I was actually anti HA Green at the start as I thought people should just bite the bullet and move straight to VM and skip entry level hardware such as the green or Pi. But after doing this for some time I now see the real benefit that such stable and simple hardware offers. I wonder when the next colour will come out ?? Let me know your thoughts.
I use the docker version at Home and HA OS at my parent place. In Docker, managing "Add-ons" is becoming painful because of the lack of integration. Worse, Music Assistant does not work in my Docker version and the docker version is not supported by MA developers. I made a good choice to use HA OS at my parent home.
More useful stuff here, thanks. I had dabbled with HA out of curiosity when I got my first smart plugs however I went with Home Bridge as a way to integrate them with Apple HomeKit - I was using Tapo devices. Unfortunately Tapo did an update that nuked the compatibility with Home Bridge. HA to the rescue along with HACS. I now have HA acting as a bridge for HomeKit for a simple interface to my devices for the family as well as having the greater power and flexibility of HA for me to play around with. HA is connected to a number of meteorology services, my TV and soundbar, temperature sensors, switches, power consumption sensors, solar panels etc. and I've created custom cards for control and monitoring. Basically HA has become a new hobby for me and your channel is one of my two main HA channels I follow. FWIW I run HA OS on a UTM virtual machine running on my Mac Mini M2 Pro using the ARM based version of HA. Power draw of the Mac Mini when sleeping but still serving smart home communication is about 20w or less.
Thanks, I am really interested in your final statement about running HA OS on UTM Virtual Machine on a MM M2 Pro. This needs more investigation, especially at 20W while sleeping, that's amazing.
@@smart_home_australia The 20w estimate is based on the power usage reported by a Tapo P110 smart plug that monitors the Mac with a powered Thunderbolt hub with 3 hard drives connected, a flatbed scanner, a powered USB 3 hub, a PC (powered off at night) with a powered USB hub with flight pedals and joystick connected, a widescreen monitor and 32” TV and 2+1 speaker system. Everything except the PC is left running, in sleep mode or standby overnight. The Thunderbolt hub remains warm so not saving a lot of power I think. All this sits between 31 and 35 watts overnight. And of course I have a HA panel graphing this.
Great video! I’ve set up 2 HA instances on VM’s using your video guide now, really helpful for someone with (very) limited technical knowledge like me. One thing I can’t seem to get around is that Windows PC’s like to restart by themselves every now and then. You can change the time slot in which they are allowed to do this in the settings but you seem to be unable to turn it off completely. Any way around this that I missed?
What a great question, that might be a video in its own right :) Simple answer, yes. But the answers vary from simple to complex. The simple ones: 1) Disable automatic restart on system failure: Open Settings > System > About > Advanced system settings. Under "Startup and Recovery," click "Settings" and uncheck "Automatically restart" under System failure. 2) Adjust Windows Update settings: Go to Settings > Windows Update > Advanced options The complex ones (and I had to google these): 3) Use Group Policy Editor (Windows 11 Pro): Open Group Policy Editor and navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update. Enable "No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations" 4) The next one is not recommended unless you are an advanced user. Modify Registry (advanced users): Open Registry Editor and go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU Create a DWORD value named "NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers" and set it to 1 5) Use third-party tools like Windows Update Blocker to have more control over updates and restarts. (link: urlday.cc/f9bru) Let us know how you go.
I run HAOS directly on a NUC. Unless I missed it, it seemed like you said people would need to use a VM for this hardware option. HAOS has a "generic x86" version for this situation.
I'm not aware of being able to run HAOS natively on a NUC that runs Windows. You'd need some platform that HAOS will run inside of, such a VM (of which there are three different subvariants) or run within ProxMox. If you can run natively, then can you link the installation instructions?
@@smart_home_australia no, you just remove windows or buy a NUC/mini PC without the OS and load HAOS directly onto it. I've done it on two NUCs now. First one was years ago, second was at least a year ago. The images are available on the HA website.
Oh I see what you are doing. Yes that's totally possible and very simple to do. The reason I don't recommend that approach is that it makes the machine 100% HA and these machines are very capable of doing a lot more. Thats alot of horsepower for what is ultimately a low CPU powered application, but if you want something that powerful then yes, why not :)
@@smart_home_australia It is a lot of horsepower, but the machine in my case is doing quite a bit. I run the Frigate add-on watching over 5 streams of HD footage to do notifications etc. This takes a lot of CPU power, even with a Google Coral TPU helping out. Originally I was running Supervised with the intent of using the hardware for other stuff directly on the underlying OS, but I never made use of it so switched to HAOS and just make use of add-ons to utilise the horsepower as much as possible.
Another great informative video. Can always learn something new. I currently have HA Green and it has been rock solid for an intro into HA.
I was actually anti HA Green at the start as I thought people should just bite the bullet and move straight to VM and skip entry level hardware such as the green or Pi. But after doing this for some time I now see the real benefit that such stable and simple hardware offers.
