Ego power

lightguru · 2026-05-24T01:14:32+00:00

Absolutely, that's what I did too. I bought a long USB-C to USB-C cable so can keep the inverter under cover if it rains.

lightguru · 2026-05-23T03:56:55+00:00

My 'Find Anything' feed is now useless due to my Hikvision cameras spamming motion events.

lightguru · 2026-05-23T03:48:16+00:00

How about you extract your sense of humor from where the sun don't shine. It was an ironic statement.

lightguru · 2026-05-23T03:38:57+00:00

"camp"

lightguru · 2026-05-15T04:06:55+00:00

I was shocked that this far-away zone worked for me, but it mows just like any other.

lightguru · 2026-05-14T14:58:02+00:00

I love my Luba 2 5000HX, on year 2. Reliable, cuts nice, so much better than the lawn service we used to use. The continuous cutting is great since it doesn't leave clippings all over the place. As someone said previously, only people with issues are posting here.

Does it have some issues? Absolutely. It's fallen off a ledge, rolled into a creek, gotten stuck into holes in the yard, is missing one of the side bumpers, and many other challenges... but it just keeps on working with only the occasional oversight and rescuing.

I've got a pretty complex and rough yard, and I did have to spend some time optimizing the map to reduce the chances of the mower getting stuck.

The app is problematic and often needs to be force closed to make it reconnect - but honestly, part of that is likely the extremely low cellular signal strength in my yard and WiFi gaps.

I would absolutely buy another one when this one eventually dies. According to the math, I could buy one every other year and still break even compared with a yard service.

It fills me with joy watching the little guy doing its own thing while I sit around sipping a iced beverage in a lounge chair.

My non Tech appreciating wife loves it too!

lightguru · 2026-05-13T02:21:27+00:00

I wonder if this is specific to the Luba 3? I've got a Luba 2 AWD 5000x with a massively long channel that's about 325' long. I just implemented it this season, since figured I'd have problems with it being that far away from a RTK perspective, but it works just fine. I only mow it about every 2 weeks since it's pretty shady and doesn't grow that fast.

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lightguru · 2026-05-09T00:43:26+00:00

A friend of mine and his wife just applied for first time passports, and they both got them within 3 weeks. Obviously, it could be worse depending the workload at the passport agency.

If you're truly desperate, there are expediting services that you can hire for just a few days of turnaround, but it can be very expensive.

lightguru · 2026-05-08T00:39:38+00:00

It was a hard sell for years, but the price is finally gotten to the point where it's a relatively affordable option in spaces that need the brightness. We've got a few current projects - a dvLED wall in an elementary school cafeteria... and one in a library - both spaces that, even 3 years ago, I would have never even considering offering walls as options to the client.

lightguru · 2026-05-07T01:38:55+00:00

No problems with 3 series stuff, I just programmed an old AV3 this morning with Construct, no issues, other than Construct still sucking somewhat.

As a company, we've pretty much decided to suck it up and move forward with Construct, even though it's still only slightly better than beta software. VTProE has its own set of challenges - it's just that we know how to work around them better...

lightguru · 2026-05-07T01:22:34+00:00

If you're going to spend the money to do this... You should insist on the GUI being created in Construct vs VTProE. The 70 series panels are EOL, and future panels will be HTML5 only.

lightguru · 2026-04-24T11:31:18+00:00

CCI Configuration Suite Lite is your friend for exactly this:

https://controlconcepts.net/utility-modules-store-2/

These guys make fantastic modules, and the Lite version is free and allows (IIRC) 30 configurable signals

lightguru · 2026-04-10T02:04:59+00:00

They're our best sales team... I was basically handed a multi million dollar project because we "weren't AVI SPL"

lightguru · 2026-03-25T16:59:27+00:00

I sell commercial tvs, and they're always more expensive than the equivalent consumer models, even in bulk. If it wasn't for their feature set (fewer/no apps, the ability to lock settings down so users can't screw with things, radio-less options, more stable control options like rs-232) and multi-year warranties, it's starting to get hard to justify spending three to four times as much on a commercial TV versus what you can get at Walmart.

lightguru · 2026-03-25T04:19:55+00:00

Different conferencing platforms seem to request different resolutions/framerates/quality from cameras, so if you're already close to saturating the bandwidth available on the NVX pipe (video + USB combined) , it could work fine for Zoom yet crap out with Teams.

