New HS3 System

[rmasonjr]

So, after running on the Zee for almost a year, I have moved my HS3 installation to a similar platform, just more powerful. I still have one device on HS2 that I'm hanging onto, but hope to have it done within the next week or so.

This setup is mounted to a 1U media tray with nylon standoffs. From the top down, the devices are:

--HummingBoard
--Raspberry Pi (old Zee)
--Raspberry Pi

(hi-res image)

The HummingBoard is running Debian Jessi with HS3 Pro. Currently, there are three plugins running on the HummingBoard - BLRF, Z-Wave, HSTouch. I have an Edgeport/8 that handles the serial stuff.

The old Zee is running WeatherXML, HAI and DD-WRT.

The spare Pi is not running anything right now, but will run any other plugins I need.

I chose the HummingBoard due to cost and performance. You can get a 1G RAM / 1GHz dual-core Arm for ~$90USD. The performance is outstanding. It boots up to HS in about 45secs and page loads are very quick.

I haven't measured the complete power draw for all, but I plan on hooking up a spare smart energy switch to see how much power it draws.

[Pete]

Very nice Rob!

Guessing the HummingBoard-i2eX is the top one eh?

How are you booting to the OS?

I had read about the CuBox-i. I like that HummingBoard-i2eX has built in RTC and a Gb NIC and that it runs XBMC nicely.

[Pervez2602]

Tidy

Bob,

What a very nice neat and tidy job. I have put my hands up and say I know nothing of the hardware, on a more positive note I have heard of jessi.
One day I do intend to build an asterisk server with debian wheezy but as Pete puts it "baby steps" and way down on the list of projects.

Peter

[rmasonjr]

@Pete - it's just the i2 I'm using. The one you listed above is the 'cadillac' model
I boot into Jessi with no desktop. It's a command-line headless server only.
I have HS3 auto-start. It's a fast piece of hardware without the desktop overhead.
I will probably load webmin just to monitor performance.

@Peter - yeah, these embedded devices are so much fun to play with. They are cheap and you can run so many flavors of linux or android. With HS3 fully supporting linux, these devices can handle it easily.

This rack is mounted in a wall-mounted cabinet. I still have to hook up the smart power meter to monitor the watts used. Will post back the final specs when finished.

[Pete]

Yup; here playing with a TP-Link microrouter powered by the HAI OPII panel sitting in the can and using no space.

Its not really fast at 400Mhz and very limited space for applications.

I have modded it and the router motherboard still fits in the tiny case. I can do metrics with it relating to network traffic while concurrently talking to the panel with it. I am using OpenWRT on it. OpenWRT uses LUA for stuff.

The microrouter has two NIC ports and one USB port on it. Well it also has wireless radios on the motherboard.

I can talk now to the OPII panel serially and via the network; its very limited functions. (also JTAG). But that is what I want right now with the microrouter. It's powered by a 12VDC to 5VDC PS from the panel itself. I have not bricked it yet.

Hostname ICS-TPLink-MR
Model TP-Link TL-WR710N v1
Firmware Version OpenWrt Chaos Calmer r42616 / LuCI Trunk (svn-r10532)
Kernel Version 3.10.49
Local Time Thu Oct 30 07:07:13 2014
Uptime 35d 21h 7m 25s

Thinking I can install a tiny RTC clock inside; its been documented to work. Well probably with an expansion board like this one:

http://www.kean.com.au/oshw/WR703N/

Ordered a little motherboard expander for my microrouter this morning from here:

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/tpl....html?cPath=14

[NeverDie]

@rmasonjr: since you're running a cu-box image on your hummingboard, is it fair to assume that HS3 Pro would also run on an actual cu-box? I notice they're on sale today. "Blazingly fast" sounds like fun. http://board.homeseer.com/showpost.p...&postcount=105

[rmasonjr]

Yep. Linux and hs3 will run just fine. The CPU is dual core and the memory is ddr3. Very fast.

Sent from my SCH-R970X using Tapatalk

[NeverDie]

So you load HS3 onto the Cubox-i2 image on your Humingboard just as you would any Linux system? I very nearly ordered Cubox-i2 based soley on your "balazingly fast" description, but I thought I should first at least try getting HS3 to run on a PcDuino3, which I already own. I prefer the form factor of the Cubox-i2 better, though. I honestly don't know how a PcDuino3's speed would compare to a Cubox-i2, but I wish there were a way to find out without having to buy both.

[rmasonjr]

Yep. Just loaded regular Linux hs3 pro on it. Do order it from newegg though. Solid-run takes weeks coming from Israel.

Sent from my SCH-R970X using Tapatalk

[NeverDie]

So, after running on the Zee for almost a year, I have moved my HS3 installation to a similar platform, just more powerful. I still have one device on HS2 that I'm hanging onto, but hope to have it done within the next week or so.

This setup is mounted to a 1U media tray with nylon standoffs. From the top down, the devices are:

--HummingBoard
--Raspberry Pi (old Zee)
--Raspberry Pi

(hi-res image)

The HummingBoard is running Debian Jessi with HS3 Pro. Currently, there are three plugins running on the HummingBoard - BLRF, Z-Wave, HSTouch. I have an Edgeport/8 that handles the serial stuff.

