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FYI Toolstation currently/still has the hot-water-controlling-model for 10 quid cheaper https://www.toolstation.com/tado0-wireless-smart-thermostat-starter-kit-v3-with-hot-water-control/p73699 (which is what I recently puchased along with 2x 4-pack TRV valves... 1 of the 4-pack didn't arrive so had to buy a 3-pack instead... so will have 7 smart valves. Still waiting on the plumber for the upstairs TRV "upgrades")

Here's my part of the IoT thread for it: https://www.lfgss.com/comments/16775467/

Thanks. It all went swimmingly for some reason, TRV pins were alright. And apparently Toolstation is now out of stock on the 4-pack Smart TRVs so they sent me 4, not 8... (Had to order a 3-pack from amazon, which is fine)

The programmer install part took about an hour, luckily the wiring diagram was spot-on with our old Honeywell (just the wires were swapped L-R, and bottom-up entry...) I resisted the urge to install the device upside-down and installed it slightly on top of the old "hole". I now have a third-covered 1-gang-sized hole (single core cables come from there, construction vibes) on which I will get and cut a blanking plate to fit, tomorrow.

TRV install was a bit faffy to begin with but got the hang of it after the first two.

Not to be off topic: Home Assistant immediately detected both the cloudy-Tado and the Homekit-tado, setup was easy. Didn't like the Tado UI but it'll do I guess. Still have to convince my SO to install the app.

much awesome

61 Fox
62 Klar
63 ojwithbits
64 ruserius
65 disq

Speaking of, picked up Tado’s today after being bothered with various heating shanenigans past few weeks. Toolstation had a slightly better deal than Amazon, ordered Programmer with hot water (we’re a “Y plan” apparently) + wireless thermo and 8x smart TRVs. Will DIY the install but still need somebody to replace some valves later on (probably next week) as rooms upstairs plus my office are all dumb valves. Can’t be sure how well my current TRVs work, might need some fiddling. Hope it goes ok.

Looks like it would run nicely off an esp8266 and and WLED

Yeah I missed the whole WLED thing (and ESP world) and went straight to getting it done with what I know and like. Will order a WLED-compatible board or two and take a look.

So I've been working on the backlighty things for the past 2 nights, an update.

Had to start yet another led control project: https://github.com/disq/ledcontrol

The code took about half a day to figure out all the various options/libraries/frameworks and choose one, then about a day to actually write it, most of it started from few examples and tweaked and then rewritten/refactored.

Despite being prepared with a 100W brick (5V/15A) the 151 leds take under couple of amps (1.65A or so) and can be fed from my docking station (expensive mistake?)... I'll just move it to the 6-port-charger and stash the brick for another LED project in the future.

Now I know this isn't really connected to the internet yet so technically off topic... Just waiting on HomeAssistant PC I got from teh eB**, about 50 quid for a Dell OptiPlex 3050, 4gig ram with 128gb ssd... Got another 4 gig and they're both supposed to arrive tomorrow. After the HA setup is done I'll work on getting that Pico W connected as a light or two.

I still need to tidy up the breadboard and redo it on a perfboard (or two, since my 7 YO wants one for himself now... which I should cap the brightness and cycle speed to avoid triggering any seizures) so that's another project. Started a PCB on EasyEDA but hated it, perfboard will have to do I guess.

Yesterday I was browsing the internet for a "backlight" to reflect off the wall (it will show the fugly/floral wallpaper though, so it will only alleviate the physical eye strain of working in the dark)

It went like this...

4.30pm: "It's gotten so dark so early. I need a backlight."

• IKEA tertial lamp. Hang on, I don't have an edge to clamp that on that side of the desk to be useful. It's not on sale except on IKEA, or some $$$ ebay sellers
  
• Better/longer clampy-clamp lamp to mount at the back. No, it will conflict with the monitor arms
  
• A lamp with a stand. I can hide the stand behind my oscilloscope (which sits at a 30 degree angle to my right) but didn't like the stands
  
• Philips Hue Play projectory things. Hmm it's reduced price at BezoShop.
  
