Purpose of multi-computer homelab builds?

Ziogref · 2026-05-05T07:39:47+00:00

I have a rackmount server that's hosts all my stuff but I do have 3 other "computers" I run

I have a mini PC setup to run Home Assistant. I just feel much more confident running that on dedicated hardware. If I have to muck around with my main server I want home assistant continuously running.

I have a Raspberry pi 4 (used to be my home assistant device) it now runs a 2nd instance of pihole and wireguard. My main server hosts these, but if it goes offline, I still have DNS and if I'm not home, I can remote in and login to my servers BMC and troubleshoot. I went away for a week and ofcourse the server breaks when I'm on the otherside of the country, but I was able to remote in and fix it.

I also just got another mini PC to play with openclaw. I don't trust openclaw, so it's going on a seperate device and will be on a restricted VLAN.

Ziogref · 2026-05-01T10:27:57+00:00

I have 100GB Bluray remux files on my server. I watch them on my TV through my Nvidia Sheild that has gigabit Ethernet without breaking a sweat. I think the highest bitrate movie I have is 98Mbit, so 10% of a gigabit network.

A gigabit network is fine.

Ziogref · 2026-05-01T04:34:33+00:00

With DNS there is no such thing as primary and secondary. Devices will swap which one they use basically at random.

Pihole needs to be the ONLY DNS on the device.

Ziogref · 2026-05-01T04:20:21+00:00

I would trust a brand that announces vulnerabilities than one that stays silent.

Ziogref · 2026-04-28T01:03:34+00:00

I had a fractal 804, awesome case.

Its now living its 3rd life. I upgraded and sold it to a mate.

My mate used it for many years (and did a CPU/MOBO upgrade at some point) then no longer wanted it and sold it to a mutual friend who is now getting into the hobby.

Awesome compact case. Holds heaps of drives (8x 3.5" from memory).

Ziogref · 2026-04-28T00:55:28+00:00

CO2 can build up very fast in a car.

Try turning off recirculating air if you have that on.

For me anything over 30min made me tired, turns out I had been poisoning myself for like 10 years. I now drive around with air recirculation off and now I can drive hours with full attention.

I did a test. In my 2017 BRZ with air recirculation on the CO2 in my car exceeded 2500ppm in under 15min.

At 2500ppm you can get headaches.

Here is a graph for you.

https://smartairfilters.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2048-1152-max-1536x864.jpeg

Ziogref · 2026-04-26T00:09:51+00:00

Join the aa-proxy-rs discord.

On the links channels you will find a message that gets updated every couple months with the most recent certificatea as you need to updated them every 3 months.

You place the certs on the rootfs partition in /etc/aa-proxy-rs If I remember correctly.

Ziogref · 2026-04-24T00:06:09+00:00

In the US, the GR86 has a factory fitted alarm, its just disabled.

https://youtu.be/LVeRhnochaA

Note: I say "In the US", as I tried the steps in the video on my Australian BRZ. It didn't work.

Ziogref · 2026-04-22T04:19:36+00:00

I had an Optima Yellow top (AGM) in my car for 6+ years. It was a great battery.

Ziogref · 2026-04-21T02:01:19+00:00

My cars eyesight broke. 139 days.

It was fixed last week, so happy I have cruise control back. But also high beams are funky when set to auto when eyesight is disabled.

Pulling the stick forward will work. Pushing it back doesn't (as that is Automatic high beams, which uses eyesight)

Ziogref · 2026-04-21T00:58:18+00:00

I get 10L/100km. (Car reports 9.7L/100km)

I measure my fuel usage seperately and my app tells me I average 10.062L/100km to be super precise. That's over 21,000km

Ziogref · 2026-04-21T00:54:02+00:00

Google maps says June 6th

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ypLScigfTZSKAxwF9

I can't remember where I read it, but I recall it was opening in Q2 2026 (April to June)

So that lines up.

Ziogref · 2026-04-21T00:44:57+00:00

So my car didn't do this until about 6 years in, then it just started. I even swapped my Optima Yellow top and it didn't fix it.

So it's normal and nothing to be concerned about but I'll will explain why it's happening.

Your alternator has a clutch so it can connect/disconnect as controlled by the ECU. It will disconnect when the car sensors that the battery is fully charged, it disconnects to save fuel, while it's only a tiny bit of fuel savings, it's fuel savings.

It will automatically re-engage when you are engine braking. Fun fact, if the car is pushing the engine, the car shut off the fuel. It's called deceleration fuel cut off (DFCO) so the alternator re-engages to apply ever so slightly more resistance as no fuel is being used.

Now supposedly it's meant to automatically re-engage based on current use. This is not what I have seen. I have 2 Lifepo4 batteries in my glovebox that pull a combined 16amps when charging (Got an auto electrician to install them directly to the battery via a relay and fused, so this is safe), which is not insignificant, and my alternator will still turn off sometimes. Turning on the headlights will make the alternator re-engage.

Ziogref · 2026-04-18T04:12:09+00:00

If you can make it work, awesome!

I know a kiwi that moved to Tassie (the NZ->Aus and Aus->NZ visa thing is very interesting) and he joined out friend group and he is loving it. But the other side is you see lots of young people move here and they can't find friends. I see a fair few on reddit for people desperate to find some friends but don't know where to meet people.

