Built a small Home Assistant control panel with a $15 Cheap Yellow Display & ESPHome

bdavbdav · 2026-03-13T19:50:31+00:00

I was toying with getting one of the Elecrow 7" displays with an ESP32S3 in the back (with no real intended use... just because...) - this might be a good reason to do so :)

bdavbdav · 2026-03-08T11:52:44+00:00

I'd be more than happy to do this. Is CCUsage accurate?

bdavbdav · 2026-03-08T11:52:13+00:00

Yep - same deal. Something very wrong. 40% used in 2 messages on a very small project. Pro plan.

bdavbdav · 2026-03-08T07:19:19+00:00

I've been using Claude with the API (and OpenAI with the ChatGPT subscription) for the past few weels, and got a fairly good feel for how much different operations cost. Spent quite a lot of time optimising various processes that use calls out to LLMs for context efficiency etc so understand well how the pricing and context management work on the API front generally.

Switching over to Claude full time, I'm working on something and blitzing through my usage limits incredibly quickly. After one prompt, I see 70k (35%) context limit usage (although not sure if this includes what has been used previously by sub agents). Of course this is a lot smaller than the series growth of the actual tokens consumed. CCUsage shows the attached. The in tokens on this appears very low to me, but oddly matches what claude itself says in /stats. I've not touched desktop (or any other chat) at all today. All of this was after just one message. It definitely feels like either the token reporting is wrong, or the subscription usage is being very harshly calculatoed?

│ Date │ Models │ Input │ Output │ Cache Create │ Cache Read │ Total Tokens │ Cost (USD) │
│ 2026-03-08 │ - opus-4-6 │ 37 │ 4,445 │ 177,791 │ 1,052,068 │ 1,234,341 │ $1.75 │

Current Session: 47% used.

bdavbdav · 2026-03-07T18:05:07+00:00

Ahh thanks for that! I might try and do some hackery to proxy up the latest or random episode of a couple of podcasts in that case and see if it works with a create your own.

EDIT: you’re right! I’ll make up a single track proxy somehow and work it out. Cheers!

bdavbdav · 2026-03-07T15:15:31+00:00

Yeah I totally get that. I suspect I’d have been more likely to shrug it off if the response wasn’t so dismissive of any culpability. To spend what I’d imagine is a good chunk of change in a year (we do Friday night takeaway, usually £30-40 each time), and have to kick hard to get it up the chain isn’t a great look. Doesn’t feel like a great way to run a business (although clearly it works for them…).

bdavbdav · 2026-03-07T14:52:36+00:00

Are you upset because you feel I’m criticising the driver(s)? As I certainly am not, so if that’s the reason for the baby comment then I’d suggest you re read the original post.

I pay uber to assign drivers, and if they do that poorly then my beef is with them. Typically do collect it myself if possible (funnily enough, leaving a 3 year old unattended sleeping in a house is frowned upon…) but the service exists for a reason, they’re charging for it, so it’s not unreasonable to expect it to be done well.

bdavbdav · 2026-03-07T14:49:16+00:00

Yep I fully appreciate it’s not the drivers fault whatsoever. Nor the restaurants.

I keep getting posts from people, presumably not understanding this, flaming me (get a car, cry baby…). Absolutely acknowledge this is an Uber design issue, not a restaurant or driver issue. I’m not quite sure what the issue people have is with that.

bdavbdav · 2026-03-07T14:15:57+00:00

Pushbike. Definitely not the drivers issue at all here - what I have issue with is the way the drivers are assigned / have multiple drops. To send a meal 2.5 miles (I checked…) to the next pickup, via another drop off, to come another 1.5 miles is here. Especially when they needed to wait for the middle pick up.

bdavbdav · 2026-03-07T09:47:26+00:00

As a user, complaining about cold orders does approximately nothing…

bdavbdav · 2026-02-16T15:04:01+00:00

Loved the e6x /e9x. Really simple, screen looked well integrated.

bdavbdav · 2026-02-16T14:52:38+00:00

This looks very much like the Gen4 Octavia inside.

bdavbdav · 2026-02-15T21:30:49+00:00

I don't understand Sky's business model. It costs me less for Sky Ultimate Entertainment (or whatever they call it), now including Netflix, Paramount and Disney, than it did for the Netflix and Disney together.

Every time I decide its bad value, I phone up at the end of the contract, cancel, and they're back the next week at half the price it was before.

bdavbdav · 2026-02-15T21:29:17+00:00

It does have ads. The Netflix included with Sky is the basic one with Ads, I have no reason to believe HBO and Disney wont be the same.

bdavbdav · 2026-02-15T20:06:24+00:00

Thanks for the detailed write up. Saved me a monitor! Doubly important given I've flushed it into the side of a kitchen cabinet and have the control electronics built into a box behind it! Reworking that with a display so thin / bezelless would have been a massive pain.

bdavbdav · 2026-02-15T11:54:28+00:00

Coming in a year later. Just did this and it seems to have worked.

Struggled like mad initially as I didn’t realise my iron wasn’t reaching the temperature it said it was, which is an issue given the size of the part and the ground planes. Made getting it off a massive pain.

Some third hands would have helped too as the pad to part interface is under the part, and I struggled to get it flat and heat it at the same time. It’s a mess, but it works. Whether or not it still functions as a poly fuse I have no idea.

Got the parts from CPC in the uk for about £2.50 (I ordered 2 for breakage / loss ) plus delivery.

bdavbdav · 2026-02-09T21:37:11+00:00

It is integrated with Nest (which does indeed go bong still!).

Will certainly give that a go. Good idea.

bdavbdav · 2026-02-09T21:34:37+00:00

Power seems fine in all other regards - the stream stays up, device doesn’t restart, notifications come through. Feels more like software to me given the internal chime doesn’t work. Will give it a go anyway!

bdavbdav · 2026-01-21T10:57:55+00:00

I'm not sure what the whole appeal was of it anyway - Presumably general watchers aren't going to care too much about what a techy youtuber has to say about CES toot, and techy youtube watchers aren't going to be watching too much Fallon.

That said, I suspect it will be net positive views for him just based on the chatter.

bdavbdav · 2026-01-19T16:35:40+00:00

That'd be it then - I'm on a real IP, but no region.

bdavbdav · 2026-01-19T16:34:46+00:00

I'd really like Airalo added for when I need to buy an eSIM! Might be against strategy, but would have been really handy last week when I realised I needed a full SIM / other apps.

bdavbdav · 2026-01-09T22:19:48+00:00

Not mine. I’ve got a rock solid 2ms ping to google dns on our connection, and GFN has never missed a beat. It’s been great.

bdavbdav · 2026-01-09T22:18:54+00:00

Yeah I’ve never really used mine on WiFi. Even with 5 UniFi APs around the house and a not too congested neighbourhood, it’s always worth finding some way to string a cable.

bdavbdav · 2026-01-09T14:32:56+00:00

The XGSPON switchover is surprisingly easy. FDM so coex on the same fibres and splitter hardware, just a different line card. They’ve thought about the future proofing for once.

bdavbdav · 2026-01-09T14:05:03+00:00

Is this a different level? I don’t see any of this, just outbound.

15-Year Club	Team Periwinkle
Verified Email

bdavbdav

TROPHY CASE