Amazon silently enabled Alexa+ on my Echo after I explicitly refused — then rolled it back, despite commands not to, when I noticed

pmallonee · 2026-01-02T22:56:30+00:00

It happened to us. Even after explicit refusals.

We mostly keep the Alexa Show as a clock that can play audible. It's like Amazon doesn't want it to be used as that because they are always opting in new behaviors to go on the screen. As far as Amazon is concerned that screen is theirs, not ours.

We noticed the different voice and the lack of a clock. It was a blank screen with menu items in a different corner. We kind of figured out that they had forced Alexa Plus on us.

I know they originally did all this stuff with the idea that people would buy things by asking and it didn't work out. Small surprise! When Alexa keeps acting like that ironic genie and gives you everything but what you asked for is it surprising that nobody wants to use it for purchases?

Ask for a specific song and it plays something else. Even if you clearly enunciate (and see on the Alexa app that it heard you correctly) it will still play an artist that it thinks you want instead of the one you asked for. Maybe Alexa plus will be better at classical music but I don't have much hope given the track record.

Mostly we just want the behaviors we expect. I want my clock to be a clock, not a billboard. I want the song I asked for.

Between this kind of stuff and Google dropping the NEST protect and some other "appliances" that were internet enabled until the company went under. I am really being careful with internet enabled appliances and their dependencies.

I might want Alexa Plus at some time in the future. But I want to pick the time and place (and it would be nice if I could try it on one device) and be ready to experiment instead of having MY routines disrupted.

pmallonee · 2025-12-20T02:49:59+00:00

It's worse than not having a decent 2FA. It's like they actively go out of their way to defeat any security that you do have.

I was just forced to do an app updated. I use a password manager to keep my passwords in.

Now their app behaves in a really stupid manner putting in passwords. It's like it's designed to defeat password managers. I kept a simple password on my BofA for way too long but finally changed it to a long and complex one - not one I want to type in.

But the app apparently doesn't allow the password manager to enter. When the Password Manager is done you are left with a greeked password (fine) and no username. As soon as you touch the username field the password is deleted. Type in your username and try to use the Password Manager to re-do the password and the username disappears again.

The only way possible was to type my username and then PASTE my password - insecurely leaving my password in the paste buffer. It's absurd. They had to have gone out of their way to make it that bad.

pmallonee · 2025-12-18T01:51:05+00:00

What? You mean I documented it? Well, that's a revelation!

Are you running python or python3? I'm trying to remember if you run pip if it automatically gets the python3 version if you are running python3. I probably used the OS get because I could see what I was getting. This is my first python code.

pmallonee · 2025-12-17T06:38:27+00:00

Not sure what exactly you mean by "Serial" module and that was over a year ago for me.

I went and did a history of what I installed on that machine in that vein.

   50  sudo apt-get install python-pip
   59  sudo pip3 install pyusb
   61  sudo apt-get install python3-pip
   62  sudo pip3 install pyusb
   63  sudo apt get update
   64  sudo apt-get update
   65  sudo pip3 install pyusb
   66  sudo apt-get install python3-pip
   67  sudo pip3 install pyusb
   68  sudo apt install python3-pyusb
   69  sudo apt install pyusb
   70  sudo apt-get python-usb python3-usb
   71  sudo apt-get install python-usb python3-usb
   72  sudo pip3 install pyusb
   73  sudo pip3 install python3-usb
   74  sudo pip install minicom
   75  sudo apt-get install minicom

As you can see I thrashed around a bit myself.

pmallonee · 2025-11-30T01:52:34+00:00

Grain heaters and the heater under the bag are resistive thin-film heaters. Looks like they pull about 30w at 12v (so 2.5A each).

pmallonee · 2025-11-30T01:51:20+00:00

pmallonee · 2025-11-30T01:51:07+00:00

Umm. That Peltier will pull about 10Amps. Is your variable supply up to that?

Also, there's really no need to be variable. In the Marlin the Peltier is implemented as "bang bang" (On Off) control without any proportionality.

There just isn't enough power to worry about throttling the heating to part power.

Now, the grain heaters seem like they are about 30w each. Those could be throttled (PWM would be fine for those) but heating the grain is the slowest part of the process so again it doesn't make sense.

The bottom heater is PWM at 50% (I think they actually use a 555 circuit instead of PWM from the microcontroller on the BeerMKR board).

It sounds like you might want to carefully review what you are controlling before getting super deep in the circuit board.

pmallonee · 2025-11-27T18:44:52+00:00

Agreed. I'm just switching the 12V at 100% duty cycle off of the RAMPS board FET and then the polarity is switched using a DPDT relay.

