Step 1: Buy your hardware

Before diving in, ensure you have a Raspberry Pi 4 or at the very least a Raspberry Pi 3 ready for the exciting journey ahead. Don't forget to also purchase either a passive or active cooling system.

Buy a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B – Raspberry Pi

Your tiny, dual-display, desktop computer …and robot brains, smart home hub, media centre, networked AI core, factory controller, and much more.

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Based on my experience, I advise against purchasing a microSD card as it tends to fail quite quickly due to frequent read and write operations. Instead, opt for an SSD with a USB connection. It's advisable to get at least a 32GB SSD to accommodate future projects or expansions. This approach below requires you to also invest in a SSD:

BENFEI SATA to USB Cable, BENFEI USB 3.0 to SATA III Hard Drive Adapter -

BENFEI SATA to USB Cable, BENFEI USB 3.0 to SATA III Hard Driver Adapter Compatible for 2.5 inch HDD and SSD

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Alternatively, consider a case equipped with an M.2 SSD connector. Be mindful that the fan can be quite loud when operating at full speed. As a solution, I recommend connecting the fan at 3.3V to reduce noise.

GeeekPi Aluminum NAS Case for Raspberry Pi 4 with Zimbabwe | Ubuy

Shop online at Ubuy Zimbabwe for GeeekPi Raspberry Pi 4 Aluminum NAS Case with ICE Tower Cooler and M.2 SATA SSD Adapter Board. Compatible with Raspberry Pi 4 Model B.

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Finally, you'll also require a receiver, such as a Zigbee gateway. In my experience, I purchased a ConBee II from Dresden Elektronik, which has proven to work seamlessly with nearly all smart devices.

ConBee II Overview

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