Good morning,
I'm trying to figure out if there is a way to evaluate if a command was completed and retry if it did not complete.
I have 14 iBlinds 3.1 z-wave controllers in my home. 95% of the time, they work just fine. Occasionally, I'll get a blind that does not open on the first attempt. When I go into Home Assistant, and manually open or close the blind, it works.
I have 3 reactions set up for each room. One to open, one to close, and one partial open for sun glare. Each of them is set up as below.
5afc9924-4300-4718-9e23-8855c4a3a9fd-image.png
The reactions are set up to wait for 5 seconds before going onto the next blind, so the z-wave network doesn't get overwhelmed.
In addition, the set command to run the reactions has "Wait for completion" checked.
3919fc06-c1f1-4c49-bf95-716028d18a27-image.png
I also have a routine set up whenever a z-wave device reports as non-functional (dead), it'll get pinged to wake it up. This usually works to wake them up.
16df4bff-c733-4ec2-a55c-c964238ada3b-image.png
Appreciate any ideas to make this more reliable.
I'm running:
Reactor latest-24190-bd310acc, Bare-metal on Fedora WaveJSController [0.1.23326] Home Assistant: 2024.7.0I think this feature request could be accomplished with the use of two or more rules, but it would be great if there was a way to wait for an event or trigger to occur before continuing on in the reactions.
For example, I have a rule that will turn on some exterior lights if you arrive home after the porch lights have been turned off. Right now this rule randomly will turn off between 5-10 minutes after the person has entered the geofence. On some occasions this 5-10 minutes isn't long enough, say if you are unloading the car or something. I would like to kick off the reaction, but pause it part way through and wait for the door to close and lock, then continue it on. Hubitat Rule Machine has a "Wait for event" option, but I really want to keep all my logic within MSR.
Good morning,
I'm going through my ruleset this morning, trying to get away from haas>blahblablah entries and completely migrate them all to zwavejs>xx-0 entries where possible.
I have 3 Aeon MultiSensor 6 devices in my home, all USB powered.
When using Haas entries, I see an entry for hass>binary_sensor_guest_bedroom_multisensor_home_security_motion_detection, and motion_sensor.state (primary)
Screenshot 2024-07-25 at 8.25.53 AM.png
Under ZwaveJS, this entry appears to be missing.
Screenshot 2024-07-25 at 8.26.51 AM.png
From the Entities page:
battery_power.level=1
battery_power.since=1721910337433
binary_sensor.state=false
humidity_sensor.units="%"
humidity_sensor.value=46
light_sensor.units="Lux"
light_sensor.value=5
tamper.state=false
temperature_sensor.units="°F"
temperature_sensor.value=73.8
x_debug.dt={}
x_zwave_values.Basic_currentValue=0
x_zwave_values.Battery_isLow=false
x_zwave_values.Battery_level=100
x_zwave_values.Binary_Sensor_Any=false
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Report_Group_1_Battery_1=1
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Report_Group_1_Humidity_64=1
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Report_Group_1_Luminance_128=1
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Report_Group_1_Temperature_32=1
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Report_Group_1_Ultraviolet_16=1
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Report_Group_2_Battery_1=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Report_Group_2_Humidity_64=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Report_Group_2_Luminance_128=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Report_Group_2_Temperature_32=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Report_Group_2_Ultraviolet_16=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Report_Group_3_Battery_1=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Report_Group_3_Humidity_64=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Report_Group_3_Luminance_128=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Report_Group_3_Temperature_32=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Report_Group_3_Ultraviolet_16=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Reporting_Interval_Group_1=3600
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Reporting_Interval_Group_2=3600
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Reporting_Interval_Group_3=3600
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Automatic_Temperature_Reporting_Unit=2
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Battery_Level_Threshold=10
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Current_Power_Mode_65280=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Humidity_Above_Lower_Limit_32=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Humidity_Below_Lower_Limit_2=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Humidity_Change_Threshold=10
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Humidity_Recover_Limit=5
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Humidity_Sensor_Calibration=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_LED_Blinking=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Lighting_Recover_Limit=10
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Lock_Configuration=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Low_Battery_Threshold=20
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Low_Temperature_Alarm_15_C=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Lower_Humidity_Limit=50
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Lower_Lighting_Limit=100
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Lower_Temperature_Limit_4294901760=320
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Lower_Temperature_Limit_Unit_3840=2
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Lower_Ultraviolet_Limit=4
