Best hardware platform

root@orangepiplus2e:~# uname -a
Linux orangepiplus2e 4.19.38-sunxi #5.85 SMP Wed May 8 14:20:48 CEST 2019 armv7l GNU/Linux

Is it known problem ?

Also this can be confused with another phenomena: OrangePI is veeeery fastidious about power supply. Despite the core is running at 3.3V input power drop below approx. 4.8V sends the board to reboot. If your connections are flaky (for instance you decided to power the board via GPIO connector and use jumper wires with discrete 1-pin connectors like these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GD2BWPY), this can happen sporadically. Furthermore, during bootup consumption increases, sending the board to endless loop of reboots.
But i solved this by feeding the power via jack, using thicker wires, and using screw terminals for power distribution. Now power voltage measures at steady +5.3V on board’s test pads near the GPIO connector. The board crashes much less often but still does.

No.

But if powering is not good, this is more then expected. Good PSU is the 1st thing you have to fix in case of troubles. That’s common for all boards. Some hangs, some crashes, some clocks down, some silently clocks down … I hope you power the board via proper power connector now?

This particular board - Orange plus 2E - is the best H3 board you can find on the market. It must run stable.

Moving to most recent kernel 5.4.y is highly recommended. I am running few boards, also Openhab on H5 based board and didn’t have not a single crash in months.

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Yes, as i have told just above.
To tell the truth i like eMMC, and i feel sorry about replacing the Orange. It quite fits the purpose.

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I was playing with Dell Edge Gateway 3000 (it is much more expensive than RPi) and some of Aaeon Boxer devices. Both come with eMMc and RS232/485 options.

If you haven’t made your mind and have budget for experiments try above.

Me too :slight_smile:

Are you possibly running openhabian or did you use the “regular” installation process?

There are also lower performing NUCs, which are not overpowered like the i7 verion (if you run a dedicated OH server only)
Intel NUC BOXNUC7CJYH2 Celeron J4005

I am using a Latte Panda with windows 10…no more Linux, no more apt-get update, no more apt-get upgrade no more dependencies problems, no more permission problems, no more sd card problems, no more complicated installs and you have visual studio, remote desktop, etc, etc. and you never have to restart this machine, The widows updates are automatically done. I have installed it with a cooling fan witch prevent high cpu temperature and keep the speed up to spec. I am using this setup for 8 months now and never ever i would get back to any Linux machine. I would recommend this setup.

If you are primarily concerned about performance, it is hard to beat Intel NUC. They are even quite power efficient. A bit pricey though, for what they are (last time I checked).

However, of much greater concern are the firmware level backdoors (IME). Personally, I will not be buying any more Intel hardware whatsoever until they end this despicable practice (and I’m not holding my breath). In case you were wondering, AMD is not any better.

Which is why all these other ARM based Single Board Computers are so interesting to me. Many of them (other than RPi) have little to no binary blobs, much less crap like IME built into them. They are also quite inexpensive, and because they are essentially based on smartphone chips, very power efficent! For me, a winning combination.

If you don’t have the same concerns (and many people don’t, unfortunately in my view) then buy whatever you like. :slight_smile:

You say that as if it is a good thing. :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

I changed from Windows to GNU/Linux a few years ago, it’s amazing to me how all the devices on our home network suddenly “just work” together, when everything is designed from the ground up with Freedom and open protocols in mind… :thinking: Really makes you think…

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This is one simple line to fully update the whole system:

sudo apt update && sudo apt -y full-upgrade

Uuh, really? That comes with a high cost (and it’s not true either)

That is no linux issue :wink: and by using ZRAM you can prevent problems (you can even use a SSD)

As if windows installs are less complex…

I also have Visual Studio (Code) and

I don’t need a desktop on my headless server

nearly every update for windows needs a complete reboot, so that’s not true at all!

Well, you can’t prevent the updates (and I can setup GNU/Linux to automatically update and upgrade, but I want to have control)

which is also easy for Pi computers

Please, don’t recommend a setup only because you are familiar with it. To install openHAB on Windows, there is no setup routine, you have to install Java, unpack openHAB manually, setup the correct Java path manually… You have to ensure that no one can do funny things with openHAB…

The whole point is: If you are familiar with Windows, you can use openHAB with a windows machine. It will consume much more energy as an embedded system, but you will have a desktop (even if you don’t need it). My openHAB installation is restarted only if I do a configuration (and that would also be true it I would use a windows machine) But other than windows, I don’t need to reboot my computer because of updates, only when the kernel is updated)

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I did not know that and did consequently not care about it :wink:
Possibly I should and I will.
At least to see, if it soncerns me.
Thanks for bringing this up.
So I will delete my NUC, RAM and SSD from Amazon Shopping card for now. :slight_smile:

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I kind of agree with both of your positions:
Windows seems to be user friendlier. So I get your point @zonegrise
But keep in mind that you (most likely) spend already years with windows (willingly or not).
So, if you (willing to) spend as much time for Linux as you did for Windows, @Udo_Hartmann is right with all his arguments.

Bottom line it’s a question of perspective.

