RatchetWerks

I’ve landed on Ubiquiti NVR systems. I previously used Frigate and VLANd reolinks.

Having a phone app to instantly view the cameras quickly (late at night) made the difference.

I’m love content like this. It reminds me of the mid-2000s era of the internet.

Is this “best” project I’ve seen? In terms of tech,quality,etc No. Neither are mine. This guy built a really fun project for his kids.

I love this. As AI slop gets increased, I hope that content like this starts to get filtered up to the world.

I also learned about a web-ring from his website. I think this is an artifact from the early Internet. I hope this gets more popular for website discovery reasons

https://webring.stavros.io/

Without a doubt it is GPS/GNSS systems.

If you look at the dependency chain to accomplish the task, it’s a true yardstick for any modern civilization,economy,nation.

https://www.ratchetwerks.com/ninja250

MechE things for the most part

Call me simple. I manually export CSV files from the finance companies. (Should automate this). Vibe coded a CSV parser that will auto categorize, sort all expenses/income. Expenses go in one sheet. Income goes in another. Pivot table renders the data.

I can track money spent and earned down to the penny.

Takes less than 20 mins a month to update/manage it. I actually enjoy having sit-down time to "do finances". Keeps me leveled, and forces me to think about how much money I spent and the value I gained from the expenses.

I have similar feelings as the author. I aim to be as public as possible while maintaining personal privacy. I *want* to meet other like-minded people that enjoy the same topics I do.

I treat any of my public facing information as a honeypot for nerds (i.e like-minded people). In real life, if I meet interesting people, I point them to my website. If they reach out with questions, I know I found "one of my people".

On a similar note, if I an idea, project or thought of mine could benefit someone else and allow them to learn and gain from it. I'd like to publish it with my privacy in mind.

I might be in the minority. But I actually like working at an office (or preferably hybrid).

At work, I work. At home, I do home things. When I work and home at the same place i find it very hard to switch into either mode.

This effect is greatly magnified when you have kids.

I worked remote for a bit , and my overall happiness levels increased when I started working at co-working space. Granted my commute is less than 15 min.

My gym schedule has improved since it’s on the way to the coworking space.

I think the best setup is hybrid IMO

I do wonder what’s preventing a Lidar device from cross talking with other lidar devices. I remember talking to somebody about this and they told me that each signal is uniquely encoded per machine.

This seems like it will be a growing problem with increased autonomy on the roads

I’ve been saying this for years! JS gets alot of hate for dependency hell.

Why?

It’s almost too easy to add one compared to writing your own functions.

Now compare that to adding a dependency to a c++ project

Good call! I’m purely in the idea phase, I will definitely take your advice as I get closer

I’ve been considering this for a while. I have a fence that is south facing, with no major obstructions.

I want solar but I don’t want the liability of a roof install with leaks and servicing.

I’ve landed either on a solar pergola or a solar fence . Both concepts seem like a no brainer.

I like the solar fence since it allows you to cleverly avoid setback requirements that normal structures have.

I’m glad people like Joey are doing projects like this.

I’m here to take advantage of it. I bought a 2022 Model Y performance. New price was 75k, used price 31k. Love the car. I plan on driving the wheels off it.

I’ve directly worked in this space. This article is pure tabloid-style reporting.

It sounds like they are testing prototypes, and it’s not ready for mass fielding. Nothing new here.

Access/permissions control in military applications is VERY different when compared to the consumer or B2B space.

It takes real field testing to figure what is best for the customer needs.

I’ve come to similar conclusions in vehicle choices.

Current daily is a fast EV. The next project car I build will be some flavor of an outlaw SWB 911

There is something about it being analog that feels great. I have the same feeling for older Ducatis

You are perfectly correct.

I’m morphing love of modifying cars away from performance numbers but into a way to build mechanical art and enjoy emotional moments with other humans.

I’ve realized that was the whole point all along. EV or IC it doesn’t matter. Just the statements above

As a die hard car enthusiast. This makes perfect sense.

We are going through a culture change in society.

Many younger kids don’t view cars as the gateway to freedom and coming of age experiences. (Which is fine)

Combined with the brutal performance of modern EV cars. Muscle cars seem like a waste of time/energy/money/complexity. Logically it makes no sense.

I’m currently going through an identity crisis (as a gearhead) as a result of this.

A VC fund selling “self-hosted” AI compute rigs was never on my bingo card.

I’m glad they did. It’s weird and different.

