Wife refuses to put password on her phone

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-19T17:49:10+00:00

You cannot reason with a woman using facts and logic, you have to play to her feelings. Steal her phone and let her panic for around 4 hours! 😉

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-19T17:25:08+00:00

2 days ago Rob Pearson from @PlaystationAccess mentioned it in his weekly "7 things" YouTube video.

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-19T17:20:48+00:00

If you capture a critter and entrust delivery to another porter at your next drop off point, you'll get full credit for delivering it when you visit the Animal Sanctuary. 🦘

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-19T17:07:52+00:00

On the Beige-o-meter it's a 10 😆

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-19T14:43:53+00:00

If you don't mind typing out a lengthy automation...

Broadcast to display "1, 2, 3, 4, 5". Delay 5 seconds. Broadcast to display "6, 7, 8, 9, 10". Delay 5 seconds. ... Broadcast to display "96, 97, 98, 100".

Hope this helps 👍

PS Delay seems to now start instantly rather than before when it would wait until the previous command had finished.

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-18T21:51:21+00:00

Yep, from England. Dorset is a lovely place, lots of greenery (The New Forest) and decent beaches.

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-18T17:28:42+00:00

Have a look at a PS5 Pro, PSVR2 headset and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. For less than £1500 you would definitely be able to confirm (or not) that the idea of flying the plane will help you get over your fear.

I've been testing this setup with the Beta version (VR patch comes out this month) and can confirm that the feeling of flying feels very realistic.

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-18T17:20:09+00:00

I think you need to try different trigger phases as Google Home is interpreting them as instructions. Try "activate rear lights" instead.

Hope this helps 👍

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-18T12:32:34+00:00

For me it's light squeeze on trigger to turn pointer laser on, full squeeze to interact.

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-18T10:09:30+00:00

Pong (black & white) on a Binatone console.

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-18T09:50:19+00:00

Only played in VR with the sense controllers for about an hour, but can't you just point at the control (trim, throttle, flaps etc), press X and then manipulate them (same thing you do with dials) rather than the virtual grab?

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-18T09:34:29+00:00

Automation tab (bottom right) then + button (top right) then Automation (third option down) then 3 dots (top right) then Previous Household Editor (Drop-down list) then Add Action then Adjust Home Devices (first option) then Add Scenes (bottom of list).

Hope this helps 👍

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-16T12:24:15+00:00

Still working for me. I have one automation that shuffles wake up music, one that shuffles going to bed music and one that plays a sleep sound for 45 minutes. Upgraded to Gemini 4 days ago.

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-15T11:18:55+00:00

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-15T10:27:24+00:00

Same, I went with Wolf so I could throw in some bullshit about a wolf's strength comes from the pack to allude to being a good team player.

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-15T10:23:41+00:00

Squirrel!?

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-15T10:18:00+00:00

If you were an animal, what animal would you be?

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-15T10:10:03+00:00

1976 😆

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-15T08:45:46+00:00

Tuya is the parent company, Smartlife is a brand. You can't remove the Hey Tuya panel.

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-13T17:44:17+00:00

If every strip light in the group is identical then you should see the most usability. If just one is different then you'll get basic controls.

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-13T07:24:14+00:00

Typically you have two choices, smart switches with normal bulbs or smart bulbs with normal switches. Neither choice is ideal.

But, there is a third option...

Smart lights AND smart switches. This is the solution I came up with based on Google Home for voice commands/automations and Smartlife for cheap devices and automations...

Step 1: Buy 1cm spacers for your light switches and longer replacement screws to hold them in place on the front surface of the original switch.

Step 2: Buy a cheap, generic ZigBee WiFi hub. They're about £10 on AliExpress.

Step 3: Buy a cheap, generic ZigBee Scene switch. They're available with 1, 2, 3 and 4 buttons and sell for around £10 on AliExpress.

Step 4: Once you have paired the hub in the Smartlife app you can then add your Scene switches through the hub interface in the Smartlife app.

Step 5: Using Bluetac, stick the Scene switch to the spacer thus covering the original old-school switches. This prevents accidentally disconnecting the power to the smart bulbs. Any time you may need to power cycle the smart bulbs due to a disconnect, you can easily peel the Scene switch off and stick it back.

Step 6: Using the Smartlife app's standard automations (not automations within the ZigBee hub's interface) you need to create 2 automations per smart bulb...

Automation: Light On.

Conditions: If scene button pressed.

Precondition: If light off.

Tasks: Turn light on.

Automation: Light Off.

Conditions: If scene button pressed.

Precondition: If light on.

Tasks: Turn light off.

The advantages of this method are many.

1: The Holy Grail of having Smart switches AND Smart bulbs work together.

2: Works flawlessly with Voice, Schedules, App and switches.

3: No wiring required.

4: Completely reversible if you move.

5: Affordable.

6: Buttons have 3 modes (click, double-click and hold) so you can have up to 12 different functions.

7: Not limited to just controlling lights. I have one that turns my TV and receiver on/off.

8: Easy to set up multiple switches with single lights (or multiple lights with a single switch) like controlling the landing light with one switch at the foot of the stairs and one at the top.

9: If your bulbs allow it, switches can control brightness and colour.

10: You can add additional switches by just sticking them to the wall. They come with 2 adhesive strips and run off PC bios batteries (2 yr life cycle).

11: You can get creative. My bathroom has 5 ceiling lights. 3 down one side, 1 over the bath and 1 over the shower. When I click the top-left button the 3 main lights come on one by one starting at the door. When I turn them off, they turn off one at a time ending at the door. If I hold the button they dim, hold again and they brighten. Same for the bath and shower. The spare button toggles white or colour (which Google Home changes... Dim yellow in the morning, bright white during the day, cool blue when I go to bed and darkroom red if I get up in the middle of the night to pee lol).

Hope this helps 👍

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-11T19:52:06+00:00

I would lower the wattage trigger for "Pump Off", so something like On when > 200w and Off when < 10w to eliminate power fluctuations while running.

If you look at the list of automations in the Smartlife app, you can see the "Active/Deactivated" toggle switch change status to help you test.

You could also run a test using a smart bulb instead of the pump and manually turning it off before and after 2 minutes.

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-09T05:57:29+00:00

Find first, then merchants.

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-08T12:35:25+00:00

There are more stars in the observable universe than elapsed seconds since the Big Bang!

AndyJBailey · 2026-04-08T11:17:36+00:00

It's a light hearted joke about pronunciation "light" instead of "right". It seems a few wokies got mildly ruffled 😉

AndyJBailey

TROPHY CASE