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Improving the PiX10Hubs performance.

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Tuicemen:
I started a thread in the Homegenie.club forum Asking: How users have improved the performance of HG?
While waiting for some answers I did a bit of research and testing on my own.
What I found is a lot can be done to the PI OS  and other things which made me think users of the PiX10Hub could benefit from my findings.
I believe there are loads of things you can do to speed things up. These are a few that worked for me.
However prior to doing these make sure your SD card is a fast class 10 not a slow class 2

In HomeGenie:
1:Disabling logging and only use that when needed.
2:Disable and remove any program not in use or needed.
3:Flush you modules to remove thouse you may have tried but removed from groups.
4:Delete the X10securityRF file, this will get regenerated with x10 rf which you only use now.
5: Disable & remove (if possible) interfaces not in use.
6: Don’t use backgrounds for your groups.
7: keep groups small (don't have all modules in one group)
8: purge log files
I’m sure there are more things you can do in HG and will add to this as I try them if I notice any improvement.
Improving HA-Bridge:
1:Be sure it is up to date if you use this for Alexa.
2:disable logging and only enable it when trouble shooting
3: in the bridge control tab scroll down to UPNP send delay and decrease its value I've set mine to 450 from the 650 default.
As for things other then in HG & HA-Bridge on a Pi
1:Run htop and stop anything that is running and isn’t required.
In the raspi-config
1:disable the desktop if loading
2: In advanced settings make sure you have expanded the file system.
3: make sure your memory split for the GPU is set to 16
Outside raspi-config
1: clean up left over files from upgrades and package installs
sudo apt-get clean && sudo sudo apt-get autoremove -y (my tuicemen tools includes this)
2: free up unused memory (my tuicemen tools includes this)
sudo sysctl vm.drop_caches=1 && sudo sysctl vm.drop_caches=2 && sudo sysctl vm.drop_caches=3 && sync
3: if your still running Stretch consider upgrading to Buster (it realy is faster)
4: Pi boards are low power devices and anything additional plugged into it can be stealing power so we need to limit those things A pi Zero W only has one USb port unless you add a header or multiport. I found there is a way to turn off the power going to the HDMI port If your running headless you don’t need that.
5: Do an sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade regularly newer drivers usually work better and faster and do #1 afterwards.
6: Consider using a USB stick or USB SSD I doubt a SSD will be any better then a stick as it is limited to the speed a USB port can supply. However Petediscrete may go into the way he done it(not sure if he is using a ZeroW with the SSD) you'd need extra USB Ports to do this and a virgin Zero W doesn't have any extras.
Here’s how you would do a USB stick (testing this now)
http://oskarhane.com/basic-raspberry-pi-setup-with-raspbian/
 >!

Tuicemen:
So to day I was at Costco and seen a two pack of Scandisk 64gig USB 3 pen drives for dirt cheep (I thought) Since reading running from a USB drive will improve things I decided to grab them and test things out.
One of my ZeroW boards has the added full sized USB ports.  Since they aren't USB 3 ports I won't get the full advantaged of the pen drives. How much of a improvement will take a bit of time to see but I can state it is working. I'm running off one of the USB sticks.
I noticed after I created the USB disk that according to TomsHardware.com you can now setup any PI to boot directly from a USB drive with no SD card ever needed again (I assume this requires Buster).
So depending on how things go that may be my next trial.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/boot-raspberry-pi-from-usb,39782.html

petera:

--- Quote from: Tuicemen on January 16, 2020, 06:18:03 PM ---So to day I was at Costco and seen a two pack of Scandisk 64gig USB 3 pen drives for dirt cheep (I thought) Since reading running from a USB drive will improve things I decided to grab them and test things out.
One of my ZeroW boards has the added full sized USB ports.  Since they aren't USB 3 ports I won't get the full advantaged of the pen drives. How much of a improvement will take a bit of time to see but I can state it is working. I'm running off one of the USB sticks.
I noticed after I created the USB disk that according to TomsHardware.com you can now setup any PI to boot directly from a USB drive with no SD card ever needed again (I assume this requires Buster).
So depending on how things go that may be my next trial.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/boot-raspberry-pi-from-usb,39782.html

--- End quote ---

As both the SD card and the USB pen drive both use the same technology the fail rate for either is much the same. The fact that you are using a USB 2.0 interface you will probably see a slight drop in performance v the SD Card. The real advantage doesn't kick in unless your USB 3.0 pen drive is plugged into a USB 3.0 port, obviously not possible on a Pi Zero but possible on a Pi 4 with boot mods. A bit messy in its current format

The only real advantage in changing storage options on a Pi Zero would be using an SSD drive on the Pi Zero and that is purely for protecting against a low failure rate of the storage device. That's what I use on all my Pi's. Once the Pi 4+ is released this year which allows auto booting from USB the optimal storage device to use will be the SSD attached to its USB 3.0 port. Otherwise it's a bit of a novelty having your Raspbian/HG setup on a USB stick. Do bear in mind that you will have another dongle hanging off your Pi Zero with no performance gain.

petera:
Here's the SSD drives I use coupled with a USB to Esata cable. https://business.currys.co.uk/catalogue/item/P259910P?from=category

Tuicemen:

--- Quote from: petera link=topic=31184.msg184115#msg184115 ---
As both the SD card and the USB pen drive both use the same technology the fail rate for either is much the same. The fact that you are using a USB 2.0 interface you will probably see a slight drop in performance v the SD Card. The real advantage doesn't kick in unless your USB 3.0 pen drive is plugged into a USB 3.0 port, obviously not possible on a Pi Zero but possible on a Pi 4 with boot mods. A bit messy in its current format

The only real advantage in changing storage options on a Pi Zero would be using an SSD drive on the Pi Zero and that is purely for protecting against a low failure rate of the storage device. That's what I use on all my Pi's. Once the Pi 4+ is released this year which allows auto booting from USB the optimal storage device to use will be the SSD attached to its USB 3.0 port. Otherwise it's a bit of a novelty having your Raspbian/HG setup on a USB stick. Do bear in mind that you will have another dongle hanging off your Pi Zero with no performance gain.

--- End quote ---
From all the bench tests and other articles I've seen there is an advantage of using a USB thumb drive over a SD card. However first hand tests can prove other wise. These were only picked up for testing, I have other uses for them. Idefinately wouldn't want these pen drives sticking out from my CM15A however a mini would be fine.
I've already noticed a slight improvement in read & write speeds. To get real accurate  testing comparisons should be done with same size and brands. Most tests I seen and what I'm trying isn't. I don't  doubt a SSD drive is the route to go for best performance and worry free operation.  My old mini pc running Bullseye has a SSD drive and it is lightening fast. I doubt a pi 4+ with a SSD drive could come close to it performance wise and it was cheaper then a pi 4.

I'm sure other users may be interested in your SSD setups. Were they done simular to setting up a USB stick?
Have you tried the boot from USB method  on your other Pis mentioned in the TomsHardware article? I've not tested that yet.

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