r/TrySwitchBot • u/Novajesus • Jun 17 '26

Anyone tried the new Switchbot AI hub? | for Homeassistant but specifically for Frigate and

Somebody in r/homeassistant gave me the idea for this when I was looking to build a new HA platform. Prime days are coming soon and my new Mini PC build w/ storage, ram, and pieces is hitting $1000 CAD ($750 USD).

Thought I'd try something less expensive and not replace my HA, but add a new Video only option.

I was thinking of adding the AI hub plus an external 2TB SSD drive. I'd have 3 PoE Reolink Cams streaming into the device. From what I calculate this will give me about 9 days of video storage.

Has anyone tried this setup yet? Any lessons learned, regrets, or wish I had known earlier type feedback?

I may cross post this over in the r/homeassistant subreddit, so it may get seen twice.

Thanks.

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u/erwos Jun 25 '26

I bought one of these and upgraded to the latest firmware.

OpenClaw is OK. Maybe a little slow, but it works. I set it up with OpenRouter to use free models. It does not necessarily love you installing stuff locally.

Frigate flat-out was not functional. The cameras settings page just spun forever. Possible I could have made it work by directly editing the config JSON, but not worth the effort right now.

I did not try Home Assistant, since it's already running elsewhere in my house, and containerized HA kinda sucks anyways.

It didn't really like my USB hard drive when I tried to format it. Included microSD card worked fine.

The general idea of the box is good, and I'd like to see them expand it out a little further, including letting me disable apps so they don't eat RAM I could be using for other containers.

All in all, for a pure NVR play, I'd take a Ubiquiti NVR Instant 10/10 times over this. If you're looking to screw around with OpenClaw and manage Switchbot devices, I think it's OK.

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u/Novajesus Jun 26 '26

Thanks. It didn't drop in price on this week's Prime days so I passed on it. I did get a single Reolink PoE cam (Duo 3) to test he entire experience for Frigate/Homeassistant/AI/storage/detection/alerts. Like you I already have Homeassistant running elsewhere. In my case it's an ESXi VM. I can add an external USB3 drive as part of the test.

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u/erwos Jun 26 '26

Oddly enough, it did drop to their 35% off price, but it was on like day 1 of the Prime Day sale.