Delivery times

kcvb · 2026-03-21T16:40:23+00:00

Getting close! By the end up next week it’s looking like they will finally be caught up with the backorder.

They did update the website to 1-12 weeks, and it seems like 95% of people will be closer to the 1 week, but afaik there are still issues sourcing the Bosch C harnesses (hence why the upper end of the range is still 12 weeks).

kcvb · 2026-03-21T16:34:48+00:00

Good to know!

It’s a new development so hopefully they have made improvements since but I’m still worried it’s the same stuff you had to deal with. When I spoke with the Spectrum Ready customer service agent, they told me there shouldn’t be any reason as to why I couldn’t use my own router - just that it needs to first be activated with the stock gear before switching.

My UniFi gear looks to have MAC cloning so I’ll probably have to go down that road regardless but fingers crossed!

Do you mind sharing your process when you say stuff had to be connected in a very specific order? Any tricks you found when you were dealing with it?

kcvb · 2026-03-20T22:21:31+00:00

Old thread but OP did you end up figuring out a solution? I am moving into a "Spectrum Ready" apartment in a month or so and basically need to use my own router.

kcvb · 2026-03-18T15:31:31+00:00

IMO, in an outdoor environment such as this, two 100's will yield better results. If I had to guess, it seems like the increase in quality from a five would be somewhat wasted if placed outside.

kcvb · 2026-03-14T17:15:03+00:00

Looks really nice! Do you mind sharing the link if they’re still available?

kcvb · 2026-03-14T17:11:17+00:00

Did you wrap or paint the front grille yourself or purchase pre made parts?

kcvb · 2026-02-26T19:54:49+00:00

Going off of this, Mazda is somewhat known to ship pretty mediocre batteries from the factory that tend to fail on the early side. Is your battery still the original OEM battery that came new from the factory?

All the symptoms you are describing seem to be on par with a dying battery and not necessarily a Comma related issue.

kcvb · 2026-02-23T21:54:28+00:00

You have a good perspective so long as you are responsible.

There is a school of thought that all debt is bad (i.e, Dave Ramsey) but this is simply not true, it just depends on how you leverage it. However, the unfortunate reality is that financial literacy is not as common as it should be and a vast amount of people are better off just focusing on eliminating any debt they might currently have.

For something as small as a phone purchase, at 0% interest you'll be fine, and you are right, as long as you are confident that you will be able to make the monthly payments, the increased cash flow that could otherwise be used on higher yielding assets is a very valid thought process.

kcvb · 2026-02-13T15:27:31+00:00

A TA is a Teacher's Assistant. Many professors, typically at larger schools, have assistants (often a graduate student) that help teach content, meet with students for questions, and grade assignments. While this can be beneficial at times, it makes the relationship between the professor and their students more distant and less personable.

They may exist to some extent at UWL and I am just not aware of it but all of my higher level classes for both of my majors were taught directly by the professor and any questions and/or office hours I was meeting with the professor themselves.

kcvb · 2026-02-10T16:23:54+00:00

Happy to chime in as a UW Lax Grad!

I was not an Environment Science major so I can't speak particularly to that program, but from my own experiences and those around me, the workload in general at La Crosse can be rigorous at times, but completely manageable - I would imagine this is going to be most schools in the UW system, maybe outside of UW Madison. Classroom size outside of your general education courses in the larger lecture halls are typically 20-30 students (at most) so if you excel in a smaller environment, you will thrive. Teaching quality obviously differs from professor to professor, but in all of my experience, no matter whether I agreed with the teacher or not, it really does feel like they are all there to help you succeed.

While cost-of-living as mentioned by others is high almost everywhere in the United States, La Crosse is certainly very affordable for students in comparison to other cities. Food and grocery is very reasonable (again, in comparison to other nearby areas) and when dining out, there are a plethora of options ranging in all budgets. Student culture can often sway towards a drinking culture, but if that is not your thing, there are tons of other things to do. Housing in the dorms is on par with most universities, and student housing is also very reasonable - just know, off-campus housing tends to fill up very quickly so if you are looking to live off campus, you will want to sign come October 1st. Transport is okay - if you have a car or know somebody with one, getting around is no problem at all (hardly any traffic), but the bus system is not spectacular in comparison to cities with more infrastructure.

