-rick-
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Everything posted by -rick-
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Sensible choice for multiway relay PCBs
-rick- replied to MortarThePoint's topic in Networks, AV, Security & Automation
Stop looking at aliexpress/ebay. Start looking at CPC/RS/Rapid/TLC-direct/CEF. More expensive but no worries about certification and going to be at least reasonable quality Exactly. Presume you are installing something you want to last and not require constant fiddling. In which case get something from known sources that your electrican is comfortable with. Even if you do want to constantly fiddle, I'd guess fiddling with the software/end result side of things rather than replacing iffy parts is where you want to spend your time. But you said you can design PCBs? Even if you buy one off the shelf. Options exist: https://paradar.co.uk/products/owl-driver-board-raspberry-pi-automotive-relay-hat?variant=55334464618879 (not keen on form factor) Things like this is another option: https://revolutionpi.com/en/ Look at latching relays. Requires more IO/drivers but no consumption during use. Still I will go back to my original point. If you are going to the effort of a custom system why not look at using off the shelf dimmer modules that you can control via the Pi? Plenty of options. Yes more costly than buying iffy stuff from AliExpress but a long term solution that offers way more flexibility than simple relays. -
Have to say that DNS being the cause of this surprised me a bit, despite 'it's always DNS' being a thing that people put on t-shirts. Was expecting it to be more NAT/firewall stuff. In any case, i expect cloudflare will be faster than almost anything else. Because a huge chunk of webtraffic flow through them anyway, using their DNS can often speed things up vs slow it down. 9.9.9.9 is another service thats worth looking at (Google Quad9) Both cloudflare and Quad9 offer filtered 'safe' versions (using different addresses) that might be preferable to use if you have kids.
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Sensible choice for multiway relay PCBs
-rick- replied to MortarThePoint's topic in Networks, AV, Security & Automation
If youve gone to the effort of star wiring I'm surprised you aren't looking at dimmers rather than pure relays. Having said that, if you want to use relays have you looked at how the europeans do it? They just have extra rows in the CU and have DIN mounted relays. Given we are in the UK and our regs I wouldn't want to try and put this in the same CU. But using DIN rail mounted relays would be the safest choice for electrician sign off I would have thought. Plus points that each relay is in a socket so can be individually changed if they suffer early death. Pricer than just a PCB but still a professional type job. You can get raspberry Pis mounted in DIN rail cases too for the extra professional look. Edit: Raspberry Pi would need relay drivers if you do it this way, so either you get the DIN packaged versions that have this already or design your own HAT for it. -
Just to eliminate the obvious when you've encountered this issue have you rebooted both the router and your phone/device?
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Wiring for under cabinet lighting in kitchen
-rick- replied to Tony K's topic in Electrics - Kitchen & Bathroom
Not an electrician but looks like the insulation is damaged and theres signs of heat damage so at the very least you need to cut back and remake the ends. I don't believe there is an issue continuing to use this older cable so long as the pvc is sound and flexible. If it's cracking when you move it then no. -
Yeah, that for a lot of things relied on being one of a small number in the niche across the EU single market. We left that and those manufacturers suddenly have a much harder time competing with the other EU companies, while at the same time Chinese companies are also coming in to compete in the same areas. No, though I think there is opportunity with modern, low labour, manufacturing methods that we will likely mostly miss because other western countries are just more attractive. Theres still a plan to get HVDC setup to Morocco to get access to cheap solar exports though. https://xlinks.co/morocco-uk-power-project/ Africa is a long long way away from being able to compete there. Too many different countries, too much inter country strife. India is the next China. Not sure about Africa but with the more recent AMOC data seems quite likely this country will become much less plesant to live in within that timescale meaning that even if future governments do everything right we are still likely to be poorer and less populated than now. Hope that mainly bites after I'm dead though.
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ELV (24v dc) and barriers/obstacles for safety.
-rick- replied to jimseng's topic in Regulations, Training & Qualifications
Not sure about that but I do know that PoE cabling has been added to the 4th amendment of the 18th edition (current) electrical regs. Which strikes me as an overreach, are data installers going to need to become qualified electricians now? -
Careful where you might end up...
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Everything I'm seeing suggests that the world has changed somewhat over the last 4 months or so, so if you haven't tried with codex 5.3/opus 4.6 then you might have the wrong mental model of where things are.
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Anthropic just announced a big increase in number of tokens included in their subscriptions. OpenAIs codex is already generous (apparently). So maybe worth another look. Seen plenty of people talking about techniques for minimizing token usage. This is the thing that confuses me the most about your plan (not that you have told us much detail). Home Assistant can already do this can't it? (some features need a live cloud connection but some don't IIRC). Even if the operational side of your plan needs a local LLM, the coding/development aspect is one of the hardest aspects of LLM use that the frontier providers are better at. So your best value for money might be using them to do the development and then using a smaller, less memory hungry local llm to do the basic daily interactions. (Should be possible to design it so it can call out to a bigger subscription model for 'hard' problems). Having said all that, if you are enjoying the process, have the spare money for the hardware then do what makes you happy.
