Month: October 2017
surfing the crimson tide: cellular data coverage @ high density
In 2000 I attended a football game @ Penn State. ~100K people attended. And, cellular coverage (it was EDGE) was non-existent. That many people crammed together, and it was nothing but interference, nothing got through (not that it would have mattered on the phone I had at the time). So we all focused on the […]
Fire + IP == good
So I have this gas fireplace. And its heading into fireplace season. And, shockingly, its controlled by a fairly old-school honeywell thermostat. I mean, it works. But… its got a lot of cons. It uses 2 x AAA batteries. In my house, these always die sometime before it gets used for the season. Also, it […]
Ceiling fan update: capacitor fixed the motor, working on zigbee for lights
So I obtained a replacement capacitor. The old one (Yuhchang, top) and the new one (Cornell, bottom) are pictured. A quick snip with the soldering iron, and it has proven to fix the motor: no more buzzing after a few minutes of operation. Good! Now, back to the automation part. I’m still mulling over whether […]
I’m a big fan of IP, but my big fans have no IP
So here @ casa don there are two big ceiling fans. Casablanca Panama II 6645T models, each with a light kit. You can see what it looks like in the wild on the right. Now, sadly, both have become ill. The one directly over my desk works ok, but after a few minutes the fan […]
At what stage does ‘that stray cat’ become ‘your cat’?
OK, so here’s the deal. The below pictured free-loader has been coming by my house for 4 years now. This is about the max distance you can get to him (presumed him because no kittens have been observed). If my door is left open, he’ll come in and snoop around a bit, maybe play w/ […]
