limelight79

No major question here, just thought you might find this interesting. It's an example of the kind of (off-the-wall) things you can do with HA that aren't immediately obvious. When I was starting out with HA, I enjoyed reading these examples, because it gave me ideas for my own setup. And, I wrote many automations that should really be scripts, so hopefully this will help someone avoid that and recognize the power of scripts early.

At home, my laptop from work sits (closed) on a stand under the monitors. I have a docking station for it, but the docking station doesn't have a power button to start the laptop (the official Dell docking stations have a power button, but other brand of docking stations don't). So, since I got that stand a few weeks ago, I've been pulling the laptop out and opening juuuuuuust enough that I could reach the power button, then closing it and sliding it back into the stand. There had to be a better way that didn't involve buying an expensive Dell docking station.

The docking station power is on a Sonoff S31 outlet (flashed with Tasmota, not that that's important here) that is remotely controllable. Long ago, I set up HA automations that turned on the S31 when the laptop was detected on the network, and shut off the S31 after the laptop dropped off the network at the end of the day (leaving in a time delay so it didn't shut off if there was a momentary network glitch). So, I'd boot the laptop, and a moment later the docking station would kick on and connect the mouse and monitors to it. And the end of the day, I shut down the laptop, and a few minutes later the docking station shuts off automatically.

I recently discovered the Wake on LAN integration. So, after setting that up, I wrote a script that turns on the S31, waits a while*, then triggers the Wake-on-LAN for the laptop...and it boots up! With HA, I can start the boot process while I'm still relaxing in the living room before starting work; in theory I'll go into the office and it'll be ready for me to log in.

Heck, if HA knew for certain it was a workday, it could boot the laptop for me.....hmmm. Maybe something to think about for the future.

*How long? Well, 30 seconds seems to be too short; the laptop doesn't respond to the WoL command after just 30 seconds with power applied. It did work this morning when I waited several minutes to try it again. I just changed the delay to 1 minute and will see how that works tomorrow.

I also added a repeat loop (starting after that 1 minute timer) with three components:

• A condition that looks for the laptop being "Away" on the network. (If it is "Home" on the network, the condition will end the script.)
• If it is, then it tries the WoL command again.
• Then waits 30 seconds and repeat.

The repeat loop counter is set to 3, for a total of 4 attempts to start the laptop. I'll check the traces and see when it starts working, and set the initial delay accordingly, so that in general it shouldn't need the repeat loop.

If people want, I can post (sanitized) YAML. But I do like explaining the process rather than just posting code.

Four overtime games, including game 7. Bears went up 3 games to none, the Cleveland came back to tie it.

Gotta give it to both goaltenders - Greaves for the Monsters and Sheppard for the Bears.

This is a move I don't understand. But I wonder what it will mean for the site as a useful resource.

The Bears beat the Phantoms, 3 games to 1, to advance to the next round. Next up, the Hartford Wolfpack.

Monumental or Monumental 2 has been carrying the games, hopefully they continue!

This is not the first time I've ranted about the previous owner's wiring jobs, though I think they were on the other site (and I had a different username there).

His greatest hits include:

• Above a drop ceiling in the basement, a wire that went into a metal box without a strain relief, so it eventually wore through (for whatever reason) and started shorting out. Since it was above the drop ceiling I had no idea why that breaker would occasionally trip, then reset without complaint. Also, there are other things on that circuit, but the offending wire was only live when the light switch in the room was on, so it was harder to diagnose. It wasn't until we demolished the room that we found the problem...black marks on the box and wires and all.

• A duct fan to route heat from the pellet stove into the master bedroom...with the wiring completely enclosed in the ceiling, with no access to the box. Said duct fan has started making noise, so I'm going to have to cut that ceiling open and replace it, and I'll probably install one of those spring-loaded covers so there is access in the future.

• A fascinating wiring job in the shed that is unnecessarily complicated and certainly a violation of the code on how many conductors can be in a box. I'm going to fix that some time this spring. This is actually a REALLY great one, so maybe I'll post it as a comment.

On to today's hilarity. A few weeks ago I noticed the UPS for my computer in the basement had a red light on the back warning of a wiring fault. I never noticed it before, or I did and forgot, and it's not very bright, so you almost have to be looking for it to see it. Well, I got out one of those testers that you plug in, with three lights that diagnose the issue, and it showed no ground. Odd.