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That's it, I've had enough. I'm buying an electric wheelbarrow
-rick- replied to ToughButterCup's topic in Tools & Equipment
Congrats. Work smarter not harder! Always surprised when I see people manual handling relatively large amounts of stuff when there is a machine that can be easily hired/bought and can do the job in a fraction of the time. Sure, money is a factor but in so many cases using the machine works out cheaper even if you don't value your time/health. -
Given the craziness around AI it wouldn't surprise me if someone bought this, especially if the new M5 models are delayed/limited availability.
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Steel Single Spine Staircase worries
-rick- replied to crispy_wafer's topic in General Structural Issues
Text based communication makes it harder to get intent across. In this case I'd say your post did not land well. Having the first response to a 'help i may be in a sticky situation' post be 'well if you'd had made different decisions 2-3 years ago you wouldn't be in this sticky situaion' is particularly unhelpful. -
Changeover switches reccomendations (and what do the regs say)
-rick- replied to jimseng's topic in Photovoltaics (PV)
It's related to gaps surrounding the module. The regs tightened up the rules around what you can fit in a domestic CU and the effect is that most sparks won't want to fit anything that isn't certified by the manufacturer as compatible/suitable for use with that specific CU. -
Changeover switches reccomendations (and what do the regs say)
-rick- replied to jimseng's topic in Photovoltaics (PV)
Then you'd need to either use a matching brand/spec transfer switch that's certified for the same CU or have a sparky that's willing the do the risk assessment and put his/her name to the safety of the third party switch. I'd guess a separate enclosure would be easier. Once you do that, there are multiple options of pre-packaged solutions available. More expensive sure, but all-in-one and likely easy to get the sparky comfortable with. https://www.cef.co.uk/catalogue/products/1780374-63a-2p-surface-mounting-3-position-changeover-switch-ip65 -
How are we heating this, plus hot water.
-rick- replied to Russell griffiths's topic in General Self Build & DIY Discussion
Was thinking far more of guests arriving and wanting to jump in the shower. Agree A2A is fine if the room is cold/hot on arrival. -
There are plenty of integrated combi microwaves that don't come with a plug/need a 16A circuit. Just seems a bit odd to need the circuit for a much lower draw pure microwave, but not need it for a high draw integrated washer dryer or similar. I wonder if it's because you work in a lot of higher end homes where the microwave is usually an oven as well and so it's become standard practice amongst your sparks to do that rather than regs?
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😆 Edition (of the regs). I'm curious of the reason too. Built in microwaves are more likely to be combination units (with oven as well) and microwaves are also relatively inefficient so they consume a lot more than the output power rating might suggest. But still, if it's not a combi then its continuous draw shouldn't be much different than a powerful kettle. (I can't think of a use case for a microwave that demands full power for more than a few minutes).
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How are we heating this, plus hot water.
-rick- replied to Russell griffiths's topic in General Self Build & DIY Discussion
You obviously need a local override. Less smart options exist (keycard switch that only provides power when the room is occupied, or 24hr timers that need activating on first occupation but both of these may lead to no hot water on first occupation). Depends on occupancy. If you manage to be near fully booked then sure. If it's intermittent then could be quite expensive for uninsulated huts. -
How are we heating this, plus hot water.
-rick- replied to Russell griffiths's topic in General Self Build & DIY Discussion
Agree with all the above. A2A + immersion. But also, make sure you put in some easy way to only have the heating active when let (but also that the cabin is warm/hot water available when the next customer arrives). Maybe the whole cabin supplied through a contactor that has some smart controller on it then sync that controller up to your bookings system. (Sounds complicated but probably not if you use something like https://ifttt.com/) -
We do have rules about firing workers to replace them with cheaper ones. Things like TUPE. But our current breed of politicians tend to focus on the wrong things and AI regulation has been low on their list. Especially since Trump got elected as they seem particularly wary of doing anything that might upset him and the tech industry makes sure he knows about anything they don't like coming from us.
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MacOS will use less than 4GB IIRC. But decent LLMs are very memory hungry so I think @Pocster was more focussed on the RAM needed by the LLM not the OS. The smallest 'useful' models might be 16GB and then you need a ton more for context windows + LV cache. These models will still be far behind anything from the main commercial providers. More memory = better model + more context.
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I'm not an electrician but something I've seen elsewhere is to not install any rings. Make them all radials. Might be a bit more expensive in wiring (4mm vs 2.5mm) or from having 2x20A radials vs 1x32A ring but makes testing and future changes simple.
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When did this come in? In my flat the integrated microwave is fed via a fused isolater off the 32A ring. Does the fused isolater count as a dedicated circuit in this case? * The microwave has a normal 13A plug on it
