Thought I would share since I’ve recently purchased this for a unifi setup I’m going to be installing in our new house.
Previously the cheapest on OzBargain was $281.60 back in March.
Original 15% off on eBay for eBay Plus Members, 10% off for Non Members eBay Deal Post
Yeah I bought the ‘plus’ 1tb version for just under $300 during one of these ebay sales.
Ouch that's pricey. Cheaper to buy a nuc & use it for other stuff too.
A NUC doesn't have a built-in UPS and can't be powered over PoE or USB. If it's for home use that's fine, but if you're deploying a controller for a client, it would be wise to use purpose-built hardware to do the job, especially at this cheap price. It's not much more than a cheap nuc. You'll also need RAM and a storage device for the nuc, will it still be cheaper?
Ok a raspberry pi with a powerbank (which is what i used to use). But my point is a NuC/cheap PC can run this (its very low memory,cpu,etc requirement) and plenty of other things.
For a corporate environment, someone else is paying, so you tend to buy from a supplier direct, not their ebay store.
Basically IMHO Its overpriced for its use.
Ok a raspberry pi with a powerbank (which is what i used to use).
Surely you wouldn't be deploying a hobbyist board with a mobile phone power bank for a commercial client? Will the Pi know when to shut down, or do you need additional hardware for that?
For a corporate environment, someone else is paying, so you tend to buy from a supplier direct, not their ebay store.
Don't forget the large number of independent techs out there who set up networks for their clients. With their reputation on the line, it would be wise for them to buy purpose-built hardware especially since it doesn't cost that much. They'd buy at this discounted price and charge regular price pocketing the discount.
There are also small companies without large IT budgets who would appreciate any discounts they can get. Not everyone is a large corporation with direct arrangements with suppliers.
Basically IMHO Its overpriced for its use.
How much is the cheap NUC (plus RAM and storage device) you were referring to?
How much is a proper Pi setup? Just off the top of my head, $50 for the Pi, $12 for a case, $20 for a PSU, $25 for a high-endurance card, $25 for a power bank? That's $132, then factor in the time it takes to install the OS, install the Unifi software, ensure everything is running fine, and configure the auto-shut down on power loss settings (plus the additional cost of any required hardware)… for a solution that is not supported by Ubiquiti.
As I said, there are situations where that would be perfectly acceptable, but to a professional business with their reputation on the line, IMHO a $120 savings on a maybe $1500+ job is not worth it.
Surely you wouldn't be deploying a hobbyist board with a mobile phone power bank for a commercial client?
who said mobile phone power bank, commerical client? and Raspberry Pi's aren't just hobbist boards. but anyway keep inventing
Will the Pi know when to shut down, or do you need additional hardware for that?
no need if you're power is out for 36hrs I used to get mine running, you've got bigger issues then getting router stats.
How much is the cheap NUC
my 8gb/256gb windows box was $350, running lots of other things.
again if you're spending someone else's money, people (except you) probably won't care about saving a few bucks on ebay. But people spending their own money , there's a cheaper solution. FOr the specs & purpose it's expensive. No need to get excitable. you're welcome to waste your money on it, but other Ozb'ers might like to know they don't need to waste their money and use cheaper solutions. kinda what this website is about :-)
who said mobile phone power bank, commerical client?
So you would use a battery backup for yourself but not for your client?
and Raspberry Pi's aren't just hobbist boards.
As I said, you're free to use a "small and affordable computer that you can use to learn programming") as a controller for your commercial client. But you need to realise that there are many people who would prefer to deploy a purpose-built device that can be neatly powered over PoE and can gracefully shut itself down for only ~$120 more. Their time is worth more than that.
no need if you're power is out for 36hrs I used to get mine running,
The purpose of the UPS is to give it sufficient time to gracefully shut down in the case of a power event, not to keep it running for days. You cannot control everything that happens at a client site, e.g. another contractor bumping your usb charger out while plugging another device in.
again if you're spending someone else's money, people (except you) probably won't care about saving a few bucks on ebay.
