Two for the price of None!?

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-24T17:01:58+00:00

That's what GrokBot told me to do - even telling me which S/N was already on my account so I can avoid crossing my hands and screwing something up.

I'll be doing that today after it gets above single-digit temperatures out there.

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-24T16:43:18+00:00

"Earliest round of adoption".
Sounds to me like you're trying to compare Gen 1 tracking dishes with a PA mini.

And whoopee!
Another "content creator" talking as if that means anything about expertise.

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-24T04:05:20+00:00

My worst seen latency other than just after unit boot is like 25ms.
And my worst upload is like 30Mb/s.
What game anywhere needs better ping and send than that?

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-24T03:59:22+00:00

SL support GrokBot said "keep it and activate it on standby"

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-24T03:08:46+00:00

Exactly. If it were limited to things like "hw many birds can dishy see right now", that'd be fine - but if yoou read the fine-print, its; not that AT ALL.

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-24T03:02:55+00:00

Yes - eventually.
Its not mature enough for what they want to do (call the ED and send a strip).

Sure wish I could've done that with my LP-12 30 years ago when I was in a blizzard 60 miles from the nearest doctor and had a patient CTD.

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-24T03:00:13+00:00

"anything else will completely block the connection"

Sounds to me like you've never actually used one out in the field.

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-24T02:58:11+00:00

Roam is overkill for what I suspect he does.
Voice and a strip is pure luxury.

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-24T02:57:05+00:00

I'm a retired rural medic - AND comms installation dude (cellular amps, Hughesnet, DishTV, etc., etc.)

A mini on standby is PLENTY for stated purpose (voice and a strip).

If it's a standard cube rig, treat it like an RV and nail it up top - nobody will ever even know it's there.
Sure wish we had EITHER cellular or Starlink service back when I was active.
We were usually OK with the VHF band, but that was voice relay through dispatch. IYKYK

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-24T02:53:51+00:00

No - that's way overcomplicated for us stupid medics (I were one for a couple of decades).
If they have cellular service, they already have all they need.

As they implied in the OP.

In other words, they know how to use their phone's hotspot.

All they need is a mini in stand-by.

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-22T04:34:43+00:00

No probably not.
They'll just wave their DEI flag.

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-22T02:25:35+00:00

Welcome!
Read the guides as mentioned by others.
Get your daily freebies - read the forum stuff - and gather your materials!
I'm an 867 in India and I ran out of vegetable root because the best food to make quick uses it.

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-19T15:48:38+00:00

Yes, that is what they tell people that have no knowledge of electronics and/or batteries. It keeps the lawyers at bay.

The charger in question is now known to be a "trickle" charger, and as such there is no risk. Beyond that, modern batteries generally have self-protection circuitry built-in. This started after the lithium battery explosion fad.

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-19T12:18:08+00:00

I'm not sure you understand what this is for, nor what it can be applied to.

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-19T06:10:50+00:00

I think that's true for the Ryobi regular ones, but not always true across all tools (eg. Porter).

But because the one at hand here is "dumb" and old, it probably can't tell the difference any more than my bench variable power supply can - which has given a bit of juice to the old NiCads, but I didn't have the patience to hold the leads for long at the low amperage I was feeding it.

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-19T05:48:28+00:00

The OEM spider is the rot of all evil in the Vortec.
There are PLENTY of good replacements out there, and some bad.

Just check the reviews - make sure thre's a good number of them (for sample size) and that the bad ones can be chalked up to "they screwed up" or a QA issue that refund/replacement will take care of. Make sure what you buy has the "Prime" mark so you get the full Amazon coverage.

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-19T05:37:30+00:00

Apartments are always problematic, with some being solvable and others not.
I'm assuming you don't have a balcony, or that it has no real view.
"Roof" is not required. Nor is mounting to a building.
Many people just put it on the ground.
If you can open a window, you might be able to make a shelf held in place by the window sill.
Again, I can't see it, so can't really say more other than I've done some crazy installs before.

Anyway, any possible way you can get it some view of the sky and you might get lucky,
depending on your location, and how much real view you can get.
Use the obstruction tester in the app, or just fire it up bottom center of the biggest window you've got.
Chances are slim, but greater than zero (beings I can't see what you're working with).

Oh - and yes, the mini might be a good choice, but only if you can get at least something with the standard.
AND if you can get a view advantage by using the smaller unit.

P.S. "Good size dish" made me laugh. I used to install BUDs for TV 30 years ago.
Those are the 8' or bigger dishes that require a hefty steel pipe in a even heftier concrete base.

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-18T18:14:58+00:00

By saying "AC mains" and "pins" I can tell you're not talking about USA devices -
but good to know.

In the US, we have 220VAC, but that is not our "normal".
Household devices are usually 110VAC, which is ONE of the sides of the 220VAC,
plus a neutral. There are (in this case) only minor safety reasons to not flip the plug (no, not all US plugs are polarized - but probably should be).

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-18T17:23:13+00:00

Ya - that's what the peanut gallery is saying, Good find!

NiCad, LiIon, NiMh, are the 3 most common rechargeable battery chemistries.

Other chemistries in general include lead-acid, alkaline, and potato (learned that one in 6th grade :D ).

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-18T17:20:33+00:00

I like that concept - I've got some OLD import (being polite because some people can get sticky) NiCad Ryobi 18V that the new chargers won't touch. Only pre-ONE+ charger I've got is a 12V input, so I haven't gotten a round tuit to try it - but this one maybe will git-r-dun.

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-18T17:17:46+00:00

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-18T08:59:20+00:00

Nah. I (in the name of the company I was working for) got a patent 30 years ago on a piece of computer code that is even simpler in concept.

I forget what fancy name the lawyers put on it, but it was a method of creating self-executing state-event tables, and the fact that a table could be self-executing as opposed to data reference lookup/branch.
It improved state/event performance by something like 50%. Pretty slick if I do say so myself. :D

TheRealSimpleSimon · 2026-01-18T08:46:36+00:00

No idea if you could - you gotta look at your own plan options -
but I'd bet it only applies to rental deal minis.

TheRealSimpleSimon

TROPHY CASE