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Luminance_Above_Lower_Limit_64=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Luminance_Below_Lower_Limit_4=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Luminance_Change_Threshold=100
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Luminance_Sensor_Calibration=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Motion_Sensor_Report_Type_to_Send=2
x_zwave_values.Configuration_PIR_Sensitivity=3
x_zwave_values.Configuration_PIR_Sensor_Timeout=20
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Recover_Limit_Temperature_Unit_255=2
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Report_Above_Humidity_Threshold_32=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Report_Above_Luminance_Threshold_64=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Report_Above_Temperature_Threshold_16=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Report_Above_Ultraviolet_Threshold_128=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Report_Below_Humidity_Threshold_2=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Report_Below_Luminance_Threshold_4=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Report_Below_Temperature_Threshold_1=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Report_Below_Ultraviolet_Threshold_8=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Reset_Parameters_101_103_to_Default_Values=null
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Reset_Parameters_111_113_to_Default_Values=null
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Reset_to_Factory_Default_Setting=null
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Selective_Reporting=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Sleep_State_255=2
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Temperature_Above_Lower_Limit_16=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Temperature_Below_Lower_Limit_1=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Temperature_Calibration_Offset_65280=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Temperature_Calibration_Unit_255=2
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Temperature_Change_Threshold_4294901760=20
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Temperature_Recover_Limit_65280=20
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Temperature_Threshold_Unit_3840=2
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Ultraviolet_Above_Lower_Limit_128=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Ultraviolet_Below_Lower_Limit_8=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Ultraviolet_Change_Threshold=2
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Ultraviolet_Recover_Limit=2
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Ultraviolet_Sensor_Calibration=0
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Upper_Humidity_Limit=60
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Upper_Lighting_Limit=1000
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Upper_Temperature_Limit_4294901760=824
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Upper_Temperature_Limit_Unit_3840=2
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Upper_Ultraviolet_Limit=8
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Wake_Device_for_10_minutes_After_Power_On=1
x_zwave_values.Configuration_Wake_Up_Timeout=15
x_zwave_values.Manufacturer_Specific_manufacturerId=134
x_zwave_values.Manufacturer_Specific_productId=100
x_zwave_values.Manufacturer_Specific_productType=258
x_zwave_values.Multilevel_Sensor_Air_temperature=73.8
x_zwave_values.Multilevel_Sensor_Humidity=46
x_zwave_values.Multilevel_Sensor_Illuminance=5
x_zwave_values.Multilevel_Sensor_Ultraviolet=0
x_zwave_values.Notification_Home_Security_Cover_status=0
x_zwave_values.Notification_Home_Security_Motion_sensor_status=0
x_zwave_values.Notification_alarmLevel=0
x_zwave_values.Notification_alarmType=0
x_zwave_values.Version_firmwareVersions=["1.17"]
x_zwave_values.Version_hardwareVersion=100
x_zwave_values.Version_libraryType=3
x_zwave_values.Version_protocolVersion="4.54"
x_zwave_values.Wake_Up_controllerNodeId=1
x_zwave_values.Wake_Up_wakeUpInterval=3600
zwave_device.capabilities=[32,48,49,112,113,114,128,132,134]
zwave_device.endpoint=0
zwave_device.failed=false
zwave_device.generic_class="Multilevel Sensor"
zwave_device.impl_sig="23326:1:22315:1"
zwave_device.is_beaming=false
zwave_device.is_listening=true
zwave_device.is_routing=true
zwave_device.is_secure=false
zwave_device.manufacturer_info=[134,258,100]
zwave_device.max_data_rate=null
zwave_device.node_id=53
zwave_device.specific_class="Routing Multilevel Sensor"
zwave_device.status=4
zwave_device.status_text="alive"
zwave_device.version_info=[null,"1.17"]
zwave_device.wakeup_interval=3600
I'm running:
Reactor latest-24190-bd310acc, Bare-metal on Fedora
WaveJSController [0.1.23326]
Home Assistant: 2024.7.0
I'm fetching certain data five past every hour, but I would like to do it closer to the hour, e.g. 1 or 2 past (but not at the hour).
I experimented with the following rule that almost works (triggers also at the hour which is not the intention). Any advice for a solution?
It would be nice to have an ability to bookmark a direct link to a dashboard item. In my case I would use this feature to access a virtual switch directly.
Hi @toggledbits
Would you please consider adding an extra sublevel in the rulesets?
I have grouped my rules in rooms/ areas. This works great for me, but I would also like to group rules for the same functionality (in a room). This would make the rules easier to find and name.
Please let me know if this is an option. Thanks!
@togglebits I am curious as to why the tilt_sensor.state (primary) = NULL. I believe it should show true or false. I have to use binary_sensor.state instead in my rules.
