Raspberry Pi is a single-board computer used to host smart home software, most often Home Assistant. Raspberry Pi 5 has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE and Ethernet but no Zigbee, Thread or Z-Wave radio, so those paths need an added radio such as a USB adapter.[1–3]
Raspberry Pi
Platform / Hardware host
Updated
Capabilities
What Raspberry Pi supports
How facts are sourced: every cell cites its source below| Capability | Supported | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Wi-Fi with local control | Yes[1] (Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet on Raspberry Pi 5.) | unknown |
| Bluetooth Low Energy | Yes[1] (Bluetooth 5.0 / BLE on Raspberry Pi 5.) | unknown |
| Runs Home Assistant | Yes[2] (Home Assistant OS images for Raspberry Pi 5 and 4, with at least 2 GB of RAM.) | unknown |
| Zigbee | unknown (Raspberry Pi 5 has no Zigbee or 802.15.4 radio. Zigbee needs an added coordinator such as a USB adapter.) | unknown |
| Thread border router | unknown (Raspberry Pi 5 has no Thread or 802.15.4 radio. The role depends on an added radio and the software running on the Pi.) | unknown |
What it is
Raspberry Pi 5 has dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0 with BLE and Gigabit Ethernet, with PoE+ through a separate HAT.[1]
Home Assistant publishes Home Assistant OS images for Raspberry Pi 5 and Raspberry Pi 4. It suggests a model with at least 2 GB of RAM, a microSD card of at least 32 GB (ideally Application Class 2), a proper power supply rather than a phone charger or a computer's USB port, and Ethernet for installation.[2]
Which paths it supports
On its own, a Pi covers Wi-Fi and Ethernet devices with local APIs, and Bluetooth LE devices within range of its radio. The Pi 5 has no Zigbee, Thread or Z-Wave radio, so those paths need an added radio, such as Home Assistant's Connect ZBT-1, a USB Zigbee 3.0 adapter that can be switched to Thread.[1][3]
Matter, Zigbee, Z-Wave and Thread support then come from the software running on the Pi, not from the Pi itself. See the Home Assistant page for what that covers.[2]
Local or cloud
Everything runs on the Pi in the home. Whether a given device works without the internet depends on the software and the device's own path, not on the Pi.[2]
Limitations
- The Home Assistant images target the Pi 5 and Pi 4 only.[2]
- Storage is a microSD card in the documented setup, and Home Assistant recommends A2 cards.[2]
- Home Assistant Yellow is the project's own Pi-based hub, built around a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 with a Zigbee and Thread module. It is no longer in production but still receives software updates. Home Assistant points to Green instead.[4]
Devices that list Raspberry Pi
Devices that work with Raspberry Pi
How facts are sourced: every cell cites its source below| Device | Path | Supporti | Integration | Home Assistant | Homey |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zooz ZAC93 GPIO Module | Z-Wave, needs HUB | Native[5] | - | Via Zigbee/Z-Wave | unknown |
About these columns
- Support
- Native means the platform controls the device on this path out of the box. Via integration means it needs an add-on. Not supported means it does not work on this platform.
Sources
- [1]
- [2]
- [3]
- [4]
- [5]