Upgrading the HomeSeer/HomeTroller hardware

My 1st gen HomeSeer HomeTroller Pi was built on a Raspberry Pi 3 B with 1gb of RAM. While this was fine back when I bought it and was just starting my home security and automation re-design and foray into using HS4, recently I’d been having issues with performance and out-of-memory conditions. In 2021 when …

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Manipulating the Mantic Minotaur

Overnight temps here in Florida are dipping into the upper 60s which must mean it’s late October and fall is here! 🙂 Let’s check in with my bi-annual sports and Linux updates! After starting out the 2023 season red hot with a 13-game win streak (tying the record in the modern era), the Rays’ October …

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Leaving the (Google) Nest

I bought my first Dropcams back in 2014, right around the time Nest (which had acquired Dropcam) was acquired by Google. Then I added the Nest Thermostat in 2016 (which was later replaced in 2021 with a Z-Wave one during an HVAC system upgrade), the Nest Protect smoke/CO detectors in 2018, and finally a bunch …

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Landing on the Lunar Lobster

Gazing up at the late-April night sky … look, it’s the Lunar Lobster! That’s right, it’s time for the annual spring sports update and Ubuntu upgrade! the Rays started off red-hot, tying the 1987 Milwaukee Brewers and 1982 Atlanta Braves for the longest win streak to start a season with 13; they’ve also set records …

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FITCAMX Dash Cam (EV6)

I’ve been really happy with the FITCAMX dash cam in my RAV4. When my wife got her EV6 last year there wasn’t a similar model available so I ended up getting her the Garmin Mini 2 (which apparently I never wrote about here), wired into her rearview mirror housing with a Dongar USB power adapter. …

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Synology DiskStation DS720+

During my recent switch from LastPass to Vaultwarden I was planning on using Docker but then discovered my old (2014) Synology NAS didn’t have the CPU architecture to support it. I was already in the middle of one big winter break project, why not add another? Time for a NAS upgrade! My DS214 started out …

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Goodbye LastPass, hello Vault(Bit)warden

Unless you’re not interested in tech news or have been under a rock for the past two weeks, you’ve probably heard about the latest LastPass breach debacle. Two days before Christmas, every LastPass customer like myself received an e-mail informing us that, in a nutshell, back in August 2022 an unauthorized third-party had acquired LastPass …

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Keeping the Kinetic Kudu

The calendar shows October which means it’s about that time for my fall sports update and an Ubuntu upgrade! In their first season (after a late start due to the lockout) as the Guardians, my Cleveland baseball team (the youngest in the league) ended up winning 92 games and the Central Division. They then knocked out my …

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