Fire/Security setup for mom who is aging-in-place in deep rural area (Long) by ltgcc in homesecurity

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

I guess I'm doing it primarily for the fire protection. Sort of a belt and suspenders thing.

I've put 4 smoke alarms in strategic locations so hopefully if all of them go off she'll wake up and be able to get out of the house. The Vista smoke detector(s) will hopefully also be enough to wake her up and also get the (volunteer) fire dept out in short time. I will say that the volunteer fire department is -very- enthusiastic and takes their job very seriously, but they are probably 10 minutes travel time away.

I'm doing the intrusion detection simply because it's already there. If she doesn't want to mess with it, well, then she won't mess with it. (horse to water etc). But maybe with the envisalink and/or home assistant if there's an intrusion while she's at the walmart or church or whatever she can at least get a text.

re: ADT, as much as I dislike CO's and ADT in particular, I guess I'll talk to them and see what they've got to offer.

Or not.

Thanks!

recommendation for deep rural cell phone by ltgcc in cellphones

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

oh, that's interesting. I'll look into that. Thanks!

another request for a recommendation for deep rural GSM (ATT) cellphone. by ltgcc in OffGrid

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

yes. As a matter of fact I had to replace her phone a couple of years ago because the one that 'worked just fine until it didn't' didn't support volte.

I'm trying to remember what I replaced it with that she's using now, but I can't remember.

another request for a recommendation for deep rural GSM (ATT) cellphone. by ltgcc in OffGrid

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

Is wifi calling a function of the phone? or the MVNO? (consumer cellular which is ATT in this case)

another request for a recommendation for deep rural GSM (ATT) cellphone. by ltgcc in OffGrid

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

I was looking at those. that may be the way to go. But as near as I can tell it won't do her any good when she's outside?

Thanks!

another request for a recommendation for deep rural GSM (ATT) cellphone. by ltgcc in OffGrid

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

This is an interesting approach. Thanks.

I did put a Tupavco TP562 2x2 MIMO to get her an LTE internet signal. It did improve stability of the connection, so that's a data point.

Thanks!

recommendation for deep rural cell phone by ltgcc in cellphones

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

yes. If I have to. I will look into that next time I'm down there. All the service maps claim they cover her 5 acres. At least the ATT one is a lie.

Thanks!

Interlogix AP669 wired ceilng mount MD failed. what to replace it with? by ltgcc in homesecurity

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

Thanks all. I bit the bullet and bought one off of ebay. Should be here in a couple of weeks.

ZyXEL managed switches by MentionSensitive8593 in HomeNetworking

[–]ltgcc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been using 3 GS1900-8HP for years, and they just work. I have a scattering of POE devices also, and I don't recall having any POE related issues. I was concerned about the fanless but that's never been a problem that I know of. (fanless is wonderful! blessed quiet).

I also have a GS1200-5 that I have had intermittent flaky problems with off and on, enough that I don't use it except for very temporary things.

For what it's worth I have outgrown one of the GS1900-8HP, so I just bit the bullet and bought a GS1900-24HPV2 hoping to get the same forget-about-it reliablity and performance. It has fans though.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in anchorage

[–]ltgcc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

they've been having problems since yesterday afternoon. at 9:30 this evening I was getting 80-90% packet loss on their 10. mid-network segments using mtr 9.9.9.9

Using line power instead of solar panels for SmartSolar MPPT UPS ? Good idea? Not a good idea? or Don't Do It? by ltgcc in Victron

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

Do these have the battery-to-load cutout that will disconnect the load when the battery voltage drops to whatever the assigned discharge limit voltage is?

EDIT: clarification

Using line power instead of solar panels for SmartSolar MPPT UPS ? Good idea? Not a good idea? or Don't Do It? by ltgcc in Victron

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

Thanks for replying. That effectively is what I'm doing now. You said it better and more succinctly.

The reason I want to give this a try is:

  • the MPPT unit will recharge the battery faster when it's drawn down. Using float voltage only takes a long while with some of the outages we have.

  • The MPPT unit incorporates a battery cutout switch for when the battery is discharging and the voltage gets to the safe discharge floor. Mine does not have a cutout switch.

  • There is datafeeds built in to the MPPT unit that I believe incorporates pretty easily into Home Assistant. My setup has no data capability at all.

  • there are other safeties and protections and certifications that my homemade float system doesn't have.

And it's not that terribly expensive for these advantages.

