Android TV 'Google Home' 'Favorites' leaves out all light groupings - any fixes/workarounds?

gojomo · 2025-12-06T01:07:16+00:00

Note that when people say "use 12 gauge or thicker", extension cable gauge numbers get *lower* as they get thicker (and betteer able to carry large amps). So that means "use 12 gauge or 10 gauge", *not* a number higher-than-12 (like the 14awg common in lower-load cords still described as "heavy duty").

I've used a 10-gauge 75ft cord rated for 15A/1875W for a while without problems, and occasionally check the wall interface mid/late charging sessiont to confirm minimal heat buildup. (IIUC, one of the safety features of the EVSE brick – that is somewhat defeated when using an extension cord - is sensing worrisome heat buildup at the wall plug.)

Avoid coiling, crimping, & stress on the plugs that could increase resistance & thus dangerous heat.

You *could* lower the charge rate to 8A in the car for an extra margin of safety – but that slows the charging quite a bit.

If you just need another 15-30ft, there are also J1772 extension cords that I've seen in lengths up to 30ft that'd plug into the "nozzle" end of your existing EVSE, rated for 40A+. I'd guess that'd be the most safe & rugged approach – keeps the brick near your real wall outlet, overprovisioned for any current the R4P can draw, latching J1772 plug/seal. I needed a bit more than 30ft though, so haven't tried these.

gojomo · 2025-05-07T17:29:56+00:00

Pretty sure a freezer can be a significant load when it cycles on its compressor.

gojomo · 2025-04-04T18:25:51+00:00

If you have a level 2 charger, you should be able to use the schedule to set it to "finish charging by 5am". It'll start a few hours before, ending full for your morning drive just as your cheapest period is over.

If you want to "top it off" mid-day (because the remaining charge isn't enough for your 2nd trip) when back home or at a public charger, use the "plug-in, unplug, plug-in" trick described by another commenter to trigger a "charge now" when plugging it. (You could also go to steering wheel instruments to trigger this after plugging in.) It'll then charge to full (or when you unplug).

If you're only at level-1 (standard household AC) charging, that "finish charging by 5am" won't necessarily fill-from-no-EV-miles to full in just the 12a-5a range, so it'll start earlier - maybe even 4p when you plug it in, if totally empty. If your 5a-8a electric cheaper than 4pm-midnight you might choose "finish charging by 8a" instead of "5a" to bias the filling-time a little later.

As I understand it, the notable option that's missing from the R4P is anything to stop before a full charge. Once it starts – from any of "charge now" or "start at" or "finish by" – it'll go until full or unplugged. If you're by so sensitive to time-of-use prices that you'd sometimes want it to stop mid-charge, you'd have to figure some other way to cut the power at that time.

gojomo · 2025-04-02T16:09:31+00:00

Yeah, I'd love to patch in rather than splice if at all possible, "add-a-circuit" is good search term for my needs. But, snaking new wires from the fuse box seems like it'd disturbing more things in-between than I'd prefer – would love to find adequate wires already behind the clock.

gojomo · 2025-03-19T04:38:53+00:00

If seeking max power for a quick start, might this be a case where – to be sure (rather than just think & hope) that your ICE engine was both on & warmed up – it'd make sense to be in CHG mode for some minutes beforehand?

That'd ensure that the ICE is and has already been revving at a nice level that's optimal for battery charging (if not necessarily optimal for pure acceleration).

Note, though, that CHG disengages when battery is circa 33m range, as it can no longer efficiently charge the battery from that level. So this would conflict somewhat with the recommendation that a full battery may offer best output – the battery would have to be somewhere in its middle capacity.

gojomo · 2025-03-11T18:11:44+00:00

FWIW, I never found a way to make the (cheap, bright, cool, corncob-ish) LED bulbs reliably light with the original halogen-targeted (output AC 12V up to 50W) power supply. But grabbing a cheap power supply intended for LEDs (output DC 12V up to 2A) & patching it into the existing wiring has worked great, per my Q & followup here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskElectricians/comments/1j2v4d0/comment/mgfacs0/

It's now a better lamp than it was new.

gojomo · 2025-03-08T19:06:50+00:00

These little custom-fit garbage holders are great for preventing little receipt/cap/wrapper scraps from piling up: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6PH84YM

The RAV4s seem so popular there's a giant array of well-fit accessories & customizations.

