The IKEA-powered homelab on a wall | Hacker News Reader

The IKEA-powered homelab on a wall

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97 pointsPaulHoule53 comments

How exactly is this powered by Ikea? Seems like this is just an advertisement for a pegboard. The author doesn't even use the Ikea hooks and whatnot to mount their hardware. Literally any pegboard or board with many holes in it would do the same thing here, besides aesthetics (although, there is a wide variety of aesthetics available for pegboards).

Honestly I was kind of expecting some sort of Ikea smart home related "power".

Those IKEA pegboards are especially cheap and ubiquitous. There's a whole ecosystem around them, which admittedly he didn't use.

But yeah I was expecting something using IKEA's smart home stuff.

Pegboard $28.99, not cheap compared to MDF/plywood board

Of course, but then you have to drill all your own holes etc. That's what I did (well actually I bent angle brackets into shapes that all my equipment could just slot into, so I can easily remove it). But not everyone wants to spend time on that or has the skills and equipment.

Compared to other pegboard it is cheap.

$28.99 for a 70x22cm board. When I saw it the first time I had the same idea as in article, but the cost isn't good. Just checked, I can buy a 75x50cm rack mount shelf for less than that. No fancy rounded slots, though.

A better IKEA powered homelab is built around the Lack furniture which just happens to be the right dimensions for 19" rack mount systems.

https://wiki.eth0.nl/index.php/LackRack

I've usually found most 19" rack equipment to have very loud fans. Designed for a data center, not a residence.

You can get quiet rackmount gear, but it certainly is a mine field and if you're not careful, you'll almost certainly end up with something 50+ dB.

You buy the equipment cheap on ebay but then spend a surprising amount on the noctua fans you need to make the thing tolerable.

The other problem is power. Also flows on to also making your other equipment (eg UPS) more expensive.

Yeah definitely. You don't want these in the same room as you, or even in the next room. Basement or loft maybe, but then who cares how they are mounted?

I sleep just fine in the room next to the room with a 2U server on stock fans. Though it's not heavily loaded, and I've tuned the fan curves so it only goes full blast under load

They both look nice, how is this one better specifically?

If you have a bunch of 19" rack-mount boxes, the Lack is a better choice. Small boxes, like those in the post, can live on a pegboard.

covered by that page, surfacing here: when the Lack rack was "invented," the legs were made of solid but inexpensive wood. Now the legs are hollow except at the top and bottom. Some people suggest filling them in, or replacing with new 2x2s if anything with some weight will be mounted there.

Here's my home lab, which features an IKEA wireless light switch, I guess? https://imgur.com/a/bXq6UmJ

It's a great light switch.

Very cool work bench, what model is the table exactly? On their website I couldn't find the version with two drawers.

https://www.sevilleclassics.com/collections/ultrahd®-1?page=...

It's the Seville Classics UltraHD Lighted Workbench, but unfortunately I think they have discontinued the exact model since my purchase in early 2022. The new one has a single large drawer, and from pictures the hardwood bench top might be a little skimpier.

If you can still find this one somewhere: It was <$300 new for me and is extremely sturdy, with very smooth-running drawers as well. I'd recommend it, great value.

Thank you!

Very nice and nicely organized! I'd be embarrassed to post mine :) What are you cooking there?

IKEA hacks, of course! https://github.com/eikehein/hyelicht/

Most recent: https://imgur.com/a/NoTr8XX

Oh that's beautiful, you should really post that, I'll be happy to upvote it and probably others will too.

This is the original IKEA homelab hack: https://wiki.eth0.nl/index.php/LackRack

Nice! I'd heard about Lack 3D printer enclosures [1], but not this.

[1] https://all3dp.com/2/ikea-3d-printer-enclosure-tutorial/

I like this project since it's bringing attention to a semi-unsolved issue, modular mounting that's somewhat consumer friendly.

It looks nicer than most pegboard, although maybe I should look into pegboard more.

