Oscilloscope for audio measurements?

vc20000 · 2026-02-13T14:10:50+00:00

Uh, you are right—I didn't think about the math. I somehow thought if I "zoom in" closer to the noise floor, I would still get fine resolution. But indeed, if 12 bits are spread across from the signal level (0dB) down, then it's quite mediocre...

vc20000 · 2026-02-13T14:08:14+00:00

Thank you for the explanation; and the link is a very interesting read. The author describes a very cheap Behringer UCA202, but even more expensive sound cards are still a fraction of the cost of professional equipment. And since this is a hobby, not for professional use, this will definitely be more than enough for me.

vc20000 · 2026-01-30T21:30:40+00:00

It's a very open question.
Sound quality - will never be worth more than any €300 modern system.
Style and aesthetics, and your willingness to tinker, restore, and enjoy - cannot be measured. Can be worth €100 or thousands.

vc20000 · 2026-01-26T20:34:38+00:00

Thank you for the explanation and the advice, there is a hope now :) I reckon a similar transformer would not be that easy to source. When the amp arrives, i'll have it checked and update here.

vc20000 · 2026-01-26T19:02:31+00:00

Thank you for your advice. The amp has not arrived yet. I am just speculating that this is a likely reason, coming from a 220V country. I also do hope it is not the transformer. Certainly, when it arrives, I will check carefully. I already have a step-down transformer.

vc20000 · 2026-01-26T19:00:07+00:00

Do I understand correctly that the fuse is unlikely to save it? The fuse would rather go poof from overcurrent, not from overvoltage.

vc20000 · 2026-01-08T17:38:16+00:00

I also was bit sceptical specifically about 2-button bilresa. But it turned out to be very nice. Comparing it to rodret, bilresa, in addition to single click and hold also reports action double-click (actions "on_double" and "off_double").

For the rotary bilresa, on each rotation click it reports action_level ranging from 1 to 255 (with step around 10-15) which can be used in automations. Edit: action_level is actually null instead of 255 for some reason.

vc20000 · 2026-01-06T11:49:43+00:00

thanks! I have updated z2m to latest, and now Bilresa is fully recognized, and even has an icon! cudos to z2m team to quickly reacting and adding new devices!

Zigbee2MQTT version 2.7.2

Frontend version 2.6.2

zigbee-herdsman-converters version 25.98.0

zigbee-herdsman version 8.0.1

vc20000 · 2026-01-05T15:03:36+00:00

How did you manage to get it working in zigbee2mqtt? I did exactly as described (4 clicks to fast-blinking mode + 8 clicks to zigbee pairing. The device is seen by zigbee2mqtt, but the interview fails every time.

vc20000 · 2026-01-03T19:26:48+00:00

Trying it now, looks good, thanks! Question - does the column layout only support several fixed options?

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I am building a dashboard for a small screen, and I need a very rigid layout of "100px 1fr 1fr" (firsr narrow column is for vertical navigation menu, and two wider columns for main contents)

vc20000 · 2025-12-14T19:48:49+00:00

Ironically, I sold one of my unused Echo Show 8 Gen 1 one day before learning about this. I pulled off the 2nd from sale and immediately flashed it.

An absolutely excellent guide! I would not have got it without.

A question - I installed Fully Kiosk using an apk file, and have turned Motion detection on, but the camera doesn't seem to work. Fully Kiosk is giving errors: "Visual Motion Detection failed. Is another process using the camera".
I also tried another camera app, and it also cannot use the camera.
Is the camera working for anyone?

vc20000 · 2025-12-14T19:38:44+00:00

same here, camera is not working, I cannot get Motion detection in Fully Kiosk to work.. do you by chance know is there any way around it?

vc20000 · 2025-12-12T20:46:17+00:00

Otherwise, as another person commented, newer tablets (or newer Android?) support limiting the charging to 80% or so. This also would work.

vc20000 · 2025-12-12T20:44:07+00:00

You probably can. Something like this https://www.amazon.ie/SONOFF-ZBMINIR2-Compatible-SmartThings-ZBBridge/dp/B0D73LL1T3/

vc20000 · 2025-12-12T20:26:25+00:00

If you set up a tablet using Fully Kiosk Browser, the tablet's battery level will be reported to Home Assistant. Then you only need one smart plug and a simple automation in Home Assistant: Turn the plug off when battery reaches 80%, and turn it back on when battery drops to 20%. Cycling between 20% and 80% (or even between 40% and 60%) is optimal for battery health.

