Pine A64?

We saw you @Kai !
How does it compete with Raspi ? Did you really get the chance to play with it ?

Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pine64/pine-a64-first-15-64-bit-single-board-super-comput

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I am also interested, especially in the IoT version with zwave.

@Kai I assume that given your involvement this will work for openhab out of the box? Zwave, wifi, bluetooth, etc all working straight up?

Cheers :smile:

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I ordered the IOT version with OpenHab pre-installed and zwave/Bluetooth on board. Happy with my pi2 running things so far, but figured it was a good way to step into zwave and I also like the idea of a preconfigured setup. To me that is the big win for openhab, and will help drive adoption to less technical people. Buying a new toy for me is my way of helping OpenHab. :slight_smile:

That would be the ultimate goal, yes. I hope to have an openHAB 2 version ready by April, which comes with ZWave+BLE support and which would be enabled on the PINE64 by default. Let’s hope I will find enough time to work on it - I will probably also heavily rely on @chris work regarding ZWave and BLE bindings.

Note that I am not in any way involved financially or contractually with PINE64 Inc. - my involvement is merely helping out on getting openHAB to run on it and have a build set up for according SD card images. I merely saw that possibility as a huge chance to make openHAB more visible and to provide an easier start for new users with this hardware+software package. So this isn’t “my” thing, but I need the help of the whole openHAB community to make this a success!

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You the man @Kai!

No pressure there then :smile:

Looks interesting though - worth a stab, and should be a good starter platform for OH :smile:

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I came here to ask about the Pine – I saw @Kai’s involvement, but have serious reservations after doing some research.

It looks like they don’t actually have Linux support yet, they managed to get an old (v3.10) version of the kernel running, but are asking for help from the community without compensation - http://forum.armbian.com/index.php/topic/491-need-help-on-pine-a64-15-64bit-quad-core-12ghz-single-board-computer/ . In the thread, they mention they can kinda get the old kernel to run, but it appears that they aren’t going to release the BSP source to actually get the board working and open sourced.

They mention here – https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pine64/pine-a64-first-15-64-bit-single-board-super-comput/comments?cursor=12019454#comment-12019453 – that it’s still in the “porting process”.

The combination of no open source BSP, the reference to only supporting “Ubuntu Snappy” (which isn’t a distribution, but appears to be more a package system for their cloud core offering? I don’t know), only old kernel versions, and not having a plan to get Linux support by the ship date in 2 months has me very worried.

I hope I’m wrong about this, but what do you guys think?

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@phaerus I am not sure if this is the right forum for that. My involvement is only on the software stack starting from the JVM and higher.

I know that the Pine guys are planning to have different Linux distros running on the board - definitely not only Ubuntu Snappy, but a standard Ubuntu as well (which is afaik the top priority).
Asking others for help on open source efforts without compensation is something that appears pretty normal to me; nobody yet came up with a question in this forum offering to pay for the answer…

In general I have trust in the Pine guys to get it all working on time. A few of them were also involved in the Open Hour, where they also succeeded in providing multiple OSes for the same hardware.

If you are not as confident, just don’t back such Kickstarter campaigns - simply wait 3 more months and see if it is delivered as promised and you can then take a decision.

Fair enough. I suppose I was more worried about the OH community buying a bunch of boards and then having the support not be there.

I’ll wait a few months and see where it goes :slight_smile:

I just pledged for IOT version. I am playing with OpenHAB 1 and slowly porting things from veralite, smart things and wink (all of which were my experiments). Nothing like the sheer power of OpenHAB (once you get your bearings). OpenHAB 2 built in and ready to work sounds great for a newbie like me !!

Will it support Z-Wave plus?

I believe so. I have one at home with the zwave board so will see if I can read the chip type when I get home tomorrow. (I’ve not fired it up yet so can’t tell directly from the API).

It’s hard to tell from the chip (it’s tiny!). I’ve sent the designer of the zwave addon a mail to confirm…

Hi Chris, was/is this a dev unit you’ve got your hands on?

Yes - it’s an early release version for developers - well, it might be the final version, I’m not sure, but it’s an early production version at least…

Nice - I’ve got one of the first batch coming, I was hoping I hadn’t missed an email to claim :laughing:

I am an early backer and expect to get my e-mail to add-on any day now. My plan is to move OpenHAB to the Pine64 from a RPi 2. I currently have an Aeon stick and am considering getting the Z-wave module for the Pine64. I’ve been looking to update my Z-wave controller and the Gen 5 Aeon stick was top of my list. Now I’m considering the Pine module just to keep it more condensed.

Am I expecting too much to get this running shortly after receiving it? Is their Z-wave a “mistake” over the tried and true Aeon stick? I’m not looking forward to removing and adding all 30+ z-wave devices either way but I definitely don’t want to do it twice.

I am a backer of a IOT version for Pine A64. I have already in place home automation solution based on zwave. I decided to go to OpenHab because I would like also to extend by using Bluetooth BLE and to create a bridge with my current network.I don’t know yet if I will fully migrate my current zwave solution or if I can use the Pine64 as a secondary controller and an ad-hoc device which I can control from my primary device.
I have several questions for the use of OpenHab in my current configuration:

  • Is it difficult to turn the Pine64 as a secondary controller, to create virtual device able to control a Bluetooth BLE device using zwave commands?
  • It seems possible to buy also add-ons through backerkit. Which one are you recommending for home automation?
  • Can I wire the PINE64 to wall switches to control my home automation using physical switches?
  • Can I use the PINE64 as media center and control it with openhab? Which media center is possible to use? Can I control Kodi or Plex with openhab?

saw your tweet…
how is performance and stability? which os do you use?

cheers

Just did very initial tests on an early dev board. Used Ubuntu, which just became available: http://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=376
Performance seems to be pretty good.