New gadgets

[Wolfox]

Moving away from phones…. I’ve automated a lot of my blinds and windows…. A game changer 

 

Roman blinds in the front room open at sunrise and close at sunset using an electric motor you place the beaded chain into…. Genius!

 

My 3 Velux in the kitchen have a solar powered opener (can be retrofitted to any Velux window) and open at the touch of a button or when my plugged CO monitor declares that it’s stuffy…. Rain sensors close them when it’s raining…. Magic!

Edited 24 January 2024 by Wolfox

[ozleicester]

My firestick is still my  most modern gadget that im loving

[Hitesh]

5 hours ago, Wolfox said:

Moving away from phones…. I’ve automated a lot of my blinds and windows…. A game changer 

 

Roman blinds in the front room open at sunrise and close at sunset using an electric motor you place the beaded chain into…. Genius!

 

My 3 Velux in the kitchen have a solar powered opener (can be retrofitted to any Velux window) and open at the touch of a button or when my plugged CO monitor declares that it’s stuffy…. Rain sensors close them when it’s raining…. Magic!

Def want to know more about this. Did you do this yourself or get someone in? I've seen cases of taking normal blinds and hooking them up to a small motor and Raspberry Pi to then automate. Would involve a lot of effort given the number of blinds I have

[Wolfox]

3 hours ago, Hitesh said:

Def want to know more about this. Did you do this yourself or get someone in? I've seen cases of taking normal blinds and hooking them up to a small motor and Raspberry Pi to then automate. Would involve a lot of effort given the number of blinds I have

This is what I used for Roman blinds…. You need them and an E1 zigbee hub for app access….  Optional button if you want control away from the app for multiple blinds…. Very intuitive IFTT app.

 

It took all of an hour to install 3…. Definitely DIY… Very simple and has been rock solid…. They need a couple of hours charge once a month on the motors…

 

Aqara Roller Shade Driver E1,... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B097YFL7RS?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

[Parafox]

21 hours ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

I've ordered some binoculars. Does that count?

 

And yes, I will use them to look at birds. Great big, lovely birds

 

Are they new-fangled and flashy?

[Bellend Sebastian]

20 minutes ago, Parafox said:

Are they new-fangled and flashy?

Well they've got a roof prism, and are fully multi-coated and have BAK4 lenses which if you're into optics (which I wasn't until about 3 days ago) is some serious shizzle.

 

I don't know what any of that stuff means

[Parafox]

2 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

Well they've got a roof prism, and are fully multi-coated and have BAK4 lenses which if you're into optics (which I wasn't until about 3 days ago) is some serious shizzle.

 

I don't know what any of that stuff means

It means they cost a lot of dosh.

 

You must REALLY like looking at birds. 

 

Or your neighbours. 

Edited 24 January 2024 by Parafox

[whoareyaaa]

Can't beat iPhone, Android is shit

[whoareyaaa]

Meta Quest 3 is pretty cool

[Parafox]

4 minutes ago, whoareyaaa said:

Can't beat iPhone, Android is shit

Bollocks.

[whoareyaaa]

7 minutes ago, Parafox said:

Bollocks.

They have been around for ages.

[Bellend Sebastian]

46 minutes ago, Parafox said:

It means they cost a lot of dosh.

 

You must REALLY like looking at birds. 

 

Or your neighbours. 

You can spend 350 quid on them, easy.

 

No, of course I haven't, but I spent over a hundred purely because we've got a cheap pair that are so crap there was no point in them even being manufactured.

 

In other news, I can heartily recommend LED flexible strip lighting, which I put up at my lad's request in his room just after Christmas. That is, if you want to make a room look like an early 2000s idea of a high end night club and put on a light show that will interfere with your brain enough to stop you sleeping for hours. Can be Alexa/Google home activated as well, if that sort of thing is important to you.

 

Seriously impressive though, even if you're not a 12 year old boy

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Parafox]

3 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

You can spend 350 quid on them, easy.

 

No, of course I haven't, but I spent over a hundred purely because we've got a cheap pair that are so crap there was no point in them even being manufactured.

 

In other news, I can heartily recommend LED flexible strip lighting, which I put up at my lad's request in his room just after Christmas. That is, if you want to make a room look like an early 2000s idea of a high end night club and put on a light show that will interfere with your brain enough to stop you sleeping for hours. Can be Alexa/Google home activated as well, if that sort of thing is important to you.

 

Seriously impressive though, even if you're not a 12 year old boy

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daughter has these in her gaming room.

 

I agree with everything you've said.

[jgtuk]

25 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

You can spend 350 quid on them, easy.

 

No, of course I haven't, but I spent over a hundred purely because we've got a cheap pair that are so crap there was no point in them even being manufactured.