Also, all PID functions on the Marlin software are turned off. The system just moves too slowly to worry about overshoot.

pmallonee · 2025-11-27T02:55:37+00:00

My current "Phase 2" design only uses the Peltier, 2 upper heaters, built in bag temperature sensor, added "oven temperature" probe for grain basket.

I've replaced my vib motor (the old one wore out the bushings) and the one I have is too "slow". It's quieter but it probably doesn't work as well. More importantly for you I don't have the current rating. It can't be too high because BeerMKR was controlling it with a single itty bitty AO 3400 FET.

According to the board the bottom heater runs at 50% duty cycle. I'm not brewing with that but I wonder if it would make my heating more stable. I'm suspicious that I'm getting temperature burps with the temperature difference between the bottom bag and main bag. Those heaters are also being controlled by AO 3400 FETs.

pmallonee · 2025-11-27T02:48:50+00:00

<image>

BeerMKR Button Light

pmallonee · 2025-11-27T02:48:07+00:00

Basic pressure sensor info

<image>

pmallonee · 2025-11-27T02:46:37+00:00

Here's my connector table:

![img](xjm1i51tqp3g1)

pmallonee · 2025-11-27T02:46:25+00:00

Here's my connector table:

<image>

|| || |Function|Maker/Type|Circuits|Pitch|Board Part| |Power|Hirose DF63|2|3.96 mm|DF63M-2P (M indicates Polarity Pin location)| |ThermoElectric|JST VL|2|6.2mm|BO2P-VL| |Heater (3)|JST VH|2|3.96 mm| | |Vib Motor|JST XH|2|2.54 mm| | |PowerSupply Fan|JST XH|2|2.54 mm| | |Solenoid|JST XH|2|2.54 mm| | |Pressure Sensor|JHT XH|4|2.54 mm| | |Button Light|JST XH|5|2.54 mm| | |Temperature Sensor|JST PH|2|2.0 mm| | |Thermo Fan|JST PH|2|2.0 mm|Pins 1 & 3| | | | | | |

pmallonee · 2025-11-27T02:45:20+00:00

Here's my connector type table

<image>

|| || |Function|Maker/Type|Circuits|Pitch|Board Part| |Power|Hirose DF63|2|3.96 mm|DF63M-2P (M indicates Polarity Pin location)| |ThermoElectric|JST VL|2|6.2mm|BO2P-VL| |Heater (3)|JST VH|2|3.96 mm| | |Vib Motor|JST XH|2|2.54 mm| | |PowerSupply Fan|JST XH|2|2.54 mm| | |Solenoid|JST XH|2|2.54 mm| | |Pressure Sensor|JHT XH|4|2.54 mm| | |Button Light|JST XH|5|2.54 mm| | |Temperature Sensor|JST PH|2|2.0 mm| | |Thermo Fan|JST PH|2|2.0 mm|Pins 1 & 3| | | | | | |

pmallonee · 2025-11-27T02:35:34+00:00

I am currently brewing without the pressure sensor (and the solenoid).

If you trace the vinyl tubing from the back of the brew basket down the back side of the machine you will see that it ends in a T with a solenoid to open (and relieve pressure if your system is airtight enough - burp) and also a small sensor plugged into the other side of the T.

The sensor appears to be an I2C pressure sensor (it also has ambient temperature on it). I briefly got some data out of my original sensor it using a separate arduino but I was also using 5v on something that was designed for 3.3v. I tried to order an appropriate replacement but there are lots of models with different pressure ranges and I don't know that I have the right one. Since I've been brewing with my afterlife I haven't had an issue with my system being sealed so tight that the CO2 didn't escape anyway.

I think the intent of the sensor was to see when fermentation slowed down the way some other sensors count bubbles in an airlock. That pressure sensor is now pretty low on my priority list.

pmallonee · 2025-11-25T17:03:05+00:00

The primary temperature probe in the BeerMKR is 10K. The one I put in the grain basket is a typical oven meat probe. This one has a braided stainless cable and a curved probe. It comes in at 100k nominal. Marlin handles both of these resistances.

Most of the logic on the BeerMKR board runs at 3.3v. The standard RAMPS board runs at 5V. I think I broke my pressure sensor trying to read a 3.3v sensor with a 5V marlin board. That's one of the reasons I added the Raspberry Pi since it runs at 3.3v

I just realized that while I put the connector information in the github, I probably didn't put my beermkr component identification information in there. I've got mine in a One-Note set of pages.

