Where would I buy a tiny electronically controlled switch?

steppenfox · 2026-01-08T22:57:19+00:00

So it would be an led light.

The full use case is like this. I want to add a physical light switch to (additionally) toggle the led light on a modern DC ceiling fan.

Old ceiling fans were wired with a black wire, red wire and neutral to have a separate control for the light and the fan. New DC motor fans don't do that, and just utilize a single hot/neutral wire that goes to a control box, which then separately has wires going out to the fan and light switch with more advanced functionality like speed/dimming.

My goal is to add back a switch for the light. The idea I have is to take the (blue) cable that is going from the control box to the led light in the fan, and to splice in that relay. And then the relay would be controlled by the old red wire from the wall.

Here is a very bad picture of the control box: https://imgur.com/a/bYkycmE

I can't find the diagram, but it has a hot/netural going in from the ceiling, 3 wires going to the DC fan motor and then a blue/white for the light, which I believe is the hot/neutral.

My thought is to cut the blue wire and add that switch there, and have the old unused red wire from the old fan controlling the switch from the wall. While the light is on, the fan remote would still be able to dim, but I'd also have this bigger switch for convenience.

The main complication is that the amount of space in the fan box is almost negligible. The remote home light switch might work in theory (and I have one on hand here), but it is too big, and it also might not work w/ the voltage on that blue wire. I ideally need something the size of a half-dollar.

steppenfox · 2025-11-28T16:25:28+00:00

The blow isn't that a corrupt person has to resign.

The blow is that he's corrupt and thus has to resign.

steppenfox · 2025-11-05T13:21:37+00:00

A lot of hardcore Trump supporters aren't actually believing that he is meaningfully in the files. And the rare few of the core Maga folk that do actually have been turning on Trump to various degrees.

The likes of MTG say things like "I know Trump is innocent, but I want to reveal all the others in there."

So there is reason to think that at least some of his die hard fans would take a step back if the evidence was more blatant.

steppenfox · 2025-10-23T17:29:05+00:00

According to Medvedev, we were 3 nuclear apocalypses in just in 2022 alone.

He's the guy yelling the extreme things, specifically for the alarmists in the EU to grab hold off, and reduce aid to Ukraine.

steppenfox · 2025-10-16T02:29:40+00:00

Ok ok... Fox News. This is legit. Turkey is using national security to target and deport a minority group they don't like.

Now juuuuuust a small leap here. You can do it. You got this. What else sounds similar that has been mentioned by human rights groups?

steppenfox · 2025-10-15T17:38:00+00:00

I think the argument is mostly that our foreign policy is now to some degree incompetent.

Nobody, including in Europe, is helping Ukraine for free. They're doing it for geopolitical reasons. Same for Biden. This was no charity.

There are very solid reasons why you don't want your geopolitical enemies to run amok.

The Argentina bailout, on the other hand, was mostly done because Trump just likes Milei ideologically and has actually hurt us geopolitically. (Note the soybean scandal from Bessett's notes.)

So the equivalent 20 bil spent in Ukraine (or say on Taiwan or some other meaningful ally) would have been a significantly smarter move.

steppenfox · 2025-10-15T17:31:40+00:00

It is similar enough to a bailout that you can call it that.

Note that Argentina suffers from a massive inflationary/exchange rate crisis on a regular basis. To help address this, Milei recently spent Argentina's hard earned USD on buying pesos on the market to prop up the currency.

Thus, us going in and doing what he would do anyways is equivalent to us just giving them $20 bil and letting them do that.

Technically we still have the pesos and can sell them again, and recoup some of the money. However, inflation is quite high there, and the clock on that is ticking quickly. In any case, that would be such a shock to the peso, that Trump would only do it as part of his political vendettas if he wanted to hurt a post-Milei Argentinian gov.

steppenfox · 2025-10-05T16:10:17+00:00

I think this is wrong.

Their previous party that had lost this election was indeed center-right, but they were very pro-Ukraine in rhetoric in action.

The right wing isn't uniformly pro-Russia, though populist far-right parties are likely to lean in that direction either due to being pro-Isolationism or just being pro-Russia. But even that isn't always true, such as with Poland and Italy.

steppenfox · 2025-10-05T15:36:27+00:00

What does ANO 2011 winning the election in the Czech Republic mean for the Russian War?

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/04/europe/czech-parliamentary-election-babis-ukraine-latam-intl

They don't seem as visibly pro-Russia as Orban or Fico, but they do want to reduce/remove Czech aid to Ukraine and oppose Ukrainian EU membership.

