Posts
Page 10 of 72
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Used Enterprise Servers in 2026
Dell R630/R730 and SuperMicro buying guide for 2026. Real idle power draw, how loud they get, what to avoid entirely, and how to read an eBay listing.
10 min read -
Tasmota: When ESPHome Isn't Enough
Tasmota vs ESPHome: broader device support, MQTT-native approach, and when legacy Sonoff/Shelly gear demands Tasmota instead
10 min read -
Home Assistant + InfluxDB for Long-Term History
Store years of sensor data with InfluxDB. Skip the 10-day limit, query historical trends, build Grafana dashboards for your home lab.
8 min read -
Reolink + Frigate: A Practical NVR Build
Build a DIY NVR with Reolink PoE cameras and Frigate. RTSP URLs, sub-stream tricks, storage math, doorbell support, and a complete working config.
· Updated:10 min read -
Frigate Beyond Coral: GPU and OpenVINO
The Coral USB TPU runs out of headroom past a few cameras. GPU and OpenVINO detector numbers for Frigate, config gotchas, and what to buy for six cameras.
· Updated:11 min read -
MQTT Broker Choices: Mosquitto vs EMQX
Mosquitto vs EMQX: lightweight vs enterprise MQTT brokers. Feature comparison, clustering, auth, resource use, and when each is overkill for your home lab.
· Updated:8 min read -
Garrul: 53 Releases Later
Garrul's 2026-05-25 roadmap promised moderation tools, a faster widget, and admin polish. 89 days and 53 releases later, here is the honest scorecard.
12 min read -
Unmanic vs Tdarr: Transcode Pipeline Comparison
Head-to-head comparison of Unmanic and Tdarr transcode pipelines, config style, plugins, workers, GPU support, and when to pick each.
· Updated:8 min read -
Tdarr: Auto-Transcoding Your Media Library
Batch transcode h264 to h265 or AV1 with Tdarr. GPU/CPU strategies, plugin flows, Docker Compose setup, and storage savings math for your media server.
· Updated:10 min read -
Home Assistant Energy Dashboard with Shelly
Power monitoring with Shelly EM/Pro/3EM, Home Assistant energy dashboard, circuit-level metering, solar+grid tracking, and wiring sanity checks.
· Updated:10 min read -
Z-Wave vs Zigbee in 2026
Z-Wave and Zigbee compared for 2026: frequency and range, how each mesh breaks, device cost, 2.4GHz interference, and which coordinator dongle to buy.
· Updated:10 min read -
Matter and Thread for the Suspicious
Matter and Thread protocol overview: what actually works in home labs, what's vaporware, and why you should be skeptical of the hype in 2026.
· Updated:10 min read
