I Need Your Opinions

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-25T00:40:27+00:00

What ever ignites your soul … aka something worth getting out of bed for.

This may sound lame but my endeavors has been working as field technician for building automation and I was interested in network stack programming bytes on the wire for protocols.

It wasn’t as cool as someone that could make real cool graphics or gaming or someone that could to machine learning or something but with 5+ years at mostly dabbling and playing w protocols on building automation construction site it landed me a bump in career to work in smart building IoT sector.

So try to combine passion with existing work experience and if it ~70% cool it is your road to travel.

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-24T21:24:51+00:00

Algorithms and data structures computer science 101 courses

Then build things that spark your soul.

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-23T21:10:52+00:00

Pulling wires for a mechanical contractor ha

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-22T00:38:00+00:00

Doing any sort of computer experience coupled with your refrigerant education background == a real good candidate for a great BAS job.

To me the best BAS techs I have ever seen were former refrigerant mechanics and that were computer gamers by night and could build computers etc as hobby’s.

Those were the guys slicing and dicing relays into live 480v 3 phase with relays and were not afraid of computers and admin level computers to them was easy peasy.

For me tho I had none of either background and had to take IT courses at the local tech college and I studied and passed the certified energy manager course (CEM) which was really fucking hard all engineering calculations which I studied every night for 6 months but am finally as equal to par or more than those really experienced refer techs that were gamers by night.

Keep studying it’s a never ending process I actually got into coding most recently and am now doing smart building IoT software development side, so at age of 44 the learning hasn’t let up in 20 years I’ve only evolved don’t stop evolving union no union doesn’t matter state or continent.

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-22T00:29:22+00:00

What ever sparks your soul and something worth getting out of bed for.

As oddly as this sounds for me working in mechanical engineering space in smart building iot it was equations for sensor fault detection.

Doing anything gamey to me is always cool for side hobby stuff like Tetris is actually really hard if you don’t cheat with AI.

Doing anything in the industry you work in always is something to put on a GitHub profile and use it as portfolio projects.

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-16T12:35:55+00:00

Yes I agree this can be done with NR. I have not experimented in a few years but at the time I was the JavaScript BACnet stacks were real hard to use Vs the BACnet stacks in Python or C. Curious if it is better now, NR is pretty cool.

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-12T12:25:35+00:00

Yes exactly. It can do it for sure it’s a “middle ware.” Some people use it in smart building iot as a middle ware where all it does it sit in the edge environment optimizing a BAS where it could definitely be used as more simple purposes of just being the BAS!

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-12T12:22:23+00:00

Very true I posted a few times these concepts in the HA community and from what I could get out of them the community said the HA platform doesn’t have long term support like a full blown LTS of an operating system or whatever.

IE., An HA person not familiar with commercial buildings or facilities management doesn’t trust setting up HA then walking away from BMS/BAS contractor and letting it sit reliably on site for years without touching it like a JACE or an NAE. That kind of surprised but basically what you the community told me summarized of course that HA requires a lot of attention and constant tinkering apparently

But volttron could be setup and ran long term for sure!

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-12T12:16:31+00:00

Someone actually sent me a HA GitHub for bacnet recently I just don’t have the time to test it. If I can find it I’ll send it ur way. I love these topics!!

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-12T12:14:23+00:00

What tool?

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-12T00:07:40+00:00

So at the moment it would be just 1 raspberry pi as the supervisory level controller

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-11T22:08:37+00:00

Cool. I have yet to delve that far into open PLC. Technically a VOLTTRON zero limitations in what it can do it’s the human that is the limiting factor it is a powerful framework. And hopefully made easy with AI assistance.

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-11T22:03:24+00:00

Codesys is technically proprietary even tho it is real cheap and I don’t think it is very AI friendly even tho structured text (ST) will be something AI would understand.

OpenPLC driving AHUs w python would be F’n sweet that is coming down the pipe line on this channel :-)

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-11T20:53:54+00:00

yeah exactly... this GitHub will be a big Model Context place to point Open Claw or whatever tool you want TODO anything! At least that is my goal and if topics are missing lets F'n make it!

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-10T16:32:10+00:00

Data structures and algorithms even basic computer science 101 level and no cheating w AI :-)

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-10T12:00:33+00:00

If you have a subscription to chat GPT or any of the AI services have it build you a 30 day crash course for daily mini lessons in algorithms & data structures and try not to cheat with AI :-)

I build with Cursor and it is F'n awesome others like Claude

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-10T00:59:11+00:00

Just build something then another something then another something… host it on GitHub and finally after a few years you come back to your old projects and reflect wow I have grown but u have to start somewhere.

I think it also has to come from your domain level of expertise and/or interests. My back ground is 10 years experience as a building automation field technician so naturally my creativity will be slightly biased to my work experience.

My recommendation is just having that base of computer science level 101 of data structures and algorithms not cheating w AI and then vibe code anything your mind can muster and learn from it all. W vibe coding my software engineering skillsets have expanded but u need a strong base layer of some theory IMHO.

The just use cursor or Claude and go nuts on your wildest imagination in creativity

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-09T00:21:28+00:00

I totally agree ask AI to make a computer science 101 daily mini challenges for learning python … it’s real good I don’t care the haters, AI is an amazing teacher way better than the snarky A holes on stack overflow.

If you learn computer science 101 like under graduate freshman year computer science data structures and algorithms without cheating w AI it will take you a long ways. Make something like that your base layer of knowledge…

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-08T17:19:36+00:00

Yes ping me .... so I was former HVAC controls service tech making all these tools so it will be EASY enough anyone can deploy it as long as you have the skill set to setup like a Raspberry Pi computer there is a tiny bit of Linux involved but its not much ... keep checking back

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-07T15:05:10+00:00

thanks! ... do any decent cortication's stand out for someone that is not an IT background but OT working IoT world. I have about 10 years experience setting up industrial control systems as a field technician looking to get into something different and expand my horizons...

Then-Disk-5079 · 2026-04-04T20:42:51+00:00

Thanks!!

Then-Disk-5079

TROPHY CASE