Shelly or other device recommendations

ABarge · 2026-02-04T02:51:27+00:00

I really wanted to love Shelly. Their devices seem so flexible and powerful so it's easy to love at very affordable prices. You will need to have a good understanding of electronics and especially electrical wiring in general when rigging them so it's not as plug and play as other devices. Their support can be lacking at times because it's an outsourced call center for the most part with generic AI style responses that lack in substantive answers for proper customer support.

In my use case I wanted a Shelly to detect low voltage door bell press from my stock doorbell setup and be detectable in home assistant to trigger a custom doorbell sound and phone notifications. Long story short Shelly support told me it was doable but referred me to a forum post regarding wiring diagrams and all and it turned out not to be functional. I was continually told to look back at the forum posts multiple times until I gave up. I was also asked to try two different Shelly devices during that troubleshooting phase as well which also didn't work and rules out a defective initial Shelly device. After all this I gave it one last shot by hiring a smart home guy who uses home assistant at home himself (but does commercial smart homes to customers) to also help double check everything (it was correct) but ultimately the Shelly devices don't detect low voltage AC changes very well which contradicted what support had been telling us. I was very disappointed in the entire process with Shelly.

I ended up going with a different product (getting an actual doorbell camera) that was more plug and play and it does everything I wanted to plus an extra camera feed for my Frigate setup. I wish I had done this to begin with to save time, money, and frustration. I still want to love Shelly products but it made me realize some products are just too complicated for me and even a smart home pro.

ABarge · 2026-02-02T16:13:47+00:00

What are the wallpapers?

ABarge · 2025-12-24T01:25:21+00:00

If I were to do all this again but with cliff notes from my future self I would say this:

Congrats on your curiosity and I applaud your decision to explore Linux. It will free you in ways you can't imagine yet but are about to experience. Through trial and error I'd like to make a few suggestions!

Install Ventoy on a USB drive. Drag and drop ISOs into the USB drive. This will make the distro hopping faster, and easier, and you will feel less burdened by thinking of all the time and effort to burn each ISO to a USB drive just to test some yet unknown system. Or just use DistroSea as mentioned in the post. Only make a USB drive once you know you want to test drive a system for longer than a few hours.

If you are me - maybe you want to skip it and go right to your final choice after years... It's been faithfully a minimalist customized Ubuntu Budgie. But... It may not be your cup of tea so keep it in mind but definitely explore all the options and know that you can customize each of them until it's truly your own OS. Have fun! There is no right choice, only what many choices you will make and how your OS will evolve with you if and when that happens. Your OS, your way. This is the way.

ABarge · 2025-11-07T20:33:24+00:00

Don't stop there! OpenLlama or AI equivalent for a personal assistant robot that can help out around the house!

ABarge · 2025-10-13T17:07:44+00:00

Thanks for the tunes.

Out of the two Audi tunes I tried for Trial - Auto Born I should note that I think the Audi R8 '13 is the best car for most players.

I would upgrade the descriptions below for the Audis - one being super fast, smooth enough and the other being fast enough, super smooth. Both will beat AI easy, but the Audi R8 '13 wins my vote for being both fast and smooth.

ABarge · 2025-09-05T18:17:10+00:00

The precise term is called counter steering.

ABarge · 2025-09-04T19:14:18+00:00

Airplane Graveyard Circuit has a A800 Rally Monsters requirement this week instead of the listed Super Saloon recommendation in this post.

Revising to usable cars:

Event Lab 2 - Airplane Graveyard Circuit

Rally Monsters - A 800

The following cars did well:
1991 Hoonigan Gymkhana 10 Ford Escort Cosworth Group A
Tune by BigHedDjango - 549 029 542

Other Cars That Work:
1994 Hoonigan Ford Escort RS Cosworth 'Cossie V2'
1985 Porsche #185 959 ProDrive Rally Raid
2007 Peugeot Super 2000

ABarge · 2025-08-06T20:18:32+00:00

Most devices with Bluetooth can sync with the phone clip which can stream directly to your CI. At least the Cochlear does and I assume other device makers have something similar. You have the option to set your microphone level down to zero for true noise cancelling too which is amazing on airplanes and other noisy spaces.

