Hi, I have a Raspberry pi 3 Model B and a 16GB SD card, would it be possible for me to run home assistant on it?
#Hardware specifications - raspberry pi
zenith cedar
stable lantern
Hi, I have a Raspberry pi 3 Model B and a 16GB SD card, would it be possible for...
Short Version: No
zenith cedar
🙁 ok
If I buy a better SD card would it be possible then? i don't really have the budget right now to buy a new rasp
stable lantern
If I buy a better SD card would it be possible then? i don't really have the bud...
using a sd card of any type is not really recommended.
also a 3b will be short of ram
do you have any other systems that you could use. perhaps using a VM or container to run it alongside other things?
zenith cedar
The problem is that if I use a VM for example, for me to use home assistant at any hour I'd have to get my computer on 24/7
Also, why isn't the SD card recommended, I thought that was the way to do it with the raspberry
stable lantern
Also, why isn't the SD card recommended, I thought that was the way to do it wit...
SD cards are slow and wear out very quickly. also I don't recommend using any RPI for HA anymore. by the time you get all the parts to make it usable rpi/case/psu/ssd-hat/ssd then there are better options for your money.
If your looking for something low budget then you could look for a 2nd hand mini-pc/thin-client system which you could repurpose
neon ruin
I'm not sure why a Pi3 wouldn't be recommended. I've been running home assistant OS since 2020 (think it was Hass OS at that time), and it was on a Pi 3b at that stage. It ran until I upgrade to a Pi5 this year (still with an SD), and I'm now running it with the Hailo (AI Hat+) with a fair few addons (Frigate, MusicAssistant, Node Red, Zigbee2Mqtt to name a few), and I've had pretty much zero issues. I will say that my SD died about a year ago on the Pi3, but I simply did a fresh install on a new SD, restored the latest backup, and we were up and running again. Cost me a day because I didn't have an SD handy, but otherwise I've had very few issues.
@zenith cedar I would say in fairness that you'll run out of room pretty quickly on a 16GB, I'd definitely recommend at least. Ideally more.
stable lantern
I'm not sure why a Pi3 wouldn't be recommended. I've been running home assistant...
a rpi 4 or 5 with min 2gb ram and 32 gb storage is now the min requirements in the documentation. could you run with less? perhaps, but its not recommended. and as mentioned personally I recommend avoid RPI entirely anyway.
heady sage
Industrial SD cards are ok for raspberry. Worst than nvme. BUT you can backup more easily. Rpi3 is not recommended not only for speed but for RAM. If you plan to use esphome then a raspberry 5 with as much ram as possible is required. Personnaly a raspberry is a good choice to start all is made for it. From backup to updates,... And you can have it all for 100€. Side problem on haos is that you do not have complete underlying Linux full control and that is a pain. Starting with rpi 4 or 5 if using esphome is a good start.
livid rose
If OP has budget concerns, you could always look at getting a second hand laptop to run HA. You can look for laptops that have damaged screens since you don't really need a display which should mean you would find them at a much cheaper price.
neon ruin
I think we've strayed a bit from the point here. OP asked if he could run Home Assistant on the Pi3b with a 16GB SD. To my mind the answer is yes. Is it recommended? No. But if you want to start off, and have the hardware to hand, I'd say go for it. If you find that the system works for you, and you then want to invest in better hardware at that point, then do so.