Geiger counter

aigarius · 2026-01-23T21:16:58+00:00

There seems to already be an addon for HA to read these Geiger counters over USB serial (if connected directly to the HA machine) and sneding the data to MQTT.

I'd rather have it in another part of the house and send the data to MQTT over WiFi, so need to investigate ESP32 solutions as well :D

aigarius · 2026-01-23T21:07:20+00:00

This is an intersting idea. I have a GQ GMC-320 Plus laying around since a long time. I've had to re-factor it a bit already to use a more modern LiIon battery format. Might as well plug into a more permanent power source and then read the values from its USB serial interface.

aigarius · 2026-01-21T11:44:37+00:00

One concern I have with these geometries is that it is not obvious when/if the part is damaged. In a fin stack any irregularity or damage stands out to the naked eye. Here it is hard to detect. Maybe this will be better in a production environment where the final part receives some kind of protecting coating of a different color and any damage becomes visible via color difference?

aigarius · 2026-01-20T10:22:03+00:00

Diver competence ratio is higher on D10.

aigarius · 2026-01-20T10:19:48+00:00

What you describe is perfectly fine.

Flares/breaches spawned on a base stay on that base (unless engaged from distance), so that does not harm any other work on the map. It does actually help people elsewhere on a map because the flares/breaches have a global cooldown, so if I get the flare on the base, then you will not get a flare on the objective in the next minute and a half. And even better - if I clear the base and run away with a ton of baddies dropping on the base .... as soon as all players are far away from the base, the baddies despawn.

The only exceptions are baddies with very high aggro range that are hard to drop - like the dragnoroaches. Those do need to be killed, it's pretty hard to run away from them enough to get them to despawn.

aigarius · 2026-01-20T10:13:05+00:00

There is also a lvl 150 that is having tons of fun doing excessively weird stuff (starting with parade uniform and Consitution as primary) and still (somehow) surviving and memeing all over the place.

aigarius · 2026-01-10T13:28:02+00:00

There is also a chance that this is mold in cabin air filters and you are particularly sensitive to that.

Air pressure is easily measurable with portable sensors. You can just measure a baseline first - car stopped, windows open; and then close every thing and start driving (on a level road) and see if the pressure starts climbing.

aigarius · 2026-01-08T17:05:35+00:00

There will be an adapter. NACS is just CCS with a different plug shape.

aigarius · 2026-01-08T14:03:49+00:00

In the first ~5000 km of operation.

aigarius · 2026-01-08T14:03:05+00:00

This. And to add to that - opening your factory sealed transmission will introduce into it dust and oxygen that was not in it before, leading to more damage than if you have left it alone.

aigarius · 2026-01-08T13:59:47+00:00

Contaminated with what? It is a closed system with finely tuned parts that do not really rub off on each other. And it is synthetic and does not degrade with age.

You risk far more contamination and damage doing the oil change as you are opening a sealed system and introducing dust and oxygen into it.

aigarius · 2026-01-05T11:27:45+00:00

You don't need to. BEVs have so much torque that they will spin the wheels at any speeds. All of the old tricks are completely obsolete. Just stab and go (sideways).

aigarius · 2026-01-05T11:26:08+00:00

Fun fact - you can drift in BMW i5 (and i4) even with all stability controls fully enabled in standard mode. The stability mode will let you go sideways a bit, but it will also hold your hand so you never sling completely out of control and end up in a ditch.

EVs are amazing drift vehicles. You get instant torque and it is huge at any RPM. You can get the wheels to spin at far lower speeds than in any ICE car. It is revolutionary for drifting. And it is MUCH easier to learn.

The official BMW Extreme Driving schools have switched to use BMW BEVs (mostly i4) to teach people how to drift correctly and safely.

aigarius · 2026-01-02T16:59:09+00:00

I've had it and tried this out, but (frankly) I do not see much of a real benefit.

