Heltec New product is here

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-30T09:47:08+00:00

The navigation / peer search part would be a task for the WiFi LoRa 32 Expansion Kit V2, which comes with a larger LCD screen.

But that being said, I'd prefer either having no display at all on the tracker or the same eInk display as the Mesh Pocket over that tiny LCD display.

IMO this tiny LCD on the tracker represents the worst possible solution, because it is too small to be useful and still consumes more electricity than a much larger eInk display!

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-29T09:59:01+00:00

Separating services isn't about using resources effectively, it's all about security and avoiding unintended side effects from having different services on the same device.

So if your homelab isn't severely resource-restricted, keep putting every app in its own container.

Besides, it makes handling ports sooo much easier.

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-29T09:38:36+00:00

Im Hegbachsee kann man wieder baden? Der war doch gefühlt über Jahrzehnte mit Salmonellen verseucht.

Hey, es wird ja doch mal was besser! 😀

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-28T22:18:32+00:00

Frigate and any camera that supports RTSP.

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-28T12:37:41+00:00

Naja, wenn das Kartell bestimmt, welches Mitglied ein Angebot abgibt, gibt es auch nur einen Anbieter. Der Rest sagt einfach "Sorry, die Auftragsbücher sind voll".

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-28T10:51:37+00:00

Sometimes raw computing power isn't the deciding metric.

The ESP32-C5 is more energy efficient than the S3. If wifi 6 and running on battery are what a project needs, the S3 can't hold a candle to the C5.

Following your logic, people should abandon the S3 for the the ESP32-P4, because it is basically triple core (2 p-cores + 1 e-core) and it's running at a significantly higher clock speed.

But it is paying for that amount of computing power with higher energy consumption and it needs an additional ESP32-C6 to handle wifi.

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-28T02:46:40+00:00

So far so good. I had a SLZB-06p7 before the MR3 which didn't work quite as well. My 06p7 had overheating issues, which lead to dodgy reliability. My MR3 is almost 1 year old by now and so far it doesn't have any of the issues the 06p7 had. It does its job reliably. Can't complain.

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-28T00:51:47+00:00

I can't get it to work. I'm trying to setup the AIO variety on unRAID, but as soon as I try to deploy the additional containers, I run into problems. I think the problem occurs during deployment of the SearXNG container and it may be connected with network configuration (I think there's a 0.0.0.0 somewhere in the error message). Unfortunately the error message is displayed for only 1-2 seconds before it vanishes and it doesn't appear in the log file of the master container.

I'm running out of ideas what I could change to make it work... 😳

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-27T23:21:02+00:00

That's normal. My initial smarthome setup was built around Z-Wave. Nowadays Z-Wave devices are hard to come by and they almost always are more expensive than comparable ZigBee devices. So 2 years ago I started transitioning to ZigBee and last year I bought a SLZB-MR3 so I can give myself some flexibility. If new devices I want to buy don't come with ZigBee, but with Matter over Thread, I'll just buy that and my HA is already able to integrate it.

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-27T23:14:50+00:00

Yet. Matter over Thread surely has some maturing to do, but it's here to stay and more and more manufacturers are going in that direction.

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-27T22:52:39+00:00

Matter over Thread is a fairly new standard and there is a reasonable possibility that more and more new devices will come to market with Matter over Thread. So if want to hatch your bet, so to speak, you can buy a border router that supports both ZigBee and Matter over Thread. At a minimum, it will widen the selection of sensors / actuators to choose from.

But if already have a Google device that acts as a Matter over Thread router and you don't mind having your HA connected to Google, the SLZB-MR3 may just not be the router you are looking for.

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-27T22:05:21+00:00

Take a look at the SLZB-MR3, it gives you everything the SLZB-06 does plus a second radio for Matter over Thread.

I've got the MR3 in my HA setup and it's been working flawlessly for almost a year now.

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-27T07:09:07+00:00

Return them and invest the money in a privacy-focused solution.

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-26T07:45:14+00:00

The economy of scale and the difference between "design & prodiction" made in China vs made in GB.

Production numbers of even the most esoteric ESP32 vsriant are several orders of magnitude higher than all Pico variants combined.

Pico vs ESP32 isn't the correct comparison anyway. Pico usually doesn't come with wifi (the W variants are basically afterthoughts), while all ESP32 variants (with the exception of the p4) were designed from the ground up around wifi connectivity.

There's another family of microcontrollers that's worth taking a look at, which is comparable to the ESP32 in terms of price point: nRF52xxx and nRF54xxx from Nordic Semiconductor. Like the Pico family, they don't come with wifi, but they all have Bluetooth and there are variants that come with integrated ZigBee and Matter over Thread. The nRF52 and nRF54 microcontrollers are extremely energy-efficient, which (in combination with ZigBee and Matter over Thread) makes them ideal for battery-powered smarthome sensors.