I also wonder about MOLLE. It's soft instead of ridgid so panels can be larger, not limited by transportability. It's somewhat cheap, and works really well, and can theoretically allow 3DP parts.

But I like general, one size fits all, bulletproof solutions, that are 0% hacky.

> Maintenance is not going to be very easy on this setup...

Not that exciting. Good enough in this case, not great if you expect to need to modify stuff.

Ditto. Pegboards work well as a vertical network "rack". Here is mine as I assembled it last year with mostly Ubiquity gear. https://twitter.com/flurdy/status/1521577058232676353/photo/... Though I have since taken the NAS off the second pegboard as it simple was too bulky and cumbersome.

The OP's setup is very neat and aesthetic.

I have these pegboards and they are awful. Like all Ikea furniture, the sizing is proprietary so standard s-hooks do not fit. The compatible accessories are very flimsy and I would not trust it to safely hold a spice rack let alone a homelab.

If you have access to a 3d printer, they become infinitely more useful. There are hundreds or possibly even thousands of printable accessories available on sites like Printable and Thingiverse. I use a few of the ikea ones like the little bins for pens (with a 3d printed divider), but the majority are 3d printed.

I think it might be easier to get "normal" pegboard at home depot or amazon with a selection of pegboard hooks and bins.

specifically with amazon, the accessories are varied and cheap.

I don't recommend their pegboard for this. When I had some very modest weight (soldering supplies and glues) in one of the compatible trays attached to the top, it bowed out over time and warped the board. This looks far heavier with more leverage.

Pegboard plus zip ties is so genius I’m a bit frustrated I didn’t discover this years ago. I hate how big cables love to exert their opinions on the position of my network devices on their shelf.

https://www.cabac.com.au/p/cable-wire-management/cable-ties-...

Don't let any cable try and flex it's authority on you. Use biggest thickest zip ties you can + a set of pliers to yank the zip tie closed. Will squish up to about 4guage cable into line :) if your doing fancy(fancy in the sense of will last a decade and still be easy to work on, not looks) cabling use these to zip tie a hook and loop in place. Bind cable w hook n loop.

I'd take this a step further with a dremel, and there would be no visible cables between devices (well, just the ends would be visible). Plenty of room behind that board for cable management.

I'm always interested in seeing a new attempt to solve the problem of organizing a ton of little devices and a mess of cables. My personal attempt involves mounting a couple of UniFi bits directly to the wall, plus a little shelf made out of scrap 1x4 pine for the odd shaped things and the power strip.

Maintenance issues aside, the setup in the linked article looks quite pretty and should have decent airflow for passive cooling, which is nice!

Does anyone have a desktop shelf unit that happens to be external drive sized? I have, like, three of these and it would be nice to shove them in something that can organize them and their cables. If I was a 3D printer person, I guess I could make something, but then they'd probably overheat.

I've looked in the past, but never found anything. I think one with a built in USB hub so that it was "just one cable" would be a bonus.

I should probably just shut up, stack them, and wrap the cords with those velcro tape organizer things.

Something I didn't mention in my comment is that I would love some kind of mounting bracket that would fit a WD Easystore (the big cheap disks that r/datahoarder loves) in such a way that I could easily open it up and swap in another disk; this would be for my backup box, which backs up everything to a USB disk that I periodically swap out with another one that lives offsite.

You could try using a letter tray so you could keep all the power bricks in the back. It really depends on how often you'll take the drives out.

Have you seen MOLLE panels? Any particular opinion on those?

Seems like there's a huge range of accessories available for them, 24*36" panels available for $35, and a lot of devices could be held on by weaving a buckle strap, screwing on a pocket clip, or even just attaching a zipper pouch.

There's also strap pad eyes that could also be used to run the straps through, for smaller things where you don't want a whole panel. It seems like there should be some kind of system you could build with soft attachments, at least for low cost DIY type stuff.

The pegboard system looks neat, but I'm wary of IKEA 'systems' ever since they discontinued the Galant desk system.

