to your user case and building for the current requirements with capacity for the future.
I disagree entirely. I'm starting out and regret buying HA green....
@@jimmymcguinn2885 would you kindly explain why? I’m starting out and thought of purchasing home assistant Green
@@Tabiii I guess it all depends on your needs. In my opinion the green is not the first thing to buy. I'd generally suggest buying something like a Shelly first. See how that free service works out and later consider if a green or maybe a second Shelly is appropriate. I mention Shelly because that's what I decided on but I expect other brands are also worth considering... I'll look at the green again if I find my needs or interest grow to suggest it but I couldn't describe the green appropriate for a newbie or best to start off with
Nevermind. Couldn't wait lol. I had a VM40B Asus NUC lying about, so i pulled it open, put in an SSD, and its already up and running. If that turns out not to be enough, I, in a former life was a Digital Equipment/Applied Materials/Intel fab enginner, I have some i7's from their employee discount program.
LOL i7's would be amazing performance and give you ALOT of performance. I hope you got them at a good price and check out the video that premiers 19th Oct if yo would like to install HA on a virtual machine running on a Windows host.
Very much looking forward to the mini PC build, I want to go this way as well. I am augmenting an old HAI Omni 2 with Home Assistant.
I've tried Pi's and Synology installations (which were great!) of HA but ultimately I always needed more performance and when you factor in Frigate, Plex, JellyFin, PfSense etc. it makes so much more sense to migrate to a mini PC. Yes its 35W (max) as opposed to 5W with a Pi but the benefits it gives you and ultimate flexibility for scalability and upgradability, it makes so much more sense. Keep tuned and any issues please drop them in the comments and I'll come back to you. Thanks for joining us all on our Smart Home journey.
I did. I bought it. Easiest product to setup, I've ever seen. But, but, doesn't support native Sonoff or Yolink, or Wyze, so until it does, I won't/can't/don't use it. But easy to setup.
Hi, The Sonoff dongle works with the Green as far as I know (ref shorturl.ac/7cu7g), but if you provide me your model ref I can reach out to Sonoff as a channel partner to help out. Likewise with Yolink, although I don't own any (ref: shorturl.ac/7cu7h). Wyze is not supported currently as far as I know (ref: shorturl.ac/7cu7i).
@@smart_home_australia I don't believe Green supports the Sonoff dongle. I believe HA and HA green are very very different
Hi @jimmymcguinn2885, Are you sure? Check out this advertisement to sell the Green and a Sonoff Zigbee Dongle (Ref:shorturl.ac/7cy5l). Even on the HA Green site it states "You can add Home Assistant SkyConnect to connect Zigbee and Thread* devices, set up Home Assistant Cloud for voice assistants, and integrate third-party USB accessories to support other smart standards, such as Z-Wave or Bluetooth."
Hi @@smart_home_australia. No, I'm absolutely not sure, that's one of the problems. I can't access the link by the way... I understand the Sonoff dongle works on HA and I don't know that it doesn't with HAG but I haven't been able to confirm it does... I mean, can we assume everything confirmed as compatible with HA must also be compatible with HAG?
Thanks @@smart_home_australia You've convinced me to take the next step...Much appreciated
Thanks for your informativ video. :)
I just bought the green version with the sky stick. Now my question. If I buy for example a Philips hue light bulb, do I need still the hue bridge?
Thanks I'm advance :)
Yes, it is possible to connect Philips Hue lights to Home Assistant without a Hue Bridge. However, please note that you might need the Hue Bridge for updating the devices. If you only have newer devices with Bluetooth connectivity, then you have a way through that, but older devices with only Hue ZigBee need the hub. You can choose to ignore the updates, but there can be both feature additions as well as security patches. Check out this article, shorturl.ac/7c6s9.
I have a "Dell OptiPlex 7020 SFF Desktop Intel Core i5 4th Gen 8GB RAM", will that run home assistant better than the green model?
Make sure it has an SSD then definitely.
Plus you get a lot more flexibility and expansion options. I run a very similar system to that for my production system, just with a newer CPU with more cores for virtualisation.
Perfect, thanks your help. This has saved me purchasing a green ha and then regretting later 👍
Save your $$$ and buy an OrangePi 5 instead as the RK3588S chip is faster and costs similar yet gives you better I/O and speeds comparable to upcoming RaspberryPi 5. I've spent near 12 months running HA on 16GB OPi 5 and it handles it with no fuss and only 5v4a power with heatsink+5v fan. HA Green is equivalent power of RPi 3 so IMHO a downgrade.
Totally agree, there are better options than the RP4/5, I respect the OPi5 (it's a great machine) but I'd still to a mini computer (ie. Dell OptiPlex) then you can run literally everything you want on it (ie. Frigate, plex etc.).