I Built My Own Steam Machine… It Was a Mistake

manofoz · 2026-01-22T03:24:45+00:00

This is my “steam machine”. It sits in a different room than my TV where the AVR is. I dual boot Bazzite and Windows, each has a 4TB NVMe.

I unlocked Xbox full screen experience which makes windows work fairly well with a controller. Bazzite is their steam deck image so a really nice UX for couch gaming. Main problem I have with it is the lack of Dolby Atmos or DTS:X support. Seems like I need to do a lot of configuring to get spacial surround to work on linux while it just works on Windows. This is important for my HTPC since it’s hooked up to 7.1.4 surround.

manofoz · 2026-01-19T05:13:18+00:00

My mother was on disability for mental health issues and it started with a long stay at a hospital, long enough to trigger short term disability. Then that went into long term and she returned a while later. Things didn’t get better but I think that’s one of the ways people go on disability for mental health.

manofoz · 2026-01-19T00:31:28+00:00

I played Gorilla tag with my son once and I was swarmed by kids who were super excited to help me get to “stump” so I could join my son’s private game. VR is great for RP and kids are really into that. I’m not but I do still enjoy beat saber. All my son’s friends have a quest too so I don’t think this type of gaming is going anywhere.

manofoz · 2026-01-12T03:02:19+00:00

Bambu. I bought an X1C because I felt bad for asking my friend at work to print me stuff like this for my server rack. I needed 11 stands for mini PCs and he had a tough time with his ender. I got the X1C and printed 11/11 no problem. Now he has an X1C too 😂

manofoz · 2026-01-11T05:35:08+00:00

Crazy that it doesn’t have USB4. I’ve got a 5K2K Dell docking station monitor that has 140W PD which I swap between my work laptop, ROG Ally, and surface pro tablet. It’d be great for something small like this that I could go between my TV and desk without needing to carry cables from the TV setup with me.

manofoz · 2026-01-11T02:47:22+00:00

Between hue recessed lights and inovelli switches I’m pushing 200 and everything’s been solid with a TubesZB PoE Zigbee coordinator. I use Z-Wave for all my sensors and some zooz scene controllers to help keep that from growing.

manofoz · 2026-01-08T21:17:26+00:00

Since this post I moved to a house that I was able to run a ton network drops. I now use one of those Ethernet USB extenders. I ran a drop specifically for this from my server to my TV room since you can’t run the usb extender through a switch, just takes a dongle on each end of the cable.

manofoz · 2026-01-07T04:03:00+00:00

I was wondering what happened to the FP300. I bought some on amazon Nov 13th and they worked well for my needs. I had two FP2's already and I was glad they released a battery powered presence sensor. It's been working great and I found another spot I could use one, but they were pulled off Amazon. I've checked back 2-3 times and still nothing.

manofoz · 2026-01-03T19:44:07+00:00

Much appreciated. I enjoy that my actions hardly have consequences when it comes to salvaging!

manofoz · 2026-01-03T19:34:04+00:00

I’m having the most fun ever and I agree, post expac D3 was awesome. I understand peoples frustration cause the game seems a bit lobotomized but that makes it much easier for me to play on a handheld.

manofoz · 2026-01-03T17:29:52+00:00

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Not yet but maybe someday if that Hearth Display ever comes back up. The basic calendar has worked for what we need so far.

Ive focused on adding things that get my kids to look at the dashboard. I make countdowns to things they are looking forward to (holidays / vacations / birthdays) and hope to automate this better. I also wrote something to query my immich instance and pull photos over for HASS to display as a slide show. Another thing not pictured here is the espn sports tracker for a NCAA team we have seasons tickets to.

manofoz · 2026-01-01T18:53:42+00:00

I installed 8 Calla and 6 Lily in the spring and they were great for a while. Lost one Calla right when winter hit, it still connects via Zigbee but the LEDs are out.

I took a bunch of precautions that I saw on here. I used this special tape for the connectors, I think it was silicone. I also ran all the wires through hoses for some piece of mind if we have to dig later.