I'm in the minority here. I switched from list to hex. The hex allows for me to select X more apps versus scrolling down and looking for it. It was painful at first since I needed to remember what logos mapped to what app.

The US is somehow very ahead and very behind at the same time :)

Hmmmm. That’s is VERY odd. That links resolves fine in my phone . I’m US based. I wonder if they have some sort of geo blocking

According to the HVAC industry it is the correct term, based on my experience.

I agree with your logic both modes of operation (heat/cool) are both pumping heat.

Cripple is a fairly strong word here. HVAC is hyper optimized for cost/simplicity at the expense of comfort and efficiency. Which kills me. The industry is also stuck in the 80s in terms of power electronics. Variable speed control on the fans and compressors are a BIG deal. Like 20k for the gear. Even though the BOM cost is dirt cheap. Look at Carrier Infinity if you are curious

MANY Megawatts worth of power would be saved if they just included a directional valve, some speed control PCB and electronic expansion valve

Yes. I might be missing something obvious. Are we talking about the my link drive website? If so, yes. I clicked the link from my website and it took me straight to the website with no issue.

I might be misunderstanding something

Great question. The unit is pre charged for 25 feet of lineset . I was right at the limit for my install.

I installed the lines, did all the vacuum related work. Then just cracked the valve on the unit to distribute the refrigerant.

I had a bottle of refrigerant on standby from a buddy. Didn’t need to use it . I was going to get the EPA cert, if my buddy didn’t exist. I heard it’s super straightforward

It was already answered, but conventional AC systems have resistive heating elements which have a a max efficiency of 100 percent.

Heat pumps run an AC in reverse which can give a COP of 3-4. (300 to 400 percent efficiency)

or if actually burning fuel for heat. Could just remove the need for direct fuel burning altogether. Highly dependent on area, and associated costs. I recommend that you run the numbers for your area

I just checked the link. I believe it is correct. The domain name looks sketchy, but it has all the nitty gritty engineering data.

If I remember correctly, I think I found a link from the actual Mitsubishi website linking to it

I’m very happy others are documenting their heat pump installs.

It confirms three things for me.

1. Contractor quality is the biggest pain for the adoption of residential green tech.

2. Old homes (if not historic) should get depreciated aggressively by the market to the point that knock downs make sense. Japan does this.

3. DIY is has the hidden benefit of speed/quality/cost, since contractor pain is high. Yes, I understand the massive opportunity costs.

A friend of mine is trying to install a new central heat pump in their home. The only thing stopping them is contractors being hard to work with. Not price.

Here’s my DIY install.

https://www.ratchetwerks.com/heat-pump-mini-split-install

I personally use Amcrest, with the home router blocking internet access, and AI done via Frigate and a Google Coral chip.

Datpiff, I've noticed most Starbucks bias towards takeout orders these days. I do think that their indoor seating serves as the "top of the marketing" funnel, to get people to develop a brand preference. Without the 3rd place seating, it feels like green Dunkin Doughnuts.

Pvdoom, I completely agree. But it's VERY tough to ignore the real operating costs of keeping the space available. (I'm saying this as a former small business owner)

There are ways to fix these things, but it would be an unpopular opinion. Similar to the experience of exabrial's comment.

I noticed this too with my local Starbucks stores.

It seems boils down to revenue. If too many people sit down and use the area as a third place, then their revenue is capped if people stay too long.

Ideally it's should be a balance between customers and business. Go to the coffee shop, work for an hour then leave, to free up space.

I've also noticed they reduce seating to battle homeless folks from nesting in. It makes sense, I avoid stores if feel threatened from confrontational/aggressive people.

Everyone brought up really good points. My general logic is that the average American consumer gets a new car every 10 years just due to maintenance/service burden. You might as well get a "free" genset/powerwall upgrade with it anyways. The car should be viewed as an energy source that happens to move.

For me the powerwall only provides value when restoring/storing power, not for peak shaving. My logic is that eventually once all the legalities/orchestration is figured out. The net value on peak shaving will trend to zero.

Drive to work, plug into grid. You pay the grid for cheap "sun" power at work. While at work, your solar panels at home generate revenue by charging near by EV's via grid (or your second EV). Drive back home. Plug into house and supply the grid with power at night time.

PHEV's are an added bonus, since you can use it as a genset during extended power outage. If you want to go 100% "off the grid", then have 2 EV's that you cycle though. One that acts as storage/energy backup, other as a vehicle.