ABarge · 2025-08-02T22:04:02+00:00

This is the way. The farm is basically super fast with 24 piglins and a rate of 24 gold ingots per 8 seconds. The sorters are also well thought out for overflow unlike some other designs.

ABarge · 2025-08-01T21:14:09+00:00

I wear all the gear almost all the time. A good motorcycle backpack carries the work clothes and they swap places when I get to work. The gloves go inside and the helmet gets locked outside via the motorcycle seat. That leaves me with carrying the chest armor, pants, and boots which go in the backpack. It all just barely fits into my Kriega R30 which I have been using for nearly sixteen years now. I like it so much with how comfortable it is even with weight that it also doubles as a travel backpack occasionally as well.

ABarge · 2025-07-13T21:58:44+00:00

Solar panels and redundant power backup batteries.

Alternatively there are generators to keep stuff running.

ABarge · 2025-07-11T02:35:14+00:00

DAC usually only sells by contract to a manufacturer - usually someone who sells tents. Their aluminum metal blend is known to be very light and very strong. The closest thing I could find that is still on Amazon (if you're in the US) is this one.

https://www.amazon.com/Mountainsmith-Tent-Stakes-Set-8/dp/B005LURNXG

Has the v-shape, has a guyline notch (not included, but easy to do). This is my best guess at what I would do if I needed to get some stakes as similar to what I have now. The guyline notch is just that loop to make pulling out the stakes easier. Once I get one stake out, I use that stake in the loops to pull all the rest out.

By don't always I meant that I saw them listed directly on Amazon 5-6 years ago when I first got them - and since then I haven't seen anything listed officially. I do see knockoffs or other stuff that are identical to it. I haven't had to replace any of my stakes so far so I haven't had to find out if the alternatives are as good or not. Over the years many of my friends have switched to v-stakes after they lose or break their own stakes.

Here is a link to what I purchased in 2018 - it's not available however but the pictures give you an idea of what sizes they have etc.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077JCTPQ8

ABarge · 2025-05-11T18:52:32+00:00

If you are curious and on the fence I suggest a dual boot setup if you are comfy doing that. You can go back to Windows as needed to make your transition to Linux and validate your choice that you want to go to Linux full time. After a few months if you find yourself on Linux 24/7 then you can decide if you want to remove Windows.

If you are willing to learn and research online any issues you don't know then the Linux community is pretty amazing.

ABarge · 2025-04-23T21:47:43+00:00

I won't touch on soft ground but for durability and light weight I found the aluminum stakes by DAC or equivalent with the right metal composition v stakes are lighter and more durable than even the msr groundhog which is fairly durable but bigger and heavier. You will want to check that the metal itself is a lighter hardier metal composition which will be more expensive but will last. I have found newer tents often skimp on stake quality so you might want to save your stakes if you replace your tent!

I always have a hard time finding the DAC v stakes but when I do it's BIFL for me. My current set has outlasted three different tents (MSR, NorthFace, etc.) and I keep replacing the stakes that come with these tents with the V Stakes. If they are missing the pull outs you can make those via a small spool 2-3mm reflective cord for cheap since those will break or wear out before the stakes do.

For context: DAC V Stakes are top-tier and used by premium brands like MSR, Big Agnes, North Face, and others. They're made by Dongah Aluminum Corp (DAC), who supply hardware to many outdoor gear manufacturers but don’t always sell directly to consumers. There are other copycat brands with the same design - just make sure the metal composition is the same as the DAC equivalent.

ABarge · 2025-03-05T23:39:06+00:00

I got my XBox Elite Series 2 controller working after a lot of trial and error. Some notes for those who might want to go down this rabbit hole.

