@EarMaster Someone else here on Fedi taught me a trick for that!

You create device groups and add the devices you want to them. Doesn't matter if it's only for one lightbulb, you create a group for it.

Then you build your automations targeting the group, and not the device(s) inside of it.

To help with clutter, you can even hide the individual devices from the UI.

Now, when you need to replace that device, you add the replacement to the group, remove the failed/old one, and it's done! No need to scour automations and scripts, or to redo your cards or dashboards!

I'll update the post in a few hours with the link to the person who taught me this, can't do it right now.

Edit: As promised, linking to @unixorn, who was the one that taught me this: https://hachyderm.io/@unixorn/115294312403405669

@SatansMaggotyCumFart Cue everyone in "Archer" shouting "Phrasing!" 😝

@bacondragonoverlord
Theoretically, if you give the new plug the exact same name and ID inside Home Assistant, it should continue the history, as well as any automations you might have in place.

How to do that cleanly is something that only people more experienced than me can help with.

Do make a backup before trying anything, though, lest something happens and that history goes poof.

@x4740N Considering Home Assistant runs well on a RPi4 or above (unless you want to have Home Assistant Voice, for that Nabu Casa recommends an N150 class CPU or above), that's the baseline I'm going to go with.

I believe an HP Mini might tick all the boxes for you. I'd go with a G3 or up, though a G2 should also work.

Check for specifics on the model, but the Minis have a socketed CPU (7th or 8th-gen Intel in the case of the G3), most frequently of the T variant (35W TDP, instead of the usual 65W), with fairly low idle power draw (should be under 10W).

You have 2 SODIMM slots, up to 64GB of RAM, one SATA 2.5'' drive bay, and depending on the model, one or two NVMe slots for SSDs.

You also have space for a WiFi card (most of the ones I've come across don't have that, or the antennas, installed, but there is an NVMe slot for it).

And most importantly, it has an internal speaker. Not a good one, but one. 1/2

@x4740N Other 1L PCs might have speakers, too, but I don't have experience with them, you'd need to check.

There's one other option I know of that also has a speaker, but expandability is right out of the window, because the only thing you can change is the RAM, and there are no other expansion slots besides USB-C.

I'm referring to the 2018 Mac Mini. But that's usually MUCH more expensive and MUCH less adaptable than just about any other Mini PC.

Btw, it's fairly easy and cheap to add WiFi over USB to any Mini PC, IMO that might be something you might want to drop from your requirements to find more (and much cheaper) options.

Hope this helps!

2/2

@marighost You can have multiple (sub)domains pointing to the same IP, no issue there.

So you can still have your vps subdomain AND another one for Pangolin. That's effectively how Pangolin itself works, assigning multiple subdomains to itself, so it can route the requests to other machines. It just does it without adding records to the DNS provider, it just listens to anything that gets sent to its IP through the wildcard address (unless you make Pangolin your DNS provider, that is).

Also, the wildcard (sub)domain will always have the lowest priority, so if there are ANY records pointing somewhere, they'll have precedence over the wildcard.

So, your DNS should contain three A records: one for vps, another for Pangolin, and a wildcard, all pointing to the vps address.

Hope this helps!

@early_riser ... but why? :blobcatgrimacing:

@firepenny Using a mix of Shelly (WiFi) and IKEA (Zigbee) plugs.

If I can fit it directly into the socket, I've so far gone with the Shelly PM version, which has a more aesthetic look to it (no bulges), though they can also be placed in-line with the power cord of whatever I want to control.

Both have served me right, with similar performance and durability.