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RPi5 seems a bit underpowered for all the sensors & control and offloading to a computer through wifi seems problematic. A Jetson Orin Nano would seem to be a better choice for a robot. Unfortunately Nvidia recently substantially increased the prices for their jetson devkits due to component shortages (DRAM,storage, etc), and what was $250 now costs $499 :(

Look into the CYD variants, usually can get for less than $15

https://github.com/witnessmenow/ESP32-Cheap-Yellow-Display

Can also easily integrate with home assistant.

There's an easy solution for the chest freezer, I've been using IKEA recycling bins, the plastic is cold proof, see: https://youtu.be/ydbsVS5rbSM?is=FVhiLHx4Uh94nb0k

I built a cubotino a few years ago, similar mechanism, see https://github.com/AndreaFavero71/cubotino

Uses a rpi 2 w, works well, can solve and scramble 3x3x3 cubes, using just 2 servo motors.

I got a wired (usb-c) ultrasonic cutter for around $100 (not this one), and it's amazing for cutting precise holes on electronic project boxes (plastic / abs).

Beaglebone Black with PRU

Or just suspend to RAM on backup finish/time and use wake on RTC alarm (and set to turn on after power return on power failure if needed), no need for extra HW.

What bad old days? 15 years ago we had n700, n800 and n900 to run whatever we wanted on a portable device.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N700_Series_Shinkansen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N800 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N900

I think we are confusing the perfect from the good enough.

If there's an ecosystem that allows converting old hw, lot of people will less resources can make reuse of that e-waste.

Installing ubuntu nowadays is a few clicks that anyone minimally proficient on computers is able to do, not much more difficult than installing a browser "or an app on their phone".

Sure, there's "dozen of apps" for that iOS/Android, but if the HW+OS combination is no longer supported, how can we continue using it or update it ? $50 might not seem a lot to you or me, but it's a lot to many people in the world, specially with something they already have. Using cloud for inference, which is also not free or private, bringing again dependency from some entity, where local HW is perfectly capable of basic object detection. I personally have "professional" PoE cameras with built-in object detection for surveilance, but see a use case where cheap access can also be useful.

I'm still mystified why there's so much push back from people to own and make use of old HW for whatever purpose they see fit.

You are right, my drawer doesn't have a single Apple device, since that company is probably the reason we got into this situation to begin with, so at least I voted with my wallet.

I just gave you an use case about having family members using old computers for all their needs. If those old phones can continue to be used with software updates not locked down by their original hw vendors, don't see why that is a bad thing.

I also didn't mention any use of k8s which I don't make use of or using rpis as nodes on a computer cluster ("homelab"), so you are extrapolating in a very weird direction.

By nodes I meant, say robotic applications, simple room surveillance camera, baby monitor,audio streaming, multimedia/tv remote control, where a rpi/custom hw could be perfectly be replaced by an old phone, since it comes with imu, cameras, audio, touchscreen, wifi, storage, etc.

All my personal and family computers are more than 10 year old, running latest Ubuntu. They have probably slower CPUs than that 8 year old iphone, but can run the latest web and email clients just fine. These are almost all salvaged from e-waste. I have a drawer full of old phones that could make very useful computer nodes, but instead of that I have to get (buy) some semi open raspberry pis since those phones are locked down.

Cheap FRS walkie-talkies, can find plenty of these on ebay if don't want to buy new (will need new batteries though).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Radio_Service

I was able to record/playback fujitsu mini-split commands using a simple wemos d1 IR shield + wemos d1 mini (esp8266) a few years ago.

https://www.wemos.cc/en/latest/d1_mini_shield/ir.html

https://www.wemos.cc/en/latest/d1/d1_mini.html

There's bat-safe boxes ( https://www.bat-safe.com ) , but can't comment on effectiveness...

nah, just rotate your monitor 90 degrees (or 270).

Have HA running without any issue on a Linux KVM VM.

Costco Feit WiFi dimmers can be flashed with esphome with some work, have a few dozen running. Haven't tried the bulbs.

There's multiple types. I use the bullet type regulated 12V ws2812 for outdoor applications and they are individually addressed. I also use 12V ws2812 RGBCW (RGB+white cold+white warm) unregulated (resistor) led strips which are grouped in threes for indoor. Both work just fine with wled or custom software (e.g. micropython / C++ ) on esp32.

Kindergarten is preschool which means at least daycare, it's not free in the US , I think there's a confusion with elementary school, to which there's a public option. Also forgetting the fact there's no universal parent leave in the US compared with the very generous many months elsewhere, which also makes a huge difference to new parents. There's no possible comparison...

And how many of those are young kids ? 1 is already too many

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2024/s0514-vs-drowning.ht...

Boeing CEO to Senators :'It's a travesty that you are still in your job'

For debian/ubuntu users, there's also dropbear-initramfs package with same functionality (works with any fs luks/ext4/lvm/zfs/etc).

https://packages.debian.org/bookworm/dropbear-initramfs https://packages.ubuntu.com/jammy/dropbear-initramfs

Still being used, in Cambridge at least:

https://www.cambridgema.gov/cfd/News/2024/02/firealarmboxes....

suspension ?

> Getting downvoted not for the content but perhaps poor phrasing is perfectly normal

IMHO, good and relevant content beats poor phrasing (which again IMHO I didn't witness in the original post), especially since English is not the first language for many people on this board. Downvoting only disincentivizes posting and unfortunately the HN voting system doesn't indicate why, leaving one just to guess.

I went to a talk given by computer experts on the game of Go about 10 years before AlphaGo and the consensus was that the solution space was so large[0] that it was impossible to solve by a computer, whatever its capability, in the foreseeable future, by the methods known at the time. We now know that AlphaGo followed a somewhat new approach, but I don't remember that being obvious or expected back then...

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_and_mathematics#Game_tree_c...

You didn't specify if you are using openwrt and which version. I used wrt1900 and wrt3200 as router with one of the latest openwrt (not the one posted) and do precisely that, have each switch physical lan port on a separate interface and network range. It has been possible for quite a while, but the latest DSA changes to the linux kernel make the process much simpler.

https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/dsa/dsa-mini-tut...

https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/networking/dsa/dsa.ht...

It was suggested those type of issues were related to the 3rd wifi radio. It's recommended to disable it: https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/wrt3200acm#wifi_driver_bug_a... . I have the same device, but only use it as router (no wifi enabled) and have a Belkin RT3200 as dumb AP for wifi 6 (as suggested in some other comment).

Is this safe ? Had the impression that undetected bit-flips were more common with GPU RAM than with CPU RAM banks, unless you have professional GPU cards with ECC.