npawelek's recent activity

  1. Comment on New gaming PCs - price sanity check and recommendations? in ~games

    npawelek
    Link Parent
    This. Nvidia, AMD, and Intel are on the brink of releasing their next gens. If not by end of year, then CES for sure.

    This. Nvidia, AMD, and Intel are on the brink of releasing their next gens. If not by end of year, then CES for sure.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on Solar + power bank for household appliances in apartment - can I reduce my electricity bill? in ~life.home_improvement

    npawelek
    Link Parent
    Agree with this. OP, you need to understand your usage accurately, then make adjustments. You can likely make a significant difference without investing a lot of money. Solar is fickly without a...

    Agree with this. OP, you need to understand your usage accurately, then make adjustments. You can likely make a significant difference without investing a lot of money. Solar is fickly without a good setup so you likely wont have a ROI on this.

    3 votes

  3. Comment on Who are the pop stars, from any era, who have extraordinary skills? in ~music

    npawelek
    (edited )
    Link
    Brenden Urie (formerly from Panic! until they split). Also, Tim Henson and Scott LePage from Polyphia. Not necessarily pop on the last two, but certainly virtuosos.

    Brenden Urie (formerly from Panic! until they split). Also, Tim Henson and Scott LePage from Polyphia. Not necessarily pop on the last two, but certainly virtuosos.

  4. Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music

    npawelek
    Link
    Every once and a while you just stumble across one of those songs that hits you right in the feels. Great 80s synth vibes from a band I'd never heard of: Basixx - The Chase. I think I've had it on...

    Every once and a while you just stumble across one of those songs that hits you right in the feels. Great 80s synth vibes from a band I'd never heard of: Basixx - The Chase. I think I've had it on repeat all day.

  5. Comment on Home weather stations - what's the weather like where you are? in ~enviro

    npawelek
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I'm using rtl_433 which has a bunch of supported device protocols that it will just automatically pick up and send to MQTT. It's pretty low utilization as well. I run it off of an old Pi Zero W...

    I'm using rtl_433 which has a bunch of supported device protocols that it will just automatically pick up and send to MQTT. It's pretty low utilization as well. I run it off of an old Pi Zero W connected to an official RTL-SDR dongle.

    It transmits at 30-second intervals, switching between two different message formats. Here's an example of what is sent to MQTT:

    {"time" : "2023-06-26T12:38:32", "protocol" : 40, "model" : "Acurite-5n1", "message_type" : 49, "id" : 529, "channel" : "A", "sequence_num" : 0, "battery_ok" : 1, "wind_avg_km_h" : 4.311, "wind_dir_deg" : 292.500, "rain_in" : 7.990, "mic" : "CHECKSUM"}
...
{"time" : "2023-06-26T12:38:51", "protocol" : 40, "model" : "Acurite-5n1", "message_type" : 56, "id" : 529, "channel" : "A", "sequence_num" : 2, "battery_ok" : 1, "wind_avg_km_h" : 3.483, "temperature_F" : 97.200, "humidity" : 50, "mic" : "CHECKSUM"}
    3 votes

  6. Comment on Home weather stations - what's the weather like where you are? in ~enviro

    npawelek
    Link
    I was gifted a 5-n-1 Acruite weather station (temp, humidity, rain, wind speed, wind direction). It's been running for a little over a year and is still chugging along. The interesting thing about...

    I was gifted a 5-n-1 Acruite weather station (temp, humidity, rain, wind speed, wind direction). It's been running for a little over a year and is still chugging along. The interesting thing about these Acurite units is that they emit information over 433Mhz. This prompted me to install some bunny ears with an SDR dongle in the garage and now that data is locally stored in Home Assistant for long-term statistics. I also get to see other things in the neighborhood that emit on the same spectrum. It's been quite interesting.

    I live in Texas and the its been brutal the last week (103.5F was the highest temp recorded last week), with a worse outlook this week.

    3 votes

  7. Comment on What wiring decisions do you wish you made when building a house? in ~hobbies

    npawelek
    Link
    I’ve always wanted a low voltage DC setup for home automation. Additional wiring for wall tablets and automatic blinds (batteries are expensive and have to be changed). Would also be good to hard...

    I’ve always wanted a low voltage DC setup for home automation. Additional wiring for wall tablets and automatic blinds (batteries are expensive and have to be changed). Would also be good to hard wire security-related contact sensors for windows and doors, plus some motion sensors.

    PoE is great in some cases like for wall tablets, but can get expensive when you need lots of ports.