 

In other news, I can heartily recommend LED flexible strip lighting, which I put up at my lad's request in his room just after Christmas. That is, if you want to make a room look like an early 2000s idea of a high end night club and put on a light show that will interfere with your brain enough to stop you sleeping for hours. Can be Alexa/Google home activated as well, if that sort of thing is important to you.

 

Seriously impressive though, even if you're not a 12 year old boy

 

 

 

 

 

 

£350 will get you entry level birding bins… 

I have a pair of Swarovski 8x42, cost me £900 in 1990, also have a pair of Leica 10x50’s (can’t tell you what they cost in case wife is watching 👀)

[samlcfc]

1 hour ago, whoareyaaa said:

Meta Quest 3 is pretty cool

This has been my best tech purchases in recent years. Think I got my moneys worth out of it in the few weeks following purchase.

 

The relaxed social vibe to many of the games/apps is great. Certainly fills a spot where jumping into a console FPS after a day at work doesn't quite feel appealing.

 

Haven't much time to game on it at the moment, although often find myself just chucking it on to watch youtube and movies etc. The Big Screen app can be pretty fun occasionally if you find a good public room.

 

 

 

 

[Bellend Sebastian]

19 minutes ago, jgtuk said:

£350 will get you entry level birding bins… 

I have a pair of Swarovski 8x42, cost me £900 in 1990, also have a pair of Leica 10x50’s (can’t tell you what they cost in case wife is watching 👀)

Mine must be sub entry level then, they're costing me £120.

 

I went from never wanting a pair in my life to deciding I simply must have some after trying to look at the pesky waxwings that have been causing a stir amongst people that like this sort of thing round these parts.

 

I've just discovered that the glorified shoe cupboard and understairs storage we want for our hallway is going to cost about two and a half grand so quite glad I skimped on the binoculars to be honest

 

[jgtuk]

Just now, Bellend Sebastian said:

Mine must be sub entry level then, they're costing me £120.

 

I went from never wanting a pair in my life to deciding I simply must have some after trying to look at the pesky waxwings that have been causing a stir amongst people that like this sort of thing round these parts.

 

I've just discovered that the glorified shoe cupboard and understairs storage we want for our hallway is going to cost about two and a half grand so quite glad I skimped on the binoculars to be honest

 

Doesn’t mean they’re no good… If you don’t use them regularly, where’s the point in spending big! I used mine for my job so it was a no brainer. 
Waxwing are incredibly beautiful birds, I've been lucky enough to have seen them on about 4 or 5 occasions. 

What magnification/objective lens are your binoculars?

[Grebfromgrebland]

11 hours ago, Wolfox said:

Moving away from phones…. I’ve automated a lot of my blinds and windows…. A game changer 

 

Roman blinds in the front room open at sunrise and close at sunset using an electric motor you place the beaded chain into…. Genius!

 

My 3 Velux in the kitchen have a solar powered opener (can be retrofitted to any Velux window) and open at the touch of a button or when my plugged CO monitor declares that it’s stuffy…. Rain sensors close them when it’s raining…. Magic!

Same we just talk to Google to open and close out blinds, so handy

[Bellend Sebastian]

41 minutes ago, jgtuk said:

Doesn’t mean they’re no good… If you don’t use them regularly, where’s the point in spending big! I used mine for my job so it was a no brainer. 
Waxwing are incredibly beautiful birds, I've been lucky enough to have seen them on about 4 or 5 occasions. 

What magnification/objective lens are your binoculars?

8 x 42. I read a few things that suggested that this was a bit of a "sweet spot" in terms of magnification, field of view, ease of holding steady etc. It's all a bit of a leap into the unknown with an online purchase as there's nowhere around here where you could actually try them or any alternatives

[jgtuk]

13 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

8 x 42. I read a few things that suggested that this was a bit of a "sweet spot" in terms of magnification, field of view, ease of holding steady etc. It's all a bit of a leap into the unknown with an online purchase as there's nowhere around here where you could actually try them or any alternatives

Bang on advice 👍 

 

[Guest David Oldfields Gate]

On 23/01/2024 at 13:00, filthyfox said:

The Samsung S24 series is out tomorrow...

Anyone getting one?

 

My Utra is due at an unspecified time tomorrow.

 

[filthyfox]

Well... this phone is the dogs doodahs

[Bellend Sebastian]

8 hours ago, David Oldfields Gate said:

 

"Check out my website, it's well f**king futile"

[Zear0]

My Wooting two HE finally arrived after four months! The geekiest of geeky keyboards. 

 

Only mild annoyance is I have to assemble all the effing keys myself

Edited 25 January 2024 by Zear0

[filthyfox]

12 minutes ago, Zear0 said:

My Wooting two HE finally arrived after four months! The geekiest of geeky keyboards. 

 

Only mild annoyance is I have to assemble all the effing keys myself

Is there something special about it?