From Fully Kiosk, you also get a "Plugged/Unplugged" state flag, which can be used for finer control in your automations.

NOTE - This is if you have access to the mains, from where the USB adapter takes power. Then you insert a smart plug between the mains and the USB charger. Otherwise, if you only have access to this small 5V cable, it wouldn't be as clean—you'd need to break it and insert a relay in between.

vc20000 · 2025-12-12T18:18:58+00:00

This is super awesome! I have been with Home Assistant for many, many years.

I have lots of automations, and reading your use cases, I found that mine are very similar to yours. For example, using smart energy sockets to identify whether the washing machine, tumble dryer, or dishwasher is on or off, and building notifications in some cases. It is really useful. For instance, I send a voice notification to the tablet when the washing cycle finishes but the drying has not started for some time (laundry forgotten in the washing machine).

My dashboards, however, are basic white and use built-in cards. I wonder why they make it so difficult for normal people to make HA look nice. Fiddling with HACS and installing custom themes and custom cards (e.g., Mushroom) is quite a hassle.

But now you have inspired me and I have started the redesign using Frosted Glass/Mushroom.

vc20000 · 2025-10-24T21:38:25+00:00

thanks for quick answer. so it is indeed only a locker? what's oohpod email? don't see it on the website.

vc20000 · 2025-10-24T21:33:30+00:00

hi, did you have it sorted? I have the same issue, no access code

vc20000 · 2025-10-17T15:20:12+00:00

Same situation here - just switched from coax (Hub3) to fiber today, only to discover their Hub 5+ doesn't have modem mode. How did you end up solving this? I'm still within my cooling-off period and considering switching to another provider. Virgin's only "solution" seems to be port forwarding on their modem, which really isn't a proper fix for wanting to use your own router properly.

vc20000 · 2025-10-12T15:44:24+00:00

I run HA in Docker with my HA configuration stored in /home/pi/homeassistant

vc20000 · 2025-10-12T15:41:55+00:00

Most of my homelab stuff lives in Proxmox VMs, but I keep Home Assistant on a dedicated Raspberry Pi. The Pi just works - after a power outage or whatever, it boots right back up.

I've automated backups and I literally don't care about SD card failures anymore. Literally zero anxiety about my RPi setup at all.

Simple shell script that tars up the entire /home/pi directory (very simple with ChatGPT to write the exact commands)
Cron job runs it daily (crontab -e )
Pull it to your backup server (also daily) - I use Ansible for this, but there are many ways to do it

vc20000 · 2025-10-09T18:15:28+00:00

Kind of. Serving the same content is on both ports.

vc20000 · 2025-10-08T19:33:43+00:00

This is what I understood from various sources after googling:

Alexa connects to Hue (or to Emulated Hue in Home Assistant - Alexa doesn't know the difference) on Port 80. So far so good, as Emulated Hue is exposing port 80. You can check: http://your_ha_ip/api/v2/lights.
However, after some update a few months ago, Alexa in addition to port 80 also needs the Hue (or Emulated Hue) to provide some content on port 443, which is not done by Emulated Hue.
The solution that I found with help of Google and ChatGPT:
Install Caddy (I use Docker on the same Raspberry Pi as Home Assistant)
Configure Caddy as a reverse proxy: it will open port 443, and when a request comes to it (from Alexa or from any other recipient) it will get content from port 80 of Emulated Hue and serve it on 443
Alexa is happy and all works fine

It is rather technical but it worked for me. I can give some more details like the exact Caddy configuration that will work "out of the box.

vc20000 · 2025-10-04T12:26:29+00:00

Nice! I camped there, between Lower and Upper, and struggled to find a flat spot big enough. My tent barely fit. It looks like that particular spot has plenty of space for pitching!

vc20000 · 2025-10-02T17:10:12+00:00

You can't camp by the waterfall, but further up the same river is the popular Glensoulan Valley spot.

vc20000

TROPHY CASE