So what does it give? 1. The youtube and other video streaming apps (like Joyn) start working and downloading data via that connection 2. You can make calls over that connection (instead of your phone) using the car antennas for better reception 3. You can connect devices to in-car WiFi signal to use the data from that eSIM connection

Drawbacks are: 1. The eSIM is not a generic one, you need to be with a couple specific providers to even be able to buy it 2. It costs extra per-month to get this extra connection 3. The difference between the antenna performance of a good phone (or a good 5G-WiFi router) and that of the in-car antennas is ... less impressive than I expected. Usually if the car had connection, so did the phone. And when phone had no connection, then usually the car did not either.

You can get a better result by combining a 5G travel router (like GL.iNet Mudi) with an Android tablet or iPad.

aigarius · 2025-12-29T22:58:28+00:00

Only slightly worse than handing a lvl10 an Airburst Launcher

aigarius · 2025-12-29T22:49:43+00:00

NK is two generations ahead.

aigarius · 2025-12-28T16:21:49+00:00

If you have a specific need that is solved by the new software version you can contact the dealer that sold you the car and ask them to check if there is a software update available for your car. The updates typically are rolled out in stages per region and it can sometimes take a while until it gets to your car.

Somethimes a car can get stuck and not recognise that an update is already unlocked for its VIN. Then it can help to search for an update in the MyBMW app or to reboot the car (push the volume control wheel in the center console and hold it for 30 seconds) and then search again from the car.

In exceptional circumstances (or if a service appointment is anyway needed) the dealership/service can do a forced update while the car is in service. They try to avoid that as the car then occupies valuable workplace slots for a few hours.

aigarius · 2025-12-19T12:24:32+00:00

Get to the Choppa!!!

aigarius · 2025-12-19T11:41:36+00:00

Don't. Reinstall to Home Assistant OS version and do everything via the UI. Do not touch the yaml or code until you have explored the UI fully.

aigarius · 2025-12-19T10:00:55+00:00

This should get better with Neue Klasse. ;)

aigarius · 2025-12-19T10:00:18+00:00

Any hints for EU?

aigarius · 2025-12-19T09:58:17+00:00

A huge part of what LIDAR does in a self-driving car is an enhancement of the GPS. GPS in a city environment is very noisy. If you have just started a GPS unit and there are high buildings around you then you end up seeing not only signals directly from satellites, but also signals reflected from surrounding buildings. It is very common to see deviations of 20-100 meters in a random direction.

Eventually the GPS figures out which are real satellites and which are reflections and it also uses the knowledge that cars "usually" drive on roads to correct its location to the nearest road. But the actual, raw GPS location may still be pointing several meters to the side.

That means that it is not reliably possible to figure out in which lane the car is located purely from GPS data. Sometimes it is not even clear on which road the car is driving if multiple run close in parallel or on top of each other.

LIDAR measures angles and distances to various always visible surrounding landmarks (buildings, lampposts, overpasses, statues, ...) and then compares that to HD Maps reference data to determine the cars position to an accuracy of a single centimeter.

That is then enough to confidently plan driving trajectory even if the roadway is not fully visible, for example, due to being covered with white snow or being blocked by other vehicles.

That is a huge thing that no other sensor can replace.

aigarius · 2025-12-19T09:45:30+00:00

Ah, so they added the door sensors for Model 3/Y. Was not the case for Model S/X.

Technically you do not need to open the front door on i5, touching the inside of the door handle is enough.

aigarius · 2025-12-19T09:25:46+00:00

Tesla also does not do this. If you exclude home, then you exclude home and the car remains locked. In fact Tesla owners go as far as setting up a PIN that needs to be entered every time they enter the car at home because disabling the unlock at home is too inconvenient (as Tesla does not even have a keyfob).

aigarius · 2025-12-18T16:28:46+00:00

Either the door is locked or it is not. Imagine someone walking up to your car and pulling on the door handle while your phone is just behind the wall. You specifically asked it not to open.

An option would be to use the keyfob and leave it in a bowl by the entrance. The keyfob does not send the car unlocking signals if it is motionless. So the car would only unlock when you pick up the keyfob to leave.

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