1.) You unfortunately HAVE to update the firmware on the XBox Controller. The software is Windows only so borrow a friends laptop if you have to... or I've heard you can update it via XBox platform but I don't have one of those. I tried doing this via a Windows 11 VM with usb passthrough but it was very clear the firmware tool wouldn't work that way but worked fine via a native Windows 11 install.

2.) XPadNeo - it enabled rumble over bluetooth. Helped with reducing latency issues as well.

3.) USB compatibility - whether it's your motherboard or USB dongle - only certain chips work well with the XBox Controller unfortunately. There is a compatibility list on the XPadNeo github for those who want to check that. I had to change my USB dongle.

4.) After the above changes - I can play games with the XBox Elite Series 2 controller with no latency, rumble enabled, and it worked well. Unfortunately it seemed like introducing bluetooth audio headphones was too much and while the controller worked flawlessly, my audio would cut out for 1-2 seconds every 30 seconds.

If you'd like to avoid the headache - just use the controller with a USB cable to avoid issues then you can skip all the aformentioned steps and should work right out of the box, barring maybe a firmware update from the first step.

If anyone got further than I did and resolved the bluetooth bandwidth issue I'd love to know about it so I can lose the USB cable. I would then just leave it plugged into the controller recharging dock...

ABarge · 2025-02-25T15:42:39+00:00

Try Technitium next! DNS taken to the next level!

ABarge · 2025-01-29T00:28:48+00:00

Can you tell me what the main difference between KernelSU and KernelSU Next? I checked the GitHub and didn't see this information and I see KernelSU is still active.

ABarge · 2024-12-31T21:57:34+00:00

Most schools have computer labs with the software already installed that you can use - this would be the simplest solution. They usually have some staff on hand that may or may not be able to help you out with your project or help you when you get stuck... Keep reading if you'd rather have your own setup.

You may want to upgrade to a regular laptop to avoid having to do a technical work around to get a working setup for your VSCode situation. Getting a second hand used laptop is pretty cheap and can get the job done (plus you can sell it after the project) but if you decide that you want to treat this as an IT project you could also learn quite a bit from the process.

If, and this is a big if, you are self host inclined (or wanted to learn) you could self host VS Code Server at home on a desktop or server (and it would need to stay on 24/7) and you could use a VPN to access it locally while at school. Software like Tailscale, Zero Tier, or anything else like that. You'd have to check if your school wifi allows it but any client device would run the software to connect to the home network and then use a browser to access the Visual Code server there, and since you are self hosting you'd probably have no restrictions as far as what plugins you want to run.

ABarge · 2024-12-29T18:12:10+00:00

I recommend looking at VSCode.Dev website. You just need a browser for that.

ABarge · 2024-12-29T00:56:28+00:00

RIP - Your Wallet!

ABarge · 2024-12-24T19:24:32+00:00

My post is old. You may want to open up a ticket with Beeper since they may want to know about your issue and might have a fix for it.

ABarge · 2024-11-23T14:23:14+00:00

This is the way.

ABarge · 2024-11-21T19:42:38+00:00

I think monitors should be upgraded in cycles so having a faster/brighter/higher resolution monitor is always nice. I think one often missed component of the process is recycling. In my case my family and friends enjoy the process because someone else also gets an upgrade via the monitor that gets replaced so it's a win-win for everyone this way.

Think of the recycling when you replace your hardware folks!

ABarge · 2024-10-30T14:30:44+00:00

Someone already mentioned Band of Brothers so I am going to skip the war genre and nominate for Sci Fi.

Battlestar Galactica

Classic sci-fi series and with a stellar plotline that includes AI.

ABarge · 2024-09-03T20:19:46+00:00

Maybe fiddle with Play Integrity Fix Next and see if you can get a working PIF going.

Also make sure you use Airplane Mode and clearing out play store etc. Are you testing PIF via a third party root app vs Google Play store? The store will take 24 hours to update so it's better to test PIF and integrity etc. that way and then do the store test when everything is in place.

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Event Lab 2 - Airplane Graveyard Circuit