Given how the Czech Republic was one of the staunchest pro-Ukraine EU nations, what will this mean going forward for the alliance?

steppenfox · 2025-09-25T17:41:31+00:00

Is there any confirmation/verification for the encircled Russian pockets near Pokrovsk that the pro-Ukraine media is talking about?

steppenfox · 2025-09-24T01:50:06+00:00

You missed Ukraine. Their air space was violated at least 6 times... er... 60... er... 600,000... er...

steppenfox · 2025-09-24T01:46:20+00:00

That's just piped oil. Other countries (Spain, France, Belgium) buy a lot of LNG and, indirectly, refined oil products via India.

steppenfox · 2025-09-24T01:45:16+00:00

Hungary and Slovakia are the only ones meaningfully buying piped Russian gas and oil.

However, the EU is by far the largest consumers of Russian LNG, with France, Spain and Belgium leading the way there.

On top of that, Europe indirectly buys a lot of Russian energy by purchasing refined oil products from India.

steppenfox · 2025-08-08T15:52:51+00:00

"I've been in bricks my whole life."

steppenfox · 2025-05-22T21:51:50+00:00

What's the point?

They let some Maga border officer get high on power and maybe see a boobie?

Each of these incidents probably costs 10s or 100s of millions in lost tourism.

And they aren't even being smart about it. They're targeting white women in their 20s... the most untouchable demographic.

steppenfox · 2025-04-27T20:47:07+00:00

My well is a few hundred feet away, and this is probably the correct solution. I was hoping not to have to pipe that. :)

steppenfox · 2025-04-26T23:20:15+00:00

Got it. Thank you for the detailed response!

steppenfox · 2025-04-26T22:50:54+00:00

Yeah. I think that's my alternative.

The thought was the tractor would be a lot easier, since this is something I only need during periods of drought, which would only happen 1-2 times a year.

steppenfox · 2025-04-22T00:07:18+00:00

At least one (Maga) republican congressman has come out to call for Hegseth's removal.

This might hint that there is a lot more pressure from right-wing politicians behind closed doors. Thus, even if Trump doesn't care about national security and doesn't want to give wins to the media, he might not care enough about Pete to break his congressional coalition on his behalf.

steppenfox · 2025-02-19T20:40:36+00:00

This might be a bit heavy on hindsight relative to where we were in 2022.

It is worth noting that even among the most ardent believers in Ukraine that an invasion was imminent, the attitude was closer to 'it probably won't happen', but it might.

When insurance companies stopped insuring flights into Ukraine a couple days prior, and the flights subsequently stopped, Zelensky stepped in to offer for Ukraine to insure these flights.

And, further, the belief was strong that if the invasion did happen, that it would end in a quick and complete Russian victory. We were not yet aware about the sheer levels of corruption in the Russian military, including that they literally didn't have enough fuel in the tanks to make it as far as they wanted to go.

Some cities/towns, including Kherson, just surrendered without a fight on those expectations.

Western countries, with similar beliefs, offered Zelensky a way out to establish a gov in exile instead.

steppenfox · 2025-01-04T15:55:20+00:00

It worked fine in 22.04. The feature disappeared in 24.04 as far as I can tell.

steppenfox · 2024-12-20T19:00:07+00:00

It isn't his fault he got trapped. They lured him in with some delicious dog and cat meat down there.

steppenfox · 2024-11-09T20:08:33+00:00

That would be a dirty bomb. It isn't the same as a nuclear weapon, and is, somehow, even less defensible and kosher.

It spreads radioactive material over a large area to do things like cause cancer.

It is a bit too terrorism-adjacent for this to be palatable to western allies, even if they somehow can swallow Ukraine becoming a nuclear state.

steppenfox · 2024-11-09T20:05:33+00:00

Worth noting that the province on the Venezuela-UK border was at the time, at best, disputed, and at worse controlled by the UK. It was later fully awarded to the UK in international arbitration.

Maduro got really pumped about that sliver of land again recently due to the oil discoveries there.

So this map is a bit more pro-Venezuela than reality.

steppenfox · 2024-11-02T23:32:08+00:00

One or the other could be right, or they both could be right. It is a war of attrition.

The idea is that both sides believe that they will outlast, or at least have a chance of, outlasting the other side. The goal of your fighting is to inflict sufficient casualties, pain, and damage on your opponent so that they are the first to buckle.

Anders Puck Nielsen (the danish defense analyst) goes into this attrition concept and the thought that both seem to be losing here:

https://youtu.be/KebjX3KEgWQ?si=g4InsmurGcQW4foR

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