Again, not sure if this is related to Reactor/ZwaveJSController implementation or the actual Z-Wave JS UI docker version. I have copied, below, the attributes of the tilt sensor in hopes it can help.
Thanks in advance.
Reactor version 23302
ZWaveJSController version 23254
Z-Wave JS UI version 9.3.0.724519f
zwave-js version 12.2.3
@toggledbits,
I have this device attached to my system, but use a DSC panel. If you need testers to move forward, I'm happy to help.
I'm curious what your thinking the use case is for this. I currently have it integrated into HomeAssistant, and it works fine for the most part. The one thing I can't do is bypass zones, which I would like to have the ability to do.
Are you looking at more direct control for the panel, as opposed to having to jump through HA (or another system) first?
Build 21228 has been released. Docker images available from DockerHub as usual, and bare-metal packages here.
Home Assistant up to version 2021.8.6 supported; the online version of the manual will now state the current supported versions; Fix an error in OWMWeatherController that could cause it to stop updating; Unify the approach to entity filtering on all hub interface classes (controllers); this works for device entities only; it may be extended to other entities later; Improve error detail in messages for EzloController during auth phase; Add isRuleSet() and isRuleEnabled() functions to expressions extensions; Implement set action for lock and passage capabilities (makes them more easily scriptable in some cases); Fix a place in the UI where 24-hour time was not being displayed.I have the following ruleset which I though had been working well until this morning when I noticed it's not.
I've put four weather conditions in an in array and one of them is the current weather condition - but the rule is not true. Now the cloud cover percentage is not yet met but this is an or rule so as long as the "Current Conditions" are met then it should go true.
What's the obvious thing I'm missing here? (I've tried spaces/no spaces in the in and no difference.)
Hi,
Running the latest MSR latest-24152-3455578a with the latest HA 2024.6.1. When trying to call a service I get the following in the MSR logs. Is this a version mismatch? I am not seeing anything in the HA logs.
[latest-24152]2024-06-11T10:29:56.162Z <Rule:INFO> rule-Monitor-DHW (rule-lsvq5k3x in Central Heating) started [latest-24152]2024-06-11T10:29:58.625Z <HassController:WARN> HassController#hass unknown service opentherm_gw.set_hot_water_setpoint in x_hass.call_service action on Thermostat#hass>climate_living_room_otgw [latest-24152]2024-06-11T10:29:58.626Z <HassController:INFO> HassController#hass: sending payload for x_hass.call_service on Thermostat#hass>climate_living_room_otgw action: [Object]{ "type": "call_service", "service_data": { "gateway_id": "living_room_otgw", "temperature": 65 }, "domain": "opentherm_gw", "service": "set_hot_water_setpoint", "target": { "entity_id": "climate.living_room_otgw" } } [latest-24152]2024-06-11T10:29:58.627Z <HassController:ERR> HassController#hass request 1718101798626<6/11/2024, 12:29:58 PM> (call_service) failed: [Object]{ "id": 1718101798626, "type": "result", "success": false, "error": { "code": "invalid_format", "message": "extra keys not allowed @ data['entity_id']" } } [latest-24152]2024-06-11T10:29:58.627Z <HassController:WARN> HassController#hass action x_hass.call_service([Object]{ "service": "opentherm_gw.set_hot_water_setpoint", "data": "{ \"gateway_id\": \"living_room_otgw\", \"temperature\": 65 }" }) on Thermostat#hass>climate_living_room_otgw failed!Cheers Rene
Some background
I'm trying to integrate a Zigbee device into the MSR using zigbee2mqtt bridge and MQTTController. The device in question is a cheap mood light that has following properties that I'd like to control:
I'v already managed to get the switch part working and can toggle the light on/off. Also the brightness value is mapped back to MSR. In zigbee2mqtt it has a value range from 0 to 254, so this the reason for the expression:
expr: 'payload.brightness / 254'Here's the entity definition (don't know whether the type should be something else than the Switch)
zigbee-lidl-mood-light: name: 'Lidl Mood Light' friendly_name: 'Mood Light' type: Switch uses_template: lidl-moodlightAnd the corresponding template (NOTE: rgb_color has not been defined in this example):
lidl-moodlight: init: "zigbee2mqtt/%friendly_name%/get/state" query: "zigbee2mqtt/%friendly_name%/get/state" capabilities: - power_switch - toggle - dimming primary_attribute: power_switch.state events: "zigbee2mqtt/%friendly_name%": "power_switch.state": json_payload: true expr: 'upper(payload.state) == "ON"' "dimming.level": json_payload: true expr: 'payload.brightness / 254' actions: power_switch: "on": topic: "zigbee2mqtt/%friendly_name%/set/state" payload: 'ON' "off": topic: "zigbee2mqtt/%friendly_name%/set/state" payload: 'OFF' set: topic: "zigbee2mqtt/%friendly_name%/set/state" payload: expr: "parameters.state ? 'ON' : 'OFF'" type: raw toggle: topic: "zigbee2mqtt/%friendly_name%/set/state" payload: 'TOGGLE'The problem
In order to control the brightness or the RGB color values, I would have send a JSON payload in corresponding actions. But I have no idea how to define it in the template. The reason why the switch part is working is that the zigbee2mqtt accepts also plain ON / OFF / TOGGLE string payloads in that case.
