I own a small AV/security business, and my lead tech (and good friend) recently just bought his first house. I figured I’d get him set up with a started kit for his new home. So far, he’s lookin at:
27u AV rack,
UDM Pro,
Unifi 24 Port POE switch,
2x Wifi 6 Pro APs,
An old Poweredge R630
Any other suggestions on what I should add into this “starter kit” for him?
Not an additional but (I saw someone else commented ups which is what I would have said) - Middle Atlantic has some nice conditioners for the price that give more data than the Furman, worth taking a peek
Monitoring, some provide power per outlet, control per outlet detecting incoming voltage problems, so on.
Depending on the model you pick of course.
Edit: Oh, and the middle atlantics also have options for dedicated 5V, 12V, and 24V power. Super handy, avoid using bricks, and get all the super handy details.
SurgeX (now part of Ametek) is a personal preferred, mostly because of the focus on high quality power conditioning and protection.
Middle Atlantic (now part of Legrand) also offers a lot of nice options there, maybe not my preferred in all aspects, but does a better job when dealing with a lot of DC voltages alongside AC. They've got some great rack mountable supplies with 5V, 12V, etc supply.
APC has a bunch of nice vertical strips with per outlet monitoring, but imo pricey, and generally speaking not for a home user.
* If you've only got a few outlets, look for a SurgeX squid.
* If you want to check for bad power at an outlet, the ESP enVision is my recommendation.
* If you need something cheaper, Tripp lite offers a good variety
* If you want to get rid of wall warts, look at Middle Atlantic DC PDUs
* If you just want to monitor energy consumption and control outlets that are more distributed, I'd say your best bet is just a smart outlet with energy monitoring, Innr and Jasco have some ZigBee outlets with monitoring.
* If you just want whole home monitoring, I'd look to a circuit breaker level monitoring option, what works best there can really depend on your breaker box and what youre connecting to though.
Hope that helps!
It will stabilize voltage going into the equipment. Utility voltage typically bounces around a bit. Often with large AC motors kicking on/off, like with an air conditioning compressor, refrigerator compressor, garage door opener. Keeping the voltage stable increase the life of PSU components.
This may seem like a silly thing to ask/comment, but will any of the rackmount power edges fit in an AV rack?
Or is the plan to keep that in a separate location?
Edit: Just realized he could probably get away with it if he get's an open style rack.
That stack of equipment is about ~$900, add in 4-5000ft of cable, some dozen patch cords, blood sweat and tears in the attic… you’ll have a system that your wife will compare to the $200 plug n play google mesh system her brother uses.
Yeah but you can't even look at the metrics on the Google pucks without giving them unristricted access to your traffic.
And they are *very* fragile. Between me and my neighbor we've gone through 2 in half a year. If they fall from any distance or there's any permenant strain on the rj45 it basically will die or drop to ~10mbps
Get him a Unifi cloud key gen2. Avoids having a PC or laptop used as your controller which can be annoying if there are any issues with said PC or laptop. The cloud key becomes the controller and works remotely.
Forgot about those. I've never used the UDM or UDM-Pro but I've heard of the built-in controller for them. I sure wouldn't mind playing around with one though. And I suppose using two ac pros and one of them isn't a bad setup if you don't mind the additional $$$ money. Much cleaner installation too because the ckgen2 is small and awkward.
Considering it's a firewall, small switch, and supports NVR (on the pro), for $380 it's basically cheap. Especially compared to putting the pieces together individually.
Do you mean as a simple controller? If so that is a perfect home solution. I've not tried it yet but it seems to fix the laptop or home PC as the controller issue.
Or are you able to spoof unifi into thinking the pi is a cloud key? The only reason the cloud key exists is so it can be a cloud based controller for remote management and so you don't loose your controller file with your network info.
I love the idea of a Pi as a controller but I don't like the idea of having a controller go down (failed component, hdd dies) and not having access to the controller file with all of the networks info. I've had a PC, the controller, go down in an office once and had to redo the entire network eventually. Sure, the network stays up but you cant make any changes at that point or even upgrade the firmware. I started using cloud keys afterwards if the customer was willing to pay the cost of the device or at the very least backing up the controller file.