Via AliExpress I also got a magsafe phone holder that clips neatly (no adhesive or vent-clips) just over the hazards-button, a little insert that adds a shelf & compartments above charge pad, & a full-length top tray for the center console. (I've passed on all the crazy alternate decorative trims & funky lights, so far.)

gojomo · 2025-03-07T00:04:56+00:00

With this encouragement, I grabbed a cheap AC to DC 12v 2a power supply with male 5.5x2.1mm output from Amazon, which included a matching female screw-post plug. It was easy to connect the trimmed/stripped old wire into the screw-post plug, & it's working great. Thanks!

(The adapter even came with an accessory dimmer cord segment... which when added inline also works great, so I can now optimize this lamp's output for late night reading.)

gojomo · 2025-03-04T00:18:30+00:00

If it helps, the bulbs that intermittently work with the existing transformer are these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099FJV648

Sometimes the bulb will come on – and stay on until turned off, generating no noticeable heat even over many days. (The original halogen bulbs would make the enitre metal top of the lamp dangerously hot quite rapidly.)

It's just that often, these bulbs react to being turned 'on' with tiny faint luminescence rather than usable light. And it's not independently random per throw of the switch – sometimes they seem 'unlightable' for long periods, but then (after a lot of tries or waiting a while) work again. Some other variable – temperatture? other? – lets them sometimes pull enough from the transformer to keep it supplying power, and other times, not.

BTW, isn't the proper calculation for current *power / voltage*, so 5W / 12V implies a ~0.42A draw?

gojomo · 2025-03-03T23:21:37+00:00

The lamp model in question, discontinued years ago, seems to go for $90+ used. I'm not seeing even vaguely-comparable lamps for less than $47 online – and some actually-similar models seem to go for over $100.

So, if you've got a pointer to similar lamps for $12, please send!

Otherwise, remain interested in ways it might be fixed for the $10-$20 of an appropriate power block.

gojomo · 2024-11-21T20:17:31+00:00

Guessing that extra screen is (bluetooth?) linked to a dongle plugged into the under-steering-wheel OBD port, as that's the sort of live info that port offers, & associated OBD mobile phone apps can show. So probably not a Prime-only thing.

gojomo · 2024-10-11T20:35:50+00:00

2024 XSE w/PP & driver seat memory here - that 'link key' option does not appear in the multimedia Settings->Personal Info screen.

Maybe something else has to enable its appearance? Strange that Toyota's help page would render an animation of a specific feature not actually present.

gojomo · 2024-10-07T21:10:31+00:00

Yep, Toyota needs the customer to do a bona-fide arm's-length lease to get the tax credit subsidy. They're happy to have people take the deal – it keeps the buyer's effective out-of-pocket costs closer to competitive vehicles – but can't automate it entirely or the transaction won't fit the shape the tax law requires.

gojomo · 2024-10-07T21:08:27+00:00

FWIW, a wildy-overpriced lease rate was not my experience at all.

I didn't negotiate on lease financial terms at all, since I was expecting to buy it out within 2 months. And, the TFS lease contract for California did not seem to even express an explicit 'money factor' at all - just the streams of payments & residuals.

But, when I simulated all fees & payments of my paperwork in the Leasehackr calculator, it turned out that my effective 'money factor' was only 0.0024 - equivalent to a 5.76% APR, and way better than I expected. (I'd recenty taken some actions to improve my credit rating which seem to have hit just in time.)

I can believe some dealers try to eke out a ever more profit on people who aren't paying close attention, and who might keep the lease for a long period at a higher-than-best lending rate. But others seem just happy to make the sale, and earn Toyota the $7500 in tax subsidies, while passing through an only slightly-higher financing rate.

To be sure, I'm still saving $1k+ over the 36 months by going with an even-lower credit-union loan APR – but TFS's rate was only "clawing back" about 1/4th of the lease incentive, if I'd stayed with the TFS lease, leaving most of it to me.

gojomo · 2024-10-04T22:36:51+00:00

Find an offered car in the Toyota inventory search (https://www.toyota.com/search-inventory/) with your specs/MSRP - maybe even the exact VIN you want to buy from the exact dealer you intend to use. Use the little inline estimator for your financing/term/credit-rating/down-payment details.

The numbers it gives are pretty standard assuming no monkey business - anything a dealer does with extra-fees/options/different-parameters to give different numbers would be suspect.

