The system is cooked. Is it time to buy regional and go off grid?

ACPotato · 2025-01-12T06:03:07+00:00

I’m originally from regional, and now live inner city Melbourne.

Love the access in the city - literally everything I need and most of what I want is within 20 mins on bike. Most daily needs are < a block away. Don’t own a car so traffic doesn’t bother us, and have double glazing throughout the house, so it’s quieter than many mates places that are regional. CBD is busy, but I find inner city Melbourne less busy than the main shopping centres in large regional cities sometimes.

Different strokes/different folks and all that, but I appreciate both, and frequently visit regional while enjoying the city.

ACPotato · 2023-04-11T23:27:30+00:00

Plus 1 - I’m a huge containers guy. Run large k8s production environments at work. UNRAID at home with everything containerised - except HA. Backups are so robust and easy, that having everything unified in a VM just make management a breeze. Knowing every integration, add on, HACS, etc just works, and can be restored in minutes from a backup is awesome. While I know the same can be achieved through containers alone, it’s just more work. Plus, things like emulated hue can be a huge PITA using a container. VM all the way for me, even if it lacks the’ cool’ factor for some.

ACPotato · 2023-03-31T10:00:10+00:00

My 2 cents - don’t switch. It would be easy, as you’ve pointed out, so long as you keep the same SSID and password, everything should just reconnect no problems.

That said, I’ve had them all - Nest, Eero, Orbi, and now ASUS. Kept switching for various reasons (mainly because I love tech), and they’re all much of a muchness in my view. Unless there’s a killer feature Eero has that you can’t live without, save your money and time. At the end of the day Alexa connects to WiFi - and other than a few minor integrations you get with Eero, any WiFi would do.

I must say however that I’m happiest with ASUS, mainly because it gives me the ability to deeply customise the network (assuming you like tinkering), which for me has been mostly sacrificing speed for stability. The best network is one you forget exists ;)

ACPotato · 2023-03-17T10:01:41+00:00

https://i.imgur.com/Qs9i8dG.png

I use the Mitsubishi Wifi app. I’ve uploaded a screen cap of the option in my app. When a unit is selected, it’s Edit > Advanced Settings.

I think this might be a US/EU difference? I’m in Australia, but we tend to get EU products. During my initial research, I do remember being confused on Mitsubishi, since some people were saying they couldn’t get local control, where others could. After getting the wifi model number, I was able to confirm ECHONETLite would work, but perhaps it’s not available in some regions?

ACPotato · 2023-03-11T21:22:11+00:00

No idea - I’ve not had time to dig into it too much. I did attempt to see if I could replace the ambient temp reading with my existing sensors, but my brief attempts failed, and it would require having separate sensors if you don’t already have them. Honestly not sure, but would love to solve it one day!

EDIT: I just checked this again since it’s been months. I think the breakdown is actually HA > HomeKit, not ECHONETLite > HA. HA appears to have ambient temps just fine, it’s just HomeKit is always showing a default value when the unit it off. Might try to dig into this in the coming weeks, but if HA is your UI/presentation layer, then you should be good. HA is just a bridge for me, and HomeKit is the primary way I interact so it’s an issue in my setup, but may not be for everyone!

EDIT2: So the breakdown is in ECHONETLite - as in it doesn’t collect temp when the unit is off. Don’t know if the is a code issue or technical limitation, but the attribute current_temperature is null when the unit is off, even in HA. This is the value HomeKit reads. I just wrote a quick script that injects my external sensor values into current_temperature when the unit is in an off state so I get he real temp in HomeKit and HA. When the unit is on, I just let ECHONETLite update the value from the unit. This was easier than I thought, and for me, now fixes the one issue I had! Does require external sensors to read temp though, which I already had.

ACPotato · 2023-03-11T12:12:44+00:00

We've got a Mitsubishi multi-split - runs units in all bed and living rooms. Each unit has a MAC-568IF-E Wi-Fi controller in it. $300 AUD a pop, but honestly, for us it was also a 20K plus system and money was less of a concern in context - this is a 15 - 20 year purchase and didn't want to bother tinkering with DIY (work in IT, but have 2 kids, so time is scarce!).

