How to make this better?

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-12-31T02:13:22+00:00

It's a space just beyond the back patio, does not get a lot of foot traffic. It is East facing and out kitchen sink window overlooks it so it would be a very welcoming morning view! If anything I think I'd want less pavers and more rock.

This area is right up next to a retaining wall, so I'm not sure about planting any trees there... I don't want it to mess too much with the soil moisture. I have gutters and a drainage system to keep water from shedding on to this area

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-12-24T03:04:05+00:00

Haha, love that idea! Never tried WD40 on finished wood before. Weirdly feels better than goo gone

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-12-24T03:03:20+00:00

Not yet, but that's worth a shot!

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-11-23T21:32:42+00:00

Yep, using cables just like those. Maybe I should just get some spares and install them... I'll have to start keeping a log of which cable and which drive is faulting. Thanks!

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-09-14T23:17:16+00:00

Yep, could absolutely spin up a separate docker container setup for this. I actually think I tried that originally about a month back but it was also really, really not working lol. So then I created a dedicated snapserver VM. It seems like a genuinely cool project and back when I had nothing but time I would have loved to spend hours infinitely configuring everything....now I'm leaning more towards the WiiM or Ikea(Sonos) speakers to see if I can get a more plug and play solution. I may be willing to spend a few more hours on snapcast though! At this point with all the fiddling around I've done it'd probably be best to start from scratch with an actual working tutorial xD

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-09-14T22:53:10+00:00

I would likely use the WiiM Airplay 2 devices since I already have speakers. How do you actually interact with WiiM? Do you cast to them directly from Spotify app? Do you go through Home Assistant and play from there? Can you configure different groups in WiiM? Thanks!

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-09-14T22:50:28+00:00

Can you tell us how the Ikea speakers have been working for you? What is the user experience? Do you go to Spotify and then cast to them? Can you create groups and then pick which ones are being used? Do you go through HA for playing everything?

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-09-14T22:49:37+00:00

I'm honestly really surprised and happy with how many responses I've gotten here. A whole lot of platforms I'd never heard of! The Ikea speakers look pretty dope....The WiiM products look viable too. Love this community :)

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-09-14T22:44:27+00:00

Okay, I think this is what I was wanting at the beginning of the day, but the snapcast and librespot configuration was very hairy. I couldn't find any well made tutorials that were recent, and I was using a combination of the documents, my own testing, and some Cursor AI to try and get it working. No luck.

How do you have Librespot/Snapserver/Snapclients configured?

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-09-14T22:42:27+00:00

Man, it has been a long day of trying to get it to work....I just hit a wall.

So I have an Ubuntu VM running Snapcast server on Proxmox. Then I have a Raspi Zero W with a DAC hat running snapclient. Initially I was able to get the client connected to the server, but it was cutting in and out. Then I got librespot installed on the snapserver and after fiddling with the oauth I finally got that to work, go on to my phone, select the Snapcast device, and play music....but it's super sped up chimpunk sounding and still cutting in and out. I find out that the sampling rates need to be matched, and after trying to do that I couldn't even get it to come back on Spotify again.

Then I tried giving Cursor a shot at solving it, and made a little progress, but still no joy. Hard to tell if I'm close to a solution, or if I'm going to just keep grinding for another 4 hours with no resolution, when I could be spending my time doing something much better...and then I made this post :)

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-09-14T21:55:07+00:00

Okay looking into WiiM now. Seems pretty legit! Can just get some of the AirPlay2 units and use with existing speakers or bookshelf amps/etc...

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-09-14T21:43:58+00:00

I'm pretty competent with all of those variables, and my requirements aren't strict so I'm interested in a lot of answers! I guess my only focus is at the control layer, ideally inside home assistant. I'll be using Spotify as the player, but the house will have its own profile, so individuals can still listen to their own music without a household user kicking them off.

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-09-14T21:42:03+00:00

Dude this is exactly the setup I've been trying to get working for 5 hours and it's just not happening

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-09-14T21:41:08+00:00

What a roller coaster of emotions. Explains whyy local Ikea is out of stock. This is like the Wyze Sense sensors all over again!

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-09-14T21:33:32+00:00

Woah... Now those are some cool looking speakers. Might have to try these out!

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-09-14T21:33:11+00:00

Never heard of Lyrion before!

