Heavybell

Heavybell , 2 days ago

The ATO's myTax system is pretty great, I hope with this you guys finally get something as nice.

Heavybell , 7 days ago

I see what you did with that title

Heavybell , 10 days ago

Outer Wilds, Subnautica, and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. Play them all, and don't look anything up, because the unfolding mystery is half the charm and you can never unknow it.

Heavybell , 12 days ago

Okay, so I personally don't care for tattoos or vapers? But everything else on this list is just mental illness on his part.

Heavybell OP , 14 days ago

I'm sorry to say I don't. :/ You can grab dev boards off aliexpress for cheap, and they're really easy to play with. Just connect the to your PC via USB to load your initial ESPHome script, and they spring to life. From there you can do basic testing, since they'll get power from the USB. It's just a matter of what you decide you want to hook up to them after that. I assume you're looking for like a hobby kit, like you can get for arduino boards? Something that comes with a bunch of LEDs and I2C components you can fiddle with? Unfortunately I don't know of any that come with ESP32 dev boards, but I'll admit I've not looked. Sorry.

Heavybell OP , 14 days ago

When you put mail in the box, unless it's a REALLY small bit of mail it'll land so it obscures at least one of the proximity sensors. This then sets the 'got mail' statue to 'on' in Home Assistant. From there, I have HA set up to send me notifications to go and check the mail.

Before you say so, yes this was a lot of work for something so trivial, but it was fun. Plus I actually get so little physical mail that I can forget to check the mailbox for weeks at a time. Which would be very bad if I got some actually important mail. And actually, that exact thing happened just days after I finished installing the thing. So it has already potentially saved me from a fine.

Heavybell OP , 13 days ago

Oh interesting. Can you link the detector? I could use that for something else.

Heavybell OP , 13 days ago

Okay so that is an issue with the ESP32, sure. There are a lot of variants.

So from what I can tell, the ESP32 is the SoC chip and what you usually get is a dev board which has that plus a bunch of power regulation bits, a USB connector and UART so you can easily program it, etc. That part varies mostly by pinout. I.e. Same features, different pin location.

There are also variants of the chip, but those are usually more costly and will be named things like ESP32-S2.

Every one I've seen can run off 5v or 3.3v and uses the latter for logic, so if you got yourself an arduino kit and then just bought an ESP32 dev board it would almost certainly work with whatever is in the kit. Both are microcontrollers, not microprocessors, so they tend not to have OSes or screens.

Heavybell OP , 13 days ago

No problem. The one I used is an ESP32 DevKitC, and you can find info about it on Espressif's site, or just google the pinout diagram. For basic tasks it should be all you need since it has lots of binary pins, two ADC channels, two DAC channels, realtime clock, special pins for waking it from deep sleep, two I2C, etc. Though if you want to do video input you probably want something else, I'm learning.

Anyway, if you can spare the money to get one just to toy with I'd definitely recommend it.

Heavybell OP , 13 days ago

Awesome, gonna bookmark those for later. Thanks!

Heavybell OP , 14 days ago

I'm glad people seem to appreciate it.

Using HA I can get the status on my dashboard, but it also sends me notifications via the app and Discord.

Heavybell OP , 14 days ago

Thank you!

I'm sure there's stuff I missed out. Like how I got some round rubber grommets to push the wood screws through when mounting the box to the wooden plank. And how the panels were sealed into the housing with silicone. Ah well. :)

Heavybell OP , 14 days ago

Thankfully not. The worst I've had was some previous neighbours scratching up the back of the mailbox, probably because I had replaced the shitty old one that came with the place with a nicer one that didn't match the others. Now everyone has the same mailbox I have, I think because the owners of that unit wanted them to look the same so they could sell it easier.

Heavybell OP , 14 days ago

I haven't yet. I might have to do that. :)

Heavybell OP , 14 days ago

Yeah I made an account, any ideas where a post like this belongs?

Heavybell OP , 14 days ago

A shock sensor would be an interesting way to do it, too. :)

Heavybell OP , 14 days ago (edited 14 days ago)

Yeah, that thought did occur to me. Drill a hole in the mounting wood below the box, and a channel up the back to hide more of the cable. I might do that some time later, but I've already put everything away... :P

Heavybell OP , 14 days ago

I went to post it under share your projects, but new users can't post a lot of embeds or links, so I just posted a link to this post.