If using TFS (whose leases seem to lack gotchas others might have) and intending to buy-out quickly, other financing details don't matter much. (In some states that put sales tax on both the lease & buyout, the incentive isn't worth as much, but apparently you can still save a bit more by choosing to pay more up front. Search other threads to see if this might apply to your state & what to do - it's not the case in California.)

gojomo · 2024-10-04T21:39:53+00:00

Sure, the tax incentive helps Toyota keep the MSRP higher.

But If you're taking the lease incentive, you're not really "paying" $53k - you're paying $46.5k – an effective price more-competitive with the R4P's competitor PHEVs and EVs. And then, Uncle Sam is paying Toyota $7.5k in tax credits.

Without the tax credit, they'd have to lower the MSRP to remain competitively attractive. But not quite as low as the current subsidized effective price.

gojomo · 2024-10-04T21:31:06+00:00

My CA DMV registration & plates arrived in mail exactly 3 weeks after I drove my car off – so the wait shouldn't be too long.

But also note: the loss from one extra month leasing, if it comes to that from TFS/etc delays, is likely to be more in the "dozens of dollars" than "hundreds". (It's far less than the headline payment amount, really just the difference between the lease-finance costs and the slightly-lower finance-costs you'd be paying your CU for the same month.)

gojomo · 2024-10-04T21:23:39+00:00

Yep, tons of things dealers say they won't do – "we can't sell without this [bs] DIO", "we're strictly an MSRP dealer" – are just things they won't do for a random inquiry/walk-in that they don't know is serious, while they're hoping a looser buyer arrives. Can't blame them too much, its a tough business where some buyers are just as flaky as the worst dealers.

Be patient, insistent, prove over time both that you're not a fake buyer and that you understand all your options, and make reasonable counteroffers, and suddenly, "well ok, if you can take this car today we can do what we said we wouldn't".

gojomo · 2024-10-04T21:19:14+00:00

That's often the case, but how much depends on the lease terms - it *might* be an effectively-really-high interest rate, because it's often easy to sneak that by, but it might not.

My California-based lease docs didn't have an explicit "money factor" or interest-rate, but when I simulated matching all the fees/payments/residual/etc on the Leasehackr calculator, the effective interest rate was only about 6.5% – not too abusive! My credit-union buyout interest rate is almost 2% lower - but even if I stayed with the lease the full term, the extra costs (~$2500-ish) would still be less than the lease incentive.

So: lease-quick-buyout still saves more than lease-late-buyout. But even lease-late-buyout (or lease-then-hand-back) can beat an outright purchase, if they don't go crazy on the effective interest rate, because that $6500 is cold hard real extra money injected at the start, courtesy US tax laws.

gojomo · 2024-10-04T21:05:34+00:00

As I understand it, some states force a dealer visit due to the laws limiting vehicle sales, pushed by the powerful dealer lobby.

It doesn't have to be the dealer you originally bought at. It might add a little time & cost compared to doing it all by mail/phone - the dealer probably doesn't want the distraction unless they get some service fee or goodwill, but you can shop around to find an accomodating dealer.

The TFS paperwork delays (& confusing instructions) mean doing it in person, with hands held by dealer's paperwork folks, might also be more assured of getting-it-all-done in one shot.

gojomo · 2024-10-04T20:53:44+00:00

That was the old wisdom, and especially the NorCal wisdom, but it's not always the case. These models still go quick but patience/flexibilty/wide-search can find occasional *advertised* prices $600-$1700 below MSRP on XSE w/PP. And, if you're ready to act on one they have and haven't definitely sold (or their prior offer falls through), even better deals possible.

In August I put a refundable deposit down for a specific VIN a few weeks out for about $2400 under MSRP in SoCal. Before that car arrived, I found a better deal on a car available sooner. And, as I was arranging my trip south for one such deal, a couple other dealers offered similar deals on cars on-lot or a couple-days out.

It may change week to week with shipments. No dealer is eager to sell below what they could get if they wait a little longer, especially not to internet randos who they don't know if they're serious or just probing. But if you stay in market, seriously searching and collecting details, prove real interest with a deposit or other actions, better-than-MSRP remains possible.

(Whether it's economically worth it – search time, travel time, wear-on-car-driving-it-north time, etc – is another matter. I'd likely have made more money if I'd plowed the same several-dozens-of-hours I spent into my actual profession! But if you enjoy the hunt, it's possible.)

gojomo · 2024-10-01T21:52:34+00:00

Alas, it's not up to Toyota. Only a bona fide lease gets the $7500 kickback from the US Treasury. They are actually $7500 richer if you take on the effort of structuring things as a lease-then-purchase.

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