From Coral to Hailo: Why I Finally Swapped My Frigate AI Hardware

From Coral to Hailo: Why I Finally Swapped My Frigate AI Hardware
I have been running Frigate for quite a while now. The Google Coral TPU has long been the "gold standard" for edge processing object detection. It’s efficient, cheap, and handles MobileNet models like a champ. But as my camera count grew and my patience for false positives wore thin, I knew I needed more horsepower. I recently pulled the trigger on the Hailo-8 AI Acceleration Module, and the results have been night and day. The…

Goodbye Ring, Hello Privacy

Goodbye Ring, Hello Privacy
With it being ever more likely that someone could access Ring cameras or lock me out of access to Ring footage, I decided it was time to leave Ring for the doorbell cameras. I had two, one on the house, one on the shop. The shop one needed to go anyway, the only thing it ever did is let me know the grapes were getting too long. The front door was used constantly, so I…

From Smart Bulbs to Skynet: The 2026 State of my Home Automation

From Smart Bulbs to Skynet: The 2026 State of my Home Automation
When I left Elastic, one of my goals was to dive deep into home automation and finally "level up" my setup. Looking back at where I started when we first moved to Graham, it’s almost comical. Back then, "Home Automation" was just a few Philips Hue bulbs and a Raspberry Pi running Home Assistant that didn't do much. It was essentially a glorified light switch connected to Alexa. Fast forward to today, and the Raspberry…

Network & Home Automation Apps

Network & Home Automation Apps
In all, I have quite a few components keeping my home automation system running. Some are apps I use every day, some are for managing different parts of the infrastructure and a few are for entertainment. Nearly everything here runs in docker on my NAS or one of two dedicated docker servers. Home Assistant powers the automations and connectivity between a wide range of smart devices. Security system, locks, lights, HVAC, weather, various sensors and…

Can I use AI as my Frigate False Positive Checker?

Can I use AI as my Frigate False Positive Checker?
The good thing about Coral TPUs are they are really fast. The bad thing about Coral TPUs are the models they use are really small so they aren't very accurate. Luckily Frigate has a really advanced system for configuring object detection filters by size, ratio, etc. As well as a deep mechanic for zones to manage object and motion detection. That being said, I have 15 cameras and it's going to take some time to…

Google Coral TPU Card

Google Coral TPU Card
Today I added some AI processing horsepower to my Frigate server. This little chip can handle object detection on 15 cameras without breaking a sweat. I am using the m.2 variety, but you can get a few variants from Google. I originally experimented with the USB version before adding the PCI one.The PCI-card adapter is the Ableconn PEXM2150E PCI Express x1 Adapter Card with M.2 Key E Socket available from Amazon.

Home Automation Server – Tower 1

Home Automation Server – Tower 1
With the Frigate server complete, Tower 1 is officially out of space. Top to Bottom Home Assistant & Frigate Docker Server Ryzen 9 5900X, 64GB RAM, 8TB SSDs (2x2TB nvme, 2x2TB SATA), 16TB HDD RAID, Coral m.2 dual TPU Home Assistant Frigate Netdata Dozzle UPS Power Supply Cisco 24-Port Switch with PoE and 10GB SFP (10Gbps between house and shop, main PC and main NAS) Go bag HD for critical files Punchdown Patch Panel Keystone…

Dedicated Frigate Server

Dedicated Frigate Server
I've decided to use Frigate as the platform for AI object detection using my existing Amcrest IP cameras. It's working as a sidecar to Synology Surveillance Station as detection only. frigate-server 12-core Ryzen 5900X, 64GB RAM, 8TB SSD & 16TB HDD storage, Google Coral TPU, nVidia RTX3050GPU. Hosts Frigate and Home Assistant.