You might be surprised; out there in this world, some people don't only think of themselves.
FOr the specs & purpose it's expensive.
I think it's more a case of you not understanding the purpose and role in a commercial setting.
other Ozb'ers might like to know they don't need to waste their money and use cheaper solutions.
As I mentioned many times, cheaper solutions can absolutely be used. I use the free software at home myself.
You just seem to think that everybody in the world can only do things the way you do, nobody else can have different deployment scenarios to you, and that the cloud key is only for "fanbois" who have too much money to spend.
@[Deactivated]: Dont understand the negative votes. I totally second your point.
There is the Apple crowd [evrything $eamless & $hiny with $$ to spend proudly], the Windows crowd [something that works mostly and is cheap enough], and the Linux crowd [take pride in DIY].
@r0nmac: No one is denying that the cheap option can be absolutely viable for some scenarios. supabrudda just cannot see that there are other scenarios where it would be prudent to use an officially-supported, purpose-built device which doesn't cost much more than a DIY solution.
Some UniFi deployments can cost thousands of dollars with a USG, PoE switches, AC Pro/HD access points.. why would a reputable installer then use a self-supported Pi just to save $120?
Or just install the UniFi controller onto any old machine you already have lying around, you don't need to buy something modern. It doesn't even need to be always on unless you use the guest portal.
Yeah, if it's a simple setup that would work absolutely fine. But if you're also running the UniFi Security Gateway, you also won't get network stats. You also won't be able to login to the controller to check problems or find out who is historically hogging all the bandwidth on a client's network if the controller isn't running.
The controller also doesn't natively run as a service, so it won't autorun on a computer unless someone logs in first, or you manually install it as a service.
or you manually install it as a service.
it's a two minute job in Windows or Linux.
what are you on about? i run a docker instance of the unifi controller on my nas and get all those (stats. remote login, etc).
@jztilly: Fanboi's need to justify their expensive purchases.
These cloud keys are for the sort of people who buy official Apple/Amazonn/Samsung cases for their toys. They've got money to burn and try to justify why they forked out 5x the price for something because it's official, therefore in their eyes must be better.
Fanboi's need to justify their expensive purchases.
No need for childish, immature insults now.
These cloud keys are for the sort of people who buy official Apple/Amazonn/Samsung cases for their toys. They've got money to burn and try to justify why they
Maybe one day you will realise that different people may have different requirements to you, and some of those people take their jobs seriously. You're absolutely free to use hobbyist hardware to save $120 on a job, but not everyone has the same thinking as you.
forked out 5x the price for something because it's official, therefore in their eyes must be better.
5x? So you are comparing this cloud key to a $52 raspberry pi without an sd card, case, psu, and ups?
i run a docker instance of the unifi controller on my nas and get all those (stats. remote login, etc).
That was in response to this statement:
It doesn't even need to be always on unless you use the guest portal.
Why not just using the Ruckus unleashed APs? Much more powerful and stable, and also easy to setup.
I got a bunch of UniFi kit recently through ebay deals but went with the Cloudkey v1 for roughly $100,as couldn't see the value in v2 as don't want to run their video kit. Cloudkey saved me the effort compared to a nuc/pi setup. Sure it doesn't gracefully shutdown etc. but it backups and for home use that should be sufficient for me.
but it backups and for home use that should be sufficient for me.
Yeah, those v1 ones still do the job fine. At home I just run the controller software on my existing server. If you don't need stats, wifi presence detection, or a hotspot, you don't need the controller running all the time anyway, so you can just install it on any computer and run it when needed.
![[eBay Plus] Ubiquiti Unifi Cloud Key Gen2 $274.55 Delivered @ Wireless1 eBay](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/32/456732.jpg?h=a53ea075)
Get the HDD version instead