Author: jcianci12
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ESPHome 8-Zone HVAC Controller V2 Setup Guide
Thanks for purchasing the ESPHome 8-Zone HVAC Controller V2. This guide shows you how to: connect the board by USB flash it in ESPHome add it to Home Assistant check the logs to confirm the board is responding adjust relay inversion settings if a zone behaves backwards then connect 24V AC so the relays can…
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Database Targeting Debugging in ASP.NET Core
Overview We tracked down a user-role issue that looked like a permissions problem, but the real cause was database targeting. One user could sign in and get roles. Another user with apparently similar data could sign in but did not get the expected roles. At first glance this looked like: Those were all worth checking,…
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Connection String FAQ
This page explains a common ASP.NET Core pattern where the app does not keep its main database connection string in appsettings.json. Instead, startup code retrieves the value from Azure Key Vault and inserts it into the normal .NET configuration tree before the rest of the app runs. What does the startup code actually look like? The…
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How I Got an Azure DevOps / TFS Environment Agent Working on a Server With No Internet
If you are trying to add a self-hosted Azure DevOps or TFS agent to an environment and the server has no internet access, there is a good chance you will hit a few annoying roadblocks. I recently worked through this and thought I would write it up so the next person has a clearer path.…
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Reliable Remote Desktop at Home with Tailscale and Guacamole
If you run a home server and want to access it remotely, the cleanest setup is often: This gives you remote access without exposing port 3389 to the internet. Goal The target setup looks like this: The important part is that Guacamole connects to the Windows machine using its Tailscale IP, not its public IP and not…
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Is This ESPHome HVAC Zone Controller Right for You?
If you have been looking for a way to bring your ducted AC zoning into Home Assistant without relying on cloud services, apps you do not control, or proprietary ecosystems, our ESPHome 24V AC HVAC Zone Controller might be exactly what you need. But it is not for every setup. This article will help you…
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Can I Replace My iZone System with an ESPHome HVAC Zone Controller?
If you are currently using an iZone system and wondering whether our ESPHome 24V AC HVAC Zone Controller is a simple plug-in replacement, you are definitely not alone. This is one of the most common questions we get. The honest answer is: sometimes yes, sometimes no. It really depends on how your existing air conditioning…
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When a 4G USB Dongle Breaks pfSense Failover in Hyper-V
4G failover is often sold as a simple safety net: plug in a modem, add a second WAN, and let the firewall take over when the primary internet connection drops. In practice, the messy part is rarely the concept. It is the hand-off between the USB modem, Windows, Hyper-V, and the firewall VM. A recent…
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When a USB-C Dock Port Looks Like a Network Problem
Remote Desktop freezing is one of those faults that can send troubleshooting in the wrong direction. The session may stop responding, but it does not always show a clean disconnect. That makes it tempting to blame the Windows server, RDP itself, DNS, firewall rules, or the remote application. In this case, the fault looked like…
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Fixing Drone Builds Stuck Pending: Target the Right Runner
We recently hit a simple but frustrating Drone CI problem: a deployment build would just sit in pending. Nothing was building. Nothing was failing. The job was just waiting for a free agent. The catch was that there was no suitable agent available for that pipeline. The Symptom In Drone, a build can stay pending when…