Homebridge, aqara, Raspberry PI

1

Hi all,

I have managed to add all of my aqara stuff to the hubitat hub and I was able to install a plugin in homebridge and connect them. Realised that I need a sort of server to run them so I can use them. How hard is it to setup a raspberry Pi and install homebridge on that? Spoiler alert: I am NOT a programmer. Can it work on an iPad, like you do with pushcut and other iOS stuff or you need a computer to make it work (raspberry pi, synology…etc) @RosemaryOrchard any ideas?

Cheers,
J

2

Pretty easy - they have a prebuilt image on the Homebridge site home pge.

No. Again, the Homebridge home page tells you the supported operating systems.

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3

Is it significantly more difficult to set up a Pi and then Homebridge?

(I know how easy it is to set up a Pi as I have 5 of them.) :slight_smile:

I’m just wondering whether it’s only a little more work that gains you more function / flexibility if you do it as a two-step. (I’m assuming, BTW, installing Homebridge on an existing Pi is easy - and I might just try it one day.)

4

The RPi installation instructions are linked from the same page, so you can easily compare.

But yes, it is much easier for someone with limited technical experience to install from image as then it takes care of the dependencies, install and base configuration; then providing a known and proven working baseline.

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5

Any suggestion on the rawpwberry pi? Seen so many versions in there.My main use for it would be for homebridge… At least for now:)

Thanks

6

On the homepage linked above, there is a link to install instructions which includes a link to versions of the RPi that the api will run on.

As a general principle, the newer the RPi…

  • The faster it will be.
  • You will have more capacity to run more software services on it on the future.
  • The more future proof it will be as over time backwards compatibility had a tendency to fall.

Specific specifications on memory, etc. affect this, but in general the above should be true.

7

They’re all cheap. If you are a USB-C user then the Pi 4 would be an obvious choice. If not then the 3 would be good.

Personally I go for the biggest memory available - but can’t really claim I need to. So, assuming Pi 4 in the following, probably the 4GB Pi is good enough for most things and the 8GB is overkill. (When the 8GB was introduced the 1GB was withdrawn. Probably the 2GB - as the new bottom configuration is OK but I wouldn’t choose it.)

8

Two important pi-related things that many users overlook:

  • The power adaptor and cable: the Pi is quite picky about its source of power. Make sure to have a good power supply and a USB cable which can supply the corresponding wattage. If unsure, I recommend buying the Pi in a kit which includes a suitable power supply. This is a sound investment as it will prevent many strange and unpredictable issues down the line, such as sudden reboots.
  • The SD card: a typical SD card is constructed to handle infrequent reads and writes of large files such as photos or movie files. When used in a Pi, the SD card has to handle frequent reads and writes of many small files, which wears the card down. This results in a corrupted SD card, which has to be replaced. To increase the survival time of the SD card, it’s worth spending some money on an SD card with wear-balancing or one which is built for surveillance cameras.
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