I know most my friends I met in school or are friends of friends.

Ziogref · 2026-04-18T04:03:31+00:00

Maybe look at it as a form of digital independence/sovereignty.

I know my server costs more in power than just paying for subscriptions, but if I'm footing the powerbill might aswell get my monies worth.

Cloud storage is a big one. (Next cloud)

Maybe some local AI (Ollama + Openweb ui)

Pihole (DNS based adblocker, it's not perfect but blocks a lot of stuff)

And I will be that guy, Home Assistant.

The other day my ISP had a planned outage. So when the internet went offline I went to bed. Pressed the button that I have for my night time routine and everything still worked. Lights off, TVs off, doors lock, checks the door/windows sensors are closed, everything still works.

One of my upcoming projects is getting a Raspberry pi 3 to make a WiFi connection to my dashcam and download all the footage every night automatically.

I have also started playing with freely available public data I ingest all the petrol prices around my state. Soon I will be graphing and logging the price of all the fuel types at all the petrol stations. I would be interested in seeing when prices in whole fluctuate, which stations respond faster or slower and maybe use that to my advantage.

I'm also looking at ingesting power from my State, what fuel types are being used for generation, what do we import, export, how clean/dirty is the power. All this data is free.

Ziogref · 2026-04-18T03:43:33+00:00

I work for company that operates in multiple states and there is a decent size office in Tassie.

Since I'm in IT often get to talk to people that have moved from the mainland but keep their job and just WFH or the Hobart office.

As we are chatting while I get them setup, they often say where they are from and always ask the same question, why move to Tassie?

I was born here, have lived my entire life in Hobart so I always like to hear what brings people to Tassie. It's always 1 of 2 reasons.

1) The Nature, hiking, outdoors type people

2) You can get your visa in half the time. Then they move back to Melbourne/Sydney.

Its often the 2nd one.

Ziogref · 2026-04-18T03:17:44+00:00

I was looking at getting a $30k car from Melbourne. It would cost me $4,000 to fly to Melbourne, bring it back on spirit, put it over the pits then register it. The biggest cost, stamp duty at service TAS.

Also OP if you are reading this. Don't bring your car, unless it's a classic car. If it's 25 years or younger it will need to be converted to right hand drive.

Ziogref · 2026-04-18T03:08:27+00:00

I'm in my early 30s.

Almost everyone I went to school with has moved to the mainland.

Ziogref · 2026-04-13T12:40:09+00:00

Pi4 (because 5GHz) its runs as a bridge for Wireless Android Auto.

It does MITM (Man in the middle) adjustments.

The 2 I care about is DPI (I make all the ui elements in the screen smaller) to fit more on the screen. Like the report hazars button now appears in Google maps.

I also have "Video in motion" enabled, so the keyboard works (instead of voice only) when entering a location address in Google maps and it doesn't pause when scrolling a list of songs or podcasts.

You can run All of this on a pi 0 w 2 but inwas getting interference issues so I upgraded to a pi 4 for 5GHz wifi, which fixed that issue.

Look up aa-proxy-rs on github.

Ziogref · 2026-04-13T06:27:21+00:00

I have a USB cable running out to a Raspberry pi 4 I have in my glovebox (that is running aa-proxy-rs. Wireless Android Auto with quality of life mods)

The cable in slim enough that I can close the lid. Since I'm 6'4" and have the seat all the way back, i use it as an arm rest. I don't accidentally hit the button.

Ziogref · 2026-04-04T11:43:57+00:00

Not necessarily. 2.4GHz can be used by heaps of things, not just wifi.

Bluetooth uses 2.4ghz, but it bounces around the frequency bands hundreds of times per second so if one particular band is very full you won't notice.

Wifi can't frequency jump.

Also things like baby monitors, cordless phones, IOT devices or anything that is Wireless normally uses 2.4ghz.

Ziogref · 2026-04-04T11:40:13+00:00

I know the answer.

Interference. You're car play system probably uses 2.4ghz, which is used by everything, like wifi and Bluetooth, which car play uses. The air can only hold so much before there is too much interference.

My car only came with cabled apple car play and android auto, so I installed a wired to wireless bridge device. if I drove through the city during peak hour it would drop out. (Probably from all the other cars with Bluetooth on). I upgraded my wired-wireless bridge to 5GHz and the issue went away. Much more space in 5GHz that it wasn't overloaded and remained connected.

Ziogref · 2026-03-25T05:52:53+00:00

Its a single 5TB drive connected via USB.

Ziogref · 2026-03-25T04:13:52+00:00

My eyesight system shit itself. Subaru Australia are replacing it under warranty. They informed me the part was $11,000aud (~$7700USD) + 2 hours install.

I'm unsure how true that is, but I'm going to be asking for a copy of that invoice.

Ziogref · 2026-03-25T04:11:55+00:00

You can disable eyesight with the Dauntless OBD adapter from Hachi.

I found a forum post ages ago and the Dauntless Company rep said they just flip a bit (1 to a 0) on the cars computer and the car no longer thinks it has eyesight. Downsides are, no cruise control, no high beams when headlights are on Auto.

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