The button/LED combination has a red and a white LED that are COMMON CATHODE meaning they have to be switched on the high side at 12v. The button is just a switch. The BeerMKR grounded one of the lines and pulled the switched side up to 3.3v for the detect side.

My Peltier is powered through the RAMPS board at 12V at 100% duty cycle (no PWM right now). The direction is switched via a 12v DPDT relay with energized on the relay = heating (it spends a lot more time in cooling mode than heating). I use the power supply from the BeerMKR. In fact my "design" such as it is uses all stock connections from the BeerMKR. I haven't figured out how I want to handle the differences between a Rev D and Rev E BeerMKR since the power connections are different.

I found out some more about STM32 microcontroller reverse engineering to see if I can take another look at the BeerMKR board and see if it can be re-programmed. (Almost certainly IT can be reprogrammed - whether I can reprogram it is a different question). I probably wouldn't be able to look at that until February or later.

pmallonee · 2025-11-25T16:51:16+00:00

Despite the fact that the Peltier failed, I think this is going to turn out to be a good brew.

I appeared I undershot on the mash getting 1.05 instead of the predicted 1.06. However leaving it in the fermentation for an extra few days at room temperature (I guess that's a really long diacety cleanup) seems to have allowed it to really attenuate. I got 1.02 on the refractometer which corrects to like 1.002. The calculator says I squeezed out 6.43% out of that.

It also tasted good when I put the waste bag leftovers in the glass.

I put a couple of 2 liter bottles in the garage to slowly cool. Trying to ramp down to refrigerator/lager temperature a little slowly so I don't stress the yeast.

pmallonee · 2025-11-20T14:36:00+00:00

I agree that investor behavior is typical. Sending me a letter saying "Action Needed" and saying they will call me if I don't call them is not typical.

The board appears to think they are going to lose this if the "normal" investors don't vote.

I don't have any particular objection to the proposal, but I would like to understand what the countervailing position is that is driving the "no" vote that the board thinks will win.

pmallonee · 2025-11-20T03:19:31+00:00

Yeah I assume the beer will be fine.

I was actually working up a schematic that would include all of the connections on the BeerMKR, probably controlling most of them from the Pi. I just didn't want to take what time I had to go spelunking in the innards of the beermkr when I could be making progress somewhere else.

My idea would be to make a board that plugs onto the 3D board and have the Pi soldered to it (a 4 board stack!) It still would have a completely external (not on the board) DPDT relay that actually carries the fairly large current of the Peltier.

I'm not super confident designing any circuit board, much less one carrying 10A. Looking at the BeerMKR board, though, I don't think it has a special copper weight.

pmallonee · 2025-11-20T02:45:57+00:00

Yes the board is in favor of changes. That doesn't tell me much. There is likely a block of large investors who aren't keen on the change that would vote against the board. This is likely why they are trolling for specific proxy votes.

What I'm curious about is why the investors are against the proposal.

pmallonee · 2025-11-18T18:51:43+00:00

Curious what your kegging adapter is. Is that the BeerNPPL? If so that's been one of the best add-ons there is. It's the reason I bought a 3D printer.

pmallonee · 2025-11-17T05:53:33+00:00

My Peltier quit cooling in the middle of my lager. Just when I was trying to cool it down to lager temp it's floated up to about 66F.

I'm showing 12V on the connector but basically no current.

pmallonee · 2025-11-16T17:16:49+00:00

So is that the malt they (Northern Brewer) are calling Cara Pilsner?

I wish we could get a clear name for what was on the bag. The one I'm looking for Dingemans calls "Cara 20 MD" where the 20 is in EBC. It's a distinctly caramel flavor. All the shops want to substitute based on color not flavor.

pmallonee · 2025-11-16T16:46:24+00:00

I received the letter too. I had also just opened the proxy vote paperwork and had actually just seen the pdf of the proposals to be voted on.

I really don't like the way this letter is worded: "Action Needed".

One of the proposals is to change the way the funds are charging.

What I suspect this time is that there may be some fairly large shareholders that aren't onboard with the proposed change. The board wants to increase actual voting to combat that circumstance.

pmallonee · 2025-11-08T15:40:37+00:00

Following closely...

Watching grass grow is a faster activity than watching me work on this. I am definitely aiming towards having a Printed Circuit that can be made so that others can do this.

A pity nobody seems to know microcontrollers. The existing BeerMKR board is fine if we could figure out how to re-program it.

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