vik

vik, 8 days ago to random

It's one thing to hear "we're going to make one small change," from the dev team, and quite another to hear it when your stuck on the pointy end of a rocket.

vik, 8 days ago to random

The Chang'e 6 lunar lander turns out to have deployed a rover camera. Shots of lander on surface, and onboard video of the prep and ascent of lunar samples : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnonHQ_s1p8

vik, 14 days ago to random

Two letters from The Ministry in the snail mail today: One containing road user charge licences for The Fleet, the other a letter reminding me to buy road user charge licences ...

vik, 15 days ago to Starlink

Well bugger. #Starlink appears to be down over most of the globe.

vik, 15 days ago to random

Yes! I have sponsorship for Mexico. Arriba!

vik, 16 days ago to random

Hmm, something fishy going on with our solar power. If you look around 12pm it would appear, for reasons I do not understand, that we are exporting our power to the grid at $0.13, and then buying it back at $0.29

vik, 17 days ago (edited 14 days ago) to homeassistant

Next #HomeAssistant project is a 15 tonne water tank level monitor. So, your thoughts:

vik, 19 days ago to homeassistant

Been using the GoSungrow addon for #HomeAssistant, and iSolarCloud just booted me off. I have a new password and am back on again. Might have to look at extracting the data locally (which frankly is a much better idea anyway).

vik, 22 days ago to homeassistant

#HomeAssistant is going well, but I need to move all the devices to another network SSID and password. Searching for how to do this is basically full of "why would you do that?" but no solutions that don't involve manually diving in to the config "secrets" - followed by replies saying "don't do that!" Well, security is one reason. I can't be alone here, right?

vik, 1 month ago to random

Great, just what we need to eliminate range anxiety and encourage EV ownership: Limiting when you're allowed to charge your car on all chargers.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/516449/govt-must-regulate-to-smooth-evs-and-data-centres-demand-on-power-grids-vector

I generate my own power. How will that work?

vik, 1 month ago to random

For the first time ever, Trustpower have actually sent me a text advising me to activate my emergency medical power plans. This one might be serious, folks. I am well prepped btw.

vik, 1 month ago to random

The reduction of pollution in China may be having some unexpected consequences: https://phys.org/news/2024-05-north-pacific-due-china-aerosols.html

vik, 1 month ago to random

Bugger. Multimeter died. Only had it 16 years.

vik, 1 month ago to random

Boeing Starliner launch scrubbed, if you were planning on watching it.

vik, 1 month ago to homeassistant

Configured an #ESPhome #HomeAssistant device up with two buttons on it, and an 18650 battery. Battery doesn't last overnight, which is a bit disappointing. I need something I can stick on a wall that runs forever off a CR2032 (used to have those with the ancient X10 system).

vik, 1 month ago to homeassistant

Further adventures with #HomeAssistant and #ESPhome show that a Dallas 1-wire temperature sensor can be wired up via a 4K7 and it just works! Greenhouse temperature now monitored, option to send "It's bloody cold out here you know" messages enabled. NZ-compliant wifi socket for the heater on order...

vik, 1 month ago to homeassistant

Hey @Unixbigot !
I wondered what that multi-microphone home assistant module was as per #EverythingOpen presentation? Went and installed #HomeAssistant didn't I? Can give it up any time I like...

vik, 1 month ago to random

Tried sending an APK to a mate on his gmail account. Google blocked it as "spam."

vik, 1 month ago to homeassistant

What they shouldn't tell you in the #HomeAssistant manual: Use the Supervisor Panel. It no longer exists. The Control Panel a quick web search tells you to use instead no longer exists either...

vik, 1 month ago to random

It's bedtime, so I'm just gonna leave this here for now.
https://reprap.org/wiki/RepRapMicron

vik, 1 month ago to random

The second generation μRepRap prototype now has a name: "Titch"

It's getting kinda sophisticated...

vik, 1 month ago to homeassistant

Ok, #HomeAssistant running. I have installed a wifi switch. I've discovered I need to add it to a dashboard and it doesn't just magically show up on the Overview (which you'd kinda think...). It has many monitoring options and they take up much valuable screen real estate. How the f**k do I tell it to only show "ON/OFF" ? Manuals entirely unuseful.

vik, 1 month ago to homeassistant

Things they don't tell you in the #HomeAssistant manual: When connecting your Raspberry by to the same router as your PC, the router needs to be connected to the internet.

vik, 1 month ago to random

I'm discovering how distracting balancing your power can get once you have a solar/battery system. Now in a mode where the system is topping up battery with enough off-peak power to avoid using expensive peak power. It's like a train set but with more volts...

vik, 1 month ago to random

Some genius has stuck a flamethrower on a robot dog and called it The Therminator. A second apocalypse becomes apparent when trying to search for details because all the clever search engines either go "you really meant Terminator" or shadow-ban that kind of content.