I checked the other two outlets on the same wall, the one closer to the panel tested fine, but the one on the other side of the outlet in question also showed an open ground.

Today I dug in to find out what was up. It turns out the ground was cut on both wires in the outlet the computer was using (supply from the previous outlet and the wire to the next outlet). It was not connected to the metal box or the outlet.

WHY WHY WHY? Why did he do this? I can't fathom why you'd do this.

I replaced all three outlets on that wall with new ones and made sure the grounds were connected. Nothing really wrong with the original outlets and covers, but they were old and beige, and I like white.

Years ago I found an outlet in our closet that only had two prongs, no ground. The house was built in 1987, well after three prongs were standard. With some trepidation - what am I going to find here? - I opened it up and found that...there was a good ground there (to my relief) but he apparently just decided to use a two prong outlet. WHY? He had to have gone to special effort to find a two prong outlet to install. (Actually it is theoretically possible that was done by the builders, but everything else in the house is three prongs, and I can't believe it would have passed inspection.)

This season, the Caps have been doing "Chalk Talks" with various people. These are question-and-answer sessions held before the game (at 5 p.m.), and last night Tarik El-Bashir hosted. They're for season ticket holders - we split season tickets with a group of people, and we had the tickets to last night's game, so we were able to go to the talk as well.

I think the Chalk Talks are new this season; we've been in the ticket group for quite a few years now, and this is the first we've heard of them. I'm sure we would have at least heard of them before now if they had been happening before.

(In case you're not sure who Tarik is, he's a former Caps beat reporter for the WaPo, and is now on TNT covering hockey. He played hockey through his teenage years, but he knew he was not going to be going pro in hockey when he was 17 or 18.)

Extremely interesting chat. He told us a couple of his favorite stories. I'm going from memory, so I may have goofed on some details. I added a few personal notes in brackets.

• His first major scoop was the Ovechkin contract signing in ~2008. Apparently he got a tip from a reporter in Toronto, who may have been tipped off by an agent. Note Ovi had fired his agent a few months before, and his mother negotiated the contract instead, so it's possible the spurned agent is the one that alerted the reporter. Tarik witnessed the signing by looking in the windows at Kettler. Ted Leonsis was annoyed, because they were planning to announce it at the season ticketholder event later that evening, but Tarik scooped them. Ted laughs about it now, though, and apparently also tells the story from his point of view.

• He was first to interview Bruce Boudreau after his firing. Bruce wanted to wait ("It's Dale Hunter's day, let him have it"), so he told Tarik to come to his house the next morning at 7 with coffee and donuts [which seems very on-brand for Bruce]. When Tarik arrived, Bruce answered the door in dressy clothes, which got Tarik's attention, but Bruce said he was going to visit his mother. And that's how Tarik missed out on the scoop that BB was interviewing with the Ducks. Later, Bruce said, "What was I going to tell you? They hadn't fired Carlyle yet!" [I think it was Carlyle, but I'm too lazy to look it up, and it doesn't matter for the story.]

• He also got an interview with Olie the Goalie after his last game with the Caps. Tarik noticed Olie taking his name plate off his locker after the game, but he was busy getting the story of the Caps loss at the time. Later he got to interview Olie directly about leaving DC and was first to get the full story. His editor said, "Great story, but you need to call GMGM and get his side of the story."

There were a few questions.

• Someone asked about Wilson's punishment. He agreed Wilson deserved punishment for his action, but Tarik noted that another player [whose name escapes me] committed a two-handed slash earlier this season that resulted in just a $5k fine. He actually called it "The Wheel of Justice" and wished that Player Safety was more consistent.

• Some talk about up-and-coming players, LaPierre and Miroshnichenko. Great things to say about both, but Miro in particular he was impressed with - even late in the game in that loss to Toronto, Miro was working hard and engaged and upset at losing that way.

• Carbery - he noted that part of what makes Carbery so good is that he has excellent communication skills with the players. He will tell them exactly what they need to do to improve or get more ice time or whatever, and the players really appreciate that, and when Carbery talks, they listen. Carbery is also extremely smart, Tarik noted. If the team gets into the playoffs, he thought Carbery should win the Jack Adams award [he noted he doesn't have a vote on that award].