Heavybell OP , 14 days ago

That`s a nice service. Do you get no mail from other couriers? Or just no important mail?

Heavybell OP , 13 days ago

Huh, that'd be nice…

Heavybell OP , 13 days ago

Nice :)

Heavybell OP , 13 days ago

Hah, fair. It tells me when I have mail.

Heavybell OP , 13 days ago

Nice idea. Mine has a slot tho, so I couldn't just do that. Never seen anyone with a mailbox the mailman has to open in Australia.

Heavybell OP , 13 days ago

Yeah, of course. :)

Heavybell OP , 13 days ago (edited 4 days ago)

Yeah, all it does is tell me when something is obscuring one of the sensors. I figure anything that gets put in there which is small enough to fall in a way it covers neither isn't going to be important enough to worry about.

I am vaguely aware AusPost has some kind of service that might inform me of regular mail delivery, but anyone can put stuff in my mailbox not just AusPost. Plus this was a fun project, yeah.

Heavybell OP , 11 days ago

Mm, that could be a problem for the battery even if it does connect. You could probably work around it if you really wanted to; solar powered repeater high up somewhere between the box and the house. But that's getting into silly territory. :P

Next time you're out there see what signal you get from your phone, maybe? Just hold it away from your car.

Heavybell , 26 days ago

Beat me to it. golf clap

Heavybell , 30 days ago (edited 29 days ago)

I did this ages ago now. Was a non-issue.

Edit: To clarify, I'm not endorsing MS on not fixing this. Just saying I did it and had no issues.

Heavybell OP , 30 days ago

I tried, kept getting errors. :/

Heavybell OP , 30 days ago

I feel like you've missed the point, which is only to point out how it is somehow not controversial to suggest a game needs a hard mode while the opposite will get you angry responses.

Heavybell OP , 30 days ago

Thanks :)

Heavybell OP , 30 days ago

Agree on the bullet sponge thing, god I hate that. Helldivers 2 does it best, IMO. Not deadlier or more resilient enemies, just more of them and deadlier types.

Heavybell OP , 30 days ago

I kinda agree with you, tbh. Tho I'd apply that logic to more than just difficulty.

That said tho, I'd also be okay with the devs putting the most work into normal mode but also tossing in barely tested, unbalanced easy and hard modes with a "this is not the intended experience, use at your own peril" warning. I know no AAA dev would do that but I'd honestly be okay with it.

Heavybell OP , 30 days ago

It's only controversial if you want the game to have easier options. ;)

Heavybell OP , 29 days ago

This is a fair point. I have seen violent reactions to casual statements, but I have not seen hyperbolic calls for hard modes nearly as much as for easy modes, it`s true.

Heavybell OP , 29 days ago

Right? :P

Heavybell , 1 month ago

In case anyone else was wondering why the fuck the Epic store logo is in there, there is now an integration to keep track of discounts and such.

Heavybell , 1 month ago

This is the best match of meme template to text I've seen yet.

Heavybell , 1 month ago

It's true tho… for some new users. If the new user wants to learn linux fundamentals, there's no better way than hand installing Gentoo or Arch. Ideally on a second PC and using it as a home server.

Now if they just want an alternative OS for their main PC, yeah, go for something else.

Heavybell , 1 month ago

Addictive is right. I'm in the process of building myself a smart mailbox with a couple proximity sensors and an ESP32. It's been quite the undertaking, and quite expensive if you count the tools I bought for the project.

Heavybell , 1 month ago

Reading this title while on the toilet hits different.

Heavybell , 1 month ago

And a climate change denier. Basically a piece of shit grifter.

Heavybell , 2 months ago

Naughty d20s go in the microwave.

Heavybell , 2 months ago

I know vlans is the answer, but I don't know how to set it up. I really need to do this with my own network some day. There must be an OPNsense guide for this, I know it…

Heavybell , 2 months ago

Is that actually true? Does Windows check every file with Defender before deleting it?