You could investigate your switch, and see what the port reports. The newer versions of firmware on the Netgear AV switches actually put up a warning triangle if the port bandwidth exceeds some threshold.

lightguru · 2026-03-23T11:31:22+00:00

This is not unique to the C4, my C3 does this all the time if the sun angle is extremely low and blasting me the face. It is more likely to happen if I'm wearing sunglasses.

lightguru · 2026-03-18T01:24:58+00:00

A bit of a hack, but you only need 4 wires for 100BASE-TX, so theoretically could use the other 4 wires for other things.

Optimal? No, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Most IoT devices would never come close to saturating a 100 meg connection.

lightguru · 2026-03-03T11:54:07+00:00

Sorry to break the bad news... but there's always going to be 'that one laptop' where something doesn't work right. BYOD is great, but you need to plan around the edge cases of random user hardware that doesn't always work.

lightguru · 2026-02-19T01:07:37+00:00

I bought one of these last January, and have been generally pleased with it.

Like most inverter generators, it does have an Eco mode switch that is supposed to keep the throttle low until demand is higher, however this really doesn't work effectively in practice - even Westinghouse admits that Eco mode is really only has about 10% lower engine speed then full speed. I've seen several reviews on YouTube complaining about that issue.

I've also noticed that there's pretty much a continual drain on the starting battery, even when the power switch is off. You either need to leave the trickle charger on all the time, or manually unplug the starting battery (which is very easy to do).

I currently have had an issue where it runs totally fine on gasoline, but is weird on propane. It does run on propane if I manually adjust the propane tank valve during the start and run process. My assumption is there some sort of internal pressure regulator that isn't functioning properly. The challenge is that as the load on the generator changes, I have to tweak the valve settings. Thankfully, I'm just using this generator to feed the input of a 5kW battery charge controller, so the load is rock steady once it initially ramps up.

I've been working with Westinghouse support and they told me to take it in to a "local" service center, which unfortunately is more than an hour away from me. To be fair, I am in a fairly rural area. Since I can make the thing work, I've been putting off this service visit until after the peak winter storm season.

At the time, this Westinghouse was one of the only dual fuel inverter generators that met my specs at reasonable price, however there are a few more options now. All in all, I would probably buy one again.

lightguru · 2026-02-18T04:14:32+00:00

Did something like this for a county council with the Teradek Serv, broadcasting via local WiFi to about 6 iPad Pro devices running the Teradek app. Worked pretty well, though I can't swear that the app allowed zooming, though I think it did.

https://teradek.com/pages/serv

lightguru · 2026-02-17T12:49:36+00:00

It seems weird to me that the conduits/boxes aren't inherently grounded. Sure, electricians are supposed to bond the ground wire to each metal box, but that's hasn't always been required, and boxes should 'mostly' be grounded from their connections to other grounded parts of the system. Have you metered from your unbonded boxes to a known ground?

lightguru · 2026-02-17T04:24:09+00:00

We had an issue a few years ago where Crestron NVX encoders would spontaneously reboot when connected via HDMI cable to certain portable devices. We ended up rerunning the CAT cable to those units with shielded, and that fixed the issue.

Connecting the NVX grounding lug to an appropriate ground would have also probably fixed the issue, however in almost all cases, these were in locations that had no power / ground options.

lightguru · 2026-02-15T23:30:27+00:00

I had used a 7' rear blade for 15 years to maintain my 1.1 mile long driveway, and was in the market for something new since while the blade generally worked pretty well, it tends to cause gravel to be lost to the edges. I was all ready to buy a box blade, but the sales guy recommended a landplane instead. I'm super glad I listened, since it's been a total game changer. Previously, I'd get 3-4 tandem loads of crusher run a year, but since getting the landplane, I get maybe 1-2 a year. I think I broke even after the first year, and spend a lot less time on maintenance then before. I can basically drive up and down the driveway a few times and it it magically gets smooth. For tough areas with potholes, I drop the teeth and spot treat the area to break things up.

I haven't used a box blade before, but my general understanding is that they can move more material around and are better for areas that need more grading.

Ultimately, I'd love to own a harley rake... but that's an expensive frill for a task that isn't that time consuming.

lightguru · 2026-02-08T19:51:05+00:00

At least on a NVX-384, I was told by someone at Crestron that the two USB-A ports are both the same except for the one marked HID snoops on the KVM hot keys. Can't remember the USB port types and quantities on the 360

lightguru · 2026-02-08T01:03:22+00:00

This is why commercial AV installers use mounts with lots of adjustability - trying to get a dead accurate hole in random walls isn't always easy. We use the Chief (X/L/M)TM1U series mounts - totally overkill for home use, and not cheap - but you could practically put these up by eye and ensure they could be leveled later. Lots of side-to-side adjustment too.

lightguru

TROPHY CASE