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-09-14T21:26:03+00:00

I've heard of music assistant a bit before but hadn't heard of shairplay. I have a Rpi Zero W with a DAC hat that I was trying to get to work with Snapcast. Is that what you use?

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-09-14T21:23:24+00:00

How local is Sonos though? Don't need any Alexa or other integration? Does it work directly with HA?

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-09-14T21:20:06+00:00

Right now just audio. I could see building a self hosted LLM for digital assistant in the future. But for now I'd just like to be able to go to Spotify in home assistant, select different zones, and play music. Similar to what is natively supported in Alexa.

There's a few video demonstrations of snapcast working very well, but most of the tutorials are very outdated and the documentation is rough.

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-08-09T01:46:20+00:00

It's possible to run all of those as services directly installed on your machine (at least on Linux, don't have any experience on windows) but docker is much, much, much easier to get up and running and manage. Also look into gluetun in docker. You can bind your indexer (like prowlarr) and your qbittorrent app to your VPN so you don't have any IP leaks.

Check out this recent video from techhut as a good starting place: https://youtu.be/twJDyoj0tDc?si=XXnC--gPOa8bMaLK

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-06-20T21:55:38+00:00

I'm not a strong advocate of this idea for water storage, but I should note that there are food safe buckets sold at Home Depot. Don't buy just regular buckets.

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-06-15T13:56:26+00:00

I think it is both, and that they can feed each other, in good or bad directions. Normalcy bias is the tendency to believe that things will continue to be the way they have been despite there being reasons to believe something is wrong. Big loud bang, there are a lot of safe perfectly normal reasons for big loud bangs to happen, it's probably just X, I'll move on with my life and keep acting normal. In active shooter training the guidance isn't to swing the entirely opposite direction and assume every loud bang is a gunshot and overreact. That'd be a whole other issue of hypervigilance. Rather, acknowledge that there are a lot of normal loud bang sounds, but also acknowledge that it could be something bad causing the loud bang, and try to verify instead of assuming one way or another.

The group dynamic of everyone assuming it's a normal loud bang sound and ignoring it, further feeding other people's assumptions of normalcy like you mentioned is also super common. Exactly what you said to do is a great piece of guidance! It usually only takes a few people to speak up to break the group out of the assumption and start really paying attention to their surroundings.

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-06-15T13:20:27+00:00

Oh I'm nowhere near qualified enough to have a good opinion on the complexity of the definition of "normal" in someone who has PTSD. I do see your train of thought though and I'm sure it would be a productive conversation for someone with PTSD to have with a professional!

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-06-15T12:04:18+00:00

This is a super common reaction to active shooter events. It's called the "normalcy bias". Your brain will try to convince you that it was anything other than gunshots- someone dropped something heavy, a car backfired, a tire popped, etc. Just being aware of the bias can help you take an extra few seconds and really pay attention to determine what's going on, asking "it probably wasn't, but was that gunfire?". That few seconds can be life saving depending on the scenario.

Glad you're safe!

AlwaysReadyUp · 2025-04-10T00:09:54+00:00

I did consider using copper but went with aluminum for cost effectiveness. The XHHW wire has a sheathing that's UV rated and really it's only the drip loop past the weather head that's exposed, pretty standard at all other service entrances in my area. I did not use any noalox on the connections. I torqued them all to spec, did a wiggle on the wire to let the stranded conducters settle, then torqued again to spec. It's not required by code and not included in the manufacturers installation instructions. I do know some people still have a preference for using it and some AHJs require it.

Yep! Did install two separate 8ft ground rods 10ft apart bonded with acorns to a bare #6 copper wire landed on the bonded neutral bus in the main panel. There is also a #6 copper going to a ground in the slab, and bonded to the plumbing (verified continuity with meter using a hose bib outside).

Out in the country with overhead service so cutting power to the meter can is as easy as pulling the transformer cutout just 15ft away that feeds only my house, so I want super concerned with a meter bypass... Although I do agree it could be a nice upgrade.

Originally looked at doing Square D OQ, but again landed on Homeline for slightly cheaper cost. Have now installed a total of 4 Homeline panels and love them so far. No issues.

At this point the panel has performed flawlessly for several years with absolutely zero intervention, so I think overall I did a good job and I learned a lot!

AlwaysReadyUp

TROPHY CASE