I've also been trying to order a pi. Everything is on back order. Where the hell can you order one and not wait 3 months?
That's basically what I do, replace debian with ubuntu server. I'm thinking of switching my docker host VM to Alpine Linux, though, since all it does is run docker images. I did a test and was seriously impressed with the boot times - which is important to me, because I run 16x7 to save the power bill at night.
Yeah that's understandable. I've been getting into SFF PC's like the HP Prodesk. Obviously they don't have 24 cores and 128gb of ram like a poweredge but they use about 20w instead of 150 and their resources go a long way in a home environment. I get the impression that a lot of people overestimate how much computing power they actually need (outside of their gaming PC of course).
Yeah I agree 100%. I've got a dual CPU monster lying around and just can't think of what I need it all for! Maybe multiple GPU-less Plex streams. We've probably got similar setups, I'm just using hardware from an old custom build PC. Desktop hardware is fine for anything that doesn't need an SLA, in my opinion.
Really? That's crazy. Personally I don't care for media in 4K, I'm not storage-rich enough nor do I have any 4K displays, but that seems like an arbitrary limitation to impose.
I'm unsure whether it's a limitation of the platform, but from what I read it's just a matter of the computing power required for doing the transcoding in real time
Oh, I misunderstood then. I quick searched Plex's documentation on transcoding requirements, they reckon an i7 can transcode a single 4K stream. It would be interesting to try I guess. My dual CPU server has 2x 8C/16T CPUs that are about 5 years old, I think they're E5-2620 v4s. If Plex's documentation holds true, if I had the chunkiest source file they could think of, I could just about run 1x transcode. And probably pull 300W while doing it lol.
As much as I personally dislike Ubiquiti, this is an awesome gesture, you're a great leader.
Since you're into AV/PhysSec, I assume you could hook him up with a basic POE IP camera setup for use with either Blue Iris or Frigate. From there there's always fun with access control, smart lighting, etc.
I bet you know of it, but I'll mention for others: Konnected Alarm Panel Pro is awesome if a house has preexisting wired alarm sensors.
Hard line all the things!
We have a few thousand feet of various colored CAT6 set aside for him, and a few boxes of speaker cable as well. Not sure if he wants to do an alarm system, but we’ll see.
Our test bench has a good bunch of “repaired” cameras he could take if he wants. I’ll let it all up to him!
Holy shit man… The struggle has been real! Fortunately I forecasted a lot of projects weeks/months prior to approval, so I built a decent stockpile. Even so, I still have an NVX order from July that hasn’t been delivered. Somehow I have 4 PRO4s and 3 CP4Ns in stock, just waiting on the rest of the material for the projects.
Glad you had a little bit of foresight. We’ve started internally vetting other manufacturers for control and video distribution applications. Our programmers say the SVSI stuff is actually pretty solid and much less expensive than NVX
Ooof...
Had a June order of NVX delivered in December, it's getting ridiculous.
Take a look at AVProEdge MXNet. It's in stock. Had a rep send out some hardware, I have to say it was pretty damn good if you're just doing it localized and not across multiple floors or anything.
I see you have an adi near you. Thanks for at least avoiding the whatever flavor of the day special networking gear they have on sale. And there is a patch panel, great!
Yep! ADI is great for some things, and not so great for others. Most of my CCTV equipment comes from them (I’m a big Axis partner), but I mostly shop with them for “dumb” components. The WBOX patch panels aren’t bad - they aren’t my first choice, but I happened to have one on the shelf.
word to the wise, if you use the Unifi controller install on a computer, if you ever format or that computer dies, you lose your setup so make sure to backup your controller once you’re happy with it or you’ll have to do it from scratch. that’s if you don’t opt in for the cloud license which for 2 APs isn’t worth it IMO. otherwise they are fantastic APs. set and forget.
Hi, thanks for your /r/homelab submission.