I wonder when the next colour will come out ?? Let me know your thoughts.
@@smart_home_australia - I wanted to jump into HA and get familiar with it before upgrading. Looking at something like a beelink mini pc in the future
@@Ausmerican Considering its review and recommendation on best products Australia (link: urlday.cc/43hz6) I think that would be an excellent choice.
I use the docker version at Home and HA OS at my parent place.
In Docker, managing "Add-ons" is becoming painful because of the lack of integration. Worse, Music Assistant does not work in my Docker version and the docker version is not supported by MA developers.
I made a good choice to use HA OS at my parent home.
Exactly, the things we learn on our HA journey.... well done on your choice of HA OS :)
More useful stuff here, thanks.
I had dabbled with HA out of curiosity when I got my first smart plugs however I went with Home Bridge as a way to integrate them with Apple HomeKit - I was using Tapo devices. Unfortunately Tapo did an update that nuked the compatibility with Home Bridge. HA to the rescue along with HACS. I now have HA acting as a bridge for HomeKit for a simple interface to my devices for the family as well as having the greater power and flexibility of HA for me to play around with. HA is connected to a number of meteorology services, my TV and soundbar, temperature sensors, switches, power consumption sensors, solar panels etc. and I've created custom cards for control and monitoring. Basically HA has become a new hobby for me and your channel is one of my two main HA channels I follow.
FWIW I run HA OS on a UTM virtual machine running on my Mac Mini M2 Pro using the ARM based version of HA. Power draw of the Mac Mini when sleeping but still serving smart home communication is about 20w or less.
Thanks, I am really interested in your final statement about running HA OS on UTM Virtual Machine on a MM M2 Pro. This needs more investigation, especially at 20W while sleeping, that's amazing.
@@smart_home_australia The 20w estimate is based on the power usage reported by a Tapo P110 smart plug that monitors the Mac with a powered Thunderbolt hub with 3 hard drives connected, a flatbed scanner, a powered USB 3 hub, a PC (powered off at night) with a powered USB hub with flight pedals and joystick connected, a widescreen monitor and 32” TV and 2+1 speaker system. Everything except the PC is left running, in sleep mode or standby overnight. The Thunderbolt hub remains warm so not saving a lot of power I think. All this sits between 31 and 35 watts overnight. And of course I have a HA panel graphing this.
OK well my SFF PC uses around 20-25W when idle and when working hard it will consume up to 65w. So you still have a very efficient system.
Great video! I’ve set up 2 HA instances on VM’s using your video guide now, really helpful for someone with (very) limited technical knowledge like me. One thing I can’t seem to get around is that Windows PC’s like to restart by themselves every now and then. You can change the time slot in which they are allowed to do this in the settings but you seem to be unable to turn it off completely. Any way around this that I missed?
What a great question, that might be a video in its own right :)
Simple answer, yes. But the answers vary from simple to complex.
The simple ones:
1) Disable automatic restart on system failure:
Open Settings > System > About > Advanced system settings. Under "Startup and Recovery," click "Settings" and uncheck "Automatically restart" under System failure.
2) Adjust Windows Update settings:
Go to Settings > Windows Update > Advanced options
The complex ones (and I had to google these):
3) Use Group Policy Editor (Windows 11 Pro):
Open Group Policy Editor and navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update. Enable "No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations"
4) The next one is not recommended unless you are an advanced user.
Modify Registry (advanced users):
Open Registry Editor and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU
Create a DWORD value named "NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers" and set it to 1
5) Use third-party tools like Windows Update Blocker to have more control over updates and restarts. (link: urlday.cc/f9bru)
Let us know how you go.
I run HAOS directly on a NUC. Unless I missed it, it seemed like you said people would need to use a VM for this hardware option. HAOS has a "generic x86" version for this situation.
I'm not aware of being able to run HAOS natively on a NUC that runs Windows. You'd need some platform that HAOS will run inside of, such a VM (of which there are three different subvariants) or run within ProxMox.
If you can run natively, then can you link the installation instructions?
@@smart_home_australia no, you just remove windows or buy a NUC/mini PC without the OS and load HAOS directly onto it. I've done it on two NUCs now. First one was years ago, second was at least a year ago. The images are available on the HA website.
@@smart_home_australia I'll grab a link shortly
Oh I see what you are doing. Yes that's totally possible and very simple to do. The reason I don't recommend that approach is that it makes the machine 100% HA and these machines are very capable of doing a lot more. Thats alot of horsepower for what is ultimately a low CPU powered application, but if you want something that powerful then yes, why not :)
@@smart_home_australia It is a lot of horsepower, but the machine in my case is doing quite a bit. I run the Frigate add-on watching over 5 streams of HD footage to do notifications etc. This takes a lot of CPU power, even with a Google Coral TPU helping out. Originally I was running Supervised with the intent of using the hardware for other stuff directly on the underlying OS, but I never made use of it so switched to HAOS and just make use of add-ons to utilise the horsepower as much as possible.