But the brightness should be controlled with the following payload:
{"brightness": 196}And the RGB color like:
{"color":{"rgb":"46,102,150"}}Here's the link for the documentation (the Exposes part defines the messages).
So how should I define the JSON payload for example for the dimming action? It definitely should be some sort of expressions since I have to map the MSR real value (0...1) to (0...254) for the zigbee2mqtt.
actions: dimming: set: topic: "zigbee2mqtt/%friendly_name%/set" payload: expr: ????? type: jsonAnother problem is the RGB value. I could use the rgb_color capability for the setting but the problem is that the zigbee2mqtt only reports the current color in hue/saturation or xy coordinates.
Here's an example of published message after setting the color:
Topic: zigbee2mqtt/Mood Light QoS: 0 { "brightness":254, "color":{ "hue":240, "saturation":100, "x":0.1355, "y":0.0399 }, "color_mode":"xy", "color_temp":574, "linkquality":96, "state":"ON" }I would have to map those values back to RGB, but is it even possible with existing constructs in MQTTController's templates?
Help would be appreciated @toggledbits
br,
mgvra
That's probably more appropriate to post on Mantis for @toggledbits, but since I know there's at least @Crille publishing templates, my intent with this post is to open a broader discussion.
Long story short: I'm starting to slowly add new template for Shelly Plus and I noticed I'll end up with a dozen more templates, all similar but simply different in trivial details, all sharing a large amount of code and all needing special cares when fixing bugs/adding features (as the latest wifi_status addition).
So, I'm wondering if it's time to start thinking of some sort of inheritance in templates, where I could just create a generic shelly_gen1 and use it as a base for shelly_relay, and this be used as the base for shelly_relay_power and so on.
I could probably achieve this with some sort of scripting on my side to generate templates via code, but maybe there's a better way of doing this, or it's already on the radar.
I need a handful of victims volunteers to help test previews of the next build of Reactor. A long-standing request was for "a simple login mechanism," but in practice, adding user authentication and competent access control turned out to be a pretty big project with a lot of big changes on both server and client sides. It's a bit more than I'm comfortable testing myself and springing out to everyone at once, so I'd like to work with a small group to put it through "sea trials."
Major changes/features include:
User authentication with hashed password storage; User group configuration with application restriction (admin, dashboard, API); Detailed control over API access, with user- and token-based authentication/authorization; Improvements to the HTTPS service; Improvements to UI coordination with the core for Rules and Reactions.If this sounds like something you'd like to help with, drop me a reply here in this thread or privately.
[Solution: Reactor 24115 is not compatible with MQTTController > 24120]
Reactor latest-24115 bare metal.
All MQTT entities stop working after updating MQTTController to 24142, downgrade to 24120 and they are back. Templates and configured entities has not been changed between versions.
I'm not sure if uses_template should be replaced by ìnclude in entity configuration in reactor.yaml but I guess not, I've tried it and it did not do any difference.
I have not tried to update Reactor to userauth version.
Example entity in reactor.yaml that uses MQTTController included template:
entities: "takflakt_kallare": name: "Takfläkt källare" topic: "Källartemp" unit: "" uses_template: tasmota_generic_relay init: "cmnd/%topic%/POWER%unit%"Any hints? Do you need more info, please let me know.
Log from startup:
I'm slowly migrating all my stuff to MQTT under MSR, so I have a central place to integrate everything (and, in a not-so-distant future, to remove virtual devices from my Vera and leave it running zwave only).
Anyway, here's my reactor-mqtt-contrib package:
![](https://github.com/fluidicon.png)
Contrib MQTT templates for Reactor. Contribute to dbochicchio/reactor-mqtt-contrib development by creating an account on GitHub.
Simply download yaml files (everything or just the ones you need) and you're good to go.
I have mapped my most useful devices, but I'll add others soon. Feel free to ask for specific templates, since I've worked a lot in the last weeks to understand and operate them.