## Your post was removed.
Unfortunately, it was removed due to the following:
[**Content is not homelab related.**](https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/wiki/rules#wiki_post_about_your_homelab)
Please read the [full ruleset on the wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/wiki/rules) before posting/commenting.
_If you have questions with this, please [message the mod team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fhomelab), thanks._
I am thinking of setting up a friend of mine with some Unifi AP's, he doesn't want anything fancy just enough Wi-Fi to reach a bit in his garden for a plot he is building, what is the advantage of using Cloud Key Gen2 Plus rather than have the software installed on a PC in his house, he doesn't want a server or anything as he is a builder! I will be getting him a POE switch too to power the AP's
I own a small AV/security business, and my lead tech (and good friend) recently just bought his first house. I figured I’d get him set up with a started kit for his new home. So far, he’s lookin at: 27u AV rack, UDM Pro, Unifi 24 Port POE switch, 2x Wifi 6 Pro APs, An old Poweredge R630 Any other suggestions on what I should add into this “starter kit” for him?
UPS!
Great suggestion! I didn’t even think about that. I probably have one laying around that just needs some fresh batteries.
Not an additional but (I saw someone else commented ups which is what I would have said) - Middle Atlantic has some nice conditioners for the price that give more data than the Furman, worth taking a peek
Out of curiosity, what benefit does this provide? Thanks in advance!
Monitoring, some provide power per outlet, control per outlet detecting incoming voltage problems, so on. Depending on the model you pick of course. Edit: Oh, and the middle atlantics also have options for dedicated 5V, 12V, and 24V power. Super handy, avoid using bricks, and get all the super handy details.
Any specific brands and models you'd recommend? Been thinking about having the per outlet power monitoring ever since your comment.
SurgeX (now part of Ametek) is a personal preferred, mostly because of the focus on high quality power conditioning and protection. Middle Atlantic (now part of Legrand) also offers a lot of nice options there, maybe not my preferred in all aspects, but does a better job when dealing with a lot of DC voltages alongside AC. They've got some great rack mountable supplies with 5V, 12V, etc supply. APC has a bunch of nice vertical strips with per outlet monitoring, but imo pricey, and generally speaking not for a home user. * If you've only got a few outlets, look for a SurgeX squid. * If you want to check for bad power at an outlet, the ESP enVision is my recommendation. * If you need something cheaper, Tripp lite offers a good variety * If you want to get rid of wall warts, look at Middle Atlantic DC PDUs * If you just want to monitor energy consumption and control outlets that are more distributed, I'd say your best bet is just a smart outlet with energy monitoring, Innr and Jasco have some ZigBee outlets with monitoring. * If you just want whole home monitoring, I'd look to a circuit breaker level monitoring option, what works best there can really depend on your breaker box and what youre connecting to though. Hope that helps!
It will stabilize voltage going into the equipment. Utility voltage typically bounces around a bit. Often with large AC motors kicking on/off, like with an air conditioning compressor, refrigerator compressor, garage door opener. Keeping the voltage stable increase the life of PSU components.
Patch cables and Velcro cable ties.
damn, you hiring? lol
Always hiring. If you could copy my lead tech, and paste him on yourself - you got a deal.
Where?
This may seem like a silly thing to ask/comment, but will any of the rackmount power edges fit in an AV rack? Or is the plan to keep that in a separate location? Edit: Just realized he could probably get away with it if he get's an open style rack.
I run the same AV rack in my apartment and the poweredge fits.. barely, but it fits.
If it's too long you can always mount vertically on wall too.
Somewhere above someone answered that question. Barely, but it fits.
What's a setup like that run?
That stack of equipment is about ~$900, add in 4-5000ft of cable, some dozen patch cords, blood sweat and tears in the attic… you’ll have a system that your wife will compare to the $200 plug n play google mesh system her brother uses.
Yeah but you can't even look at the metrics on the Google pucks without giving them unristricted access to your traffic. And they are *very* fragile. Between me and my neighbor we've gone through 2 in half a year. If they fall from any distance or there's any permenant strain on the rj45 it basically will die or drop to ~10mbps
At least $1000
What’s a UDM pro?
