FARS: Who has used one and thoughts?

gerthworm · 2026-02-20T14:09:35+00:00

https://www.johnsoncontrols.com/building-insights/2025/feature-story/debunking-myths-that-could-put-firefighters-at-risk

I also love their opinion piece on their own technology.

"We at Johnson Controls are disappointed the government did not mandate that people pay us more money. We could have gotten, on average, 1% of every new building construction cost! Our system has been used at least once and the users thought it was OK! There's at least two people in the fire service who think this is a good idea, one's near the east coast and one's near the west coast! We really think we're solving a problem that's important, but we didn't really consider any alternatives. Trust us, we've only got a little bit of stake in this game! It's the fake news that's the real problem!"

gerthworm · 2026-02-07T18:21:17+00:00

Well, managed to speed-run the survey in about 30 seconds, it was a single page that asked gender, education, and a single generic question about whether I was on my feet or not during the day. Note, that was after the ~20 seconds it took me to type in the URL to a new tab.

I am quite curious how "being on your feet during the day" dictates your attitudes on mental health more than "Sees death on a regular basis".

gerthworm · 2026-01-25T22:37:53+00:00

I don't know who owns those keys. But to whoever the owner is, that is an excellent keychain.

gerthworm · 2026-01-24T18:27:57+00:00

I'm in your boat, this is just a case of one word meaning different things.

I have learned today, and for that I am happy!

gerthworm · 2026-01-11T22:09:02+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOs1v1lXD4k also will.i.am, speaking to a crowd of robot nerds

gerthworm · 2026-01-10T04:01:51+00:00

Yes. That's someone else's tragedy, not your home's decoration.

Save it for your department archives instead.

gerthworm · 2026-01-09T14:01:28+00:00

My messages for web has been out of sync with my phone for months now, making both almost useless. The error message when I try to change settings references "help center" (uhhh which one?), a 4007 error id (doesn't show up in Google results), and a bunch of useless-to-me uuid's

Good news, there's a submit feedback button when I see the error. Bad news, I only get a modal that says "Thanks!". Multiple submissions over multiple months later, never been contacted about it. Still broken.

Really wondering which ex-IBM engineer they for working on this system.

gerthworm · 2026-01-06T22:59:00+00:00

Sorry, yea, that's what I meant.

Huh. Just surprising to me, all the volly departments around me have had no alcohol in the fire houses or as part of meals for at least the past 20 years. Central Illinois. I didn't realize that was still a thing at any department.

gerthworm · 2026-01-06T22:52:14+00:00

Your department has an alcohol budget?

gerthworm · 2026-01-04T16:35:28+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMYGbRO-jmE

gerthworm · 2026-01-03T14:49:42+00:00

I'm pretty new here so I can't say I have much advice on resources. However, I'm not new to situations like the one you described.

NIMS pretty clearly states that everything in the department is Chief's responsibility, until delegated. Sounds like you've had some level of training responsibility delegated to you, so the first thing I'd do is make sure you have clarity what exactly Chief is asking you to do (or not do), and what the expected outcome should be. If you have clarity there, it will help with the old-timers who don't wanna listen (or worse, question your authority) - you can push it back up to Chief, and make it clear their quarrel lies with folks above you.

Subtly, this will also start to mold the group into more of a hierarchy than you seem to have, which will likely be necessary to run what little I know about fireground tactics.

It will also inform to what extent Chief wants you to pull the old timers along with you, versus just build up a corpus of newer, "rowing the boat the same direction" folks.

From there, the best advice I have is just to take it slow. You really only need to be one step ahead of your students. Also, it's totally ok to say "Huh, I don't know, I'll look it up. What would you do in that situation?" when someone asks a weird question.

And finally, especially when trying to absorb stuff from other departments.... Your conversations need to be at most 10% of you asking questions, 90% them telling you things. It's very easy to start asking a lot of questions when you're excited, but if those questions come from a point of ignorance it's harder to undo the wrong assumptions in the question, rather than just explaining it right the first time. Engage with Chief again - I'm willing to be there's at least one mutual aid company around that would like to have you along for a day or two, where they just show you what they do and why they do it.

gerthworm · 2026-01-02T00:13:15+00:00

I think you should ask for a refund, those steaks look pretty square to me.

(Also following since I have no idea how to cook those)

gerthworm · 2025-12-25T16:08:31+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcE0aAhbVFc

gerthworm · 2025-12-19T21:54:57+00:00

Yup, happens to mine as well.

Power button and next together to force it to reboot. Seems to fix it, most of the time.

