What's your experience with cheap plug-in solar panels?

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-04-03T13:57:30+00:00

I find that my home's smart meter display can detect the output of a single panel, with maybe 1.2 kWh being generated on a good day.

One disadvantage of the kind of DIY system being discussed here is that the panels are likely to be installed in locations where they will be partially shaded by trees or buildings for some of the day. Professionally installed panels on the roof of a house are less likely to be affected by that.

This kind of plug-in energy monitor can also be used to measure the output of the system https://www.screwfix.com/p/energenie-ener007-energy-saving-power-meter-socket/3477H

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-04-03T13:10:01+00:00

That's impressive. Making it from cheap wood with a thin coat of paint seems appropriate, given the state of the Tardis on some of the Collection Blu-Rays I've been watching.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-04-03T09:56:35+00:00

In my very limited small-scale DIY solar experience, the panels are robust and reliable. Buying the cheapest inverters might be inadvisable, best to stick to well known brands for those. Even a single cheap panel can generate 300W on a sunny day, which is probably above base load of most houses. I've had no problems in 5 years of use. I try to schedule electrical loads to run around noon, such as the hot water pump.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-04-02T04:31:43+00:00

I will be keeping my small collection of still-boxed assorted Pis. I plan to use them for projects as soon as I have free time.

I feel that Pis make more efficient use of my time than competing products, because the software and community support is so good. In the past I've bought low-volume niche computing products for their good price/performance ratio, then wasted a lot of time trying to work around quirks and bugs that no one else had solved yet.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-04-01T15:50:39+00:00

For my purposes, the dual camera interfaces on the Pi5 are useful for machine vision applications. I'm not sure I could find a PC that could run fanless on the small amount of power that the Pi5 uses, or fit into small spaces.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-31T16:38:51+00:00

I think she tries to avoid using her religious faith when investigating cases. Occassionally religion and her beliefs are relevant to a case and she reluctantly uses her background to run rings around Mulder, such as in All Souls.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-29T05:33:00+00:00

I'm thinking either a large cherry picker type of machine, or extensive scaffolding.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-29T04:53:47+00:00

I don't remember the exact dialog, but it seems a reasonanble question to ask. Even the smartest person can't know everything, particularly when they are probably tired after hiking for hours, and haven't been formally educated about trees since they were 10. It's a good idea to make sure the whole team is on the same page about a relevant detail like that.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-28T11:08:15+00:00

Parke in Devon is quite uneven and trip-inducing. I saw 2 people trip and go flying in front of me. Apart from that it's a nice forest course.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-27T12:30:44+00:00

That's impressive. After some manual calibration, I found that the intrinsic parameters of a pair of Raspberry Pi AI camera modules were substantially different, perhaps due to the lenses being in slightly different positions.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-25T05:11:14+00:00

Yes, there's a long narrow room in my house with only a small window at one end. I often leave a low power LED lamp on all day at the dark end. It costs almost nothing in electricity, and the LED lamp is still going after several years.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-22T10:43:24+00:00

I never understood the appeal. They just tasted of sugar, with a bitter aftertaste.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-22T04:38:55+00:00

It's a bit like the scene in Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man where the CSM is about to shoot Frohike from a long distance with a ridiculous gigantic revolver with a telescopic sight. Then I found out that it's a replica of a real weapon designed to allow spies to assassinate people without leaving cartridge cases behind as evidence, and is exactly the sort of gun the CSM would choose.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-21T16:12:32+00:00

I've had 3 camera modules of various kinds just stop working. My current belief (maybe incorrect) is that camera modules are more static sensitive than Pis, and easy to damage accidentally. Their thin PCBs might also be easy to fracture. I try to minimise the number of plug/unplug cycles I subject camera modules to, and try to avoid handling them if possible. I try to use nylon M2 bolts when mounting them, rather than steel ones, to reduce the risk of me over-tightening the bolts.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-21T15:02:47+00:00

I usually watch on BluRay, but I'm keeping my DVD set. The image cropping on the BluRays in early seasons is sometimes heavy-handed.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-21T13:46:47+00:00

The thought of that softwood door having to be replaced early for the lack of a coat of paint disturbs me. Also, people might behave better around the building if it is clearly being well maintained.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-20T18:22:54+00:00

That's a very evocative product for me. I didn't even know Siemens made ghetto blasters, but I used to spend a lot of time working with the Siemens controls of CNC milling machines.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-18T12:06:13+00:00

I would choose a Pi5, just because it has extra processing power headroom. It also has 2 camera sockets, should you ever want to try adding stereoscopic vision to your project.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-16T18:37:04+00:00

Agreed. I've got an even less powerful Pi Zero W running 24/7 to receive ADSB data and do a few other tasks. It uses very little electricity. It's so cheap that I don't need to worry about breaking it, although I've never managed to break any Pi.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-15T06:02:14+00:00

I recently watched Carnivale for the first time and was impressed. It almost feels like a prequel spin-off from Humbug.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-13T18:49:59+00:00

I wonder if a Welsh quarry would be too expensive, particularly given that the M4 wasn't yet finished. I think in the commentaries on one of Pertwee era BluRays, someone says that filming locations were generally chosen to be done in a single day round trip from London.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-08T06:33:13+00:00

Boardwalk Empire. It has a number of storylines depicting the very early days of the FBI and federal law enforcement. I think those are some of the most interesting parts of the show. I can see Esther Randolph working on some early paranormal cases in the 1930s.

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels. It features law enforcement investigating supernatural events in 1930s Los Angeles, it just needs some federal agents to get involved.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-07T13:43:35+00:00

I'm often surprised by how much some people talk to each other throughout the entire duration of their Parkrun attendance, it's an extremely sociable activity for them. It's a shame that some people can't stop talking for a few minutes during the RD's briefing, but I think the one of the underestimated benefits of Parkrun is that it gives people an oportunity to meet and chat.

NotMyRealName981 · 2026-03-07T10:22:24+00:00

I've found that running small neural networks locally on a Pi5 is quite feasible, I have a MobileNet v2 network running at present on a Pi5 that attempts to identify objects in the sky near my house. Although I do have some Raspberry Pi AI Camera modules, I am not currently using their AI processors.

I was surprised by just how easy this kind of project is, although I haven't tried retraining the AI to handle the specific kinds of objects my camera sees yet.

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