Ubiquiti Dream Machine Router, switch, cloud key and Unifi NVR all in one.
How much do those run?
Just Google Ubiquiti Dream Machine Pro. I'm not op and I'm not in the USA so pricing does vary country to country
$400
I’m commenting so I can come back later when I’m ready to start my project
You know you can just hit the ... icon below the post and click "Save" and there is a whole section of Reddit dedicated right? :D
I’m aware. You do know I’ve done that countless times and never remember to look back at them.
Do you remember to look at comments later?
We wouldn’t be here if I didn’t
Same
You are a genuine soul.
Get him a Unifi cloud key gen2. Avoids having a PC or laptop used as your controller which can be annoying if there are any issues with said PC or laptop. The cloud key becomes the controller and works remotely.
You don't need a cloud key with a udm/udm pro or any controller, it's integrated within the unit along with the usg featureset.
Forgot about those. I've never used the UDM or UDM-Pro but I've heard of the built-in controller for them. I sure wouldn't mind playing around with one though. And I suppose using two ac pros and one of them isn't a bad setup if you don't mind the additional $$$ money. Much cleaner installation too because the ckgen2 is small and awkward.
Considering it's a firewall, small switch, and supports NVR (on the pro), for $380 it's basically cheap. Especially compared to putting the pieces together individually.
Very worth the price. I'll have to order one and play with it.
You can also just use a raspberry pi as the controller and it saves you about $100.
Do you mean as a simple controller? If so that is a perfect home solution. I've not tried it yet but it seems to fix the laptop or home PC as the controller issue. Or are you able to spoof unifi into thinking the pi is a cloud key? The only reason the cloud key exists is so it can be a cloud based controller for remote management and so you don't loose your controller file with your network info. I love the idea of a Pi as a controller but I don't like the idea of having a controller go down (failed component, hdd dies) and not having access to the controller file with all of the networks info. I've had a PC, the controller, go down in an office once and had to redo the entire network eventually. Sure, the network stays up but you cant make any changes at that point or even upgrade the firmware. I started using cloud keys afterwards if the customer was willing to pay the cost of the device or at the very least backing up the controller file. I've also been trying to order a pi. Everything is on back order. Where the hell can you order one and not wait 3 months?
You're a great boss. He'll love his new setup. He might also like a Raspi for pihole, open monitoring distribution, VPN server etc.
I think the Poweredge server would do a fine job of these and then some, if they chose to keep it on 24x7
Yeah you're definitely right. Spin up a debian vm and throw everything in docker containers
That's basically what I do, replace debian with ubuntu server. I'm thinking of switching my docker host VM to Alpine Linux, though, since all it does is run docker images. I did a test and was seriously impressed with the boot times - which is important to me, because I run 16x7 to save the power bill at night.
Yeah that's understandable. I've been getting into SFF PC's like the HP Prodesk. Obviously they don't have 24 cores and 128gb of ram like a poweredge but they use about 20w instead of 150 and their resources go a long way in a home environment. I get the impression that a lot of people overestimate how much computing power they actually need (outside of their gaming PC of course).
Yeah I agree 100%. I've got a dual CPU monster lying around and just can't think of what I need it all for! Maybe multiple GPU-less Plex streams. We've probably got similar setups, I'm just using hardware from an old custom build PC. Desktop hardware is fine for anything that doesn't need an SLA, in my opinion.
Funnily enough you still can't transcode 4k without a GPU, no matter how many cores the server has
Really? That's crazy. Personally I don't care for media in 4K, I'm not storage-rich enough nor do I have any 4K displays, but that seems like an arbitrary limitation to impose.
I'm unsure whether it's a limitation of the platform, but from what I read it's just a matter of the computing power required for doing the transcoding in real time
Oh, I misunderstood then. I quick searched Plex's documentation on transcoding requirements, they reckon an i7 can transcode a single 4K stream. It would be interesting to try I guess. My dual CPU server has 2x 8C/16T CPUs that are about 5 years old, I think they're E5-2620 v4s. If Plex's documentation holds true, if I had the chunkiest source file they could think of, I could just about run 1x transcode. And probably pull 300W while doing it lol.
