Home Assistant comes with its own hardware kit based on Odroid N2 +
The makers of the open source smart home platform Home Assistant are releasing a special edition of the Odroid N2 + singleboard computer together with manufacturer Hardkernel. This should lower the threshold to get started with the software.
The kit, called the Blue Bundle, costs $ 140 and includes the Odroid N2 + with 128GB eMMC memory and a case, and comes preinstalled with Home Assistant. According to Paulus Schoutsen, founder of Home Assistant, no profit is made on the kit, but it is intended to make it easier for users to get started with the software platform. Because the software is pre-installed, users only need to power the box and connect it to a local network. The software can then be configured via an app or the web interface.
The single-board computer is packed in an aluminum housing designed by Home Assistant with the logo of the software on it. The 3d model of the housing is free to download online so that users can manufacture it themselves. According to the makers, a self-printed plastic variant is also sufficiently capable of dissipating the heat produced by the Odroid N2 +.
Home Assistant is often used in combination with a Raspberry Pi. The Odroid N2 + from the kit is considerably more powerful than, for example, the Raspberry Pi 4: instead of a quadcore soc, the N2 + has a hexacore soc in big.Little setup and the Cortex A73 cores clocked at 2.4GHz are a lot faster than the Pi 4’s Cortex A72 cores, which run at 1.5GHz. In addition, the Odroid has 128GB eMMC flash memory where the Pi works with microSD cards, which should ensure significantly higher performance when performing random read and write operations. Unlike the Pi series, the Odroid board does not have built-in WiFi and bluetooth.
Blueprints
In addition to the hardware kit, the developers have also announced the first stable release since development began seven years ago. This coincides with a change in the version naming to names based on year and month. The first stable release will be released on December 13th with version number 2020.12. After that, a new version will be published every month, where a three-weekly schedule is currently maintained.
Version 2020.12 marks the official introduction of a new feature called blueprints. These are templates for automations, where users only set their devices or variables. The developers give the example of a blueprint for a light that turns on when a motion sensor detects motion. Users would only have to specify their motion sensor and lamp without worrying about the underlying logic. Blueprints are just like the automations within Home Assistant written in yaml and can be exchanged by users.