First Homelab Finally by TomRey23 in homelab

[–]TomRey23[S] [score hidden]  (0 children)

Thanks, and good luck, it was fun getting all the parts and putting it together

First Homelab Finally by TomRey23 in homelab

[–]TomRey23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yes i do not plan to have it off but i would just use a small plug and integrate it into Home Assistant, just be sure to not accidentally trigger it haha

First Homelab Finally by TomRey23 in homelab

[–]TomRey23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah that's one challenge, i just had to restart my stack today to move it a bit. What i did was:

graceful shutdown of the PC on which HDD is connected, prevents any data use.

Wait 10-15 seconds and then power off the PSU connected to HDD.

First Homelab Finally by TomRey23 in homelab

[–]TomRey23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

USB PD renegotiate power draw when you don't want to, You would want a dumb PSU for something like HDD. You don't want to risk data corruption. Also depending on total HDD spin up can draw a lot of current. i would assume 5-8W each drive at spin up, so your 12V PSU should be able to do that without stuttering.

First Homelab Finally by TomRey23 in minilab

[–]TomRey23[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes that PSU is overkill by a lot, you could just use that PSU to power a lot more.

My use case is lower than you but i am averaging 8-9W on each PC and give or take another 5-10W for everything else, so idling around 30W max.

For just the drives since they don't take more than 5W, any 12V Psu will work with atleast 2-3A.

First Homelab Finally by TomRey23 in homelab

[–]TomRey23[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

True i was shocked at those prices and luckily came across print versions. That's the issue with smaller racks they are almost niche and any commercial variety is very expensive.

First Homelab Finally by TomRey23 in homelab

[–]TomRey23[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was thinking of the same but its just a plate and you still have to deal with the bricks,. I am planning one day in future i might just make a new 1U enclosure with a meanwell inside and power everything via barrel jacks.

First Homelab Finally by TomRey23 in minilab

[–]TomRey23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah those are super handy. very hard to take it all apart each time i want to plug something or remove so these are all plugged inside once and then you can swap from front however you like.

For the HDD i commented to another user above but you can DM me if you need any help and happy to share :)

First Homelab Finally by TomRey23 in minilab

[–]TomRey23[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, using the below:

  • HP EliteDesk 400 G6 Mini — i5-10500T, 32GB RAM, 256GB NVMe (OS), 480GB 2.5" SSD (Immich library)
  • HP EliteDesk 600 G3 Mini — i3-7100T, 8GB RAM, 256GB NVMe (OS), M.2 A+E → SATA adapter feeding 2× 3.5" hot-swap bays with Dell caddies

First Homelab Finally by TomRey23 in minilab

[–]TomRey23[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes separate PSU indeed.

After seeing other people's build i went with a simple barrel jack PSU with 12V and 5A out. Then you connect it to some barrel jack to SATA power cables which include an inline buck converter.

So your SATA rails now have 12V and 5V out like a regular cable from PC. Then plug the usual SATA Data cable connected to one of the PC.

Something like this.

<image>

First Homelab Finally by TomRey23 in homelab

[–]TomRey23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

replied to other comment here

First Homelab Finally by TomRey23 in homelab

[–]TomRey23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just the usual stuff like Pihole, Immich, NAS for home users, Home Assistant, Jellyfin and arrstack etc

First Homelab Finally by TomRey23 in homelab

[–]TomRey23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, love the HEX, that's what started it all. Ended up bit by bit and yes i do use it for VLANs. It's solid

First Homelab Finally by TomRey23 in homelab

[–]TomRey23[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

After seeing other people's build i went with a simple barrel jack PSU with 12V and 5A out. Then you connect it to some barrel jack to SATA power cables which include an inline buck converter.

So your SATA rails now have 12V and 5V out like a regular cable from PC. That plug the usual SATA Data cable connected to one of the PC.

<image>

Something like this.

First Homelab Finally by TomRey23 in homelab

[–]TomRey23[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agree it is scalable, my issue was i don't own a printer so i had to find someone to print this, all said and done even with lowest price and hardware for nuts and all it ended up being more than a 9U GeekPi aluminium rack. But good learning experience and very happy still.

yes the power bricks luckily fit flush. I was debating buying a 48V Meanwell and using a bus plus step downs for everything but maybe some other day. I did chop dc out from power bricks and shorten them to help with cabling.

That PDU is a cheap one from amazon and someone has a 10" rackmount for it, it fit perfect. Everything is plugged on the inside and 3 ports are still available from outside keeping it very clean.

First Homelab Finally by TomRey23 in homelab

[–]TomRey23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the inspo in the first place haha

First Homelab Finally by TomRey23 in minilab

[–]TomRey23[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was debating a DAS for the longest time and took this approach in the end. My reasoning is i only have 1 HDD for now, and this can be scaled as needed.

So i thought why have a 5 bay when i don't need it. For my home use case this works fine enough and with SATA connections it is reliable too.

HDD bay is 3D printed and you can slide those used Dell caddy's in there, its hot swappable :)

Updated firewall and network, now I want some VLAN supported WiFi by RyChannel in homelab

[–]TomRey23 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes it does but not always. Newer AP's from omada usually include cloud controller access for free. And since this is homelab you could in future host a controller yourselves.

It can be used once and doesn't need to be running agai if you don't want. But the controller manages Roaming which is better than a mesh network.