I’m using a Drayton Wiser thermostat, which uses WiFi but has a fully local integration via HACS. Has worked great for me so far.

I have a smart water meter installed by the utility provider with a cloud integration, unfortunately the readings have a 24-48h delay so it’s no use for real time monitoring.

Unfortunately many parts of Sailfish are proprietary though.

A proper permissions system for entities has long been one of my most desired features for Home Assistant. It should be possible to set visibility and control for each entity and user.

Trying to do control access via dashboards as always seems the wrong way around to me.

Orcaslicer is also available as a Flatpak, which has worked in most distros I’ve tried it with.

So far the only inline option I’ve found is this dimmable switch from Samotech. I haven’t tried one yet myself, and there’s mixed reviews online. For the lamps I have I only want an on-off switch though, not a dimmer.

Making due with plugging them into smart plugs for now, but an inline option would be much neater.

I’d say it’s always best to avoid Zigbee devices going offline, its neither convenient for automation or good for the mesh for devices to keep dropping.

Disable or remove the lamp switches. Add more smart buttons if there is a need for a physical control near the lamp.

As it happens I’m actually looking for a smart lamp switch if anyone knows of any options.

UniFi Protect now has limited ONVIF support allowing various 3rd party cameras to work with Protect.

UniFi cameras can have RTSP enabled also, but it requires UniFi Protect to enable the setting.

What model of label printer is that?

So far I just keep recipes in whatever I’m using for notes.

Some of these dedicated programs look interesting though. Thinking about it, it would be handy to have some dedicated cooking features, like being able to search for recipes by ingredients.

I think the options either that combination are limited. IKEA Zigbee devices use removable batteries, but they don’t have a temperature sensor. They do have a USB air quality sensor but it’s a bit more complex/expensive.

There are some good WiFi, Bluetooth or RF options with removable batteries but they won’t be Zigbee.

I’ve heard of some people modifying the coin cell devices to used a wired power supply, maybe that would be an option.

It’s not mentioned in the release notes anywhere, but the 2025.8 update has subtly changed the shade of blue used in the UI:

It’s been throwing me off a bit ever since I updated.

I would also recommend openSUSE Tumbleweed. I’m usually a Debian/Debian-based person but I’ve been running Tumbleweed on my desktop for a few years now and it’s been great.

It has a few peculiarities like any distro but it’s been very stable, with few issues even with things like Nvidia drivers. Docs and community seem good too.

I used to read them, they often had good in depth tutorials. The Format branding has been going for a long time, I can remember reading Amiga Format.

There were a few other Linux magazines as well, Linux User, Linux Magazine, Linux Voice. I think there’s still a Raspberry Pi magazine as well which covers a lot of Linux stuff.

There are 4 bay units that would fit on a 10” inch shelf. I’ve seen some DIY projects too.

Using SFF/mini PCs is also popular, there are models that can take multiple SATA/NVMe drives

There are few if any 10” UPS units available anyway so weight is less of a worry. It’s one of the biggest weaknesses of the 10” system currently.

It’s a feature that’s often been requested, but hasn’t appeared yet. The best option out of the box is creating non-Administrator users and then creating custom dashboards and panes per user with only the controls they need.

But that doesn’t stop a user from poking around still, because they can still access all devices and entities through features like the Logbook - which is always accessible because sidebar items can’t be controller per user.

There are some HACS bits that might be able to lock things down a bit further, like Kiosk and Guest modes.

I’ve heard some people get round this by setting up inebriations with Apple/Google/Amazon ecosystem, only exposing the desired entities/devices, and then giving others access to those and keeping them out of Home Assistant altogether.

It’s a feature set I wish they would add/expand, I’m sure anyone with a home office and mischievous children would agree.

It’s something I often hear complaints about. Several of the Home Assistant users I know love the way it integrates all their smart devices together, but say they find making good dashboards difficult.

Improvements like proper drag and drop and better auto categorisation and population will go a long way to help them. The old default dashboard that just lumped everything in one screen isn’t a great way to get started.

I’ve got parts on order for this very project, should arrive this week.

I previously tried using one of those large pressure mats but it didn’t work under the mattress.