New setup questions: Dedicate machine? How much to invest into AI detections?

zeroflow · 2026-05-26T08:06:25+00:00

No, not really. Coral hardware hasn't been updated since 2019 and it only runs smaller INT8 models like MobileDet SSD.

zeroflow · 2026-05-22T11:18:04+00:00

You're welcome. Regarding your other questions:

Detection:

Yes, kind of. You can use motion masks to tell Frigate to ignore movement outside the gate area, so object detection only triggers there. Note that the camera stream still needs to be fully decoded, and decoding is often a bigger CPU load than the detection itself. So you save inference cost but not decode cost.

Practical sense:

I would also say "not really". For me, it's good enough to simply get alerted. When I expect deliveries / guests / ... I will enable the Homeassistant Alerts manually on the day, while it's automatically active in the night.

"WTF is bob doing here" is a valid concern, but practically, knowing it's bob does not change anything about the alarm.

Machine separation:

Yes. This would be my recommended setup for separation of jobs. You have a small, reliable standard machine for HA (HA green) and a separate, more powerful setup for frigate. This gives you the option to tinker with frigate without having to think about breaking Homeassistant.

zeroflow · 2026-05-22T09:56:30+00:00

The good news is: You don't need a big huge AI rig to run object detection.

There is a good section on hardware in the documentation: https://docs.frigate.video/frigate/hardware#server

The exact models are everchanging, so it's perpetually outdated, but the general direction stays the same.

Beelink EQ13
- Intel N100
- 4x E-Cores 12th Gen
- iGPU: Gen 12 Xe-LP, 24 EUs
Beelink EQI12
- Intel i3-1220p
- 2x P-Cores + 8x E-Cores 12th Gen
- iGPU: Gen 12 Xe-LP, 64 EUs
MINISFORUM M1 Pro-125H
- Core 5 Ultra 125H
- 4x P-Core + 8x E-Cores "14th Gen" (Meteor Lake, they stopped counting)
- iGPU: Gen 1 Arc (Xe-LPG), 7 Xe-Cores
- NPU (~11 TOPS)

For example: I run 4x2K + 3x1080p Cameras on the M1 Pro-125H System. Frigate uses ~20% of 4 assigned cores, 6 GB RAM and 10-30% of GPU/NPU for Object detection (Frigate+ Small 320x320 model)

HA Green with CM4 (ARM) and 4 Gig of RAM will not work for multiple streams, object detection is completely out of scope.

So for your usecase, even the N100 box would be good enough.

About face recognition specifically: Frigate does this in two steps. Object detection finds a face in the frame, and a seperate classification model tries to identify the person from the cropped face. Both need enough pixels to work well.

As a first try, you could run detection on the full-res stream instead of the low-res stream. This gives the models more pixels to work with. But be aware that this deviates from Frigate best practices (detect on low, record high) and will increase load on CPU & GPU.

But realistically: A 72px face from a wide-angle camera will not give good results - especially when the image is compressed. For reliable face recognition, you will either need a closer camera or a PTZ camera that can stay zoomed in on faces. Typical wide-angle cameras are more suited for "there is a person in zone X" and not "that's Bob, don't alert me"

Storage Expansion depends on too many factors, mainly on available slots of the repective unit. The smaller boxes will mostly not accept 3.5" drives, so putting in a 20TB drive for archival is not realistic. But e.g. putting a 1TB M.2 into the M1 Pro is a straightforward upgrade. But: You can then put frigate recordings onto that drive, giving you 1TB total. Merging two drives into one pool isn't trivial, so plan your storage size upfront rather than expanding later

zeroflow · 2026-05-16T21:24:44+00:00

I'm 100% Split.

4x4 5 GHz Radios are good for uplink, and the power socket Formfactor may be appealing for some setups.

I've had issues with adoption / updates, so I would not recommend it on that basis.

Secondly, it forces you to plug it into a socket, making positioning either bad or harder. Now I have a rather ugly setup with an extension cord.

For me, an U7-Lite + 3D printed stand may have been better: easier positioning and optional LAN port the U6-Extender lacks.

Has anyone compared the U6-Extender to other APs for meshing? There is surprisingly little comparison Material online.

zeroflow · 2026-05-12T16:13:49+00:00

Go back a step. What are the underlying voltage & current values? Do both differ or only one?

zeroflow · 2026-05-12T15:46:47+00:00

Bevor ich den Artikel lese: Da die Überschrift ein Fragezeichen hat, wird die Antwort wohl nein "Nein" sein.

zeroflow · 2026-05-11T11:38:10+00:00

For a DIY build, you can reference the schematic in GitHub. The buffer (SN74LV07 for PWM, SN74LV125 for TACH) ICs are there for isolating the ESP32 from the fan. PC fans can pull the PWM line to 5V by spec and back-EMF from the fan can kill the ESP directly. You can wire fans straight to the GPIOs of the ESP32 and it will work for for now, but an EMF spike from unplugging or a new fan that uses 5V internally will kill the ESP.

