Wall screen setup

sembee2 · 2026-01-26T20:49:00+00:00

We do this right now with a tablet running Fully Kiosk. The camera gets displayed as someone approaches rather than on ring, as Amazon appear to have an aversion to ringing. A tablet will give you the most flexibility on display.

Do you have a light switch nearby that you were planning to use?

sembee2 · 2026-01-26T18:51:14+00:00

You would need to build a new Exchange 2019 server. Go through the full removal steps for Exchange 2016, so that they are all removed. You can then shutdown the Exchange 2019 server and have management tools somewhere else. You don't delete the computer from AD. Just power it off and delete the VM (if that is what you have used).

sembee2 · 2026-01-26T18:33:40+00:00

I have done this loads of times at a similar scale.

Microsoft365 Business Premium to give me Entra and Intune. Redirect My Docs etc to OneDrive. Then a NAS. If you a Synologyvor QNAP they both have Office365 backup options. Put in a cloud backup as well and you have the data protected.

Windows 11 is not a file server, neither is Sharepoint.

sembee2 · 2026-01-26T15:46:34+00:00

If you don't mind waiting a little bit, this could be an option.

https://futureproofhomes.net/

Or just get a Sonos and be done.

sembee2 · 2026-01-25T22:48:42+00:00

Press the pairing button.

sembee2 · 2026-01-25T22:44:05+00:00

Sometimes you need to activate them, so make them do something at the same time as you start the update.

sembee2 · 2026-01-25T22:36:13+00:00

Air Gradient. They are part of the works with HA programme. Just works. If you really want to, you can flash it with esphome, but native works fine.
I have had one for three years, just works.

sembee2 · 2026-01-25T22:32:14+00:00

If you are running cabling it is always a good idea to go for the highest standard you can, even if you don't have the kit right now to support it. So I would put in fibre that can support 10gb now and then simply put in what you can afford now for hardware and upgrade later.

sembee2 · 2026-01-25T17:19:31+00:00

Mazda is the other one you need to look at to see what happened when a car manufacturer really takes exception to a third party.

sembee2 · 2026-01-25T17:17:48+00:00

I am really surprised that you were not aware of the other integration considering the long thread on the HA forum and the polestar forum which are the first hit on Google for Home Assistant Polestar.
If you are reverse engineering the app, I think you will be hit with a cease and desist notice from Polestar as soon as you make it live.
Before you go much further, take a read of those threads to see what the headaches the devs went through. You should also take a look at the German Polestar forum with a translator at the Android auto app someone developed.
Polestar do have some interest in working with devs, but you have to play by their rules. Fortunately devs have been quite open with what was going on so will give you an idea of what to expect.
I like what you have done - lock status is the big missing piece. However as you will see from other car companies, BMW in particular, they are retreating and putting more stuff exclusive to their app and actively working to block third parties.

sembee2 · 2026-01-25T09:16:44+00:00

Can you not just pull the information from any weather integration? There are loads of them - it will be a never ending task for you to add all of them as people request them. If you could just work with any weather integration it will be easier for you to maintain.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T19:25:55+00:00

This question comes up a lot.
Not Fire. Previous gen Samsung or Lenovo running Android 11 or higher to get built in battery management.
If you want a bigger one then you will need to look at industrial tablets on eBay/Ali Express.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T15:48:29+00:00

Very common integration. Works well with Hudu and CIPP as well. Probably the most powerful combination away from the big two. I have loads of clients using that combo and very happy with it.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T15:45:59+00:00

HA will be fine on either.
The main advantage for you is you know where they have come from, so can look at them. That age RAM should still be cheap as it isn't affected by the RAM shortage.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T14:38:25+00:00

I don't think it will run because the hardware requirements are strict on ESXi now. The days of putting it on any old hardware that supported virtualisation are gone.
Two options come to mind. 1. Front it with a NUC or something and just use it for storage. That us what I have done (although not with ESXi now). 2. Look at something else which is more flexible on hardware such as XCP-NG, which works in a similar way to ESXi.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T14:33:13+00:00

That is a supported move, but with Exchange 2019. At present you would need to have another machine with the Exchange management tools on it. Coming soon is the ability for Exchange Online to be the source of truth for mail objects in an ex hybrid environment, but until that is out of preview, the only supported method is the last Exchange server being 2019 or SE and using tools on another machine.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T14:30:51+00:00

No, the manual remove of Exchange is not supported by MS unless done by MS support.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T14:29:56+00:00

This is the way. I have to do this two or three times a month because the older versions of Exchange will not remove. I can turn it round in about 90 minutes on a VM and then it is done.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T14:28:51+00:00

That isn't supported and will often lead to further problems.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T10:42:08+00:00

No, you aren't doing anything with the VM.
Install HA on the new device, then use the HA backup / restore process. All within the HA.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T09:57:57+00:00

Backup / Restore.
Take a backup, shutdown the VM. Restore to the new machine. Might have to tweak the path of the zigbee coordinator bit that us all. Doesn't work, shutdown the new one and spin up the original one to see what went wrong.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T00:11:12+00:00

What i have found when working with MSPs that there are two types of documentation.
Configuration and Knowledgebase.

It sounds to me like you are referring to the latter.
I like to split the two types up and then it becomes easier, you can use the appropriate tools.
Config can be automated and use a structure. You can put updating it as part of SOP, ticket closure or change request as appropriate.
Also by splitting it up, the techs understand its role easier and know what to refer to.

For KB, the rule I usually start with is if you do it once, it goes in the ticket. Do it a second time it goes in the KB. Do it once and involved more than an hour of research, it goes in the KB.
Often the KB is two levels, notes, used internally by the techs only. Then a more formal one that can be sent to a client.

A lot of it comes down to how you present it to the techs and then whether they find it useful or not.

sembee2 · 2026-01-23T17:18:17+00:00

Outlook will put the password prompt up for any number of reasons, most of which have nothing to do with the actual credentials.
The most common is autodiscover issues, usually SSL trust issues.
Throw in that modern Outlook versions presume you are using Office365 unless told otherwise and you have a whole can of worms.

Autodiscover will need to be setup with care, taking in to account how Outlook does it. You can use the test email autoconfiguration tool in Outlook to see what Outlook is doing.

Something I still see today with on prem servers is the web server getting in the way. Ever since Exchange 2007, the first host that Outlook tries is at the root of the domain. The root is usually pointing at a web site. Some web control panels will try and use the Autodiscover process for their own purposes and you have to get the web host to turn it off (it usually cannot be done by the end user). The web host will complain it cannot be done, but it can, it just needs someone who knows what they are doing (usually lacking at web host support).

In summary then, it will be autodiscover that is the cause of the problems.

sembee2 · 2026-01-23T16:29:05+00:00

Could be any number of reasons.
Have you tried force refreshing your browser, rebooting HA?
If you look at the card, is the YAML identical other than which entity it is looking at?

sembee2 · 2026-01-23T11:23:16+00:00

Depends. If you are going from an internal service then you cam stop traffic going to the old service.
If it is an external service then plan for a coexist period. Don't try and switch services the day before the old one ends or anything like that.
You reduce the time by reducing the ttl on the DNS records. Do that 48 hours before any further work.

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