• Used Philips Hue Play x5 set + HDMI box on eBayou. I could use the first 3 with the box in the living room (had enjoyed an ambilight TV in a past life) and take the other 2 to mount behind the monitor. Alas the bidding starts at 200 quid and will go on for a week, probably won't get it.
  
• Hmm a double pack Philips Hue Play projectory thing is cheap on eBayou.
  
• But it will be limited and looks like single colour on each "thing".
  
• Ooh Pimoroni has nice LED strips. And they've released a new 2040-based-RasPico-like-LED-controller (Plasma 2040)
  
• Let's measure a rectangle behind the monitor. 165cm, ok.
  
• 144 LEDs per metre... That would give me 240 individual LEDs to play with
  
• Each "pixel" would draw up to 60mA, but the USB-C can supply only 3A. Would need a PSU
  
• Oooh look at this 5V 15A power brick over on BezoShop. Not that expensive, not that large...
  
• Why do I need the "Plasma" 2040 if I'm supplying the power with a brick anyway, could easily do that with a bog standard Pico or Pico W
  
• Let's order 5x Pico W (I have 3 Picos already, but would need those for the eventual HA integration), few bits and bobs and 2 x 144 Pixel 1 meter strips... 100 quid, ok.
  
• 1 am, in bed: Researching AWG calculations with phone brightness at 1%. Giving up and ordering 18AWG (copper/silicone obvs), planning to do multiple power runs to separate parts of the strip, with a single signal wire.
  
  

It will probably fail in flames and I'll end up paying for that double pack Hue LED thing in the end.

moved to IoT thread

ASHP people, did you go and replace all the radiators and piping throughout the house?

Nice, I filled the form and supplied them with the required photos.

Just moved to Somerset and the 20yo boiler might need replacing soon anyway. Also removing the boiler would open up a whole wall in the utility room as it's situated bang in the middle of the said wall.

76projects "hi flow no clog" valves - there's no core to take out but it seemed to seat the (previously used/stretched for 1500km, GP5000S TR 28mm) tires very easily with the track pump. Didn't try to inject the sealant thru the valve, I could, but as long as the tire seats this easily there's no need to faff around and risk a mess.

Just make sure the valve is at the high position if you're bleeding air from a high pressure, "hi flow no clog" also means hi flow of sealant.

Anybody else (other than last page) with the new Silca "ultimate" sealant yet? I ordered few bottles last week but after reading the thread in weightweenies (summary: apart from the now-fixed manufacturing errors in the first batches, apparently it may eat your rim tape...) I might just stick to Stans Race. I don't have exposed nipples (good to know) nor the need for rim tape but I'm not about to use multiple sealants/brands depending on which wheel I'm pouring it in.

1x. It's the camera towards the centre. Maybe they changed the order the cameras are placed in the module.

Ditto on the Pro 2's, much improved vs. the first gen, really glad I got them.

On my 14 Pro I turned off the always-on-screen because of multiple reasons, battery etc, but the main one being it's easy to fumble when holding it (ie. while walking around the house) to accidentally trigger some action (on a notification/camera/flashlight). Also, since I have a few Hue bulbs I use the flashlight a lot (lol) and there seems to be a delay in accessing the quick flashlight button in the lock screen when the screen is always on.

My main gripe with the 14 Pro so far (got the purple one on release day, so almost 3 weeks now) is, I seem to be getting finger-photos quite a bit and I have to move my finger/readjust before taking a quickie (trying out a new word...). Somehow the way I hold the phone has changed (vs the 12 Pro), or maybe it's the wider cameras/camera arrangement. or maybe it's the updated/thinner quad lock case.

Here's a link I've previously bookmarked from one of the other threads: https://www.lfgss.com/comments/15935659/

Samsung washing machine owners: does your control/child lock function lock the power button?

Just checked. It doesn't...

Nice. Let me know how you get on. Love mine.

