Can RasPi3 replace a Windows 10 setup ?

[bcdaus]

Hi,
I have been tinkering with iobroker for several months using it with some MySensors boards I have built.
Currently I have ioBroker running on a Windows PC, but I would like to move it to a Raspberry Pi to reduce the need to have a big power hungry PC running all the time.

I don't use Vis that much, but do use a Node-red to chart some temperatures to a dashboard, and to do some logic processing and act as a TCP server to another web based system I use for lighting control.

Does a rasPi 3 have enough power to be able to run this config - I am concerned about the database writes on the SD card and the processing power. Should I be looking to find a cheap windows NUC instead ?

Currently my setup has 12 sensors on a serial gateway, 3 javascripts and some Nodered processing. I also keep history of Temperatures for a year.

thanks,
Bill.

[Homoran]

@bcdaus
Hi Bill and Welcome to the Forum!

The main Issue with the RasPi ist the RAM!
With only 1GB of RAM the RasPi will not be able to work fine with a lot of adapters. We guess the limit will be 15-20 Adapters.
The power of the SOC is sufficient.
If you have the possibility to get another SBC with 2 or even 4GB of RAM (like Tinkerboard, Odroid C2, OrangePi plus 2e or Rock64) you should prefer one of those.

The other possibility is an Intel NUC (or similar). They have an power consumption al approx. 10W max

[foxriver76]

There are different opinions on having a database on a SD card, but all in all it depends on the amount of write operations done by the system. Thus, logging only 50 datapoints won't be that bad on a SD card. You could also use the RPI via an USB stick or an SSD. Based on the RAM-Usage of your described setup I would assume that a RPI fits your needs, but you can also check how much RAM your current system requires. Additionally, there will be the possibility to save lots of RAM by using Compact Mode via js-controller 2.0.0 soon. CPU consumption by ioBroker is not critical so in most cases RAM is the bottleneck.

You can also look for other SBC's than RPI e. g. I am using a Rock64 (4 GB RAM) with an eMMC instead of SD Card. Intel Nuc is also often recommended, but in many setups it is an overkill and a little bit more expensive than most SBCs.

[Stabilostick]

A typical model for a NUC is Intel NUC6cayh.

If you add a little bit more RAM (>=8GB) you can use Proxmox for virtualization. For example one iobroker virtual machine and another one for dns-filtering etc.

Some users are using old notebooks with low power consumption.