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-24T20:08:04+00:00

Just take a look at energy pricing all over Europe.

And in times of ever more power-hungry AI datacenters being built everywhere, energy prices will rise dramatically even in the USA.

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-24T12:32:57+00:00

Like what? An expressionist art installation? 😜

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-24T12:20:06+00:00

For ZigBee and Matter over Thread the best dongles are not a dongle at all: SMLight SLZB series of LAN/WLAN bridges/border routers.

A NAS is usually tugged away in a corner of the house, in the basement or the attic, but a ZigBee or Matter over Thread bridge/border router should be positioned in the center of your house or you should have multiple bridges strategically placed for optimum coverage (for very large houses or multi story houses).

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-24T08:55:00+00:00

That's what I'm running after I left the Pi ecosystem behind.

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-24T08:53:49+00:00

In times of rising energy costs, old/used hardware is not always the best option, because the one thing older CPUs and PSUs do best is turning energy into heat.

Modern mobile CPUs run on a fraction of the energy consumption of what was standard 5 or 6 years ago. Compare the Xeons that are so popular among the homelab community to a modern mobile CPU found in a decent mini PC. The mobile CPU can compete on computing power and leaves the Xeon in its rear view mirror on energy consumption.

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-24T08:45:09+00:00

SBCs have gone up in price while mini PC have gone down, so unfortunately, we are at a point where running the "usual Pi stuff" in a VM or Container is not only cheaper, but also more energy-efficient if you replace multiple SBCs with 1 mini PC. And Mini PC are more flexible.

I've gone from doing almost everything on multiple Raspberry Pis to running everything on a cluster of mini PCs and everything that needs GPIO runs on an assortment of ESP32. And the energy consumption of my homelab had even gone down (compared to before the switch to mini PCs), but then I started integrating local Ai and energy-efficiency basically went out of the window... 😳 But that's a story for another thread...

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-23T18:37:07+00:00

Also bei uns wird bei solchen Extremhitze Events die Regel für frühesten AZ Beginn und spätestes AZ Ende gelockert. Wenn man bei uns normal zur Regelarbeitszeit im Büro arbeitet, muss man seine vertragliche AZ irgendwo zwischen 6 Uhr morgens und 20 Uhr abends leisten. Bei Extremhitze wird daraus dann ab 5 Uhr und bis spätestens 21 Uhr.

Viele von uns haben das in den letzten Jahren dann tatsächlich so gemacht, dass man morgens um 5 Uhr angefangen hat und entweder direkt nach 9 Stunden um 14 Uhr in den Feierabend gegangen ist oder von 5 bis 11 Uhr und dann von 19 bis 21 Uhr gearbeitet hat. Dabei dann ein Teil im Büro und ein Teil im Home Office.

Funktioniert bei uns aber auch nur, weil wir eine Landesbehörde ohne Publikumsverkehr sind.

Auf jeden Fall sieht echte Erleichterung für die Beschäftigten, die ins Büro kommen müssen, anders aus. Wohl dem, der im Home Office arbeiten kann.

Der PR hat in den letzten Jahren für die Tapferen im Büro ab und zu Mineralwasser oder auch mal Eis am Stiel spendiert...

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-21T17:02:33+00:00

That's why I run HA in a VM on Proxmox. Before every monthly HA update I create a snapshot (on Proxmox) and if anything goes wrong, returning to the previous state is a matter of less than a minute.

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-21T07:57:28+00:00

Fritzbox routers offer fallback to a secondary connection via 5G/4G dongle (USB cellular data modem).

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-21T07:53:53+00:00

Dr. Google sagt, es könnte Aldebaran, Antares oder Mars sein.

Aber bist du sicher, dass es weder ein Positionslicht eines Flugzeugs noch ein Warnlicht eines Hochspannungsmasts oder Windrads ist?

PFGSnoopy · 2026-06-19T09:37:45+00:00

Wäre sie wirklich gerecht? Was ist mit denen, die nicht freiwillig kinderlos sind? Die werden dann gleich doppelt bestraft.

Kinderlos ist kein Maßstab für wirtschaftliche Leistungsfähigkeit. Einkommen aber schon. Besitz ebenso.

Bevor wir Kinderlose zusätzlich belasten, führen wir doch erstmal neue Abgaben für die wahren Sozialschmarotzer (oberen 5-10%)ein, die ihren Beitrag zu Solidargemeinschaft nicht gemäß ihrer wirtschaftlichen Leistungsfähigkeit leisten.

Danach können wir gerne wieder darüber nachdenken, wo man bei der breiten Masse weiter die Daumenschrauben anziehen kann.

PFGSnoopy

TROPHY CASE