I actually love that it's headless. That you can choose cm4 lite to have dedicated nvme storage. I just have more trust in it than flash storage or emcc. Especially if I'm expecting it to run my home's automations.
It's a shame they choose to not populate the u.fl connector for the external zigbee antenna in the final version. I can't immagine it would've costed more than a couple of cents to keep it. At least they kept the pads so it's easy to add one. The small antenna on the module, oriented flat to the ground like the device and without a PCB cutout around it can't do miracles.
Hi, congrats for your new apartment and good luck with these new series of videos, always following you with a close attention to your contents... I have a question... how good it is the integrated zigbee antenna in home assistant yellow? Does it worth it? Or better continuing with sonoff zigbee and zigbee2mqtt? Thanks
@@MarkWattTech thanks for your answer. Actually I'm currently renting apartment, and I've setup homeassistant installed on rasp pi4, sonoff and zigbe2mqtt, without really investing more on network range, mesh or whatever.... Now in the new apartment we bought I wanted to restart fresh, so I was considering an all-in-one solution like homeassistant yellow, and using ZHA this time... do you think it makes sense for a fresh restart? How would you do if you would restart freshly in a new apartment? Thanks, cheers
Great video, just one thing though about the Yellow .. I didn't see any connections to allow for an external antenna for Zigbee to be attached. Currently my Pi is on a shelf in my TV stand with my Combee II stick connected via a USB extension cable for maximum reception. Not sure what one would do in this case though.
The chip they have used is supposed to be proficient enough to not have any trouble with the casing. It also needs no extension as there's no USB interference. Using Silicon labs latest and greatest combined with a good mesh you should have no issues :D
There is a small modification to the board that would allow an external antenna, but as mentioned, the Si Labs one is pretty decent on the internal antenna and the case is all plastic. If you place a powered device that acts as a Zigbee Router end point in range of your HA Yellow then that will allow you to extend the mesh out if you find range is an issue. With Zigbee being a Mesh network, usually range isn't much of an issue unless your HA Yellow is a long way from your very first Zigbee device.
Hi there, can you make a video on how to setup Seven Segments OCR with Home assistant? There is very little guide on this and absolutely no videos till now.
Good video, would have been nice to say what CM4 upgrade your getting, I'm guessing Bluetooth. It seems a shame that your already having to upgrade that module for a product that's just been released. Also I was under the impression that the HA team are recommending a 3rd party Zwave(🤔) module for the gpio pin header.
There’s absolutely no need to upgrade your CM4 unless you have personally outgrown yours. Sorry I did forget to mention that, I’m going for one with Bluetooth and more RAM but that’s just personal choice. I would like to move my current instance over but only want to do it the once (which is why I’m waiting for the cm4). HA also have shared a Z-wave module that can attach to the Gpio and fit in the case and it’s also mentioned on that crowdfunding page.
What I really miss: What are the biggest benefits ? I have been running HA over a year on a pi 4 with 2GB and the only thing I miss on the Pi4 is a real ssd option. I have not been updating the system for close to a year and still unsure if it needs an update or not. Most likely I will start HA deep dives again once the Solar power roof is built and the battery too but right now it simply runs and I find the basic yellow kit without the CM4 for 120 $ or so quite expensive considering I get less USB ports and maybe only zigbee on top but the new thread or however it is called is still missing. I do not see the benefits over a Pi 4 only drawbacks considering the audio situation (except zigbee onboard). sorry, I just watch your videos when they show something really new to me that might fit but not all the usual updates and so on.
If you haven’t updated HA for over a year then you are missing out on a lot! Like a lot! So many quality of life improvements, lots of new features and so many optimisations. The Yellow won’t be for everyone but it will be amazing for new beginners and first time HA users just wanting an out of the box solution. Not sure what you mean about Thread, but the chip on the Yellow will support Matter and Thread.
There is absolutely no reason to (unless you have outgrown your CM4). For my personal setup I want to have more RAM. This is just down to my use case though. Its also impossible to get a CM4 at the minute :P For the majority of HA users the standard is more than enough and it's super quick.