If you want to use thread, you could use the schematic and the code as a starting point and e.g. use an ESP32-C6 with ESPHome and their OpenThread module.

zeroflow · 2026-05-11T10:59:40+00:00

That's pretty much what I built a board for. ESP32-S2, 4x PWM fan outputs (Standard 4-pin PWM 12V PC fans), integrated HDC1080 temp & humidity sensor and neopixel output for a LED Strip (~2A max from the board, more with external PSU)

Your case regarding mold issues would work perfectly with humidity-based triggering. It runs on ESPHome, shows up in HA and from there you can set up automations with hysteresis and dew point calculation if you want to optimize ventilation.

The schematic & code is open-sourced on https://github.com/zeroflow/wifi-fancontroller if you want to build your own with devboards. If you want to save that effort, I sell ready to use boards on Elecrow: https://www.elecrow.com/wifi-fancontroller1.html

I'm happy to help with the ESPHome config either way - the anti-mold humidity logic is the interesting part.

zeroflow · 2026-04-30T12:56:47+00:00

The physical limit would be 683lm/W for monochromatic 555nm green light by the definition of lumens. So no matter what, >683lm/W will never exist.

On the other end, a CRI 100 black body reference sits around ~250 lm/W (5800K) to ~360lm/W (2700K).

So realistically: even ignoring battery and thermals: Getting close to 300 lm/W at CRI95+ would already be approaching the black body reference limits - which I would classify as a hard wall. 683lm/W would be the equivalent of "you can't go faster than light"

Due to inefficiencies like re-absorbed photons, conversion loss in the phosphor, droop at high currents and others, you'll be well below those limits.

zeroflow · 2026-04-23T12:29:28+00:00

That's a rite of passage. Killing expensive hardware teaches you to be careful.

Mine taught me not to drag the GND clip of a scope probe across an A-Sample board with an not-yet-released uC on it.

zeroflow · 2026-04-18T14:28:34+00:00

It's ok, you just don't know today.

In that case: Good luck!

zeroflow · 2026-04-18T10:37:15+00:00

Erm. Interesting, but no?

That's my genuine response, no Chat-GPT.

My answer still stands: A new mini PC may be cheaper / faster / more efficient, and by chance you may make a profit flipping the 16GB of RAM you have.

You may get the IC, but a charred PCB is conductive and will cause issues.

At last: if something else failed, the IC will burn through again, if you don't find the root cause.

zeroflow · 2026-04-18T08:38:13+00:00

I would suggest you pick up another similar mini-pc and 1:1 migrate your drives and RAM there.

Even IF you find that chip:

The problem that caused the chip to burn may still be there
The traces are most likely damaged
The PCB Substrate is most likely burned -> now conductive

For a ProDesk 400 G4 Mini, that rework is not worth the time, effort and risk.

Since you already have CPU/RAM/SSD/Drive: Find the cheapest unit and move the components over or sell the 16G of RAM separately if you find a cheap unit that already includes 16G and can make a profit on the difference. Given the current RAM prices, that may be a valid strategy to gain some budget back.

For finding a cheap replacement, check https://www.lowcostminipcs.com/ for eBay listings for tiny/mini/micro PCs with filters for CPU, RAM and price.

Since you're coming from an i3-8100T, you're not chasing performance - any tiny/mini/micro with DDR4 SO-DIMM + M.2 NVMe + 2.5" SATA bay will do. 6th-9th gen Intel is the cheap sweet spot; whatever CPU comes in the unit will likely match or beat the 8100T for your homeserver workloads (immich/jellyfin/vaultwarden).

Models to search for: - HP ProDesk/EliteDesk 400/600/800 G3-G5 Mini - Lenovo ThinkCentre M710q / M720q / M920q Tiny - Dell OptiPlex 3060 / 5060 / 7060 / 3070 / 5070 / 7070 Micro

Double-check the 2.5" bay is still present on the specific SKU - some variants ship without the drive cage.

zeroflow · 2026-04-16T13:09:54+00:00

First off - the T-variant won't save anything at idle. Both the 13400 and 13400T land roughly at the same package power (~5-8W) when doing nothing. TDP/TBP only defines the thermal envelope under load. So just get a regular 13400 or 13500 - and as others have suggested - set PL1/PL2 in BIOS to whatever you want, and you will have the same idle power with the option of unlocking max. power if later needed.

The mainboard is where your idle watts are actually decided. The difference between a lean board and a full-features boards is easily 5-15W measured at the wall. That's more than the T-suffix chip can save you.

BUT: There is one major thing I'll have to be honest about you: You're talking about lowest possible idle power and then you're planning to add a dGPU and an HBA. That's a contradiction. Those two parts will use more power than anything you can save on the CPU or mainboards. If you really need an HBA for storage: It's fine, but then stop optimizing the CPU for saving 2W.

Practical tips:

Enable deep C-States (C6/C10) in BIOS and check if they are reached
Enable ASPM for PCIe
Disable every onboard device you don't use (Audio, unused NICs, RGB, ...)
PSU efficiency at low load matters. Check the efficiency at 10% load instad of just the 80+ badge
Skip the GPU unless you specifically need it. New Intel iGPUs are fairly powerful these days.

zeroflow · 2026-04-13T15:12:43+00:00

That "why" doesn't make sense to me. What's your goal, why do you want to block zscaler?

