Got the new version of #NeonAI installed on my #Mark2. Neon is just a touch too heavy for the hardware in the Mark2. I've heard you can upgrade the Pi to a model with more RAM and supposedly that makes a huge difference. If you can get a Pi. I'm hoping when they get around to a Pi 5 :raspberrypi: it'll keep close enough to the same form factor that it can be dropped into the Mark2. It would be really nice to give it a bit more oomph.
@mike 8GB of RAM does make a big difference, and Pi availability has greatly improved (at least here in Canada).
I swapped my USB flash drive for one with the new 2.0 software a couple days ago and it has slowed down incredibly.
Not sure if there needs to be some optimization done for 8GB devices, but I'm definitely not seeing the 40% speed improvement, in fact it's quite the opposite.
@ggiesen I was talking to Mike Gray of https://graywind.org on the #Mycroft Mattermost earlier, and he recommended enabling the beta track. According to him, there are "Some performance improvements as well as audio receiver functionality - Bluetooth, Airplay, Spotify, and KDE Connect". I'm giving it a shot (since it's a newly imaged drive, why not right?). I'll let you know how it goes.
@mike Thanks for the the info. I just checked the Mattermost history and I see your convo. I'll likely hold off for now and see what your experience is like, or just wait for (presumably) the next stable update.
I also had similar problems when I first upgraded my Pi, and they magically went away after a while. It could also be because I'm using a different brand USB flash drive than what Neon shipped on (the new one is a 128GB Samgsung Fit USB 3.1). I find it unlikely but it is a possibility.
@ggiesen I updated to the beta channel, and updated to the 8.31 version, and after a reboot it told me there was a 9.1 version available, so I'm updating to that one now. It's taking much longer than going from 8.15 to 8.31 did.
@mike For what it's worth, most of the current responsiveness issues seem to be when I load the Home Assistant dashboard. The fan kicks on and slows to a crawl. If I manage to get it back to the home screen or reboot it it's mostly fine, although not 40% faster.
It could also be the supposed performance improvements are due to reduced memory utilization to fit in the constrained default 2 GB of RAM (where the OS is swapping a lot) and doesn't apply to me since my unit shouldn't be swapping.
@ggiesen I haven't reconfigured my Home Assistant integration since my first Mark2 gave up the ghost. I do know that I saw a HUGE improvement in speed when I moved from the original USB stick to their SSD. Easily worth the $30 in my book.
@mike Yeah I agonized over the SSD for a bit, it wasn't the cost but having that big thing taped to the back of the unit.
I talked to the Neon AI guys and the impression I got was the 8GB RPi upgrade was basically equivalent to the SSD upgrade because many of the performance issues with the stock 2 GB RPi were due to the OS swapping memory to disk due to the constrained RAM.
The more I play with it, the more I feel like it's specifically an issue with the Home Assistant integration.
@ggiesen After running the beta channel for a few days, subjectively it feels faster, no solid numbers though. Keeping in mind that I have barely anything configured on this thing. I keep it really close to vanilla. I enable the #Mycroft wake word because it feels like I get fewer false activations than I do with #Neon, I change a couple small things about the UI, activate the GPT fallback skill, and that's about it. #YMMV.
As you may have seen on the Mycroft Mattermost, there's definitely an issue with the Home Assistant dashboard, and that appears to be the source of most of my problems.
Given that Home Assistant integration was a big reason I bought the Mark II (even after having lost two Kickstarter units when Mycroft went under), it's definitely disappointing but hopefully Mike Gray can figure out the issue. He's appealing for anyone with KDE experience to help.
@ggiesen Agreed. Home Assistant integration is a big part of why I wanted one too. I only lost one to Mycroft going under, but still grates. That being said, Neon and OVOS are still developing and #HomeAssistant is really pushing on their "Year of the Voice". I'm hoping that the updates HA makes with the #YearOfTheVoice will make things easier assistants like #NeonAI to integrate. I could be completely wrong about that, but it seems like having some of this stuff built in will ease the load.
@mike@ggiesen I got the SSD with hopes of a speed improvement, but I found no difference. I've actually gone back to an original Mycroft USB for now. I guess I have a nice external SSD for music files now :shrug_tone1:
@mike@ggiesen It certainly boots faster, but response times seem the same. This is subjective; I haven't measured it. I don't have a lot of troubleshooting time at the moment, so I'm not investigating further for now. I'm sure I'll give it another try later.
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