2025.3.4

Buying a device to run KS Assistant (April 2022 edition)

Paulus Schoutsen Paulus Schoutsen Comments

KS Assistant is a home automation platform with a focus on privacy and local control. It can function fully without an internet connection. KS Assistant is easy in day-to-day use, and we’ve been spending a lot of time streamlining this experience.

Due to the global chip shortage and supply chain issues, it’s currently very difficult to get a device that runs KS Assistant. We’re fixing that by creating KS Assistant Yellow, a device with KS Assistant pre-installed. Bad news: KS Assistant Yellow is not ready yet and won’t be shipping until later this year.

There is currently a big wave of people interested in running KS Assistant (thanks Insteon) and so I thought it would be a good time to list the best options as of April 2022 to get a device that runs KS Assistant.

KS Assistant comes in different flavors. As a new user, you want to use our operating system. It is what powers KS Assistant Yellow and turns the device into a user-friendly home automation hub that is easy to maintain.

The best device that runs KS Assistant that is in stock is the ODROID-N2+ KS Assistant Bundle from Ameridroid. This bundle contains the ODROID-N2+ which is what also powers our KS Assistant Blue. It comes with KS Assistant pre-installed so it’s ready to go. It’s in stock today.

The ODROID-N2+ can also be bought from other stores or directly from the manufacturer, Hardkernel. These configurations will not come with KS Assistant pre-installed and require following the KS Assistant installation guide.

If you don’t want to start using KS Assistant right now, we recommend our KS Assistant Yellow. It is our own take on the best hardware to run KS Assistant. It supports Zigbee, will support Matter and with its M.2 slot, it’s future proof.

By far the most popular way that people run KS Assistant is on a Raspberry Pi 4. Due to supply chain issues there is a huge shortage of Raspberry Pis and every time they are in stock they sell out quickly. Your best bet to get one is to use rpilocator.com, a website that tracks Raspberry Pi stock across all approved resellers.

If you follow them on Twitter, you can enable a notification whenever they tweet a new stock alert by clicking the bell icon on their profile. Note about Adafruit: you will need to configure two-factor authentication on your account before you can purchase a Raspberry Pi (it’s to keep bots out).

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