3 ms·

Same here. I had a Nest thermostat for a while and ultimately ended up using it like a dumb thermostat with 7-day wake/work/return/sleep settings. It kinda put

Same here. I had a Nest thermostat for a while and ultimately ended up using it like a dumb thermostat with 7-day wake/work/return/sleep settings. It kinda put me off on automation. Now I have my own home-made BLE / video IoT gadgets that I manage myself. It is waaaay more coding & fiddling, but in a fun way and not a "I paid $500 for this crap" way.

dylan604 5y ago
Yeah, you just spent countless hours of your precious time so you have "I have no idea of the actual cost for this crap" now. ;-) I have a closet full of half, 3/4, 9/10 completed projects that were going to be so damn cool and cheaper. Be laid plans blah blah. However, with each and everyone of those not completed projects, I learned a lot and I have not regrets on any of it. I'm guessing you don't either on your IoT gadgets.
- lnsru 5y ago
  I put 100€ tag on my hour of tinkering or hacking. That’s how I even don’t start projects without commercial intention. It would be really cool to upgrade old Geotrax trains with ESP32, but such 40 hours experiment does not pay off.
  - dylan604 5y ago
    That's sad that you feel that way. There is so much potential unknown that can be discovered in these types of projects. If you only ever do things that will make you money, well...I don't know exactly. Boring is the best I can come up with. You don't ever do things just because it might be fun? Or is it that you actually do know everything and there's no point?
    - lnsru 5y ago
      I do lots of tinkering and hacking in my day job. I rather build something using well structured Lego instruction in my spare time. I was thinking about designing my own smart home units recently, but ended up buying quality lamps with motion detectors.
      - dylan604 5y ago
        That's understandable. All I do is bang on a keyboard doing code for someone else. Luckily, I do find it interesting so it gets my all. However, there's something totally different in comparing what I do for a day job vs tinkering with DIY electronic projects, soldering, wiring, designing, programming, etc. However, time is limited which is why I have so many partial projects stashed away. None of it was critical which also contributes to the lack of completion status on some of them. There were other projects that did get completed however, and those definitely applied knowledge gleaned and/or parts from some of the incomplete projects. Everyone's spare time is their own, and there's never not enough of it, so I do understand the consideration of how best to spend it when available.
  - andi999 5y ago
    To me I wouldn't call this tinkering.
- zikduruqe 5y ago
  Ha. I was starting to build a WiFi mousetrap to notify me whenever one of my mousetraps triggered. My cats bring mice into our sunroom, then let them go. Eventually one will slip inside the house or just die in the sunroom then start smelling. So, me being the technologist, thinks that creating a WiFi enabled mousetrap will let me know if it triggered. I buy a Cricket WiFi module [1], some batteries and reed switches. Start messing around with it, then think to myself "this is dumb", it only takes me 1 minute to check the three mousetraps, whereas I was going to ruin a perfectly good weekend in building a WiFi mousetrap. I put everything in a box, might revisit it later. After working in technology Monday through Friday, I definitely didn't want to spend my weekends doing it either. [1] - https://www.thingsonedge.com https://www.thingsonedge.com
  - jrussino 5y ago
    I totally get the fun and satisfaction of doing it yourself, but if you have any interest in an off-the-shelf WiFi trap I’ve had a pretty good experience with these: https://www.victorpest.com/smart-kill-electronic-mouse-trap-m1 https://www.victorpest.com/smart-kill-electronic-mouse-trap-...
    - zikduruqe 5y ago
      I've seen those, and have been tempted to get one, only because I wanted to take it apart. :)

dylan604 5y ago

Yeah, you just spent countless hours of your precious time so you have "I have no idea of the actual cost for this crap" now. ;-) I have a closet full of half, 3/4, 9/10 completed projects that were going to be so damn cool and cheaper. Be laid plans blah blah. However, with each and everyone of those not completed projects, I learned a lot and I have not regrets on any of it. I'm guessing you don't either on your IoT gadgets.

lnsru 5y ago
I put 100€ tag on my hour of tinkering or hacking. That’s how I even don’t start projects without commercial intention. It would be really cool to upgrade old Geotrax trains with ESP32, but such 40 hours experiment does not pay off.
- dylan604 5y ago
  That's sad that you feel that way. There is so much potential unknown that can be discovered in these types of projects. If you only ever do things that will make you money, well...I don't know exactly. Boring is the best I can come up with. You don't ever do things just because it might be fun? Or is it that you actually do know everything and there's no point?
  - lnsru 5y ago
    I do lots of tinkering and hacking in my day job. I rather build something using well structured Lego instruction in my spare time. I was thinking about designing my own smart home units recently, but ended up buying quality lamps with motion detectors.
    - dylan604 5y ago
      That's understandable. All I do is bang on a keyboard doing code for someone else. Luckily, I do find it interesting so it gets my all. However, there's something totally different in comparing what I do for a day job vs tinkering with DIY electronic projects, soldering, wiring, designing, programming, etc. However, time is limited which is why I have so many partial projects stashed away. None of it was critical which also contributes to the lack of completion status on some of them. There were other projects that did get completed however, and those definitely applied knowledge gleaned and/or parts from some of the incomplete projects. Everyone's spare time is their own, and there's never not enough of it, so I do understand the consideration of how best to spend it when available.
- andi999 5y ago
  To me I wouldn't call this tinkering.
zikduruqe 5y ago
Ha. I was starting to build a WiFi mousetrap to notify me whenever one of my mousetraps triggered. My cats bring mice into our sunroom, then let them go. Eventually one will slip inside the house or just die in the sunroom then start smelling. So, me being the technologist, thinks that creating a WiFi enabled mousetrap will let me know if it triggered. I buy a Cricket WiFi module [1], some batteries and reed switches. Start messing around with it, then think to myself "this is dumb", it only takes me 1 minute to check the three mousetraps, whereas I was going to ruin a perfectly good weekend in building a WiFi mousetrap. I put everything in a box, might revisit it later. After working in technology Monday through Friday, I definitely didn't want to spend my weekends doing it either. [1] - https://www.thingsonedge.com https://www.thingsonedge.com
- jrussino 5y ago
  I totally get the fun and satisfaction of doing it yourself, but if you have any interest in an off-the-shelf WiFi trap I’ve had a pretty good experience with these: https://www.victorpest.com/smart-kill-electronic-mouse-trap-m1 https://www.victorpest.com/smart-kill-electronic-mouse-trap-...
  - zikduruqe 5y ago
    I've seen those, and have been tempted to get one, only because I wanted to take it apart. :)