I’m looking to set up a little home server for media, home assistant/matter support, and file storage/access.
I’m considering either:
Or
I want something that’s easy to use. Zima seems ready to plug and go almost, which is the huge plus, but the huge down side for me is cost - not only does it cost more, but I’d have to pay an additional 25.5% VAT on top to ship to Finland.
The GMKtec comes with Ubuntu at least (I’ll be deleting Win11), but I don’t know how Linux support for it is outside of Ubuntu. I’d prefer something easier to run like CasaOS or Yunohost (not sure which is more beginner friendly). Also don’t know if those run Waydroid, since I’m pretty sure Ubuntu does (want to use S-tube on TV).
What do y’all recommend?
Matter is not really big yet.
For zigbee adapters, take a look here: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/guide/adapters/
Is the Sky Connect I linked not good compared to those other ones? It supposedly connects with ZigBee, Matter, and Thread
Looks a little pricey but probably would work fine. I bought my first zstack based Texas for $25. Worked fine for a couple of years till I realized it had a limit on how many devices it could handle. so I upgraded it to the next model up for another $25. That’s when I found out if you change methods you have to re adopt everything. But if I kept it on the same method (zstack Texas zha) all I did was swap the dongle and everything kept rolling just with a higher limit of devices.
Yeah, I found a much cheaper alternative that ships from Europe for only 35€.
I’m getting conflicting information on Home Connect about the Sky Connect (now named some weird letter/number combo) that says it supports both matter/thread and ZigBee, but also actually it’s experimental so not really and it works for some but not others, but also support for matter/thread is coming in November…
Mostly I’m looking to make the server work with Ikea stuff plus a couple of lights/led strips that are sold locally that use Matter (Wiz lights I think?)
Matter itself is just the protocol, not the wireless standard. There are lots of matter over WiFi devices, for those you don’t need this additional adapter, as they will connect to your WiFi router.
Thread is a wireless standard which is almost like zigbee, that is why there are some adapters that support both.
But thread border routers are also a thing in lots of devices. For example if you have an Apple TV, this can be used as a gateway with home assistant without additional hardware.