There was a question about the turnaround that led to the following two answers:

• He talked about Ovi's turnaround - and no, he has no idea what happened either. He joked that maybe riding a camel centered Ovi's mind [I assume Ovi was on vacation somewhere riding camels over the all-star break]. And the power play is suddenly firing on all cylinders, likely in part due to Ovi. The power play is suddenly the best in the league over the last 5 games at 44% [note this was before last night's festivities].

• Lindgren has stolen something like 8 games for the Caps. This is an actual statistic - I forget the math but it's something like high danger chances minus the final score. Kuemper has been struggling, but Lindgren has been a star.

He mentioned another interesting statistic. Unfortunately, I forget what the statistic was. It may have been goal differential. But no team has ever been below -10 and still made the playoffs, and the Caps have a good chance of being the first. It was just another piece of evidence of how incredible the turnaround is.

They gave away some signed pucks - Strome and Carlson IIRC, and they gave away a signed Ovi stick. Random drawing for everyone who was there.

Tarik knows the game so well. I've been watching for ~15 years, and I learned a few things from him. He's an excellent speaker, too, which isn't surprising given his position, but he handled the audience Q and A very smoothly too.

The talk finished up around 5:45, so you have time to walk around and hit the food stands, not all of which were quite ready for customers at that point.

It was a great experience. If you ever get the chance to go to one, take it.

Hi, all. My wife and I recently got new phones, and it got me thinking again about how notifications work.

Currently I have several automations (maybe 10) that send notifications to my phone, her phone, both, and possibly other devices.

But when we get a new phone, or replace a tablet, etc., I have to update every single one of those automations. And I inevitably forget some or introduce errors.

Is there a better way to do this? For example, it'd be nice if I could abstract the concept of "my phone" out in those automations, then I'd only have to change the device "my phone" in one place, rather than a bunch of places.

Any thoughts on this? Maybe I'm missing a way to do it. Thanks.

Of course he does.

No link because I'm lazy.

My wife sent me Instagram shots of Kuzy in Hershey, and honestly he looks happy. Maybe he needed a change of scenery to wake up or something.

And Instagram also had pictures of Oshie practicing on the ice today! Not sure if it was with the team or not, but...I'll take it either way!

You just never know what team is going to show up from day to day.

We love them, but there's a reason we call them the Cardiac Caps...

This is a long one, but I'm done with Shelly. Too bad, I like that they support HA, but the treatment on this last order is outrageous. The good news is I'm only out $24.

On November 25, I placed an order for a H&T and a Plus 1 Mini as part of their sale, and I received a confirmation for the order.

On December 8, I received an email stating they were overwhelmed with orders and it would be some time before filling them. Okay, that's annoying, but I didn't need them right away - but the H&T I did want fairly quickly because I was hoping to replace an unreliable Zigbee sensor.

Then I heard nothing for several weeks, and the order never arrived. Finally, on January 4, I created a ticket in their support system about it.

They completely ignored that, too. I started seeing ads on Facebook for the Plus 1 Minis, one of the things I ordered, which irritated me.

After about two weeks, I made a comment on one of the ads that my order and the ticket were both being ignored. A few days later, on January 24, I got an email from them saying:

Excuse us for the delayed reply. We are extremely overloaded.

For unknown reason, the order is not visible in the US admin system. That's why it is not dispatched yet. Maybe there is a bug in the system about this order.

However, we informed the US team that the order must be dispatched asap. They will dispatch it soon and you will receive an email with your tracking code.

​Please be patient.

We want to apologize for the delay and for the inconvenience caused.

I've heard nothing more, almost a week later. I just logged into the ticketing system to discover that they CLOSED THE TICKET. So they can't see the order, and they closed the ticket that refers to it. The problem is NOT resolved - there's no tracking number, no estimated ship date, and no products at my door. I'll be surprised if I ever get the stuff at this point. (I checked my spam folder, and it's not in there.)

Terrible service. I will never order from them again.

I can still file a Paypal dispute, apparently until May. I'll give it a few more days, and if I haven't heard anything, I'll do that.

So, let this be a warning to you about ordering from Shelly...it went okay the first time a few years back, but this time has been a disaster.