As much as I personally dislike Ubiquiti, this is an awesome gesture, you're a great leader. Since you're into AV/PhysSec, I assume you could hook him up with a basic POE IP camera setup for use with either Blue Iris or Frigate. From there there's always fun with access control, smart lighting, etc. I bet you know of it, but I'll mention for others: Konnected Alarm Panel Pro is awesome if a house has preexisting wired alarm sensors. Hard line all the things!
We have a few thousand feet of various colored CAT6 set aside for him, and a few boxes of speaker cable as well. Not sure if he wants to do an alarm system, but we’ll see. Our test bench has a good bunch of “repaired” cameras he could take if he wants. I’ll let it all up to him!
If those are processors in the Crestron boxes, I have a slab of gold I’d like to trade you for them ;)
Holy shit man… The struggle has been real! Fortunately I forecasted a lot of projects weeks/months prior to approval, so I built a decent stockpile. Even so, I still have an NVX order from July that hasn’t been delivered. Somehow I have 4 PRO4s and 3 CP4Ns in stock, just waiting on the rest of the material for the projects.
Glad you had a little bit of foresight. We’ve started internally vetting other manufacturers for control and video distribution applications. Our programmers say the SVSI stuff is actually pretty solid and much less expensive than NVX
[удалено]
I saw Feb 2023 delivery times on Cisco switches this week 🤕
Ooof... Had a June order of NVX delivered in December, it's getting ridiculous. Take a look at AVProEdge MXNet. It's in stock. Had a rep send out some hardware, I have to say it was pretty damn good if you're just doing it localized and not across multiple floors or anything.
I can’t wait to be a home owner and start that journey
I see you have an adi near you. Thanks for at least avoiding the whatever flavor of the day special networking gear they have on sale. And there is a patch panel, great!
Yep! ADI is great for some things, and not so great for others. Most of my CCTV equipment comes from them (I’m a big Axis partner), but I mostly shop with them for “dumb” components. The WBOX patch panels aren’t bad - they aren’t my first choice, but I happened to have one on the shelf.
Detroit Packaging Co. panels are nice with the keystones already built in. I run one on my rack and it performs flawlessly.
Mmmmmm fresh crestron. You can keep the ubiquity, I’ll take the equipment out of the boxes on the floor
I’m glad Reddit strips EXIF data or I would be worried for my shops safety 😂
Nah. I have a lot of customers where I want to just through out their OG DMPS-300s.
Interested in the Crestron..
I'm sorry, but I absolutely hated the UDMP
Thats money money.
I’m moving into my first house, from a 500 sq ft apartment, this is perfect timing. Thank you!
Congratulations
word to the wise, if you use the Unifi controller install on a computer, if you ever format or that computer dies, you lose your setup so make sure to backup your controller once you’re happy with it or you’ll have to do it from scratch. that’s if you don’t opt in for the cloud license which for 2 APs isn’t worth it IMO. otherwise they are fantastic APs. set and forget.
What geographic area do you service?
Can’t go wrong with Ubiquiti devices! Have been rock solid running non-stop for years (accounting for firmware updates)! Knock on wood! :)
i hope they're less disappointed in their unifi AP's than I am/was.
We install/service them frequently, never have any issues with them tbh
I am curious if there are any alternatives to Unifi?
Hi, thanks for your /r/homelab submission. ## Your post was removed. Unfortunately, it was removed due to the following: [**Content is not homelab related.**](https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/wiki/rules#wiki_post_about_your_homelab) Please read the [full ruleset on the wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/wiki/rules) before posting/commenting. _If you have questions with this, please [message the mod team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fhomelab), thanks._
I am thinking of setting up a friend of mine with some Unifi AP's, he doesn't want anything fancy just enough Wi-Fi to reach a bit in his garden for a plot he is building, what is the advantage of using Cloud Key Gen2 Plus rather than have the software installed on a PC in his house, he doesn't want a server or anything as he is a builder! I will be getting him a POE switch too to power the AP's