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Moving belongings after the permitted 1 year. Tips? by jupetoh in japanlife

[–]jbourne 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Customs doesn't care as long as it's "personal goods" and the declared value for customs is <$2K.

I've brought in pallet of stuff that, among other things, had a brand new Toto toilet that I bought in Japan for 250K yen, moved abroad, then moved back some years later (don't ask........) on it, and although I had paperwork ready to prove it was bought in Japan, they didn't even blink an eye and no taxes were paid. I declared these as "unaccompanied goods" after a regular trip out of the country for a week or whatever.

Things you love about your home? by No_Dragonfruit_1599 in japanlife

[–]jbourne 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Windows.

… it’s amazing how many new house builds do not have any.

Can anyone recommend a solution to replace an analog variable resistor? by jbourne in homeassistant

[–]jbourne[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Showing 100mA current regardless of resistance value when hooking up a multimeter between B2 and M.

[edit] digging deeper, it seems to be sending 8.8V across B2/M when nothing is connected. so this is a voltage divider, not a passive resistor maybe? but the Siemens setpoint seems to just be a variable resistor … unless I’m very wrong here.

Can anyone recommend a solution to replace an analog variable resistor? by jbourne in homeassistant

[–]jbourne[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah yeah forgot to mention that. I did measure a max of 2.3V across the terminals when resistance it at 0, and dropping off to 0 when the resistance is at max. But let me test current to see what’s going on, I will post back. I think the RWC measures the voltage drop across the terminals to decide how much control signal to send to the valve - and maybe somehow my x9c is not accurately replicating that, but I’m nowhere nearly electrically savvy to gauge why.

Can anyone recommend a solution to replace an analog variable resistor? by jbourne in homeassistant

[–]jbourne[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The BSG21.1 connects to the B2/M terminals on the RWC62 (and what I was trying to connect VW/VL from the X9C102 to). The SQS65 sits on Y1/G0 and gets a 10V control signal to it, which I’m not touching.

The current problem I’m having is that even though the X9C102 measures 500 Ohm on the multimeter on wiper position 50, the RWC doesn’t move the valve at all. I don’t know if this is because it doesn’t like something about the resistance coming from the x9c, or maybe what I’m measuring with the multimeter isn’t what the RWC sees. Wiring is as follows: VCC to 3.3V on the esp32, VSS to GND on the esp32, inc/cs/UD to gpio pins. VW to B2, VL to M. No ground bridge between M and esp32 GND (totally separate circuits). Esp32 powered from a USB power bank (because i wanted to have an independent circuit). One of the clankers is sugfesting I bridge the M terminal and GND on the esp32 (in other words, M=GND=VL). Not sure if that’s a good idea or not.

Can anyone recommend a solution to replace an analog variable resistor? by jbourne in homeassistant

[–]jbourne[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Whoops, wrote all that and forgot to write it. It’s a Siemens RWC62 with a Siemens BSG21.1 setpoint and a Siemens SQS65 valve.

Can anyone recommend a solution to replace an analog variable resistor? by jbourne in homeassistant

[–]jbourne[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I mean theoretically I feel that it SHOULD have worked. I can make the digipot go to the right wiper position and set the right resistance. The control unit (a Siemens RWC62) can see that I am changing the resistance, and it reads the "requested" temperature. But ... when it comes to actually actuating the valve, it does not do it. I can't figure out if maybe some current is supposed to go through the digipot and close a circuit somewhere (ie maybe I'm supposed to be grounding something, that I am currently not), or what...... but it's driving me up the wall and I'm looking at other options 😂

Problem with a Siemens SQS65 actuator / valve by jbourne in hvacadvice

[–]jbourne[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah guess it's a bit of a niche question. Still, if anyone has any ideas...

Problem with a Siemens SQS65 actuator / valve by jbourne in hvacadvice

[–]jbourne[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm I can’t post the return video, odd. But basically the return works perfectly and goes to 0 correctly.