RIP Galant. I could really do with a couple of replacement Galant desks, or just the tops, but they're long-gone now.

(And why the heck did they put big rounded corners on their new desks... did they never consider that people might put more than one of them end-to-end?...)

Ebay... they pop up with some regularity. And thrift stores as well.

Galant was such a great desk system.

Just get a regular pegboard. Cheaper and you can get accessories anywhere.

It looks to be powered through a cord going into a socket on the wall. As far as I know IKEA does not sell those cords nor those sockets, let alone the electricity delivered through these so this is not an IKEA-powered home lab.

That does not mean such a thing is not possible, at least not for those using SBCs. The solution used to be called 'IKEA KOPPLA' ('connect') but for some reason is now called 'IKEA SMÅHAGEL' (small hail) [2,3]. This 3-port USB charger works fine with all Raspberry pies I've thrown it at even though RPi3 sometimes complains about low voltage (which can be ignored and disabled if required as long as you're sure the power supply does actually provide enough power). Here [1] is an example of such, a file/print server I made for my daughter when she started university a few countries away from home, the empty space is now partly filled with a 2TB USB SSD (WD Elements SE Portable SSD). All of this runs fine off a single SMÅHAGEL output even though these theoretically can only deliver 2.4A (2.68A according to the formula presented on the datasheet for the current limiting chip TD 9521 [4], ILim=120k*1.14V/Riset where Riset is 51K in this charger). If this were to become a problem it would be possible to use two outputs but thus far I have not needed to do so.

[1] https://imgur.com/a/iKgbgXf

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0yrCSD3FAM

[3] https://www.ikea.com/se/sv/p/smahagel-usb-laddare-med-3-port...

[4] https://datasheet.lcsc.com/lcsc/1912111437_Techcode-Semicon-...

This isn't a great example of using the Skadis pegboards, because the author doesn't seem to be using the Skadis hooks or 3D printing their own. One of the huge benefits of Skadis over traditional pegboard is that the larger slots make 3D printed fixtures a much sturdier option, and a huge library of tool-customized models has become available. I've replaced all of my pegboard with Skadis and designed a number of custom mounts to place my tools exactly where I want them as I go about hardware design and assembly. I'm not convinced it's the right solution for my homeland, but after yesterday's LTT video where they mount audio controllers to a sheet of plywood, I'm interested in giving it a shot.

If you have access to a laser cutter, custom-sized skadis-compatible boards can be cut for low cost and with relative ease.

Reminds me of this post where they did the same, but on a cart instead https://ikeahackers.net/2021/08/home-networking-cart.html

Looks pretty good if you don't want to hang it on a wall.

I'm a Helmer cluster fan: http://helmer.sfe.se/

Someone also designed acrylic shelves for it: https://youtu.be/SAU6PeCzs_o

Be warned, this is EXACTLY the kind of toe in the water to a hobby that eventually turns into a power hungry 42U racked filled with all kinds of new and used servers/equipment!

As someone who is addicted you have been warned.

DW there is help. As someone who started in dumpster rack gear you too can come to realize you can probably get more grunt and use out of a pegboard with half a dozen nucs or old laptops screwed to it than a 42u decade old heating unit.

The real crack is networking. Just wait til you have to talk yourself out of 100gbe Lan gear because your line in is only 100mb and the most you transfer pc to pc realistically is a few kb word files or multi mb media files.

And when you get a rack, just make a LackRack (elsewhere in thread), and you can keep your homelab Ikea-based through all your upgrades!

A Lack, aptly named, being smaller than a full-size rack, it keeps the size of your homelab at bay (somehow).

There's the whole 10" rack mini standard that is perfect for small systems like those.

https://www.amazon.com/KENUCO-Panels-Shelves-Active-Componen...

I do have a concern with this. From the post it appears that this is zip-tied. How long can zip ties last with such weight? I’m afraid that it’ll fall down and cause havoc if I ever attempt a thing like this. Even with sff pcs

Ah, you zip-tie the devices to a pegboard. Very smart.

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