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For OH, any small computer that is supported by Armbian (community knows hardware and squeezes best performace out of the hw. User don’t need to do anything) that has 1GB memory is fine and quickly much better (also cheaper) than Rpi. Best is to get something with eMMC, without HDMI (since you don’t need it and only adds cost/consumption) and that is not exactly the latest and greatest. All bleeding edge hardware have SW issues so in case you want things that works, get previous generation … which is more then enough (overkill) what you need to run OH.

Installation? Very simple

Recommended budget for SBC HW is 25-50 USD, OH works also with cheapests, but its best to avoid. Also stay away from mUSB powered devices (or power them via GPIO)

In most cases there is no binary blobs (Rpi), no failed powering (Rpi), no overheating (Rpi4), eMMC (Rpi dreams about), …

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Very good on you for realizing this point! :+1:

As most people, I spent my whole life with Windows (until a few years ago). GNU/Linux was a little different at first of course. But to me, actually seemed to make a lot more sense the way everything is laid out. The file system heirarchy, common commands (and directory names) are very short at command line, almost all configs in text files, pipes, “everything is a file” (including devices), the “Unix Philosophy” (lots of little programs, each doing one thing well, which you can combine together in your own way to do whatever you want). And on and on.

Here is a great old video (from AT&T Archives) about “Unix Philosophy”:

Now, all of the above are Nice Things™, but they are not even the most important differences between Windows and GNU/Linux. Any comparison between the two on a strictly features or usability standpoint is entirely missing what is by far the biggest difference!

Of course I am talking about your Freedom! On this point we are now talking about apples and oranges between the two! GNU/Linux was explicitly designed from the beginning with your freedom in mind! It is all about what is good for you and what you want to do with your system, instead of what { Microsoft, Google, Sony, NSA, RPi foundation, […] } want to do with it, and then only letting you do what they let you.

This is by far the biggest difference, and one that is not mentioned often enough IMO. And I did not really “get” what all the excitement about GNU/Linux was all about, until I got my head around this very important distinction.

I highly encourage you if you are at all interested in this (IMO, very important) topic to please follow the “Freedom” link above where you will find a very short video which I have found to be one of the best short introductions to the concept of Free/Libre Software, for those completely unfamiliar.

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sorry, actually this is not my discussion, but I can’t stay calm on reading this

OK: seems !
It might be, as long, as one is playing consequently on user level.
But on system level, windows to me is nearly a disaster!
On Linux it’s just a line in a conf-file; on windows it’s 1 hour clicking if it’s possible at all.
And the worst thing to me is called Android; this as off topic.
Who ever tried to write code on system level knows, where I’m speaking about.

To name Windows user friendly, what many believe, is more a marketing idea of MS then the truth.
/Ulli

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Let’s all stop the operating systems religious wars on this thread. It’s been hashed out before. No one is going to change their mind. openHAB can run on almost any consumer operating system (even the BSDs) if that works for you.

I believe NCO’s and TRS-80’s point was that most of the time, people confuse familiarity with easier to use. If all you’ve used is Windows for a decade, Linux and Mac are going to be harder to use. If all you’ve used is Linux for a decade, Windows and Mac are going to be harder to use. If all you’ve used is Mac for a decade, Windows and Linux is going to be harder to use.

The easiest operating system to use is the operating system that you know. And OH will work with what what you know.

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I agree - so back to HW.

What I like (theoretically) about the Intel NUC is also the housing and space for an SSD inside. Beside the flexibility to upgrade RAM if needed.

On the other side I am quite happy with my RPi3B+ and an SSD I use in a element14 desktop Pi housing.
Unfortunately this housing causes the RPi to stay OFF after a power failure (there is a start button in the housing.

So I would prefer a SBC with a wide range of accessories (housings for ssd and such) - which possibly will result in the RPi4 - unless there is another widely used SBC in the ARMBIAN list, which is more powerful than the RPi3B+

I recently bought a used HP T620 Thin Client (4GB RAM, Quad Core) used on ebay for 55€. Together with a new M2 SSD (128GB) this cost me about 85€ which is about the same as a raspberry pi 4 kit.
With the ssd this can be a good alternative to the pi 4 with a marginally higher power consumption (~7Watt vs 3.5Watt).
The CPU should be much stronger, but I can’t seem to find the PI4 on any cpu compare sites.
It runs ubuntu server out of the box without any tweaks or problems.

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CPU in that Thin Client is somewhere in the range of Celeron J1900 - to have some base to compare. Rpi4 is a bit slower (which is not actually a problem for OpenHab) while SSD connection and proper powering makes Thin client a class better … if you don’t plan to make use of GPIO which is presumably absent on those devices.

Hi all,

Pretty cool that this threat is still active and people are still contributing.
Just to update my experience, I’m still running on the INTEL NUC, until this day I had no single crash or corruption.
I’ve reinstalled the machine completely, but that’s more because I’m always testing with additional software, programs etc…which sometimes end up in a mess :wink:
But, currently running Openhab 2.5.8 on Debian 10.5 without any issues.

The intel NUC has been a perfect buy. Fast, reliable and silent…

/Jasper

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