The templates are supporting both init and query, so you have always up-to-date devices at startup, and the ability to poll them. Online status is supported as well, so you can get disconnected devices with a simple expression.
Many-many thanks to @toggledbits for its dedication, support, and patience with me and my requests 🙂
Is the following config correct?
- id: time_series name: "Out temp" capabilities: temperature_sensor: attributes: value: model: time series entity: "hass>sensor_outdoor_temperature" attribute: "temperature_sensor.value" interval: 5 # minutes retention: 20 # minutes aggregate: wma primary_attribute: temperature_sensor.value type: ValueSensorSpecifically, is "depth" directive needed/mandatory here? Reason I'm asking is that I'm not getting a "final" value in MSR, only debug values are shown:
temperature_sensor.units=null temperature_sensor.value=null x_virtualentity.last_request_time=null x_virtualentity.request_failures=null x_virtualentity.template=null x_virtualentity.timeseries_debug=[{"time":1716537360000,"value":22.1},{"time":1716537660000,"value":22},{"time":1716537960000,"value":22},{"time":1716538260000,"value":21.9},{"time":1716538560000,"value":22}]Good morning,
I apologize if this subject has been covered. I did try the search, but I'm not coming up with any topics on my issue.
I'm running userauth-24137-57b41335, bare metal installation on Fedora 39 Server.
I have a rule set up to turn the Eco mode off on my Nest Thermostat when the thermostat is set to Away (Rule State: Away Mode), the user (Driver) presence in my car changes to true, and the destination is set to home.
93804f7c-62d6-42c0-ae04-ff602011a6fd-image.png
This works fine for most days, where I'm headed home from work (commute is about 45 minutes). What I don't want it to do is set change it to Eco mode if my ETA is more than an hour.
There is a sensor/entity for Time to Arrival when the Destination is set. What it appears to provide is the Time OF arrival/ETA, not time until arrival. If it was Time until Arrival, and it was a numeric value, I could simply test if the value is less than 60 and be done with it.
I pulled up the history through Home Assistant for my morning commute and this appears to be what it is providing.
c2a32739-c84f-4a05-95d9-73793ed818f5-image.png
So what I need to do is to do a calculation of the the ETA from the sensor value and subtract the current time, and get a value in minutes that I can determine if it's less than 60.
I believe I can do this with the local expression, but I don't see anything for the system time, or local time. Also, do the local expressions update themselves if the sensors do?
Good morning,
I'm running userauth-24137-57b41335 on Fedora 39, bare metal installation.
ZWaveJSController 0.1.23254
Home Assistant:
Core, 2024.5.3 Supervisor, 2024.05.1 Operating System, 12.3 Frontend, 20240501.1I'm trying to troubleshoot a Dynamic Group Controller and notification alert that I've set up for low battery level.
In my Reactor.config, I have the following lines:
name: "Dynamic Group Controller" implementation: DynamicGroupController config: groups: "zwavejs_dead": select: - include_group: "zwavejs" filter_expression: "entity?.attributes?.zwave_device?.status == 3" group_actions: true "low_battery": select: - include_capability: battery_power filter_expression: > entity.attributes.battery_power.level < 0.35The idea here is that I should only have members of this group that have a battery level below 35%. When I go into Entities, I show a whole slew of devices, none of which have a battery level below the threshold.
a77e445b-ab78-4752-a624-3c4117f34f90-image.png
I also tried setting up a rule to generate a push notification once a day, but with all of the group members, I've had to disable the rule. I believe I have it set up correctly, but I'm not 100% sure. I want the notification to tell me the battery level for that device as well.
289b4f68-03ba-49c0-8275-f0f197d13a3a-image.png
ce24a76e-6865-40bd-bd85-632e54d315a8-image.png dc837424-deb5-4ef7-8f0d-3676f1769535-image.png
Can anyone point to me what I may have misconfigured to get these results?
I should also note I'm only interested in ZWaveJS devices. It's showing me battery status for my iPad and car as well, which I don't need it to send me.
Cheapest platform on which to run MSR
-
Please can anyone give me advice on a cheap way to run MSR (both initial cost and ongoing electricity cost). I currently run it on my QNAP network drive (which works very well incidentally). However, this draws a constant 35Watts (£90/yr @ 30p/kWh) and given the recent rise in fuel costs I am evaluating the best way forwards. Note, I only really need to turn my QNAP on for an hour a week to back-up my computer data. I understand that MSR can run on a Raspberry PI, but I am not competent with Linux! Thanks.