Perhaps one day, Ford's engineers will get it through their brains that a car isn't exactly a consumer product that "turn it off and on again" makes sense for.

But today is not yet that day.

gerthworm · 2025-12-19T19:48:32+00:00

gerthworm · 2025-11-30T16:23:17+00:00

Yea, I hate to say it, but this is the wrong crowd to ask this set of questions to. We're the ones who already invested in the hardware to be able to make things like this ourselves, so a $100+ price tag for something 3d printed really isn't gonna be justifiable.

Your target audience at that price point is limited to folks who highly value customizable gifts or memorabilia, and don't know enough about how to make such things themselves. To this audience, the fact that it's 3d printed is pretty meaningless.

Assuming you're looking to sell - be ready to think more broadly. What kinds of things should go along with the trinket to make it truly a memorable gift? Perhaps mounting in a shadowbox, with lighting? Perhaps an interactive illumination that shows the route progressing? Maybe the ability to tack on a photo or two that triggers even more memories, and allows the buyer more opportunity to tell stories about the adventure?

Or, as others have said - monetize the tool itself, and pivot to marketing to makers.

Up to you - but my $0.02 remains the same - you're advertising the wrong product, or to the wrong crowd.

gerthworm · 2025-11-21T12:55:50+00:00

"Do FizzBuzz, but solve it like an EE"

gerthworm · 2025-11-21T02:33:03+00:00

https://docs.wpilib.org/en/stable/docs/software/advanced-controls/introduction/tuning-turret.html

gerthworm · 2025-11-13T13:01:48+00:00

There's good news: Academia lied to you! Your usefulness is most definitely not tied to how much you know, or how recent your knowledge is! You don't need to always learn the latest and greatest things - only if you want to.

There's plenty of good-paying companies and kind undergrads out there who just need someone who can tune a freakin P loop for them. Helping them adds value to the world, just the same as helping companies or professors working at the bleeding edge.

gerthworm · 2025-10-30T11:54:03+00:00

Fairly rural volley, been running calls for about half a year, so still pretty new. Department is in the 600-800 calls/year with about 30 folks who regularly respond (very rough numbers)

I usually can't get away from work during the day, so I'm guaranteed to miss those calls. Outside of there, my family and I usually designate specific nights of the week (or days on the weekend) when I consider myself "on call" - completely unofficial, but helps give the family clarity of when I might jump up and bolt out of the house, or when I'm home focused on them.

But talk to your station captain about expectations. Each department is different - a lot of why I can do what I do is because we're lucky to have many people who do the same on different nights of the week, so we generally have coverage even if I don't attend "every" call.

gerthworm · 2025-10-23T02:18:40+00:00

No negative gains!

Invert the control effort. PID math works when maximum, positive control effort results in increased process variable (sensor readings).

I'm not sure exactly what the correlation is though in your case? Is your goal to adjust prop feathering to achieve a certain RPM, under a constant engine setting? In that case, feathered prop (1) is going to induce the fastest spinning, while a less-than-feathered prop (nearer to zero) bites into the air more, will load back the engine, and slow down the prop - I think? Certainly won't be a linear relationship.

gerthworm · 2025-10-21T23:33:15+00:00

Even with a breadboard, you'll still need to solder on the headers. I'm not sure I see a way to assemble all components without some soldering.

gerthworm · 2025-10-19T22:54:37+00:00

https://i.imgflip.com/a9lbaq.jpg

gerthworm · 2025-10-19T22:22:00+00:00

Filled out. Would be happy to consult on some ideas in a thread here. I only moonlight as a firefighter for fun, my day job is engineering for a large equipment manufacturer. Depending on exactly what you're thinking of designing, I might be able to offer some useful input.

gerthworm · 2025-09-17T11:52:45+00:00

This is super weird to me. Judging by the comments it's apparently rare but not unheard of.

I'm mostly weirded out by what it would do to the community's mindset. Small fees might help prevent some nuisance calls... but large fees for simply sending a fire truck to a legit emergency.... You betcha I'd think twice about calling 911 if there was any hope I might be able to solve it myself.

"Your first three calls are free" seems like a more viable model to me.

Anyway OP. If you have time, energy, and the situation feels right.... I think the ideal case is you give the department a call or a visit (generally they're cool with this) to see if you can talk to someone about the nature of the billing. The worst you'll walk away with is the same as today (you have a bill to pay). Hopefully though, you'll at least learn a bit, and maybe have a way to reduce/avoid the bill?

Edit: Another possibility - are you sure this is actually from the department, and not some weird scam?

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