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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: July 9th, 2023

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  • I recently ordered a Trmnl, because it looks like they do what I want, and I keep not doing it as a project. I haven’t gotten it yet but ….

    My impression is it’s more of a finished product, not a project. If there is a plugin doing what you want, then it’s a simple configuration. However if you want to customize, you may need to pay for a developer account


  • My experience with a Pi4B has been rock solid and plenty fast for what I’ve tried so far, at low power consumption.

    While I had problems in the beginning, it was all from the micro-SD card. People here will recommend staying away but I’ve had no problems since buying an “extreme” card. Well, starting to hit the size limit now - I can no longer kick off multiple concurrent updates because limited free space available on, I think, 16G card. Get bigger


  • If you’re starting with ha, don’t feel confined to only one.

    IMPORTANT: a local area mesh is not just a low powered way of connecting devices but is inherently local-only. Highly recommended

    The more common local area meshes include

    • Zigbee - open standard, lots of inexpensive sensors
    • Z-Wave - devices need to pay for certification but are more standard. I found more smart switches using this in my area
    • Thread - the new standard. Same frequency as Zigbee but IPv6 based. Slowly rolling out.

    The new Matter/Thread standard has support of the major players (Apple, Google, Amazon) so seems like the way to go for the future, but products are slow to roll out so you can’t count on it yet

    Personally I found the strengths of each compelling so quickly added all three of the above to my ha setup. Ha is fine with it so why limit yourself

    I follow the principle that devices must work “as expected” for my users, automation adds capabilities but does not replace them. This comes together with a focus on smart switches

    • can be used interactively just like any switch
    • continue to work as expected even if ha is down
    • typically act as routers to strengthen your local area mesh. I have switches acting as routers for Zigbee, zwave, and Thread, so all my local area meshes are solid everywhere
    • then I can automate


  • People think the current us administration is doing a lot of awful things to a lot of people buts it’s worse that they hold themselves above the law to do it, above the limits of their power, above the checks and balances that usually prevent authoritarianism

    Among the many bad stereotypes of royalty is the blatant nepotism, self-enrichment, and total disregard for their constituents. Somehow they have no shame in accepting bribes, do not even try to hide it, and no shame using their authority to establish business “deals@ for family and friends




  • I got into each mesh technology for specific devices. Home Assistant supports them all and they seem to coexist just fine in my use case.

    I have a small to medium setup with only a few simple automations and a focus on voice control and scheduling

    Preference

    • Thread - given Apple, Amazon, and Google support and the standardization work, I expect this to be the future. Eventually. But I’m getting impatient. If I’m buying a device, I prefer Thread but usually it’s not yet
    • z-Wave - my first, and most devices. Basically this was what was most available at local stores when I started. No complaints
    • Zigbee - by far the biggest selection of simple, cheap sensors. I need to more of those
    • all too much is WiFi but I try to avoid

    But it also helps that my approach is generally switches and outlets. Hard-wired, predictable network, tend to be repeaters. I have comparatively fewer leaf nodes.

    This approach also fits in with my biggest challenge. While my house is small, it’s an older one with dense materials that blocks a lot of radio signals. For example I have no cell phone reception inside yet strong signal just out any door. My focus on switches and outlets overcome this with a repeater in every room

    So for example a few years back I got a z-wave IR blaster to control a mini-split AC because at the time I mostly used z-wave. I already had a z-wave light switch in the same room, acting as a repeater, so no worries about connectivity. Now I have both z-wave and Zigbee light switches in that room so expect both meshes to be strong for any future devices in that room









  • I’m not entirely sure why all the hate : Jenkins can do the most things the must ways. And yes, it’s so much nicer defining a pipeline with a fully functional language than an assortment of yaml files

    Actually that was my response when my company wanted to start using Gitlab ci. It only has one way of doing things so you can probably get a faster start if you had no ci, were a small company, and had simple builds. However we’re over 4,000 builds in many languages from 12 year old monoliths to modern micro services and containers…… and way too much godawful JavaScript. Do you want the quick and simple tool great for a small startup or the all powerful kitchen sink of tools?