Geeking out programming one of my home automation smart switches
Author: cysix
Junk Portable Jump Starter
A <1 year old $80 lipo car jump starter pack crapped out on me. It worked great for a while, but then stopped accepting a charge. I ripped it apart and found that the individual cells in the lipo pack were wildly out of balance. I hooked each cell up individually to a power supply […]
Basic cooking technology
What?! Doesn’t everyone use a power drill in the kitchen from time to time? I had a hanker’n for apple cider pork w/spaetzle and no practical way of making it…so I improvised. Turned out great, but also turned out to be disposable.
Shelly 1 er… 2-pack
Heads up for anyone , the Shelly “2-pack” from Amazon. It comes in the exact same packaging as the single device. I was half way through the Amazon complaint process thinking only 1/2 my order arrived before fully opening one of the boxes 🤣
Shelly 1 – 3-way configurations
For those interested, here are some diagrams for additional 3-way and 4-way wiring scenarios you might run into. Many other scenarios are simply variations on these. Happy to help you figure out your particular scenario if none of these match.
AI is here
My 5-year old grand niece has been siting here conversing with Alexa/Echo for the last half hour. It won’t be too many generations in the future where conversations with AI will be just as common place as with biologicals.
Murphy’s Law of Annoying Beeps
A historical event just occurred! One of our smoke detectors started chirping about it’s battery in the middle of the afternoon instead of 2AM. For years I’ve wondered if manufacturers secretly included atomic clocks in their detectors to ensure they ONLY start beeping in the middle of the night.
Generator fail
Learned two lessons this morning: 1. A normal car floor jack is utterly useless for an SUV or pickup. 2. Off brand generators from big box stores are all of the cheap’o pieces of crap that you would imagine.
Old school technology
Visiting battleship Iowa for a look at some robust old school technology right next to a super modern littoral class ship.
Junior Robotics
A winner takes all round at a junior robotics competition at Long Beach Fleet Week. Amazing amount of creativity an effort went into each of the little robotic buggers. The participants were eager to explain all about their entries.