Nest Smart Thermostat Stupidity

Smart Thermostats are stupid. $250 for what amounts to a $30 thermostat with $10 of extra smarts and a $180 display is simply insane. Then you add the installation costs and security risks and the risk that it will become useless within 15 years and it becomes clear that Smart Thermostats are a very very stupid investment.

I have new approach. I call it the Better Smart thermostat. It costs the same as today's inexpensive "dumb" Programmable thermostats, but has 100% of the capabilities of the Nest.

Take today's $30 thermostat and keep it as a regular, simply-programmable thermostat. It has a temperature sensor, a display, and some relays for turning the systems on and off. Then add BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) to give it the ability to get hints from an external device.

That's it. No fancy display. No special wiring. No 802.11n. It uses BLE, so it can use regular AA batteries.

But with BLE on-board, some significant opportunities emerge. Now the thermostat settings can be easily modified from an app on a iPhone or iPad. Away from your house? Enable Away mode. Coming home? Enable Home mode. Super-cold weather? Fire up the heat earlier. Daylight Saving changes? Fix the time of the clock. Temperatures approaching freezing? Trigger an alarm. Record temperature history. Key track of "system on" energy use. Program setback schedules from a computer.

Need 8 for your electric heat radiators? Great, you can afford 8. Unlike the Nest and their insanely designed counterparts.

And if BLE becomes obsolete, or if you simply don't care about smartness, you still have a 100% good and secure thermostat.

Fixing a SodaStream Jet, part 1: Disassembly Guide

I've had my SodaStream Jet for years, and once in a while something has gone wrong. Disassembly is the first step to repair. Start with this article to see how to disassemble the SodaStream, and then once you have that down, scroll through my other articles to see how I repaired specfic SodaStream problems. SodaStream Jet Disassembly Guide Tools Required Flat head screwdriver Phillips head screwdriver 1. Remove the Carbonator. Duh. 2. Remove the black panel lever The front big black tilt lever needs to be removed first. Removing this panel is tricky, but it isn't impossible. Looking up at the bottom of the black panel, there are two tabs, one on the left and one on the right. These tabs fully secure the panel in place. The trick is to use a flat-head screwdriver under the plastic to gently lever the tabs out of the way. Note in the pictures how I approach these tabs with my screwdriver. I usually release the left side first, and then I release ...

Fixing a SodaStream Jet, Repair #2 - Broken Fill Button

My Soda Stream Jet's fill button broke, which means I can not longer carbonate water by pressing the pushbutton. This caused all sorts of grief in my household. Here is how I managed to repair my Jet to give it another 10 years of life (hopefully). First, a look at the button The fill button on the top of the SodaStream is actually a simple lever. Pressing down on the button moves a pin that does the actual work of pressing open the Carbonator's valve. Unfortunately, the axis point is fairly thin and can see a lot of stress. That's where my Soda Stream button cracked. [ I think the usage tip here is "don't over-press the button like a gorilla, it doesn't do anything but put high stress on the button."] Cracked levering point of the button The Pesky Lever Retaining Pin The Fix It was pretty easy for me to replace the button: Take off the back of the Soda Stream and remove the carbonator. Push out the the button lever's steel retaining pin. This takes qu...

Macintosh: Upgrading an eMac

It's been a long time since I wrote this article, but the fact remains: The good old eMac can still be useful if you take the simple steps to keep it as good as it can be. All can run Tiger, and most can run Leopard - great operating systems for their day with a bit of useful life. This article describes the procedure I used to upgrade my old eMac, including: Replacing the internal hard disk with a large capacity drive. Increasing the memory for performance Upgrading the operating system Here I'm upgrading a 700 MHz eMac, but the procedure and tasks for upgrading other eMac models should be almost identical. Upgrading versus Replacing My sister's eMac is of the 700 mhz variety, with 256 MB of memory. The machine seemed to be getting "slower", and the original 40 GB disk was becoming jammed packed with photos and iTunes, and within a few months she'd be out of disk space. There were two options to address the problems: upgrade the eMac, or go o...

Fixing my Wahl 9918 Groomsman Beard and Mustache Trimmer

Not everyone would bother repairing a $25 beard trimmer, but why not fix something for under $5 instead of spending another $25? My Wahl 9918 Groomsman Beard and Mustache Trimmer has admirably performed its beauty duty for many years, but the time came when the battery just wasn't holding a charge any more. Most people would just put the trimmer in the trash and buy a new one, but I figured I could repair my otherwise excellent Wahl and save some money. In fact, even high priced trimmer and rotary shaver brands, like Norelco and Remington, can be easily repaired using a process similar to the one I used to fix my Wahl. Read on to find out how. I opened up the Wahl by popping off the black plastic faceplate with a tiny flathead screwdriver, which revealed two screws. By removing the two screws I was able to easily open up the unit, revealing the guts of the device. Backplate off, Revealing the screws The internals are rather simple: a motor, a...

Using a Garmin eTrex with a Macintosh or Linux

The Garmin eTrex series consists of decent, full featured handheld GPS units. The cheaper monochrome eTrex models have a basic RS-232 serial interface, and the color eTrex models sport USB connectivity. In this article I'll talk about my experience with connecting both USB and serial port versions of the eTrex series to my Mac and to my Linux-based PC. I personally use the Garmin Vista HCx GPS now, but the other Garmins in the eTrex series, including the inexpensive but well specified Garmin eTrex Venture should work the same way. Dealing with the eTrex Series with USB Most of the eTrex units with a color screen have a USB port on the back. Happily, this USB port uses a common USB connector, so it is easy to physically connect a USB eTrex to a Mac or a PC running Linux. The USB Port on an eTrex I have found two pieces of software perfect for use with a USB eTrex, without the need for special drivers: GPSBabel+ and Google Earth . The Mac version of the freeware program ...

Fix a Lightning Cable with Heat Shrink Tubing

We've all seen a Lightning cable that has started to fall apart. They get used every day, and after enough tugs and yanks on your iPhone, they start to fray. I've seen a lot of these frayed cables, so I've started to fix them before they break with heat shrink tube. I get my heat shrink on Amazon, like this handy and inexpensive pack. I prefer the heat shrink tubes without internal glue - it has higher flexibility and a smaller outside diameter once shrunk. Heat Shrink Tubing on an Old, Frayed Lightning Cable In the photo here, you'll see that I slid on a 1.25 inch length of heat shrink over the lighting connector, and then shrunk it into place. I chose a diameter that just barely fits over the lightning connector. In all, it took about 60 seconds to perform this repair. Warning: the white plastic of the lightning cable has a pretty low melting point. It seems to start to melt at about 125°C (or about 250°F), which is the same temperatur...

The Lance J. Technoweb

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