-
RPis are, I think, a good alternative. But, you're not likely to find much that is price-competitive with RPis that has a management GUI like the QNAP to reduce the learning curve. My advice to you would be to learn some basic Linux command line stuff and get fluent. This a good place to do it. The RPi is a good platform to do it on. If you make good backups, you really won't set yourself back very much if you end up wrecking something accidentally. As they say, the best time to start was yesterday; the second best time is now.
A 2GB RPi 4B+ runs about USD45 right now. You absolutely can run on 1GB if you don't run too much alongside (e.g. no InfluxDB, for example, although an MQTT broker would probably not be much of an issue), and that would get you down to USD35. I have run successfully on a 512MB 3B+ as well.
Continuing in that direction, I strongly recommend that you use a real SSD rather than a MicroSD card. The latter is not usually designed for the high write cycles of a typical Linux system. You may do fine with one of the camera-targeted MicroSD cards (""high endurance"), at least for a while. Capacity can be small; 8 or 16GB would suffice, so you're in a cost-effective range, and that may hold you for a while until you can upgrade to SSD. Going to an SSD, you would need not only the SSD, but a USB3.1 to SATA interface; the latter runs about USD15 on Amazon, and make sure you get a true USB3.1 version (there are two very similar, one is only USB3.0 and was previously not supported by the Pi firmware, although it may be now; there's a compatibility list published somewhere; we can dig later if you need it). Cheap small SSDs run <USD30 on Amazon, and I even found a five-pack of 64GB for USD18 (you may get a surprise later from the Department of Getting What You Pay For).
In terms of power, it's going to be in the 5-10W range depending on what it's doing, so I think worst-case, you're down to about a third the energy cost, but in the first year, the hardware cost will eat up the difference.
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@toggledbits new Raspberry PI are in short supply here in the UK and therefore quite expensive. I have come across a Raspberry PI 2. Do you think this is worth a try or is it a non-starter from the off? Thanks.
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No, a Pi 2 won't do it. Well, you probably could, but I don't recommend it and I haven't tried it. A 3B+ is workable. I've tested that, so that's the safest minimum I can recommend.
I've had trouble getting Pis as well for multiple projects, but I recently found rpilocator.com and I can highly recommend it. If you follow them on Twitter you can basically get alerts from them and it helps. You need to be quick. Yesterday they reported over 100 units available from a popular US seller, and today that seller is reported out of stock.
I recently managed to get a Compute Module 4 with 8GB EMMC (built-in Flash storage like an SSD). That ran me US$45 for the CM4, and another $40 for the I/O board on which you mount it. I am testing that right now, and will likely use it as my build system for 64-bit Raspbian Bullseye releases (coming soon). It's much tidier than fussing with the USB-SATA adapter. That is all equivalent to a 4B+ in power, and may be equivalent or even a little lower in price -- by the time you've purchased a Pi 4B+ with 2GB RAM, an 8GB or larger SSD, and the USB 3.1 to SATA interface, you're in the same price range. Either way you go, the investment is a computing platform you can use for a long time; they've got good power, are well-built little boards (all), etc.
Also, for any configuration with less than 2GB RAM, I recommend using the "Lite" version of the OS install (no desktop/GUI, command line only). That would include the 3B+.
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Raspberry Pi's are in short supply (scarce) and also costly now, thanks to the chip shortage.
Also the power supply is VERY important, a phone charger won't cut it especially on the most recent Pi4, I swapped an V1 Pi4 out with a new and now more expensive Pi4 yesterday and couldn't get it to boot on the old Power Supply. It was doing my head in until I swapped it for a 2.4A Inline charger.
This brings me to what I was going to start a new thread on but you beat me to it.
What are are alternatives to a Pi4? -
I'm not seeing that, at least, not here in the States, among the usual major sellers, they all seem to be sticking to normal pricing when they have product (Adafruit, Arrow, Pishop, Digi-Key, etc.). It has been reported that Raspberry is focusing on its commercial customers first, so their production has leaned more into the Compute Modules than the standalone boards, but you can still get them, and I look at that availability of 100 at Adafruit as a good sign -- it was the largest single block of product I've seen in a while. They sold off the 2GB RAM models at US$45 each, which has been MSRP since release. There are a few opportunistic new/pop-up vendors (on eBay especially, to the surprise of no one, I hope) digging for gold, but the majors seem to be toeing the line.
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So I have taken the plunge and ordered a RPI 4 4gb with USB 3.1 cable and SSD (paid a bit over the odds, but was having no success with the approved suppliers!). No going back now! Do I install Raspbian OS? I appreciate it'll have been a while since a lot of you guys learnt linux, but can anyone recommend where I might start - i.e. a book or internet site? Thanks.
