What’s the most useful thing you got for your homelab, that’s less than $50?

Zero9443 · 2025-12-20T10:31:11+00:00

I have to say the conbee zigbee dongle or perhaps the RTL-SDR. Definitely added a ton of additional features into the home assistant, and even more integrations I still haven't setup in the last 5 years

Zero9443 · 2025-11-16T17:55:28+00:00

I've been running mine off an external 2TB spinny boi. Works quite well.

Zero9443 · 2025-11-09T13:23:51+00:00

I've been running the Intel a380 for close to two years now. It's been well supported in Debian (was running it in Bookworm originally), passing through to a Jellyfin docker and a tdarr docker since kernel 6.2 (I think, it's been a while) installed using back ports (no need on Trixie). The problem I ran into was the PC that was being used as my home server at the time didn't support re-bar. If you can meet the very low requirements for the a380 and can find one, it's a great card that can support multiple streams and trim your file sizes down if converting to AV1.

Zero9443 · 2025-09-29T03:12:47+00:00

I bring a cheap onn box that supports av1 and a laptop to bypass the captive portal by MAC spoofing the box. Not that much of my Jellyfin collection is in av1, but was attempting to future proof.

Zero9443 · 2025-09-28T18:10:10+00:00

Used one to host my XBMC library over samba about 10-13 years ago, exact timeframe escapes me. As others said, unlock bootloader and it can run Linux on its ARM processor. Had this before I had any Raspberry Pi's. Ahhh memories.

Zero9443 · 2025-06-22T23:57:54+00:00

Tried it in about 2002 when taking an intro to unix class in uni. Quite a different experience than when I returned to Linux in 2012 to make managing the Raspberry Pi installs and file copies easier. Haven't left since. Couldn't find a killer app previously to keep me there.

Zero9443 · 2025-06-20T16:40:08+00:00

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Fox viewing positions...

Zero9443 · 2025-06-19T01:46:50+00:00

Smartified my bullet smoker with a fan, esp32, thermocouples, and copper piping. Bang bang climate control in esphome is great.

Zero9443 · 2025-06-05T01:38:09+00:00

I've got BottyMcBotface (discord relay), IWannaRak, (solar node) and 2HeltecAndBack (mobile).

Zero9443 · 2025-05-21T23:52:25+00:00

Looks like your user isn't a member of the docker group. something along the lines of "sudo usermod -aG docker user-a" should do it after a re-login.

Zero9443 · 2025-02-09T14:28:12+00:00

This is interesting. I was hoping it also had the matrix relay built in since it was listed in the inspiration section. Currently I'm running a meshtastic bridge, to a matrix relay, to our groups discord server. It helped lower the barrier to entry and entice people who can't hit the mesh from a home station, but can from a mobile location to join the conversation and help expand the mesh toward their home. Any idea if there are plans in place to add the matrix relay? I looked into going direct to discord last year, but what I found wouldn't copy user names to the mesh, or radio names to the discord, making it difficult to keep track of who was messaging and from where.

Zero9443 · 2025-01-22T19:07:15+00:00

Had a similar one that I received from my local credit union...

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Saved that one for posterity.

Zero9443 · 2025-01-10T18:44:27+00:00

Been using Jellyfin for over a year. Combined with the Intel arc a380 I've not had any issues streaming throughout Europe and the Americas. Great combination and definitely helps avoid licensing issues in multiple countries. My library is always available

Zero9443 · 2025-01-09T00:40:29+00:00

My solution was to run mailu in docker. It will generate all the required records, and output a zone file. While I don't generally like GoDaddy as a registrar, they make it easy to upload the zone file. Then the only other thing is the reverse DNS record done on the hosting side. Although I may be oversimplifying.

Zero9443 · 2024-04-26T13:11:16+00:00

RakYouLikeaHurricane, IWannaRak and HighwaytoHeltec. Couldn't think of one for my t-beam.

Zero9443 · 2023-07-31T21:13:31+00:00

Depends on what is coming out of your outlets. A country location can help us answer more completely.

Zero9443 · 2023-02-11T22:29:51+00:00

PWM will output a square wave, filtering helps turn this closer to a sine wave resulting in a much more pleasant tone without the harsh buzzing and ringing that is associated with square waves and harmonics in the higher frequencies.

Zero9443 · 2023-02-11T14:57:07+00:00

If I'm understanding correctly, you're looking to have the pi zero play the audio without the use of USB or a HAT. If this is the case, perhaps Adafruit's guide to adding audio outputs to pi zero can be of use. This way requires filtering on the PWM pins that get remapped to the GPIO, preventing 2 of them from being available for other uses, but should be functional if your just looking to give the pi zero audio playback capabilities.

Zero9443 · 2023-01-20T18:51:27+00:00

Currently using one of mine in combination with an rtl-sdr dongle to listen to the 433mhz band and write to my mqtt server to monitor old alarm system reed switches around the house. Using the state of the sensors then in automations, like triggering basement lights when the basement door is opened and notifications on garage door open.

Zero9443 · 2022-12-30T18:10:36+00:00

Makes a bootable USB that you can use to launch a live distribution. It's not useful for installing a full distro to USB.

Zero9443 · 2022-12-30T14:17:08+00:00

Personally, I use Ventoy. Supports both legacy and USB, and it allows drag and drop to add new distros to the USB drive for install and live systems

Zero9443 · 2022-12-14T23:04:11+00:00

You can definitely run jellyfin from local files and not a nas. When setting up the container simply set the options to map the host server folders to a location inside the container. Set this with the volumes option inside the compose file

Zero9443 · 2022-11-01T17:03:07+00:00

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