I replaced my smart home hub with a $120 mini PC, and my smart home finally feels responsive
The author replaced their unreliable smart home hubs, including Amazon Echo and Apple HomePod, with a $120 HP ProDesk 600 G6 mini PC running Home Assistant on Proxmox. By adding a $20 Zigbee USB dongle and configuring it themselves, they achieved faster and more reliable smart home automation. The custom setup eliminated delays and compatibility issues previously experienced with commercial hubs.
- ▪The author initially used Amazon Echo and Apple HomePod but faced delays and limited device compatibility.
- ▪They built a custom smart home hub using a $120 mini PC and Home Assistant virtualized on Proxmox.
- ▪A $20 SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus was added to enable reliable communication with Zigbee devices.
- ▪Commercial hubs like Echo and HomePod lacked USB ports for external coordinators and showed inconsistent performance.
- ▪The new setup significantly improved responsiveness, reducing automation delays and enabling deeper customization.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at XDA.
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