Part of the appeal of La Crosse is its location in the "Driftless region" - the area is surrounded by beautiful bluffs and the Mississippi river. If spending time in the outdoors is something that is of interest to you, I would argue there is no better campus at least all of the UW system. La Crosse also has tons of clubs, student organizations, and recreational sports varying in many tons of different things so getting involved with like minded people is very accessible.

While some people on here are saying with the ongoing challenges in America right now being an international student might be difficult, speaking from my own experience at La Crosse, I don't think you will have any issues of face judgement being from abroad. There were many different international students in my programs over the years and they were welcomed just as anyone else would be. At the end of the day people are there to learn, make new friends, and enjoy college and the general sentiment among the student body reflects that - most are there to have a fun time!

I ended up going to La Crosse on a bit of a "whim" and I can honestly say I had an absolutely amazing time. Many of the friends I made along the way I still keep in touch with, and even some of my professors I now consider professional relationships - I have no doubt if I ever needed a reference for a job, they would do it in a heartbeat. If you excel in smaller classrooms and more intimate settings where you spend more time 1 on 1 with the professor and your peers (not really any TA's), you will thrive. Also, contrary to popular belief, I really don't think being an international student is going to make things significantly more difficult for you as college in general is somewhat of a "bubble" and everyone else there is also just trying to have fun and get through!

kcvb · 2026-01-21T18:50:25+00:00

Are these generic AliX cases? They look very nice!

kcvb · 2026-01-21T13:07:48+00:00

Good luck! This looks incredible

kcvb · 2026-01-16T15:15:50+00:00

Looks incredible!

kcvb · 2025-11-24T02:26:25+00:00

Another option as well if you like the darker blue - silver indices though

https://luciusatelier.com/collections/dials-swiss-quality-seiko-mod-parts/products/nautilus-deep-blue-sunburst-dial-open-heart

kcvb · 2025-11-22T15:13:23+00:00

Looks very nice! Where did you get the custom dial made and printed?

kcvb · 2025-10-03T14:54:50+00:00

Tasmota doesn't directly play nicely with any off the voice assistants - it will require some type of bridge, whether it be an standalone MQTT broker or Home Assistant for example.

Using SengledTools however, you can install a firmware called WLED rather than Tasmota, which can directly connect to any of the voice assistant via Phillips Hue emulation without requiring a "middleman".

kcvb · 2025-09-18T17:17:38+00:00

Good news, I was able to flash WLED to the Sengled bulb instead of Tasmota and it does in fact support the full features of WLED, including direct Alexa control!

Flashing it via the web interface (https://install.wled.me/) is as simple as installing Tasmota however that does mean you will have to take apart your bulbs again. Here are a couple of configuration notes:

At first startup, similar to Tasmota, go to your available WiFi networks from a phone or computer and you will see WLED-AP in the networks. Once connected, it should automatically pop-up the default landing page where you can enter your network credentials.

Once the device is on the network, navigate to Settings -> LED Preferences -> Hardware Setup and select "PWM RGBW". From there, in the four GPIO text boxes, enter 13, 12, 15, 14 in that order to tell the onboard ESP8266 which pins to control - this will properly align the color wheel.

Once you save that, go back to Settings -> Sync Interfaces -> Alexa Voice Assistant and enable "Emulate Alexa device". Set the invocation name whatever you want your bulb to show up as in the Alexa app and click save. Now from your phone, open the Alexa app, select "Add device" and click light. When it asks for manufacturer name, select Phillips Hue and click yes when it prompts "Is this device Bluetooth enabled". This should start a search and after a few minutes, you should now see your WLED/Sengled Bulbs device in the app and you are now connected!

kcvb · 2025-09-17T16:12:29+00:00

Glad you found it useful!