This uses a Pi4 Compute Module. This specific one is the 2GB, 16GB EMMC version. If your running Frigate I would highly recommend opting for more RAM and an AI accelerator (The Yellow has a slot that can be used) :)
Appreciate it thank you! You don’t have a watt meter laying somewhere on your desk? It would be interesting to know how much power this little computer takes.
Just as a note, the Coral, which is hard to get anyway, doesn't always play nice with the Yellow and you must use the USB version. I would recommend running Frigate on a stand alone system if you have more than a 3 or 4 cameras. The CM4 is only the same processor as a Raspberry Pi 4. You definitely will want external storage and at least 4GB RAM if running Frigate on the CM4
Just a caveat when using an M.2 SSD. Not all M.2's work with the Raspberry Pi CM4. This is not a fault of the Yellow, but a limitation of the CM4. There is some information on the HA website about it. Also, if using an SSD, just choose a cheap one. The CM4 only supports PCIe Gen 2. As far as I recall it is only single lane also. Regarding the GPIO's exposed, Home Assistant have recommended these can be used for I2C or for a ZWave module. Never seen they don't recommend using them.
That is good. Yet I think ha should focus more on software. Ha users mainly manage the hardware part somehow by themself. If by that outofbbox device less tech competent users are targeted we know that providing a computer with ha built in is not the solution. People still would need to tinker around while using ha. As I said it is good and I hope this is just a side project for ha team.
My computer module four in my Home Assistant J.Lo has stopped working. How do you take the computer model for off the home assistant yellow as I’m registered blind. I can’t quite see how it comes off. You help me with this
My Question to you! Do you Peel your Peels? 🤔
depends- if it is a oversized one it gets peeled otherwise I leave them on.
Every time
Ordered mine last week inspired by your unboxing, should ship January 2023 😭🤣
Same 😅😂
I actually love that it's headless. That you can choose cm4 lite to have dedicated nvme storage. I just have more trust in it than flash storage or emcc. Especially if I'm expecting it to run my home's automations.
It's a shame they choose to not populate the u.fl connector for the external zigbee antenna in the final version. I can't immagine it would've costed more than a couple of cents to keep it.
At least they kept the pads so it's easy to add one. The small antenna on the module, oriented flat to the ground like the device and without a PCB cutout around it can't do miracles.
Still waiting for mine.. 8 months and counting..
Hi, congrats for your new apartment and good luck with these new series of videos, always following you with a close attention to your contents...
I have a question... how good it is the integrated zigbee antenna in home assistant yellow? Does it worth it? Or better continuing with sonoff zigbee and zigbee2mqtt? Thanks
Hey :)
The yellow has an onboard zigbee chip which works great. It’s still a little experimental with zigbee2mqtt but it works well.
@@MarkWattTech thanks for your answer.
Actually I'm currently renting apartment, and I've setup homeassistant installed on rasp pi4, sonoff and zigbe2mqtt, without really investing more on network range, mesh or whatever....
Now in the new apartment we bought I wanted to restart fresh, so I was considering an all-in-one solution like homeassistant yellow, and using ZHA this time... do you think it makes sense for a fresh restart? How would you do if you would restart freshly in a new apartment? Thanks, cheers
Great video, just one thing though about the Yellow .. I didn't see any connections to allow for an external antenna for Zigbee to be attached. Currently my Pi is on a shelf in my TV stand with my Combee II stick connected via a USB extension cable for maximum reception. Not sure what one would do in this case though.
The chip they have used is supposed to be proficient enough to not have any trouble with the casing. It also needs no extension as there's no USB interference. Using Silicon labs latest and greatest combined with a good mesh you should have no issues :D
@@MarkWattTech that is awesome! Thanks Mark.
There is a small modification to the board that would allow an external antenna, but as mentioned, the Si Labs one is pretty decent on the internal antenna and the case is all plastic. If you place a powered device that acts as a Zigbee Router end point in range of your HA Yellow then that will allow you to extend the mesh out if you find range is an issue. With Zigbee being a Mesh network, usually range isn't much of an issue unless your HA Yellow is a long way from your very first Zigbee device.
Hi there, can you make a video on how to setup Seven Segments OCR with Home assistant? There is very little guide on this and absolutely no videos till now.
Where can I buy a Yellow in the Uk please.