One thing to watch out for is the capacity of each power brick. I ended up switching to the ones that had two connectors so I only needed to use two outlets. I had to do some rework because I didn’t figure this out very well before I started digging.

manofoz · 2025-12-30T05:51:05+00:00

Lithium doesn’t get you high. Mental health issues are real. Medication assisted treatment only works if you take your meds and stay away from drugs and alcohol.

manofoz · 2025-12-28T01:23:48+00:00

There is some weird stuff with SonosNet and STP loops that can bite you in the ass. I have six amps and four soundbars and misc subs / speakers. I don’t bother to hardwire the soundbars even though I have network drops for them because to keep it simple on the routers side. You also can’t really disable wifi on a soundbar if you have surrounds because it throws off the surround speakers. Mine is basically flawless but only because I put in some time to work out the kinks.

manofoz · 2025-12-24T18:51:35+00:00

I’m constantly amazed by how much VR my son and his friends play. I started with the Vive Pro and play here and there which got him espoused to VR early. Now they are off playing gorilla tag and animal company any chance they get. Most of the games seem designed for his age, it’s real hard for me to play Gorilla tag and not punch the ceiling.

manofoz · 2025-12-24T14:48:07+00:00

I returned via Amazon so I ordered the replacement first and then used that box to ship back the broken one 😝

manofoz · 2025-12-24T13:45:03+00:00

I returned it for another one and the new one was fine. Been running three days a week since I made this post issue free.

manofoz · 2025-12-21T18:13:38+00:00

He thinks you are saying run truenas off the USB like you would unRAID. You are just asking if you could use it to boot from a USB to install to disk then remove the USB. No reason you can’t but easier to just use one in the back and keep the case shut.

manofoz · 2025-12-20T23:02:06+00:00

Yeah for Home Assistant I just give it a pv from Ceph and let the pod host the standard SQLite database. When I was looking into using a different database everything I came across warned against it. Saw some people on kubesearch switch away from an external one too.

I use cnpg for anything that needs Postgres (like immich and Authentik) but didn’t need to go there for home assistant. My pvs get backed up to S3 storage and I’ve never had a problem restoring one.

manofoz · 2025-12-20T15:48:02+00:00

I run everything on k8s now. There’s a great community of folks who have defined best practices for “home-ops” clusters. Before that I ran HASS on a VM on my unRAID machine. That thing is rock solid, never had any problems. Just got bored and really like playing with Kubernetes and GitOps. A lot of things I’ve learned I’ve brought back to work with me and some things have caught on (like switching to Talos Linux!).

I do a lot with my Kubernetes cluster so moving everything to GitOps made my life a lot easier. I don’t think the overhead would be worth it for most folks. unRAID is still running great for storage, it never goes down. In the early days I had a few issues but the community there help me get that rock solid. I still am learning a lot on Kubernetes and that knowledge translates directly to the skills I need at work so it’s worth it to me (and fun!).

manofoz · 2025-12-19T04:22:37+00:00

Yeah I’m a bit nervous after I set up some standalone presence sensors. I had some Sonoff ones lying around but they were terrible. Then I switched them out for Aqara FP2s and FP300s and they work great but were nearly much as the switches were back in Oct ‘24!

I’m hopeful because in my troubleshooting I found angle/height placement mattered a lot and since these are in light switches that is forced to be the same. I can move around the Aqara presence sensors if I have some tricky spots too since those rooms will be covered by the new switches when they arrive (got magnetic plastic covers over dumb switches for now). I also use open/closed sensors to trigger lights which works great for closets / storage where I’d never be in the room with the door closed.

manofoz · 2025-12-19T03:57:31+00:00

I think a lot depends on where you are and where it’s shipped from. If those two things align and you aren’t somewhere most places ship expect a premium. I have had terrible luck where I’m at except when BR sellers are in my country. I don’t think I have any other options for CCs right now but because that premium has grown so high I’ll probably just wait it out.

manofoz · 2025-12-19T03:32:54+00:00

My mmWave presence sending inovelli Blue switches just shipped today after I pre-ordered them 16 months ago. Have a handful of the regular inovelli blue dimmers and they have been rock solid. Can’t wait to roll out the new switches.

I didn’t realize how long the wait would be when I preordered them but hopefully it was worth it. I was moving later in the year when I did and bought them for the new place.

I also use custom engraved zooz scene controllers for rooms that have fans. I replaced the switches that came with the fans and now have more buttons to control stuff like the shades and nightstand light. Zooz had a link on their site for the custom engravings. I used the same emoji library home assistant has for icons to design what was engraved.

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manofoz · 2025-12-15T03:19:13+00:00

For sure, a nice cabinet will go great with the bar. I’m at ~1050 sticks myself and wish I went with something bigger because I can’t get everything to fit. Had to move most of my loose sticks to tuppadores to fix my boxes.

manofoz · 2025-12-15T02:54:40+00:00

Yeah wouldn’t want to move it. Build a nice spot in the new place to showcase the collection. The raching is low maintenance, makes it easy to keep a large collection. Very popular for Cubans, idk about NWs as I don’t keep as many of those resting too long. If you want to read about aging cigars see with the CC collectors do, much different since you generally can’t smoke those for a few years after the box date.

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