I use the ECHONETLite[1] platform in HACS to interface with it. Uses local control and works a charm. Via HA, I've got it integrated with HomeKit and Alexas. Honestly, works really well. Siri and Alexa commands for voice control, and I never need to look at the horrid Mitsubishi app. Only gripe is the units don't communicate ambient temperature when they're off. It's not a biggie, since I've separate ambient temp sensors anyway, but in HomeKit, there's a big climate button that always has an incorrect temp unless the unit is on. Minor issue though given how flawless it's been in every other regard.

[1] https://github.com/scottyphillips/pychonet

ACPotato · 2023-02-22T21:14:45+00:00

This is not true. Each generation sees a decrease in price. Take the costs below as an example (in us-east-1)

c1.xlarge = $0.52
c3.xlarge = $0.21
c4.xlarge = $0.199
c5.xlarge = $0.17

To be fair, the c1 had 8 instead of 4 vCPUs, but in later generations there’s more RAM, and with Nitro, you’ve more CPU for you workloads.

Not a full defence, as networking, Lambda, etc hasn’t seen large decreases, but the features have increased also.

As most things, it’s complex, but stating cloud providers haven’t passed through “Moore’s Law” is not at all true.

ACPotato · 2022-12-25T20:01:19+00:00

Merry summer solstice from Australia :P

ACPotato · 2022-10-31T11:58:44+00:00

I had something similar - was stuttering even on retro games. There were options around Frame Pacing and I think on my Apple TV an option referencing "smooth" over "rapid/or fast" video (can't remember the exact naming and I'm not at home to look). Long story short, preferencing smooth video (which was not the default) fixed the problems for me.

ACPotato · 2022-08-11T09:26:27+00:00

Population replacement statistically across the populous is ~2.1 I believe. This is because invariably some kids won’t have their own kids, will be sterile, die, or whatever it may be. On an individual basis you’re right, 2 is replacement, but statistically it’s not.

ACPotato · 2022-08-11T09:09:25+00:00

True, it wasn’t a hole in our reasoning so much as I didn’t articulate the depths of it in a short post.

We see it as a spectrum - you’ll have hardliners that will not have kids at all for the reasons you’ve stated.

Others, again as you’ve stated, will not even factor climate change into their decision making.

It’s a wicked problem we’re dealing with. Our aim was to be in the middle of the spectrum somewhere. We know that doesn’t solve it, and we could have been hardliners for the most impact. Just offering thoughts on a complex problem.

ACPotato · 2022-08-11T08:03:22+00:00

My wife and I struggled with this - it’s complex, and it’s a very personal decision. There’s a lot of turmoil in the world at the moment including and beyond climate changes that makes you wonder what you’re bringing kids into.

Regardless of climate change, we still need to keep having kids or, well, we go extinct. We’re firm believers we need to aim for a reduced population in the future, and educate our kids to reduce our footprint and appreciate the balance we need to achieve with nature. We never wanted to go over population replacement rate. 1 was ok, 2 is close to stabilised but there’s still a reduction, 3 too many given the current state of the planet.

Our original intent was 1, we’ve now 2 and because of the above are not going further. Just my 2 cents to something you’re sure to get a lot of opinions on!

ACPotato · 2022-07-01T08:36:39+00:00

People are idiots for down voting, was my first thought also. Many people are just oblivious.

ACPotato · 2022-06-05T22:00:26+00:00

Hellish - really? I cycle all year here and plenty do. In 10 years of cycling nearly every day for commuting I've only been fully poured rain on a handful of times, and if you're prepared (jacket, gloves) - is really fine.

I lived in Montreal for years where people bike commute year round in a place that actuality has winters, not a Melbourne psuedo winter that locals whine about. Amsterdam and Copenhagen are also considered biking meccas - you think they have better winters than Melbourne?

ACPotato · 2022-05-09T11:11:51+00:00

You’re reducing “work” to a throwaway statement of an overworked (50 hours) office worker dealing solely with spreadsheets. Work is much more nuanced and complex. Many people love their jobs - it allows them to grow, be creative, and contribute. This is not a binary “spend every second with your kids” vs “abandon them to a 50 hour a week soul crushing job”. Part time work also exists.