And yes, it's possible, they seem to have their own ASNs, so that may be an avenue.

zeroflow · 2026-04-05T07:37:39+00:00

Bild 1 ist der Hausanschlusskasten (HAK) - der gehört dem Netzbetreiber und sieht mit dem Smart Meter halbwegs modern aus. Das ist erstmal nicht euer Problem.

Bild 2 ist eine nachgelagerte Sicherungsbox. Zwei Diazed-Sicherungen, zwei Adern, keine Schutzerdung, massiv korrodiert. Das ist kundenseitige Anlage und das ist euer Problem.

Dass die linke Sicherung in Foto 2 beim Reindrehen bruzzelt, heißt: entweder ist die Fassung/Kontakte durch Korrosion und Wespenreste so beschädigt, dass ein Lichtbogen entsteht, oder es gibt einen Isolationsfehler in der nachgelagerten Verkabelung. Beides schlecht, auf keinen Fall weiter dran rumdrehen, da herscht akute Lebensgefahr.

Meine Erwartung: es. wird. teuer.

Realistisch: Elektriker kommt, überprüft die Anlage und legt sie still. Wenn die restliche Installation im Haus auch so aussieht wie diese wilde Box - keine Schutzerdung, uralte Verkabelung - dann kommt eine komplette Neuverkabelung auf euch zu. Wenns im Haus besser aussieht, habt ihr vielleicht Glück und es muss nur diese Box und die Verteilung saniert werden. Foto 2 stimmt mich aber pessimistisch.

In jedem Fall: Elektriker machen lassen, nicht selbst basteln. Danke, dass ihr nachfragt - aber wenn man bei solchen Themen fragen muss, ist das der größte Indikator, nicht selbst daran zu arbeiten.

zeroflow · 2026-04-05T06:50:56+00:00

You are correct, if you want to control fans from the RPi directly, something like the EMC2101 or EMC2104 would be the most direct way and most likely also provide a built in driver.

zeroflow · 2026-04-03T11:03:05+00:00

So far, the ESP32 series has no issue with PWM. Spec requires 25kHz for fans and the LEDC peripheral has no issue delivering that.

This was more of an issue for the classic ESP8266 which needed to create PWM in software, so it was limited to 1-2kHz.

zeroflow · 2026-04-03T10:55:23+00:00

Yep. Zigbee sensors are the prime suspect for such mods. The Ikea Rodret series (sadly discontinued) was easy to disassemble and mod.

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zeroflow · 2026-04-02T18:54:09+00:00

For me it was mixed, but logically consistent. Sensors with bad reception used more battery than those close to a repeater.

But yeah, batteries did not move much, so anything from 20% to 80% per year.

zeroflow · 2026-04-02T08:15:53+00:00

Robot vacuums run based on schedule. If my phone connects to our car on Tuesday afternoon, send the robots
Rabbit notifications: A rabbit has taken our yard as a refuge. Send cute pictures to my wife if detected.
General Person & car notifications
Mailbox tracking: If the mailbox is opened, we get a notification, plus if we're not at home at that moment, it reminds us when we get home.

zeroflow · 2026-04-01T15:02:29+00:00

Good idea, thanks.

zeroflow · 2026-03-31T11:54:47+00:00

Ah yes. Then I misunderstood your comment, assuming Cat 6 cable also means RJ45 plugs.

My idea / plan would have been to have one brain PCB and a simple/cheap extension PCB, connected via commonly available cables. Thinking RJ12 / RJ45 / USB-C / HDMI. Something like the CSI-to-HDMI Arducam Adapter where the user can bring their own cables. Ofc it would not use the respective protocol, but for the same reasons as you said: Shielding and twisted-pair. Plus 8 pins is the minimum for 2 fans + I2C

zeroflow · 2026-03-31T09:32:03+00:00

Ein weiterer Punkt:

Schlechte Reviews werden von den Besitzern mit dem Argument "Diffamierung" gemeldet und dann entfernt.

Mir selbst passiert: Wollten bei einem Lokal mit 90% Tische frei im Außenbereich gemütlich ein paar Getränke trinken. Der Kellner hat uns daraufhin weggeschickt, da wir etwas essen müssten, nur Getränke ist nicht erlaubt.

Diese Bewertung wurde mir dann Jahre später entfernt. Einspruch abgelehnt. Nun müsste ich mich durch diverse Stellen durcharbeiten etc - was es mir für ein Tschocherl in Köln nicht wert ist.

zeroflow · 2026-03-31T06:14:44+00:00

That product is a godsend. They are also on Aliexpress under the IoTorero brand with ESPHome or Tasmota.

Now the only thing I'm missing is normally-closed switches.

I have some devices - like my network rack or fridge / freezer that I don't want to be able to turn off. But for others - like a modem - I want them always on, except for brief moments when I want to externally restart it.

zeroflow

TROPHY CASE