Which Raspberry PI are you using?

Tuicemen · April 22, 2018, 07:39:11 PM

I'm real late to this party, I've yet to jump into the Raspberry Pi world.
I realize many have used x10 with a PI since it first came out and I've played with X10 in Linux periodicaly over the years.
I'm just wondering what model everyone is using and are you doing anything else with it other then HA?
Did you upgrade your PI to a newer version? If so why?

docbell · April 22, 2018, 08:52:42 PM

I use a Raspberry Pi 3B for all my HA: about 30 devices, mostly X-10 and a few non-X10. I never tried the earlier models, so I can't compare. The Pi also runs a web server and file server (LAN only) and does some light web browsing and file editing, all without seeming to break a sweat. I don't see a need to move up to the 3B+ at this point.

HA Dave · April 22, 2018, 09:02:22 PM

I am also using a Raspberry Pi 3B.... but mostly just a web-surfing (and learning) device now. I've yet to get a software DL to run anything that would enable HA control.

I do (also) have a Homeseer Hometroller... which is a Pi itself. It uses a CM15A as an interface to control my X10.... and it is AWESOME.

Tuicemen · April 23, 2018, 01:17:45 AM

I now have a CanaKit Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (B Plus) Starter Kit in route. So I'm told

I looked at just the 3B but the B+ was same price.
I may pick up a Zero W at a later date to use in a CM15 mod or as a WM100 companion module.

HA Dave · April 23, 2018, 04:56:16 AM

Quote from: Tuicemen on April 23, 2018, 01:17:45 AM
I now have a CanaKit Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (B Plus) Starter Kit in route........

I believe the potential of the Pi..... to be enormous. Although... a bit out of my skillset. The nice thing is that once a working setup is created.... a memory card (or card DL) could be created that would work with all Pi's.

Tuicemen · April 23, 2018, 05:47:07 AM

I've read one of the PI Linux distributions isn't backward compatible with other PIs.

I'm not sure if this is true for all Linux versions for the 3B+ (I hope not)

petera · April 23, 2018, 12:20:16 PM

Very little to choose between the Raspberry Pi 3B and the Pi 3B+ in overall performance. If they are retailing at the same price the Pi 3B+ is the obvious choice.

If you are looking for a serious increase in performance the Rock64 is worth purchasing.

https://www.pine64.org/?page_id=7147

You can see from the link the difference in specs and for very little extra, price wise, it's worth considering it. I have Homeseer 3 running on it via Armbian Linux and of course my CM11 is my lighting controller of choice.

Tuicemen · April 23, 2018, 01:59:27 PM

The Rock64 would be a better performer no doubt especialy with 4 gigs of mem.
It is also a bit smaller then the PI which may be worth a consideration.
However it doesn't have onboard WiFi you need an addon for that if needed.

petera · April 23, 2018, 02:39:49 PM

Quote from: Tuicemen on April 23, 2018, 01:59:27 PM
The Rock64 would be a better performer no doubt especialy with 4 gigs of mem.
It is also a bit smaller then the PI which may be worth a consideration.
However it doesn't have onboard WiFi you need an addon for that if needed.

Yes I had a spare wifi dongle I used on the Raspberry Pi which I deployed here. The Linux distros they offer on the Rock64 forum are a little tricky when it comes to wifi. I ended up loading a version of Armbian from the armbian forum to resolve that which uses up one of two USB2.0 ports available.

The ironic thing here is that the third USB port on the board is a USB3.0 which I have the CM11 attached to. No problem with backward compatibility here but I have a push bike attached to a Ferrari engine

Tuicemen · April 23, 2018, 03:13:47 PM

Quote from: petera on April 23, 2018, 02:39:49 PM

Yes I had a spare wifi dongle I used on the Raspberry Pi which I deployed here.

Which PI were you running prior and why did you upgrade?
If the upgrade was solely for performance what all were you using the PI for?

bkenobi · April 23, 2018, 03:44:20 PM

I have a RPi1B that I use for HA and a RPi3B I'm tinkering with. I spent a lot of time setting up the RPi1 and it works great. The RPi3 was intended to replace it with the same (updated) setup. However, I've been skunked in getting the new OS to work the same way with the same software I have in my old setup. The different versions are not universally usable with different versions of the RPi though. If you have a RPi3, you probably won't be able to use Raspbian Wheezy. Jessie will probably work, but you would be best suited to use Stretch. My issue has been that the software that works on Wheezy and Jessie has issues with newer drivers of Stretch and I'm not a Linux guru.

Tuicemen · April 23, 2018, 04:48:51 PM

I read the newest Raspbian was the only Linux version which had the new drivers for the 3B+ (at the time of the articles publication)
And I believe it wasn't backward compatible.
They expected the others would add the drivers in their next update.

dhouston · April 23, 2018, 05:59:16 PM

I haven't tried this and it looks a bit roundabout but...
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-windows-software-raspberry-pi/

petera · April 23, 2018, 07:45:53 PM

Quote from: Tuicemen on April 23, 2018, 03:13:47 PM
Quote from: petera on April 23, 2018, 02:39:49 PM

Yes I had a spare wifi dongle I used on the Raspberry Pi which I deployed here.
Which PI were you running prior and why did you upgrade?
If the upgrade was solely for performance what all were you using the PI for?

Pi3. Homeseer is a bit of a memory hungry beast. Still have the Raspberry Pi form factor, a slight increase in power consumption but 4gb of memory overhead to play with. I really thought the new Raspberry Pi would include an optional increase in memory but not to be in this release. Maybe next time.

petera · April 23, 2018, 07:50:46 PM

Quote from: bkenobi on April 23, 2018, 03:44:20 PM
I have a RPi1B that I use for HA and a RPi3B I'm tinkering with. I spent a lot of time setting up the RPi1 and it works great. The RPi3 was intended to replace it with the same (updated) setup. However, I've been skunked in getting the new OS to work the same way with the same software I have in my old setup. The different versions are not universally usable with different versions of the RPi though. If you have a RPi3, you probably won't be able to use Raspbian Wheezy. Jessie will probably work, but you would be best suited to use Stretch. My issue has been that the software that works on Wheezy and Jessie has issues with newer drivers of Stretch and I'm not a Linux guru.

Doesn't help that the software you are using is no longer being seriously developed. I'm afraid that Homegenie is stuck in a particular release and as and when the likes of Mono develops all the previous software that was developed for it will break.

I'm so reluctant to get too heavily immersed in any particular HA software as a result of this.

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Which Raspberry PI are you using?