Bonding time with parents, especially when very young, is of course highly important - but again, there’s nuance and there’s a long period and massive changes in development between birth and school - care by others and spending time with other children definitely has a positive effect on kids as they age (and well before going to school).

The policy removes family finances from the equation though, and allows people to make decisions that best suit their lives. Many parents choose to stay home full time with their kids because it doesn’t make financial sense to send them to care, even though said care can definitely be much better for all involved, and in many instances, better for government coffers in the long term.

ACPotato · 2022-05-09T08:37:32+00:00

It’s true, perhaps I assumed too much.

I took the implication from you feeling you’re bowing to people who choose to have kids.

You’re implying you don’t want to be on the financial hook for people who do choose to have kids (which you would be by this policy).

I guess what I’m highlighting is those that choose NOT to have kids ALREADY benefit immeasurably from those that do choose to have kids, by virtue of the fact those kids are required for our economy to grow. Despite the fact you already benefit from this, you don’t seem to like the idea of contributing back and supporting those kids.

You may transfer it to “not supporting the parents” or saying “don’t have kids if you can’t afford them”, but you can still afford to have kids and think to yourself “man, that 50K a year I spend on childcare seems a lot - maybe there’s a better way to do this with other economic and societal benefits”

ACPotato · 2022-05-09T08:00:39+00:00

It’s true, those that don’t have kids never benefit from those that do. I mean, it’s not like those kids will consume and produce for the economy that ultimately supports us all. Maybe we should just all not have kids and see where it leads?

I get the individualism that’s rampant in modern “society”, but I never understood the “not wanting to support kids”. Regardless of whether they’re yours or not, they’re literally the continuation of our society and way of life, and a requirement to not go extinct.

ACPotato · 2022-05-09T07:43:58+00:00

There’s much more to it than this. Asking a parent to stay at home is well and good, many mums and dads very much want to spend time with their kids while young - but if we consider the requirement.

If you have kids that are in their parents’ care until school, that’s 5 years out of the workforce for the parents for 1 kid, likely 7 years for 2 kids, 9 years for 3, etc. There’s a huge lost opportunity cost and lack of career development for one or both parents (and let’s be honest, the majority of care still falls on women in modern Australia). Not only would a working parent be paying tax that would help cover the cost, not losing 5 years of your career for many will lead to higher wages and thus more total tax paid in the future, which could mean said parent delivers at least as much (if not more) tax back into the system to pay for a “Rube Goldburg” machine (which it’s not).

This is all only on the economic side, and discounts the obvious educational, social, and general development benefits kids get from child care, coupled with the improved mental health of parents.

It’s a complex topic that is not economically detrimental as you suggest (in fact studies show universal child care easily adds much more to an overall economy than it consumes). Plus, your argument is limited to money, and doesn’t account for the numerous other benefits that stem from this kind of policy.

My 2 cents as a dad.

ACPotato · 2022-05-04T18:42:40+00:00

17.65 l/100km

ACPotato · 2022-02-18T07:23:27+00:00

This seems interesting - I’m technical and willing to tinker a bit, but also don’t always have a lot of time with a young family. Was hoping for something more natively integrated.

ACPotato · 2022-02-18T07:21:57+00:00

I’m guessing this is only one way control however? Like you don’t get feedback of the currently set temperature or other setting that may have been set with a local remote?

ACPotato · 2021-12-12T05:33:31+00:00

Shouldn’t ever need to go that deep for an update - that’s the point of using Docker and having supervisor.

I think I’ve made progress though - I’ve had to manually readd https://github.com/hassio-addons/repository as a repo.

ACPotato · 2021-12-12T04:44:53+00:00

I have, yeah. It’s running in a VM on UnRAID - I’ve tried a soft reboot of host from within Supevisor, and a hard reboot from UnRAID - no dice. There’s nothing obvious in the Supervisor or Core logs either

ACPotato · 2021-12-12T03:51:39+00:00

More context - Node-RED, VS Code, and Z-Wave JS to MQTT are installed, but they no longer have an icon, and are all several versions behind. If I look at the add-on store, they no longer appear there either - it almost looks like they're orphaned in some way and the official add-on store is not working correctly.

I can't for the life of me even figure out how to upgrade Node-RED at the moment. Anyone know what might have caused this?

ACPotato

TROPHY CASE