Just got a pack of XT9s delivered. What a welcome change from the usual crap (and what a breeze to set up). Minimum 300mbps in every room, with some rooms (next to the nodes) up to 700. That's what my line is capped to.

This is with wireless backhaul.

2x Mikrotik Audience APs were delivered yesterday, 3 radios and 2 gigabit ports each

After messing with the network for 3 days (including paying a tenner to someone on Fiverr for support, who took about 4 hours in voice calls and teamviewer) I decided to get the ASUS XT8's and return these. VLAN setup was completed but the rates dropped significantly, and apparently there are multiple ways to it and not all of them work in all scenarios/devices. Few minutes ago I finally removed the VLAN things, everything is bridged again -- not bad in terms of speed, but not great either.

After messing with unstable powerline adapters ("gigabit", but they kept dropping and needed power cycling mostly because they're old...) finally decided to get something shiny for the new house. 2x Mikrotik Audience APs were delivered yesterday, 3 radios and 2 gigabit ports each. Turns out the "sync" button isn't really plug and play, it just adds a few sec profiles and syncs them across. The rest of it still needs configuring. Took a bit to understand and was a faff, but now all the wifi configs are managed by CAPsMAN and the speed is at least at the same level as when I was using the unstable powerline. Spent more time this morning switching all the IOT things to its own SSID again. I still need to make it its own little network, currently everything is bridged together... Then I can tell the FTTH-ISP to turn off their unmanagable wifi and switch it to DMZ.

Floor laying today (and part of yesterday)

Looks nice. Did you go all the way behind the cupboards to the wall and just leave under the dishwasher, or does it end just behind the plinth? How are you getting on with integrated underlay / what's the green stuff / what does the room have under that?

I need to bite the bullet and start on our living room as the carpet is extra smelly from the 3 dogs of the previous owner, plus leaving it sorta damp for 2 weeks between the unexpectedly wet cleaning and the moving.

Also I immediately checked Evocore Premium prices once more, thinking it would come to cheaper than the Karndean Korlok RKP8111 we have our eyes on, but to my suprise the Evocore premium range is more expensive for some reason...

https://www.ftadviser.com/your-industry/2022/09/23/mini-budget-ir35-will-be-repealed-from-april/ hmmm I don't know what this means

Today I upgraded the cooker hood lights from 20W halogens to 1.3W LEDs (110cm hood so 4 bulbs). Which involved replacing the light transformer with a LED driver, running down a new cable harness and replacing the light modules. Going down from 80 watts (one of the bulbs was out, so it was 60W in my case) to 5.2W feels good. The manufacturer offers an upgrade kit so it was simple (and a bit costly at 60 quid...). Used a gear cable to feed the new harness.

The door has some serious spring on it. I assume to take the additional panel weight

Yes, that tension without the panel has so far lead to a few small accidents and a broken coffee mug.

Looks a lot like our new machine, but not the exact model (because I have something else on step 7... SN85TX00CE )

I agree that the instructions suck. I didn't attempt fully integrating it yet, as I was just able to source a matching front panel/door for it yesterday. We've been using it dangerously for the past month...

From the golf club thread: New house has different accomodations for different hot water taps. What should I do to get maximum hot water pressure (in the 2 bathrooms) with minimum energy use?

Hot water taps are connected to the hot water tank, fed by the boiler. The main bathroom has an extra electric shower unit (in/around the tub) while the taps (flowing into the tub) are connected to the hot water tank. So previous owners essentially wanted to add shower functionality to the bathtub, but instead of changing out the taps to accomodate for dual-mode operation they got an electric water heater installed (which works, but the pressure sucks). The boiler is at the end of its 25 year life, but still works for now.

My ideal situation is having high, high hot water pressure with overhead (£40k?) rain shower in both bathrooms. Should I just put up with it now, and when it's time to replace the boiler in a few years, just abandon the water tank(s) for instant gas-heated water and change the main bathroom taps? Or is there a quick fix I can do in the meantime? Maybe the ~25 year old boiler can be converted to provide instant hot water, now?