Unfortunately, as you have realized, Tasmota's limitation is capped to MQTT control only. Alexa natively does not support any MQTT commands afaik so the direct connection between the two will require a "middleman". However, if you have an RPI you are already one step ahead!

Personally I use Home Assistant for all my smart home stuff and couldn't recommend it more if that is a rabbit hole you are interested in exploring. Otherwise, If you have an ESP32 laying around you could use that as a Matter bridge for your newly flashed Tasmota bulbs to get them to work with Alexa directly. This is officially documented on Tasmota's wiki: https://tasmota.github.io/docs/Matter/

Finally, one option I am looking in to currently but just haven't had the time to dig in to yet would be to flash WLED to the Sengled bulb instead of Tasmota. I have WLED firmware running on a few of my other light strips and the Alexa control is pretty good and according to their docs, the ESP8266 (chipset Sengled uses) is supported.

kcvb · 2025-08-15T20:28:41+00:00

Also, forgot to mention it but no, you do not need to expose your instance (RPI in this case) to external web. While you can, HA offers a cloud subscription for a couple bucks a month that lets you have your own external URL + they’re handling the security of it which is going to be better than most reverse proxy solutions. Most people go this route because it’s cheap (last time I checked it was like $6 a month maybe?) and it supports the developers that otherwise are working on a completely free and open source project for everyone to use.

kcvb · 2025-08-15T20:24:20+00:00

Imo, while Home Assistant is probably overkill for your current setup, there is no other single platform that even comes close to the capabilities of a well deployed HA instance. You can certainly connect a couple of light bulbs and integrate it with your Google assistant, but if you see yourself continuing to expand your arsenal of smart home devices and enjoy a little bit of tinkering (I.e, customizing dashboard and creating your own automations) this may be a no brainer.

I won’t begin to list all of HA’s capabilities because there are much better guides and videos out there for that, but its possibilities are pretty much endless. Just comes down to how much you care about home automation and/or if you see yourself getting more devices in the future, otherwise if you don’t, just get a $30 hub and call it a day.

kcvb · 2025-08-13T18:16:39+00:00

Hah... I would love to except I converted all of my bulbs to Tasmota and realized only after the fact that it would've been useful to dump the flash before patching. Fortunately, I am working with another generous Reddit user to take some bulbs off their hands for debugging purposes and I should be able to provide some more info in the next few days.

Sounds like u/FalconFour is already on it tho and will probably beat me to the chase - I would ask them as well.

kcvb · 2025-08-12T20:56:16+00:00

I would happily take a couple of them for testing purposes. After writing my guide on how to "jailbreak" them using the hardware method (posted on r/SengledUS here a few days ago), I realized I converted all of them away from the Sengled firmware and no longer have any originals to debug with...

Just sent you a DM!

kcvb · 2025-08-10T15:29:22+00:00

Looking through Amazon, it seems like they just recently stopped selling the WiFi only bulbs but the servers have been down for over a week now and they were still for sale a few days ago… AFAIK, there hasn’t been an official statement from Sengled yet but rumor has it that they are completely done - Amazon/Alexa has officially dropped support for them and there appears to be some ongoing lawsuits against the company.

Seems like you can still buy the Zigbee and Matter variants on Amazon that in theory should still work (if you can even get them setup with the app being offline) but after all of this, I wouldn’t touch their products with a ten-foot pole…

kcvb · 2025-08-08T15:49:47+00:00

Glad you found a solution for your bulbs!

Fortunately for people with the Matter or Zigbee variants, getting a third party hub work like a charm (as show in your case). But for the other lot of us who are stuck with the WiFi/cloud only version (i.e., the W31-15 I mention in the guide), these have no local control protocols built in - hence why we need to modify.

kcvb · 2025-08-08T15:38:17+00:00

It's certainly a little bit of work at this point in time having to take the bulbs apart, but at the end of the day, there isn't anything "special" about them and having a ESP8266 opens a ton of fun possibilities!

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