• 6 Posts
  • 91 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 21st, 2023

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  • Personally, my problem was always that math concepts were never presented in a way that actually made sense in the “real world.”

    I was taught that complex numbers were real numbers with imaginary parts that had something to do with the square root of -1. Yeah, I get it, but… why?

    Fast forward a few decades and I’m writing code that processes a digitized waveform. Now it makes sense. Math isn’t hard when you have a frame of reference. Learning math concepts solely for the sake of learning them is very hard.






  • But why, though? Trump is a narcissist and Vance is his lapdog. Licking Putin’s boots shouldn’t feed his ego, so why do it? Maybe Putin has some dirt on him. Nobody is going to give a shit. His MAGAts are still going to rationalize why he’s their messiah and continue supporting him.

    Calling him a Russian asset is giving him too much credit. He’s being mean to what he sees as the “little guy” because it makes him feel like a big man, and the rest of us have to live with the consequences.




  • My pellet stove is a bit different. It has a built-in thermostat, and a combination rotary switch/potentiometer to control the temperature. This switch has a single wire that tells the controller to shut off the stove (wire is shorted) or control the on/off set points based on the resistance. I just leave it at “fully-on” and use a normally-closed relay to control it. When HA wants to turn on the stove, it just switches the relay to open, which tells the stove to start up and continue running until the relay is closed. The built-in thermostat just switches the stove on/off, so I’m essentially just disabling that and offloading it to HomeAssistant.

    I also have a fairly complex automation for my stove. I’m using it to heat a large workshop, but I generally only use my shop on days I’m not going to work. On my off days, HA checks my location (from my phone), and if I’m home, it’ll heat up my shop in the early morning so it’s already comfortable when I wake up. It’s tied into my occupancy sensors, so if the ambient temperature is below a set point and somebody is in the shop, it’ll maintain the temperature even if my schedule doesn’t mandate it. It also takes into account outdoor temperature, and it overrides everything and heats up my shop anyway if it’s at risk of freezing (frozen wood glue doesn’t work very well). I also monitor run time, and it’ll send me a notification when it needs to be cleaned. I use 18 hours, though; with my stove, I think if I let it go to 150 like yours, it’d be a fire hazard.

    I hadn’t thought of monitoring pellet level, but I really like your idea. I think a beam sensor at the bottom of the hopper might do the trick. It wouldn’t give a level, but it work to let you know when it’s empty. I’m also wondering of you could install an IR emitter and photodiode on the hopper door facing downward and calculate a fill level based on how much light is reflected back. Maybe a series of contact switches from top to bottom. It’d definitely be a fun project.


  • I don’t think it’s so much that Zigbee is a gamble, but that buying off-brand cheap Chinese devices is a gamble.

    Like another commenter said, you get what you pay for. I have some Phillips bulbs that have seriously been working well for a decade, long before I even knew about HomeAssistsnt or even knew what Zigbee was, other than that’s what the Hue bridge used.

    Part of the problem is that more obscure Zigbee devices can sometimes only be found from companies with names that look like somebody just mashed their hand on the keyboard. For something like a relay or a mmWave sensor, you’re likely going to be trying to pick the best of a few questionable options unless you build it yourself. Alternatively, sometimes it just doesn’t really matter. I have a cheap temperature sensor in a storage space. I don’t care if it occasionally drops off the network; it’s just there to satisfy my curiosity.


  • I wish it was that simple. I don’t remember channel numbers offhand, but I mapped out my WiFi and Zigbee networks to be non-ovrlapping. I don’t have any neighbors close enough to even register an SSID, either.

    The weird thing is that location doesn’t seem to matter. I have a few Aquara devices spread out across several hundred feet. The one that’s close enough to connect directly to my controller is actually the least reliable.


  • corroded@lemmy.worldOPtohomeassistant@lemmy.worldZigbee Device Reviews
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    4 months ago

    I use one for the same thing! I have a pellet stove, and I set the knob to “on,” then installed a relay in line with the knob. HA monitors temperature with another sensor and switches the pellet stove as needed.

    I’ve got another two connected to solenoid valves, and another in a custom lighting system. They’ve been rock solid for a year or two.

    The wide input power range is really convenient, too. Depending on what you’re controlling, you can probably either just power it off the same supply, or grab any random adapter and hack off the barrel plug.


  • That’s interesting. I first set up Aquara door sensors on all my doors. Every single one has dropped off the network and required re-pairing multiple times. I’ve started just replacing them with Thirdreality door sensors when they drop rather than re-pairing.

    I wonder if my controller or my Zigbee integration has something to do with it?





  • I have a Rachio irrigation controller. I’d recommend OpenSprinkler to avoid being tied to a “cloud” service, but I didn’t know that when I purchased my Rachio.

    One of my irrigation zones feeds into my greenhouse. It splits off to two solenoid valves. When it’s time to water my plants, HA triggers that zone through the Rachio integration and opens the appropriate solenoid valve that connects to my emitters. If my humidifier gets low, then it does the same thing but opens the other valve.




  • I have absolutely zero interest in participating in any kind of social media that isn’t an “anonymous forum.” I have no interest in following particular individuals; I’m really only interested in having discussions with random internet users that share common interests. I used PhpBB instances, IRC, and before that BBS systems, and I’m really just looking for the same kind of experience.

    So I will never use Mastodon; I think it’s a fantastic alternative to Xitter, but the format just doesn’t interest me in the slightest.