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I'd go for Raspian
It's a dead simple set up with the imager (no reason you shouldn't be able to use the SSD with that) The server version should give you everything you need but being based on Debian it should be trivial to get any missing bits (like curl and NodeJS 16). I also am running Debian 10 and have just set up MSR on a Debian 11 VM so more than happy to help until a proper expert comes along
C
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Agree, best at this point would be Raspbian Bullseye, which is available as a 64-bit distribution that will maximize the performance of the host. If you choose to run Reactor under docker rather than bare-metal install, there are now 64-bit (
aarch64
) images available of Reactor.IIRC, you have to bring the system up on a MicroSD card as usual, and then you can use
raspi-config
to reconfigure it to boot from the SSD. That basically means you will need to install the OS twice, in advance before your first boot... once on the MicroSD, and once on the SSD. Once it's booting from the SSD, you can (and should) remove the MicroSD card. There are several different instructions for this available by search; some will give you steps to simply copy the OS from the MicroSD to the SSD, which is fine, too.Also, I believe that starting with Bullseye builds in March 2022, the default
pi
user is no longer included in the distribution — a user had to be created during the first boot. That means you will have to have a monitor (HDMI) and keyboard (USB) connected (and mouse if using the GUI). Also note that most instructions for Pi things tend to assume that thepi
user exists and is the first user on the system, so you may want to go with that when asked. -
With the new Raspberry Pi Imager you can configure the boot sequence and user when you download (format) the card or SSD.
Click on the settings Icon (lower righthand side) that will give you access to setting User Names, SSH and more..
Make sure you use the Rasp Pi downloader for this and its a breeze.I suggest you just throw caution to the wind and buy a SSD, they aren't that much more expensive than a SD Card.
The Pi4 makes it all worth while -
@black-cat TOTALLY agree on the SSD. I found a three-pack on AMZ for a very reasonable cost and haven't looked back. Everything runs much smoother/faster than on the SD card (for obvious reasons) and the knowledge that I'm not facing a SD card failure is reassuring.
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Thanks for all the suggestions and support. I have a 16 GB SSD coming (based on advice given). I was hoping to install the OS directly as I don't have a SD Card. Still, it's a small problem if that all that is stopping me. I was thinking of using (installing?) a Docker so that I can install other applications too, but would this be too much to bite off for a beginner?
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@talisker said in Cheapest platform on which to run MSR:
I was thinking of using (installing?) a Docker so that I can install other applications too, but would this be too much to bite off for a beginner?
I recommend it. It takes away a lot of details. Install docker and docker-compose on the RPi like this:
sudo apt-get install docker docker-compose
I recommend using docker-compose to manage the container from the command line. The installation instructions (for Reactor on docker) give you a template docker-compose configuration file you can just copy-paste. It makes starting the Reactor container much less verbose, and it basically manages itself once started (including restarting at boot). Upgrades are this easy:
docker-compose down # stop Reactor docker-compose pull # pull updated Reactor image docker-compose up -d # restart Reactor on new image
I guess you could also install Portainer for a GUI to manage docker, but I think that's more complicated. Put the three lines above in a script file and run it whenever you need to.
I would also recommend installing Geany if you plan on using the desktop GUI. It's a very easy programmer's text editor that does syntax highlighting, so it will help you make correct changes to Reactor's YAML configuration files, shell scripts, etc.
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I want to add that I've been using a (Raspberry Pi) Compute Module 4 with 8GB EMMC on board (and no Wi-Fi), mounted on the RPi CM4 I/O Board, and it's a great combination and alternative. I mentioned that earlier in this thread when I first got it, and now it's been about six weeks and I've got some experience with it. The overall cost was comparable to the RPi 4B+ maker/consumer board with an added SSD and USB3.1 interface (around $45 for the CM4 and $40 for the I/O board, so US$85). The CM4's are more available right now (still hard to get, but much easier than the maker board) because RPi is giving manufacturing priority to CM4 to support industry. The I/O boards are easy to get and always have been. The I/O board offers two on-board HDMI interfaces, a PCIe (x1) ssocket (for many things, like another way to get storage), a gigabit Ethernet port, two USB 2.0 connectors (hmmmph, rather see 3.x), microSD socket (for non-EMMC models), two camera connectors, two display connectors, 28 x GPIO, and a battery-backed real time clock. You can power it with a 12VDC power supply (2.1mm positive tip barrel connector), so it's easy to get the power in that the board really needs, and on a connector I regard as more stable and durable for that purpose than USB micro. It also offers a Berg-style power connector for use with, for example, a small (MeanWell) switching PSU. It has a USB micro connector for connecting to a PC, where the system then looks like a Flash drive so you can do updates or make filesystem changes on a cold system.