The old Zee is running WeatherXML, HAI and DD-WRT.

The spare Pi is not running anything right now, but will run any other plugins I need.

I chose the HummingBoard due to cost and performance. You can get a 1G RAM / 1GHz dual-core Arm for ~$90USD. The performance is outstanding. It boots up to HS in about 45secs and page loads are very quick.

I haven't measured the complete power draw for all, but I plan on hooking up a spare smart energy switch to see how much power it draws.

I guess the notion is that this approach, as compared to running all of it on a single platform that has more compute power, is:

1. more robust? The core is protected because dicey programs are put on separate platforms, so if they crash then the core is, in theory, unaffected. Now that you've been running for a while, have you found that proven to be true in actual practice?

2. power efficient: Each SBC draws little electrical power. If you need more compute power, you just add another SBC at a low incremental cost and a low incremental power drain. Did you ever measure the total for this setup, as you mentioned earlier you might? I'm guessing it's somewhere in the 5-10 watt range?

I like it.

Are you powering it through some kind of UPS to avoid SD card corruption on the Pi's?

[rmasonjr]

Yeah, I like the idea of separating done of the plugins from the main server.
I haven't hooked up my smart power meter just yet. Everything runs on a ups though.
I have a spare hummingboard and spare pis for disaster recovery. I image the SD cards every month or so and make nighty HS backups.

Sent from my SCH-R970X using Tapatalk

[NeverDie]

Inspired by your success, I just ordered the CuBox-i2eX (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815580008), so hopefully I can follow the blazingly fast trail you blazed. It's presently on a Black Friday sale for $70 plus $1 shipping. It doesn't have the fancy heatsink that the equivalent humingboard has, so something about that doesn't seem quite right. Maybe that's why it's on sale? How hot does your hummingboard heatsink get by the way?

As of yesterday I have a couple of Raspberry Pi B+'s running HS3Pro. Is there an especially good thread somewhere that discusses in detail how to run separate plug-ins on them while somehow integrating back over Ethernet with the CuBox/Hummingboard as the main HomeSeer? i.e. what you're doing in the OP here? I know I should do a search instead of ask (sorry about that), but I don't know what keywords to use to find it, as I don't know what to call that. What's the term or name that HomeSeer is using for that kind of configuration?

I figure I might have the z-wave plug-in running on the CuBox, and I might have RFXCOM running on one Pi, and possibly the arduino plug-in running on the other pi. That way, if either plug-in proves unstable, hopefully the CuBox won't be crashed as a result.

Is the image you found and are now using the Debian image that Solid-Run offers through it's Ignition, or is it the one that Igor (from the user community) provides? Or something else entirely?

[rmasonjr]

Inspired by your success, I just ordered the CuBox-i2eX (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815580008), so hopefully I can follow the blazingly fast trail you blazed. It's presently on a Black Friday sale for $70 plus $1 shipping. It doesn't have the fancy heatsink that the equivalent humingboard has, so something about that doesn't seem quite right. Maybe that's why it's on sale? How hot does your hummingboard heatsink get by the way?

The hummingboard came with a heatsink, but I dont think it has ever gotten hot to the touch.

As of yesterday I have a couple of Raspberry Pi B+'s running HS3Pro. Is there an especially good thread somewhere that discusses in detail how to run separate plug-ins on them while somehow integrating back over Ethernet with the CuBox/Hummingboard as the main HomeSeer? i.e. what you're doing in the OP here? I know I should do a search instead of ask (sorry about that), but I don't know what keywords to use to find it, as I don't know what to call that. What's the term or name that HomeSeer is using for that kind of configuration?

One of HS3's big features when it was released was the ability to run remote plugins. The idea was that you could offload plugins to different machines all talking back to one HS3 server. There has been no information from HST on how to do this - it's mostly trial and error. In a nutshell, you simply change the startup script so that "mono HSConsole.exe" would be come "mono HSPI_SOMEPLUGIN.exe"

I figure I might have the z-wave plug-in running on the CuBox, and I might have RFXCOM running on one Pi, and possibly the arduino plug-in running on the other pi. That way, if either plug-in proves unstable, hopefully the CuBox won't be crashed as a result.

Is the image you found and are now using the Debian image that Solid-Run offers through it's Ignition, or is it the one that Igor (from the user community) provides? Or something else entirely?

For plugins that require a physical interface, like a Ztroller or WGL800, I run those plugins on the same machine as HS3. So, my hummingboard runs the Z-Wave plugin, and BLRF. I have weatherXML and HSTouch running there now, but will move those to a Pi since there is no physical interface required.

I used the image from Igor.

[NeverDie]

There has been no information from HST on how to do this

Thanks! That explains why I couldn't find the documentation. Can't RTFM if there's no M to FR.

[NeverDie]

Hi Rob,

I just received the i2ex. However, it doesn't seem to load mono. Is there some trick you found for getting your hummingboard to load mono, or did you simply encounter no differences?