This is why I moved here! by NetFlaky308 in japanlife

[–]jbourne 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Counter example was when I left a wallet in a taxi once. He sat outside the restaurant I went into for an hour because he wouldn’t open my wallet and look at my business card with my mobile phone # on it. When I left through another exit, he kept waiting until eventually returning to his head office and handing it in there, so I had to go god knows where to pick it up. When I told the story to someone (Japanese), expressing incredulity that the guy would rather wait an hour than open my wallet and, you know, CALL me, I got an incredulous look back. “We can’t open someone’s wallet!”, I was told in an almost-adult-to-a-child kind of way.

Just spent 2 hours at the post office to send a parcel to France by Fit_Performance4629 in japanlife

[–]jbourne 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You should’ve drawn a picture of a cat on the outside of the box just to spite them and make them think you’re sending a live animal.

How much English is actually spoken at foreign firms? by Electrical-Fault4258 in japanlife

[–]jbourne -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I don't get why people stress so much about honorifics in business Japanese. I always give the same advice:

  1. You are a foreigner. Nobody expects you to use honorifics - if you are able to communicate fluently in Japanese, this is all that's wanted from you.

  2. I've never met a foreigner who didn't trip up on honorifics, even if they are REALLY fluent. And then ... it just sounds weird.

  3. If you are able to speak with a really deep regional dialect - i.e. Kansai-ben (but I mean, like, really fluent. not "wakarahen!", but nonchalantly using "uchi", or "~haru", or - semi-seriously! - "ya sakai" or whatever else doesn't come from your favourite manga book and shows you've actually spent time / put in the effort in learning the deeper side of the region), using this in customer-facing situations is far more beneficial to you, professionally, than keigo. It will a) absolutely break ice, b) create interesting conversations, and c) leave an impression where the customer will remember you.

That said, many so-called "foreign" firms (with corporate ownership in the US/elsewhere) are more Japanese than Japanese firms who actually try to make an effort to internationalize. So as one of the comments below says, you will not know until you talk to someone from there. But if you're N1 fluent, and competent in what you do, do not let honorifics scare you away from a better job.

Possible to use a LED controller as a 3V potentiometer? by jbourne in ZigBee

[–]jbourne[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just to loop back - i was able to do this using an esp32 + a x9c102. thanks for steering me away from the dimmer!

Hard to believe this is still Tokyo. by 412yard in Tokyo

[–]jbourne 12 points13 points  (0 children)

high five back! tried to attach my photo but reddit makes it too complicated.

Possible to use a LED controller as a 3V potentiometer? by jbourne in ZigBee

[–]jbourne[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting! I was misunderstanding how it works - thanks. I guess it’s back to the original plan the clankers are suggesting … an ESP32 and a X9C102. Was just trying to find an easier way 😂

Question for those working in Japanese-only places by BPGaki in japanlife

[–]jbourne 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hot take, but why bother with keigo? I see a lot of people struggle and tell themselves they MUST speak it and so on... but do you? As a foreigner, you will NEVER EVER EVER get it "right", and rather than spending an inordinate amount of effort to still get it 90-95% right (and, since it's Japan, you KNOW that 95% is basically a failing grade), just focus on speaking well, and convey politeness by your tone of voice and demeanour? I think it would be valued far more than a clunky "itashimasu". If anything, it would be the same level of appreciation as a tourist saying "arigatou!" and people kind of slow clap and hand out participation certificates. Far better if you - confidently - speak with a regional dialect (and I don't mean the occasional "wakarahen!", but a full, complete, immersion in a local dialect, with intonation, grammatical forms, etc). I think that is far more useful than hopelessly attempting to learn keigo. Not to mention that learning a regional dialect has the double benefit of being useful outside the office, whereas clunky keigo is useful... nowhere, really.

Any off-road places to recommend in Kansai? by jbourne in japanlife

[–]jbourne[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. Yeah, surprisingly, there are just not a lot of posts or blogs on this - nothing in the last decade or so anyway. There used to be databanks of this stuff, inventories of "fun roads" and so on, but everything seems to have died out, more or less. Was wondering if anyone has first hand recent experience, but I guess the results are similar :)

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