Plugging along here now. Got impatient and didn’t wait for the flash adapter I ordered and just did a cable instead. Easy but not as cool as the adapter. 
The flashing thing is way easier now that I understand what I am doing with it. Got a couple devices flashed and figured out how to find and link them to Openhab. Having issues with the Sonoff Bridge with Tasmota on it but I haven’t invested too much time in sorting that out as of yet.
The question for this thread though has to do with the rules engine for Openhab. I have seen some videos on the rules engine and that seems a slight bit confusing. Also seen some posts about using Node-Red as the rules engine but that is even more confusing. Not the Node-Red part but how they made it all integrate. I know I am missing something there. Is anyone using Node-Red with their OpenHab setup? And if so, what did you do to make the rules integrate into the OH process? What should I know and are there some resources you would like to point me towards in that regard?
Once I get the first project completely running… my hot water loop pump… I am going to do an A-Z video on the steps of how I got there. One of those that takes 20 minutes to cover 200 steps that you pause and do then restart the video kinds of things. Getting closer. I can see the completion coming soon. Then on to the automated package vault!!! I have the parts for it but gotta take baby steps.
). The documentation on all of this stuff is SOOOOOO broad and fragmented.