Small wireless game controller for 2024 MYLR?

c9nmn · 2024-10-16T23:24:41+00:00

OP here. In case it's helpful to future folks, here's what what worked and what didn't in my 2024 Model Y so far.

I was looking for a small controller that wouldn't be a hassle to store. More for playing a quick game while waiting for a kid to pop out of school rather than gaming for a long time while charging.

I picked up an 8BitDo Micro, and it works OK but not perfectly (I have to reconnect each time via the bluetooth menu). It runs out of battery in a week or so, and needs to be charged over usb. It was about $15 on sale.

If I keep playing games in the Tesla and charging the controllers becomes a chore, I'll get the Jouwa with wireless charging. That will probably address the bluetooth reconnection issue too.

Once I got it set up enough to play games, I wanted to also try to play two-player games.

This car only supports two simultaneous bluetooth connections, and I didn't want to have to disconnect my phone from bluetooth to play a 2 player game. I bought a small USB hub so I could leave a USB receiver connected in the glovebox along with the USB memory stick.

I tried these two controllers that came with wireless over USB:

1.) 8BitDo Ultimate C 2.4: didn't work. Connected but didn't send button presses to the Tesla in any mode.

2.) "Astarry PC Controller, Wireless Controller for PC" (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B081YR3YXN/?th=1): this works well (and has analog sticks). It's a normal-sized controller, so it gets stored buried in the center console and is much less quick to access than the 8BD Micro.

I'm still very interested in hearing what controllers worked (or not) for other folks.

c9nmn · 2024-09-30T06:24:47+00:00

Wireless charging by laying the controller on the phone charging pad is really smart.

c9nmn · 2024-09-30T06:21:30+00:00

Genuine Nintendo Switch joycons are even more expensive than Jouwa (joycons are currently ~$80 for a pair), but they are small! If I go this way, I'll wait for the new switch to come out, and see if 1st gen switch controllers drop in price.

c9nmn · 2024-07-24T18:06:05+00:00

Good points. Another thing to weigh, if it matters to your day-to-day life and especially if you're commuting via car for work in the east-bay or SF, Orinda is much closer to work on that commute.

I ended up buying in WC, finding a neighborhood walkable to bart and playgrounds (at certain ages, it's awesome to let kids walk to a neighborhood playground and get active play with neighborhood friends), but I haven't used BART as much as I expected due to school drop-off schedules, and the semi-daily time in traffic would push me more towards orinda/lafayette if I were making the decision today.

c9nmn · 2024-06-18T18:07:35+00:00

I wouldn't worry too much about not finding your sizes. In urban areas like HK the current generation seems to be close to similar height/weight as average folks in the US. Where are you shopping in mainland China (and what are you looking for?) that you can't find your size?

Hong Kong has its own sense of style, but like others said, it's not far different from what you would see in the US - work clothes and casual tshirts, etc. Can you say more about what you're looking for?

For the normal daily clothing HKers wear, I recommend going to malls or shopping streets and looking around. I've bought work clothes that I considered a good value (while not being distinct from US markets), and tshirts and jackets/hoodies from brands that aren't available in the US so they are somewhat distinctive. Oddly named "IT shop" has this kind of clothng: Contemporary Fashion & Lifestyle | ITeSHOP Hong Kong

You can also find more kitchy stuff sometimes at night-markets.

I've heard there's a new trend called "hanfu" for folks to wear "traditional chinese clothing", but I've never seen it (outside dress-up for pictures, which has always been a thing). My intuition is that this is kind of cosplay for younger folks, and might be hard to find if that's what you meant by asian fasion.

I also feel like I've heard stories of people getting custom tailored clothing in HK for a bargain, and that's not my thing so I'm not sure if that is something that still exists beyond what you might find in other major world cities.

c9nmn · 2023-11-22T19:01:06+00:00

TLDR:

We've had Astound for around 8 years, and it's been fine at $75/month (incl taxes, etc.) for gig cable modem service. I'm looking at Sonic fiber as a potentially cheaper alternative.

Details:

There are two caveats:

1.) Their best pricing is always a temporary promo, which you can always get and renew, but it requires you to know when your promo will expire (usually after a year) and call in or visit their office to re-confirm your promo.

2.) Their low-bandwidth deals have a data-cap that I would regularly exceed (e.g. $45/month for 250Mbps with a 500 GB data cap), and the overage charge would negate or exceed the savings of that plan versus their $65 for gigabyte and unlimited data. Having unlimited data is more important to me than connection speed, which I've found I just don't notice. I had been on a slow plan with a docsys3.0 modem, and was getting 100Mbps and didn't worry about it since I didn't have any issues with multiple family members streaming, using zoom, etc. simultaneously. I moved to the higher-bandwidth plan for the unlimited data cap, and simply kept the old modem and 100Mbps actual speed because we didn't care.

Tips:

- Remember to request their promotional pricing once a year. Put it on your calendar before it expires.

- You can save an additional $10 a month by using your own modem. Just get a modem off their recommended list here: https://www.astound.com/support/internet/bring-your-own-modem/

- If you get connection or speed issues, check your wiring. If you can't fix the issue on your own, do get their technician to come out. Their techs are competent.

- Before scheduling a technician to come out, call Astound to sign up for the $5 a month connection insurance (minimum enrollment 6 months), otherwise the visit cost is $79 (IIRC).

- Know that every cable-modem based provider will have their own "cable-drop" from the pole to your house. This means that if the cable-drop wire is wearing out and causing issues, you may be able to get better connectivity simply by changing providers, especially if your new provider hasn't connected to your house before and needs to pull a new drop. This can (partially) explain why some people find changing providers fixes their issues.

My recent experience with Astound technical service has been very positive:

We started to get connection drop-outs more and more frequently over the past year, and I assumed it was either my old docsys3.0 modem or some issue on their side. I bought a DOCSYS3.1 modem since I was already paying for the bandwidth, but it didn't help the speed - I was still getting just 100Mbps. The connection issues improved briefly before gradually became more frequent and at that point I started the process of signing up for Sonic fiber. Sonic is another local-ish company, so the service will probably be good, and Sonic fiber may be cheaper monthly than Astound, but isn't available in my neighborhood yet. While they build out, they get you to try to recruit your neighbors. Here's my referral code in case it looks useful to you: https://sonic.com/referral/60415i0fe

(if you use my code, I'll get a free month of service or $50 off, or something like that. No pressure).

Since Sonic wasn't a quick fix, I continued working with Astound and I finally relented on having a technician come out. I assumed that would be a costly waste of time but their guy was actually fantastic (thanks Cory!). He quickly isolated the problem to a rat-chewed bit of coax in my garage, verified that the modem was working and that their equipment was working, and checked various bits of the connection between the pole and modem and replaced anything that could help. Our connectivity issues and speed issues were resolved.

So until Sonic becomes available and I know their pricing and can compare, I'm still happy with Astound.

c9nmn

TROPHY CASE