@oldcanuck just to confirm I installed the following version of Raspberry Pi OS when running my tests
The version can be downloaded from this link. Just wanted to clarify this so as to avoid any confusion
Thank you all for your input. I will be testing this out in the next few days (when the wife is at work, I don’t want to offend her with the language used to tune the RPI) I will be checking and reporting back in with news on my progress. I still am a newbie at all this and appreciate the guidance.
Dave
I’m assuming you have no issues setting up the RPI3b+ from scratch. Once you’ve created the image onto the SD card don’t forget the step to enable SSH.
I’d highly recommend shutting down your RPi gracefully with your current working setup and moving that card to a safe location. Then with your shiny new SD that you are working on, you can curse away without potential catastrophe! Forgetting what is on a generic looking card can cause a lot of heartburn. 
Yes I’ve been there too. Can’t write on a micro SD card cover. The regular SD cards on the Pi 1 were a little easier to mark.
I’ve been using folded post-it notes in the plastic case with a short description and date. Fitting a single word on a micro SD is pretty close to impossible. Also having them in the case makes them less likely to fall behind a desk or power panel!
I got a couple of these a while back. Got sick of card reader springs popping and readers coming loose from the board particularly when they are buried in a case. Very handy. Micro SD to SD Extension Cable - 45cm– The Pi Hut
Thanks for the info. I have been using an old ssd on the usb port because of my clumsy mechanic fingers but I will keep these in mind for future reference.
Finally got back to this after fighting cold and snow. Everything went quickly until final command
sudo gdebi homegenie_1.3-stable.19_all.deb
got back
homegenie depends on libmono-system-servicemodel14.0a-cil; however :
Package libmono-ssystem-servicemode14.0a-cil is not installed.
any further instructions?
Ok I’ve amended my original instructions. It will be quicker if you start from fresh instead of trying to manually edit what you have so far particularly if you’re not very familiar with Linux. Just follow these instructions and please let us know it’s working this way.
sudo apt install apt-transport-https dirmngr gnupg ca-certificates
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 3FA7E0328081BFF6A14DA29AA6A19B38D3D831EF
echo "deb https://download.mono-project.com/repo/debian stable-raspbianbuster main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mono-official-stable.list
sudo apt update
wget https://github.com/genielabs/HomeGenie/releases/download/v1.3-stable.19/homegenie_1.3-stable.19_all.deb
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gdebi-core
sudo gdebi homegenie_1.3-stable.19_all.deb
That’s why I was hoping this post didn’t fill up unnecessarily. You now have everything you need to get up and running. There was a dependency missing from the Mono repository.
Thank you very much. I will let you know.
Hooray. Full success. 39 minutes from starting setup to functioning HomeGenie. Of course, tomorrow will mean restoring my backup setup and tuning in but thank you very much for guiding this old mechanic into setting up this system and all your help in the past.
Thanks again.
Dave
You’re welcome.
I knew it would be easier starting from scratch again. Very quick and hopefully useful to others who come across this.
Thank you all again. Full restore fully successful and all is working so far. The final steps took less than 15 minutes. Now I will do a shutdown - backup -restore to a few more cards for a few days, then restore to my ssd. Thank you again for all your help.
Dave
Are you booting from an SSD. What capacity is it.
The ssd Is an old 16 gb out of a laptop scrapped and rebuilt last year. It was too small of an drive for normal use but functions well here. It would no doubt be faster with usb 3.0 connections on a RPi 4B but is easier work with than the micro sd cards it replaces. Besides, it was free in the old laptop and no problem switching onto the RPi 3B+. Clumsy fingers have cost me several micro cards so this seems to be a better option.
Dave
Ok. At least you know the USB2 bus is considerably slower than the SD bus. Shouldn’t be a big issue in HG but read/write operations via logging can slow things down.
USB3 SSD devices have gotten so cheap now it may well be worth your while looking at that option and the capacity and read/write increases are very noticeable if you are using an RPI4.
Personally the RPI3+ is more than capable of handling HG and an onboard camera via the CSI slot and MotionEyeOS so I’m staying with that setup for now.
Just for my own info this morning I checked the cpu temp of the rpi.
Currently running at 47.2. With buster it was almost always over 51.0.
The rpi 4 is an option I will one day look into but the speed seems fine and I will likely leave it alone for the summer at least.
Thanks again for all your help.
Dave
As I mentioned above no need for an RPI4 with HG. Your RPI3b+ should last you till either it physically stops working or some future OS release prevents it. Heat has never really been an issue on a RPI3. In fact you can run it overclocked comfortably.