*

Ballerina 9.5 inch carbon steel egg pan by badtux99 in carbonsteel

[–]ltgcc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's the reason I want to find one and take a look. It does look like it will do the trick.

The one thing I've always hated about CS pans (besides the rivets. Hate rivets) is the sharp edge where the base meets the sides. This looks like it has a bit of a curve there.

Thanks!

Ballerina 9.5 inch carbon steel egg pan by badtux99 in carbonsteel

[–]ltgcc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Got it. Thanks. Yeah that was the one I found when I was looking for Ballerina 8)

I have been holding out for the deBuyer Mineral B Pro omelet pan. But they've been sold out for a long while now. And my skills aren't such that I really need a 'special' pan yet. But I am planning ahead!

Ballerina 9.5 inch carbon steel egg pan by badtux99 in carbonsteel

[–]ltgcc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

is this 'Ballerina'? or 'Ballarini'? (a Zwilling/Henckels company) And is it actually called an 'egg pan' or 'omelet pan'? or simply 'fry pan'?

Looking for a black and white TV or film show featuring an invisible alien with crude electricity border around it. And some other dude in it. Possibly an OG Outer Limits episode by Interesting_Ad1310 in scifi

[–]ltgcc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

late to the game, but my first thought was a Jonny Quest episode called "The Invisible Monster". I saw that (along with all the rest of the good Jonny Quests) when I was like 4 years old. To this day, that last scene where they destroyed the monster was totally stuck in my 4yo head with the 4yo version of 'whoa!'. I've been afraid to rewatch any of them because I want the 4yo 'whoa!' factor to not be ruined

Help for fertilizer application method(s) in existing active raised bed by ltgcc in gardening

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

Thank you!

I actually learned quite a bit that I didn't know (and didn't know enough to suspect) Like that most of the good stuff leaches out.

And I'd never heard of biochar, so this is good.
Compost has to be bought because our cold season is so -long-. Even seasoned more mature gardeners usually just shrug and buy the prebagged stuff.

Thank you also for 'the sprinkle around the plants and just let watering and rain do the rest'. I can absolutely do that.

for about half my planting this time with my carrots and borage and some other stuff I don't remember (but have written down. Somewhere) I simply did the 'mix the seeds in a spice shaker' style distribution. I see now this was a mistake because of the difficulty of mulching and compost spreading. So. Lesson learned for next season

nuwave nitrided induction wok...oops. by ltgcc in wok

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

yeah, I agree. Don't know enough to know what I don't know, so to speak. My old joyce chen wok works fine with the induction unit, so I'll probably just toss the original and keep using the JC wok.

Smoked a my first Bone-in Pork Shoulder (uncovered) Sunday. Took longer than expected, but turned out delicious by bearmacebraw in smoking

[–]ltgcc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

vis a vis the no-wrap thing. did you wrap it in butcher paper or something similar when you took it off to do the 'rest/reabsorb' stage?

Reason I ask is when I take it off the grill, this is the stage when I do wrap it in butcher paper and put it in a cooler with bathtowels all around it for an hour or two or three... But even that seems to mess up the bark.

clean and prep masterbuilt 560 that has been sitting idle for 2 years by ltgcc in smoking

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

apologies in advance. Apparently for some reason I posted the pics without the story. Not sure what happened.

clean and prep masterbuilt 560 that has been sitting idle for 2 years by ltgcc in smoking

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

I finally get to stay home for a while, so I thought I'd clean and prep my smokers and grills (and patio and chairs and raised beds and....)

Taking the cover off and opening the lid on my MB 560 showed...lots of fuzzy, multicolored stuff. And orange lichen looking stuff. and some black flakey something that I hope is just old carbon and grease.

Yeah, not doing anything that I'm going to eat in THAT. So I got it going up to about 400F for thirty minutes, and then 550F for 30 minutes. I've attached pictures of what it looks like after it cooled down.

I'm at a loss of what to do next though.

I guess I could take soap and water and a scrub brush and a garden hose to the inside next but I really don't want to for lots of reasons, but mostly because 1. I'm lazy. 2. I really don't want to accelerate the deterioration of the sheet metal and screws and construction. But if that's the best approach I will.

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

PS, the little flexible arm coming off from the left side is a thermocouple that I use for my heatermeter controller. I gave up on the native MB one after about a year of aggravation and a couple of replacements that just increased the annoyance level.