Mini PC with pre-installed Home Assistant virtual machine (Home Assistant Virtual Mini-PC GMA12)

 

Mini PC delivered pre-configured with a virtualization manager and a Home Assistant virtual machine. The configuration has been done by our in-house technical team in Switzerland. It's also possible to purchase the machine alone, without pre-configuration. You can refer, for example, to the Geekcom brand listed on our website.

 

Home Assistant is a highly popular open-source home automation platform that allows you to centralize and control a wide variety of smart devices in your home while prioritizing your privacy and data security. Although Home Assistant can be run on a dedicated physical machine, using a virtual machine offers several significant advantages, and that's exactly what we're offering here with this product.

Here's why opting for a virtual machine can be a smarter solution for your Home Assistant installation:

 

Flexibility and Scalability

One of the primary advantages of using a virtual machine for Home Assistant is flexibility. With a VM, you can easily adjust the resources allocated to Home Assistant, such as RAM and storage, based on your needs. This is particularly useful if you plan to expand your home automation network and integrate more devices in the future. The VM can grow with your needs without requiring hardware replacement.

 

Security and Isolation

Security is another important consideration. A virtual machine provides an isolated environment for Home Assistant, reducing the risk of software conflicts and limiting potential security vulnerabilities. In case of issues, the VM can be quickly restored to a previous state, providing an additional layer of protection against configuration errors or malicious attacks.

 

Savings and Energy Efficiency

Choosing a VM can also be more cost-effective. Instead of purchasing a dedicated physical machine, you can use existing hardware to host multiple VMs, including the one for Home Assistant. This can reduce initial costs and the overall energy footprint of your home automation system by consolidating multiple services on a single device.

 

Backup and Restore Ease

Managing backups and restores is significantly simplified with a VM. Regular snapshots of the entire VM can be scheduled, allowing for quick restoration in case of failures or for testing new configurations without risking the stability of the main system.

 

Solution Designed for Installers

Are you an installer? Offer a flexible and scalable solution to your clients while avoiding hardware dependencies and simplifying the backup and restore process.

If your clients have specific needs, we can also provide you with a customized configuration, adapting the hardware type and/or customizing the virtual machine.

 

"Ready-to-Use" Preconfigured Solution Optimized by Our Technical Team in Switzerland

For those looking to optimize their home automation experience, a VM for Home Assistant is a serious option to consider. Not familiar with virtualization? No problem! This product comes pre-installed, pre-configured, and optimized, allowing you to have a ready-to-use Home Assistant installation. The main difference is that you will need an IP address for the physical machine and a separate IP address for the virtual machine (this is covered in the technical documentation).

Of course, it will be possible to expand the capabilities of the system by adding optional antennas to this device, for example, to add support for protocols like KNX, Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter, and many more.

Upon startup and in the event of a physical machine restart, the virtual machine is automatically started.

 

Features

• Powerful physical machine enabling flexible and scalable home automation.
• Delivered pre-installed with a virtualization solution ready to run one or more virtual machines.
• Delivered with a pre-installed and ready-to-use Home Assistant virtual machine.

 

Technical Specifications

 

Physical Machine

Dimensions	117 x 112 x 34.2 mm
CPU	Intel Alder Lake N100, 4 cores, 4 threads, 6MB Cache, up to 3.40GHz)
Graphics	Intel UHD Graphics 12th Gen
Memory	SODIMM DDR5 single-channel, 4800MT/s, up to 16GB
Audio	CODEC HDA
Storage	1 x SSD (2280 M.2 SATA & PCIE Gen 3*4), 512GB, up to 1TB
I/O Ports	1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 x 1 (front panel) and 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (rear panel) 1 x TYPE-C with DP 1.4 Alt Mode (rear panel) and 1 x TYPE-C Data Only (front panel) 1 x SD card reader 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack (front panel, Apple HeadPhone compatible) 1 x RJ45 (rear panel) 1 x HDMI 2.0 (rear panel) 1 x Mini DP 1.4 (rear panel) 1 x DC input (rear panel) 1 x power button 1 x Kensington lock
Internal Connector	1 x M.2 key-M slot (PCIe/SATA) 1 x FAN 1 x RTC 1 x USB2
Ethernet	Intel® 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
LED	1 x POWER LED (Power On: Blue, S3: Flashing Orange) 1 x SATA SSD: Red, PCIE SSD: Green 10-100M: Flashing Orange, Green, 1000M: Flashing Orange, Green No light
Kensington Lock	Yes
Wireless LAN	Integrated WiFi 6, BT 5.2 AW-XM548NF
Battery	RTC Battery
Adapter	Automatic voltage adjustment between 100 and 240V AC, 50/60Hz, 45 Watts (19V/2.36A), 3Pin, 1.8 meters long & 65 Watts (19V/3.42A)
PCBA Size	109.1 x 107.63 mm
Certification	CE, RoHS, FCC, CEC, CB, PSE, TELEC
Operating System	Windows 11 Pro
Accessory	VESA Mount

 

Virtual Machine:

Pre-installed and ready-to-use Home Assistant Virtual Machine with the following specifications:

• Processors: 1 socket and 2 cores
• RAM: 6GB
• Hard Drive: 64GB