Next door neighbor's pain-in-the-butt tree
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15
Help me understand: Delegating devices to remain online when the grid goes down
Have you encountered any limitations when charging EVs? -
7
AIS App not loading.
I have AVG anti virus.I have realised I can use their website, but alot more messy than the app. -
15
Help me understand: Delegating devices to remain online when the grid goes down
Thanks very much for the advice and encouragement. Yeah, I'm also looking into buying these parts myself but paying a professional to install. Still taking my time with getting quotations from many places. While a battery backup is a major reason for going solar, we also want to send less baht to PEA every month. -
32
Smart Home automations - anybody using?
Definitely good enough -
161
What’s the best area in Thailand for expats to settle for long-term living?
is it a chick pick-up hub ? -
15
Poll: Do you want Ukraine to WIN in the Russia-Ukraine war (it's a binary choice)
Moronic straw man argument not worth seriously responding to. Russia started the war in 2014. -
161
What’s the best area in Thailand for expats to settle for long-term living?
Why? I have a great experience living there for a few years, and it is only a few months a year it is not especially human, and I have options. First rule, do not get stuck, have a plan b. I regret none of my major life experiences, and this have been a major one. If I'm going to regret anything, it must be travel to Thailand in the first place? God knows what I would had done different if I did not arrive here in first place and spent about 20mill take it leave it, and invested that in real estate and continued working 120% as I had done previously. -
61
Thai Hotels Struggle as Mid-Priced Rooms Fail to Attract Tourists
overlooking the swamp ? -
15
Poll: Do you want Ukraine to WIN in the Russia-Ukraine war (it's a binary choice)
How is that happening?!? -
32
Smart Home automations - anybody using?
I have Apple TVs connected to my living room and bedroom TVs. The remote has a mic button that I use to change between Netflix, my Plex Server, YouTube, Tidal etc and other interactions -
15
Poll: Do you want Ukraine to WIN in the Russia-Ukraine war (it's a binary choice)
I will add something that should be obvious but probably isn't to many. WANTING Ukraine to win isn't the same thing as saying Ukraine WILL win. The west has bought into Putin's nuclear threat fear mongering and has placed way too many restraints on what they will allow Ukraine to actually do. So the west has wanted to Ukraine to win but not made it possible out of fear of Ukraine actually winning. As more and more of Russian's so called red lines are crosssed, it has become more clear that Putin's threats are all bluff. For Ukraine to actually win, they will need much more aid from the west and also the end of unreasonable restraints. Iran's recent missile aid to Russia is turning the tide. But the US election is paramount. -
92
Thailand's 5-20 Year Visa Now a Bit Cheaper
You couldn’t get that if you were not yet 50 not working here, and not married to a Thai Was not a laugh when I was not yet 50, not working in Thailand, and not married. Then there was no DTV, no LTR, and no pending taxation without representation either. Sayonara Thailand -
15
Poll: Do you want Ukraine to WIN in the Russia-Ukraine war (it's a binary choice)
Ok then, by definition of your imagination all aggression of war is a resemblance of Hitler and both sides of all wars must be Hitler like because wars usually don’t suddenly occur due to the tit-for-tat smoldering nature of wars that slowly escalate such as what’s going on in the east bloc. Who started this war? It depends on how far back you’re willing to go and who you choose to blame. Again, stop antagonizing and foolishly throwing money at the war and things will cool down, because if not this thing has the propensity to kill millions. Is that really worth saving a pseudo “democracy”? -
15
Poll: Do you want Ukraine to WIN in the Russia-Ukraine war (it's a binary choice)
The USA desperately needs the Republican Party back again WITHOUT Trump, and it's coming soon..... -
32
Smart Home automations - anybody using?
I've been neck deep in Home Assistant for a few months and I've learnt a few things I would like to share with people new to smart home stuff: Home Assistant is ideal for customizing your home using a diverse mix of different devices and systems. It is far superior to and can completely replace HomeKit or Google Home or Alexa. Steep learning curve, but worth it once you become comfortable with how it works it's easy. Most of the time you can use the GUI exclusively to manage integrations and create automations, so it's not as daunting as it may seem at first. But even non-techie users will need to become at least somewhat familiar with YAML for certain things. The HA Dashboard can install on any phone/PC/tablet. It has custom levels of access for different family members. You can integrate all your IP cameras too. And once you have built your dashboard, you can uninstall all those Smartlife, Ewelink, Reolink, Sonoff, Smarthings, etc apps from your phone. You only need them for initially install of the device, then you should never need to open them again. One app does it all. Home Assistant is open source and updates are issued monthly or even weekly. It operates 100% offline*, including voice control and TTS. You can be certain you are not sending your data to China or Silicon Valley with HA. If you have a spare PC, you can install it today. It runs in every type of operating system and doesn't use very much CPU or memory. I originally installed it on my NAS, but a couple months later purchased a cheap Beelink mini-PC off AliExpress and installed it there via Proxmox. It rarely uses more than 4% CPU and the Beelink PC barely uses any power at all. Pet peeve: Home Assistant uses YAML, which is a terrible and antiquated markup language and even worse scripting language, and is especially inappropriate for a home automation environment intended to be used by (largely) non-techies. But it is what it is. Luckily I have over 40 years background in computer programming in all sorts of arcane languages, so this didn't set me back much. The dashboard is a clusterfruck, they should have gone with HTML+CSS, but in its current state it's a weird mishmash of arcane code. Do not like it. As such, I've given up trying to customize the dashboard and just use a couple of the HACS dashboard defaults - and they are generally good enough, in my opinion. *Some devices still require a cloud service. At least with Tuya (and several other brands) there are workarounds which remove the device from the cloud which actually makes everything work considerably faster once you've done it - no more waiting 3 seconds for a command to go to the cloud and back just to turn on a light. Samsung still requires their cloud if you use HA, but you can alternatively buy a cheap Tuya IR blaster and control your AC (via HA) with that, cloud-free. I personally continue to use Siri - it's convenient for the family and I don't have a major paranoia about privacy. The good thing is Home Assistant can bridge HomeKit (Siri) where you can limit access of your devices. And once done, Siri can semi-magically control pretty much everything under Home Assistant, even stuff that Siri couldn't otherwise control. The open source community has built amazing integrations, it is truly impressive just how much you can control with Home Assistant. The best part of Home Assistant is the automations. There is nothing you can't do with only a few lines of code. It's YAML, but still, it can do everything. ESP32 devices are another rabbit hole. I built a bluetooth proxy to control my Bluetooth Yale lock, and I built a custom transceiver for my Somfy blinds. Another device I built is a highly configurable mmWave sensor. I have near-zero hardware experience but, at least doing these particular things, it was actually very simple. Recommendations to get started: go to Lazada and AliExpress, buy a couple switches or sensors and become familiar with basic automating of stuff. Just use their own apps at first. Once you start to get the automation itch, grab Home Assistant and delve in.
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