Any idea how to setup a NIC to be VLAN tagged on this thing? I've only ever run HA on Linux
This is on Linux
Good video, would have been nice to say what CM4 upgrade your getting, I'm guessing Bluetooth. It seems a shame that your already having to upgrade that module for a product that's just been released. Also I was under the impression that the HA team are recommending a 3rd party Zwave(🤔) module for the gpio pin header.
There’s absolutely no need to upgrade your CM4 unless you have personally outgrown yours. Sorry I did forget to mention that, I’m going for one with Bluetooth and more RAM but that’s just personal choice.
I would like to move my current instance over but only want to do it the once (which is why I’m waiting for the cm4).
HA also have shared a Z-wave module that can attach to the Gpio and fit in the case and it’s also mentioned on that crowdfunding page.
Is this home assistant yellow better, or a home assistant running on Intel NUC better?
The NUC is much more powerful. The Yellow uses a RPI CM4.
But ultimately it comes down to your setup and what you use :)
What I really miss: What are the biggest benefits ?
I have been running HA over a year on a pi 4 with 2GB and the only thing I miss on the Pi4 is a real ssd option.
I have not been updating the system for close to a year and still unsure if it needs an update or not.
Most likely I will start HA deep dives again once the Solar power roof is built and the battery too but right now it simply runs and I find the basic yellow kit without the CM4 for 120 $ or so quite expensive considering I get less USB ports and maybe only zigbee on top but the new thread or however it is called is still missing.
I do not see the benefits over a Pi 4 only drawbacks considering the audio situation (except zigbee onboard).
sorry, I just watch your videos when they show something really new to me that might fit but not all the usual updates and so on.
If you haven’t updated HA for over a year then you are missing out on a lot! Like a lot!
So many quality of life improvements, lots of new features and so many optimisations.
The Yellow won’t be for everyone but it will be amazing for new beginners and first time HA users just wanting an out of the box solution.
Not sure what you mean about Thread, but the chip on the Yellow will support Matter and Thread.
Just curious why are updating the board, I assume you are since you said you were waiting on one. Thanks
There is absolutely no reason to (unless you have outgrown your CM4). For my personal setup I want to have more RAM. This is just down to my use case though. Its also impossible to get a CM4 at the minute :P
For the majority of HA users the standard is more than enough and it's super quick.
Great video! Well done!
Glad you liked it! :)
Thanks! What kind of cpu is build in? Is it fast enough for frigate?
This uses a Pi4 Compute Module. This specific one is the 2GB, 16GB EMMC version. If your running Frigate I would highly recommend opting for more RAM and an AI accelerator (The Yellow has a slot that can be used) :)
Appreciate it thank you! You don’t have a watt meter laying somewhere on your desk? It would be interesting to know how much power this little computer takes.
Just as a note, the Coral, which is hard to get anyway, doesn't always play nice with the Yellow and you must use the USB version. I would recommend running Frigate on a stand alone system if you have more than a 3 or 4 cameras. The CM4 is only the same processor as a Raspberry Pi 4. You definitely will want external storage and at least 4GB RAM if running Frigate on the CM4
Just a caveat when using an M.2 SSD. Not all M.2's work with the Raspberry Pi CM4. This is not a fault of the Yellow, but a limitation of the CM4. There is some information on the HA website about it. Also, if using an SSD, just choose a cheap one. The CM4 only supports PCIe Gen 2. As far as I recall it is only single lane also. Regarding the GPIO's exposed, Home Assistant have recommended these can be used for I2C or for a ZWave module. Never seen they don't recommend using them.
That is good. Yet I think ha should focus more on software. Ha users mainly manage the hardware part somehow by themself. If by that outofbbox device less tech competent users are targeted we know that providing a computer with ha built in is not the solution. People still would need to tinker around while using ha. As I said it is good and I hope this is just a side project for ha team.
I liked not having to worry about hardware and being able to purchase the home assistant blue. Greatly prefer the blue over my old vm for sure.
Peel the peels
My computer module four in my Home Assistant J.Lo has stopped working. How do you take the computer model for off the home assistant yellow as I’m registered blind. I can’t quite see how it comes off. You help me with this