Below are a couple of photos of my rig in a case I designed in Fusion 360 and 3D printed.
It's a bit (1-2cm) smaller than a Vera Plus in every dimension; for non-Vera readers, that's about the size of many 4-port Ethernet switches and small routers. It's fanless, and so far, I haven't seen the need for anything other than passive/convective cooling. But I will be adding heat sinks to the CM4, just for more headroom. The I/O board has a standard four-pin fan connector that works from the 12VDC supply.
What I especially like is that the eMMC storage is bus-connected to the CPU on the same card, so it's much faster than either MicroSD or SSD-over-USB. I haven't tested PCIe storage yet. The CM4 configuration is also much less fragile. I find the USB interface cable necessary for the SSD on the maker board setup to be unwieldy to cable manage, and I've learned not to move it at all when running or I'll cause disk faults and a kernel crash (i.e. it looks and acts like cobbled together bits, where the CM4+I/O looks purpose-built). The real time clock is also great to have; many of you may remember from Those Other Forums that I am firmly of the opinion that no serious IoT platform can be built without one (so that the time is very close to correct when the system cold boots after a power loss and network time is not yet available, and thus time-bsed automations don't go crazy due to a reset/default clock).
I highly recommend this approach to anyone. For CM4 configuration, I think the 2GB RAM/8GB eMMC (MSRP US$40 without Wi-Fi, US$45 with) is good for just a basic Reactor host, but the filesystem may end up a little tight if you also want to run Hass, InfluxDB, etc. (the OS itself takes almost half of my 8GB with the desktop GUI installed). I would go up to 16GB or 32GB eMMC for those, and 4GB RAM. The maximum manufactured configuration is 8GB RAM and 32GB eMMC, with an MSRP of US$90/95 without/with Wi-Fi. Run it on the 64-bit version of Raspbian Bullseye. Unless you have some reason to want Wi-Fi, I'd save the US$5 — running your IoT automations on Wi-Fi as primary network interface is not a good idea (IMO); the I/O board's gigabit Ethernet port is The Way. Full specs for the CM4 are here, and for the I/O board here.
Just so I've said it, I don't think the maker board configuration is bad at all, it's just in a close second place for me right now (because of the form factor issues and the real time clock). Six weeks ago I didn't have enough experience with the CM4 to declare it my favorite, but as of right now, that's where it is. But I would in no way shy away from the maker board or recommend against it. I've seen some tidy rigs put together with easily-printed cases for the maker board with an SSD, and some clever right-angle USB connectors to ease the USB cabling issue. But if you're comparing cost and convenience of the two configurations, I now think the CM4+I/O configuration edges out the maker board. The best configuration for you is the one you find most agreeable, always.
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@toggledbits said in Cheapest platform on which to run MSR:
I guess you could also install Portainer for a GUI to manage docker, but I think that's more complicated
@toggledbits, more complicated is an understatement.
I'd like to hear from anyone who has done this and not experienced difficulties, I've been able to run either (Reactor or Portainer) but not both in Portainer Container. Over to the experts..... -
@toggledbits said in Cheapest platform on which to run MSR:
I want to add that I've been using a (Raspberry Pi) Compute Module 4 with 8GB EMMC on board
Way to go, unfortunately for me, the CM4 I/O board is the only part available. The Compute Module 4 is OOS (all versions), sigh.....
BTW, I love the case.....makes it all look very professional. -
@black-cat said in Cheapest platform on which to run MSR:
The Compute Module 4 is OOS
It's terrible right now, for sure. Just a reminder, rpilocator.com may be helpful. I'm asking him if he can add AU/NZ vendors, but I see PiAustralia has starter kits available (not just board, but a kit with a board). Pricey, but if you must have, maybe worth the premium.
For anyone it helps, it appears Semaf in Austria has stock of RPI 4B 2GB at the moment, and has since last night.
Update: Core Electronics (AU) also has the starter kit and the desktop kit in stock, and both come with a Pi 4 board.
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If anyone is interested, I've published my model for the Compute Module 4 case on printables.com.
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@black-cat I run Reactor and Portainer on a Pi4 without any issues.
The Pi is running Node-Red (bare metal), and in Docker: Teslamate (includes Teslamate, Grafana, Traefik, PostgreSQL, MQTT), Reactor (includes InfluxDB for Reactor, Chronograf, Telegraf), Gotify (a self-hosted notification platform), and a Tesla Powerwall integration (includes 2nd instances of Telegraf and InfluxDB, Grafana, and pypowerwall). Fifteen containers when you add Portainer itself. The Portainer GUI makes this all much easier to manage.