7th gen i5 NUCs can be found on eBay for under $100 shipped with 16gb of ram and a small m2 drive. They’re not as powerful as a larger SFF chip, but at 15w TDP is pretty hard to beat. I have four of them now. I pick one up every time a find a good deal.

8th gens are still really expensive.

I have three locks and managed to find three newish Kwikset 910 locks for anywhere between $20-40 each. You just have to watch ebay listings and wait for a good deal to pop up.

Triggered

I honestly just use the frigate web ui as my dashboard. It has everything I need and can be easily accessed from the home assistant app. The only other thing I do is pop up the view on my fully kiosk wall panel when a person is detected for a minute or two. Makes it easy to just glance at who’s at the door without having to fiddle with it.