@LastSamurai Thanks for the image, I had the address as localhost instead of the IP of the raspberry PI, changed it and everything works now :) @gohan , yes, I upgraded to beta version since release doesn't have MQTT support yet.

OK, it's beginning to become clear. My initial gadgets & gizmos should arrive today, so I'll start tinkering, and I'm sure more clarity will come. Thanks for the quick responses, and for your patience. This is so far the best HA forum I've found anywhere!